Welcome back gamers, we made it to the end of another week, and what week.  Big news came after the announcement of the first next generation console, its release date and pricing; not to mention other headlines that made RSS feeds scroll like a chat room.  Let’s look at what’s happened this past week.

First and foremost, the largest piece of news is announcement that the Nintendo Wii U will release in November.  As part of the release, there will be two different bundles available.  The first bundle is the Wii U basic bundle, which will include, a white Wii U console with 8GB of memory, a Wii U gamepad, AC adapter and a HDMI cable.  The second bundle is the Wii U premium bundle which will feature a black Wii U will include all the above items, in addition, the premium bundle includes a 32GB of memory, a copy of Nintendo Land, Wii U sensor bar, a gamepad charging cradle, stands for the gamepad and console and Nintendo Network Premium membership.  A second premium bundle will be available which will include ZombiU instead of Nintendo Land for slight additional cost.  The Wii U will launch with eight titles with several more titles in the following months.  Tim goes into detail regarding those titles in his articles from earlier this week.  The Wii U basic will launch for £250 ($299.99) and the Wii U premium  for £300 ($349.99), both bundles launch on November 18 in North America and November 30 in Europe.

Game Retail, the entity behind GAME and Gamestation retail stores, announced they would be merging both brand under one name to help create stability and in hope of boosting traffic to existing locations.  These locations endured financial struggles this past year, which led to credit issue with EA.  This issue resulted in GAME and Gamestation locations not being able to stock Mass Effect 3, SSX and FIFA Street.  The downward spiral led to store closures and the company entering administration, this is similar to chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, until it left administration a short time later.  There were several causes which were blamed for this downward movement of the company; but now the current CEO, Martyn Gibbs, is looking forward, ”The new GAME will combine the best of both brands”.  Gibbs also laid out plans for a intriguing scheme named GAME Hunter.  We will begin to see these changes take place in 2013.

The creator behind Dead Rising, Keiji Inafune, has revealed a new zombie game is in the works.  In an interview with Edge, Inafune teased that the new game, code named ‘Yaiba’ – which translates to ‘Blade’ will feature ninjas, robots and zombies.  “A year and a half has passed after becoming independent, and I have been fortunate enough to announce several projects along the way,” revealed Inafune.“I have announced three consumer titles and three social game titles. I have given speeches in various seminars, panels, universities and schools. I have published three books. I am still aggressively challenging myself in various arenas.  There’s no information of which consoles this title will appear, nor a release date available at the time of this publication.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced plans to open a gaming studio in London, dedicated to tablet games.  The studio, which will open in November, is currently hiring for the following positions creative director, incubation director, studio release manager and product manager.  The studio will be led by former Rare production director Lee Schuneman, ”Adding a fourth UK-based studio to the incredible roster of talent already in place not only increases our in-region studio presence, but will allow Microsoft Studios to explore the many creative and business opportunities that developing new games and entertainment experiences on Windows 8 tablet devices and platforms will afford,” he stated.  This studio will focus on the new Windows 8 Tablet OS, which will have two different surface models available at the time of the Windows 8 launch; one running Windows 8 Pro and fitted with an Intel x86 processor, while the other will run Windows RT and come with an ARM-based chipset.  Windows 8 launches on October 26.

That’s it for this week, check back to Zero1Gaming for the latest, gaming news, reviews, and more!