News

I think many of you have been waiting for this day for a long time - the 2015 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) - to see what new additions to the gaming world we can spot. One of the games I was expecting the most was No Man's Sky - a virtually infinite universe filled with billions of worlds waiting to be explored.

Very few individuals have their named stamped on the video game industry; Iwata is one of the few. He was known by almost everyone, whether they owned a Nintendo system or not. While many questioned the direction he was taking Nintendo since the announcement of the WII U, it is still hard to argue that he was not a major innovative player in the video games industry.

Although Nintendo has been pretty quiet at retail, they want to remind consumers that there is still plenty going on in the Nintendo Universe. Below is an update from Nintendo - provided by their PR company - on a few of the things happening this summer!

The rising price of AAA video games at Canadian retail locations is making me wonder something: how long can consumers continue to pay the high price of games? Best Buy Canada and Amazon Canada have been offering a bunch of pre-order incentives for games announced at E3 2015. With a 5-10$ discount, these retailers are charging 64.99 - 69.99; that means the regular price on these titles is 74.99 - 79.99. With a 13% sales tax in Ontario, that means a brand new AAA tilte at full cost could set back consumers 90.00, or roughly 1/5 the price of an Xbox One or PS4.

Go ahead and place me in the crowd of folks happy to see backwards compatibility come to the Xbox One. I fully believe it should have been there from the beginning, and now that it is here, my available game library has grown by a few titles. There is just one, general problem: is backwards compatibility merely a great marketing tool for Microsoft going forward, or will people take advantage of this when it launches in December?

Skylanders has been insanely successful as a franchise, and really is the catalyst that brought us Disney Infinity and amiibo. While most people never assumed we would see any crossover between these competitors, Nintendo and Activision surprised is and announced the contrary at E3.

If you have played the Witcher 3 you no doubt have spent numerous hours battling various NPC's in games of Gwent. You've probably also said, "Man, I wish I could play against my friends on PSN or Xbox Live." While that feature could be coming in the future - at least we hope so - you can now play Gwent OUTSIDE of the Wticher 3.

Great news to all Xbox users as next week we get Microsoft's Ultimate Game Sale. It kicks off on July 7 and runs until July 13, 2015. There aren't complete details just yet and more to come as we get the news but this offer will bring us the best deals of the summer. Discounts of up to 50% on over 70 games across both Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A nice little bonus is added as well if you are an Xbox live Gold Member with an additional up to 10% off savings.

A new Kings Quest title is here, and although it seems to veer away from the point and click game play from the original, the game still looks fantastic. For 9.99 an episode, or 39.99 for the season pass - which includes all episodes plus a bonus epilogue - is available for preorder on Xbox One and 360, PS4 and PS3, and PC. The first episode will be availabe for everything except the Microsoft consoles on July 28th (a day later, July 29 on Xbox One and 360).

At the 2015 NHL Awards in Las Vegas last week we saw the announcement to have two NHL stars displayed on the latest NHL game coming out this September. With the dominance that the Chicago Blackhawks have had over the last six years it was only fitting to put their Captain Jonathan Toews and elite star Patrick Kane on the cover holding the Stanley Cup.