DS Video Games News

Outside of Modern Warfare 3, Activision titles don't get much bigger than Prototype 2, Spider-Man: Edge of Time or X-Men Destiny over the next year or so, and now (thanks to a trio of announcements at the San Diego Comic Con) we know precisely when each of these games will line-up within that timeframe.

Prototype 2 is now officially down for an April 24th launch (which falls in line with the wide ETA of '2012' that Activision had set previously), while Spider-Man: Edge of Time and X-Men Destiny are scheduled to drop into shops on October 4th and September 27th of this year respectively.

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As the FIFA 11 season comes to its conclusion with the much anticipated release of FIFA 12 at the end of September, EA Sports has compiled a Goals of the Season vid showing the best belters, peaches, and screamers from its loyal fans in FIFA 11 over the last 9 months.

There really are some staggering displays of skills in this vid, but what we particularly like is how all of the goals are tasteful. They're not just some skill-moves obsessed gamer running rings around a novice; there's a real eye for the aesthetics of a great footballing goal instead.

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This week's UK Chart has 505 Games' Zumba Fitness at the top of the pile as it once again managed to fight off the likes of EA's Crysis 2 and LucasArts' LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the honours.

Zumba Fitness re-entered the charts three weeks ago after a Wii version of the game was released over four months after the original Xbox 360 Kinect iteration.

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Natsume has announced that its next Harvest Moon game will be a joint release for both DS and 3DS. The popular farming RPG series has been going since the SNES original in 1996, spawning countless sequels along the way (although the GBA version is widely acknowledged as the pick of the bunch).

“Today we are revealing an exclusive to you, our most loyal fans. We are happy to announce Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns for the DS *and* 3DS coming later this year! Fill up your watering can and sharpen your hoe, because it's time for an all-new farming adventure! More details to come in the near future, including some exciting news at E3,” Natsume announced on its official Facebook page.

There are already 6 core Harvest moon games for DS, not including the Rune Factory series (which adds battles and questing to the farming action), or the various puzzle game spin-offs. It’s not clear whether the separate releases of Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns will feature distinct content, or if the 3DS version will simply be the DS version with added 3D.

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Activision has announced Spider-Man: Edge of Time for an autumn release; no platforms have yet been confirmed, but Xbox 360 and PS3 as an absolute minimum would be a safe bet (the last Spider-Man game, Shattered Dimensions, was also released on PC, Wii and DS).

The new game sees the Amazing Spider-Man team up with Spider-Man 2099 to correct a timestream gone awry and prevent a catastrophic future caused by the untimely death of Peter Parker. Playing across two distinct time periods, you’ll experience the consequences of your actions in one period as they ripple out to effect the other, sometimes in unexpected ways.

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Konami has dismissed reports of the cancellation of Hudson Soft’s 3DS titles.

“If the announcement didn’t come from us, it’s not true,” a Konami spokesperson told Wired. “We have not distributed any official list of Hudson products yet.”

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Many of Hudson Soft’s 3DS titles - including Bomberman, Omega Five, and Bonk - have been cancelled following its acquisition by Konami.

The news was revealed in the current issue of Famitsu (via Andriasang); there’s no word on whether Hudson’s other 3DS titles - such as DECA SPORTS and Kororinpa 3DS - will also be affected by it’s recent downsizing. Hudson recently sacked 40 employees and shuttered its US subsidiary as part of the restructuring arrangement with its new owner; the Bomberman studio will now focus on social gaming development under Konami’s auspices.

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Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has commented on the lack of big Wii releases, reassuring fans that new announcements are on the way.

In an interview with IGN, the outspoken Nintendo COO blamed a hectic 3DS and Pokemon launch schedule for the loss of focus on the Wii.

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Will Wright has been talking about the new projects that are taking shape at his part-EA-owned StupidFunClub development outfit.

"For the most part, the stuff we're working on is not shrink-wrapped, AAA, Xbox-only. It's stuff that's a little more diffuse, mobile, web," he revealed at last week’s GDC (via EG).

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White is right, according to the British public, who bought enough copies of the new Pokemon game to propel it to the top of the UK all format sales charts this week. Sister-title Pokemon Black makes it a Nintendo one-two this week, battering promising new prospect Fight Night Champion into third in its debut week.

What’s this I hear you cry? No Black Ops, Fifa 11, or Assassin’s Creed in the top 5!? Surely the accounting gnomes at GfK Chart-Track have misplaced a bead from their collective abaci? Fifa 11 slips into 8th this week, two places down from Black Ops in 6th, while Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood plummets out of the top ten altogether, landing in 21st place.

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Nintendo will be distributing promotional Celebi Pokemon to owners of previous games in the series in celebration of the release of Pokemon Black & White on March 4th.

Head down to one of the following GAME stores on February 26th or 27th with a copy of Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold or SoulSilver, to download your very own Celebi and get hands on time with Pokemon Black and White ahead of release:

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5th Cell COO Joseph Tringali has announced that total sales of Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts for DS have reached 2.5 million units.

Speaking at DICE 2011, Tringali revealed that it took a staff of 25 only 13 months to develop Scribblenauts. 5th Cell’s Drawn to Life franchise shifted 3.5 million units, and took a staff of 15 a mere 11 months to develop.

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EA has confirmed to TVG that its FIFA franchise has made over $40 million (£25 million) in "additional digital revenue" over the past year.

The following statement was released to TVG when we sought clarification of a comment made by EA's Executive Vice-President and CFO, Eric Brown in an investor conference call last week:

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SEGA owner, SEGA SAMMY Holdings, has released a statement which suggests that the company may place greater emphasis on development for smartphones and social networking sites in the future.

In a financial report to investors released on Wednesday, SEGA SAMMY Holdings stated that,

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EA has updated its Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 11 to account for the real-world movement of players during the January transfer window.

New packs now contain the likes of Fernando Torres at Chelsea, Andy Carroll and Luiz Suárez at Liverpool, and Steven Pienaar at Tottenham following his transfer from Everton.

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During an investor conference call following its Q3 financial report, EA has revealed strong sales for its key game releases in the three months leading up to Christmas last year.

Medal of Honor and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit sold a total of 5 million units each, while EA's talismanic FIFA series sold through a whopping 11.5 million units (a 16% increase over last year's figures).

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EA Sports has announced a major update for FIFA 11's Ultimate Team mode that's set to go live on February 17th.

The update is headlined by new Play a Friend Challenge and Friends Leaderboard features, which will run alongside an additional 50 improvements to the mode including updates to functionality and gameplay.

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Activision has announced that its wholly owned Beenox studio will be the primary developer on future Spider-Man titles following its first non-ported outing in the series, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, which launched last September.

Treyarch had previously been the primary Spider-Man studio for Activision, although its work on the series has diminished in recent years. It's likely that Activision has now decided to dedicate its Treyarch studio to the Call of Duty franchise.

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Despite being the cover star of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series for the past three years, Lionel Messi may prefer FIFA over the football game he endorses according to his Barcelona team-mate, Gerard Piqué.

A thread of Tweets over on the FIFA Interactive World Cup's official feed appears to reveal where Messi's loyalties lie, with Piqué being quoted as saying, "I play FIFA 11 on the road, in hotels and with the team. Messi and Iniesta also like to play a lot."

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Following its triumphant return to the number one spot last week, EA's FIFA 11 has remained atop the UK charts for the second week in succession according to official Chart-Track figures.

It's the footie games' fourth week atop the charts in total since it launched at the beginning of October when it remained at the number one spot for two weeks after its release.

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