Another week has come and gone, and it’s time again for our weekly Handheld Gaming News. And this time I write this to you from London, where we are spending a few days off.
For us in the Netherlands London is only a short hop away across the Channel. But what a different world it is, a city that’s so vibrant and with such special sights to see.
So here is London Calling, bringing you the Handheld Gaming News.
New Little King’s Story pulled from PlayStation Store
This snippet of news caught my eye simply because it’s one of the games I enjoyed a lot on my Wii: Little King’s Story. Now this version on the Vita is different, much less cutesy. If you are interested in playing it you will have to buy a used physical copy though.
Konami has announced it has pulled New Little King’s Story from the PlayStation Store. On April 20, 2018, it announced on its official website that the game and its DLC had been delisted on April 16, 2018. Online services will run for the game until May 20, 2018, at which point they will be shut down.
Shining Resonance Refrain RPG will come to Switch
Sega has announced that Shining Resonance Refrain will launch for Nintendo Switch in North America and Europe on July 10, 2018 for $49.99 and € 49,99. The original game was only ever released in Japan on the PlayStation 3.
This new edition remasters the original game and features dual audio with English and Japanese voices. In addition to all of the original’s DLC, now included as part of the base “Original Mode,” Shining Resonance Refrain packs a new “Refrain Mode,” unlocking the Imperial Princess Excella and Dragonslayer Jinas as party members for a new experience. The developers tell us to just be sure to save this for your second play-through.
Big in Japan in the PS Store
Victoria pointed me to the sales in the PS Store: Big in Japan with discounts up to 60%. In Europe there are some pretty sweet deals to be had for the PS4 but more importantly, for your Vita. They last until May 9 23.59 pm GMT.
Over in America the sales are called Golden Week, with sales up to 50%. These end on May 8 at 8:00am PT.
I’ve indulged in buying three titles to give a try. I’m not positive if I’ll like them but for that kind of money you can hardly go wrong. I mean, I got Suikoden II for € 2,99!
I’ve seen titles that I paid full price for, like Dragon Quest Builders 2 for € 23,99 and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth for € 7,99. Even Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory (for which Victoria made a review here) is there for the reduced price of € 24,99.
Check it out if your wallet can handle it. If not, I suggest you don’t look!
Nintendo will continue to support Pocket Camp
Nintendo intends to stick around when it comes to Pocket Camp, new event and more updates. It seems the game is very popular with middle aged women. What a surprise (insert cynical smiley). This is from their press release:
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was released in October of last year, and many people have played the game since then, especially adult women. Moving forward, we will make updates to add game content and continue to hold weekly events. Television commercials will air in Japan as well. We intend to continue to improve the service in ways that make the game more fun for consumers, all the while considering how this title contributes to revenue.
in Japan they aired two new trailers for the game. Check out the one below, where they teased us once again with a Switch version!
New president for Nintendo this June
Tatsumi Kimishima has been the president of Nintendo since former-president Satoru Iwata left this world all too soon. The announcement was made during a meeting of the board of directors that he’ll be retiring this June at 68 years old.
Replacing him will be Shuntaro Furukawa, who currently has various titles like Managing Executive Officer General Manager, Corporate Planning Department Supervisor of Corporate Analysis & Administration Division in charge of Global Marketing Department. Weird how that works at Nintendo. Luckily most of us only have one job!
Furukawa joined Nintendo back in 1994, and has been Outside Director of the Pokémon Company since 2012.
More management roles are changing. Satoru Shibata is leaving his role as president of Nintendo of Europe to take on a more global role at Nintendo Co. Ltd (NCL). They have also appointed two new members to the board in Yoshiaki Koizumi and Takashi Tezuka, replacing older managers who are retiring.
Koizumi has been called the architect behind the Switch and Tezuka most well known for producing entries in the Super Mario series. You know him from the latest Nintendo Directs, right?
More news on Nintendo Online soon
It’s been awhile since we heard something about the paid online Switch Service, that is still set for September 2018. During the Financial Briefing Nintendo mentioned that we will hear more at the beginning of May.
New record high in digital sales for the Nintendo eShop
Another snippet of news that interested me in Nintendo’s Financial Briefing was that digital sales through the eShop has reached an all-time high. Seems I’m not the online one who downloads more easily.
This is what Kimishima said:
This graph compares the sales of digital content through our dedicated video game platform business over the past few years. To reflect these changing circumstances, what we used to refer to as “download sales” are now called “digital sales.” Our digital sales reached a new record high in the fiscal year ended March 2018. We are not disclosing the specific breakdown, but downloadable versions of packaged software and add-on content for Nintendo Switch did make a major contribution to growth in digital sales. Note: FY = Fiscal year (April through March of the following year)
A new Nintendo mobile game coming
Nintendo has announced a partnership with Cygames. In summer of 2018, Nintendo will release Dragalia Lost, this time not with DeNA, but with Cygames.
It will be an all-new original action RPG application designed by Cygames for smart devices. Nintendo has been co-developing and will jointly operate the game with Cygames.
Check out the trailer, it looks good!
I guess that’s enough for this week.
Lots of Nintendo news because of the financial briefing, always interesting I think.
Thanks for reading and from a rainy London I wish you a very happy gaming weekend!
I am the lookout for RPGs on Switch, as Xenoblade never clicked with me. Shame that Dragalia Lost is mobile rather than a Switch title. On the plus side Shining Resonance looks promising.
Yeah, with all the new titles to the Switch there haven’t been many RPG. Pity, that!
It’s a shame I didn’t hear about the Little King’s Story dlc earlier so I could’ve bought it, not that they always give warnings.
There’s three JRPGs coming to the Switch in July! I should be able to get all of them, which to play first is another matter.
I’m not super interested in the mobile game, the girls’ designs look nice though.
So you have Little Kings Story on Vita, Paige? I tried it back then, but was expecting it to be more like the Wii version so I didn’t keep it.
Which three are coming, besides Shining Resonance Refrain?
Ys VIII and Octopath Traveller.
Oh yeah, the Octopath Traveler doesn’t really do it for me yet!