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At the end of a week that saw both Nintendo and — especially — Capcom report big drops in profit for the first fiscal quarter of the year (ending June 30), Sega has now also reported their own numbers, and surprise-surprise, it’s actually good news…kind of. Despite disappointing sales from two of their more high-profile releases, Sega still saw a profit of 7 billion yen ($80.8 million), although much of it was due to their pachinko business in Japan.

Sega reports that Alpha Protocol and Iron Man 2 both recorded sluggish sales, with the former selling 700,000 units globally and the latter only slightly better at 1.12 million units (via Industry Gamers). “While domestic sales were mostly firm, in the overseas markets, sales of new titles remained slow as affected by the adverse market condition,” Sega said.

Despite this statement, though, Sega actually saw most of their game sales in the quarter coming from overseas, with 1.68 million units sold in North America, 1.33 million in Europe, and only 270,000 in Japan (for a worldwide total of 3.29 million units sold).

Marvelous is preparing a new Harvest Moon title for the Nintendo 3DS, as well as a brand new IP for “new hardware.” However, neither will be available anytime soon.

The new Harvest Moon was confirmed during an investor Q&A translated by Siliconera, along with the original title. Siliconera noted that the “new hardware” is unlikely to be the 3DS, as Nintendo’s handheld is mentioned by name several times throughout the release.

Marvelous, current suffering from financial difficulties, recently announced that they were ceasing development of new IP entirely, though that decision appears to have been reversed. In addition, Harvest Moon creator Yashiro Wada departed the company back in March, and now serves as an advisor.

new nintendo screens? we got ‘em.

In an interview with German gaming site Gaming Media (Japanese audio with German subtitles,) Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto discussed the new Zelda game that will be announced at this year’s E3.

According to Miyamoto, when making a game, Nintendo traditionally creates a demo movie and expands upon the ideas contained therein. However, for the new Zelda, the company first created the game mechanics and then made a demo video to match. He wouldn’t elaborate on the reason for the reversal.

Games4M: PSP Go, probably the gayest name for a device since the Nintendo bumlove, and one which I instantly turned my nose up at. Of course the PSP Go’s name isn’t the only thing that is making people want to pelt it with shit like some kind of medieval witch.

So with all the hate flying around why do I find myself with a brand new PSP Go in my pocket?

From the article:

"Through March 2010, Microsoft has shipped 40.2m X360s worldwide. While that is a strong figure, the X360 does appear to be in a slow decline. If we normalize Microsoft’s July to June fiscal year to April to March, hardware shipments for the X360, PS3, and Wii, and align the launches the X360 figures don’t look that great for Microsoft. Red figures are the projected figures for Wii and PS3 from Nintendo and Sony in the March 2010 fiscal year, as official shipment data for those systems has yet to be released. X360 has ‘more years’ since it released in November 2005, while Wii and PS3 launched in November 2006."

Nintendo Now writes:

With the launch of Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) this week, comes the launch of the Wii Classic Controller Pro in North America. How does the newly colored controller feel for Wii users? In my personal opinion, the controller feels great, the newly added handles give it the nice "snug" feel. It fits in the hand just fine. And with the added shoulder buttons at the top of the controller, you get the feel of Sony’s Dualshock controller. There’s one problem with the controller though.

GamingUnion.net writes, "When Nintendo first announced the sequel to the hugely successful Super Mario Galaxy, cleverly-titled Super Mario Galaxy 2, at E3 2009, many gamers were surprised as up until now, each new console Mario title had been on the system that followed the previous title. With news that the game would play very similarly to the original, most wondered if this was a sign that the company’s successful console was beginning to fall on hard times and needed to be propped up by its biggest titles. From what has currently been revealed about the game, this couldn’t be farther from the truth."

On this day in 1995, Nintendo purchased a 25 percent share in British developer Rare Ltd, beginning a relationship that would produce award-winning titles like GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark and Banjo & Kazooie.

Rare’s Donkey Kong Country, released the previous Christmas, was the fastest-selling videogame in history at that point, having pushed over 7 million units in under half a year. Nintendo’s 25 percent acquisition (which eventually grew to 49 percent) ensured that the game would see three sequels.