Month: April 2018

Nintendo today reported earnings for the latest fiscal year, and there was a few big pieces of news to share. First off, the Nintendo Switch has now sold 17.79 million units worldwide as of March 31, with some 68.97 million software units shipped for the same period.

Nintendo added that it predicts it will sell 20 million more Switch units this fiscal year and 100 million games for the same period. That’s a lot, and it speaks to Nintendo’s strong ambition for the year, which makes sense given a new Smash Bros. game is on the way.

Additionally, Nintendo announced that president Tatsumi Kimishima–who took over for Satoru Iwata after his passing–will retire on June 28. Replacing him is Shuntaro Furukawa, who previously held high-level titles across marketing and corporate planning among other things. Just 46 years old, Furukawa joined Nintendo in 1994.

In 2012, he became Outside Director for The Pokemon Company (which Nintendo has a stake in but does not own). In July 2015, he became general manager of corporate planning, and in June 2016, he became a Director, Managing Executive Officer, and Supervisor of Corporate Analysis & Administration. In September 2016, Furukawa was put in charge of Nintendo’s global marketing team.

Going back to the earnings report, Nintendo said it shipped a total of 15.05 million Switch units during the fiscal year ended March 31. Over that period, Super Mario Odyssey moved 10.41 million units, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe shifted 9.22 million copies. Splatoon 2 shipped 6.02 million copies during the fiscal year. Including games from other publishers, the Switch has 12 games that have sold more than 1 million units.

The 3DS stayed “solid” for Nintendo during the country, despite its age and going up against the Switch, Nintendo said. It sold 6.40 million units during the fiscal year, with Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon shipping 7.51 million units for the year. Life to date, the 3DS has now sold 72.53 million units, with some 364.89 million games sold.

Also in the report, Nintendo said digital sales were “very good,” specifically for Nintendo Switch. Digital sales on Switch made up ¥60.8 billion, rising 87 percent year-over-year. Another bright spot for Nintendo was the SNES Classic Edition, which Nintendo said “proved to be a hit in every region.” For the fiscal year, the SNES Classic sold 5.28 million units. Additionally, Amiibo sales improved during the fiscal year, with 10.3 million physical figures sold and 5.8 million cards. In terms of Nintendo’s smartphone business, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp shipped this fiscal year, and it–combined with Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes–helped “smart devices and IP related income” hit ¥39.4 billion, which is up 62 percent year-over-year.

Overall, Nintendo’s sales for the fiscal year ended March 31 came out to ¥1.05 trillion, up sharply from last year. Additionally, operating profit was 177.5 billion yen, which was also a significant increase from last year.

“Consumers have been very receptive to the new concept introduced by Nintendo Switch as a home gaming system that they can take with them to play anytime, anywhere, with anyone, which helped it maintain its favorable momentum during this fiscal year,” Nintendo said. “Looking ahead, we plan to leverage this momentum to reach an even broader range of consumers and expand the installed base of the hardware.”

We’ll have more from Nintendo’s earnings report in the days ahead.

The newest Avengers movie, Infinity War, is in theatres now. If you’ve seen the film and stayed for the credits (as you should, this being a Marvel movie and all), you might have noticed that the credits include mention of a “character from Arrested Development.”

Yes, really. We’ve seen the film and can confirm the Arrested Development credits reference, but can’t say for sure which character is referenced. Either way, it’s pretty cool to know there is a cheeky reference to a funny show from Fox hidden within a massive Disney movie.

Anthony Russo told HelloGiggles that direhard Arrested Development fans will see it on their first viewing, though he said you’ll need to pay “careful attention” to notice it.

Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo directed multiple episodes of Arrested Development, so it’s not completely out of left field. Also, they included an Arrested Development reference in Captain America: Civil War, so this is expected at this point.

GameSpot’s Infinity War review praised the superhero film.

“Marvel has accomplished something truly incredible here, although at this point it’s no more than the absurdly high quality bar Marvel fans have come to expect,” reviewer Michael Rougeau said. “It’s been a long road getting here, but it was worth it.”

Infinity War is expected to make an incredible amount of money for its opening, potentially enough to make it one of the most successful openings in the history of film.

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The Simpsons continues to set records. Fox’s hit animated show has now passed Gunsmoke for the most number of episodes for a prime time scripted TV series. Sunday’s episode was the show’s 636th, surpassing Gunsmoke, which had 635 episodes during its 20-year run.

Executive producer and showrunner Al Jean told the NY Post about the milestone, “We never dreamed we’d get this far.”

Gunsmoke aired from 1955 to 1975, while The Simpsons has been on TV for almost 29 years now, having debuted in December 1989.

The Simpsons has generated some controversy of late regarding the character Apu and his portrayal on the show in the wake of a documentary that criticized the character. In response to this, Apu voice actor Hank Azaria has said he is willing to step aside.

The Simpsons is currently in its 29th season and has already been renewed for Season 30. When The Simpsons was renewed, Fox released a statement (via Variety) quoting Homer Simpson as saying, “Take that, Gunsmoke! You lost a race you didn’t even know you were running!”

A new update is update has been released for Monster Hunter World on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It addresses some of the action game’s lingering bugs related to quests and weapon stats, among other things. This is patch 3.02 on PS4 and 3.0.0.2 on Xbox One.

Specifically, the patch fixes a bug related to the Kulve Taroth Siege quest line the mission would not play out as intended in some cases. If you ran into this issue, you can go back to Astera and speak to the Admiral; this should trigger the Kulve Taroth Siege as intended.

Today’s Monster Hunter World patch also fixes a problem with the Wyvern Ignition sword’s “Impact” attack’s value dropped to 240 instead of 510. Finally, the update addresses bugs related to First Wyverian such as weapon usage, how many monsters you’ve killed, and more.

You can see the full patch notes and Capcom’s explanations for each below, as posted on the developer’s blog.

In other Monster Hunter World news, Capcom has announced the second round of its Street Fighter crossover event. This time, players will be able to embark on a Challenge Quest to acquire a set of Sakura armor, and as before, it will only be available in the game for a limited time. You can get all of the important information about the event here in GameSpot’s previous coverage.

Monster Hunter: World Patch Notes:

Kulve Taroth Quest Line:

• Fixed a bug where the Kulve Taroth Siege quest line would not progress correctly under certain conditions (specifically: if you speak to the Admiral out in the field when participating in another player’s instance of the “A Wound and a Thirst” or similar quests, after having collected Kulve Taroth traces but BEFORE having spoken to him separately in Astera). Players who have encountered this bug already can return to Astera and speak with the Admiral, triggering the council scene, after which the Kulve Taroth Siege will become available.

Great Sword Wyvern Ignition “Impact”:

• Fixed a bug where the great sword Wyvern Ignition “Impact” saw its fire elemental attack value unintentionally reduced to 240. The value has been reset to 510. The armor skill “Free Element/Ammo Up” is still a requirement for unlocking the fire elemental attack of this weapon.

First Wyverian Statistics:

• Fixed some bugs in the data collection for the statistical summaries given to you by speaking to the First Wyverian (weapon usage, number of monsters slain, etc.). Data will be progressively reset starting on April 26. For the duration, the First Wyverian will not give out any statistical information, but this should not affect gameplay in any other way. Please note that the statistical data may be low in accuracy for a short time after the process has finished.