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Rowena Blair :: Feeds

November 13, 2009

NPD: NBA 2K10 Rules October US Sales

NPD: NBA 2K10 Rules October US Sales

Uncharted 2, Wii Fit Plus and Borderlands also perform well, but software sales decreased 18 per cent compared to October 2008.

At 575,000 units across all platforms, NBA 2K10 sold the most copies in October, while around half of Wii Fit Plus sales were bundled with the Balance Board, suggesting there are many newcomers to the series.

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NPD: Hardware Revenue Down 23 Per Cent

NPD: Hardware Revenue Down 23 Per Cent

Wii and 360 face largest declines in unit sales compared to October 2008 in the US, with overall unit sales down 20 per cent.

803,000 Wiis were sold in October 2008, but only 507,000 sold in the same month last year, while 360 sales dropped from 371,000 to 249,700. DS sales held the most steady, year-on-year, at 458,000 sales compared to last October's 491,000.

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NPD: October US Sales Decline

NPD: October US Sales Decline

Revenue for the month down 19 per cent on October 2008, but still the third highest on record, according to NPD Group.

Videogame software, hardware and accessories netted US$1.07 billion in the month, compared to US$1.32 billion in October last year. But the analyst projects that the US market is on track to generate full-year revenues of US$20-21 billion, which is only slightly below last year's revenues of US$21.3 billion.

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November 12, 2009

Where No Game Has Gone Before

Where No Game Has Gone Before
Since embarking on building Astronaut: Mars, Moon and Beyond for NASA, Daniel Laughlin has had many people ask him if videogames were just about blasting anything that moved. After all, how can something so banal and violent possibly teach us about the inner workings of the universe?

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Playdom Raises US$43 Million

Playdom Raises US$43 Million

The social networking game maker behind Mobsters and Sonority Life raises large sum in venture capital funding round.

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Edge Games Index

Edge Games Index
Every Thursday, the Edge Games Index, produced in association with Brandwatch, rates games according to the volume of positive and negative buzz they're inspiring on the web.

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Kutaragi Starts New Company

Kutaragi Starts New Company

'Father of the PlayStation' Ken Kutaragi has set up a new company, Cyber Ai Entertainment.

Kutaragi, who also acts as president of game developer Cellius, started the new company in Tokyo to develop next-gen online services.

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Modern Multiplayer Returns

Modern Multiplayer Returns

Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer on PS3 has returned after an outage caused by server overloads following the game’s record-breaking first day on sale.

The problems, which saw the Playstation Network rejecting all Modern Warfare 2 traffic after a problem with a thirdparty server led to a flurry of error messages, were quickly fixed on the server side, but a patch for the game is expected on Friday to repair the party system.

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November 11, 2009

Modern Warfare 2 Breaks Day One UK Sales Record

Modern Warfare 2 Breaks Day One UK Sales Record

Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold an estimated 1.23 million units in the UK on the day of its release, grossing around £47 million.

According to figures released by ELSPA and GfK Chart-Track, that smashes the previous day one UK sales record held by Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 613,000 units and grossed £27.2 million on its day of release in April 2008.

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Interview: Look Around You

Interview: Look Around You

18 months ago, Philips came to our offices to show us a new product, amBX. Comprising desk speakers, a sub-woofer, units which put out coloured light and a fan, it was designed to enhance PC games with effects that were intended to enhance the experience of playing, blowing air into your face as you sprinted in Crysis, flashing red and yellow as we died in an explosion.

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Up To One Million Xbox Live Accounts Banned

Up To One Million Xbox Live Accounts Banned

Microsoft has banned "a small percentage" of Xbox Live users found to be in possession of modified Xbox 360 consoles.

While the platform holder didn’t release specific figures, the Guardian reports that the number of users affected ranges from 600,000 to one million. Xbox Live had over 20 million active members across 26 countries as of May 2009.

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EA Frustrated With Wii Situation

EA Frustrated With Wii Situation

EA CEO John Riccitiello has expressed his frustration at the weaker than expected performance of Nintendo’s Wii.

Speaking during a second quarter earnings call, the executive said that stalled Wii sales during the first half of the business year coincided with EA holding the lion’s share of third party sales for the platform.

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Square Enix Completes Eidos Integration

Square Enix Completes Eidos Integration

Square Enix and Eidos Interactive have announced that the reorganisation of the two companies' operations has been completed following the Japanese firm’s acquisition of the Tomb Raider publisher.

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EA Job Cuts To Hit Maxis, Pandemic, Mythic, More

EA Job Cuts To Hit Maxis, Pandemic, Mythic, More

Numerous EA studios will be affected by the publisher’s plan to cut 1,500 jobs, with reports suggesting that staff at Madden house EA Tiburon, Warhammer Online developer Mythic Entertainment and Need For Speed studio Black Box have already been axed.

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EEDAR: New Super Mario Bros. Wii To Top 15 Million Sales

EEDAR: New Super Mario Bros. Wii To Top 15 Million Sales

Research firm EEDAR expects New Super Mario Bros. Wii to “easily become the best selling title released in 2009”, ahead of the Xbox 360 version of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

“EEDAR feels comfortable to make the prediction that the New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii will be one of the top titles this holiday season,” analyst Jesse Divnich said in a research note.

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Sub-£50 Natal To Launch November 2010 - Report

Sub-£50 Natal To Launch November 2010 - Report

Natal for Xbox 360 is reportedly set to launch worldwide in November 2010.

According to details leaked from a Microsoft tour, the platform holder plans to sell its motion sensing camera for under £50 as it looks to target the non videogame playing market.

The company will manufacture five million units for the product’s release and 14 launch titles will be available, reports MCV.

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November 10, 2009

The Mecca Of Videogames

John Teti thought I was nuts. He didn’t say it, but I could tell: here I was, a game journo who lived just an hour away from Funspot, and I’d never been there once.

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Zynga Removes Facebook Advertising Promotions

Zynga Removes Facebook Advertising Promotions

Cost-per-action advertising, which contributes up to a third of the FarmVille and Mafia Wars maker's revenues, removed until Zynga can control its implementation itself.

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EA Announces 1500 Layoffs

EA Announces 1500 Layoffs

CEO Riccitiello says that job cuts are "essential to transforming our company" as losses widen.

With its Q2 fiscal report, which records increased losses, the publisher announced that it would be laying off 1500 jobs and closing several facilities. 1300 will be included as part of a restructuring plan. The majority of action will be completed by March 31 2010.

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Losses Continue At EA

Losses Continue At EA

EA announced in its preliminary financial results for for the three months that ended September 30 that its gross profit has fallen 42 per cent year on year from US$337m to US$195m , with net losses rising from US$310m to US$391m in the period.

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Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

A highlight from our community-written blogs, featuring the big debate over the future of interactive storytelling.

Verbal _Oz responds to our Death Of The Author article and shows the incredible challenge that lies ahead for game makers. Like many, he pushes at the limits of a game, shooting NPCs and getting frustrated when they shrug away his bullets because the story can't take into account their deaths.

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Piracy Causing UK Developers To Consider New Business Practices

Piracy Causing UK Developers To Consider New Business Practices

TIGA survey suggests 50 per cent of UK developers are looking to new practices, but only 10 per cent view actual threat to their businesses as high.

60 per cent of respondents, each a member of the UK trade association, see piracy as a problem for their businesses, and 90 per cent see it as a rising issue. 
But 60 per cent regard the actual threat of piracy – in the form of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing – to their businesses as low, with just 20 per cent assessing it as medium and 10 per cent as high.

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There’s No I In Indie

Sean Murray I just said that Mario Galaxy was my game of the year. Why does it feel like I said my favourite book is The Da Vinci Code?

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November 09, 2009

EA Acquires Playfish

EA Acquires Playfish

Electronic Arts has confirmed October rumours by announcing that it has acquired leading social gaming company Playfish.

The deal is valued at approximately $275 million in cash and $25 million in equity retention arrangements. "In addition, the sellers are entitled to additional variable cash consideration, up to a maximum of $100 million, contingent upon the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011."

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iPhone Dev Faces Lawsuit Over Number Farming

iPhone Dev Faces Lawsuit Over Number Farming

iPhone developer Storm8 is facing a lawsuit for allegedly stealing the phone numbers of gamers playing its titles.

Seeking injunctive relief and damages, the data harvesting suit alleges that the iMobsters and Vampires Live studio exploited an "electronic backdoor" to learn players’ numbers, reports Boing Boing.

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