You are currently viewing archives for September 2008
There's no doubt that the current financial crisis is rippling through every facet of society including the videogame world but Nintendo looks like it's weathering the fiscal storm with this little bit of news. The WiiDS Phenomenon thunders on with the announcement that Nintendo and luxury hotel franchise Marriott International are teaming up to bring the Wii experience to the hotel chain.
What's this? Can we say Wii service? Keep reading...
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the mega cross-media project based on the legendary Star Wars franchise, seems to have made an remarkable achievement through its videogame branch. According to preliminary data from independent videogaming sales tracker VGChartz.com, it appears that within the span of one business week that the highly anticipated multi-platform game has sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide since its September 16th release. That's over 1 million worldwide in 5 days! No matter the critical feedback over quality of the game, the Force of the Franchise powered it over the top (yeah, I had to fit 'the Force' in there somewhere).
In the Americas (North and South but mostly North), more of the sales were on the XBox 360 while internationally sales were more evenly divvied up between the differing game systems. Of course, the Americas were the nerve center of the game's selling power. Predictable, this is. Natural, it is only. Hmmm.
Shout out to VGChartz.com.
Metallica pisses off its fanbase once again. Hitting a sour note earlier in the decade with some fans due to their stance on Napster and the peer-to-peer file-sharing scene rallied against by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the release of their latest album, Death Magnetic, calls quality control into question. The album which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 charts on its September 10th release became the first album to have all tracks simultaneously feature in a videogame. You could buy your Death Magnetic in the stores, through download, or through Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. What happened next in this evolution of music distribution ended up with traditional album buyers noticing a stark difference in sound quality than the videogame's version of the album—a much better version—and not being happy about it.
Before you click the clip (if you haven't already), read on further to get a fuller picture...
¿Como? ¿Qué? The recent shocker that the name-is-mud-in-Japan console known as the XBox 360 actually outsold both the PlayStation 3 AND the Wii in Japan for the week ending September 14th caused many hairs to stand on end. In Japan, the XBox 360 might as well be a pocket calculator looking at its sales performance during its lifetime there so it's news just for this system to outsell the distant 2nd home console in Japan, the PlayStation 3. Seeing it best not only the PS3 but also the Wii in that Nintendominated land was mind-freezing.
But it seems there's a dispute about part of this historic achievement. A dispute between sales trackers.
Read on...
Are you ready for Mirror's Edge? In the excitement, don't cut yourself on the glass. Now that you have take precautions, prepare for November 11th. That's the date, uh-huh uh-huh, it launches, uh-huh uh-huh. November 11th is the release date for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of the game that puts the physical arts of parkour and free running in the forefront. The PC version will reportedly "ship later in the winter" so the non-consolers will have to wait for the cityscape run and jump adventure when the snow falls.
Oh, check this out. Anybody who pre-orders this game after September 26th will be able to get a code for unlocking a Time Trial mode in the demo version of the game. This demo will precede the release and will be available on XBox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store. Hmm, seems like objects in Mirror's Edge are closer than they appear. Rhianna Pratchett's latest game writing effort makes the leap soon.
Reflections by Wired.com.
The official release date for the PlayStation 3's most curious title has finally arrived...for the Americas (North and South). Mark it on your calendars, Sackboys and Sackgirls. October 21st! The world at last gets to see the fruits of developer Media Molecule's first labor in one calendar month. We and Reggie Fils-Aime get to witness just what Little Big Planet can do for the PS3 very soon. And the prospect looks promising.
Thanks to PlayStation.Blog.
In much lighter news than the legal gloomcloud Nintendo weathers under, the latest in their Wii Series, Wii Music, is set to hit the continent of America Northern on October 20th. With over 60 musicial instruments to simulate like the electric guitar, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, steel drums, marimba, and sitar for just a few assorted examples, Wii Music will allow the musically unable to witness their ability.
The many instruments play with Wiimote and Nunchuck on over 50 songs to orchestrate faithfully or to improvise your own way in a jam session. These compositions can be Wii-mailed back and forth to your friends and family through the Wii message board. Sounds like another Top 10 sales charts mainstay in the making. I can't wait to check this out. Ya know, I used to play a mean Nintendo 64 controller working that Ocarina of Time...
Too big a story to talk about on the storefront page so read on...
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Donkey Kong Jr. Math can't calculate THIS equation. United Kingdom-based business newspaper The Financial Times did some figuring and discovered that each employee of Nintendo generates $1.6 million when taking total profit and dividing amongst the individuals of Nintendo's staff. Compare this figure to global money manager firm Goldman Sachs with its $1.24 million per employee total and internet megapower Google with its $626,000 per employee total. Keep in mind that Nintendo's entire permanent worldwide staff is shockingly small at only 3,768 employees with Goldman Sachs having 30,522 employees worldwide and Google having 19,604 employees worldwide.
ALSO keep in mind that even with this comparatively tiny staff Nintendo—which only makes videogame products, toys, and playing cards—is (as of October 2007) the #3 most valuable company in Japan under #1 ranked car manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation (316,121 employees), the largest automaker in the entire world, and #2 ranked Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (34,274 employees), the largest bank in all of Japan and 2nd largest bank in the whole world. Jesus!
Extra details follow...
The other shoe drops! After teasing with a price drop in Japan, then making it official for the United States days after, Microsoft finally finishes the trifecta with another across the board price drop in Europe. Here's the new prices: The Arcade model goes from €199.99 to €179.99 for the European Union and from £159.99 to £129.99 for the United Kingdom; The Premium model (now with 60GB hard drive intact) goes from €269.99 to €239.99 for "Eurozone" and from £199.99 to £169.99 for the UK; The Elite model goes from €369.99 to €299.99 for the Eurozone clique and from £259.99 to £229.99 for the UK posse.
This price cut is the second for the European region this year, the last one taking place half a year ago on March 14th. The markdown is official starting Friday, September 19th. With the recent head-exploding news about the 360 actually topping the week's sales charts in Japan over the PlayStation 3 AND Wii, it just goes to show that Microsoft is playing some serious hardball. Ain't no messin' around. Beware of Newton!
Thank ya much, GamesIndustry.biz and MajorNelson.com.
This is the story that seemed to never end. Much like a soap opera with cliffhangers every episode: "Will they buy 'em? Will they not buy 'em? Will they buy 'em? Will they not buy 'em?" Electronic Arts, one of the largest 3rd party developers in the world, was eyeballing the place where the super-selling Rockstar Games makes its home, Take-Two Interactive, for Borg assimilation. Locutus of EA said "resistance is futile" and Take-Two struggled to get the cyborg parts off of its body. "I'll never join you!" said Take-Two momentarily stealing a Hamill-spoken line from Star Wars.
Well, the 7 month saga appears to have finally reached its conclusion. EA withdraws the bid to buy-out Take-Two.
Details follow...
While for some the NPDs for August 2008 were humdrum, there was some more outstanding achievement that may have been overlooked. Turns out that Nintendo's little handheld that could, the DS, broke the NPD's all-time sales record for the month of August with a total of 518,300. The previous August record holder was Sony's PlayStation 2 with 454,300 sold back in 2002. Incidentally, Nintendo's Wii came within hairs itself this August of beating this former record with its total of 453,000.
This was the first time any console, home or handheld, had sold over half a million units in this usually laidback month. Summer laziness, back to school fever, and the prep work for the blockbuster-selling fall and holiday seasons tend to make August the calm before the storm. But Nintendo's duo is stirring up the waters. WiiDS Phenomenon is in effect, y'all. More records to be broken so buckle up. You have seen nothing yet.
Record broken in by Wired.com.
Ensemble Studios that is. The latest in the series that defined the XBox platform image, Halo, is real-time strategy game Halo Wars. After original Halo developer Bungie broke the bank last September with the massive Halo 3 release and shortly after won their freedom from owner Microsoft 6 days later last October, Microsoft was potentially left without their console's crown jewel or at least the jewel's now-independent developers. Summoned to the call was Microsoft-owned developer Ensemble Studios to create the RTS spinoff called Halo Wars (with input from Bungie for series integrity). But before the 1st half of 2009 release date marks the calendar, Microsoft shocks and awes the dutiful developer into its own halo. After the greatly-anticipated game is released Microsoft will disband Ensemble Studios.
Details are following...
Read More »These series of LEGO-interpreted franchises are getting to be very interesting. Taking classic movies and refashioning them into the block-stacked world of LEGO pieces seems to add new life to a well-established cultural phenomenon. First it was Star Wars, then Indiana Jones, now it's comic book/cartoon/movie series Batman in LEGO Batman: The Videogame. Based off of the look from the actual Batman LEGO block series, LEGO Batman puts all the classic villains and heroes (yes, Robin's here) into this action-adventure developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive. Before the September 23rd release, check out this gameplay footage of cosmically-intertwined duo Batman and Catwoman and see what fancies your tickle.
Hear his exact words next...
The unstoppable force and the immovable object all at once. That's Nintendo Wii in the current videogame market. Of the list of complaints the system has gathered since its gained this momentum, one of the most significant is that of Wii's storage abilities. A flash drive with only 512 MB and options for interchangeable 2GB SD cards just ain't gonna cut it. Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime to the rescue! Wii storage solutions are in the works!
Read on for details...
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PAX is certainly living up to its name, isn't it? The Penny Arcade Expo in its 5 years of existence has doubled attendance each and every year. While this year they didn't quite achieve the double, they still broke their previous attendance record. What's the number of this record? 58,500 estimated—over 21,000 more than last year. Maybe not an exact doubling but doggone close I would say (you would only need about 8,000 something).
Read on for interesting scriptings...
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You knew it was coming. Microsoft announced on Labor Day that they will cut the price of their XBox 360 console...in Japan. Ah, there's always a catch. The drops start September 11th (curious) and the pricing standards goes as follows: The Arcade version (the one with no hard drive) goes from ¥27,800 (approx. $257 U.S.) to ¥19,800 (approx. $183 U.S.); The Premium version (now with new 60GB hard drive) goes from ¥34,800 (approx. $320 U.S.) to ¥29,000 (approx. $275 U.S.) as it replaces the previous 20GB Premium; The Elite version (with its 120GB hard drive) goes from ¥47,800 (approx. $442 U.S.) to ¥39,800 (approx. $368 U.S.).
More to come...
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