Monthly Archives: February 2009

Activision Blizzard’s annual sales report has revealed that, unsurprisingly, MMOs are where the money’s at for the company.

Here’s it all nice and broken down for you:

• MMO — $1.1 billion (approx)
• PC — $99 million
• Wii — $407 million
• Xbox 360 — $361 million
• PS2 — $284 million
• PS3 — $241 million
• Handheld — $237 million (DS and PSP combined)

Apparently there are still some people buying original Xbox titles, but it is not noted whether these sales are from XBLA or not.

More through the link.

In a report published on the subject of gaming addiction, Sweden’s Youth Care Foundation has described World of Warcraft as “the most dangerous game on the market”.

Sven Rollenhagen, the report’s author, said, “There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.”

He added: “It is the crack cocaine of the computer game world. Some will play it till they drop.”

The Swedish National Institute of Public Health gave the report a thumbs-up adding: “Computer game addiction is becoming more widespread across the world.”

The comments come after a 15-year old Swedish teenager collapsed into a fit of convulsions earlier this month after playing WoW non-stop for 24 hours.

The boy has since recovered from his ordeal.

Activision has put out two new trailers for Guitar Hero: Metallica, both of which are posted after the break.

Finally, we get to see King Diamond in action, as well Lemmy von Motorhead.

Well if we’re being honest, Lemmy isn’t really in action, just kinda standing there playing like usual. Without the prerequisite cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Game’s out March 20.

More »

EA has confirmed that Dead Space: Extraction will not be using MotionPlus when it releases for Wii.

While EA’s John Pleasants was wowing the crowd over at the 2009 Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, he did mention the game in almost the same breath as the firm’s Wii MotionPlus plans, causing a bit of confusion in some places around the ‘net.

It’s not happening though. Thanks to IGN for clearing it up.

Four of them.

There’s a muscle-bound knight taking on a creature ten times his size, fire-breathing monsters, upside down crosses — all stuff you’d get kicked out of Sunday school for.

Look over the rest here.

Game’s out sometime this year.

Rumor says that Ready at Dawn will be bringing everyone’s favorite Spartan back to PSP.

Supposedly, the God of War: Chains of Olympus developer is hard at work on another installment in the series.

RaD co-founder, Didier Malenfant, responded to these chatter with: “You know that even if we were [making the game], I couldn’t answer your question.”

An unnamed Joystiq informant also mentioned that the game may be revealed in some form at E3 in June.

Fingers crossed.

Ever wondered how much money the two sides of Activision Blizzard rake in? Wonder no more.

The company’s annual report from the 2008 calender year saw Activision as the clear winner with $2.8 billion, Blizzard coming second with $1.3 billion — 97 percent of that figure is from WoW subscriptions.

Calender year 2007, before the merge, had Blizzard bringing in $1.1 billion and Activision $272 million

Activision winning this bout can be mainly explained by Call of Duty 4 and World at War combined with the sales of Guitar Hero III and World Tour.

The second PSP Disgaea title is Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, according to an ERSB rating.

That’s it. It’ll involve jumping around a grid while your life drips away one second at a time. No other details yet.

Thanks, IGN.

DSi is amazing. It can do it all. Pictures, games, music: you name it. So incredible is it at music, in fact, that sorting all your “tunes” out into playlists is easier than it is on a PC with a keyboard and mouse. Don’t take our word for it. Nintendo super boss Satoru Iwata said so.

“Because of the two screens and touchscreen, it’s easier to add songs to playlists than it is on a computer,” he said.

“Development of Nintendo DSi Sound originally started with an idea from Miyamoto-san, but when I see the final product, I feel like it possesses a value as a music player that previous music players haven’t.

“That’s because the Nintendo DSi has speakers with improved sound quality and volume. Of course, it can’t compare with using full fledged headphones, but even if you don’t use headphones, you can enjoy listening to music with your family in the living room or dining room.

Want to leave the dining room and still enjoy your rinsin’ beats? You can.

“You can enjoy it all over the house, alone in the bathroom or in your bedroom, without having to worry about a headphone cord.

“You can do that because the speakers are one with the handheld device. The places where you can use your music player have expanded dramatically.”

We’ll buy 50, Satoru. DSi launched in Europe and the US in April.

Sony US marketing head John Koller’s told MTV that the firm’s in ongoing discussions to bring GTA back to PSP.

“No one should sleep on that franchise,” he said.

“That’s a tremendous franchise for PlayStation in general. We’ve had two that are the top two sellers on PSP right now. So, there’s definitely continued conversations with Rockstar on all their brands.

“That’s nothing that’s left the PlayStation family.”

Koller went on to insinuate that DS may not be the right setting for the upcoming Chinatown Wars.

“It’s an interesting launch on DS,” he said. It raises some eyebrows in a lot of areas. It’ll be interesting to see how that sells.”

More through there.

EA’s released a new trailer for The Godfather II, titled Crime Rings.

Get it from CVG.

Game is expected for PS3 and 360 April 10. Here’s hoping it doesn’t slip again.

Area 5 – the ex-1UP Show posse – has published the fifth episode of Co-op, featuring a ton of in-game footage from Street Fighter IV and The Lost and Damned, so if you were wavering on buying either this could make your mind up.

Don’t forget the 30-something men talking about games like they’re seriez bizznez. Fill your Saturday with 23 minutes of scowls.

After the break.

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Final Fantasy IV is heading to the Wii, according to the ESRB website.

Called Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, the game appears to be 2D RPG, unlike the 3D version released last summer, and will include an item called ‘Bacchus Wine’ to use when battling enemies.

It’s apparently based on Japanese mobile phone title, Final Fantasy IV: The After. No word on whether this will be a retail or WiiWare release.

Hit the link for more.

As you can see on Xbox.com, official support for the original Xbox will end on March 2.

It’s the end of the dream. A bit of it, anyway.

“On March 2, 2009, service repairs for Original Xbox video game systems for which the Warranty has expired will no longer be available. Any other technical support, documents, and content, however, will continue to be available to all our customers. Although Microsoft is ending repair services for the Original Xbox, an upgrade program and support will be maintained for Original Xbox consoles that are still under Warranty.”

Large black box: we salute you. Thanks, Joystiq.

As part of a major management restructuring this week, Sony announced yesterday it’s to put the SCE games business into a new, larger group, to be headed by Kaz Hirai.

The Networked Products & Services Group will include PlayStation, VAIO and Walkman.

Hirai is currently president of SCE.

“These moves are bolder than we had anticipated and are positive,” said Merril Lynch analyst Hitoshi Kuriyama.

“We believe the new management and organization will be effective in bringing out Sony’s potential in this new networked age.”

Sony is currently laying off 16,000 staff in the face of record losses.

Thanks, Psychotext.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference yesterday, EA COO John Pleasants said that music games are set to become a huge segment of the industry, and one that both EA and Activision are actively pushing to innovate in.

“There are lots of other things you can do with music, and we’re working on interesting things, and we know our competition is working on interesting things”, he said.

“When we look back five years, the fantasy of being a rock star by punching the buttons that are flowing down the screen is going to be one implementation in what is going to be a very large category”.

Without admitting to anything currently in the oven or, he did say that “it’s a robust category” and in the coming years there will be “lots of things we will do in the music category.”

He also shrugged off Activision claims that Guitar Hero was a clear leader in the field.

“They’re both big behemoths,” he said. “In calendar year ’08, Rock Band 1 was, I believe the leading music SKU across all platforms and Rock Band 2 was the highest-quality product with a 92 Metacritic.”

More here.

Capcom Europe’s Anil Das Gupta has posted a tutorial on how to pull off some basic moves in Street Fighter IV.

Good thing to watch if you have never played the series, and it’s a good refresher course for those who haven’t in years.

Do so here.

Tabula Rasa will be going offline forever come tomorrow, and NCsoft plans for the MMO to go out with a bang.

Word has it that alien race the Neph has discovered wormhole technology and are invading with “wave after wave of Bane troops without rest or respite.”

If you’ve got an account, log on. Make Tabula Rasa’s last gasp a memorable one.

Thanks, Shack.

Phenomic has flung open the doors to the beta for upcoming card-based RTS game, BattleForge.

Game’s live March 26, and for participating in the beta, you get a upgraded Firedancer card as reward. Can’t say fairer than that.

Here’s how. Go to the site, download the client, create an EA account (unless you already have one), let it patch, log in with EA account, create a character, play the game.

Easy as pie.

EA Sports is planning on releasing games compatible with Wii MotionPlus regardless of whether the new feature has been launched or not.

Nintendo originally announced that Wii Sports Resort would be released and bundled with the WMP add-on come spring.

Now, MTV Multiplayer has learned that it is now listed instead as a “2009″ release.

EA games supporting Wii MotionPlus are expected to be released on June 16, but luckily, neither Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 or Grand Slam Tennis are dependent on the add-on.

“Tiger and Tennis will be compatible, but not dependent, on WMP. They will ship with the functionality, regardless of when WMP comes to market”, said an EA spokesperson.

Good thing.

More through the link.