You are currently viewing archives for October 2008
When some people think of videogames, they tend to see it as still largely a business centered around kids whether actual or in adult bodies. At best the industry is seen as a popular pastime in a niche audience. Don't diminish videogaming's impact to Don Foster of the United Kingdom's Parliament though.
What's this? A legislator defending the merits of the videogame industry? Keep reading...
Impressive figures from independent videogame market tracker VGChartz.com. Peter Molyneux's Fable II for the XBox 360 seems to have lived up Molyneux's trademark hype. According to preliminary info from retailers, The sequel the original XBox's action RPG sold over 350,000 copies opening day on its North American launch, October 21st! The info states that these strong sales are outpacing the releases of recent XBox 360 hits like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Dead Space, and Saints Row 2. Fable II's sustaining strength in sales is being compared to the XBox 360 version of Madden NFL 09 (selling over 700,000 its opening week) which was the highest charting version of the multi-platform title. It's expected that total opening week sales will reach the 1,000,000 mark for both North America and the European/Australian/PAL markets. This success is sure to surpass its predecessor's status as best-selling Western console RPG in videogame history. No fairytales here with the latest from Lionhead Studios.
Hearts to those from VGChartz.com.
Always one step ahead and above the rest, the buccaneers of the cyber seas have done it again. People just couldn't wait until the November 7th worldwide release of Gears of War 2 going ahead and unleashing all within Pandora's little box for all the world to see. There it is...Gears of War 2 all over the warez sites for bootleg, the whole thing. The particular pirates responsible for this accomplished heist are "x360inT" who have released the NTSC (National Television System Committee) version of the XBox 360 hot exclusive to the chafing irritation of Epic Games, Microsoft, and attentive retailers all over the world. I say "accomplished" because the 6.76GB size of the game had to be split into 73 RAR files to be able to download.
Well, the creators, publishers, and sellers can sleep at night knowing that the pirated version of Gears of War 2 can only be played on specially modified (for piracy) consoles. Oops. Well, just hope you have more 'boughts' than 'mods'. No wonder Epic Games Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski pointed out piracy as one of the main reasons to bring the Gears of War sequel exclusively to the 360. Clever bunch, those high-end PC gameplayers.
Thank either GameDaily.com or TeamXBox.com...your pick.
Interesting information from market researchers ironically named Odyssey. Would you believe that music-based video games are more popular than sports games nowadays? Well, that's what the studies from Odyssey tell us. We already have knowledge that the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises so far have accounted for nearly a third of industry growth this year at 32%. But Odyssey shows that now the music game genre is the 2nd most played genre only behind the action game genre.
I know the new equation has your brain sizzling. Keep on readin'...
The update to the update of the PlayStation Portable has only been out a week in North America but customer complaints have glommed onto the new handheld already. The gripes about the new PSP come from a new display screen fault. While the previous PSP—the PSP Slim and Lite—had problems with a ghosting effect of an image on screen, the new one has problems with odd scanlines from rough interlacing of the image. No biggie. People are only human. Mistakes are made. These things happen. Nothing a little system update can't cure.
Huh? There won't BE a system update? What is Sony talking about? Find out next...
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Economic madness running wild worldwide and adjustments must be made. Retro Game Camp, a self-explanatory game store in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, Japan, is offering a 10% discount to visiting tourists in order to encourage sales potential and dissuade the natural clutching of the funds. The American dollar's dropping below the Japanese yen but it looks like when Americans come to Akihabara they do some serious spending so I suppose it's good business sense.
There was supposed to be some ID check in order to receive the markdown but Wired.com's Chris Kohler got it without question presumably because the shop owners presumed by his ethnic appearance he wasn't a Japanese citizen. Obviously, a non-ethnic Japanese citizen has a golden opportunity to get some discounted retro gaming goods as a result.
Credit to Wired.com.
What? Again? LittleBigPlanet, the game-changer for the PlayStation 3 (game-changer? wow, I sound like a cable news pundit), seems like it will never come out. Facing a number of delays all year, it finally seemed like we would see this title light up the PS3 really soon. But now there is another delay and for a reason no one would guess: the Qur'an—the holy book of Islam.
Yep, you know there's more so keep reading...
Talk about campaigning 21st century style! Although we're truly 'fair and balanced' when it comes to politics here at Popzara (see our official candidate endorsements right HERE), we love to acknowledge firsts. Barack Obama's campaign has taken advantage of the XBox 360's capacity for in-game advertising by placing Obama billboards in the racing game Burnout Paradise.
Those who heard of this happening instead of seeing it with their own eyes wondered if it was just a clever photoshop but it has been confirmed that the campaign has advertised in this game. Listen to game publisher Electronic Arts' director of corporate communications, Holly Rockwood, place the checkmark in the affirmative column:
"I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout. Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates. Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams."
Don't put down that GameBoy just yet, gameplayers. Hit the jump for even more game-changing images from the spot!
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Huh??? Nintendomination makes strange bedfellows, I guess. An overlooked story towards the end of last week's Tokyo Game Show has a Sony official hoping for the improved performance of the XBox 360 in Japan, a land where the system commercially struggles most (along with the PlayStation 3).
You'll have to read on to get the full story...
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Your personal TV network from your very own computer screen is venturing into new territory. YouTube, the video clip phenomenon with its audience of 330 million (comScore's August 2008 estimate), in a pursuit of increased return in revenues will begin to sell a variety of media products including music, movies, TV shows, videogames, books, concert tickets, among other related products direct from the site. The Google-owned enterprise will do this by cooperating with online store Amazon.com and Apple's iTunes store where links and banners will be placed on YouTube to go to site for purchase. Revenue of products bought from the YouTube path will be shared with Amazon and/or iTunes depending on what's bought.
More to follow...
Sad news for me and a whole lot of comic strip fans out there. Berkeley Breathed, the political-minded Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist who brought the world The Academia Waltz, Bloom County, Outland, and most recently Opus, announces officially that he will end the 5-year run of Opus with its last Sunday morning newspaper appearance on November 2nd. The title character, Opus the Penguin, has existed ever since Bloom County which ran from 1980 to 1989 and is one of Breathed's most celebrated characters (not to mention the cartoonist's favorite). The big-beaked, bowtie/necktie wearing, optimistic-minded penguin with body parts that fall off at inopportune times has traveled through Breathed's 30-year comic strip evolution along with the frantic Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Cutter John, Milo Bloom, Oliver Wendell Jones, among others.
There's more, folks...
Interesting words emanate from the Microsoft management. Steve Ballmer, the highly excitable chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., defies the wisdom of the day on the subject of the XBox 360 console. Despite its spotlight being stolen by Wii and facing a more competitive PlayStation 3, he says about the 360, "the product is selling very well. The XBox is an "absolute home run," in an interview with The Mercury News of San Jose, California (Silicon Valley). Responding to the interviewer's remarks about XBox 360's recent price cut possibly being evidence that Microsoft has run out of ideas to boost the system's sales, Ballmer says, "No, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard anybody say. All consoles start at higher prices. They always come down through the long cycle."
More curious statements from the Microsoft CEO follow...
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It was one thing to see the lingering backstock of Gamecube titles stickered with a "playable on Wii" or such statement on the exterior plastic coating but now Nintendo is going even further with redeeming the purple lunchbox through the wonder of Wii. Presenting the "Wii de Asobu" selection translated as "Play On Wii" selection where previously released Gamecube games get repackaged as Wii titles with this new branding. The first re-release will be Pikmin, the novel but commercially ignored creation from the mindfield of Miyamoto. I applaud that first choice because many games on Gamecube got ignored due to Gamecube's weak commercial presence. It would be the perfect thing to build up anticipation for the inevitable and sorely needed "Pikmin 3". God I love duct-taped Gamecubes!
Thanks again to Kotaku.com.
Credit to Famitsu.com and Gemaga through Kotaku.com.