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The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks Vivendi have announced their most recent set of financial results, covering Q3. Sales were up 19% to $US315.2 million. Which is what happens when you own World of Warcraft. Speaking of WoW, they also announced that the game’s subscriber base has just hit 9.3 million. To recap, that’s 9.3 million subscribers. Which works out at a pinch over 3 million per year. Let’s put that in perspective, shall we? Yes. Let’s. For those big on demographics, 9.3 million makes Azeroth the 88th most populous nation on Earth. Which means more people have ground out levels and griefed total strangers dressed as Elves than draw breath in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland or…New Zealand. Vivendi Q3 Sales Up 19%, WoW Userbase Hits 9.3m [Gamasutra]
Holy mackerel! This is the second coolest thing we’ve seen all day. The wizards at The PlayStation R&D Lab create a new version of the Atari 2600 game Combat with various objects scanned by the PlayStation Eye. Pretty cool stuff! No, really cool stuff. Though, we shudder at what will be inevitably scanned in. Yes, yes, you guessed it: The middle finger. (Among other things). Hit the jump for a fistful of clips that suddenly make the Eye more than just a Eye of Judgement peripheral.
Well now this doesn’t look promising. Analyst Evan Wilson (who’s been a busy boy – does The Pach have some competition?) has told Forbes that 14 EA games are going to have their prices cut this holiday season. Note he says they will, not that he “believes” they will. If he’s right, games affected include NBA Live 08, Tiger Woods 08 and Madden 08, with most cuts to be seen on the PS2 versions, sales of which have obviously disappointed EA. No word on whether Wii, PS3 or 360 games would also see a cut, but if there’s 14 titles on the chopping block some current-gen titles are sure to feature. Are these the first shakes of the PS2′s death rattle? May just be. Sure I heard a sickly cough or two sometime around Aug/Sep. Ahead of the Bell: Electronic Arts [Forbes]
What’s better than launching a game? Launching a game totally shitfaced! A “Beaujolais Nouveau Countdown Party” at Tokyo’s Shin Marunouchi Building for, well, beaujolais nouveau as well as Square Enix’s new title Wine no Hajimekata DS. (Beaujolais nouveau officially goes on sale the third Thursday of November, which is known as “Beaujolais Nouveau Day.”) Demo kiosks were balanced by a free flowing beaujolais nouveau and a jazz band playing standards like “The Days of Wine and Roses.” The Square Enix game quizzes players on basic wine info to increase their knowledge of the drink. Think of Wine no Hajimekata DS as like Brain Age-type game, but with even more “blue” slurring. Buroooooooooooooo. Square Enix’s Wine Game [Famitsu]
Big week last week for Australia. No Brain Training. No SingStar. Crazy, crazy, crazy days. And while Australians shunned those old stalwarts, they most definitely did not shun Call of Duty 4, and they most definitely did not shun Guitar Hero III. Oh, and the week’s “A For Effort” Encouragement Award goes to Metroid Prime 3, which debuts at #10 long after many had forgotten it wasn’t even out here yet.
1) Call of Duty 4 (360) 2) Guitar Hero III (PS2) 3) Guitar Hero III (360) 4) Big Brain Academy (Wii) 5) Ratatouille (DS) 6) Crash of the Titans (PS2) 7) Call of Duty 4 (PS3) 8) Call of Duty 4 (PC) 9) Spyro: Eternal Night (PS2) 10) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
[charts courtesy of GfK]
Got some MORE Ghostbusters news. Sure you can handle it. Vivendi have confirmed to Variety writer Ben Fritz that the games will feature both multiplayer and co-op. Co-op? Be still, my beating heart. Also, up *there*, you’ll find a screenshot we managed to get hold of earlier today (click for a bigger version). It’s picture tells a thousand words. Most of them being childish squeals. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got to go practice some official, canonical, co-op one-liners. Something about two in the box, and we being fast, or something. [Image: Variety]
I could be playing Assassin’s Creed right now, but instead I’m here posting about it on Kotaku.
My temporary madness aside, what you see above is the special tin box that preorder customers will receive, once there’s enough stock in the country to provide everyone their copy.
Inside is the game; a little sheet of paper telling you how important you are for preordering; a short comic with what looks like spoilers almighty and a bonus DVD.
More shots of the box and its contents after the jump.
Or…at least, remember people living in or very close to Melbourne, that eGames kicks off tomorrow. You may remember GO3, held in Perth earlier this year. It was rubbish. This looks a lot better! Loads of games and other things to do are on offer for you, the average punter. Including loads of games that aren’t out yet and you’ve never played, even. Games like Haze, Assassin’s Creed, Link’s Crossbow Training, GT5 Prologue, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War Chains of Olympus, Uncharted and Time Crisis 4. And that’s just a few. Really, Australia doesn’t get enough of these kinds of events, so if you’re in or near Melbourne over the weekend, do pop round to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Adult tickets will set you back $16, concession/child tickets are $13 and you can get a family pass (2 adults, 2 kids) for $38.
Editor’s note: I know I’ll be there. Starting from tomorrow, Kotaku AU’s regular Oz content will be replaced with my ramblings from Game Connect/eGames, so be sure to tune in.
Best gaming Christmas ever? Science and cold, hard facts are definitely on 2007′s side. Let’s look at the numbers: as we’ve pointed out, Super Mario Galaxy’s done alright for itself, posting a Metacritic score of 97. Now look at what else has come in the past 3-4 months. BioShock (96), Halo 3 (94), Call of Duty 4 (95), The Orange Box (96)…we’re being spoiled like fat, squishy little babies. Your wallet’s probably developed some kind of body-image disorder, of course, but now’s not the time to think about its feelings. It’s the time to consider how you’re going to balance your cash money reserves and your free time against crap like work and loved ones.
Oooooh, buckle up. This is a good one. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has “contacts”, apparently. Contacts either inside, or very close to, Nintendo. What do they tell him? Our contacts indicate that a refreshed DS is complete. It is thinner (it has no GBA port), has on-board storage and larger screens. However, we do not expect a revamped Wii or DS until sales begin to tail off in all three major geographies.
Totally unsubstantiated by Nintendo, of course, so we’ll just throw the gates open on this one and see what you think. Oh, what was that? What do we think? Whatever. We all know a DS redesign is coming somewhere down the line, so this week, we may as well entertain the notion that this is it.
Analyst: DS redesign already done [GameSpot]
