Here’s a bit of news you might have missed a week or so ago. The Nintendo Switch has sold 10 million units in the 9 months since its release along with a successful launch in South Korea not long ago. Here’s another bit of news you might have missed; Goldman Sachs just changed Activision’s (ATVI) status from “hold” to “buy”.

Are these two events unrelated or is there something going on in the background, something only investors and industry insiders know about?

THE TIMELINE

December 10th – Nintendo announces 10 million Switch consoles sold worldwide in 9 months

December 12th – Goldman Sachs upgrades Activision’s status to “buy” from “hold”.

LOCK, STOCK

Goldman Sachs’ Christopher Merwin seems to believe that Activision’s stock will keep rising due to the possibility of future releases like a Diablo sequel and Overwatch 2, along with a Blizzard mobile game. But is this really the only reason he did that? Are you telling me this expert analyst is basing their whole evaluation on games that have not been acknowledged at all and might not even be in development yet?

MONEY TALKS AND APPARENTLY SINGS

The timing is not a coincidence. Activision has major titles in development for the Nintendo Switch and the news of 10 million consoles sold is music to investor’s ears. There is an obvious connection between the boost the stock of these two companies got 2 days apart from each other.

EVERCHANGING INDUSTRY

In the past we reported that according to our sources, Call of Duty WWII was in development for the Nintendo Switch and would have come out Nov. 3rd 2017. That didn’t happen. A lot of it had to do with Nintendo’s sudden decision to push their subsciption-based online service to launch in January 2018 and the fact that things change rapidly in the gaming industry. The game that was rumoured to be in development for Switch might be scrapped altogether.

All I know is that with these numbers and the correlation between Nintendo’s success and Activision’s stock jump, Call of Duty is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Whether we will finally see a surprise announcement of the rumored game in Nintendo’s January Direct Presentation or a new game later in Spring 2018, Call of Duty will blow up on the Switch, no matter what. It’s just a matter of time.

UPDATE (Sep. 9th, 2018): Diablo III was announced for Switch recently, just like analysts predicted. Still think there’s no chance for CoD on Switch?

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Upfall Studios is the indie game studio behind Quest of Dungeons. If you’re not familiar with it, you should definitely check out our review of the Nintendo Switch version. Spoiler alert, the game’s amazing.

Based in Portugal, Upfall Studios is basically comprised of one person; David Amador. As the developer’s website puts it:

“…making games the old fashioned way, a team of one person, a few ideas, and a lot of love”.

That “love” you’re talking about seeps through to the final product. A lot of passion and hard work went into Quest of Dungeons and it shows. How long did it take you to get from that initial idea to releasing the game on the first of many platforms?

Thank you. I tried my best to make something players would like. The initial idea came around 2012 and went back and forth for a couple months and after a few failed attempts, I eventually locked the general idea and went into full development at the beginning of 2013. The iOS and PC version was released on March 2014.

Speaking about platforms, did you ever expect your game to be released on so many consoles/mobile devices or was the initial vision smaller?

It never crossed my mind no, and it’s strange because for my previous games I had that bigger vision, PC and consoles, but it never worked, so for this one I had zero expectations. Quest of Dungeons was initially made as a tablet-only game because of the bigger screen, but eventually I saw people seemed to like it, so I started remaking the gameplay and UI for other platforms. One of the reasons why the game has been ported over time instead of a more simultaneous release, was because I had never planned for so many versions, so it took more time.

In your bio you mention that you’ve been making games since 2006. What are some other projects you worked on? Did any of them influence your artistic vision for Quest of Dungeons?

In 2006 I joined a game studio as a junior and worked on a couple of games there. Unfortunately none were ever released because of publishing deals even though two or three were actually finished. When the studio closed, I decided I wanted to actually make and release a game, so I decided to go indie. From that time the most influential things that I learned were making my own tools and trying to think smaller instead of having a big scope, so that I could actually finish making the game.

What are some of the less-obvious influences for Quest of Dungeons?

Perhaps 100 Rogues, which is a great roguelike mobile game, super fun and fast to play. Many people can spot it but also Diablo and horror B-movies for the story part, the shopkeeper is an homage to Resident Evil 4.

Who is responsible for the music and sound effects of Quest of Dungeons? Did you record any of the creature voices on your own?

The music is from Aaron Krogh. I made many of the sounds effects but some other effects were licensed; for example the death voice you hear on the game over screen is my own voice distorted with some filters and mixed in with other elements. There are also a couple of sound effects that I recorded and tweaked with Audacity.

The latest version of Quest of Dungeons is the Nintendo Switch version. Was Nintendo easier to work with than the Wii U era? Do you think they’re more open to indies nowadays?

During the Wii U era Nintendo it was already very open to indie developers. They had a program where anyone that could use Unity or HTML5 could get onboard and start making games, so I think they are continuing to support indies with Switch as they were before and we’ve seen that also in the Nintendo Directs they are making and all the support to indies. So yeah, they are very interested in working with indie developers. Personally they were super helpful. When I joined for 3DS/Wii U versions I had zero idea of the process or how to port the game and they helped with all my questions and the process.

When I played Quest of Dungeons on Switch, it felt like a perfect fit. In TV mode or handheld, the game feels good as a home console game and as a portable one. What are some of the challenges you faced when porting to the Nintendo Switch?

Because of the various versions I had most of the potential problems already covered so this port was really smooth. The only thing that took me a bit more time was to accommodate the game and UI to respond properly to switching between 720p and 1080p at any time, but even that wasn’t that tricky. Overall, this was the fastest and easiest version to work with.

Are you satisfied with the sales of the Switch version?

Yes, I am. The game has been out for a bit over a month now, and I can say that right now it’s
already the top selling console version. Thank you to everyone who supported the launch.

Can you please give us a hint on what you’re working on at the moment?

Well I’m not trying to be mysterious on purpose or trying not to reveal anything, but the truth is
that I’m still experimenting with things to decide the best path to follow.

This last question is a weird one…. do Switch dev kits really come in Mario ‘?’ blocks? Or is that a rumour?

That is a cool rumor right? Does that seem like something Nintendo would do?

Quest of Dungeons is out now on Windows, Linux, Mac, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, 3DS, Wii U, iOS and Android. We played it and it’s great!

The post An interview with the man behind Quest of Dungeons appeared first on BadFive.

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Upfall Studios (David Amador)
Type of game: turn-based dungeon crawler with procedurally generated dungeons
Players: single-player
File size: 72.0 MB

We are giving away this game for free to one of our readers!!! You can enter the draw by participating on Twitter or on Facebook

If you’re looking for a challenging game that doesn’t feel riddled with cheap deaths and artificial difficulty, then Quest of Dungeons is for you. Without spoiling the story, you take control of one of four characters to defeat the evil boss located at the end of each dungeon. The adventure is filled with funny references and jokes that keep the game from feeling stale or rushed. It is obvious from the beginning that a lot of passion and hard work went into making Quest of Dungeons.

On the gameplay side of things, as mentioned above, the game is turn-based. That means that every action you take it counts as a turn. If you walk, attack or use a potion, an enemy can also take his turn and attack or move closer to you. This helps out when you need time to think of a plan in order to get out of a sticky situation. You can remain stationary, decide the best course of action and then calmly execute your plan. Like chess, but with fireballs and lots of slaying.

You need to be careful, though. You can save your progress while in a dungeon but if you die, your death is permanent and you need to restart the dungeon from the beginning. This is where the game really shines though. No matter how many times you replay a dungeon, the map, doors, keys, enemy placement and quests will be completely different each time. The only common thing between them will be the final boss. This procedural generation of dungeons keeps you coming back for more and keeps you hooked during your playthroughs. Make no mistake, you will die plenty of times, but it will be even more rewarding when you start getting the hang of it after 20 minutes.

The four available difficulties are Easy, Normal, Hard and Hell. There are subtle changes that come with each difficulty, like more enemies in each room, but to be honest I didn’t get far on the last two options to find out more. But I will someday, because this game is just fun to ‘git gud’ at.

The 4 characters available to players in the beginning are Warrior, Wizard, Assassin and Shaman, with a 5th unlockable one which I won’t reveal here. Each character has their own special ability or spell they can use and you can find more spells to learn spread throughout the dungeons. You can also find new gear, weapons, potions, food or buy them from the merchant available in each floor.

On the audio/visual front, Quest of Dungeons hits every mark. It manages to capture the 16-bit retro look with incredible charm, with neat effects, explosions, blood spatter and a great character design. I didn’t notice any hiccups and the game ran smoothly during my 7-hour playthrough. The sound effects do their job and fit the game’s atmosphere but the soundtrack is what will definitely catch your attention. The music tracks that play during your dungeon crawling, perfectly set a mysterious, suspenseful mood. The tune that plays when you’re near a merchant sounds a bit like The Doors’ ‘Break on Through (To the Other Side)’, which is a huge plus for me personally.

Quest of Dungeons is an eShop gem. You will get your money’s worth and then some. It controls like a charm, plays like a dream and is extremely fun to play, especially in handheld mode, in bed, after a long day. Do yourself a favour and give it a shot. I can’t recommend it enough.

It is available now on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $8.99. The review code was provided by Upfall Studios.

We are giving away this game for free to one of our readers!!! You can enter the draw by participating on Twitter or on Facebook

The post Quest of Dungeons Review – Switch eShop appeared first on BadFive.

The search for information about the Nintendo Switch version of Call of Duty WWII takes me everywhere. This time, it brought me to the forums of a French gaming news website jeuxvideo.com. At the time of writing this I have not been able to confirm any of these claims, so take the pictured comments with a grain of salt.

(Bad Google translation follows)

#1

Activision would work on a new call of duty exclusively on switch. We would have a multiplayer mode has 4 players locally and 16 if you have multiple switch (2 per console max). The game would happen during World War II a bit like WWII but with exclusive content like the battles during the Korean War. The online could accommodate 32 players per game.
An adventure mode where one would play an American during the whole 2nd World War + the Korean War would last 30 hours of game with cinematic.

The game would be released between 2018 and 2019.

So it would be a comeback to this strong license of activision

#2

When asked “Source?”, the user answers:

I can not really tell you but Nico Augusto would have talked to me via Skype and it proved to me that the game really exists via the arrival of another person but I can not tell you more.

MY TAKE

While I do believe some of the information here may be partially true, the alleged “30 hours of gameplay” makes me skeptical of the validity of this information. Maybe this person didn’t hear correctly? Call of Duty campaigns are always roughly around 8 hours.

I contacted the user who posted this as well as the person mentioned as a source, who I believe to be Nico Augusto, the independent developer responsible for the promising Seasons of Heaven, which aims for a Switch release. They did not respond to my enquiries.

What do you think? Is there any truth to these claims? Nintendo isn’t done with its 2017 surprises.

The post Call of Duty WWII on Switch – the latest chatter appeared first on BadFive.

Call of Duty WWII is on its way to becoming one of the biggest games of the year. We previously reported on the possibility of it coming to the Nintendo Switch but E3 came and went, with plenty of surprises, yet no Switch WWII was announced.

Instead, what we got was more confusion, secrecy and hints at something going on behind the scenes.

A birdie told me

It all started when the co-lead developer from Sledgehammer Games, Michael Condrey, tweeted the following response to an eager fan:



The gaming media went wild. Surely this is a confirmation that Call of Duty isn’t coming to Switch, right? Nope. Notice the careful wording he uses, instantly transferring the heat to Activision. As previously reported on BadFive, Beenox is said to be behind the Switch version of WWII. SH Games and Michael Condrey are not at liberty to comment on the business side of Activision things. It’s not their job or their place, hence the careful statement.

Not long after Condrey’s tweet, Robert Workman from comicbook.com published an article detailing his phone conversation with an Activision representative, who asked to remain anonymous, where the following statement was made:

I contacted Mr. Workman, asking about the nature of the phone call and he confirmed that he verified the rep’s credentials. He also mentioned that this representative contacted them to specifically comment on their earlier article regarding Condrey’s tweet and asked to remain anonymous.

Lest we forget

Still with me? Good, because this is where the plot thickens.

The past 3 versions of Call of Duty skipped Nintendo consoles. In the past, when a Call of Duty game would not come out on Nintendo consoles, Activision made a press release stating that fact loud and clear. They haven’t done that for WWII. What we got instead are vague statements and reps hiding behind anonymity.

Not only does this look suspicious based on the leaks we previously reported on, but it also points to the existence of a non-disclosure-agreement (NDA) between Nintendo and Activision. Hints of this NDA surfaced when one source contacted a Beenox employee asking about CoD WWII on Switch.

The Nintendo Switch is selling like hotcakes with the company’s stock prices rising following strong sales and big E3 announcements. That’s a fact. Activision would be stupid not to put their biggest game on the hottest hardware of the year. The leaks, the vagueness, the anonymity and the lack of an official press release are all signs that Activision/Nintendo are saving Call of Duty WWII on Switch as a surprise announcement for the future. Let’s not forget, Gamescom is just around the corner.

Nintendo’s decision to push back their paid online subscription to 2018 instead of Fall 2017 may have something to do with the Call of Duty uncertainty. It wouldn’t be surprising if Call of Duty WWII launches later on Switch, in the beginning of 2018, away from Super Mario Odyssey and just in time to profit from the start of the paid subscription model for online play.


The post Yeah, Call of Duty WWII is still coming to Switch appeared first on BadFive.

The rumors for a possible release of the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise for the Nintendo Switch have been getting more and more credibility in the days that led up to the reveal of Call of Duty WWII.



Firstly, an anonymous source stated that no platforms will be included in the reveal trailer of Call of Duty WWII. That prediction was correct. No platforms were listed in the trailer other than the PS4 beta exclusivity and a press release was sent out later to major websites stating that the game is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170426005631/en/Call-Duty-WWII-Delivers-Gripping-Action-Global

At this point you must be saying, “well there you go, announced platforms by Activision, no Switch version in the press release”. That might be the case but what is interesting to note is that historically, Call of Duty games on Nintendo systems are announced a few months late.

In addition to that, some people noticed the following fine print in the trailer:

And let’s not forget the suspicious return of Nintendo Account linking in www.callofduty.com, which was removed back when Black Ops III was released, a game that skipped Nintendo consoles.

At this point, another bit of information from the anonymous source states that Call of Duty is actually in development for the Nintendo Switch by an Activision subsidiary and will be announced in a Nintendo Direct Presentation around the time of E3 2017. The presentation is rumored to last 2 hours and will supposedly include the reveal.

And now, we speculate. Before continuing, I would like to point out once again that this is a logical, deductive speculation based on a source with a good track record on predictions that came out to be true.

If we are to believe the source and the rumors, a subsidiary of Activision is handling the Switch version. Infinity Ward and Raven Software are too big for such a small project, so is Treyarch and the team at Sledgehammer Games, which probably have their hands full. Beenox is the only logical candidate left and, surprise surprise, they’ve had plenty of time to work on their Call of Duty skills by porting Black Ops III (PS3, 360) and handling part of the development for the remaster of Modern Warfare, released last year.

What do you think? The Nintendo Switch sold 2.4 million in less than a month. Is Activision making a mistake by not announcing a Call of Duty game for a console with no competition in terms of first person shooters? Let us know in the comments.

The post Is Beenox developing Call of Duty for the Switch?
 appeared first on BadFive.