Black Ops 3 sells big 

Publisher Activision Blizzard revealed “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” has earned $550 million in its first three days of sale, making it the largest entertainment launch of the year. 

The game beat tough competition in movies, video games, music and books and sold much more than 2014’s “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.” 

The publisher also claimed Black Ops III has the largest player engagement of any Call of Duty game ever, meaning users are playing more hours of the game on average than other games in the franchise.

This news is hardly a surprise. Call of Duty has been the biggest game in terms of games sold for years.

Because of the increase in sales, it seems last year’s fantastic “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” reinvigorated the brand after 2013’s lackluster “Call of Duty: Ghosts.”

The Black Ops variation of the series is also clearly the most popular, especially given that 12 million players were still playing “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” a month before Black Ops III’s release. Black Ops II is three-years-old and has more players than most modern first-person shooters.

However, Black Ops II earned $550 million in one day of sales in the United States alone. While the COD industry is not as big as it once was, it is still reeling in the dough.   

Cloud Strife added to Super Smash Bros.

The iconic protagonist Cloud Strife of the classic “Final Fantasy VII” is being added to “Super Smash Bros.” for the Wii U and 3DS.

Nintendo revealed this information during its Nintendo Direct yesterday.

Along with Cloud, players get a new stage based on “Final Fantasy VII’s” metropolis Midgar. The Mii Fighter characters will also receive a Chocobo outfit. Chocobos are large rideable birds of Final Fantasy fame.

No release date has been given.

It might not seem like a big deal, but Super Smash Bros. has mostly always been Nintendo characters since it is a Nintendo platform exclusive, so it is fantastic when players have a chance to play other famous video game characters. Oddly enough this idea is seemingly long overdue. The previous game had Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series, and Ryu from Street Fighter was recently added to the current game’s roster. So naturally Final Fantasy characters would be a no brainer.

I hope Nintendo continues to get more iconic characters to put in Super Smash Bros., as it is the ultimate fighting hodge podge of video game characters.

It is doubtful Microsoft would ever let the Master Chief or Sony ever let Nathan Drake be in the game given those character’s strong first party ties, but one can dream.

Xbox One’s backwards compatibility list

Microsoft has revealed all the games that will be available for the Xbox One’s new backward compatibility feature.

Notable games playable are “Mass Effect,” “Fallout 3” and the Gears of War series.

Many games will be added regularly to the list starting in December such as “Halo Reach” and the “BioShock” series.

A list can be found here.