Monthly Archives: May 2009

Visceral Games boss Glen Schofield isn’t put off by the relative failure of other core Wii products – Dead Space: Extraction will do the business, he’s told GI.

“I’m confident – it is an experiment, but there’s going to be 50 million Wiis out there by the time the game comes out, so if you only hit 2 per cent of the installed base and you’ve got a huge number,” he said.

“I don’t know – there have been some already, Resident Evil and House of the Dead, that have done really well, so we’re pushing for that 80-plus-rated game, and that’ll put you in the top 5 per cent of all Wii games… because most do not have a great score.”

Extraction is out this autumn. The game’s exec producer, Steve Papoutsis, told VG247 recently that the title was needed for Wii.

“As a hardcore gamer myself, I want stuff like this on the Wii,” he said.

“I love the Wii, I love Nintendo. I love all the platforms, but I really want something that I can play co-operatively on the Wii with a friend that hits that sweet spot I think Dead Space: Extraction is in.”

Valve’s released global Steam stats for a bunch of games available through the service, listing which Steam achievements have and haven’t been won.

Keep clicking. It’s not hard to get lost. Thanks, Kotaku.

NIS US clearly had some kind of protospasm this morning, announcing a ton of stuff for US release this year.

And here it all is:

• Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days coming to PSP this year (Joystiq, plus movie)
• Last Rebellion Is NIS America’s 3D PS3 RPG (Siliconera, plus shots)
• Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy coming to PS2 this Fall (Joystiq, plus shots)
• Witch’s Tale Back With A Cute Vengeance (Kotaku, plus screens)
• Phantom Brave: We Meet (the trailer) Again (Joystiq, plus movie)

You guys are hilarious. There’s you with you “relaxing” and your “sleep”. You’re only alive once, you know. How can you expect to know everything that happens in the world of Activision Blizzard videogames news on the internet if you don’t constantly look at a computer screen while you’re awake?

You could just look at the list below, obviously:

• Activision Blizzard posts $981 million revenue for Q1
• Acti Blizz Q1 earnings call – the full transcript
• Acti Blizz – We own 55% of all music games in US and Europe
• New Hawk to give “thrill of skateboarding like never before”, E3 reveal planned
• WoW may be taken offline for Chinese transition, says Morhaime
• StarCraft II “external beta testing” this “summer”
• Acti Blizz: 34 million Guitar Hero tracks downloaded
• Acti Blizz adds “Call of Duty” to Modern Warfare 2, original ships 13 million
• DJ Hero can have added guitar for play
• Acti Blizz – Console sales will rise 53 million units this year
• Guitar Hero hits $2 billion in sales

Activision Blizzard had plenty to talk about in its first quarter earnings call last night. You may well have been asleep. Luckily, some tireless soul from Seeking Alpha type up the entire thing, as you can see here.

First one to find the quote about Blur doing for racing games what Call of Duty did for shooters is the winner.

Activision boss Mike Griffith said in the Acti Blizz Q1 earnings call last night that Guitar Hero is now responsible for more than half of all rhythm action sales in the US and Europe.

“This quarter, we further extended our advantage for the Guitar Hero franchise,” he said. “We ended the quarter with a 55% share of all rhythm and music based games in North America and Europe, up 10 full points from the prior year, as we took share from Rock Band in both North America and Europe.”

Griffith wasn’t done with the Rock Band-bashing.

“In Europe, where expansion of the franchise remains a strategic priority, quarterly sell-through was up over 80 percent year over year, with Guitar Hero outselling Rock Band by 10:1,” he added.

“Our competitive position should further improve next month when we launch Guitar Hero Metallica in Europe.”

You go, girl. Get the rest of the news from the call here.

Activision CEO Mike Griffith said in Acti Blizz’s Q1 earnings call yesterday that the new Tony Hawk game is to add a completely new dimension to the series. That’ll be a plastic skateboard, then.

“We are also planning to release our reinvention of Tony Hawk [later this year], with a very innovative and interactive game that lets consumers experience the thrill of skateboarding like never before,” said the boss.

“Our goal from the start was to reinvent this franchise back to its roots where we engaged a broad, mass market consumer, and we feel good about what this game can do. We will also unveil specifics at E3.”

Roll on June. You can never have enough bits of plastic in your living room.

There’s an hour-long video here of someone completing the inFamous demo.

The taster releases openly on May 21 alongside the full US release. UK people get it on May 29.

As expected, Nintendo’s confirmed remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver will release for the Japanese DS this autumn.

The games, titled Pokemon Heart Gold and Pokemon Soul Silver, will feature additional gubbins over previous versions, but there’s no detail as yet.

Thanks, IGN.

Reuters, citing “people familiar with the discussions,” is reporting that Acti Blizz is working on movie deals for its rhythm action “Hero” games, World and Warcraft and Call of Duty.

“They are being talked about for the big screen,” said one source.

In an interview before yesterday’s quarterly earnings conference call, company boss Bobby Kotick wouldn’t comment on the speculation, but when asked specifically about the Hero franchise said, “It might make for a good TV show or a good concert tour.”

There’s a bit more through there.

GameTap has entered into an agreement with Microsoft Games to bring some of its PC titles to subscription-based service

Here are the ones added so far:

• Age of Mythology
• Age of Empires 2
• Rise of Nations
• Freelancer
• Fable: The Lost Chapters
• Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries
• Zoo Tycoon series

European and North American subscribers can start the downloading frenzy as of today.

Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime has warned that the Chinese version of World of Warcraft may be taken offline while the company swaps operators in the country.

“Some downtime may be necessary for a limited time,” said the exec, speaking in Activision Blizzard’s Q1 earnings call.

Morhaime said a website‘s been set up to keep players informed of what’s going to happen and when.

Blizzard is currently in the process of switching the MMO over to NetEase from The9 in China.

The amount of people playing the game in China appears to be a bit of a mystery, but “a lot” is a safe bet.

Globally, the game passed the 11 million subs mark in October 2008.

Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime just confirmed that StarCraft II’s “external beta testing” will take place this “summer”.

There was no specific date for the test, and Morhaime said updates would be forthcoming.

Opt-ins were recently opened for the beta.

There’s still no confirmed date for the game itself.

Morhaime was speaking in Activision Blizzard’s first quarter earnings call.

Acti Blizz has reported that over 34 million songs have been downloaded for the Guitar Hero franchise, and over 14 million bits of user-created content have been made through Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The company, speaking in its Q1 earnings call today, said that because of the popularity of music games, the genre is now an integral part of the company’s long term expansion plans.

Because of the demand, DJ Hero is being released to give gamers wanting a variety in music something else to play in their living rooms.

During the conference call, we think it was mentioned that more people buy music through the game than any other form of media. We’ll check the transcript when it is released to make sure, so don’t quote us just yet.

One thing that is a positive – more Guitar Hero and other rhythm-based games are in Acti Blizz’s future with a bomb.

Uh oh. Activision Blizzard just called Inifity Ward’s upcoming super-sequel “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ in its Q1 earnings call. Thought the Call of Duty had been dropped?

The company said that the game’s teaser trailer had been viewed 1.3 million in its first 24 hours of release.

The original game has now shipped 13 million units, said the firm.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ ships in November.

You’ll be able to plug a guitar into DJ Hero and play along with the game’s turntable, Activision Blizzard just confirmed in its Q1 earnings call.

The company said that 50 percent of likely buyers for the game are not currently Guitar Hero owners.

The game itself is being put together in the UK, and will release at the end of this year.

Activision Blizzard has just said that it expects console sales in the US and Europe to rise 53 million units this year, a prediction unchanged from its last figures release.

At the end of 2008, the firm said, 170 million consoles were installed in the two major Western markets, up 63 percent year-on-year.

Software will see “low- to mid-single digit growth” this year, said the firm.

The news comes from the company’s Q1 earnings call, which is ongoing.

Activision Blizzard announced revenues of $981 million for the three months ending March today.

Nielsen Media Research says that out of 180,000 homes in the USA, Second Life is the second most played title on PC behind World of Warcraft.

Weekly usage for the game averages 760 minutes per user while World of Warcraft users spend 653 minutes per week playing.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was third, Civ IV fourth, and Bookworm fifth.

The full chart is over on Massively.

Acti Blizz has posted better than expect results for the quarter ending March, showing $981 million revenue for the period.

Prior outlook was $860 million. EPS was $0.14, up from outlook of $0.08.

Operating income was $179 million for the quarter.

“Our better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, despite challenging economic times,” said boss Bobby Kotick.

“For the quarter, we were the #1 third-party console and handheld publisher in North America and the #1 third-party publisher for the Nintendo Wii platform worldwide, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk.”

The press release is here.

ActiBlizz has announced that Guitar Hero World Tour was the number one best-selling third-party title in the U.S. across all platforms in dollars.

Same in Europe, and thanks to Wii, Guitar Hero World Tour was the number one best-selling third-party title in dollars for the Nintendo system and the only third-party game to rank as a top-five best seller for the platform.

European sales for the Guitar Hero franchise grew 84 percent y-o-y.

While sales for the music category were down overall worldwide, ActivBlizz still held a 55 percent share in all rhythm games sales and outperformed Rock Band in sales by 10 to 1 with an install base for the franchise reaching 15 million worldwide.

The franchise has surpassed $2 billion in sales, and after the Mario and Madden franchises it’s the third to have accomplished such a distinction.