Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players have been wondering when the game would get some representation from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, one of the last left recent successful Switch games without a character in the Smash roster. Well, it seems that wait has now come to an end.

To kick off the newest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be the next DLC fighter(s) in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second fighters pass. Players can switch between the two forms of the Aegis at any time, both coming with their own unique powers. Though Rex isn’t a fighter, he will show up for the Final Smash. Meanwhile, players can also expect a Xenoblade Chronicles 2-themed stage and music additions to the game.

Pyra and Mythra will be joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster some time in March, so there isn’t long left before we get to play as the newest addition to the fighter. More details will follow soon, so stay tuned.

Along with sales figures for the Switch, Nintendo also updated its list of top-selling titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons continue to reign supreme but several other titles have also achieved some significant milestones. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sold 21.45 million while Pokemon Sword and Shield has sold 20.35 million.

Super Mario Odyssey is also part of the 20 million sales club with 20.23 million units sold while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sales are at 22.85 million units. Other noteworthy sales figures, as revealed in the company’s earnings release, are Luigi’s Mansion 3 at 9.13 million units sold and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics selling 2.62 million. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is also interesting because it sold 2.84 million units without accounting for sales in Japan.

Nintendo is responsible for selling the title outside of Japan so only the sell-through for North America and Europe are accounted for in its report. Koei Tecmo is responsible for sales in Japan and reported that shipments had passed 3.5 million in its last fiscal report. Stay tuned for more details and concrete sales figures in the coming days.

2020 is done and over. It was a year almost assuredly many won’t forget, even if they desperately want to. The final month of the year tends to be something of a snapshot of the entire year, and December 2020 wasn’t much different. In the US, the charts had a lot of the usual suspects, with one franchise on top as you’d expect it to be, and Nintendo in the strongest position they’ve been in in decades.

As per data provided by the NPD Group (via VentureBeat), December’s top 20 saw Black Ops Cold War at #1, which is no surprise since it was also the best selling game of the year in the region. Right below it was Cyberpunk 2077, which we know sold at least 13 million copies last month in total across all regions. Keep in mind, 2077 hits this list without digital sales, apparently. Whether that would have helped it topple Cold War is somewhat iffy, but even so, number 2 is impressive.

While the rest of the list is populated by a lot of games you’d expect such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Miles Morales, and the various sports entries, what is maybe the most noteworthy is how much Nintendo dominated this list. Their first party titles are seeing strong sales all throughout, even early releases such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and many of the sports titles are on the Switch and being factored in such as NBA 2K21 and FIFA 21. All Nintendo first party titles are also in here without digital numbers being provided, just to add to how incredible a feat it is.

1.  Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Cyberpunk 2077*
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
5. Madden NFL 21
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
8. NBA 2K21*
9. Immortals Fenyx Rising
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
12. Just Dance 2021
13. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity*
14. FIFA 21
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
16. Super Mario Odyssey*
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
18. Super Mario Party*
19. Ring Fit Adventure
20. Mortal Kombat 11

* Indicates that digital sales are not included.

At this year’s The Game Awards, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s third fighter in the second Fighters Pass (and the eighth DLC fighter overall) recently revealed as being the Final Fantasy 7 villain, One-Winged Angel Sephiroth himself. It would have been an exciting announcement regardless, but the fact that Cloud is already in the game (and the incredibly reveal trailer), meant that it was even more so.

Nintendo recently confirmed that as with all new DLC fighters, game director Masahiro Sakurai will be hosting a livestream tomorrow, on December 17, to share new details on Sephiroth and how he will work in the game, as well as new details on the stage and music that’s being added to the game along with him. Via the official Smash Bros Japanese Twitter account, it’s also been confirmed that the presentation will be about 35 minutes long- so you can expect a meaty livestream with plenty of details revealed.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. Stay tuned for all the details on Sephiroth tomorrow.

「セフィロスのつかいかた」の放送は明後日午前7:00から！
『ファイナルファンタジーVII』の伝説のソルジャー「セフィロス」の魅力に迫ります。
放送は約35分を予定しています。ぜひご覧ください。#スマブラSP

— 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ【スマブラ公式】 (@SmashBrosJP) December 16, 2020

Titanfall 2

For as brilliant as its multiplayer was at launch, Titanfall had some major issues with balance, content and post-launch support. The throwaway “story” didn’t help either and despite a positive critical reception, player numbers dropped off, leaving doubts as to whether Respawn would revisit the franchise. But not only did Titanfall 2 happen – even with how disagreeable some of the multiplayer changes were – it had an incredible campaign that stands as one of the best in the genre. Sadly, its sales and player count dipped even quicker and the series is more or less AWOL.

Yesterday, it was announced that Steve from Minecraft would be the next DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Whether or not Minecraft is a game you enjoy (or even play) and whether or not you have any attachment for Steve, you have to admit that his addition to the roster represents a suitably epic collaboration between Nintendo and Microsoft-owned Mojang.

Announcing Steve’s addition to the fighter’s roster yesterday, Mojang chief creative officer Jens ‘Jeb’ Bergensten echoed those sentiments, stating, “Bringing Minecraft to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the result of an amazing collaboration with Nintendo. As fans of the series and avid players at our studios, we couldn’t be more excited to see Minecraft join Smash’s already legendary lineup of characters.”

Another interesting piece of information that has emerged is that Nintendo and Mojang have apparently been in talks to bring Minecraft to Smash for a long time. On Twitter, former Mojang co-founder and Mineccraft production director Daniel Kaplan said that these discussions started at least five years back, before adding that though he didn’t know when talks were finalized, all the way back was when they first began. That’s a long time to be talking about this.

Minecraft’s Steve is the second DLC character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pass, which is supposed to feature six characters in total. He is the seventh DLC fighter for the game overall (and the second to be coming from a Microsoft-owned property, following Banjo-Kazooie’s addition last year.

3 is not enough. At least five

— Kaplan (@Kappische) October 1, 2020

That’s when talks started at least. No idea when implementation started 🙂

— Kaplan (@Kappische) October 1, 2020

Nintendo delivered a lot of impressive sales figures during their recent quarterly financial briefing, such as the Switch’s worldwide shipment figures now standing at over 61 million units, and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition selling over 1.3 million units within a month of launch. At the same time, as they always do, they have also updated sales figures for other first party Switch releases, and it seems the vast majority of them have continued selling very well, hitting new milestones.

The biggest winner is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, of course, which has immediately jumped almost to the top of the Switch’s sales charts with over 22.4 million copies sold. However, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe still has a hold on the top spot for now, and actually sold nearly 2 million units during the previous quarter, taking its sales up to 26.74 million units. At its current pace, it may very well overtake Mario Kart Wii (over 37 million units) as the highest selling game in the series. In fact, if the sales of the base Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U are accounted for as well, it’s within touching distance of doing that with cumulative sales of over 35 million units.

Meanwhile, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is almost at the 20 million mark, with total sales standing at 19.99 million units. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold over a million units last quarter, taking its lifetime sales on the Switch to 18.6 million units. Pokemon Sword and Shield, which stood at 17.37 million units at the end of the previous quarter, has now sold 18.22 million units, making it the third highest selling Pokemon game, overtaking Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

You can check out the Switch’s top 10 best-selling first party exclusives and their sales figures as of June 30 below. To compare these numbers with figures provided at the end of the previous fiscal quarter, head on over here.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 26.74 million units
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 22.40 million units
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 19.99 million units
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 18.60 million units
5. Pokemon Sword and Shield – 18.22 million units
6. Super Mario Odyssey – 18.06 million units
7. Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! – 12.60 million units
8. Super Mario Party – 10.94 million units
9. Splatoon 2 – 10.71 million units
10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 7.44 million units

Bowser – Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 was a series of firsts for many Nintendo fans. But it also offered one of the most memorable battles with Bowser ever. It was simple – the Koopa King was huge and Mario was small. The only way to defeat him was to grab his tale, swing the analog stick to get enough speed, aim for the bombs surrounding the arena and release Bowser to damage him. Simple but unique and fairly challenging on the third go-around, Bowser’s 64-form remains an iconic fight.

The Famitsu sales charts for video game software and hardware sales in Japan during the week ending April 19 are in, and the results are somewhat surprising. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which debuted on top of the charts last week, has seen a formidable drop in sales of 90 per cent and fallen to second place, with sales of over 70,000 copies across its second week on the market. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with over 286,000 copies sold, retakes the top spot.

Most other games in the top 10 are titles that we’ve become used to seeing in these charts, including the likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Super Mario Party, Pokemon Sword and Shield, and Minecraft. The Resident Evil 3 remake takes the fourth spot with over 12,000 units sold, while both, PS4 and Switch versions of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 also still figure in the top 10.

On the hardware front, the PS4 was once again the highest selling console of the week, as Switch stock shortages continued. The PS4 saw a significant dip in sales from last week – when it enjoyed a boost thanks to the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake – dropping from over 79,000 units sold last week to over 34,000 this week.

You can check out the full software and hardware charts below.

Software sales (followed by lifetime sales)

01. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 286.586 / 3.611.246
02. [PS4] Final Fantasy 7 Remake – 70.652 / 773.505
03. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 13.313 / 2.882.585
04. [PS4] Resident Evil 3 – 12.247 / 236.435
05. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 9.034 / 3.655.868
06. [PS4] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – 8.682 / 116.217
07. [NSW] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – 8.080 / 98.912
08. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 8.005 / 1.406.903
09. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield – 7.915 / 3.570.493
10. [NSW] Minecraft – 7.154 / 1.356.230

Hardware sales (followed by last week’s sales)

PS4 – 34,500 (79,059)
Nintendo Switch – 27,874 (25,313)
3DS – 1,571 (1,614)
Xbox One – 53 (34)

[Via ResetEra]

During its recent mini-Direct, Nintendo dropped a bombshell announcement concerning the next DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Said character will be coming in June and is from ARMS, the party brawler on Switch. No details were given on who this would be but it’s rather fitting.

In the meantime, Nintendo Switch Online members can experience a free game trial for ARMS starting from today at 9 AM PT till April 6th. ARMS originally released in June 2017 and was one of the better exclusives for the Switch in the early going. It involves fighters with extendable, spring-loaded arms battering each other in arena fights.

Over time, the developer added new fighters, modes and ARMS along with balance patches. There’s a hefty amount of content to experience in the trial as a result and it should prepare players for whoever is joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster in June. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.