Author: Game Infliction

Nintendo’s Share Price Reaches All-Time High Ahead Of New ‘Switch 2’ Hardware

Excitement rising.

Nintendo’s share price hit an all-time high of 9,578 JPY before closing the day at 9,490 JPY on 17th December 2024 amid increasing anticipation for the company’s upcoming new hardware.

The increase, however, is reportedly two-fold. The first and perhaps most obvious reason is that consumers are desperate for information on the ‘Switch 2’, and Nintendo has previously stated that it will be officially announced before the end of March 2025. That means that once the New Year has come and gone, we can restart the hype machine with extra gusto.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

November 2024 Sales Charts: Nintendo Switch Passes PS2 to Become the Second Best-Selling Gaming Hardware in U.S. History

The Nintendo Switch has officially passed the PlayStation 2 to become the second best-selling gaming hardware in the United States, now trailing only the Nintendo DS.

This comes from Circana’s November video game sales report, which states that lifetime unit sales of the Nintendo Switch are now at 46.6 million (we’ve asked for updated totals on the Nintendo DS).

But Switch sales are still slowing down. Per analysis from Circana’s Mat Piscatella, it was only the second best-selling console for November, following the PS5 in both unit and dollar sales, with Xbox Series consoles in third. Overall hardware spending was flat, with 15% year-over-year growth for PlayStation hardware off-setting a 29% drop in Xbox Series sales and 3% drop on Switch.

PS5 sales were driven in part by the release of the PS5 Pro, which accounted for 19% of all PS5 unit sales last month and 28% of all dollar sales. Notably, launch month dollar sales of the PS5 Pro were over 50% higher than launch month sales of the PS4 Pro, but unit sales were 12% lower. This isn’t surprising, and is roughly in line with analyst expectations, given that the PS4 Pro launched at $399 and the PS5 Pro launched at $699.

Spending on games overall was down 7% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, and overall software spending was down 9% year-over-year to $4.5 billion. Both of these drops were in large part simply due to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch timing compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last year. Black Ops 6 launched in October this year, elevating sales that month, while Modern Warfare 3’s November launch last year pumped that month’s numbers and made for a tougher comparable this year as Black Ops 6 sales settle down a bit.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was still the best-selling game this month, however, and is the second best-selling game of the year thus far. It trails only EA Sports College Football 25, which is now the best-selling sports game in U.S. history by dollar sales, and ranks among the 50 best-selling games of all time by the same metric.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership debuted at No.7 for the month, right behind Super Mario Party Jamboree at No.6. Both games’ position on the chart only reflects physical sales, however, so it’s possible the inclusion of digital sales could have pushed either higher.

A few other big new games this month aren’t reflected on the best-seller charts for various reasons. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl launched on Game Pass, which means a lot of people played it for “free.” But it debuted at No.6 on Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker Xbox Monthly Active Users chart, and it ranked No.9 for Steam MAUs, indicating it’s doing all right for itself. In a similar situation, free-to-play Genshin Impact launched on Xbox in November, and debuted at No.10 for Xbox MAUs.

And over on mobile, Pokemon TCG Pocket was the second best-selling mobile game by revenue worldwide in November, beating out the incredibly popular Monopoly GO. It was the sixth best-selling mobile game in the States for the month.

The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of October, based on dollar sales:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
  2. Madden NFL 25
  3. EA Sports FC 25
  4. EA Sports College Football 25
  5. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
  6. Super Mario Party Jamboree*
  7. Mario & Luigi: Brothership*
  8. Sonic X Shadow Generations
  9. NBA 2K25*
  10. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
  11. Hogwarts Legacy
  12. Dragon Quest 3
  13. Astro Bot
  14. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  15. Silent Hill 2 (2024)
  16. Undisputed
  17. Metaphor: ReFantazio
  18. Minecraft*
  19. My Sims: Cozy Bundle
  20. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Pokémon TCG Pocket Meta May Have a New Champ as Celebi ex Dominates

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket received its first expansion yesterday in Mythical Island and the collection of new cards has shaken up the meta, seemingly pushing newcomer Celebi ex to the top.

Celebi ex is one of five ex Pokémon added in Mythical Island, a Themed Booster which brought 68 unique new cards to the digital trading card game. It’s a basic Grass type with 130 Hit Points and a Weakness to Fire and a one Energy Retreat Cost.

Its single attack is called Power Bloom and costs one Grass Energy and one Colorless Energy, with the following effect: “Flip a coin for each Energy attached to this Pokémon. This attack does 50 damage for each heads.”

This is okay by itself; it’s on par with one meta leader Mewtwo ex’s smaller attack, essentially averaging 50 damage for two Energy, but increasing it to, say four Energy, means it averages 100 damage. There is potential there for some devastating attacks, with four coin flips potentially presenting 200 (or zero) damage, but it’s another Mythical Island card that boosts Celebi to the top.

Serperior is a Stage 2 Grass type with 110 HP, a weakness to Fire, and two Energy retreat cost. It has a single attack called Solar Beam which deals 70 damage for one Grass Energy and three Colorless Energy, which is well below the standard rate of damage.

But it also comes with an Ability, Jungle Totem: “Each Grass Energy attached to your Grass Pokémon procides two Grass Energy. This effect doesn’t stack.” This “stack” clause simply means that if two Serperior are on the board at the same time then only one of these effects will activate, but it otherwise doubles the value of every energy attached to other Grass Pokémon, including Celebi ex.

Having Serperior on the bench, which will take a while given its a Stage 2 Pokémon and needs to be evolved twice, therefore essentially makes Celebi’s Power Bloom card half the cost. One Grass Energy attached to it will result in two coin flips, for between zero and 100 damage, two Grass Energy will mean four coin flips for between zero and 200 damage, and so on.

Exactly what cards are best around these two core pieces will be figured out by players in the coming days and weeks, but Lilligant from original set Genetix Apex may be a valuable inclusion. It’s a Stage 1 Pokémon evolving from Petilil that has a two Grass Energy, 50 damage attack that also grants a Bench Pokémon a free Grass Energy.

Putting it in play with a Celebi ex on the Bench, and building up to a Serperior at the same time, would let players pile Energy onto Celebi ex and then switch it in with the threat of doing serious damage, enough to take down the likes of Mewtwo ex and Charizard ex in one turn.

This is the first deck from Mythical Island to emerge as a meta leader, capable of stacking up to these other dominant decks, but there are other changes already in place, including some that push down Pikachu ex.

Mythical Island arrived December 17 and as a Themed Booster is a smaller set compared to the debut Genetic Apex, containing a total of 86 cards. Creatures Inc. has still added myriad new missions and solo battles for players to interact with though, which somewhat recreates that opening day feeling of the digital trading card game.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived October 30 and is a certified hit for Creatures Inc. and The Pokémon Company, having earned an estimated $200 million in its first month across more than 60 million downloads.

This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free to play game model, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before soon drying up, with spending real world money the only real way to re-experience that early thrill outside of the occasional set drop like this.

Completing Genetic Apex, the first set of cards which totals 226 officially but also contains 60 rare alternate art cards, will take players not spending money around two years according to one estimate, while those looking to make it rain can wrap up the collection after dropping around $1,500.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Spider-Punk lands in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite thanks to a giant mod with a revamped art style and new modes out this week

Fists up, a big fighting game mod is due out this weekend. Marvel vs Capcom Infinite came out in 2017 and got some flak for its plastic figurine art style. But this year a modder began work on an overhaul that would grant the game pretty cel-shaded visuals. Since then the modding team has grown to 40 people and the scope of the mod’s features has ballooned. It’s now going to include new moves, stages, costumes, and a chaotic-looking 2v2 multiplayer tag team mode. All good news for biff ’em up sickos, as the mod is due to release on Friday.

Read more

Lemmings-Like Space Adventure ‘Moons of Darsalon’ Leaps Onto Switch February 2025

Complete with some nasty AI art.

The retro-inspired ‘save them all’ platformer Moons of Darsalon launched on Steam last year, and now developer Dr. Kucho! Games has announced that the Switch will get a slice of the throwback action on 6th February 2025.

If the above trailer (and its wickedly catchy theme tune) hasn’t already spelt it out, Moons of Darsalon is all about saving your team of astronauts, or “darsanauts”, from whatever lunar catastrophe they find themselves in. To do so, you’ll lead them, Lemmings like, to the nearest base, helping them across platforming challenges, navigating perils and building structures to make sure the full gang gets home in one piece.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Helldivers 2’s Killzone Crossover Is Real — and It’s Out Now

Helldivers 2’s leaked Killzone crossover is real, and developer Arrowhead has released it. But be warned: these cosmetics are only available for five days.

Hot on the heels of the Omens of Tyranny update, which added the Illuminate faction, Helldivers 2 has its first official crossover. Part one of the Helldivers 2 x Killzone crossover is out now, and includes a Killzone-themed armor set, assault rifle, banner, cape, and player title. Part two hits Helldivers 2’s store on December 23, Arrowhead said.

In a blog post, Arrowhead announced that Helldivers 2 x Killzone 2 belongs to a new tier of special premium content “reserved for collaborations and other uniquely-themed work,” so expect to hand over plenty of Super Credits if you want the lot.

The developer added that it plans to offer players “something distinct and special” with the content, and teased an additional Killzone 2 reward for all players depending on their success in the Galactic War.

Meanwhile, Arrowhead outlined plans to improve the way Helldivers 2’s in-game store works. “Right now, many of you feel the items are in rotation for too short a time, and that you sometimes miss out on that killer look you had your eyes on,” Arrowhead said. “At the same time, the more things we add to the store the longer it takes to come back into rotation.

“As we’re not quite ready to roll out a full redesign, we’re going to temporarily test longer rotations with Killzone, which will stick around for five days per page instead (there will be two pages of items to explore).

“After this, the page rotation will go back to its usual cadence and we will be asking for your feedback on our test. If you think this is too short, or you want us to look into bringing items back for longer periods, we’ll ask again in future surveys.”

Last month, Arrowhead CCO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt cautioned against doing too many crossovers, saying “it would dilute the IP and make it a ‘not Helldivers’ experience.” In its blog post, Arrowhead reiterated the point, insisting Killzone makes “perfect sense for the game.”

This crossover already has fans wondering if Sony may finally be ready to return to the Killzone franchise with a brand new release. Original developer Guerrilla Games has its hands full with the Horizon Online project and the inevitable Horizon 3, so any new game would probably have to come from another developer.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Times Of Progress is an elegant, focussed city builder set during the Industrial Revolution

Times Of Progress is a special game for me, because is the first news tip I have ever received from Sin Vega, Prime Minister of Strategy Gaming, way back in spring this year. Sin once described writing news articles for our former news editor Alice0 (RPS in peace) as like practising backflips in front of the kung fu master. Writing about a new city builder at Sin’s suggestion is like being invited to budget the development of Londinium by Julius Caesar.

The terror of screwing it up – together with other, more trivial distractions, like international games industry conferences- has stopped me from writing about Times Of Progress for months. Today I bite the bullet, and emerge from my lodgings to issue a hesitant speech to the masses, hoping like hell that Caesar is too preoccupied with the latest Gaul uprising to notice my errors.

Read more

New Capcom Survey Wants To Know Your Thoughts About MvC Fighting Collection

It could help with the “development of future titles”.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has been available on the Switch for handful of months now, and Capcom has this week launched an online survey asking fans what they think of it to “help inform the development of future titles”.

This survey is open until 28th February 2025 and asks basic personal information, if you’ve purchased the game, the platform you bought it on, the games you’ve played in the collection, and how you would rate the collection and its features overall.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind First Major Update Revealed, Coming To Switch “Soon”

Here’s what you can expect…

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind made its debut on the Switch last week and it’s gone down relatively well so far with critics and fans alike.

In saying this, not everything is available on every platform (like online play), but the developers are working on it and have now rolled out the first major update. The Switch version is expected to receive this update “soon”. Here’s exactly what you can expect:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Capcom Reportedly Adds Two New Members To Its Mega Man Dev Team

More Mega?

There might not have been much activity on the Mega Man front in recent times, but it seems we’ve now got a new update courtesy of the Amazon ‘Secret Level’ episode. According to the fansite Rockman Corner, two new names have supposedly been added to the Mega Man development team:

Rockman Corner: “In the credits for Secret Level episode Mega Man: Start, we see Shingo Izumi and Hiroshi Ito. Izumi, who joined Capcom in 2018, was the producer behind Monster Hunter: World and the recent Ghost Trick HD remaster. Ito was a producer on Monster Hunter Stories, its sequel, and the Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise.”

Read the full article on nintendolife.com