Microsoft touts sale of 17 million Xbox 360s
January 3, 2008, 10:55 PM PST

Microsoft sold 4.3 million Xbox 360 video game consoles in the last three months of 2007, helped by hit titles such as Halo 3 and Mass Effect, according to company data released on Thursday. A total of 17.7 million Xbox 360s had been sold worldwide since it first went on sale in late 2005, Microsoft said.

Earlier sales data from the software giant showed 13.4 million consoles sold by end-September. "Holiday 2007 was a blockbuster season for the gaming industry," the company said, adding that the Xbox 360 kept its lead over rivals in terms of total dollars spent on hardware and software.

Microsoft has counted on its Xbox Live online service to set its console apart from rivals. The service lets users download hundreds of games, as well as television shows and movie rentals. The company also said Halo 3, the final installment of its popular sci-fi shooting game that went on sale in late September, had sold 8.1 million copies by the year-end.

Microsoft competes against Nintendo's wildly popular Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles for dominance in a global video game industry thought to be worth around $40 billion in revenue in 2007. Nintendo and Sony have not released holiday sales figures for their machines, but by end-September, about 13.2 million Wiis and 5.6 million PS3s had been sold globally.

CNET News/REUTERS
complete article

Gamers: POTUS Candidates Hate You For Your Freedoms
By Nate Anderson
January 01, 2008 - 08:11PM CT

Video gamers, the Democratic presidential candidates have a simple message for you: "We are not afraid to regulate the sex and violence right out of your consoles. Don't make us do it." With the new year still shiny and filled with that fresh-from-the-dealership scent, it's a perfect time to kick back, pop that Orange Box disc into the drive, and let off a little steam with Gordon Freeman's crowbar.

But it's also worth taking ten minutes to ponder what gaming might look like after 2008's US presidential election (hint: that crowbar could be under increased scrutiny). To do that, let's turn to Common Sense Media, which sent questionnaires last autumn to the leading candidates of both parties. Now that Hillary Clinton's campaign has responded, the Democratic slate is well-represented (Mitt Romney was the only Republican to respond).

The questions covered several media issues, but the most important one for our purposes was the question about violent video games. Would the POTUS contenders use legislation to "keep violent video games out of kids' hands"? The Democrats (except for Clinton) all paid lip service to the idea of parental responsibility and industry self-regulation as the first, best hope for solving the problem.

"The ESRB is a good example of industry responsibility," said John Edwards. Barack Obama said that there's "a golden opportunity for the industry to do this on their own" and that he wants to "improve the voluntary ratings system we currently have." Bill Richardson stressed parental involvement and (somewhat oddly) pledged to give all federal employees eight hours of paid one-on-one time with their kids.

Ars Technica
complete article

Nvidia to launch mid-range G94 in February
By Rodney Chan
December 25 2007

Nvidia will launch the mid-range part for its GeForce 9600 GPU series, codenamed D9P or G94, in February 2008, according to sources with graphics cards makers.

The G94, the first mid-range GPU to feature a 256bit memory interface, is expected to pose a strong challenge to AMD's Radeon HD 3850 (RV670PRO) of the same class, the sources commented.

The sources revealed that while Nvidia's latest entry-level G98 (D8M) GPU, made at the 65nm process, has started shipping since early December, the G94 will make its debut on February 14. The G94 will also be made on a 65nm process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the sources added.

The sources previously had said Nvidia would roll out the D9P in June 2008. The G94, with its official price temporarily set at US$169, features 64 stream processors and supports PureVideo Gen 2, the sources said.

DigiTimes

Retail chain scalping Wii allotment on eBay
By Ben Kuchera
December 20, 2007 - 09:00PM CT

There is no doubt that this holiday season, one of the hottest gifts is the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aime, warned gamers months ago that supplies would be short and tried to alleviate the problem with a voucher program through GameStop.

It's clear this won't be enough to meet demand, causing Nintendo to strongly urge retailers not to force consumers to buy bundles of software and accessories in order to take advantage of the shortage. At Opposable Thumbs, we ran a post about how to deal with these bundles and asked readers to contact us with their horror stories.

One worker followed up quickly with his own twist on holiday price gouging: instead of selling the systems with bundles, a chain of Illinois/Missouri gaming stores called Slackers is simply dumping its stock onto eBay for the Buy It Now price of $399.99, an almost $150 markup.

"In the past year, none of the 12 [Slackers locations] have sold any Wiis except for a one-time promotional deal, where we did force customers to buy a game with it," the employee told Ars Technica. "The real crime is that we get Wii shipments regularly. In fact, right now we have about 20, but none of them make it to the store front. They all get put on the store's eBay site at a minimum $499.99 buying price."

Ars Technica
complete article

Sony CEO: PS3 'infinitely more fun' than Wii60
by Blake Snow
December 13, 2007 | 11:54:29 AM PST

Howard Stringer is optimistic of the PS3's future and expectedly thinks his console is more "exciting" than either Wii or Xbox 360. "The PlayStation 3 will come into its own because its [high-end games] are infinitely more fun, demanding and exciting," said Stringer in speaking with the Guardian.

The boss man feels "much more confident" now given the increased demand of the PS3. Last month, the console surpassed single-month Wii sales for the first time in Japan, something Stringer himself says was helped by ongoing Wii shortages.

"I'm glad that the last few weeks have generated excitement about PlayStation 3," he added. "Everyone's stopped talking about it the way they were six months ago."

GamePro

Nintendo, GameStop address Wii shortage
By Will Greenwald, News.com
December 14, 2007 3:24 pm ET

Publisher and retailer team for rain-check program that guarantees prepurchasers access to scarce console in January. The Nintendo Wii launched more than a year ago, and the system is still incredibly hard to find.

This long after the system started shipping, people are still camping in front of stores as soon as they hear about new shipments. Friday morning, Nintendo of America's president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime held a telephone press conference to address the continuing shortage of the Wii.

Fils-Aime said Nintendo hadn't expected as much demand for the Wii as it is getting. Since the launch, he claimed, Nintendo has almost doubled its global production from 1 million to 1.8 million Wiis per month and tripled its workforce at Nintendo of America's North Bend, Washington, distribution center.

The Nintendo president wouldn't say whether Nintendo would further increase its Wii production, but he denied any claims that Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis. "There was no ability for us to stockpile systems in the summer for the holiday rush," Fils-Aime said.

Gamespot
complete article

November game sales up 52% vs 2006, Nintendo rules the roost
By Ben Kuchera
December 14, 2007 - 09:31AM CT

The NPD Group has released its sales figures numbers for November, and it's notable yet again the sheer amount of games and systems consumers are buying this year. November saw a 52 percent gain in gaming sales over last year, to $2.63 billion.

"If the year had ended on December 1st, 2007 would be up 5 percent versus last year," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. "With the biggest month of the year yet to go, total industry sales are on track to achieve between $18 billion and $19 billion in the US." Let's take a look at what people were buying in November.

Nintendo - The Nintendo DS had an amazing November, with 1.53 million units sold. That makes the Wii's sales of 981,000 units look almost quaint in comparison. To put this in perspective, the Nintendo DS outsold every single Sony system combined in November.

The Wii did move a good amount of software in November; Super Mario Galaxy took the number two slot with 1.12 million units sold, and the always popular Wii Play came in fifth place with 564,000 units sold. The Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 was a popular title, coming in at number eight with 426,000 units sold. The extra controllers are also a large profit center for Nintendo. "4 of the 5 best-selling accessories for the month were Wii controllers," Frazier noted. "

Ars Technica
complete article

Halo 3 map pack released
by Tom Bramwell
Demember 11, 2007 11:32

The Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack has gone up on Xbox Live Marketplace, offering three brand new battlegrounds for 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30). The pack, unveiled last month, will be made available for free in spring 2008 ahead of another map pack's release.

The three maps included are Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry - a symmetrical valley map, an "indoor vehicular paradise" and "the ultimate Forge map" respectively, in Microsoft's view. As reported yesterday, Halo 3 players will be able to download an update to introduce new playlists for the maps from today.

Bungie has also said that the new maps will not interfere with the game for people who do not download them - although the new maps can be included in playlists, they will be excluded if one player in the group does not have them.

Eurogamer

MS explains XBL friends limit
by Tom Bramwell
December 12, 2007 11:39

Ever wondered why you can only have 100 people on your Xbox Live Friends list? Probably not. You're not very popular, after all. But apparently there is a limit, and Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg says it will be lifted "in the future".

Speaking to 1UP, Greenberg said that "it's something we definitely want to do and something we're looking at doing in the future, but it's been more technically complicated than anyone anticipated". For why, Aaron?

Interdependencies, he says. Apparently some original Xbox games "have friends lists hard coded in", among other things. However, he says, the majority of users don't have 30 friends, let alone 100.

Of course, nowadays you can check, thanks to a feature in the most recent Xbox 360 dashboard update that allows you to spy on your friends' friends lists. At least until they opt out of that by pretending to be a child and putting "OPERATION ORE" in their biography information.

Eurogamer

Rockstar wins Manhunt 2 appeal
By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UK
December 10, 2007 12:34 pm ET

The decision by the British Board of Film Classification to ban the controversial action adventure game is overturned. Just over two weeks ago, a day-long appeal against the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) decision to refuse a classification to the game Manhunt 2 was held in central London.

Seven members of the independent panel assigned by the BBFC listened to the evidence presented from both sides before retiring to deliberate a verdict. The argument from Jeffrey Robinson, the legal representative for Rockstar was that Manhunt 2 did not deserve to be singled out, and that it was no more or less violent than similar games currently released in the country, including The Suffering: The Ties That Bind and the original Manhunt.

 The BBFC's representative, Andrew Caldecott, however, argued that a line must be drawn somewhere and it had chosen to draw it under this game. Today the Video Appeals Committee panel announced that its decision was four-three in favour of Rockstar, and that the game should be given a classification and released in the UK. The appeal dealt with the edited version of the game, which is already on sale in North America, not the original version which was given an AO in the US and also refused a classification in the UK.

Gamespot
complete article

ESA head added to D.I.C.E.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
December 10, 2007 5:57 pm ET

Michael Gallagher headlines latest update to speaker list alongside luminaries like Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, PaRappa producer Masaya Matsuura. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) continues to add heavy hitters from around the industry to the program for the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate and Entertain).

Today the AIAS announced the latest additions to the event roster, and the parade of high rollers set to march through Las Vegas' Red Rock Resort February 6-8 continues. Among the newly announced speakers today are Entertainment Software Association president Michael Gallagher, and NanaOn-Sha president Matsuya Matsuura, best known as the producer of PaRappa the Rapper and other music-based games. Other speakers added to the D.I.C.E. list include Blizzard Entertainment president and cofounder Mike Morhaime, LucasArts president Jim Ward, and Nokia's Dr. Mark Ollila, who directs the company's next-gen gaming strategy.

In October the organizers announced an initial lineup of speakers including EA CEO John Riccitiello, Microsoft Game Studios head Shane Kim, and Ubisoft Montreal Studios CEO Yannis Mallat. That was followed with the announcement last month that Ken Kutaragi would receive the organization's annual lifetime achievement award.

Gamespot

Nintendo gives Wii gift feature
By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU
December 11, 2007 1:43 am ET

Gift feature now available on Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo is giving the gift of being able to give gifts to all Wii owners, with the Wii gift feature launching worldwide today.

First announced back in October, the new feature allows Wii owners to give games bought from the Wii Shop Channel as gifts. Sending a gift works similarly to purchasing a game -- a new Gift button now appears in the Wii Shop. Users then need to choose a friend from their Wii Friends Roster, with the gift able to be personalised via attaching a Mii and a short message.

Gamespot

New game controller: Your hands
By Daniel Terdiman
December 10, 2007, 4:00 AM PST

Imagine playing a flight simulation video game that lets you guide the aircraft with your hands alone. Or think about sparring with a virtual boxing opponent by doing nothing but standing up and throwing punches in the air.

If an Israeli company called 3DV Systems has its way, you won't have to just imagine it, or many other examples of games that users could control entirely with their hands, for much longer. That's because its new ZCam, a 3D camera that plugs directly into a PC, is designed to let gamers' hands be the only controllers they need.

In light of the tremendous success of Nintendo's motion-sensitive Wiimote controller for its Wii video game console, 3DV is banking on making a lot of money with technology it thinks can move the genre forward even further. The ZCam works by emitting short infrared pulses and then measuring the reflections off objects.

Sophisticated software algorithms interpret those reflections in such a way that the system can judge the distance of--and distinguish between--various objects and, say, discern someone's hands. Because it relies strictly on the reflection of the light from the camera, it doesn't need ambient light to work, allowing ZCam to function in a dark room, or with any kind of background, bright, dark or otherwise.

CNET News
complete article

ESA hires MPAA exec
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Dec 3, 2007 6:54 pm ET

Rich Taylor brought on board game publisher trade group as new senior VP for communications and research. The Entertainment Software Association is currently fighting a variety of battles that the Motion Picture Association of America is intimately familiar with, ranging from working for cultural acceptance of an emerging medium to attempting to curb Internet piracy.

As a result, the ESA's newest hire, former MPAA senior vice president Rich Taylor, should be well prepared for his role as the gaming lobby's new senior vice president for communications and research. The ESA announced the hire today, noting that Taylor will begin work early this month. At the MPAA, Taylor headed up the communications department under Jack Valenti, overseeing press relations and serving as a senior strategist for the trade group.

MPAA CEO Dan Glickman spoke highly of Taylor in a prepared statement, saying, "The ESA and MPAA share many of the same goals, such as promoting intellectual property rights and reducing piracy across the world. Rich will hit the ground running in his new position, and his insight and creativity will be valuable to ESA, just as it was for the MPAA."

Gamespot

Vivendi merges with Activision in $18.9B deal
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Dec 2, 2007 1:14 pm ET

Game industry sees paradigm shift as number two and number three independent game publishers ally to form "Activision Blizzard"; Vivendi to control 52 percent stake.

For years, Electronic Arts has been the largest third-party publisher on the planet. No longer. Two days after EA's CEO said game-industry mergers were winding down, the biggest such union in history was announced. Today, Vivendi Games and Activision declared they were joining forces in a deal valued at $18.9 billion to create the world's biggest independent game publisher. The new company, called Activision Blizzard, will remain publicly traded on the NASDAQ market in New York under the symbol ATVI.

Under the terms of the deal, French media conglomerate Vivendi SA will contribute the entirety of its Vivendi Games subdivision--worth $8.1 billion--as well as $1.7 billion in cash for a 52 percent controlling stake in Activision Blizzard. Once the deal is approved, Activision Blizzard will offer holders of Activision's 146.7 million shares $27.50 for each share--a 31 percent premium over the 20-day average closing price.

If the union is approved by US regulators, Activision Blizzard's estimated $3.8 billion in annual revenue will eclipse EA, which expects $3.35 to $3.65 billion in net revenue for its 2008 fiscal year. It will also put many marquee game franchises--Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, F.E.A.R., Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft, and World of Warcraft--under a single roof. It will also give Activision's Guitar Hero franchise direct access to the library of Vivendi's Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label.

Gamespot
complete article