Monthly Archives: July 2009

Nintendo announced sales numbers for some of its titles in the last quarter, and the numbers are not too shabby, especially considering four titles sold over one million copies between April and July.

• Pokemon Platinum DS, moved 1.91 million copies during the quarter and has sold 5.66 million worldwide
• Wii Fit sold 3.6 million copies, making LTD 21.82
• Mario Kart Wii sold 2 million with LTD 17.39 million
• Wii Sports sold 1.91 million copies, bringing total sales to 47.62 million which includes the sales of bundled versions

The full thing can be looked-over here.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has told Destructoid that the best way to combat used game sales and piracy, is to make good games and offer continued support.

“We always see these overall numbers, like how much money GameStop’s making per year off of used game sales, but we really don’t have a breakdown of details for those,” he told the site. “I don’t personally know, after being at Valve since Half-Life 1, how many copies of our games per year are sold used, and on the PC versus the 360, so I think there’s a certain amount of information that’s missing, sort of like piracy. I think a lot of folks cry piracy when a game fails to hit their forecast and it may or may not be part of the problem, and it may or may not be all of the problem, but I think to throw any one reason at any problem is probably a mistake, considering the lack of information on both fronts.

“Having said all that, though, I think that it’s probably true to say that gamers tend to have affinity for the games that they like, so if you’re doing your job and making a good game, and providing a high level of service for that game at the time of release and post-release, I’m guessing you’re probably less of a victim of piracy and trade, because people want to have the full copy, the legal copy, and have all the updates.

“I think there are ways of curbing both piracy and used game sales by providing a higher level of service at the time of launch and post-launch. And I think what we’re seeing, as platforms become more and more connected, that this problem will become less and less an issue as the idea of offering a service post-launch becomes more and more en vogue.”

More through the link.

There’s a Mothership Zeta video posted after the break courtesy of Joystiq.

Fallout 3′s latest bit of DLC will land August 3 for 800 MS Points ($10) on PC and Xbox.

The PS3 version will be available at a later date.
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Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity) has been confirmed for a North American and European release in Q3 2010.

The joint venture between SEGA and tri-Ace is being released in hopes of sparking more interest in JRPGs.

“America and Europe is the same release,” said SEGA’s Europe localization producer Jun Yoshino. “Usually the European version comes a year after, let’s say the Japanese release. During the year, a lot of people are going to be like, well this is old news now. We’re going to be losing a lot of interest if there is such a long time as a year.

“We’ve scheduled it in so we can get it out as quick as possible.”

It’s slated for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Via D’toid

SEGA’s Q1 09 financial report was just released, and included in it were sales figures for Virtua Tennis and The Conduit.

Virtua Tennis 2009 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC) moved 790,000 units in the US since it’s June 9 release, and The Conduit (Wii) moved 150,000 units in the US since its June 23 release. The quarter officially ended for SEGA on June 30, so those figures for The Conduit constitute one week’s worth of sales.

Included in the report were the number of titles moved per console. Number listed next to each are in the thousands:

• PS3: 310
• Wii: 550
• Xbox 360: 200
• DS: 180
• PSP: 110
• PC: 20

The full thing can be viewed in a lovely PDF file here.

Germany’s ratings board, Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) has Braid listed for PS3.

The listing has Hothead Games as doing the port.

While the USK has no reason to lie, keep it as rumor until an announcement is made.

Via NeoGAF.

SEGA has released it’s financial figures for Q1 2009 ending June 30, and company-wide revenue was ¥60.5 billion ($638.4 million) net, down 19 percent year on year.

The company reduced its loss from 10.5 billion ($110.8 million) to 10.3 billion ($108.6 million) year-on-year, with 2.65 million software units moved worldwide.

Home videogame software sales were largely firm, but other aspects of the business were weak, such as the arcade stuff.

More through the press release below.

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A Kotaku reader has picked through the images on Square’s lovely teaser site we told you about earlier.

Still no idea what the hell it is.

Some Japanese sites are claiming it is Lord of Vermillon, then again it could be the recently trademarked Lord of Arcana or Gyromancer.

See for yourself. Curse away if you like.

Silver members who want in on the Gears of War 2 multiplayer can do so for free this weekend.

All XBL members are invited to participate in the online fragging, no matter the subscription level.

The event has started already, and will go until Monday, August 3 at 11:59am EST.

More on this is over on the official GoW2 website.

Ukrainian developer, Boolat Games, has announced that its PSN plaformer is headed to the US.

Called “topatoi: The Great Tree Story”, the arcade game has already been released in Europe and will ladn on North American shores in the fall.

The game contains a story mode, where when successfully completed, opens up the arcade mode.

There’s more about the game posted over on the US PS Blog, and a video of it is through the jump.

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During Sony’s Q1 09 earnings report, CFO Robert Wiesenthal revealed that half of PS3 users have signed up for PSN.

“I think it’s running on track, and we are expecting really great things this year from it,” he said.

According to Kotaku’s calculations, there are 23 million PS3 consoles out there and if half have signed up, that means there are currently 11 million people using PSN.

Currently, Sony measures sign-up rates for PSN by the number of individual accounts.

More through the link.

Warner has promoted Jeff Junge to senior VP of business management in wake of its acquisition of Midway Games.

“Jeff is a tremendous asset to the studio and has been a key contributor to the success of many of the company’s major initiatives,” said Warner Home Entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara.

“He is a strategic thinker, has exceptional insight into the deal making process and is a tireless worker. Jeff’s expertise will be critical as we continue to expand our business and explore new opportunities.”

Junge was instrumental in the purchase of Traveller’s Tales back in 2007, and Warner’s investment in OnLive.

His new position will entail continued merger and acquisition suggestions and implementation.

Via Edge.

EA has announced Spore Galactic Adventures users have created over 100,000 missions for the game since its launch in June.

That’s quite a bunch, really.

There’s also ten levels created by the Robot Chicken guys.

More through the press release below.

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Those that use Home can now download four costumes like those seen in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.

Available for a limited time, users can dress as Storm Shadow, Duke, The Baroness and Snake Eyes for free.

During the coming weeks, more G.I. Joe content is to be released, one of which consists of a G.I. Joe Training Game. Players can win Home goodies for showing how well they shoot stuff.

Get more details over on the EU PS Blog.

Former Sony Europe president Chris Deering has said that AAA gaming titles need to be priced at £70 to support the industry.

Derring, speaking to MCV, also stated that if we are to expect more “blockbuster games” as gamers did in the past, developers need to produce the titles more efficiently.

“In order to price these games at a level where they would support an industry [as strongly as] they did ten years ago, they’d have to be sold at £70. But people just don’t have that kind of money, there’s a psychological glass ceiling.

“Consumers won’t spend more, but to write the game, publishers are having to spend more than ever before. That’s the key problem.

“The cost of development is ten times what it was for PS2, and more like 20 to 50 times more than on PSOne. Yet there are lots of things you can get for less than the relative value of paying 50p an hour for a very high end game.”

Deering is the chair of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, taking place August 13-14, where he and Ray Maguire, Peter Moore and Ian Livingstone will discuss ‘the future of the blockbuster game’.

More through the link.

Six screenshots for Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3 are posted after the break.

The new DLC includes three new multiplayer maps and one zombie level.

It’s out in August.

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PS3 special projects manager Dr. Richard Marks has been talking up Sony’s new motion controller to PC World.

While the company has yet to make an official announcement for the peripheral, Marks did provide information as to why it’s important that you hold something in your hand.

“We learned that while people definitely enjoy physical interaction and movement, they also want precise control and a simple, fast, reliable way to trigger actions. We designed our new control system to accomplish all of this,” he told the site. “We believe the path we have chosen is an ideal combination of both spatial and action/button input, and of course we can combine that with voice and video data from the PlayStation Eye mic array and camera.

“Having a hand-held controller greatly increases the precision that is possible, since we have designed it specifically for that purpose. The new controller’s high-precision embedded sensors detect the sensitive movements of the hands, and the PlayStation Eye tracks the sphere on the controller to precisely detect the position in real-life 3D space.

“Another huge benefit of having a controller comes from being able to trigger abstract actions with a simple button press. This is very important, because this event triggering capability is complementary to the spatial input provided by the tracking, and some experiences need both.

“No matter how good our visual tracking might become, the feeling you get from actually squeezing something physical is a better simulation than just positioning your finger. This relates to an interface phenomenon I call “somatic gratification”. The feeling of the interaction can be just as important as the effectiveness.

Marks went on to say that Sony is looking into the possibility of incorporating familiar characters and franchises with the peripheral, and while the new controller will be out sometime during spring 2010, further details, along with a name, will be provided an official announcement is made.

Bethesda has announced that A2M’s action title WET will land on shelves in the US and UK September 15 and 18 respectively.

That’s much better than “Fall 2009″.

Soon, you will be able to load the game into your 360 or PS3 and take on the role of problem fixer Rubi Malone as you take down enemies with your dual pistols or samurai sword.

Neato.

Full thing through the break.

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Those who purchase the Modern Warfare 2 Hardened or Prestige editions will get a token to download Call of Duty Classic, and if you want the classic game but not MW2, you will just have to wait a bit.

Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has confirmed to IGN that the game will be made available, eventually, to everyone via XBL and PSN as a stand-alone game with working multiplayer.

“Prestige and Hardened Edition buyers will be getting access to Call of Duty: Classic first,” he told the site. “It’ll eventually be coming out for both Xbox Live Arcade and PSN as a stand-alone arcade game.

“However, price and release date are unknown at this point. It’s the true original Call of Duty including full multiplayer.”

Hopefully those itching for it won’t have to wait too long once MW2 is released.

Harmonix and MTV Games announced today that This is Spinal Tap will hit Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 4 and 6 for Rock Band.

Hell yes.

It’s to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film.

Tracks include all eleven songs from the soundtrack and are original master recordings from Back From The Dead recording sessions.

• (Funky) Sex Farm
• (Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)
• America
• Big Bottom
• Cups and Cakes
• Gimme Some Money
• Heavy Duty
• Hell Hole
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation
• Stonehenge
• Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

Individual songs cost 200 Wii Points or 160 MS Points ($1.99/£.99/€1.49 EU) or via a track pack for 1440 MS Points ($17.49/£11.90/€16.28).