Nintendo admits Super Mario Run didn’t meet sales expectations

Revenue from Super Mario Run “did not meet our expectations.” That comes from Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima in a report by Nikkei, a Japanese publication.

Super Mario Run launched exclusively for iOS devices in December of last year. It hit the Android platform this week. In both instances, it offers the same payment model. Players can enjoy a handful of levels for free, but then Nintendo throws up a $9.99 paywall for the rest of the game.

There are no microtransactions after that initial purchase. $9.99 unlocks everything. Still, it’s an auto-runner, and that price is a tall order for the genre.

Don’t expect them to drop the model entirely

Nintendo tried a different style for mobile game selling. That’s with Fire Emblem Heroes. It’s a free download, and it offers smaller microtransactions in a “gacha” system. They’re seeing success, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the future for their style of sale in the mobile space.

Here’s what an unnamed senior company official told Nikkei.

“‘Heroes’ is an outlier…We honestly prefer the ‘Super Mario Run’ model.”

Nintendo wants games that push mobile players to their consoles, and it seems like they think they’ll find that success with games like Super Mario Run. We’ll see.

source: nikke

                          

Xbox Boss Teases E3 Plans

"I want to give our games more time on stage at E3."

With E3 2017 still a few months away, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now spoken out to say that fans can expect Microsoft to dedicate more time to games during the presentation.

Writing on Twitter, Spencer said, "I want to give our games more time on stage at E3. I sometimes feel like we rush telling the story of our games at E3."

This is not to say that the briefing will be exclusively focused on software. It most certainly won't be, as Microsoft's Project Scorpio is coming out this year. However, Spencer's new comments do lend further credence to the suggestion that Microsoft may hold an event dedicated to Scorpio before E3.

Microsoft's E3 2017 briefing is slated to take place on the afternoon of Sunday, June 11. This is a change for Microsoft, as the company historically holds its presentation on the Monday of E3 week.

What are you hoping to see and learn from Microsoft at E3 this year? Let us know in the comments below!

                             

GTA Online promises weaponised vehicles, illegal arms trade, dodgeball in coming months

Grand Theft Auto 5's ever-growing online component GTA Online has outlined its plans moving into 2017, which includes new stunt races, game modes, vehicles, and missions—the latter of which will involve players at some stage fighting "for supremacy in the illegal arms trade and wage war with the latest in high-powered military hardware."

Due in March, the next GTA Online Title Update will see the Rocket Voltic, Ruiner 2000 and Blazer Aqua vehicles privy to a new style of Stunt Race under the game's Cunning Stunts banner. Against these vehicles' very specific gravity-defying traits, players will also be able to craft their own racetracks.    

Further into spring, two new Adversary Modes named Resurrection and Top Down will make their way to Los Santos. The former is billed as "a gallows humor take on dodgeball", while the latter offers a "nostalgic homage to the 2D GTA era with some explosive twists". Expect new vehicles around this time too—including the Infernus Classic which hasn't been seen since 2001's Grand Theft Auto 3. 

Further into the year still, and GTA Online promises gunrunning-related missions and new weaponised vehicles. Here's Rockstar with the skinny on that:

"Stock up and bunker down as you take on the craziest militias across the state of San Andreas in another massive update for GTA Online. Featuring brand new weaponized vehicles and exciting new missions, get ready to fight for supremacy in the illegal arms trade and wage war with the latest in high-powered military hardware."

As noted by the Rockstar Newswire, the 2017 GTA Online Stunt Race Event is live right now through March 13. 

source: pcgamer

Pokemon Go update: all the news and rumors for what's coming next

 The expansion into Gen 2 was the first of three major updates planned for this year according to Niantic CEO John Hanke. 

During a keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Hanke said there would be three "major" updates to the game later in 2017, though he didn't reveal exactly what they'll be. 

He has, however, teased previously that trading and player vs player battles would be added to the game "soon" so it seems likely that these will be part of the major updates planned for 2017.

Pokémon Go has been out for more than six months now, and while the app has progressed a lot in this time - just remember how unstable the servers when it launched - there's still lots more work to be done.

Some of these features are ones that developer Niantic spoke about prior to the release of the game, while others have been promised since the game's release.

One feature in particular, the 'Nearby' functionality, is something that Niantic removed from the game to reduce the load on its servers , and took months to be rolled out globally. Now that that's out, though, what else is coming up?

Without further ado, here's our guide to every new update rumors as well as the tweaks promised by Niantic so far.

Trading

Trading was a key component in the original games, but it's remained absent from Pokémon Go despite repeated assurances that the feature is on its way.

In the beta, trading was a local-only affair, meaning that you couldn't trade with players over the internet, but Niantic hasn't yet confirmed how it expects trading to work in the final game.

We can't wait for trading to make its way into the game. It always feels like a bit of a waste transferring rare Pokémon just because they're a duplicate, and it'll be great being able to put them to use.

Player-vs-player battling

Another feature that's been rumored for some time is battling between players.

As it currently stands the only battling functionality in the game is between players and opposing gyms, but since before the game's release Niantic has been promising that PvP battling is coming and CEO John Hanke has confirmed it's in the works.

source: techradar