Friday, December 16, 2016

News:: Bunch of $10 deals at GameStop: Ratchet and Clank, Star Wars Battlefront, and more

Ratchet and Clank for ten bucks is pretty much a steal. GameStop has a silent 'sale' on several console and PC games at this Hamilton sweet spot that might be worth a gander.

Free shipping only happens if your total order is $24.99 or more and you apply promo code SAVER at checkout, but store pickup options are also available. All games listed below are in stock for shipping (at the time of writing at least) or are at least available at this price for download.

PS4 Game Deals:

Xbox One Game Deals:

PC Game Deals:

Wii U Game Deals:

Bunch of $10 deals at GameStop: Ratchet and Clank, Star Wars Battlefront, and more screenshot



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News:: You can never have enough Dark Souls prints

We've featured video game prints from Cook & Becker several times before, and when I think of specific series that lend themselves particularly well to the wall treatment, Dark Souls ranks up there.

There's a new line of prints on sale now covering Firelink Shrine all the way down to Blighttown. They aren't that big, or cheap (we're talking $80 on the low end, $110 on the high), but quality costs.

"We have been wanting to do these for a long time," a rep wrote on NeoGAF. "We start with [Dark Souls] and early next year we'll add DSII and DSIII prints to the collection." Before you even ask, "Unfortunately we can't do Demons Souls (yet)." If that ever comes to fruition, I'll have a tough time resisting.

You can never have enough Dark Souls prints screenshot

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News:: Why I love the Legend of Zelda

Header credit to Mei-Xing

[While not labeled for last month's bloggers wanted, able to think's massive Zelda retrospective might as well it. From the smallest details of something weird like Zelda II to how Breath of Wild is shaping up, including all the personal anecdotes in between, this is a huge personal journey from able to think on Zelda. Don't forget, this month's bloggers wanted prompt is about the places where you play games, special little places. ~Strider]

I'm back again with another Zelda article. Since I beat Tri Force Heroes (see my review here) and thereby completed every game in the Zelda timeline, I've decided to discuss my personal history with the series, why I love it so much and give a list of my favorite Zelda games. I'll start with my history and what compelled me to play all of these games.

Why I love the Legend of Zelda screenshot

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News:: Super stats for Super Mario Run but no one has any actual specifics

Mario's running to the right and Nintendo's running to the bank. After one day on the market, Super Market Run is being crowned an unequivocal success. However, nobody's really sure exactly how successful it is.

The one fact about Super Mario Run that no one's debating is that it was the most downloaded game on the iOS store in the United States yesterday. And, it was the most downloaded game in upward of 79 other countries, too. It's when we try to look at these statistics with a fine-toothed comb that things get more uncertain.

Several outlets are leaning on app-reporting firms for an analysis of Super Mario Run's first day numbers. The Verge used Apptopia to claim 2.85 million downloads in the US yesterday. Polygon, who is in the same family of sites as The Verge, used App Annie to assert 3.5 million US downloads, 10 million globally, and $4 million in revenue. Variety and Venture Beat depended on Sensor Tower to come to 5 million US downloads and $5 million in revenue. GamesIndustry International was seemingly not comfortable reporting any concrete numbers before updating its story to use the safest data: 2.85 million downloads, which is the lowest estimate.

The point is that none of these app-analysis agencies have anything more than a hunch. GameSpot recently ran a story where it reported on SuperData's projection that Super Mario Run would bring in $60 million in revenue in its first month; it updated that article today to alter the prediction to $12-15 million, just a fraction of the original prediction.

Super Mario Run is Nintendo's most serious foray in the mobile market to date, and it'll almost certainly prove to be a successful one. But, we won't know how successful until Nintendo tells us directly at its next shareholders' meeting.

Super stats for Super Mario Run but no one has any actual specifics screenshot



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News:: Someone's actually making a surfing game

Better than nothing? That's the question I'm trying to answer with respect to Surf World Series.

It has the distinct benefit of gracing a subgenre we rarely see any more, but it also does not look like an especially good video game. I'm torn. It's in production at Climax Studios, which you might remember from titles like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the Assassin's Creed Chronicles line.

"Surfing is an amazing sport that's been pretty underrepresented in games for some time, so we wanted to bring surfing fans a fun, arcade-style experience that's all about mastering waves and racking up huge high scores," says CEO Simon Gardner. That's certainly a respectable goal.

Someone's actually making a surfing game screenshot

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News:: Nominees for Destructoid's Best Vita Game of 2016

I will never forget heading to GameStop to pick up my day one Vita with that beautiful OLED screen.

There was no one else there, no doubt scared off by the high price tag of the proprietary memory cards. It was a stupid mistake and that hubris cost Sony dearly, as nearly every developer outside of Atlus and several others killed their support for it. No, there weren't a whole lot of games for the floundering system in 2016, but those that did see the light of day were pretty amazing indeed.

Here are Destructoid's nominees for Best Vita Game of 2016...

Nominees for Destructoid's Best Vita Game of 2016 screenshot

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News:: Capcom's going to start publicly disgracing habitual Street Fighter V ragequitters

Capcom is set to take its boldest step yet in its ongoing efforts to combat Street Fighter V ragequitting. It's also the easiest step yet. The developer is simply going to add a profile icon that indicates "Hey, this guy ragequits a lot."

Yesterday, a Street Fighter V test branch went live on Steam without any password protection. Ever-vigilant players immediately hopped in and scoured the test for changes. They found the standard vanilla update stuff -- balance tweaks, new music settings -- but they also came across some interesting icons that will identify the best and the worst in the community.

It seems that the next update to Street Fighter V will introduce a ragequitter icon that permanently adorns the profiles of those who habitually quit early. The most reliable players -- the ones who see a match through to the end, even if it's bitter defeat -- will get a badge of honor. "Special icons will be displayed on the Fighter Profiles of players who frequently disconnect, as well as those who never do, making it easier for players with the same icon to battle against each other," a message reads.

The idea seems to be that Capcom is turning to a social stigma to discourage people from leaving matches. Past punishments were temporary bans and losing League Points (a statistic that determines their ranking). Those were evidently not effective enough. So now the stakes will be ratcheted up to the level of public shaming.

Capcom's going to start publicly disgracing habitual Street Fighter V ragequitters screenshot



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News:: Gears of War 4 celebrates the holidays the only way it knows how

Garish character and weapon skins in Gears of War multiplayer? Why I never!

For the holidays, Gears of War 4 has added a bunch of "festive" customization items to earn in 400-Credit packs. Aside from the actually very good Gingerbread weaponry (including that Lancer shown prominently in this video), most everything else is a bit much at best and eye-melting at worst.

Gears of War 4 celebrates the holidays the only way it knows how screenshot

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News:: The Dreams beta is still happening, just not this year

Remember Dreams? It's something I haven't thought about in some time, but Media Molecule hasn't slowed down on developing its game/art/whatever-you-want creation game. There was supposed to be a beta this year, but with January looming, yeah, that's not going to pan out.

"Now I know it may be difficult to hear, and delays make us sad too," said co-founder and studio director Siobhan Reddy. "However Dreams is Big. Really big. I mean, we always knew we were a bit crazy, but the enormity of it has taken even us by surprise. And rather than cutting corners we are staying true to our vision – that Dreams isn't just about drawing, or sculpting, but also game creation, storytelling, animation, music and sound, all rolled into one whole beautiful PlayStation game."

That shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the scope and ambition of what they're attempting to build. In terms of where the game is at right now, schedule-wise, Reddy says they've "ticked off many big tasks including implementing a working rough cut of the full feature set, starting the QA/developer version of the trial and making good progress on the game campaign."

The holdup for the beta, then, is a desire to keep players from having to "squint through a haze of bugs or unfinished features." So, next year it is. I don't mind waiting one bit.

The Dreams beta is still happening, just not this year screenshot

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News:: Wii U 32GB finally returns to $200 price at the Nintendo Store

Nintendo, in its late but infinite wisdom, has finally decided to discount the Wii U, now only $200 flat for its factory refurbished unit at the Nintendo Outlet store. The last time we saw this deal was over a year ago when Nintendo decided randomly to clear out stock in the middle of the year.

The black 32GB Deluxe Wii U comes with Nintendo Land (physical game disc), a black Wii U GamePad, power cables for system/GamePad, HDMI cable, and the Wii U sensor bar. As mentioned, it's factory refurbished, so it comes with a full one-year Nintendo warranty. You can pick up the unit at Nintendo.com and pay $5 shipping, but you may as well buy on Nintendo's eBay shop to get free shipping (and heck, earn $4 cash back in eBay Bucks).

No quantity or expiration date has been set by Nintendo, but as of writing about 434 units are sold.

Will it arrive in time for Christmas?

If you opt for free shipping, you'll deal with ETA of December 20 to December 28 -- so we highly suggest paying the expedited shipping fee if Christmas is a concern. For $9.99, that gets it to you between December 20 and December 23 depending on your zip code, and you can get it as soon as December 20 if you pay for one-day shipping cost of $16.99.

In terms of a refurbished system, the only other offering available at Nintendo's eBay store is a red 3DS XL for $170. That's about $5 cheaper than usual.

Wii U 32GB finally returns to $200 price at the Nintendo Store screenshot



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News:: The latest patch for the Ezio Collection is the most essential yet

Just last month, a video went viral on YouTube of some awkward-looking man in Assassin's Creed II. Most people thought the remastered collection introduced a brand new bug, but it turns out the weirdo just became easier to see. According to Ubisoft, the model was in the original release of ACII, but the game had a darker presentation. Along with that, the model was from a pool of randomly selected models, so most gamers probably already saw him and didn't realize it.

Well, no one will have to worry about running into this mannequin of a guy anymore as the newest patch for the Ezio Collection has removed the model from the game. I haven't seen patch notes this short in a long time, but the only other fix to the game is something to do with music playback stopping. Strange how removing an NPC is what we consider an update now a days.

Ubisoft patched out the weird Assassin's Creed 2 NPC face that went viral [Eurogamer]

The latest patch for the Ezio Collection is the most essential yet screenshot

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News:: So, Gravity Rush 2 seems to have a TON of online components

I didn't realize how embedded in asynchronous online play Gravity Rush 2 was, but it seems to have a lot of good mechanics involved with normal play. For one, online events can randomly spring up on the map, along with treasure hunts, which you can take photos of to share hints with other players.

Speaking of photos, you can rate other pictures, and if yours are rated, you'll earn an in-game currency called "Dusty Tokens." Time trial challenges with ghosts are in, as are "mine" missions that evolve based on how many people are online . In the mines you can die, and drop some currency for other players to find, Souls style.

All of this sounds optional. Yep, yep, I'm loving this.

Gravity Rush 2 Details Its Asynchronous Online Features And Costumes In New Footage  [Siliconera]

So, Gravity Rush 2 seems to have a TON of online components screenshot

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News:: If there's one thing that Terry Crews loves more than yogurt, it's Overwatch

Recently, the Overwatch community took notice of Terry Crews efforts to join the cast of the game as Doomfist -- a character hinted at throughout the game's lore (including its initial cinematic debut), that might one day make it into the roster. Well, this week the hilarious, hulking monstrosity of a man visited Blizzard's Headquarters in Irvine, California, which may or may not be related to that request.

Although he hasn't had much voicework in the past (he's only worked on an Expendables game, reprising his role, and Saints Row IV), he definitely has the voice for it, so I hope this happens. I can't imagine the amount of work required on Blizzard's end though. Because if this did work out, he might have to be called back or remotely record new lines to interact with additional characters, which would probably be a nightmare with his packed TV and film schedule.

It's partially why Bungie scrapped Peter Dinklage's voice in Destiny and started all over with the much more available Nolan North for continued content drops. Of course it's not impossible, so we'll see! I'd love to see Doomfist in regardless.

Terry Crews [Facebook]

If there's one thing that Terry Crews loves more than yogurt, it's Overwatch screenshot



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News:: Drive your very own Mario Kart through the streets of Japan

I'm sure many of us have fantasized about driving in a real life Mario Kart race. The joy of whisking past players you've toppled with a red shell while casually dodging a Bomb-Omb would be a real treat for anyone. According to Good Morning America (of all sources), you can just about replicate the experience in the Akihabara district of Tokyo.

Those who are lucky enough to live on the other side of the world can head on over to Akiba Kart and rent out a go-kart fashioned after everyone's favorite plumber. All of the karts for rent are at the 50cc class, which means even the most novice of drivers should be able to avoid accidents. The cost is $25 an hour, so even $100 could get you a fairly large chunk of the day on these machines.

The shops owner, Daisaku Koyama, has a warning for any speed demons among us. "Be careful while driving. Japanese police can get very angry." Seeing as how crime rates are exceptionally low, I'm sure the cops are just itching to find any troublemakers and serve them justice.

Driving a Real-Life Mario Kart in the Streets of Tokyo [Yahoo News]

Drive your very own Mario Kart through the streets of Japan screenshot



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News:: $5 Shadow of Mordor GOTY, 50% off The Division in GamersGate Xmas sale

Winter sales. Winter sales everywhere you look. Some goodies cropped up today with GamersGate offering Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition at a dirt cheap price of $5. Great deal for those who missed similar pricing at Bundle Stars earlier this year.

Kicking off their Winter Sale, the Sweden-based digital retailer has a number of Ubisoft title at decent pricing, including half-off Rainbow Six: Siege and The Division, The Division Season Pass - which non-coincidentally has a free weekend starting tomorrow. If you've already installed Uplay due to Ubisoft's amazing giveaway this December, you may as well check out some of the other decent deals below.

We expect deals from other publishers as the GamersGate sale continues through the week. Stay tune and you'll eventually find a giant ass Winter Sale compilation from all digital retailers in the near future... maybe even this weekend!?

GamersGate Xmas Sale

$5 Shadow of Mordor GOTY, 50% off The Division in GamersGate Xmas sale screenshot



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News:: Gear VR gets social with Oculus Rooms and Parties

A few months ago at Oculus' annual developer conference, the company announced a couple of social VR features known simply as Parties and Rooms. Parties is basically built-in voice chat, while Rooms is a virtual hangout space. Today, those features are finally live, at least for the Gear VR; Rift users will have to wait until 2017. Combined, Parties and Rooms are part of Oculus' continued efforts to prove that virtual reality can be used not just to play games, but also to connect people from around the world.



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News:: All six classic Mega Man games are coming to mobile, and they sound terrible

We recently got another taste of the "classic" Mega Man series (read: 8-bit or NES style) with the NES Classic re-release of Mega Man 2, and the Legacy collection, but Capcom is ready to give us yet another series of ports.

According to Famitsu, the publisher is releasing all six original NES games on January 6, 2017 on iOS and Android. There's no bundle, they're all going to be sold piecemeal, and cheat codes, including auto-fire, auto-charge, and speed alterations are in. By playing with a Rockman Unity app, you can unlock nominal rewards like wallpaper for your phone.

Given the poor reaction to Mega Man mobile games in the west, I doubt any of this will come here, but it's Capcom, so they could end up just pulling the trigger and hoping for the best. Remember, there's still going to be a "new Mega Man mobile game" released next year -- maybe it'll be themed after the new TV show.

Fast forwarding to 2018, I can see it now -- Capcom blames the wonky kids show and bad mobile port reception on fans, and retires Mega Man again. The cycle begins anew, and Capcom tells you to just keep buying the merch.

Mega Man [Famitsu via Rockman Corner]

All six classic Mega Man games are coming to mobile, and they sound terrible screenshot



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News:: Samsung is working on a new Gear VR and AR tech

If you're waiting on Samsung to unveil a new version of its Gear VR headset, you might get your wish soon enough. At the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego this week, Samsung vice president Sung-Hoon Hong revealed that the company is not only working on a new virtual reality headset, but that it has plans for an augmented reality device as well. Hong explained that Samsung plans to improve upon existing tech like Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap when it comes to AR.

Via: The Verge

Source: Wearable Zone



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News:: The latest Batman: Return to Arkham PS4 patch is a bit of a letdown for Pro owners

Earlier this week, we reported that the Batman: Return to Arkham collection had received a patch that -- alongside numerous other improvements -- enabled support for the PlayStation 4 Pro. Essentially, this patch (1.02) was intended to enable a more consistent framerate, as well as providing a plethora of stability improvements and bug fixes.

However, while this patch did ensure that the performance of Batman: Arkham Asylum was markedly improved, users over on Reddit were crying foul, as many believed that its sequel --Arkham City -- had received a significant downgrade in terms of functionality on the PS4 Pro.

According to Digital Foundry, this does seem to be the case. On the both the PS4 and its more powerful counterpart, a cap of 30FPS has been implemented. While on the original console, this does help make performance a lot more stable and consistent, the Pro version of the game was actually capable of hitting nearly 60FPS in some instances. Of course, this had led many to believe that the game could potentially hit a consistent 60FPS with a bit of further refinement.

Likewise, both the PS4 and the Pro have almost identical image quality under patch 1.02, as the version of the game on Sony's more powerful console does not run at an increased resolution over the base hardware. In fact, Arkham Asylum will drop its resolution down to 1344x1080 at the exact same spots on both consoles; something that has led Digital Foundry to believe that these reductions in image quality aren’t actually dynamically adjusted at all, and may occur at predefined points in the game.

Digital Foundry is also keen to point out that Sony’s technical guidelines for PS4 Pro games mandates that each title operates at a bare minimum of 1080p. While it is true that Arkham Asylum does have a vertical pixel count of 1080, the horizontal resolution is well below the PS4 Pro’s native display settings. 

On the plus side, Arkham Asylum does, in fact, perform much more consistently on the original PS4, with framerate drops becoming much less of a common occurrence. Not only that, but shadow quality has been noticeably improved over its implementation in the previous patch.

All in all, while patch 1.02 for Arkham Asylum does make matters better for original PS4 owners, Pro owners may actually consider it to be somewhat of a downgrade.

At the very least, I hope that Warner Bros. will soon allow PS4 Pro owners to toggle this framerate cap on or off, if only to make some of these perceived downgrades entirely optional.

The latest Batman: Return to Arkham PS4 patch is a bit of a letdown for Pro owners screenshot

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News:: Most Firefox users are running Windows 7 on dated PCs

Mozilla is helping developers figure out if their game or app will run well for average and not just hardcore users. The Firefox Hardware Report, using data from its anonymized Telemetry app, shows what OS and hardware folks are using, along with popular screen resolutions and other information. "Existing hardware reports (such as those from Valve and Unity) are excellent, but represent a different group of hardware users than the majority of people who use the web," the organization says.

Source: Firefox



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News:: These Yo-kai Watch toys almost make me want to go to McDonalds

In our latest episode of "only in Japan," McDonalds is running a new Happy Meal promotion with Yo-Kai Watch. You can see the toys on display below, in one of the longest running and most informative toy commercials I've ever seen -- really, the kid runs through every single function of every toy in sluggish fashion. You really know what you're getting!

It's great to see that the series is still kicking in Japan, especially since they're already gearing up for a new movie. I hope the sales have been big enough worldwide to justify the localization of the third game, and Busters, though.

These Yo-kai Watch toys almost make me want to go to McDonalds screenshot

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News:: Nintendo will take the Switch on a 'Preview Tour' next month

Nintendo's next console launches in March, and the company wants everyone to know about it. Following its showcase on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Mario maker has confirmed a global tour for the Switch. It'll be shown off first in New York this January (13-15), followed by Toronto (27-29) and Pax South in San Antonio (27-29). It'll then head to Washington for three days in February (10-12), before making its way through Chicago (17-19) and San Francisco (24-26). The tour wraps up in March with stops in Los Angeles (3-5th), Pax East (16-18) and SXSW (16-18).

Source: Nintendo (Press Release)



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News:: Here's 20 minutes of NieR: Automata gameplay and details of its PS4 Pro support

NieR: Automata is, without a doubt, one of my most anticipated games of 2017. As who has enjoyed some of the past works of Taro Yoko (although I admittedly need to get around to Drakengard 1 and 2), I'm finding myself desperately hoping that this game turns out to be great. Of course, this also means that I've got a huge amount of interest in any and all bits of footage that I can find relating to it.

In a livestream hosted by both Square Enix and Dengeki, the publisher demonstrated around 20 minutes of footage from the upcoming action RPG by PlatinumGames. Some of the areas on display in this stream may be familiar to people who have seen previous pieces of footage of the game, but it does give us a better look at its combat system -- and some larger enemy encounters -- nonetheless.

The gameplay itself is split up into separate chunks, so if you’re only interested in watching NieR: Automata in action, you should skip to 14:05 - 18:25, 19:45 - 24:35, 25:40 - 26:40, and 31:30 - 44:05. That last chunk of gameplay is particularly important because it shows off 2B’s ability to traverse the environment on the back of a moose. This is something that I feel should be included in every video game from this point onwards.

Here's 20 minutes of NieR: Automata gameplay and details of its PS4 Pro support screenshot

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News:: MLB and Disney pick up 'League of Legends' streaming rights

BAMTech, the Major League Baseball- and Disney-owned streaming tech company, has signed a deal with Riot Games for the rights to League of Legends tournaments.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the agreement calls for BAMTech to "pay a minimum $300 million through 2023" to Riot Games. In return, it'll get the exclusive rights to "stream and monetize" the company's popular multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA).

Source: The Wall Street Journal



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News:: There's a lot of fanfare in this Final Fantasy XV Holiday update, but no 60FPS patch confirmation

Okay Square, all of this holiday stuff sounds cute, but when are we getting the 60FPS PS4 Pro patch that was scheduled for December?

For those who are unaware, Square announced two Pro patches for this year. One would come around launch and add 4K and HDR support. The other would arrive in "December," and would add the coveted 60FPS option for Pro users. That will come in handy in the game's secret post-game dungeon (which I finished last weekend), among other sections. They're mum on all that though, as they just announced a special holiday pack and the New Game+ mode.

On December 22, Japan will get a patch that adds in New Game+, new photo frames, and season pass DLC, which includes costumes, items, and victory songs. Some of the pack is coming in late January along with the "Mog Choco Carnival." It's all fluff, but right now there's no confirmation on a western release for all this (it'll probably be on the same day, if not close by).

Final Fantasy XV [4Gamer via Siliconera]

There's a lot of fanfare in this Final Fantasy XV Holiday update, but no 60FPS patch confirmation screenshot

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News:: The Morning After: Friday December 16, 2016

Hey, it's Friday!

The weekend is almost here. We have luxury EVs, a gaming laptop that's ready for VR, and Nintendo's patent sketches tell us all about its incoming Switch console.



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News:: Nintendo sold 196,000 NES Classic Editions in November

The NES Classic Edition has become a tough gift to find during this holiday season. Cheers to those who've already located one (or two), but according to industry tracker NPD, Nintendo sold 196,000 pieces of nostalgia-bait to US customers between its launch and the end of November. Compare that to Media-Create's numbers, which showed Japanese sales of the Classic Mini Famicom surpassed 261k units in just one week. Clearly, the demand is there, but the question is if Nintendo will be able to make enough of the systems available before the holiday rush is over. (If it follows this up with an SNES Classic Edition, we'll probably be lining up all over again.)

Source: VentureBeat



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