Fate of South Park: The Stick of Truth Revealed
Originally slated for release on March 5th, 2013, South Park: The Stick of Truth was one of the properties up for grabs during the THQ bankruptcy auction among many others. The property would up in the hands of Ubisoft, and little had been heard of about the game since the acquisition. Today however, an Ubisoft representative spoke about the game’s future and what fans can look forward to.
Read on to find out what Ubisoft said about the game…
Disney Infinity Developer: Game is not Like Skylanders, Star Wars Could be Integrated
Disney Interactive has recorded two consecutive fiscal losses, bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars, but they believe they have the solution to their financial woes in Disney Infinity.
Due to the fact that Disney Infinity is a toy-based video game, many believe it will be a clone of the Skylanders franchise. Disney’s Bill Roper tackles this topic and others – including the possibility of the Star Wars franchise being included in Disney Infinity – in a recent interview.
Nintendo Lines Out Upcoming Third-Party Wii U Titles
It’s become a kind of running joke among games journalists that Wii U just doesn’t have any third-party titles, but Nintendo doesn’t see it that way. They released a list of upcoming Wii U games from outside studios that are set for release in the next quarter of the year, from April to June, and it includes 15 titles from companies including Disney Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., Square-Enix, and even Activision.
Most of them we already knew about. Others, like Splinter Cell: Blacklist, hadn’t yet been confirmed.
Disney Infinity Delayed to August
Looks like Disney’s going to have to wait on returning its gaming division to serious profitability. The release of Disney Infinity, Disney’s Skylanders-style NFC toy collection game, was originally slated for June of this year but has now been pushed back to August. The new release date also moves the game from Disney’s third fiscal quarter to its fourth, meaning most of its revenues will be pushed out of this fiscal year and into the next one.
Disney hopes that the delay to the back-to-school season will encourage kids to trade figures for what they’re planning to be an exciting hot-button new game with their friends as they return to school. The later release will also fall closer to the holiday shopping season, which they hope will work to their advantage as well.
Find out what co-president of Disney Interactive John Pleasants had to say about the delay by clicking below.
Disney Infinity: Drive Into the World of Cars With a Themed Playset
We already knew that a Cars-themed playset would arrive for Disney Infinity eventually, but Disney just provided our first look at how the popular Pixar world will come alive via a trailer and screenshots. Cars playsets will give players access to classic Cars characters like Lightning McQueen and Mater, as well as the world of Radiator Springs, but as always players can create their own play areas via the game’s Toy Box level creation tool.
You can get a glimpse of how the Cars characters and world will play, as well as some of the Toy Box creation possibilities, by clicking below.
New Disney Infinity Screenshots Explore Monsters University
Disney delivered a closer look at one of the “play sets” for the upcoming NFC-powered Disney sandbox game Disney Infinity at the American International Toy Fair: a “Monsters University: themed set that features Mike and Sulley from Disney-Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. as well as the upcoming prequel Monsters University, which hits theaters this June. The new assets give us a look at the Mike & Sulley figurines as well as some screenshots of the in-game content.
Hop inside to see whether Monsters University is the right place for your higher education goals.
If Nintendo Wants to Make a Game That Uses NFC, They’d Better Hurry Up
So far, virtually every feature on the Wii U GamePad has been put to use in at least some capacity by some game, save one – the NFC reader/writer located below the Control Pad. For those of you who don’t know: NFC readers allow devices to “scan” certain NFC-enabled objects, like credit cards or figurines, and transmit or receive data to or from them. Many credit card readers now use NFC for easier and quicker card use, and the popular Skylanders franchise (as well as Disney Infinity). That Nintendo has taken the time, effort, and resources to add one to the Wii U GamePad suggests they’re hoping to make use of it at some point.
One of the obvious answers is to use it for online transactions – either to read credit cards or accept e-money… but what about game-related applications? Satoru Iwata has made a shaky commitment to reveal some prototype ideas later this year, but with other NFC-related games already on the rise, could Nintendo be taking too long to break out into that market?
Mr. Iwata Says Wii U NFC Prototypes Will ‘Probably’ be Available This Year
A lot of people might not remember this fact, since Nintendo hasn’t really talked about it since the Wii U launched, but the GamePad features a NFC reader – the same technology used to power Activision’s mega-popular Skylanders franchise and the recently-announced Disney Infinity. However, Nintendo hasn’t forgotten it – and Mr. Iwata says they’re aiming to make early prototypes available some time this year.
Read on for more details about what they’re thinking of in terms of utilizing NFC.
Report: Disney Interactive Lays Off 50 More Employees
Times are tough for Disney Interactive, the video game division of the entertainment giant. After reporting losses of over half a billion dollars in the past two years, Disney was really counting on Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two to help turn things around financially, but the game’s commercial failure led to the termination of Junction Point Studios. Unfortunately for all the hard workers at Disney Interactive, the cutbacks don’t end there.
Disney Infinity’s First 12 Months of Content Will be On-Disc
Though Disney intends Disney Infinity to see incremental new characters and worlds released alongside NFC-powered collectible figurines over its first year, it turns out that all of those characters and levels will be on-disc for the game’s Starter Set, which launches this June. That means that players who feel like digging through the game’s code will be able to find evidence of this content even before it’s officially announced.
It may seem a bit risky, but it’s a necessary step, says executive producer John Vignocchi.
Disney Infinity Will Be A Yearly-Releasing Franchise
With the Skylanders franchise generating over $500 million in the United States alone since its launch, it’s pretty obvious that there’s huge profits to be made by merging the video game and collectibles markets. We’ve known for a while now that Disney Infinity will incorporate a similar style, but according to John Vignocchi, the game’s executive producer, Disney will be pushing their franchise even harder, aiming to make it an annual franchise.
Pokémon Should Learn From Skylanders
There’s almost nothing in the world that sells like Pokémon. In the seventeen years since the addictive franchise launched, the video games alone have sold nearly 220 million, trailing only Mario games in that regard. Meanwhile, the Pokémon Trading Card Game is still going strong, and there’s no shortage of collectibles and figurines.
Recently, the Skylanders franchise has been making quite a bit of noise. The collectible nature of it, as well as its strong appeal with younger audiences, has it drawing comparisons to Pokémon. The young franchise has already generated over $500 million in America alone, and it’s quickly becoming Pokémon-esque in popularity. The Pokémon franchise is still doing phenomenally well in its own right, and there’s no need for Game Freak to fear the competition, but Pokémon could learn a thing or two from Skylanders. Hit the jump and join the discussion.
