Monthly Archives: April 2009

Paramount and Sony are promoting the upcoming JJ Abrams Star Trek movie on Home starting today.

Home users will also see Starfleet uniforms and t-shirts show up in the Threads Store on April 23.

There’s more.

Over on the film’s PS Home website, it’s been confirmed that Abrams and the actors playing Kirk and Spock in the movie will be appearing on Home on April 20 for a Q&A session with “selected press and bloggers from around the world.”

A post Q&A “virtual roundtable” will be taking place within Home and both events will be streamed live.

Via Kotaku.

Sony has finally announced a North American release date for SingStar Queen.

Hitting store shelves on August 18 for PS2 and PS3, the standalone disc is the second foray into an artist-specific title for the series, and features 25 tracks.

We may just break down and buy this one. Seriously.

Capcom’s confirmed Street Fighter IV’s Championship mode as a free download on April 24.

In a nutshell:

The tournaments offer a new take on classic SFIV competition. They are broken out into 5 different levels, which means everyone can participate and find a good challenge without getting blown out of the water or bored. You score Grade Points (GP) for tournament wins, and as your GP total grows, you’ll become eligible to enter into more exclusive tournaments. Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). The CP work basically like “prize money” up for grabs in the tournament. The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize!

There’s tons more through there.

We’re pretty sure this is all of it. In a nutshell: everything down, everyone a bit edgy, Resi Evil did OK, Killzone’s a bit of a shocker, Chinatown Wars am cry, DSi’s a flyer, 360 was up over last year.

See? Wasn’t hard, was it?

• March NPD – Frazier calls for restraint as sales crash 17%
• March NPD – Resident Evil 5 takes top spot for 360
• March NPD – Wii still on top with 601,000 in hardware sales
• March NPD – All the raw data
• March NPD: DSi sells 435,000 in first week
• March NPD: Microsoft points to YoY 360 rise in response
• March NPD: Nintendo sticks to hardware domination in press release
• March NPD: Sony sticks to software in figures response
• March NPD: GTA Chinatown Wars sales less than 100,000 in US, says report
• March NPD: Killzone 2 sales put into perspective
• March NPD: Chinatown Wars likely to be “marginally” profitable
• March NPD: Nintendo shares fall on “severe” US sales data

March NPD figures, released yesterday, have confirmed that the American DSi sold 435,000 units in its first week on sale.

The machine released April 5, preceded by a April 3 launch in Europe.

More on GI.

Xbox 360′s sales were up 25 percent in March compared to last year, Microsoft said in its NPD response last night, making it the only console that actually increased sales in what was otherwise a dismal show.

The machine moved 330,000 units, with four 360 games included in the top 10. The 360 version of Resident Evil was top, with almost 1 million copies sold.

Full thing after the break.

More »

Nintendo stuck to the fact its hardware accounted for nearly 60 percent of all sales in the US last month in its NPD press release, while also making noted of Pokemon Platinum’s number two position in the software rankings.

“Nintendo systems accounted for 58.4 percent of the video game hardware sold in March, more than all other systems combined,” said NoA marketing head Cammie Dunaway.

“Consumers continue to be attracted to the wide range of software available and the great value of Nintendo systems.”

Full thing after the break.

More »

Sony didn’t mention hardware sales at all in its response to last night’s NPD figures, instead talking up Killzone’s 1 million worldwide sales and the success of platform exclusives such as MLB 09 The Show.

And inFamous, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MAG, Heavy Rain, God of War III, and Rachet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time are all on the way, the company said.

Sony promised solid PS2 sales for April on the back of its price cut earlier this month, but made no mention of PS3′s fortunes in March.

Full thing after the break.

More »

SAI is citing “industry sources” as claiming GTA: Chinatown Wars achieved only 88,704 sales in the US last month.

There’s been no official comment from NPD as yet.

Predictions on the game’s sales varied heavily in the run-up to last night’s figure-release, with 200,000 the lowest guess.

Looks as though it was worse than anyone imagined.

Hopefully we’ll get solid confirmation soon.

A poster on GT Planet rambled on about bird and skypaths yesterday in relation to GT5. Yes, it’s spurious. It’s been interpreted thus:

• Global release date: December 1
• 600+ cars, 95 tracks, some of which will be remodelled GT4 tracks/cars
• Ability to create new tracks from existing ones
• Extensive clan/team features
• There will be two versions of GT5. One with all the features in it, costing the most (initially). Small version will be GT5P+, but it will cost you to get all the upgrades to the big version
• Possible PSP/PC release

E3, maggot-farmer. Bring on the cars.

Killzone 2′s sales figures were one of the shock stories of last night’s NPD release, the game being outsold in the US last month by the likes of Halo Wars and MLB ‘09: The Show.

That’s probably not so good if you’re Sony. Want some context? Here’s how it compares to other 360 and PS3 titles in terms of speed sold at various levels of install base, thanks to Psychotext posting over on the EG forum.

360 Sales

• Gears 1 – 1.00m in 3 weeks to ~3.4m 360s
• Bioshock – 0.49m in 10 days (0.64m over 40 days) to ~6.1m 360s.
• COD4 – 1.57m in 4 weeks to ~7.8m 360s.

PS3 Sales

• COD4 – 0.44m in 4 weeks to ~2.4m PS3s.
• GTAIV – 1.0m in 5 days to ~4.2m PS3s.
• MGS4 – 0.74m in 3 weeks to ~4.8m PS3s.
• CODW@W – 0.60m in 2 weeks to ~6.1m PS3s
• Killzone 2 – 0.62m in 5 weeks to ~7.2m PS3s

The game was announced last night as having sold more than 1 million units worldwide. For a game that was supposedly pre-ordered 1.1 million times in Europe. Should we call Poirot?

This is genuinely depressing. Stardock’s updated its site to claim that over 120,000 users have tried to play Demigod online since the game launched last weekend, and that only 18,000 have actually paid for it.

Seriously, sort it out. It’s not even that expensive. How do you expect people to keep making these games if you can’t be bothered to shell out fourty fucking dollars to support developers? This is how people go bust, you idiots.

Read the full thing through the link. JUST BUY IT. Thanks, Kotaku.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier has called for calm after NPD figures released today showed a year-on-year revenue drop of 17 percent in the US market to $1.43 billion from $1.72 billion in March 2008.

She said in a statement:

“While it might be tempting to jump to the conclusion that the sky is starting to fall on the video games industry given this months results, it’s important to remember that two very big things are different this year than last. First, Easter fell in March last year whereas it fell in April this year, and last March included the release of Super Smash Bros.: Brawl, which went on to become the fourth best-selling game in 2008.”

“You might not think that Easter is that big of a gift-giving holiday, but our consumer data shows that 8% of industry unit sales were purchased for the Easter occasion in March 2008, accounting for $121M of that months’ sales. We expect that most of Easter sales this year fell into the April reporting period and we’ll see that reflected in next month’s data.”

“This is very much like September of last year, which did not compare favorably to September of 2007 as the result of a huge game launch, Halo 3. Besides March 2008, this month’s sales are 31% higher than the previous highest March which was March of 2007, so it was a pretty healthy month for sales, overall.”

US hardware sales dropped 18 percent to $455.55 million compared to last year, while software revenue fell 17 percent to $792.83 million.

Peripheral sales were down 15 percent to $185.67 million.

The 360 version of Resident Evil 5 was the biggest selling game in America last month, with almost 1 million units shifted.

Pokemon Platinum came second with just over 800,000 units moved, and Halo Wars came a solid third with 639,000 games sold.

The most shocking bit? MLB ’09: The Show outsold Killzone 2.

Top ten below:

1. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 360) – 938K
2. Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo, DS) – 805K
3. Halo War (Microsoft, 360) – 639K
4. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, PS3) – 585K
5. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 541K
6. MLB ’09: The Show (Sony, PS3) – 305K
7. Killzone 2 (Sony, PS3) – 296K
8. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 281K
9. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 278K
10. Major League Baseball 2K9 (Take 2, 360) – 205K

Wii sold 610,000 units in the US last month, according to just-released NPD data, a far smaller figure than predicted.

Both 360 and PS3 sold below analyst predictions as well, with over 330,000 and 218,000 units sold respectively.

• PS2 – 112K
• PS3 – 218K
• PSP – 168K
• Xbox 360 -330K
• Wii – 601K
• DS -563K

Michael Pachter forecast earlier this week that 800,000 Wii, 400,000 360, and 350,000 PS3 consoles were sold in America during March.

By comparison, EEDAR predicted that 900,000 Wiis, 395,000 360s and 300,000 PS3 were sold during the period.

Hardware Units

PlayStation 2 112K
PlayStation 3 218K
PSP 168K
Xbox 360 330K
Wii 601K
Nintendo DS 563K

Top 10 SKU’s March 2009

Title Publisher Platform Rank # Units
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA 360 1 938K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 2 805K
HALO WARS* MICROSOFT 360 3 639K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA PS3 4 585K
WII FIT W/BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 5 541K
MLB ’09: THE SHOW SONY PS3 6 305K
KILLZONE 2 SONY PS3 7 296K
WII PLAY W/REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 8 281K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 9 278K
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE 360 10 205K

Dollar Sales

3/1/2008** Mar-09 CHG Qtr 1 2008 Qtr 1 2009 CHG
Video Games $1.72B $1.43B -17% $4.24B $4.25B 0%
Video Games Hardware $552.04M $455.55M -18% $1.41B $1.43B 1%
Video Games Software $952.14M $792.83M -17% $2.24B $2.21B -2%
Video Game Accessories $217.55M $185.67 -15% $588.92M $604.47M 3%

Loads going on this week in the US PS Store.

There’s BUZZ! Quiz TV US Sports, the F.E.A.R. 2 Toy Soldiers map pack, PixelJunk Eden Encore, Midnight Club Los Angeles: South Central Vehicle Pack 1 and so much more we just cannot contain our excitement.

Can’t you tell?

Get the full thing over on the official US PlayStation Blog.

GI’s dragged through an SEC filing to discover that Interplay finished 2008 with zero funds.

The firm ended last year with a cash balance of $0 and a deficit of approximately $2.4 million.

The publisher is actively seeking financing or income, without which it will be forced to liquidate assets, sell the company or face bankruptcy.

“We continue to seek external sources of funding,” Interplay said, “including but not limited to, incurring debt, the selling of assets or securities, licensing of certain product rights in selected territories, selected distribution agreements, and/or other strategic transactions sufficient to provide short-term funding, and achieve our long-term strategic objectives.”

More through there.

Dengeki Online has 12 shots up for Tales of Graces.

Looks lovely.

The RPG’s for Wii, and is due out this winter in Japan and 2010 in Europe and North America.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Sony’s confirmed that Killzone 2 has surpassed 1 million copies sold worldwide, reports GameDaily.

Using the Guerrilla Games shooter as an example of an “only on PlayStation experience,” the firm said the title will “continue to drive incentive for hardware sales throughout the year.”

Just last week, the game was reportedly the only title in PS3 history to reach the 500,000 mark the fastest.

Quick jump in numbers there.

More through the link.