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The 2D, Metroid-inspired adventure Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope has received a $60,000 Wii U stretch goal now that its Kickstarter has surpassed the $15,000 goal for Mac and PC versions.

Ghost Song will take place on Lorian V, a moon riddled with the mutated corpses and ghosts of past explorers. Ghosts are freed from existence once their physical remains are destroyed, a mercy the game's protagonist is determined to distribute.

Ghost Song Lead Matt White cites Super Metroid as an influence to its gameplay and Dark Souls as a reassurance that hiding interesting areas behind trick walls is actually okay. Despite the latter influence, the game's Kickstarter page describes a "tough but fair" mentality with "optional areas that may be a bit harder."

At the time of this writing, Ghost Song has obtained $22,618 of its initial $15,000 goal. The Kickstarter campaign will conclude on September 4.

Since Sam Fisher's job is to take down an untouchable international shadow cartel and the lethal knowledge it holds, we're pretty impressed this Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer can condense everything he needs to know into about seven minutes of AR cellphones and stealth takedowns.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the company's chief differentiator is its invention and introduction of hardware and software, and how having those different teams under the same umbrella.

"What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software - by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other," Iwata tells CVG.

This approach, Iwata says, has cemented fandom in Nintendo's lineup of franchises. And why not offer Nintendo games on competing platforms? With such a stable of system sellers at its disposal, Iwata thinks it'd be short-sighted for Nintendo to offer its games elsewhere.

If he wasn't "concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all," Iwata says putting Nintendo games on other systems may lead to "some short-term profit." Ultimately, it's Iwata's responsibility for the long-term that prevents him from ever "providing our precious resources for other platforms at all."

Iwata, who this year took on the role of Nintendo of America CEO in addition to his duties as company president, got his start at Nintendo as a programmer for HAL Laboratory, the outfit responsible for creating Kirby, the Mother series (Earthbound) and the Super Smash Bros. franchise. He has served as president of Nintendo since 2002.

CastleStorm may be approaching the gates of Wii U, PS3, and Vita after being listed for the three platforms by German ratings board USK. Zen Studios' eclectic fusion of Angry Birds and tower defense has already hurled itself at XBLA, Windows 8, and Steam this year.

Zen didn't deny the Wii U port when asked by Nintendo Everything, telling the site it intends "to bring CastleStorm to as many platforms as possible." The Hungarian studio has plenty of experience with the newly listed systems, having sprung Marvel Pinball, Star Wars Pinball, and Zen Pinball 2 upon all three in recent years. Also, as evidenced by Marvel's Pinball's appearance on seven platforms to date, Zen is fond of the odd port or two.

Spotted by the fine folks over at Vooks, the above drawing, seen in JB Hi-Fi just perfectly illustrates one of the biggest challenges Nintendo has with the perennially struggling Wii U: the mainstream audience that adored the Wii simply doesn’t know that the Wii U exists. And, if they are aware of its existence, they find it difficult to tell the difference between the two.Read more...

Disney Interactive reported an operating income loss of $58 million in Q3 2013, 38 percent greater than the loss in 2012's third quarter (operating income measures money brought in after costs, but before taxes). Disney's video game arm brought in revenue of $183 million this quarter, down 7 percent from last year. At least Disney Interactive is consistent.

Disney attributed the losses to the lack of new consoles on the market and a decrease in its social games sector following an acquisition in Q3 2012. The decreases were offset by growth at Disney's Japan mobile business, the company said.

The financial report doesn't mention April's closure of LucasArts or its imminent Disney Infinity series, which takes a page out of Activision's Skylanders playbook.

Go to 22:48 of this video from Nintendo Europe and you will see that, for 160 seconds, the Wii U suddenly seems like a burgeoning indie gaming paradise.Read more...

Following this morning's announcement, I downloaded Nintendo's Animal Crossing Plaza app to my Wii U to see what I could see. Animals, mostly. Some of them even crossed. Read more...

When it got delayed earlier this year, Rayman Legends became a symbol of the agonizing plight of the Wii U owner. It was cruel to hear a game that folks were holding out for would be going to competing consoles. But now, there’s a little reward for Nintendo loyalists that PS3 and 360 owners won’t be getting: the ability to dress up as Mario and Luigi. Read more...

Nintendo's latest stab at improving the messaging around the Wii U involves jokes. Everyone likes jokes!Read more...

Improbably dressed heroes battle armies of deadly critters this week in Dragon's Crown.

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Square-Enix's latest financial numbers (PDF) are a bit mixed. The publisher posted a loss for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014, but said loss is an improvement over the loss posted during the same period last year. Specifically, Square-Enix posted net sales of 24 billion yen ($245.3 million), down from 24.9 billion yen ($253.7 million) during Q1 last year. The company recorded a net loss of 493 million yen ($5 million) an improvement over last year's loss of 2 billion yen ($21.1 million).

Outside of Square-Enix's overall performance, the Digital Entertainment arm of the company (i.e. video games) showed some growth, with net sales of 11.5 billion yen ($118 million) and an operating income of 1.3 billion yen ($13.4 million), up from sales of 11.3 billion yen ($115 million) and a 111 million yen ($1.1 million) operating loss last year. Even so, Square-Enix cited "weak" sales of console games, as no major titles were released during its first quarter. Meanwhile, its browser and smartphone titles have been making "smooth progress" and the Wii MMO Dragon Quest X "has been showing steady performance."

The financial statement reiterated comments from earlier this year - when the company posted a $134 million loss - noting the rapid spread of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, while the console game market becomes increasingly competitive. These changes have already led to major restructuring, in particular a lot of executive shuffling.

Check out this footage of the upcoming Sonic Lost World, which is headed to the Wii U and the 3DS this October. Read more...

Going to PAX Prime? The organizers of the annual Seattle show, which runs from August 30 through September 2, have just posted the full schedule online and it's a doozy.

Peter Molyneux's story time session will kick off the show on Friday morning. Other notable panels cover how Naughty Dog pitched The Last of Us, a roundtable with Grifball experts, a Firaxis Games talk and the requisite games journalism panels that happen every year. Then there's the PAX 10, a gathering of ten top indie games as chosen by 50 industry experts, which will be showcased on the floor.

It's going to be a hectic show, so you'd best start combing through the packed schedule if you're planning on spending that long weekend bumping elbows with your fellow enthusiasts in Seattle.

Pikmin 3 is good at many things. But it's not so good at explaining the best parts of its control scheme or even how to have the most fun with Nintendo's new game. Thank goodness we're here to provide you some tips...Read more...

With Pikmin 3 releasing today, now's as good a time as any to catch up on the history and trivia behind this series—including its origins as a GameCube tech demo, its influence on Super Mario Galaxy, and the fact Nintendo crossbred a new flower variety (Bacopa Cabana) to promote it. [Did You Know Gaming?]Read more...

A pitch reel from Imagi Animation Studios for a CGI The Legend of Zelda film, proposed in early 2007 and subsequently turned down, has made its way online. It was supervised, shot and edited by animator Adam Holmes, who thankfully posted it to his online portfolio for us all to see - well, not here. Embedding has been disabled on the video.

Imagi Animation Studios, formed in 2000, is the outfit that produced TMNT, the studio's first major feature release. Two years later, Imagis followed up TMNT with Astro Boy, which reportedly lost money on its initial $65 million production budget.

In his keynote speech at QuakeCon this week, id Software's John Carmack revealed that the company is "extremely unlikely" to pursue software development for the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Wii U, and the PlayStation Vita platforms, citing issues with publisher acceptance and adoption rates.

"I always thought that the Wii U and Vita would be great targets for Doom 3: BFG Edition," Carmack explained. "We should be able to bring that over directly, but [the platforms have] generated nothing for us on the publishing side of things, because they're somewhat marginalized platforms."

"Clearly there's a difference on the handheld platforms," Carmack continued. "While the 3DS is doing okay, the Vita's really not doing particularly well."

"A lot of that has to come from the fact that [...] everybody is carrying a pretty good gaming platform already, and selling a new one to them is a little bit of a harder sell," Carmack said, referring to the widespread adoption of smartphones.

"I'd love to be able to develop on the 3DS and some of the other small platforms," Carmack said. "I'd like to see the games show up on the Vita or the Wii U, just to play with some of the characteristics they've got there, but it's extremely unlikely to happen. There's a finite amount of time and only so many things we can focus on."

Pikmin 3's timed missions are tough, even in co-op. Here's one of the early ones. Kotaku's Steve Marinconz and I had just seven minutes to slay a mighty monster. Could we do it?Read more...

Brand confusion has long been an issue for the Wii U. Thanks to the confusing name and the similarities between the look of Nintendo's newest console and their last one, some have mistaken the Wii U for a Wii accessory. This certainly can't help.Read more...

There's never enough Monster Hunter to go around in Japan, where PS3 and Wii U owners now have their sights locked on the newly-announced G ports of Monster Hunter Frontier. Capcom released a new trailer showcasing a few of the massive beasties awaiting intrepid explorers of Monster Hunter Frontier G, which in addition to new monsters serves up fresh armor, quests, weaponry, and weapon actions.

Frontier G launches in Japan on November 20 for PS3, and December 11 for Wii U. Monthly fees are required but the game download is free, with physical copies going for ¥6,090 ($62).

Nintendo has been fighting an uphill battle with the Wii U. To say sales have not been good is a bit of an understatement. But the news is not all doom and gloom, and Nintendo's dandy helmsman, Satoru Iwata is ever optimistic.Read more...

Nintendo is the Willy Wonka chocolate factory of the gaming world.

The products that roll out of Nintendo's doors are whimsical and wildly different than what leaves Microsoft or Sony's factories. Nintendo creates games and consoles in a secret vacuum of ergonomic white walls and strict NDAs, with rooms populated by fantastical creatures and short, foreign men with mustaches and overalls.

At least, that's an apt analogy that one developer recently made about Nintendo, the company's Business Development Manager, Dan Adelman, tells me. He's Nintendo's indie outreach specialist, and for years he's been scouting potential developers for Wii, 3DS and Wii U, and he's been a part of the company's recent evolution into what he hopes is a more open, transparent distributor.

Picture Willy Wonka's glass elevator.

"Historically, Nintendo has seemed kind of hard to approach, kind of like there's a closed system where if a developer already knows somebody at Nintendo or has some kind of 'in,' they're in, but otherwise there's no way to interface with the company," Adelman says. "I think we're putting a lot of effort into changing that and making ourselves more accessible, so I really want to make sure that people realize that it's actually pretty easy now - and we're trying to make it easier - to work with us and release games on our systems."

If Adelman is Wonka, he wants every developer to get a Golden Ticket.

Nintendo will add the ability to purchase eShop games on PCs and smartphones, according to Nintendo's Business Development Manager Dan Adelman.

While Adelman tells Joystiq he's not "personally directly involved" with the project, he confirmed that players will be able to "log onto the site and set [purchases] up for download so that once they get home, it'll be available for them and they can have that at their fingertips whenever they need it."

Adelman's confirmation follows a NicoNico report with translation provided by Siliconera that notes the system will be open to PC and smartphone users later this year.

Capcom has posted its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014 calendar, and despite continued strong sales of its Resident Evil 5 pachislo machine, overall profits are down. When compared to the same period last year, profits were down by 37 percent: ¥828 million ($8.4 million) in Q1 2014 vs. ¥1.32 billion ($13.4 million) in Q1 2013. The report says that these results are "generally in line with the fiscal year targets," which predict profits of ¥6.8 billion ($69.1 million) for the year in total.

Capcom's major releases for the three month period ending June 30 were the console/PC ports of Resident Evil: Revelations, and pseudo-expansion/rerelease Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Revelations performed best at retail out of the two, selling 900,000 units worldwide since the game's release on May 21 in North America. Meanwhile, Dark Arisen has sold 550,000 units since its release on April 23.

The document made only brief mention of recent layoffs at the company, saying that "reorganization (development, overseas subsidiaries) is now under way in association with the prior year's business structural improvements." This was listed under "Growth Strategy Initiatives," which is business-speak for "How We're Going to Get Dat Paper." This subsection also contained the document's sole mention of Monster Hunter 4's impending September 14 release in Japan.

In related news, Capcom appears to have invented a time-travel device, as it also plans on releasing a Devil May Cry 4-themed pachislo machine this September.

I can't review Pikmin 3 just once. I won't. I'm going to review it seven times.Read more...

Capcom will bring Monster Hunter Frontier G to PS3 and Wii U later this year, according to a translation of the latest issue of Famitsu by Siliconera. The MMO is an update to 2007's Monster Hunter Frontier, which is already available for Xbox 360 and PS3. Those two platforms should have recently received an update to Monster Hunter Frontier G2, according to the game's preview site. Even though the game will eventually be the same across all four platforms, PS3 and Wii U versions will have separate servers from PC and Xbox 360.

Like Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Frontier G will be compatible with the Wii U's Game Pad and Pro Controllers. However, Siliconera notes that it will not make use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk control configuration. Frontier G will be available as a free download with physical copies available for 6,090 yen ($62), and will require monthly fees. The game will launch on November 20 for PS3 and December 11 on Wii U.

It's no secret that the Wii U is struggling. However, the extent of which the console is struggling might surprise you.Read more...

Despite a 3.8 percent year-on-year drop in revenue, Nintendo posted a healthy ¥8.62 billion net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, or just under $88 million. However, the concern for the company must be the new low Wii U shipments dropped to . The console only shifted 160,000 units across the three months, less than half the figure of the previous quarter, leaving it at 3.61 million shipped to date.

Nintendo attributed the Q1 net profit to substantial currency exchange gains due to the depreciating value of the yen, although it also noted better profitability on 3DS hardware contributed to increased gross profit. Nintendo forecasts its net profit to rise to ¥55 billion by the end of the fiscal year, around $562 million.

The Wii U, which Nintendo noted still sells at a loss, struggled severely, as did its games with just over 1 million software units shifted worldwide in the three months ending in June 2013. Nintendo put its poor performance down to "few key first-party titles this quarter to strongly drive the hardware sales," and reiterated its intent to amend that in the second half of 2013 and through to next year. Nintendo still forecasts 9 million Wii U shipments across the fiscal year of April 2013 to March 2014.

News is rosier on Nintendo's portable side, with the 3DS shipping 1.4 million hardware units and just over 11 million software units in Q1. A significant contributor to the software numbers was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which after coming to the west this summer added just over 1.5 million to the 3 million shipped in the last fiscal year. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was another important asset, shipping 1.43 million units across the quarter.

Finally, the Wii reached a significant landmark, shipping a further 210,000 units worldwide to take it to the 100 million mark.