Modern Warfare 3 was far less popular on the digital side, but rival Battlefield 3 performed well in both realms.

While multiplatform titles appear on both lists the digital chart plays host to a number of PC-exclusives, as well as titles more strongly favoured by PC gamers than their console kin, like Crysis 2.

The retailer released both lists to Joystiq, and you can look over them below.

Physical (all platforms, collector’s editions are not included)
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2. Just Dance 3
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
4. Battlefield 3
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. Madden NFL 12
7. Portal 2
8. Just Dance 2
9. Gears of War 3
10. FIFA Soccer 12

Digital
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. Battlefield 3
3. The Sims 3
4. Battlefield Bad Company 2
5. Sid Meir’s Civilization V
6. Dead Island
7. Total War: Shogun 2
8. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
9. Crysis 2
10. Dragon Age 2

Thanks, GameInformer.

Each day, will bring a different sale, and Joystiq was kind enough to pretty up the list for you. We’ve posted it below.

• 1/15 – Alice: Madness Returns: $7.49
• 1/16 – Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition + Dragon Age 2 Bundle: $11.99
• 1/17 – Medal of Honor – $6.99
• 1/18 – Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – $6.99
• 1/19 – Dead Space 2 – $6.99
• 1/20 – Bulletstorm – $6.99
• 1/21 – Crysis 2 – $9.99

If you purchases all games on the list, it would run you about the same as one new release.

The Vita launches in the west on February 22 in 3G and WiFi only form. [image]

Amazon is likely to be the giant this year, but as usual, it hasn’t announced its full line up of lightning deals and specials. One show-stopping offering we do know about is a 250GB Xbox 360 with Halo: Reach and Fable 3, for $199.

Microsoft is also giving a discount on sales direct from its online store, offering a 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect and Kinect Adventures, also priced at $199.

Like Amazon, Walmart is playing its cards close to its chest, but teasing “250 online-only specials” of up to 40% off. It’s also got an unspecified-Xbox 360 with Halo Reach, Fable 3, a 3-month Xbox Live card and one other game of your choice for $319.

EA’s Origin is offering Need for Speed: The Run and Battlefield 3 at $30 off. It’s also taking another 10% off already-discounted titles in The Sims 3 collection, the Need for Speed collection and the EA Sports collection. On consoles, the publisher has over 200 titles on sale at up to 60% off, but didn’t give details.

While not officially part of Cyber Monday, Steam’s Autumn Sale continues; current deals include Dead Space 2, Section 8: Prejudice, Red Faction: Armageddon and Thief at 75% off, plus a number of others at 50-75% off.

Check with individual retails for details of sale start and end times.

[image]

Steam’s autumn sale has been updated to include L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition at $24.99, Fallout: New Vegas for $5, the Monkey Island Special Edition bundle for $5.09, Zeno Clash for $3.74 and VVVVVV at $1.24. Visit the Steam Store for more details.

Amazon prefers to runs its holiday specials as lightning sales, announcing them at the last minute with brief windows of opportunity, but Cheap Ass Gamer has the whole list. It’s simply enormous, so you’re best bet is to decide what you’re after and then use CTRL+F to see if it’s on sale.

OnLive’s Five Day Fragfest is offering new sign ups their first game for $1 – that’s any game on the service, including recent blockbusters like batman: Arkham City. The special event also grants free access to Red Faction: Armageddon and Homefront and will host dozens of daily deals.

According to this year’s report, Microsoft made the Nice List because: “If someone buys and installs software on his or her computer, most retailers won’t give out a refund, no matter how much the customer hates it. Not so with Microsoft. Consumers dissatisfied with a Microsoft software or hardware purchase from any retailer can send it back to the company within 45 days for a refund and reimbursement of shipping costs up to $7.”

However, GameStop made the Naughty List: “A Fortune 500 company with more than 6,500 stores worldwide, this video game software and hardware merchant has a laundry list of conditions governing returns and exchanges. And in the end, GameStop proclaims, ‘We reserve the right to refuse any return.’”

The companies which end up on the list were decided upon by how consumer oriented it leans, but not on “everything else the company does” or how it treats its customers in general.

Other companies which sell gaming related products that ended up on the Nice List were Costco and Amazon.com.

The Naughty List also included Radio Shack, which sells gaming hardware and a few new releases online.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

According to Capcom Unity, Gamestop pre-orders net the Femme Fatale pack – alternate costumes for Morrigan, Storm, Chun Li and X-23.

Amazon’s offering is the New Age of Heroes pack, with new threads for old favourites Strider, Cyber Akuma, Sentinel, and Doctor Doom.

Best Buy has a Villians pack, with C. Viper, Wesker, Super Skrull and Modok.

In other virtual dress ups news, both DLC characters – Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath come with alternate costumes in pack, while the first premium costume pack favours Dante, Chris Redfield, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Ryu.

Hit the link above for images of all the new costumes.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, which was fleshed out to a full game rather than DLC due to development time constraints, releases on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this week. The US sees it on November 15, Japan on November 17, and Europe on November 18. A Vita version is expected in February.

Thanks, Joystiq.

“We have no announcements regarding this change in selection, however we can confirm that Amazon Digital Video Game Downloads is not currently offering Playstation Network Online Game Codes and Points Cards,” Amazon told PSN Stores when asked about the removal.

Links to the PSN content node have vanished from Amazon’s PlayStation 3 category, and the URL now sports a blank page.

Existing product pages show a “currently unavailable” message, but previously purchased content can still be redeemed.

Sony is yet to offer comment.

Thanks, Destructoid.

This isn’t even the vanilla BF3 version. This is the Limited Edition that comes with the Dog Tag Pack as well as the Back to Karkand DLC for free. Battlefield 3 launches on October 25.

Amazon link.

Thanks, Joystiq!

The retailer also posted a cover image which fits the series aesthetic so far. Head through the break to see the full thing.

Thanks, triggerhappy.

Thanks, Joystiq.

The exact figured given by the online retailer in a press release this morning said it was seeing pre-orders for the DICE shooter up by 2,302 percent against BF2.

Amazon also gave figures for other upcoming Christmas titles. Pre-orders on Modern Warfare 3 are up 321 percent against Black Ops, while Gears of War 3 is seeing a 216 percent count against Gears 2.

FIFA 12′s pre-orders are up by 325 percent compared to last year’s, with Batman: Arkham City seeing a 349 percent jump over Arkham Asylum.

But the biggest leading game besides BF3 on the list is Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception: the Naughty Dog action title has seen pre-orders go ahead by 488 percent compared to UC2: Among Thieves.

• CryEngine 3 has been licensed for a free to play shooter called Lethal Enterprise.
• Now this is cool. Two Worlds II: Castle Defence now has eye-tracking capabilities on the iPad. It’s the god damn future.
• The guys and gals at EA Sports says the AI in NHL 12 is amazing. Well, they would, wouldn’t they – but they talk a could talk.
• Zynga is expanding into China with a new version of Cityville. It’ll be interesting to see whether it or Rovio carves out the bigger slice.
• Final Fantasy Tactics had finally made it to the certification stage on iDevice. not long to wait now, hopefully.
• PlayStation Home has gone all Dead Island on us. Awesome.
• Got an email this morning saying the Facebook version of Diner Dash is closing down. Gamasutra says the game has seen massive drop off in users.
• Siliconera’s got a great interview with the voice over director on Catherine, all about bringing the romance sim bits to life in English.
• Nintendo says the Amazon 3DS issue has been resolved. Seems to have been a bit of a blip, that one.
• Dwarf Fortress is a hot topic at the moment, so if you’re keen to get on board, there’s an online class you can take. If I had time to become deeply addicted to one of the deepest strategy simulation games around, I’d be all over that shizzle. All my dwarfs die.
• Neil Burger, who just signed up to direct the Uncharted film, has taken on another project. This means little beyond confirming that the film’s in very early stages.
• There’s a new ship in Battlestar Galactica Online. I know, I know.

Today’s unrelated street art was very nearly usurped by a hilarious picture of a pig.

BusinessInsider reports Tweet updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect a new role as game designer and producer at Amazon.

Tweet confirmed the appointment but would not give further details; Amazon has issued no comment on the matter.

The lauded pen-and-paper RPG designer made significant contributions to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, as well as Ars Magica and Everway. He has worked in social gaming before, designing Gamehouse titles for Facebook.

Amazon’s new Android App Store in conjunction with this project suggests the online retail giant views digital gaming as an increasingly relevant product.

• Think you know all there is to know about Seinfeld? Get the quiz on iDevices. It’s been out a while yet, but still, the screens are new.
• Analyst Michael Pachter believes PSN Pass was “not timed particularly well,” and is “curious” as to whether it will make any money off it, but he expects “not.”
• If you kill 100 players in APB this weekend, you’ll get a pistol.
• Blizzard is to offer compensation for PVP players experiencing season 10 transition woes.
• A Space Invaders movie is getting closer to reality.
• Dungeon Siege III has been patched on Steam.
• GamePron has posted a screen dump for titles such as: Binary Domain, Luxor 2, Rugby World Cup 2011 and more.
• If you pre-order Dead Island through Amazon, you’ll get an artbook. Here’s two new screens as well.
• Another day, another GTA V rumor. OXM predicts it’s set for a summer reveal.
• Bounty Bay Online is getting a Raging Seas expansion.
• Sumthing Else Music has announced Play For Japan: The Album is now available in stores. All proceeds going to the Japanese Red Cross.
• The Frontier Colonies Map Pack for Section 8: Prejudice hits PC on July 27.

Of course, there are a tons of stinkers in the list, but there’s also a lot of really good stuff too like Street Fighter IV, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Bayonetta, and Singularity.

Apparently the video gaming industry is testing our preparedness skills to see if we have the strategic wherewithal to store up on video games now while their cheap to last us through the game release desert that is the late Summer, early Fall months.

• Amazon is hosting a pretty awesome 3DS and DS sale.
• Chinese online game specialist Shanda is talking to US companies about expanding its international portfolio.
• Bethesda’s Pete Hines has tweeted an updated photo of the Skyrim E3 billboard in progress. Gosh it’s almost like being there, isn’t it? #no
• Here’s an amazing fan trailer for Half-Life.
• The Age of Conan servers are merging today, in case you’re wondering why everything’s down.
• High Voltage has started releasing “Ask a Drudge” promo videos for Conduit 2. They’re kinda funny.
• EVE Online’s Incursion 1.6 patch is now live.
• Here’s a trailer for Everquest II – Children of War. Yep.

Today’s unrelated street art.

• EA is developing a Facebook game based on The Simpsons.  It’s out in September.
• Analysts seem to think Mario may not make Project Cafe’s launch, but Nintendo could get a Rockstar, Epic, or Valve exclusive.
• Speaking of EA and Facebook, the firm’s former VP, Gerhard Florin, has taken a position with French publisher Kobojo.
• Move over Daily Mail, Modern Warfare 3′s London levels have pissed off The Metro.
• Ubisoft’s breathing game, Innergy, has been renamed OzenGame.
• inviZimals: Shadow Zone will be hitting PSP this fall.
• ASCII will be closing off its monthly Dengeki Games publication. God’s speed, we salute you, and all that.
• Amazon has opened up a digital download section for Macs. There’s games in there too.

In an email leaked to Maroonersrock, High Voltage art director Matt Corso jokingly encouraged staff to Amazonbomb Joystiq reviewer Michael T. Murdock, a severe critic of Conduit 2.

“Michael was kind enough to recently provide us with a Conduit 2 review, and so in turn you all should feel at liberty to (of course read it first) and then return the favor by writing a reader review for Michael’s book for him,” Corso wrote.

Later, four negative reviews of Murdock’s book appeared on Amazon in rapid succession, which raised suspicion – despite similar urgings previously appearing on fan sites around the web, independently.

High Voltage was quick to respond to the email’s publication, telling Wired it didn’t condone malicious behaviour and hadn’t been serious.

“My mind really wasn’t in that dark of a place when I wrote that. In fact I seriously considered buying the book myself,” Corso explained.

“I wanted to know how good it really was that this guy felt so in the right to trash our game and give away the ending like he did. And then post a plug to his book at the end, implying that we suck and he is totally great.”

CEO Eric Nofsinger added his voice to protestations of the studio’s innocence.

“I think he wrote it in a very tongue-in-cheek kinda way,” he said.

“We would want to never attack anyone for their opinions on a game.”

Murdock wasn’t convinced, and seems to be smarting over the poor reviews.

“They don’t honestly care about what happened, and they’re trying to get their hands out of the cookie jar before they get smacked,” he said.

“They simply have no remorse for what they’ve done, and they think the industry and everyone else will just laugh it off. I hope that doesn’t happen. A game company shouldn’t just keep shooting themselves in the foot, hoping their limp goes away.”

Meow.

Murdock’s review of Conduit 2 called the Wii FPS “lackadaisical trash” and “appalling”, and heavily criticised its length, writing, voice acting, controls and graphics.

Conduit 2 currently holds a 64 average on Metacritic. Murdock’s book is sitting at three out of five stars from 36 reviews, many of which are positive comments posted after High Voltage’s email was outed.

Thanks, D’toid.

• Nothing is scarier than a psychotic, Naughty Bear hellbent on revenge – except maybe a gold version with all the trimmings.
• Netflix is leading use of bandwidth in the US on consoles. The more you know, etc.
• Checkout this Lynx handheld decked out Batman-style.
• Hideo Kojima has once again tweeted something esoteric and bit baffling.
• A Minecraft user has created a level called Ghibli World, and it would do filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki proud.
• Impressions and a video for escapeVektor: Chapter 1 have been posted.
• En Masse Entertainment plans on redefining traditional MMO character classes with its TERA MMO.
• Some artwork present in videogame title screens can be found here.
• devCat Studios is adding new goodies to its Vindictus MMO which was released in October.
• Amazon has been given an exclusivity period for PopCap’s Android games.
• Is FOX getting into the console video service business? An FCC filing outs the possibility.
• Wonder what Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Freddie Kruger think of appearing in Call fo the Dead for Black Ops? The duo and the rest of the cast sound-off here.
• Those who speak German or who are just Germanophiles can watch 10-minutes of Ocarina of Time 3D in the language.
• Nvidia has released its GeForce GTX 560 graphics card. Get the full details on it here.
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries commercials have started hitting Japan.
• A trailer for Yokai, 2BadCompany’s debut title, can be watched here. It looks rather neat.
• Check out these five videogame patents you didn’t know existed. It might blow your mind. Maybe.

At this stage, we’ve only been informed of the U.S. retailers, but fingers crossed these deals are repeated around the globe, as they are pretty awesome and we’d hate to miss out based simply on geography!

Pick up the game at Wal-Mart, and you’ll get the Electrocution Grenade.

Amazon customers receive a 24k Gold Amp.

Finally, you’ll get Lightning Hook if you pre-order at GameStop.

We’re also not sure if gamers will be later given the opportunity to pick up the remaining two powers, via DLC or in-game microtransaction.

One thing we do know, however – if you wanted a chance to check out the mission editor tool, you haven’t missed out. The inFamous 2 UGC beta will be extended, once the PlayStation Network is back online, and you’ll get your chance then.

Thanks, CVG.

In an advisory sent to its members and posted in full on its website, the IGDA has expressed “significant concerns about Amazon’s current Appstore distribution terms and the negative impact they may have on the game development community.”

Chief among these concerns is Amazon’s pricing model. The IGDA warns that Amazon not only reserves the right to control the price of the Android games it sells, but also to pay developers “the greater of 70% of the purchase price or 20% of the List Price.”

Amazon’s T&Cs also state that if a developer lowers the price of its game on an ‘similar service’ – such as another appstore – it must permanently reduce its price on the Amazon store. This effectively means that a ‘time-limited’ offer on a competitor’s store becomes a permanent price reduction on the Amazon store.

The full advisory, including examples of scenarios in which developers may lose significant revenue, can be found on the IGDA website.

Elesewhere, Apple recently began legal action against Amazon for use of the term ‘App Store’ the details and implications of which are discussed on the Gamer Law blog.

• Gizmodo‘s done a bit on what iPhone and PS3 hacker was like in middle school.
• Jerry Lawson, inventor of the game cartridge, has passed away. Another founding father lost.
• If you have a Japanese Xbox Live account, you can grab a demo of vertical shooter Bullet Soul.
• Drakensang Online is taking beta applications. The upcoming MMO is based on the single-player RPG series.
• Bloodrayne develoepr Terminal reality once pitched an FPS based on the Universal Monster license. Destructoid has the details.
• Civilization IV and V are cheap on Amazon for a limited time only.
• There’s a World of Warcraft guild dedicated to peaceful play, and one member has hit level 85 without killing or questing.
• Would you marry someone who used a Pokéball instead of a ring box? Pics and all at Go Nintendo.
• Someone’s used the Move.Me suite of tools to make a PS Move mouse driver, according to Engadget.
• Speaking of, the PS Move has outsold the Kinect in Japan. Which is not very surprising, as there’s only about six Xbox 360s in the whole country.
• See the amazing Game Boy make music on Joystiq.
• Kotaku turned up a video of unlikely characters auditioning for Mortal Kombat. Want to see Link pull off a fatality?

[image]

The news was confirmed to Lazard Capital Markets, which then confirmed the information to Industry Gamers. Lots of confirmation going around, then.

Amazon UK said last week 3DS pre-orders were 20 percent more than PS3 had by March 2007,  and 56 percent more than Wii. Pre-orders for the handheld were also 255 percent more than DSi.

Earlier this week, the retailer said 3DS pre-orders were now 71 percent higher than PS3′s.

With pre-orders in the UK hitting 140,000, Nintendo expects the console sell over 200,000 British units this weekend alone and despite the overwhelming popularity, doesn’t expect there to be any shortages in stores.

3DS launches in the US on Sunday.

Angry Birds Rio is a tie-in to the upcoming film from Ice Age creators Blue Sky Studios, and is an Amazon exclusive. It normally goes for 99 cents.

The app is available within a “Today’s free app of the day” box, suggesting Android users may want to check back daily for special deals.

The store also includes a neat “test drive” feature allowing you to preview apps from your browser.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports Apple is suing the online retail giant over its use of the term “appstore”, which it claims to hold a trademark for.

Apple has alleged Amazon used the term to “solicit software developers” throughout the US, and said customers will be confused by the closeness of the two stores’ names.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Dragon Age II will be at that price for the rest of today, but other ‘Lightning’ deals will only stick around for a couple of hours and then disappear.

At the time of writing, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is also up there for $40, also 33% off, but that deal will flip to something else shortly. You can find the deals over on the Golden Box page on Amazon.

If guesses from Thrifty Nerd are correct, you can expect Bulletstorm, Turtle Beach Earforce headsets, Dead Space 2 and You Don’t Know Jack all to show up on the Lightning deals shortly.

Thanks, Joystiq.

In addition, it’s been confirmed that Angry Birds Rio is going to be an Amazon exclusive on Android.