Weekly Knockout | 22nd May 2016

This Week’s Biggest Stories

Gran Turismo Sport Releasing This Year

First revealed at PlayStation’s Press Conference during Paris Games Week last year, Gran Turismo Sport will release on 16^th November in North America and Europe, excluding the UK, where the release date is the following Friday (18^th November). Announced at an unveiling event that took place in London, with Kazunori Yamauchi, Sport will feature 137 real world and fantasy vehicles, and 19 tracks with 27 possible layouts.

There will be several special editions of the game to purchase, including a Collector’s Edition, Steel Book Edition and Bonus Edition. Gran Turismo Sport Collector’s Edition includes an exclusive miniature model of the Mercedes-AMG GTS, and a “car-lover’s guide” written by Polyphony Digital. Both the Steel Book Edition and Bonus Edition include an undisclosed selection of digital exclusives. Selected retailers will also have a range of themed ‘head-start’ packs available to pre-order.

Nintendo to Produce Films by 2021

Speaking in a recent interview, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that the company has plans to produce feature films. Kimishima also revealed that the first film won’t be ready this year, but will not take 5 years either, and that Nintendo is interested in producing anime-style content as opposed to live action movies. Kimishima cites the 1993 Super Mario film as the main reason for not wanting to explore live action productions. Nintendo is also exploring production systems that allow them as much control over the end film as possible; “we can do as much as we can ourselves”.

Nintendo also published a notice regarding partial amendment to it’s Articles of Incorporation – documentation that outlines a company’s purpose. Amongst several changes were two additions of note; –

Article 2. (9) Development, manufacturing, and sale of medical devices and health devices
Article 2. (10) Development, manufacturing and sale of computer software

The first of these changes confirms that Nintendo plans to enter the healthcare industry, following the company’s Quality of Life initiative. Furthermore, Article 2. (20) Licensing of intellectual property rights; and was added as an amendment to the deleted Article 2.(18) and 2.(19). While these latter amendments were probably made for clarity’s sake, it is worth noting that stronger language used, perhaps suggestion Nintendo is more open to licensing its IP – but this is of course, conjecture.

Capcom Delays Games to Prioritise Completeness

During its annual financial earnings call, Capcom has announced that several titles have been given extended deadlines, in order to “prioritise completeness”. Capcom admitted that previously firm development deadlines lead to certain games releasing, that could have used “more polish” – most notably Street Fighter V.

“Accordingly, we feel it’s better to give a little more time to development than before, and have made slight adjustments to our portfolio…”

[Capcom CEO, Kenzo Tsujimoto]

Spider Man Coming to LEGO Avengers

Announced via USA Today, Spider Man will soon be coming to LEGO MARVEL Avengers. Based on the Civil War interpretation of the character – portrayed by Tom Hollands – Spider Man will be made available via a character pack. The pack is set to release on Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS.

Halo Forge Announced for Windows 10

Forge, the highly population creation tool for Halo, is coming to Windows 10. Slated for release later this year, Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition, will include; full mouse and keyboard support, increased resolution, an updated, faster UI and the ability to publish creations to Xbox One. Players will be able to play full custom games of their Forge creations on Windows 10, however, there will be no matchmaking or server browsing support, meaning players will have to invite friends through Xbox Live. Forge will be free on Windows 10, with more details coming later in the year.

This Weeks Financial Report

IT’s NOT AS SCARY AS IT SOUNDS! Here’s the weeks latest sales figures and financials for games, developers, publishers and hardware manufactures.

Super Mario Maker Sells 3 Million Copies

Taking to Twitter, Nintendo of America announced that 2015’s Super Mario Maker has sold over 3.5 million units. Nintendo of America also released several facts surrounding the game, including that over 7.2 million courses have been created by players, which even if you complete them in a minute each, would take nearly 14 years to play them all.

GTA V Ships 65 Million Units

Yes, 65 million copies of Grand Theft Auto V, a game that is by no means without impressive sales figures. In the first 24 hours the game managed to accumulate $800 million in sales, and the franchise has sold cumulatively over 230 million units. As of February GTA V had sold 60 million units, meaning that the game has sold over 1 million copies per month, a pace that the game has been on since the latter half of last year. It is worth noting that GTA V released across five platforms, thanks to a re-release after the launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One – not that this diminishes the impressive feat.