Thursday, November 8, 2007
In the Market for a Pink Humidifier?
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Geoff From: Ashcraft RE: Games, Games, Games This is gonna be short. I spent a good chunk of the day on the phone setting up interviews for a big magazine feature that will take me to exotic foreign locals (i.e. out of Japan). I am knackered. Been fighting back a sore throat since late October when the fall weather set in. I’ve never actually used a humidifier before, but I’m thinking about getting one. This one actually. We’re deciding between pink and light blue. I say pink, because really, how many times in your life can you buy a pink humidifier? I’ve heard that leaving out a bowl of water has the same effect as a humidifier. Any truth to this? What you missed last night 40GB PS3s have “very low failure rates” Ace Combat 6 does well in Japan Patrice is so hawt EA sales broken down More »
PS3 & 360 In COD4 SHOWDOWN
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | Some multiplatform console releases are fine. No problems! Others, like Pro Evo 2008 on PS3, are so shoddy on one system they may drive you to kill your fellow man. With Call of Duty 4 now upon us, and upon us on both 360 and PS3, which category does it fall into? The “no problems” one? Or the “kill a man” one? Good news is that looks nigh-on-identical to us. And we squinted hard. More »
Final Fantasy Potion Gets Toys
11:10PM Brian Ashcraft | So the new Final Fantasy Potion is out, and it’s only kinda natsy — not really, really natsy. Later this month, the drink will be packaged with random FFVII figurines like Cloud and Sephiroth. Incentive to buy another Final Fantasy Potion, but not to drink another FF Potion! FF Potion Toys More »
Sonic Loses to Mario Once Again
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | That mass of red T-shirts pouring booze into Mario’s mouth is Team Mario. Look how happy they appear! They were victorious. Sonic? He and Team Sonic lost in a special competition SEGA UK had to promote Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games. British tabloid The Sun sent along some pin-up girls, who wore red shirts (and thus, were part of the Mario Team by default). Some of the events include thug-of-war, climbing-up-an-inflated-thingy-covered-with-soap and penguin sumo wresting. You think we are kidding about the penguin sumo wrestling? We are so not. That, after the jump. More »
Konami Explains How MSG4 Delay Is Good (For Them)
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | That MGS4 delay? Sucks. Today in Tokyo, Konami held a closed door investors meeting. Chief Financial Officer Noriaki Yamaguchi stressed that Konami is “committed” to a first quarter release next year. Since the Japanese financial year ends March 31st, that means MGS4 should be released sometime between April and July in Japan. (Konami of Australia sent out a press release today saying that the PAL version won’t be out until June 2008 at the earliest.) At the Tokyo meeting, the CFO also keeping going on about “reaching more fans worldwide.” What was the reason for the delay? “We want to work on the quality that is warranted for a MGS title.” There was a financial angle that was spun as well: Instead of splitting MGS4 between this financial year and next, Konami would rather book 12 months of straight sales. Good for them. More »
Warner Bros. Buys Travellers’ Tales
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | And the developer buyouts continue! Warner Bros, who have been getting a little serious with the games industry of late (at last check they were at second base!), just announced that they’ve bought up Lego Star Wars developers Travellers’ Tales. Present projects, such as Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman will still go ahead, but after that? Expect Lego Matrix, Lego Looney Tunes and (fingers crossed) Lego Robotech. Warner Bros to acquire Travellers’ Tales [MCV] More »
40GB PS3s Have “Very Low Failure Rates”
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Relax 40GB PLAYSTATION 3 owners. Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe say that rumour is total bunk. The rumour claimed that 40 percent of the 40GB PLAYSTATION 3s were have disc read errors. SCEE “categorically” denies the rumour and states that 40GB models have “the same industry leading, very low failure rates, comparable to the low level failure rates of the 60GB PS3.” SCEE head David Reeves states: We are very proud of the quality and reliability of PLAYSTATION 3 and are disappointed that such extremely sloppy journalism has resulted in this totally inaccurate story… Since launching the 40GB PS3, we have experienced a fantastic jump in sales and the failure rates have remained at the very low level that we not only strive for, but have been achieving since the launch of PS3. Know: SCEE tells us on record that the “sloppy journalism” remark is a dig at the journalist who started the rumour and “not” Kotaku. More »
A Look Back At The Year’s NPD Sales
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | With NPD hardware numbers about to get that little bit harder to get a hold of, we thought it was time to look back on the good times. Times when the dawn of each month meant cold, hard numbers, instead of just a pinch and a punch. Above are the monthly NPD figures for the three current-gen consoles for 2007. At the bottom of the chart, each console’s total lifetime sales in the US. If you’re big on maths but short on time, adding up those monthly figures also gets you year-to-date sales of 3.4 million for the Wii, 2.2 million for the 360 and 1.1 million for the PS3. Can you handle that many numbers at once, readers? We can’t. The room is spinning, and I think it’s time for a lie down. 2007 Monthly Hardware Sales [IGN] More »
This Christmas Critical for Wii Third Party Support
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Third parties are important. Very, very important. So if the Wii is going to have legs and continue to be successful, the console is going to need strong third party support. Eidos’ Julien Merceron (pictured) thinks this Christmas could be make or break for Wii third party support. His thoughts: Either third party developers and publishers will make money on the Wii platform, or they won’t — and if most of them don’t I think we’ll see a big drop in support for the Wii next year, which could have some consequences for Nintendo, and very positive ones for Microsoft and Sony… So I think that the success of the Wii from the different publishers is going to be the determining point this Christmas…if you can’t make money at Christmas on the best platform out there, then you have no chance all year long. He does have a point. Most people who buy Nintendo consoles buy it to play Nintendo games. So while Nintendo could have a bang-up holiday season, third party developers could be left out in the cold. And no, we didn’t add the red glowing eyes to this pic. Third Party Sales Important [GamesIndustry] [Image] More »
