Headline RePLAY – 5.8.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Star Wars: The Old Republic may have delayed Dragon Age III, Kingdom Hearts may finally be returning to consoles and Dark Souls’ infamous reputation has produced killer sales.   

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s subscription slide may have had unintended consequences: a delay in the development of Dragon Age III, says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

“Dragon Age III appears to have slipped to FY:14,” Pachter speculated. “We had previously expected the next Dragon Age to be released in Q4:13, two years after its predecessor. However, we believe that a significant portion of the BioWare team responsible for the game was reassigned to Star Wars in order to create content and fix bugs to keep the game’s audience engaged.”

Despite the MMO’s 1.7 million to 1.3 million dip in active subscriptions, Pachter maintains a bullish view of EA.

“We remain incorrigibly positive on the EA story. Despite a relatively low number of packaged good releases this year, we expect EA to grow revenue and earnings, primarily due to unrivaled digital strength,” Pachter explained.

“We believe EA represents the best opportunity for investors to benefit from continued digital growth for the industry next year, as well as from a likely rebound in packaged goods sales next year.”

|Source: GamesIndustry International

Kingdom Hearts has not seen a console release (or a numbered installment) since Kingdom Hearts II came out on the PS2 in 2004. Multiple handheld spinoffs later, series producer Tetsuya Nomura finally reveals that “it’s about time” for Kingdom Hearts return to consoles.

“I also feel that it’s about time that Kingdom Hearts should go back to being on a console,” Nomura told Game Informer.

“I’m not able to disclose any information on what’s coming next or any other future plans, but you may be able to find a hint if you play through Dream Drop Distance to the very end.”

|Source: VG247

Namco-Bandai has revealed that Dark Souls sold 1.19 million copies in the United States and Europe, proving that video gamers are masochists that enjoy seeing the Game Over screen over and over.

Combined with numbers by From Software, the publisher that handled the distribution of Dark Souls in Japan, the notoriously difficult RPG moved an additional 370,000 copies. 

Expect the number of sales to increase when Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for the PC launches on August 24th.

|Source: Namco Bandai via Joystiq

Headline RePLAY – 1.12.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Dark Souls for the PC petitioners attracted Namco Bandai’s attention, release date and details are revealed on Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, and Minecraft creator encourages “pirate now, pay later.”

Namco Bandai wanted to see the “demand” for a PC version of Dark Souls? They got it: 64,000 signatures worth.  

Now the company is saying they’re indeed paying attention to fans.

“My boss(es) even came to talk to me about this, after it explodes all around the world," said Namco Bandai forum admin “Shoupinou”. “If you wanted to have the attention of Namco Bandai Games, now you have it. The future is in your hands, and I hope you will keep supporting this.”

“I can't say it's going to happen (I wish I had this power ^^), but I can assure management of the company will know about it, and I think that already a good achievement and a good step forward,” he posted.

*Source: Destructoid

The Pokémon and Nobunaga’s Ambition crossover that no one saw coming is slated for release in Japan on March 17 at ¥5,800 or U.S. $75.

Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is an interesting (or bizarre) 3DS game involving our favorite pocket monsters, samurai generals and the ultimate goal of uniting 17 kingdoms.

Andriasang reports that the game is a SRPG involving Pokémon armies. Abilities are accorded to the Pokémon’s type and generals have exclusive “busho powers” to utilize in battle (i.e. healing your units); one power per general, however.  

Like most SRPGs, players are able to recruit wild Pokémon for their army and enlist new generals. Players can even strengthen their army within their very own castle town!

Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is a collaboration between Nintendo and Tecmo Koei.

*Source: Andriasang

In a twist on the videogame industry vs. piracy paradigm, Minecraft creator Markus “notch” Persson told a fan if he can’t afford Minecraft, just pirate it.

“Just pirate it,” Tweeted notch. “If you still like it when you can afford it in the future, buy it then. Also don’t forget to feel bad.”

Notably, this isn’t the first time that notch suggested piracy. At the Game Developers Conference last year, he said that piracy isn’t “theft” and pirates should be looked at as potential customers.  

*Source: Gameranx

Headline RePLAY – 1.9.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Hints of a Black Ops sequel is afoot, the legal battle for the Fallout name comes to a conclusion and thousands show interest in seeing Dark Souls for the PC.

A sequel for Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops became inevitable today after the publisher secretly acquired the domain rights to blackops2.com.

Fusible reports that the domain was registered in May 2010 shortly after Black Ops was announced and switched from Domains by Proxy to MarkMonitor, an internet brand protection company that has Activision as a client.

Treyarch, the developer behind Black Ops, has never went on record in creating a sequel but the blackops2.com domain acquisition is a strong indicator towards such a possibility.

*Source: Fusible

Bethesda Softworks and Interplay’s battle in the courts over the rights to the Fallout name finally ended today.

The suit was in regards to a Fallout MMO, which Interplay announced five years ago. Bethesda announced that as part of the settlement Interplay lost its license to develop the Fallout MMO “null and void” and “all rights granted to Interplay” to develop the MMO “revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately.”

Consequently, Interplay’s rights to sell Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics will expire in December 2013 in addition to any merchandising rights it had in association with the Fallout IP.

*Source: Joystiq

A Namco Bandai employee last week offered this quest to fans of Dark Souls: show “demand” for a PC version of the acclaimed RPG— and the fans have answered in the tens of thousands.

As of this news posting, there are over 54,000 signatures on a petition asking Namco Bandai to release Dark Souls on the PC and the numbers are still rising.

For those that would like to show support for the effort, the petition can be found here.  

*Source: Destructoid