The company's worldwide net sales grew by 7.3 percent, ending this fiscal year at ¥487 billion (approximately $4.9B), compared to last year's earnings of ¥434 billion. Namco Bandai's net income for the year ending March 31, 2013 was ¥32.4 billion ($327M), a 67.8 percent increase over last year's reported ¥19.3 billion.
Regional sales saw significant boosts. Net sales of Namco Bandai products in Japan increased 7.3 percent year-over-year to ¥406 billion ($4.1B), while sales for the Americas rose 38.3 percent, finishing at ¥33.6 billion ($339M).
The report additionally reveals that Namco Bandai failed to meet shipping targets for some of its key titles. Siliconera notes that Namco Bandai expected to ship 1.7 million units of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 worldwide, but came up short at 1.5 million. The Japan-exclusive RPG Tales of Xillia 2 shipped 500,000, missing its initial target of 650,000 units.
Other big titles for the company include SoulCalibur V, which shipped 1.05 million units worldwide in the fiscal year ending in March, and two entries in its Naruto Shippuden series, which shipped a combined 1.76 million units across all regions.
"We did purchase some art assets from Silicon Knights," Precursor Games CEO Paul Caporicci told Wired. "We were very happy to be able to put those assets created by the talented past employees to use." It was reported last October that as much as 40 percent of Silicon Knights had been working on a sequel to Eternal Darkness, which may explain the existence of said art assets.
Shadow of the Eternals is being built in CryEngine 3, Caporicci added – an important distinction to make considering the major issues Silicon Knights suffered after using Unreal Engine 3 and subsequently employing its own game engine. Though Nintendo owns the rights to Eternal Darkness and has patented the game's sanity mechanics, Caporicci said similar gameplay ideas can be safely implemented without breaking the law.
If you're looking to play some old NES games while your WiiPad looks the part, Nintendo officially launched the Virtual Console on Wii U at the end of April. The initial launch list is pretty slim, but Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory's beloved SNES RPG, Earthbound, is on the way.
Update: The live show is over. Watch the replay above!
This week on the Super Joystiq Podcast, the team tackles the hard subjects to the ground and interrogates them. Dave discusses going hands-on with Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Xav dives into the war-torn world of Metro: Last Light and Jess tries to survive in Don't Starve.
Be here for the live broadcast at 4:00 p.m. ET!
Notably, Crash 'n the Boys is part of the same series as developer Technos' River City Ransom, a cult classic that ranks as an all-time favorite among many NES fans. While it arrived at retail late in the NES's lifespan and never gained much of a following, Street Challenge's appearance on the Wii U could potentially be followed by Virtual Console upgrades for Super Dodge Ball, Double Dragon, and other well-remembered titles from Technos' back catalog.
Crash 'n the Boys is rated PG for "mild violence" – a generous classification, as the game includes a swimming minigame in which players attempt to drown their opponents. Joystiq's David Hinkle took the game for a spin back when it first launched for the Wii's Virtual Console, calling it "fun, but tiring."
NetherRealm Studios has given us our first in-game look at Injusice: Gods Among Us' next DLC character, Batgirl. As we had suspected, this Batgirl is Barbara Gordon, rather than Cassandra Cain or Stephanie Brown, the other two primary Batgirls of traditional DC continuity.
Thankfully, Batgirl doesn't appear to be a straight-up Batman or Nightwing clone, though there are some unavoidable similarities due to the nature of the characters' shared training. Regardless, Batgirl's grapple teleport and stun abilities should prove interesting against heavily ranged characters like Deathstroke.
The Joker's tropical vacation garb is a reference to an outfit worn by the character in 1988's Batman: The Killing Joke, which is covered briefly in this trailer. We assume Killing Joke Joker will be part of a costume pack released alongside Batgirl, as was the case with Lobo.
Composer Giancarlo Feltrin has revealed the first musical tune he's created for Shadow of the Eternals, the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem that's currently seeking funding. The song is called "Bathory's Theme," after Erzébet Bathory, an infamous female serial killer who will be part of the game's pilot episode.
Precursor Games' CEO Paul Caporicci has posted his own update on the title's development, focusing a portion of his note on the selection of Denis Dyack as creative lead. "Denis Dyack was my first choice for Creative, as he has a keen understanding on the creative aspects of game development," says Caporicci. "It saddens me to read that people's impressions of him are painted by anonymous accounts of other individuals."
At Silicon Knights, Dyack oversaw the original cult-hit Eternal Darkness, before launching less successful games like Too Human and X-Men: Destiny. Ultimately, legal issues with Epic would seal the fate for Dyack's development house.
Fans have asked about Nintendo's involvement, and Caporicci says that Nintendo has "been very supportive of our endeavour" so far. The game is being built in CryENGINE for the PC, but shouldn't have "substantial differences" when ported to the Wii U.
Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move highlights the new eShop releases this week. The 3DS puzzler has players guiding poor little mini Marios away from hazards by building a Pipe Dream-esque maze. The Wii U Virtual Console picks up two new games in the classic shooter Xevious and puzzle platformer Solomon's Key.
You can also pick up Chasing Aurora for half price on the Wii U until May 16. A demo for the Wii U version of Resident Evil: Revelations arrives May 14.
Evolution Championship Series co-founder Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar announced that NetherRealm Studios' DC superhero brawler Injustice: Gods Among Us is now a featured game in EVO 2013's official tournament lineup, joining big-name favorites like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition.
More good news arrived for Injustice fans today, in the form of a release window for the Wii U version's downloadable content. Responding to fan questions, the game's official Twitter account revealed that Wii U users will see its first round of DLC for the superhero and villain brawler this summer.
Wii U players were previously left out in the cold as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners tussled with newcomer Lobo earlier this week. NetherRealm did not detail if the Wii U plans include additional costumes currently exclusive to Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Injustice.
Batgirl is next up in NetherRealm's DLC release schedule. Two more as-of-yet unannounced characters will join Injustice's roster at a later date.
Disney contributes the loss to "growth at our Japan mobile business from a licensing agreement that started in February 2012 and lower acquisition accounting expense at our social games business." No mention is made of Junction Point Studios, which Disney closed in January after lackluster sales of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, or of the company's forthcoming game/toy platform Disney Infinity.
"The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy," CEO Bobby Kotick said in the report. "For these reasons, we remain cautious."
Despite this, Activision Blizzard is raising its net revenue outlook for calendar year 2013 by 3.3 percent, from $4.085 billion to $4.22 billion. Kotick attributed the company's successful quarter to Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and World of Warcraft, as well as continued consumer interest in Call of Duty and Skylanders.
Under the agreement, EA retains the exclusive rights to FIFA-branded games, including the exclusive rights to the official FIFA World Cup game. In the executive understatement of the week, EA Sports EVP Andrew Wilson said, "EA Sports released the first FIFA-branded soccer game in 1993, and 20 years later our partnership with FIFA continues to be very strong."
FIFA 13 sold 14.5 million units through March, EA announced yesterday as part of its year-end financial results. That's up 30 percent from FIFA 12's sales the prior year. The franchise is doing so well that maybe folks in the States will start calling it football soon. We joke, Madden, we still love you too, baby.
Responding to fan questions on Twitter, Andersson explained that DICE's Wii U experiments with Frostbite 2 had "not too promising" results, leading to the company abandoning efforts to get Frostbite 3 up and running on Nintendo's latest console.
During the Game Developers Conference in March, Epic Games' Mark Rein noted that Unreal Engine 4 does not currently run on the Wii U. Rein later clarified, explaining that licensed developers could potentially port Unreal Engine 4-powered games to the Wii U, at their discretion.
EA released its FY 2013 results today, complete with expectations for 2014 that put net revenue at $3.50 billion. This is based on the launch of 11 games and 15 mobile titles, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said. In FY 2013, EA saw a net revenue of $3.797 billion, down from $4.143 billion in 2012.
Gibeau called out the next Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, NBA Live and Need for Speed games as next-gen titles. It's notable that NBA Live is on the schedule at all, considering that series' rocky launch history.
"In fiscal 14, we will release 11 major titles across consoles, and on the PC. This includes our core sports titles," EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said, before listing the following franchises and games:
By Q3 2013, which ended on December 31, 2012, FIFA 13 clocked a total of 12 million sales.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist's co-op consists of narrative missions, pulled directly from Sam's subordinates on board the Paladin – a massive plane and base of operations for Fourth Echelon in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Missions will run the gamut from stealthy to more action-focused affairs and in-between, forcing coordination and cooperation in order to reach the next objective.
Or, in my case, simply survive.
No matter which side you're on, when one terminal is being hacked, all of the conflict and chaos is focused like a laser to one room where the mercenaries must hunt for the original hacker to stop the countdown. You can't leave that room until the job is done – either the terminal is hacked or the hacker has been dealt with. It's about the most tense 90 seconds I've been asked to endure in a video game.
Injustice: Gods Among Us makes it three weeks in the top two, while Tomb Raider climbs back up to number 3 as one of the few games to hold steady sales. As ever, when FIFA and Call of Duty are on the up, chances are there's a new releases lull.
One game that was released last week was Soul Sacrifice, with the time ripe for it to make a strong impression on the charts. Keiji Inafune's Vita game only debuted in 26th.
The Deluxe version of the retro platformer will be playable directly on the Wii U's tablet controller, and will feature both the add-on content from the main game and new levels to play. If the game is submitted this week as planned, it should appear on the eShop soon after.
Rex Rocket draws from Maher and Bud's Nintendo-fueled childhood, taking cues from Mega Man, Metroid and Mario, telling the story of a has-been hero drawn once more into the line of fire. Now, with the project fully funded, Maher and the team can focus on the game full-time. There are still 20 days left to earn more, however, and the team has big plans, including possibly achieving another dream, seeing Rex Rocket published on a Nintendo platform. And, even now, before the Rex Rocket Kickstarter is closed, Maher is planning the team's next game, Blossom Tales.
But let's take it one thing at a time.
Featured Wii U Stories
Super Joystiq Podcast 049 Live: Splinter Cell Blacklist, Don't Starve, Metro Last Light
Posted on May 9th 2013 4:12PM