Tag: news

Kirby: Star Allies datamines show 2 new DLC waves

Kirby: Star Allies has been the Nintendo’s Switch first big release for 2018. Although the sales numbers have not been released, Star Allies broke the franchise’s sales history in the first month. It outsold the previous holder’s first month sales, Nightmare in Dreamland, by 90 percent!(2.1 million overall) The game is the 4th best selling video game in March. The game centers around four-player co-operative play with Kirby and his different allies and enemies. The game had free DLC for four characters from past Kirby games. (Gooey, Marx, Rick, Kine, and Coo).

LuigiBlood datamined Kirby: Star Allies and found data for upcoming DLC characters. Although it hasn’t been confirmed by Nintendo, the data is in the game. Whether they come out in two DLCs remains TBD. The list of character is below.

 

  • Adeleine (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)
  • Dark Meta Knight (Kirby & The Amazing Mirror)
  • Daroach (Kirby Mass Attack and Kirby: Squeak Squad)
  • Magolor (Kirby’s Return to Dream Land)
  • Susie (Kirby: Planet Robobot)
  • Taranza (Kirby: Triple Deluxe)
  • Three Mages (presumably the Jambastion Mages Flamberge, Francisca and Zan Partizanne from Kirby: Star Allies)

Business Focus:

Kirby is not Nintendo’s biggest IP’s but the game’s sales numbers shown the Switch’s strength in 2018. The series has always been a great casual game but the lack of additional levels or stories for DLC are disappointing. The potential DLC is largely catered to Kirby fans since the majority of characters are from past games. Although the first DLC is free, if they rely on selling the upcoming waves, the sales numbers may not be as large as expected.
Read more at

 

Sources:

Proof from Star Allies Go Stage ID ordering: Dlc2AdeleineStep01_01 Dlc2DarkMetaKnightStep01_01 Dlc2DaroachStep01_05 Dlc3MagolorStep01_05 Dlc3TaranzaStep01_05 Dlc3SusieStep01_05 Dlc3ThreeMagesStep01_05

Siliconera

VentureBeat – Kirby: Star Allies sales numbers

NintendoLife – Kirby Free DLC

Details on Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. World Tournament at E3 2018!

Nintendo will be hosting a tournament at E3 for Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch. The tournaments will be hosted at E3 2018 in Los Angeles on June 11th and 12th. There will be two different formats for both games. Nintendo has announced they will continue to release E3 announcements next month.

Splatoon 2:

Splatoon 2 will be 4 way round robin tournament with 4 teams at E3. One form Japan, the U.S./Can, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Winning the Splatoon 2 US/Canada Inkling Open 2018 online qualifiers will qualify your team for a spot. Qualifiers begin April 21, 11 a.m. PT, and finals will take place on April 28 at 8 a.m. This will be Splatoon 2‘s first World Championship. There is no entry fee and rules are in the link below. You can register online via this link http://e3.nintendo.com/splatoon-2-inkling-open

Super Smash Bros:

Nintendo has announced that the Smash game will be for Nintendo Switch. It will be a invitational with a non-disclosed amount of players invited by Nintendo. Details on whether its a new Smash game or a port of Smash 4 for the Wii U is still undetermined. The tournament will appeal to casual and competitive Smash players. Bill Trinen, Nintendo’s senior product marketing manager, said it will be similar in structure to the E3 2014 Super Smash Bros. invitational. Top players from the Smash community such as Mango, Hungrybox and ZeRo won in E3 2014 for the Super Smash Bros for Wii U.

Sources:

Nintendo

Ubisoft defends itself from Vivendi and why its important

Despite creating amazing games and long-lasting franchises, you would be surprised to hear Ubisoft was trying to avoid a hostile takeover of their company for several years from Vivendi. Vivendi is a French multimedia company. They are active in music, television, film, and video games. They were the previous owners of the most shares for Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, OverWatch) before they became Activision Blizzard. Vivendi began to purchase shares of Gameloft and Ubisoft to own the companies. CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot and Michel Guillemot, viewed their acquirement as a hostile takeover and worked together to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more stocks.

What do Shareholders do?

Investors can purchase a majority of shares than others to have influence on the Board of Directors (BoD). The Board of Directors vote to determine which direction a company should move and they represent the shareholders. Depending on how much a person invests into shares determine the amount of power within their votes. Vivendi attempt to buy more shares was to own Ubisoft just like they bought most of the shares for Gameloft. Vivendi denied the accusations on December 2016. They had owned 27.5% prior to the current news. France laws states if a person owns more than 30%, they are obligated to offer to buy the company.

0300 600 900 1,200 1,500 1,800 2,100 Tencent SNDA Netease GA Cyou PWRD Strengthening Competitive Advantages (USD in milli...
Tencent’s portfolio in 2014

Yves worked with individuals to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more shares. Vivendi is now selling its 27% shares for 2 billion euros. Ubisoft and the Guillemot Brothers C.E. (Representative company of Ubisoft‘s founders Guillemot family) will acquire 15% of Vivendi‘s shares.  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — an independent organization that administers pensions for about 318,000 teachers in Canada’s most populous province- and Tencent (League of Legends, PUBG China), a Chinese conglomerate will purchase the 3.4% and 5% of the remaining stock but won’t have seat on the BoD. The rest will be sold through accelerated book building.

Why is this important?

The Board of Directors have huge influence on companies but they may not follow the same views as the CEO or how people want the company to act. Their biggest focus is on the companies to earn as much money as possible. With Ubisoft owning most of the shares and already setting plans for 2018 – 2020, they can choose their own business practice. Shareholders won’t have the influence to force Ubisoft to use “dirty” business strategies such as releasing more DLC, releasing unpolished games or creating more mobile games. We want gaming companies to choose their own business goals without compromising their principles because of the shareholders.

Sources:

Global News Wire

Polygon

Overclock

Invenstopedia 2

 

Hawaii Plans to Regulate Lootboxes

If there is one good thing to come from Star Wars Battlefront 2, it is that people around the world being more aware of loot boxes. In regards to a past article, EA (Electronic Arts) faces heavy scrutiny from gamers and government officials regarding the loot box system in Star Wars. Buying loot boxes gave unfair advantages to players in competitive multiplayer and were the best option to unlocking all of the content in the game. Hawaii was very critical against EA and video game companies pushing loot boxes in their games as they viewed it as a form of gambling towards children. Now Hawaii lawmakers are trying to push new bills to regulate loot box purchases.

Chris Lee of Oahu

One pair of bills, House Bill 2686 and Senate Bill 3024, would prohibit people under the age of 21 purchasing any games with randomized rewards using real money. House Bill 2727 and Senate Bill 3025, would require video game companies to label games with randomized purchases and the probability of loot box rewards. State Rep. Chris Lee of Oahu, who spearheaded the bills, stated “I’ve watched firsthand the evolution of the industry from one that seeks to create new things to one that’s begun to exploit people, especially children, to maximize profit.”

While games like Overwatch make earning loot boxes plausible and only offer cosmetics, some are providing advantages in game which encourages people to buy in order to win. Lee stated because the games are only rated T, the games promote gambling at a young age on virtual goods. Despite the backlash, Star Wars Battlefront 2 sold well but not as good as EA had hoped. EA was hoping to make more based on micro-transaction but based on the backlash, had to remove them.

Micro-transaction and in-app purchases are common among video games, including games for younger audience such as Minecraft and smart phone games. GDC (Games Developer Conferences) stated that 1/10 upcoming games would have loot boxes in some manner. One anonymous GameStop employee is wary that the law could lower the cost of sales based on the labels.

Image result for loot boxesMicro-transactions are a huge profit for video game companies. Activision Blizzard made over $4 billion on loot boxes alone in 2017. Often, companies use micro-transactions to earn higher profit margins rather than relying on sales alone. Gamers throughout the world have complained about the system and “games as a service” that has become more prevalent. Whether the law passes will force the industry to change a huge part of sales and potentially shake up the practices.

Sources:

Hawaii Tribute

Rolling Stones – GDC

PC Gamer – Blizzard makes $4 billion