PlayStation
- PlayStation Plus members have a solid lineup for the month of October with Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain and Amnesia: Collection, which contains both The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs, headlining the month.
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Unlike other Sony bigwigs who sing Switch’s praises like Shuhei Yoshida, Andrew House had something quite different to say.
”The Nintendo device (Switch) is a hybrid device and that’s a different approach and strategy. We have not seen that as being a huge market opportunity. The Vita experience was that outside of Japan and Asia, there was not a huge demand. The lifestyle shift toward the dominance of smartphones as the single key device that is always with you, was the determining factor.”
Maybe Sony shouldn’t have abandoned the Vita. My other issue with this statement is that Switch isn’t in the same category as Vita was. The Vita is handheld only (excluding that joke of a PlayStation TV) while the Switch is a damn fine portable and home console in one.
Nintendo
- The Playtonic team announced on a Kickstarter update that they’ve encountered some final technical hurdles with Yooka-Laylee on Switch and were waiting for the arrival of Unity 5.6 in order to fix them. Although this has now been released, the new Unity build has unfortunately introduced other issues which they are working with Unity to resolve before a build can be submitted to Nintendo.
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NeoGAF user Vern, the source who correctly predicted news of L.A. Noire coming to Switch, has dropped a hint that Grand Theft Auto V is also on its way to Nintendo’s console. As usual with rumors, take it with a massive grain of salt.
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Blaster Master Zero (review)is receiving a free DLC update to version 1.4 next week which will see the addition of Boss Blast mode (think boss rush). The update will also include Multi Boss Blast mode for two players to take on.
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Super Mario Run received a massive update and a temporary 50% price drop to $4.99 depending on your territory. Here are the full patch notes.
Remix 10: Super Mario Run courses done short and sweet!
In Remix 10, you’ll challenge 10 very short courses in a row. Daisy is lost somewhere along the way, so if you play enough courses you’ll be able to find her! You’ll also be able to play some extra Bonus Games and a Super Bonus Game to get various buildings for your kingdom as you run through this mode.Even more fun with World Star!
There are some new courses to explore, including a forest, a ship packed with coins, and a whole airship armada. Each course adds a whole new level of fun!Daisy, a new playable character, is here, and she brought a double-jump skill with her!
If you play through enough Remix 10 courses, Princess Daisy of Sarasaland will join your group of friends. Her double-jump ability lets her jump while she’s already midair!Listen to your favorite music with the music-play feature!
Now you can listen to music stored on your device while playing Super Mario Run. Mario and his friends will wear headphones when this feature is turned on! Find some music that will get you pumped to run some courses!New buildings for Kingdom Builder mode
You may earn brand-new buildings from the Bonus Games in Remix 10. Try to get as many as you can!
The way opponents are selected for Toad Rally has been adjusted. There is now less of a chance you’ll play against someone whose Toad population is significantly different from yours. -
Nintendo has started offering indie games as rewards for My Nintendo members, which is a great addition because those points have been pretty worthless thus far.
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You may not have to wait much longer for Stardew Valley on Switch as the title has cleared QA and is now approved on the platform. We’re just waiting on a release date.
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Earlier this month, Nintendo announced a partnership with Post cereals. Marked packages are offering consumers a chance to win one of 500 Switch Prize Packs, featuring a Switch system and Super Mario Odyssey, while the remaining 20M Post Consumer Brand cereal boxes come with codes for 50 platinum points for My Nintendo.
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Monster Hunter Stories received free Zelda themed DLC this week. Players can play as Link and use Epona as a mount throughout the game.
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According to the NPD, physical software sales for Switch here in the US are on pace to be the biggest ever for a Nintendo platform launch since 1995 by a large margin.
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There has been an ongoing debate among Nintendo fans, as to whether Mario was telling Yoshi to get something or smacking the character in the head. According to Nintendo, Mario was originally punching Yoshi square in the back of his noggin, causing the character’s tongue to shoot out in surprise.
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In a bizzare move, Nintendo of America has banned YouTube Livestreaming for those in it’s already incredibly restrictive Nintendo Creator’s Program.
Xbox
- Two great games are headlining Xbox Live’s Games with Gold for the month of October. They are Gone Home and The Turing Test. Both will be available Oct. 16 through Nov. 15. On the Xbox 360 backward compatibility front, players will receive the HD remaster of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc as well as Medal of Honor: Airborne.
Industry News
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A new indie-only game platform called Jump has launched to challenge Steam. It was created by indie devs who were tired of not being found on more conventional platforms like Steam and PSN.
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The Vivendi and Ubisoft saga rages on as an exec for Vivendi stated the company is unsure whether it’s going to sell off it’s stock in Ubi or attempt a takeover like previously planned.
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Atari has released some more info regarding it’s upcoming Atari Box Console. The company is aiming for a price tag of around $250-300. As for the console itself, it will be powered by a custom AMD chip
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Skyrim Special Edition will be gaining a survival mode akin to the one for Fallout 4 that went into the game last spring. The mode will be delivered by Skyrim Creation Club, Bethesda Game Studios said in a blog post today. When it launches, it will be free for one week on all platforms —PS4, PC, and Xbox One. After this one-week period, however, it will be premium Creation Club content. Bethesda Softworks hasn’t yet set a price for Survival mode after that.
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The aliens of Elite: Dangerous, once prone to terrifying yet ultimately peaceful encounters, have started reducing players’ ships to space dust in the blink of an eye.
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After nearly two years striking, unionized video game voice actors just agreed to end their boycott against 11 games companies. Voice actors demanded residual payments, better protections for their voices and more transparency about what projects they were working on. Today, SAG-AFTRA announced that these unionized voice actors would now receive better bonus payments, as well as “new transparency provisions,” like disclosing projects’ code names and genres, that should make bargaining easier. Boy, Rockstar is going to hate this.
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The Chinese Room, the developers behind award-winning games like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, has revealed that it’s “going dark” for the months ahead. The company isn’t shutting entirely, but it quietly laid off its team after finishing its new title So Let Us Melt and won’t be a “fully active” firm “for the time being.” As co-founder Dan Pinchbeck explains, it’s really a combination of factors that prompted the decision.
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Discord for iOS has been updated and squashes a nasty bug that prevented Bluetooth headphones from working when the device went to sleep.
