Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Peter Moore On Rare: ‘Skills Not Applicable Today’

10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Former Microsoft, current EA Sports exec Peter Moore continues to pull no punches in a series of interviews he’s done with Guardian’s Games Blog. This time around, he explains how not everyone at Microsoft loves being in the console business (”There was a vocal minority that disagreed with videogames as a cultural phenomenon”) and dishes on why Microsoft killed the original Xbox (”The hard drive in every Xbox killed us”). But Moore get honest, brutally honest, about Rare. Back in 2002, Microsoft acquired a controlling interest in the company. According to Moore: I thought ultimately it would be very successful — and you know, Microsoft, we’d had a tough time getting Rare back — Perfect Dark Zero was a launch title and didn’t do as well as Perfect Dark…but we were trying all kinds of classic Rare stuff and unfortunately I think the industry had past Rare by — it’s a strong statement but what they were good at, new consumers didn’t care about anymore, and it was tough because they were trying very hard — Chris and Tim Stamper were still there — to try and recreate the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them and I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skillsets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today’s market. This honesty from Peter Moore is refreshing and illuminating. But these Rare remarks must really sting. That is, if you’re Rare. If not, well. Peter Moore Interview: Part Three [Games Blog] More »

Nintendo Undecided On What They’re Showing At Fall Press Conference?

10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Nintendo aren’t going to TGS. Nothing new there. But they will be holding a big press conference just before TGS, where they’ll be announcing “new products”. But, uh, what new products? And how many? And, most importantly, who are these new products for? Nintendo would have us believe they have absolutely no idea, telling Edge “In terms of the press conference, its content and announcements are still being finalised so we are not announcing anything at this time”. Smoke and mirrors, eh? Fine, we’ll play along. But know your silence will only breed unrealistic expectations from the faithful, Nintendo. You wheel out Brain Training Wii and there’ll be blood on the streets. Nintendo Confirms Autumn Press Conference [Edge] [Image] More »

British Sales Charts

8:30PM Luke Plunkett | The King (Nintendo) is dead (at least temporarily). Long live the King (EA)! Yes, EA muscled up the charts in style last week, claiming the top two spots with Spore and Mercs 2, while Tiger Woods and even Spore Creatures did good business. Lord only knows how much money they’ll be bringing in when FIFA 09 and Need For Speed hit the market. More »

Holy Snot! Xbox 360 Tops Home Console Sales In Japan

7:30PM Brian Ashcraft | According to sales data from Famitsu publisher, the Xbox 360 is the top selling home console in Japan for the sales week September 8th to September 14th. Microsoft announced last month that the console was sold out as demand had surpassed sales, and since then the console has continued to dip in sales. At its pre-TGS press event, Microsoft stated that it was reducing the console’s price. On September 11th, the company released the reduced price console again in stores — meaning that the console didn’t even have a full week in stock in stores. Here’s the sales breakdown from Enterbrain: • Xbox 360: 28,681 units • Wii: 27,057 units • PLAYSTATON 3: 8,050 units The week before, Enterbrain data states that only 843 units were sold. This comes as a surprise as traditionally Microsoft has found it difficult to make in-roads with Japanese video game consumers. 値下げ効果でXbox 360が据え置き型ゲーム機で週間販売台数トップに [Famitsu] More »