Pokémon games heading to 3DS

Nintendo's Pokémon games have been one of its most successful franchises to date, and the games have had an especially large influence on the handheld market. But something Pokémon fans have really been waiting for is a new version, for the 3DS. On that note, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently told investors, “We are also developing Pokémon related products on the Wii and 3DS,” according to the Official Nintendo Magazine. When these games will be available though is anybody’s guess.

 

“NGP dead on arrival”

In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, Neil Young, the boss of ngmoco (one of the leading publishers of smartphone games), said that Sony's next generation portable (NGP) will be “dead on arrival”.

According to Young, Sony's new device simply won't be able to hold its own in a market heavily saturated by smartphone games, especially since many of the latest smartphones possess GPUs capable of some very impressive graphics.

“It's really difficult to compete with an app store that has hundreds of thousands of applications and a wide range of options where the average price paid is around $1.20 and there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of free applications that are really high quality,” Young said. It definitely seems like the future of handhelds may be limited, with at least a convergence between the game devices and smartphones needed if Sony and Nintendo plans to keep producing them. The NGP is due for release in Japan in late 2011.

 

 

Serious social gaming

When confronted with “casual gaming” or “social gaming”, most gamers tend to conjure up images of Facebook mini-games of dubious quality. However, developers Inemeri is planning to change this, with the release of its first title, “A Familiar World”. According to Kotaku, the game is aimed at bridging the gap between the casual space (those who just want to pick up and play), and the more dedicated gamers. 

Not much details are available surrounding what actually happens in the game yet, but we do now players must “explore this mysterious world with the help of your fiends and create your own epic tale.” The game is scheduled to be released in the middle of this year, and will be free-to-play, available in all PC internet browsers as well as the iPad and iPhone. Check out this video below for a sneak peak at the game.