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Injustice: Gods Among Us is the best-selling game of April 2013
According to The NPD Group’s accounting of the best-selling games from April 2013, NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice: Gods Among Us delivered a superhero-sized punch to the competition last month. The Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U fighter zoomed into the top spot, ahead of another April release, Deep Silver’s Dead Island: Riptide. Other new releases were mostly shut out of the top ten, but Defiance, an MMO shooter based on the Syfy show of the same name, managed to make it to the fifth spot.
Bioshock Infinite continues to sell strong, rounding out the top three, and a pair of 3DS-exclusive games scared up spots in the top ten: Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (#6) and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (#9).
The full top ten list for April 2013 can be found right here:
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
2. Dead Island: Riptide (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
3. Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
5. Defiance (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
6. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
7. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
8. Skylanders Giants (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)
9. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS)
10. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, Vita)
Nintendo Download: Super Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2, Starship Damrey, more
Nintendo has pushed a rather hefty update onto the eShop this week, but it mostly consists of games you’ve played before.
Leading the way are this week’s Wii U Virtual Console releases: Super Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. If you act fast, you can also get two of the three on the cheap. Super Metroid is on sale for $0.30 for a limited time and Super Mario Bros. 2 is half off if you also buy Super Mario World.
The 3DS Virtual Console received a pair of new games today as well. Handheld gamers can now download the Mega Man V, originally released on the NES, or Harvest Moon, which was originally released on the Game Boy Color. A new game even made it onto the Wii’s Virtual Console, SNK’s The King of Fighters ’99.
If you’re looking for new titles, the 3DS eShop received two big ones today: The Starship Damrey, an action-adventure from Level-5’s “Guild02” collection, and Swords & Soldiers 3D, a 3DS update to the popular strategy game. Other new games available today include Bowling Bonanza 3D (3DS eShop), Dress To Play: Magic Bubbles! (3DS eShop), and California Super Sports (DSiWare).
While not part of today’s update, this week’s Nintendo Download also includes Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and Resident Evil Revelations, two Wii U ports that will added to the Wii U eShop on Tuesday, 21.
WB Games announces Lego Marvel Super Heroes pre-order bonuses
In addition to releasing the neat teaser trailer above, WB Games has revealed the pre-order bonuses for Lego Marvel Super Heroes. As of right now, there are three retailer-exclusive pre-order bonuses and you can check them out right here:
Walmart: Receive an ultra exclusive Iron Patriot mini-fig when the game releases.
GameStop: Receive a Spider-Man keychain when you pre-order any version of Lego Marvel Super Heroes (available when the game releases). PowerUp Rewards members also receive an exclusive DLC pack containing “extra characters (including Spider-Man Symbiote, Hawkeye, Thanos, and much more), vehicles, and races!” (PS3 and Xbox 360 only).
Amazon: Receive a $10 Games Credit, automatically applied to your Amazon account.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes will be available for the 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360 this Fall.
Nintendo Download: Rayman Legends Challenges App, Mega Man IV, More
Rayman Legends may have been delayed until August to put it on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but Ubisoft has made good on their promise and added the Wii U-exclusive Rayman Legends Challenges App to the Wii U eShop. It’s a free download that includes access to four of the game’s levels: Land of the Livid Dead, Neverending Pit, Infinite Tower, and the GamePad-controlled Murfy’s Dungeon. If that weren’t enough, weekly online challenges are also included in the Challenges App.
Also available this week, on the 3DS eShop, is Mega Man IV, the Blue Bomber’s 1992 NES adventure.
Hit the jump for more details on both of these titles as well as three other new games released as part of this week’s Nintendo Download. (more…)
Star Wars, Marvel characters may be added to Disney Infinity in the future
“Series 1” of Disney Infinity is very focused focus on the studio’s animated efforts. Most of the figures announced so far have been pulled from the worlds of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, and Cars. But the Skylanders-like game also has a “real world” side represented by characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. And much like Jack Sparrow’s search for rum, many Disney fans have asked of Infinity… “Where’s Marvel and Star Wars?”
According a GamesIndustry International interview with Bill Roper, General Manager at Disney Interactive, there’s a chance that the Marvel universe and a galaxy far, far away could find their way into Infinity:
“”I think the beauty of something like Infinity is that it’s a platform that we’re building. So we don’t try to be coy about it – we’ve done a lot of work about identifying the properties that we felt would really make the platform sing at launch, but I never discount any possibilities with the vast array of characters and worlds that we can tap into across the company,” Roper said. He later singled out Star Wars as a possibility: “[The Star Wars acquisition] was definitely exciting when that [news] came down from within the company. We love the potential for Infinity – we always joke, well, ‘the possibilities are infinite’.”
While that’s far from confirmation, the Disney brass are clearly thinking about it. And with the extensive film schedule the company has planned for the Star Wars saga and the Avengers: Phase Two initiative, I think it makes perfect business sense to add characters from Marvel and Star Wars to Infinity sometime down the road (perhaps Summer 2015… when both The Avengers 2 and Star Wars: Episode VII hit theaters).
The Disney Infinity “Starter Pack” will be available for the 3DS, PS3, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360 on August 18.
505 Games acquires Drawn To Life license
While Nordic Games came away with the big prize from the second THQ auction, 505 Games managed to sneak in a winning bid for the Drawn To Life series. The Italian publisher bid $300,000 for the 5th Cell-developed franchise and that was good enough to win them the rights to the franchise as a whole as well as the previously released Drawn To Life (DS) and Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter (DS, Wii).
The sale of all THQ properties will be finalized during a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing on May 13, 2013.
Nordic Games wins big at THQ auction: Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, more
An unlikely winner has emerged in the second round of the THQ sweepstakes: Nordic Games. The small publisher, located in Austria, bid $4.9 million to obtain the majority of THQ’s remaining properties including Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Destroy all Humans!, Summoner, Titan Quest, Frontlines, Juiced, Full Spectrum Warrior, and over 150 other titles. A full list of Nordic’s acquisitions will be unveiled soon, probably sometime after the purchase hearing current set for May 13.
But now the question becomes, what happens next? What does Nordic Games, best known for publishing the Painkiller series, plan to do with all of these properties? According to Lars Wingefors, Nordic’s CEO, the company plans to embark on an in-depth analysis of each property and will eventually move forward with sequels to many of them.
“First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group. In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles,” Wingefors said.
To that end, Nordic Games has set up a special section in their official forums to solicit fan feedback on how to proceed with their new toys.
The first half of the THQ auction was held in January, with Deep Silver, Ubisoft, Crytek, Take-Two Interactive, and Sega participating.
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Darksiders, Darksiders II, Destroy All Humans, MX vs ATV Alive, Red Faction: Armageddon
BioShock Infinite is exceptional atop the March 2013 list of bestselling games
Good news everyone! The NPD Group (via Game Informer) has released their report on the best-selling games of March 2013 and they’ve confirmed that total game sales saw a 2% increase over March 2012. That’s the first year-over-year increase since November 2011. So good job game-buying public!
BioShock Infinite was the top-selling game of the month, just ahead of Square Enix’s Tomb Raider reboot. New games dominated the list as eight of the top ten titles were released in March. Only Call of Duty: Black Ops II and NBA 2K13 managed to fight through the new release wave to earn a spot in the top ten.
Here’s the complete list of the top ten best-selling games in March 2013:
1. BioShock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
2. Tomb Raider (Xbox 360, PS3)
3. Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360)
4. God of War: Ascension (PS3)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
6. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
7. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, Vita)
8. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)