Muramasa: The Demon Blade publisher Ignition revealed to Gamer Investments a rough estimate of the NPD sales total for its Wii sidescroller, describing the game's September performance as "in the ball park of 35K," with a margin of "15-20%." It might sound low to us, but marketing director Melody Frieda said that the total was "in line with expectations and we're happy with how it's performing to date." She said that positive reviews should help keep sales up through the holidays. The company sees even better potential for the title in the long term: according to Frieda, Ignition is "quite confident that Muramasa will be a revered cult classic like its sister property Odin Sphere," which went on to be released under the PS2's "Greatest Hits" line.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole thinks that Nintendo and Sony devices will still lead the handheld market by 2014, but that the iPhone/iPod Touch will drive growth, thanks to a little thing called the App Store. IndustryGamers took note of the new report, where the analyst believes that the worldwide mobile and portable games market will reach $11.7 billion by 2014, which includes the PSP and DS, with Apple's devices pushing 24 percent of software sales.The company found that of over 8,000 surveyed respondents, 54 and 69 percent of North Americans and Europeans, respectively, had played a game on their phone in the last year. The report found that the the most popular service for purchasing apps for their phone was Apple's App Store -- shocking, right?Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

GameFly has released its free "GameCenter" iPhone app, allowing customers of the video game rental service to adjust their queue on the go. However, GameFly co-founder Sean Spector wants the app to be used by a much broader audience than just GameFly subscribers. Speaking with Joystiq, the executive told us that the company has put a lot more functionality into the app and the "GameFly" tab is only one part of the program.The "Games" tab is essentially a database, with specs, controller details (pretty handy), Achievements, Trophies and reviews. The "News" tab, which can be divided to show specific platforms, is currently a feed from the company's recently acquired Shacknews. Spector plans on future app updates featuring community functionality, trailers and more news sources.Spector tells us that he expects "all the functionality that's in GameFly on the app" in the future. Meaning that users will have access to the full GameFly store and easier queue rearrangement (slide functionality, rather than inputting numbers). For subscribers, the commerce and "Keep It" functionality work just like on the main site, with properly applied discounts and coupons. Spector also noted that those without a GameFly subscription who download the app receive a 15-day free trial.GameFly seems serious about making the app as useful as possible and is asking for feedback. If there's anything you want to see after trying it out, send the company an email or leave feedback through the app, which can be found under "Settings" tab. GameFly GameCenter (free) Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

This No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle trailer introduces Henry, who appears in the first game in a series of very exciting, eminently spoilable sequences. It appears to do for the former villain what Metal Gear Solid 4 did for Raiden -- make the fans love a once-despised character. Coincidentally (according to the tenuous comparison I've set up for the two), both characters are voiced by Quinton Flynn. He's just got a talent for characters that you'll probably like better the second time!The end of the trailer features Henry fighting a young girl with some kind of giant robot arms. Thanks for existing, game.Permalink | Email this | Comments