NPD February 2012: United we stand

Folks, I'm gonna do you all a favor and get the NPD out of the way early. But before we do that, I got 2 things to get off my chest.

First off, to all you 3DS owners. SEGA has started releasing their Game Gear titles onto the 3DS's eShop. That means more than just gobs of Game Boy games and only 2 Game Boy Color games. But it seems SEGA did more than just release 3 games on there(Sonic Triple Trouble, Shinobi and Dragon Crystal)

With the arrival of a new system on the 3DS Virtual Console -- the Sega Game Gear -- comes a new hardware emulator. And the one Sega and developer M2 put together is really, really nice! Nicer than I'm used to for Virtual Console games, honestly, and including a full suite of tweaks and features.

Do you want to play your game inside a tiny 3D Game Gear? You can do that. Would you like said Game Gear to be a rare limited-edition color variant? You can totally do that too. Excited by the application of more than minimal effort toward the presentation of retro games, I recorded this quick video.


From changing the screensize, to the changing of the Game Gear colors, to blurs and switching from Special to Original Framerate, it's all at the tip of your fingers. Now that's one thing the Game Gear has over the Game Boy on Nintendo's turf.

From the 3DS to the PC, it seems Diablo has finally gotten a release date. Set your calendars, May 15th is when Diablo 3 becomes available.

Diablo III finally has a release date: May 15, 2012. World of Warcraft players looking to grab a copy of Diablo III for free can still sign up for the WoW Annual Pass and get all of the rewards until 12:01am on May 1, 2012. After May 1, the Annual Pass promotion will be ending, so sign up soon if you're interested.

If you managed to sign up for the WoW Annual Pass before May 1st, you get this game for free. There's a catch. You must have the pass for an entire year or you may lose the game altogether.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. It's time for the Top 10 games of February 2012.

01. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzzard
02. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3, 360)** Square Enix Inc.
03. UFC Undisputed 3 (360, PS3) THQ
04. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts - 330K
05. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3) Ubisoft
06. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PC, PS2) Take 2 Interactive
07. Soul Calibur V (360, PS3)** Namco Bandai Games
08. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)** Bethesda Softworks
09. Twisted Metal 2012 (PS3) Sony - 221K
10. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts

This time. We're gonna go from the bottom to the top. At number 10, EA's Battlefield still continues to cause gamers to rage. At number 9, the return of Twisted Metal. At number 8, gamers continue to Fus Ro Dah(Or battle the Macho Dragon) in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim(Though rumors of a Elder Scrolls MMO is floating around). Soul Calibur V sneaks in number 7 with NBA 2K12 at 6. Just Dance is dancing in number 5 with the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning at number 4. UFC is still rocking out at Number 3, while Final Fantasy XIII-2 is at number 2. But what's preventing Final Fantasy from being number 1 is Call of Duty, who continues to blast its way through the Top 10 again.

But what about the Hardware? How did the PS Vita do? Is it the savior of gaming?


Xbox 360 - 426K (-20.4%)
PlayStation 3 - 360K (-11%) (PR Math)
Nintendo 3DS - 262K
Nintendo Wii - 228K (-50%)
PlayStation Vita - 225K (PR Math)
Nintendo DS - 135K

Nope. Maybe not. The Vita only managed to outsell the original DS, which isn't close enough to dying yet. The Wii manages to edge that out with the 3DS infront. The PS3 is still above it while the 360 is still number 1. That being said, it seems hardware sales took a beating.

Will March help turn around gaming hardware, or did Apple's iPad 3 decided to play Mr Troll? Stay tuned. And keep your eyes out next week as I discuss World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.

Works Cited
Joystiq
WoW Insider(Joystiq)