Solution: get back in the console race?

Since about 2006, and after that unpleasant period of Dreamcast failure, Sega's success has been a mixed bag. Profits go up, profits go down; its 2008 fiscal year say $501 million in losses, $56.3 million for its games division. Some titles do well, other times the company seems to completely lack anything resembling a killer app. Don Reisinger of CNet says drastic times call for drastic measures:

"..in an environment where we're seeing a significant push towards consolidation, the company really only has two options: sell the company to the highest bidder or develop a console."

Well, there you have it.

Of course, there are questions and concerns that arrive with this hypothesis.

One: could the current industry even support four consoles? It seems maybe already too crowded with three. Four? That'd be some kind of record, wouldn't it? I'm no economics expert, but I'm guessing this would make software and hardware cheaper though, due to increased competition, wouldn't it? Would it? Or would Sega fizzle, having the least capital, and being least able to lower prices?

Two: could they make a successful console? Despite the huge misstep with the Saturn (despite some solid and innovative games, the timing and pricing were just all off), the Dreamcast in its own right should've been a successful platform. Personally, I blame that mean old nasty PlayStation 2 for coming along and ruining everything. Just kidding, we all know the PS2 was a great console, right? But it was at least partly responsible for the woeful "death of the Dreamcast." The ol' DC had a solid library of games from the get-go (especially that lovely Soul Calibur), it was the first system to offer online play (I was drooling at the thought of playing Phantasy Star Online at the time), and offered voice chat support as well. What's not to love?

Naturally, if they gave it another go-round, they'd have to really do it right. Reisinger points out three major things to follow (listen up, Sega):

1) Develop forward-thinking hardware very much tied to the online world. Make it the most powerful system and give 'er a Blu-Ray drive.

2) Make friends. Become liked. Repair and develop relationships with retailers and developers. Make lots of third-party deals to make up for selling the console at a loss.

3) Hype the crap out of it, milk the 'return of Sega' thing, but don't rush things, make sure it's done right.

He says a new Sega console would be welcomed by the gaming community with open arms. So, community, what do you say? Can ya, can ya give it another shot?

Industry sales were slightly down during April, despite the presence of three million selling titles on the console software charts

The NPD Group's official console gaming industry sales figures for the month of April are out and despite the lower sales total compared to March, last month saw the release of what will be the first of 2008's gaming blockbusters.  Grand Theft Auto IV barely launched before the end of last month, but it's has already shattered interactive entertainment industry records, and NPD has its official tally of the carnage it caused duuring the last five days of April alone.

First off, April's console hardware sales as a whole were down compared to March.  Only Nintendo's Wii managed to maintain momentum, selling over 700,000 units during both months.  The rest of the console platforms took a dive in sales, including the DS which took the biggest hit; sales for the handheld dropped by over 280,000 units.  However, the DS managed to stay in second place.  In fact, despite the overall drop in sales, the rankings for all the consoles otherwise stayed the same as they did during March.  The PlayStation Portable in particular continued to beat the Xbox 360, as well as Sony's other home console platforms including the PS3.

April's software top ten chart on the other hand sees not one, but three million sellers.  Technically two are Grand Theft Auto IV on its different platforms, but each form a one-two punch that's hard to ignore.  Particularly noteworthy is the popularity of the Xbox 360 version versus its PS3 brother; GTA IV sold approximately 850,000 units more on the 360.  Perhaps the prospect of exclusive downloadable content (DLC) proved over Xbox Live proved to be a bigger draw for GTA fans than expected!

Analysts and fanboys alike meanwhile expected the only game released during April which would provide anything even close to competition for GTA IV was Mario Kart Wii.  The Mario Kart series enjoys great tenure, and to its credit Mario Kart's first Wii entry fared quite well against Rockstar's latest and greatest.  It couldn't beat GTA IV of course, but it was the only other software title which sold over a million copies last month.  The rest of the software top ten didn't come close to selling even half a million units each.  Unfortunately that includes Super Smash Bros. Brawl, despite moving an estimated 2.7 million copies during March; as skeptical gamers may have speculated, sales for the Wii brawler fell sharply only after a month.

April 2008 US Games Industry Summary

Total sales - $1.23 billion USD
Console software - $654.7 million USD
Console hardware - $426.2 million USD
Console accessories - $154 million USD

April 2008 US Hardware Sales

1. Nintendo Wii - 714,000 units
2. Nintendo DS - 415,000 units
3. Sony PlayStation Portable - 193,000 units
4. Microsoft Xbox 360 - 168,000 units
5. Sony PlayStation 3 - 187,000 units
6. Sony PlayStation 2 - 124,000 units

April 2008 US Game Software Sales

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 1.85 million units
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 1.12 million units
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1 million units
4. Wii Play Remote bundle (Wii) - 360,000 units
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000 units
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000 units
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness - 202,000 units
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time - 202,000 units
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 152,000 units
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 141,000 units

No, really.

Playboy model Jo Garcia is probably going to incur the affections of many gamers once they hear this bit of news: she plays games. And okay, I know what you might be thinking 'yeah yeah, everyone plays games now.' Indeed, many people do, even the people we wouldn't expect we hear about playing games, so much so we've gotten kinda used to it. But the difference here is she actually knows what she's talking about. She laid out her thoughts on the matter in an interview with Kotaku:

"People don't understand that that the whole gaming world is not just for geeks, and assume that every person who plays video games is a geek that wears glasses. It's a misnomer that needs to be put to rest."

Get this too: she's a console gamer and a PC gamer. A PC gamer! Can you imagine this woman sitting down at her HP Blackbird (random guess), blowing the crap out of stuff in Bioshock, or mana burning in WoW? (You think she plays WoW? I wonder what other celebrity-types play it..) "Ms. Garcia, it's time for your million dollar photoshoot." "Not now, Pierre, I'm mana burning the crap out of this Death Knight." Glorious.

Garcia says if she could get a job as a game tester, she would "do that all day long." I'm guessing she actually couldn't get the job anyway - too much of a distraction to the other employees. I don't think she's exactly aware of what goes into game testing either, but I'll let her off, this time.

The girl's into RPGs, and not just casually. Xenosaga is one of her favourite series' (omigod, me 2). She also digs Radiata Stories and Final Fantasy:

"I like those games because they have a lot of sidequests," Garcia said. "You can build up your character doing small things. I'm 100 hours into FFXII and I'm not even done with the game yet. I'm doing all the hunts and the sidequests - I'm probably a third into the game and my guys are at level 60. I hold my characters high so when I go through the game it's a lot easier."

And I thought I was one of the few who had no trouble putting in over 100 hours into a Final Fantasy title. Good to know I'm not alone.

Kotaku say that's all well and good, but did she get the Zodiac Spear in FFXII?

"I actually got the Zodiac Spear the first time I played it... you have to go through hell to get that spear, but I happened to get it the first time because someone told me about it. You can't open certain boxes, but then you have to go through and fight that nasty esper at the end... I died three times before I actually beat it."

Folks, there ain't much more satisfying in this world than hearing a hot Playboy model talking about espers.

On Garcia's first tour through the Playboy Mansion, one of Hugh Hefner's favourite rooms, the "arcade room", became one of her favourites as well:

"I was in there probably the whole time I was at the house, because I wanted something to do. I almost finished the whole Donkey Kong while I was there."

Found guilty of violating patents previously awarded to gaming company

Back in 2006, Texas-based gaming company Anascape made headlines by filing a lawsuit against both Microsoft and Nintendo for alleged infringement of 12 patents concerning technologies implemented in their console controllers.  Anascape sought damages from revenue generated by both companies from the infringing tech.  While Microsoft reached a settlement with Anascape under confidential terms, Nintendo sought to finish the fight.  It appears it was to no avail, as the courts have reached their decision and ruled in favor of Anascape.  Nintendo is now ordered to cough up $21 million USD for patent violation.

The jury felt Nintendo's GameCube, wireless WaveBird and Wii Classic controllers did indeed infringe on Anascape's patents, said to have been filed between 1995 and 2005.  Nintendo is naturally appealing the decision in an effort to reduce the damages awarded Anascape "signifigantly".  The Mario Factory also took some small solace in the fact that the motion-sensing Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers were found exempt from the original lawsuit, especially considering how much of those they managed to sell thus far!

65nm Cell processor for servers - is it only a matter of time before it shows up in the PS3?

The new PowerXCell 8i is a far more than a process shrink from 90nm to 65nm. IBM currently runs the processor at the same 3.2GHz as before, so that the power consumption can be lower.

• The new design also uses less expensive DDR2 memory instead of the original Rambus XDR memories, allowing for further potential cost savings;
• Total memory capacity is now expandable up to 32GB.
• Expanded double precision floating point support on all eight Cell cores.
• 190 TFlops of double precision throughput, 5x as much as previous Cell

The "QS22" adapter card will be available at the end of May for $9,995 - it has sockets for two PowerXCell 8i's.

IBM is apparently also considering some other Cell products in the future:

• Multi-Chip modules packing two dies into one package
• 16 and 32 cell cores instead of the current 8

Hmm... I wonder how many Cell cores a future PS4 will have?

Reduced production costs and healthy PSP console sales help trim losses, however

Sony Corp. posts financial results for its fiscal year ending March 31st 2008, and enjoys a 6.9 percent increase in sales to ¥8.87 trillion ($84.4 billion USD) compared to the previous year.  Profitability also got a much appreciated boost as the company's net income tripled to ¥369.4 billion ($3.51 billion USD).  Strong consumer electronics sales, particularly from the Bravia LCD television, VAIO PC and Cyber-shot digital camera product lines, provided the backbone for Sony Corp.'s profits.  Sales from its motion picture division decreased 11.2 percent due to a lower number of films released this past financial year.  Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) meawhile painted a rosier portrait thanks to shrinking losses stemming from PlayStation 3 production as well as booming PlayStation Portable sales in Japan.

SCE itself saw an increase in sales of 26.3 percent to ¥1.28 trillion ($12.2 billion USD), though profitability still proved elusive thanks to an ¥124.5 billion ($1.18 billion USD) operating loss.  This is nevertheless a marked improvement from the ¥232.3 billion ($2.21 billion USD) hit taken by the division last financial year.

The PlayStation Portable proved to be the biggest winner for SCE with sales of 13.9 million units during fiscal year 2008, up 4.36 million from the previous year.  PSP software sales also grew to 55.5 million units.

Sony's ever-stalwart PlayStation 2 didn't let up one bit even given its age, selling 13.73 million units across twelve months.  This is actually a 980,000 unit decrease from the previous fiscal year, but the tally is certainly impressive enough to earn it second place over its PS3 big brother.  The PS2 remained king in terms of software despite suffering a slight drop, garnering a whopping 154 million units in sales.

The PlayStation 3 console was at the tail end of SCE's console trio, with sales of 9.24 million consoles.  However, this is still an increase from fiscal year 2007 by 5.63 million units.  PS3 software sales similiarly jumped to 57.9 million units from 44.6 million.  SCE head Kaz Hirai himself recently lamented the PS3's growing pains during its first year in the market thanks to confusion amidst third party developers over what Sony itself wanted the machine to be.  The outlook apparently began changing for the better when SCE better positioned the PS3 as a *gasp!* games console, as opposed to HAL 9000's kid brother.  This continued emphasis on gamers can also be seen in the recent delay of Home, the anticipated social networking platform for the PlayStation Network.  Sony pushed back Home's launch in order to better accomodate a focus for gamers over corporate sponsors.

Forecasting the upcoming 2009 financial year, SCE expects another decrease in sales thanks to a gradual decline of the PS2's presence from the market.  However, profitability can only get better as the PS3 continues to benefit from hardware cost reductions and an improving library of games.

An inside look

Changes have been afoot in the gaming industry's European rating system this year, with many different opinions on what's best coming from many different people. Currently the continent is sticking with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Obviously, games aren't exactly their speciality, though it does funnily parallel a bit with Denis Dyack's (of Silicon Knights) views on games in the future adhering more to movie genres than the current game genres we hold so dear.

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In any case, SPOnG thought it'd be a good idea to get inside the meat of the rating system, so they interviewed BBFC's press officer Sue Clark about how things are done. Here's an excerpt:

SPOnG: What qualifications do [examiners] need?

Sue Clark: They have to be good at playing games. There are no 'formal' qualifications for being a BBFC examiner, but you do have to have a good level of education and a good grasp of English as you are required to produce well argued written reports.

You also have to have an interest in film because games examiners don't just classify games. It also helps if you have an understanding of child development because the majority of the works classified are for people under the age of 18.

Sounds like a pretty neat job, actually! Gets even more neat when you hear the pay scale: £33.950 to £45,758 (about double that number to convert to American/Canadian dollars).

Examiners for games are 'trained up' to do film later, through a three-month programme, and then spend another three months with experienced examiners.

The game are played for two to five hours or more, depending on the game. And get this: they use cheat codes to get through the content faster.

Now, while an independent body dedicated specifically to game reviews could probably benefit the industry more, Clark does mention their connection with the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) board; there's no regular contact between the two, but they do keep in touch, and their director is on PEGI's advisory board.

Rockstar's latest is now the "Highest Grossing Video Game in 24 Hours" and the "Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours"

Take-Two and Rockstar proudly boasted that Grand Theft Auto IV was the biggest launch event yet in the history of modern interactive entertainment, thanks to blockbuster sales of 6 million units (ringing up $500 million USD at cashiers) across multiple launch territories in just one week.  Immortalizing of such details was initially limited to the publisher's press releases (and of course news outlets), but now GTA IV's first day sales performance officially makes the Guiness World Records history books.

For selling 3.6 million units and earning $310 million USD on day one, GTA IV will be honored with both the "Highest Grossing Video Game in 24 Hours" and the "Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours" honors in one fell swoop.  Those are some serious achievements right there, handily beating the previous title holder, Halo 3, which earned $170 million USD on launch day.

While GTA IV is selling like hotcakes, analysts still caution that its lifetime sales will potentially be lower than those for its predecessor, GTA: San Andreas.  Lifetime-to-date sales of the PS2 entry currently stand at around 21.5 million units.  A key reason for this scenario would be the natural decline in sales following a title's first week on the charts; indeed, Chart-Track today confirms that despite remaining top dog in the United Kingdom, second week sales for GTA IV in the PAL region were already 77 percent lower than they were during launch week.  Of course, we don't expect to GTA IV to be limping past pole position, and thus far it's the Xbox 360 version of the game pulling the cart.  Will the PS3 version catch up anytime soon?  Either way, GTA IV remains a winner.

Sony Online Entertainment prez interviewed

Being interviewed by the Seattle Times, president of Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley touched on numerous topics, including the PlayStation 3's MMO library:

"I think MMOs are going to be a real strong selling point for the PS3 long term — there's going to be some great ones on the PS3. You're not going to find "The Agency" on the [Xbox] 360."

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Here the interviewer poses the question "Have MMOs reached the mainstream yet?", to which Smedley replies:

"I would say they're getting more mainstream. If I were characterizing it, I would say think of the video-gaming industry five years ago. That's kind of where I think we're at. ... Five years ago, do you think "Grand Theft Auto IV" would have done $500 million [in opening-week sales]? To me, video games are just reaching the real mass-market now. That is going to translate to the MMO side of the business."

Well, the virtual world thing has skyrocketed in terms of popularity in recent years, not to mention social networking sites (heh heh), so it certainly wouldn't be unexpected to see that aspect of things soar, assuming there's time to actually build a community before the next generation is ushered in. For all the Playstation 3 owners, would you be into it?

Producer is Kojima, director is..Paul Thomas Anderson?

More strange but intriguing video game-turned-movie news: longtime creator and director of the Metal Gear Solid series, as well as head of Kojima Productions, Hideo Kojima is set to produce the Metal Gear film. It gets a little unexpected when you find out Aki Saito, translator for Konami and Mr. Kojima, who is handling the film negotations, says "Paul Thomas Anderson is interested."

Anderson is a great director, to be sure (Magnolia is one of the most affecting films I've ever seen and, in spite of popular opinion, I thought Punch Drunk Love was great), but is he right for a Metal Gear film? Well, There Will Be Blood has certainly shown another side of him (he co-wrote and directed the movie) that might make you think so. While I haven't seen the film, it looked promising. IMDb describes it as "a story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business."

Certainly sounds like MGS-style stuff, dontcha think?

Also, it's great to know the video game industry commands some clout in Hallywuud. Says Saito:

"Hollywood has great respect for Mr. Kojima. They want to meet with him. Kojima will be acting as a producer, but we don't know how involved he'll be as a producer. Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it's very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project."

Blizzard-centric gaming convention still a go for this year, and it'll be bigger than ever

Not that we needed any reassurance that there would be one this year, but Blizzard officially confirms BlizzCon 2008 anyways. It's the third such convention since its inception, and will be held in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 10 and 11. As with previous years, the event promises to be a feast for the global fanbase of Blizzard's key franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.

Attendance for this year's BlizzCon is expected to grow such that the developer will need to expand this year's event to cover three halls, from the two it filled during previous years. Thus far attendees can look forward to the following events and attractions:

• Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment releases
• Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
• Areas and activities devoted to licensed products such as the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
• Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes
• Commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard Entertainment franchises
• A silent auction
• More exciting activities to be announced

Might these upcoming Blizzard releases include the strongly-rumored newest Diablo entry?

Potential acquisition has Rockstar VP considering

As you might know, EA Games has been attempting to take over Take Two Interactive, who in turn own Rockstar Games, producers of the famed Grand Theft Auto series, among other titles (yes, there are others). Naturally, this has vice president of Rockstar and GTA creator Dan Houser thinking over the potential outcome.

The attempt to acquire Take Two hasn't been pretty, going from a friendly "hey, how about this much?" to a somewhat gruesome "we're paying this much now and there ain't much you can do about it." But what a lot of us may not be aware of is Rockstar is home to its own share of volatility.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Houser reveals quite a bit about the Rockstar working environment, and sometimes it ain't too pretty (former online producer for the company Jeff Williams wrote in a now deleted blog post awhile ago the arguments in the office meant 'screaming at the top of your lungs and throwing objects around the office' [types of arguments].' The question, I suppose then, is if EA (a decidedly more corporate and structured space, as it seems) would be right for this kind of envrionment (and don't get me wrong, it isn't always screaming matches).

But Houser actually seems pretty cool about the whole thing, calling EA CEO John Riccitiello "the real deal" and saying the acquisition would make his company a "much smaller fish in a much bigger pond," also noting, "I'm not someone who has any kind of problem with that." I guess you could take that a few ways, one implying more freedom to do what they like, being one division in a field of many, while also having more resources available. Houser also stated he probably wouldn't be looking to EA for approval on game content. The really ironic and amusing part of all this is EA turned down Houser for a job in the late 1990s (just a few short years before the release of Grand Theft Auto III).

Enemies, friends, and sexy ladies revealed!

I'd have said sexy dudes as well, but unless you count old Murasama or flaming pants-Genshin as sexy (or have a thing for monsters with wings), you're out of luck.

So here, they are, all the main characters from the next Ninja Gaiden title (minus Ryu Hyabausa, who's already received his fair share of attention). Click the thumbnails for a larger view.

Genshin (Overlord of the Black Spider Clan)

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Muramasa

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Elizabet (on a mission to steal an important artificat from Ryu's village, setting off potentially apocalyptic events)

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Zedonius

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Volf

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Joe Hayabusa

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Alexei

Video: Ninja Gaiden 2

Sonia (aka Chesty LaRue. CIA employee, pals with Ryu)

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This one in particular makes me think they should do an anime-style Ninja Gaiden title next. Anyone?

Seems like its going to be available on -6- gaming systems

Call of Duty 4 was one of the biggest games of the year, so hardly anyone should be surprised that the work for Call of Duty 5 is already underway.

Some scant details were revealed in a conference call with some Activision investor-types yesterday. One noteworthy detail that emerged was the franchise is coming back to the PS2 and the Wii, in addition to the 360,PS3, PC and DS versions.

Call of Duty 5 will also take place in a brand new military theater -- rumors hint that the game might go back to the days of World War II.

Update: Word on the street is that Call of Duty 5 is actually already playable, and is going through quality assurance as I type this.

Take Two: "[it's] extremely well-suited to film"

Evidently the success of 2K Games' sci-fi shooter-ish masterpiece thing has been such that it warrants a film production. And not just any film production, a Hollywood film production. Dun dun dun. The film is set to be directed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski under Universal Pictures. Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about that. Either he's got a whole demented side to him just waiting to be unleashed with the right project, or BioShock is gonna get butchered good. (Update: He also directed The Ring.) Apparently Verbinski is a big BioShock fan though (thank God):

"BioShock fans appreciate the depth and complexity of the game," Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K Games, noted. "And our partnership with Gore Verbinski will introduce the world of Rapture to an even wider audience. In addition to his impressive body of work, Gore is an avid video gamer and true fan of BioShock. That was extremely important to us in deciding to move forward with this project."

John Logan, writer of Gladiator, The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, is being considered for the screenplay.

Take-Two Interactive, owners of 2K are pumped. Check out this quote from its chairman Strauss Zelnick:

"BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film... Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise."

I'm imagining they'd be pretty protective of something like this, so here's hoping it is in the right hands.

As for how this will fit in with the BioShock storyline, that's hard to say. The sequel is planned for next year, so the film could be released before or after, really. It would be interesting if and how the sequel's storyline would be changed to complement the film.

FTC reports much fewer illegal sales to minors this year

According to the Federal Trade Commission's recent reports, 22% less illegal M-rated video game sales to minors were made this year. This, of course, comes right on the heels of the expectedly backlashed Grand Theft Auto IV.

The research was conducted by sending 'secret shoppers' out to each of the main game retail outlets (Gamestop/EB Games being the biggest) and notating the occurrences in which the shoppers (aged 13-16) were able to obtain an M-rated game. Only 20% of them were able to, whereas in 2006 42% were able to, and 69% in 2003 (remember those days?). Gamestop performed best, turning away 94% of the minors (maybe the 6% were wearing fake beards). Walmart stopped 82%, Best Buy, 80%. Hollywood Video and Circuit City performed worst, with 60% and 62% turnaway rates, respectively.

Below you can see data for other mediums included in the research data:   

It was the craziest launch yet in the history of interactive entertainment, that's for sure

Microsoft is already giddy over the release of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360, and for the time being their console's version of Rockstar and Take-Two's blockbuster action adventure appears to be enjoying greater success than the PlayStation 3 edition.  GTA IV thus far has sold 6 million units worldwide for some massive damage, netting some $500 million USD in sales; first day sales alone were 3.6 million units.  That's well over Take-Two's original estimate of $400M USD, and certainly a new record for the gaming industry.  U.K. sales figures were already posted here, and are included in Take-Two's report.

Approximately 60 percent of all GTA IV sales during launch week were for the Xbox 360 version, according to data culled by Microsoft.  Additionally, the game's launch last week helped push 360 console sales in the U.S. up by 54 percent compared to previous weeks, and over 40 percent of new 360 consoles were purchased alongside a fresh copy of GTA IV.

We already know that GTA IV is the hottest game on Xbox Live, and Microsoft is ready to share the stats to back this.  Over 2.3 million Xbox 360 gamers have played the game over Xbox Live since its release last week; XBL saw the patronage of around one million concurrent users over the past weekend.  XBL gamers have played GTA IV online for an average of four hours per session, setting another XBL record for the most time played.  In total, Xbox 360 gamers have unlocked over 12 million achievements (worth over 100 million gamerscore points) in GTA IV.

Numbers speak louder than words.

It's true, the English love Grand Theft Auto.  When GTA: San Andreas came out in the UK back in 2004, it sold 1,178,000 copies in just two days.  Now GTA IV is following in its predecessor's footsteps.

Chart-Track has just released finalized data for Grand Theft Auto IV sales the first week of release.  Combining figures for both Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, a total of 926,000 units were sold.  631,000 copies were sold on launch day, making up most of the week's sales.

As if Rockstar didn't have enough reason to gloat, GTA IV software revenue is "bigger than the entire software market revenue of any week so far this year after the first week of 2008."  If that doesn't impress you, I don't know what will; just think, this is only the UK figures.

If you split the figures according to platform, 514,000 units were sold for the Xbox360 and 413,000 for the PS3, which gives Microsoft a marginal lead.  On the flip side, Chart-Track reported that Sony's PS3 sales went up 127 per cent because of GTA IV while the 360 went up 125 per cent. 

Honestly though, couldn't we just drop this console war and be happy for Rockstar's success?

A well-executed, semi-original game idea? Bring it on! Parkour madness...

A video of some gameplay from the upcoming Mirror's Edge game from Digital Illusions CE (DICE) was released today at a Sony press conference in London. 

The game looks very impressive, in this humble gamer's opinion.

The best thing about this game is that it features a semi-original concept. Which is very good. If this was another horror FPS surivial game, or a fantasy MMO, I'd probably be tempted to staple my feet to the ground out of boredom. Kudos to DICE for trying something different with this game, as well as with their upcoming Battlefield Heroes. From this video, it looks like a large portion of the game is running across the top of roof tops... which is simple idea, but a terrific one, for a game.

Mirror's Edge is coming in late 2008 for the three pillars of next-gen gaming: the Xbox 360, the PS3, and yes, the PC.

Just imagining running Mirror's Edge on my home PC with either VR920 glasses, or a DLP projector projecting a eight foot screen, is making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Good times to be had.

What game is this?

Above is a gaming riddle I just now came across online, dear readers. See if you can solve it.

Which video game is this referring to? Pay close attention to the text.

All I have to say is I think it now needs a serious remake.

Breaking them all: a list of demands

Reading the 'Design 101' column over on GameSetWatch got me thinking about The Rules of Gaming.

In the latest edition, Raven game designer Manveer Heir plays Crysis on the PC and lays out what he thinks the game does right, and what it does wrong. The main point he comes away with is this: consistency is key. And this applies to anything: usefulness of abilities, style of level design, whatever. Consistency is definitely key, in all types of games, perhaps most importantly RPGs. Ever play a good RPG for a solid 50+ hours, and then all of a sudden the plot starts to get really...stupid? That can ruin a good game.

With all the rules though, I wonder if a game out there couldn't break about all of them and be more successful as a game for it. So, here's my list of demands for all you game developers - meet me at midnight behind the docks to complete the transaction.

1) I want an FPS that takes place in 4th century BC, when crossbows and little else were invented as shooting-based weapons. Or eliminate the confinements of the FPS genre and just give the player all kinds of weapons: stones, spears, whatever. Make him have to hunt to stay alive, too. Maybe the character lives in exile - this could serve as a solid backstory.

2) I want an RPG that has nothing to do with rescuing anyone or saving the planet from imminent destruction, or some loner hero's troubled past. Or hell, have it be about the bad guys trying to take over the world in some way, but split the game between their perspective and the "good guys," illustrating the point that good and evil isn't so black and white.

3) I want a racer with a compelling story (no, this is not impossible).

4) I want a shooter (vertical scrolling, sidescrolling, 3D sidescrolling, etc.) that involves exploration, and not constant shooting.

5) I want a platform/adventure title in a modern day setting that's truly adult. Prince of Persia is probably the closest thing as of yet, but not quite what I'm thinking (and the setting isn't modern). Edit: Kevin's Mirror's Edge article has answered my prayers and then some with suspicious timing.

6) I want some kind of ninja/assassin game that uses the Wiimote. Nintendo, you'd have to be insane not to do this.

7) Someone release a new Shadowgate or something like it for the Wii and/or DS as well. Sorry, Myst ain't my thing, and it's kind of outdated isn't it?

8) Perhaps most of all though, I'd like to see something truly unique and terrifying: a horror-ish game based on the concepts of nightmares and lucid dreaming. Maybe Silicon Knights and/or Team Silent could develop it, but I think a fresh developer might do the best job for something like this. Imagine playing a character that serves as some kind of conduit for people's nightmares, and you spend the game traveling unwillingly between them, aware you're in a nightmare, yet it seems as real as anything. Think Waking Life meets the last quarter of Silent Hill 3 as a sort of loose idea. Horror + metaphysics = game of the century.

Of course, I don't know everything, and maybe some of this has been covered already, at least to some extent. Feel free to chime in with any examples, elaboration, or ideas of your own!

Xbox 360 shooters lose their spot at the top; how long will GTA IV's reign on the charts last?

Grand Theft Auto IV began shipping early last week, and it's already making waves across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment were quick to tout the immediate benefits GTA IV's release brought to their respective platforms.

Xbox 360 and Xbox Live director of product management Aaron Greenberg already expected GTA IV to drive new XBL memberships, predicting Rockstar and Take-Two's title to become the most played XBL title in due time.  In fact, last week GTA IV managed to do just that, with the highest number of unique users seeing multiplayer action. Losing its title as Xbox Live champion is Call of Duty 4, while Halo 3 continues to follow close behind Activision's tactical shooter.

The Xbox 360 version of GTA IV is set to bolstered with unique, downloadable episodic content which stands to not only cement its popularity at retail, but over XBL as well.  GTA IV will be sticking around on the XBL charts for a while.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (2008/4/28 - 2008/5/5)

1. GTA IV
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Halo 3
4. Guitar Hero III
5. Gears of War
6. Rock Band
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
8. Iron Man Demo
9. FIFA 08
10. Forza Motorsport 2

Worldwide ticket sales roll in at around $200 million USD this past weekend; how will its first week sales look in comparison to GTA IV's?

It's no secret that Grand Theft Auto IV's launch wouldn't be anything less than a runaway success, so the bigger question was whether or not it had what it takes to bring down this summer's comic book movie event, the newest motion picture adaptation of Marvel Comics' Iron Man.  Actually GTA IV got so big the question was really aimed at the Iron Man instead.  Even publisher Electronic Arts wondered out loud if Iron Man's box office performance stood to be diluted as a result of GTA IV's release earlier last week.

Headlined by Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man would in fact net $100.7 million USD during opening weekend in North America alone.  The global weekend box office take was estimated to be around $201 million USD.  According to license holder Marvel, that would make the film the tenth best opening weekend yet in Hollywood and the second best non-sequel debut since the first Spider-Man flick back in 2002.

How will ticket sales grow as the film weathers its first week at box office?  The weekend performance of Iron Man should be encouraging for Marvel in more ways than one; Marvel itself was forced to sit through a slower financial first quarter, with both sales and profits down from the same period last year.  Now the studio confirms at least four new movies based on its comic book licenses for 2010 and 2011, including a sequel to Iron Man.

GTA IV was no slouch as well, with analysts predicting first week sales potentially reaching a stellar 4 million units across both console platforms.  Publisher Take-Two meanwhile thinks this ought to be closer to 6 million units, at least $400 million USD in sales.  We're looking forward to some clearer results from both the publisher and possibly the NPD Group, that's for certain.

Made in '88

While Maze War and AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin do seem to have really built the foundation of the first-person shooter game, it seems to be Last Survivor, a title for the  arcade, and later ported to the Japanese-only system 'FM Towns Marty' (you read that right) which really first showed people what the genre was capable of.

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An old review of the game from Sinclair User reads as follows:

"Put yourself in this situation. There you are with up to three other mates. You are all trapped in a maze with a load of other tough guys and monsters. You each have a single key to the exit of the maze. To get out you need four. The only way to get keys off other players is to kill them. First one to exit the maze wins."

Actually sounds pretty cool, right? The writer certainly seems to think so. Read on:

"Are we making ourselves understood here? We are talking kill or be killed. Yes! Here is your chance to shoot your best friend in the back, and not incur the slightest chance of spending the best years of your life at Her Majesty's pleasure. This alone is likely to make Last Survivor yet another mega-hit for Sega."

Well, that's one way to promote a game. Especially from this next quote, I get the feeling the writer is a former drill sergeant getting way too excited about the world's first decent-looking FPS:

"Each player has a separate screen that shows, roughly, a first person view of the maze - the view you'd see out of your own eyes if you were actually there."

Oh. My. God. Are you. Serious.

The game features two and four-player versions - pretty impressive for 1988 and on a console most people either hadn't heard about or didn't have (it sold poorly in Japan, partly because of the high cost).

It received a ranking of 9 in the aforementioned review. Maybe Sega should release this one for the Virtual Console?

Has casual gaming ruined us all?

Instead of starving myself by playing GTA IV for hours on end, I'm bringing you editorial news regarding the Rockstar's newest title because my 360 suffered hardware failure (it wasn't RRoD).

Your sympathies aside, it came to my attention that the game is receiving criticism from some gaming communities.  No, this isn't wrong because no game is perfect, but the basis for criticism should be sound.  There are those who have complained that the game is boring.  Go ahead, hit up Google with "boring" and "GTA IV" as key search words, then click a few links to read about it.

Boring?  Because it's not Halo and doesn't throw you into an ongoing war within the first 5 minutes?  Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the Halo series, but I also recognize how unsatisfying it and many other recent video game hits are. 

Just because a game doesn't smack you with a gunfight as soon as it loads or can't be beaten with a speed run in 4 hours does not mean it costitutes as boring.

In an interview with New York Magazine, which was briefly covered by Neoseeker earlier this week, Houser expressed his feelings toward this affliction of A.D.D. inspired genre of casual gaming:

"Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking...We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies."

Houser sounds sure of himself, and his confidence borders on obnoxious.  But the man has the right to be proud of GTA IV because it tries to be more than just a game by crossing into cinema. There is great care put into the mechanics, reminding us that it bears the core of a good video game, and Rockstar effectively harvests all the game's potential.  By taking storytelling into consideration, the company has molded an engaging story littered with complex cast that possess unique charms and character flaws.  You know, kind of like a novel or a movie with a functional plotline.

Casual gaming is a novel option for those who don't have the time to spare, but it seems that gamers have been spoiled by all these games that barely suffice as a quickie.  While titles like Heavenly Sword and Gears of War are impressive in their own right, developers seem to think it's okay to to whip out a campaign mode that won't last you two days while covering it up with multiplayer content -- that's called a "cop-out." 

Is it possible that all this is intentional?  Perhaps by making games shorter, they can produce more titles, knowing that gamers will drop the cash for it because the last installment was so unsatisfying.

The sad part is that people are buying into it.  Gamers would rather throw money away to start a whole collection of games than spend the extra hours on a single title offering a complete package.  GTA IV is not a tease.  Instead of tossing out mere pieces of interactive eye candy like the current industry trend, Rockstar has baked an entire cake and put it in a nice box for us.

Would you eat a whole cake by yourself in one day?  I certainly hope not.  Do yourself a favor and enjoy this game one slice at a time.