M3: My Morning Musings – Activision Sales, Nintendo Not Done, & More

Activision revealed that their Skylanders and Call of Duty franchises continue to sell big for the company with Ghosts, the latest in the Call of Duty series, being the overall best selling title for December 2013. In addition, the game also is the number one seller on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Call of Duty was the #1 franchise for the fifth year in a row in both software units and dollars in the US market according to the NPD Group.

The companies other big title, Skylanders SWAP Force, was the second best selling title in December 2013 and the #1 best selling Kids Video Game for 2013. The last title in the franchise, Skylanders GIANTS was also in the top 5 of best selling Kids Video Games for 2013 too!

Not to be outdone, Disney Infinity is the tenth best selling game of 2013 according to the NPD Group with over 3 million in Starter Packs sold for the year.

MarvelousAQL, the Publisher in Europe, announced that Rune Factory 4 has been canceled for its Europe launch. The 3DS title has already been released in Japan and North America. Sadly, this follows the closure of Rune Factory 4 Developer Neverland due to bankruptcy. The game sold well enough for the series to continue but it is still troubling that our European friends don’t have a chance to get their hands on the title. In a statement, we learned:

“We regret to inform you that the European release of Rune Factory 4 for Nintendo 3DS has been canceled. While MarvelousAQL has made every effort to secure the title’s release for this territory, it is, unfortunately, not possible to do so at this time. MAQL and MAQL Europe would like to thank everyone for their support and enthusiasm for their European releases. Please look forward to announcements on new MAQL titles over the coming months.”

Youtubers can earn over $3,750 by marketing Xbox One and Machinima. However, there is a catch. You aren’t allowed to say anything negative or disparaging about Xbox One, its games, or Machinima in your video. Is it ethical to take money with rules like this? That is the question gamers need to ask when viewing videos, on youtube, about Machinima and Xbox One.

Though Nintendo has fallen on hard times with yet another quarterly loss, they aren’t getting out of the hardware business. Iwata issued a statement to put this topic to rest:

“The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles. It’s not that simple. It doesn’t mean that we should put Mario on smartphones. We promise to surprise game players in the future.”

So who is ready to be surprised? Hopefully as we get closer to E3, we will see some big announcements from Nintendo.

The Thief reboot is about a month away from release. As it draws near, details about the PC hardware requirements have come out. They are:

Minimum system requirements
Operating system: Windows Vista with platform update
CPU: High performance dual core, quad core CPU
RAM: 4GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon 4800 series, Nvidia GTS 250
DirectX: DirectX10
HDD/SSD: 20GB

Recommended specifications
Operating systems: Windows 7 or 8
CPU: AMD FX 8000 series or better, Intel i7 quad core CPU
RAM: 4+ GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD, R9 series or better, Nvidia GTX 660 series or better
DirectX: DirectX11
HDD/SSD: 20GB

Thief will also be coming out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in addition to its PC release on February 25.

An interesting new Kickstarter project is currently trying to reach $100,000 in funding to make it to market. Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham is a video game based on the story of Abraham and will feature you controlling one of his men. You can learn more about the project at their Kickstarter page.