Black Friday sales for the video game industry were excellent. Nintendo sold 1.8m systems for the week ending November 29 while machines from rivals Microsoft and Sony combined to sell about 1.1m units.
Software sales were quite strong as well, but the vast majority of the spike this week is simply from the fact that Americans spent $10 billion ($30/per American if every American shopped) on Black Friday according to various reports, and a lot of that went to video games.
Last year, Black Friday week sales were strong as well, but Wii, DS, and Xbox 360 saw significantly better sales this year. PS3 had the weakest Black Friday to Black Friday growth, at 13%, and PS2 declined.
Sony's machines accounted for about 1 out of 3 video game machines sold (31%) during Black Friday week in 2007, this year that ratio is down to about 2 out of 9 (22%) as the shares for Microsoft and Nintendo increase.
Although Wii had a smaller percentage incr... More »
Reports of the "Jasper" model of the Xbox 360 have been reported to have been in stores since as early as late September, and now a newer report gives us some better details on what to look for, particularly the output voltage on the power brick.
The Jasper chipset is, essentially, supposed to be better in every way, this including the amount of power it requires. So it seems, any 360 made after October 23, 2008 should have the chipset.
My only question is: why the heck wouldn't this be advertised and on the box? I guess if they did that a lot of unsuspecting customers would have suddenly been suspecting, meaning less sales since launch. Still!
VentureBeat reporter and "renowned Microsoft digger" Dean Takahashi has done a... More »
Despite recent reports of Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon being cancelled for PlayStation 3, a THQ UK representative told Eurogamer (linked above) that it will indeed still be arriving to Europe as scheduled on February 13th of 2009.
To quote: THQ has clarified the situation with Destroy All Humans! Path of Furon - saying the PS3 version will be released in Europe after all.
Yesterday it was reported that the game will only be available for Xbox 360 in the US. Now a THQ UK representative has stated both versions are still on track for a European release.
"Destroy all Humans: Path of the Furon will be released on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 formats on February 13th 2009 across Europe," he stated.
"Due to the game being shipped earlier in North America on 2nd December a decision was made to proceed exclusive... More »
The National Institute on Media and the Family is to release its 13th annual video game report card today and have given a list of 10 games parents should not buy their children.
They are Blitz: The League II, Gears of War 2, Saints Row 2, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Legendary, Left 4 Dead, Resistance 2 and Silent Hill: Homecoming.
The group recommended the following five T-rated games: Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Band 2, Rock Revolution, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Shaun White Snowboarding.
To quote: Bloodshed and brutality are staples in the list of 10 games to avoid. All the games were M-rated, intended for those aged 17 and over.
"Blitz: The League II" players can target which body part of their football rivals they want to injure. Warriors in "Gears of War 2" use a combination rifle and chain saw. "Saints Row 2" features gang violence and allows players to shoot police officers.
First details of the eagerly awaited downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV have emerged, with initial reports suggesting the Xbox 360 exclusive pack will shift the focus away from Niko Bellic.
Revealed by USA Today, the downloadable content is titled 'Lost and Damned', and centres around the character of Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost.
Rockstar's Dan Houser said of the add-on '"I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."
Further details are scarce, although a February 17 release date has been attached to Lost and Damned.
Looks like the New Xbox Experience dashboard update is experiencing some not-so-new Xbox woes. November 19: launch day for the NXE update. Not 24 hours after it went live, complaints
are already piling up.
Various forums online (such as the one linked above) have threads and threads of people reporting anything from connection freezes, slow downs, lock ups, broken TV connections, and so many other different numerical errors that, if all of them were strung together, could potentially measure all the way from Earth to the moon (and back).
There are even reports of brickage - yes, the famed red ring of death is back. Some say it's limited to modded consoles only (no surprise there) but other untainted units seem to be affected by the same problem too.
We've yet to hear any official response from Major Nelson or any of the Microsoft staff. Some say the slow downs are caused by the simple fact of surging traffic accessing XBL, but the oth... More »
A new Firmware update for the Nintendo Wii has been released, specifically System Menu version 3.4. In the update, the following changes have been made:
- Enhanced parental controls
- USB Keyboard support for Mii channel added
- System functions improvement (Improved SD card read/write speed, Improved disc reading)
- Twilight Hack version 0.1 BETA1 cannot be copied to the console.
Sadly, the update also removes any illegal saves (i.e. Twilight Hack) and any other homebrew channels you may have on your Nintendo Wii.
To quote: It's recommended that you do not update your Wii through Nintendo, as it disables some homebrew (DVDx, PatchMii, Twilight Hack). Recent reports suggest System Menu 3.4 removes all custom channels.
It is suggested that you disable your Wii from the Internet as their network service privacy policy has been updated so that they now have the right to auto-update your system without notification.
... More »
Here's a little known fact: Despite producing one of Sony's most hyped titles of the year, LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule actually has no affiliation with them outside of that.
The ex-Lionhead ragtag group of developers is a third party studio and could make titles for any system.
However, rumors are pouring in that Sony, enjoying the commercial and critical reception of MM's LittleBigPlanet, has just offered them an exclusive 3 game contract and the guys over at Media Molecule have graciously accepted.
Though its too early to expect to see anything substantial from them any time soon, expect some sort of announcement over the course of 2009.
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