In its first two weeks on the market in North America, Scribblenauts sold 194,000 units, making it the third highest-selling DS title in September, behind Mario & Luigi and Kingdom Hearts sequels. That's 105,000 more copies than Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars moved in its first month.We asked 5TH Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka if it met his expectations. "I didn't have any expectations," he told Joystiq. "I just hoped it'd do well. It's awesome for a completely new, original 3rd party IP on DS to do so well."Does this strong debut mean a sequel is guaranteed? "Way too early to tell that," Slaczka said. "We've only seen 2.5 weeks of sales." He told us that Drawn to Life, which went on to break a million worldwide, only sold 40,000 copies in its first month, with one more week of sales in that month.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Game Informer's slow trickle of Epic Mickey deets has turned into a full-on firehose today, as the site has published a massive five-page feature on the game's environments, concept art and character animations. The feature not only talks about the developmental process for animators and designers at Junction Point Studios, but also delves into the game's world a bit, showing off screens of the cartoon objects and inert objects populating the land. The former are things the player can create and erase in the game, whereas the latter are permanent objects in the game world that the player cannot affect.There's even some really odd stuff to look at -- like a robotic Donald Duck and a video of Mickey Mouse shadowboxing. Looks like we can cross one item off our list of Sentences We Never Would've Imagined Ever Having to Write.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Striding into informed meta-prediction territory, several Tokyo-based analysts have suggested that Nintendo may cut its earnings forecast in preparation for a decline in profits -- the first in six years. According to a Bloomberg report, Nintendo's adjustments will be prompted by slowing Wii sales and a stronger Yen.
Scheduled to report earnings on October 29th, Nintendo is expected to indicate an 11 percent fall in net income to 249.3 billion yen (nearly $2.75 billion) for the fiscal year. Soichiro Fukuda, a Tokyo-based Citigroup Inc. analyst, expects "a large downward revision" from the manufacturer in the form of a 29 percent profit drop to 201 billion yen (roughly $2.2 billion).While the figures make for dry reading, they illuminate the altered landscape in which Nintendo and its products now compete. Standing atop a wobbling economy, the games industry now hosts a revitalized PlayStation 3 and a Wii that brings in fewer dollars -- the only thing that hasn't changed, of course, is our desire to buy the DS again and again.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Finally, you get to see what Brian May considers "the ultimate accolade:" Queen in Lego Rock Band. Warner Bros. just dished out a new trailer and screens showing Freddie and co. strutting their stuff on the blocky stage. Sadly, the game will only have two Queen tracks, but don't be such a grumpy Gus! Theoretically, you should be able to access those Queen songs you downloaded from the Rock Band Music Store in Lego Rock Band -- granted the songs have been rated as "suitable for all ages." Oh, and don't expect to rent Lego Rock Band and extract all of its juicy tunes to your regular old Rock Band. Remember: you'll need a special code this time around.
Permalink | Email this | Comments