Before we get to the day, just a reminder. For some reason, the Ambassador games are out on the eShop for those who registered their 3DS before August 12th. To download them, go to the eShop, select Settings, select your Downloads and scroll down.
So what are the 10 games you get? Well you don't get good games like Hydlide, Deadly Towers or Little Red Hood(J/K). But you do get the following
Metroid
Yoshi
Wrecking Crew
NES Open Tournament Golf
Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
Not bad. But if only there were games like Super Pitfall or Renegade.
But onto the NPD. Which I am behind as usual. Unfortunately, some state July 2011 as the worst month for Video Games since October 2006. Why? Well take alook
DS: 290K
Xbox 360: 277K (-37.5%)
Wii: 190K (-25%)
PS3: 148k (-31%)
3DS: 108K estimate
Hardware sales have taken a nosedive. Ether this is a typical month or gamers stopped caring about real games and more for Smartphone and Social gaming. Just think. People preferring to play Angry Birds over Halo or God of War. Now that's scary
And what else is scary is the usual Software sales
1. NCAA Football 12 - Electronic Arts (360, PS3) = ~796K
2. Cars 2 - Disney Interactive Studios (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision Blizzard (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)
4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game - Disney Interactive Studios (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
5. Just Dance 2 - Ubisoft (Wii)
6. Major League Baseball 2K11 - Take-Two Interactive (360, Wii NDS, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC)
7. Zumba Fitness: Join The Party - Majesco (Wii, 360, Ps3)
8. Fallout: New Vegas - Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax (360, PS3, PC)
9. New Super Mario Bros DS - Nintendo (NDS)
10. Mortal Kombat 2011 - Warner Brothers Interactive (360, PS3) = 85K
NCAA Football 12 is high up on the list with Cars 2 in 2nd place. Call of Duty is not willing to go down and is in 3rd place while LEGO Pirates have a jolly good time in 4th. At 5th is the only Wii exclusive title Just Dance 2. Major League Baseball 2K11 is in 6th with Zumba Fitness in 7th. Now even 360 and PS3 owners can get a workout. Fallout: New Vegas sneaks into number 8 and New Super Mario Bros DS, NSMBWii's older brother is number 9. At the bottom of the top 10, Mortal Kombat 2011
Another thing. According to the NPD report, Catherine sold around 78K while Shadows of the Damned only sold a measly 14K. So much for a sequel.
Will a price drop of the PS3 and 3DS do much good to the industry? Or are gamers slowly leaving for Smartphones? Stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Drumming up Rumors
Folks, the 3DS price drop has lead to an increase in sales. Though that sounds like good news, deep inside there's a company who's still overreacting due to the harsh sales of the 3DS months ago. In fact, this rumor from GoNintendo may have Nintendo abandon the 3DS for something more powerful
I'd say this round of rumors is 100% bunk, but that's just me. Actually, most of these rumors are pretty damned outlandish. I'm leaving the rumor discretion up to you guys, so if you want to see these rather bold rumors, hit up the page jump.
- Nintendo is looking into adding another circle pad to the 3DS
- unclear if this will be a new model or something to adapt to the current model
- Nintendo is working on games for two circle pads
- Nintendo is working on a platform where 3D is not the focus
- unclear whether this is a new version of the 3DS or a new portable altogether
This from 01net, the same company that brought us the Vita and the WiiU Controller. I'd say go for it Nintendo. Let the first buyers eat cake and treat your soon-to-be ex3DS like Apple does with its iPhone.
But, something like this does sound fishy, like I've seen this before. I can't seem to put my tongue on it.
According to 01.net's information, non-3G models of the NGP will be priced competitively with the 3DS. Meaning we can expect that the low-end model will cost around $250-$300. In order to reach that price window some sacrifices had to be made. While earlier reports pegged the new handheld as sporting 512MB of RAM, the newest information suggests that Sony has cut that number in half to 256MB. In order to compensate for the loss, the company reduced the size of the OS footprint in memory. 26MB of the 256 is high-speed RAM that can be used for certain tasks that require quicker access to system memory. The 128MB of graphics memory are still in place; however the planned 16GB of internal flash memory have been removed in favor of cheaper external storage.
That's right. The same 01.net who said the Vita(Formerly NGP) would be only a measly 256MB said that the 3DS will sport a second analog. I'd say reduce the ram and suck in all those casuals, Sony. See if they can take Nintendo's casual market away.
Wait a minute. Did I just do a Double Standard?
Work Cited
GoNintendo
1up(May 2011)
I'd say this round of rumors is 100% bunk, but that's just me. Actually, most of these rumors are pretty damned outlandish. I'm leaving the rumor discretion up to you guys, so if you want to see these rather bold rumors, hit up the page jump.
- Nintendo is looking into adding another circle pad to the 3DS
- unclear if this will be a new model or something to adapt to the current model
- Nintendo is working on games for two circle pads
- Nintendo is working on a platform where 3D is not the focus
- unclear whether this is a new version of the 3DS or a new portable altogether
This from 01net, the same company that brought us the Vita and the WiiU Controller. I'd say go for it Nintendo. Let the first buyers eat cake and treat your soon-to-be ex3DS like Apple does with its iPhone.
But, something like this does sound fishy, like I've seen this before. I can't seem to put my tongue on it.
According to 01.net's information, non-3G models of the NGP will be priced competitively with the 3DS. Meaning we can expect that the low-end model will cost around $250-$300. In order to reach that price window some sacrifices had to be made. While earlier reports pegged the new handheld as sporting 512MB of RAM, the newest information suggests that Sony has cut that number in half to 256MB. In order to compensate for the loss, the company reduced the size of the OS footprint in memory. 26MB of the 256 is high-speed RAM that can be used for certain tasks that require quicker access to system memory. The 128MB of graphics memory are still in place; however the planned 16GB of internal flash memory have been removed in favor of cheaper external storage.
That's right. The same 01.net who said the Vita(Formerly NGP) would be only a measly 256MB said that the 3DS will sport a second analog. I'd say reduce the ram and suck in all those casuals, Sony. See if they can take Nintendo's casual market away.
Wait a minute. Did I just do a Double Standard?
Work Cited
GoNintendo
1up(May 2011)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Japan: Land of the Rising Fanboy
Folks, last week in Japan, the 3DS sunk to a new low before the price cut, when itself sold around 4K units. I don't normally report Japanese sales, but here's the chart
- PSP: 35,619 [DOWN] 1,040 (2.84%)
- PS3: 18,338 [DOWN] 2,366 (11.43%)
- Wii: 17,004 [DOWN] 1,228 (6.74%)
- DSi LL: 4,176 [DOWN] 1,091 (20.71%)
- 3DS: 4,132 [DOWN] 12,283 (74.83%)
- DSi: 3,900 [DOWN] 725 (15.68%)
- Xbox 360: 1,406 [DOWN] 210 (13.00%)
- PS2: 1,529 [DOWN] 65 (4.08%)
- DS Lite: 102 [DOWN] 36 (26.09%)
- PSP Go: 0 [DOWN] 7 (100.00%)
Many wonder if the 3DS finally hit rock bottom in the land of the Rising Sun. Many wonder if the 3DS will be as bad as the Xbox 360. I bet it will be. Nintendo and Microsoft would make a darling couple while Sony wipes everything up.
Nintendo's price drop for the 3DS has had an immediate impact on sales in Japan. Weekly Japanese tracking entity Media Create reports the 3DS sold almost 215,000 units last week alone, according to translations via Andriasang. Likewise, Nikkei reports sales of 207,000 units.
Those figures would be the highest sales for the Nintendo 3DS outside of its launch week, when it sold over 350,000 units. Prior to the price drop announcement, the 3DS was struggling to reach 50,000 in a week. Just prior to the price drop date, sales dipped to 14,000 or lower.
.....
NOOOOOOOO! Curse you Otakus for buying into the 3DS at a lower price. That's like giving Barack Obama his second term when someone who's really wild and crazy like Rick Perry deserves to be president for life.
200K units. That's less than the number of Wiis that sell in America a month. Maybe there might be hope. Meanwhile, as Nintendo wins over the Otaku, someone has struck out for good: Microsoft
Edge is reporting that retailers in Japan are to stop stocking the Xbox 360, essentially ringing the death knell for the console in the region.
The retailers in question cite the console's continuing poor performance as justification - the Xbox 360 has suffered a 46.7% year-on-year drop in sales, and has sold just 72,721 in Japan since January. That's less than a tenth of what the PS3 has managed. All in all, the Xbox 360 has sold 1.5 million units in Japan since launch, as Microsoft reported in June.
Only a measly million units in Japan. It seems some Otakus do not appreciate what it means to be a Patriot. I mean, why drool over the looks of a Moe anime girl when you could be gunning down the most vile of terrorist in a Call of Duty game and proving that you are a Patriot to the free world. Remember Otakus: Killing Terrorists is good. Looking at Moe is bad. It's not like I'm a secret Brony who has a collection of My Little Pony toys like Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Derpy Hooves.
We leave you now with a new feature coming to World of Warcraft when you can kill Deathwing. Closet Victoria Secret lovers, this is your day again
The transmogrifier is the feature players have been begging for for years; it provides the ability to alter the visual look of your armor into something more desirable. Don't like the look of your tier 12? Then reskin it with a tier you do like. It is made clear that you can only skin your armor as things your class could/should wear. For example, plate armor can only be transmogrified into other plate armor, and if you're a mage, you can't transmogrify your set armor to look like that of a different class. Currently, it's undecided whether you can only transform your armor into something you've previously acquired or not, but it's a possibility for the system. Needing to acquire gear before you can use it as your armor skin will lead to players frantically running old content to assemble their dream gear.
Works Cited:
Joystiq
IGN Wii
IGN 360
Wow Insider(Joystiq)
- PSP: 35,619 [DOWN] 1,040 (2.84%)
- PS3: 18,338 [DOWN] 2,366 (11.43%)
- Wii: 17,004 [DOWN] 1,228 (6.74%)
- DSi LL: 4,176 [DOWN] 1,091 (20.71%)
- 3DS: 4,132 [DOWN] 12,283 (74.83%)
- DSi: 3,900 [DOWN] 725 (15.68%)
- Xbox 360: 1,406 [DOWN] 210 (13.00%)
- PS2: 1,529 [DOWN] 65 (4.08%)
- DS Lite: 102 [DOWN] 36 (26.09%)
- PSP Go: 0 [DOWN] 7 (100.00%)
Many wonder if the 3DS finally hit rock bottom in the land of the Rising Sun. Many wonder if the 3DS will be as bad as the Xbox 360. I bet it will be. Nintendo and Microsoft would make a darling couple while Sony wipes everything up.
Nintendo's price drop for the 3DS has had an immediate impact on sales in Japan. Weekly Japanese tracking entity Media Create reports the 3DS sold almost 215,000 units last week alone, according to translations via Andriasang. Likewise, Nikkei reports sales of 207,000 units.
Those figures would be the highest sales for the Nintendo 3DS outside of its launch week, when it sold over 350,000 units. Prior to the price drop announcement, the 3DS was struggling to reach 50,000 in a week. Just prior to the price drop date, sales dipped to 14,000 or lower.
.....
NOOOOOOOO! Curse you Otakus for buying into the 3DS at a lower price. That's like giving Barack Obama his second term when someone who's really wild and crazy like Rick Perry deserves to be president for life.
200K units. That's less than the number of Wiis that sell in America a month. Maybe there might be hope. Meanwhile, as Nintendo wins over the Otaku, someone has struck out for good: Microsoft
Edge is reporting that retailers in Japan are to stop stocking the Xbox 360, essentially ringing the death knell for the console in the region.
The retailers in question cite the console's continuing poor performance as justification - the Xbox 360 has suffered a 46.7% year-on-year drop in sales, and has sold just 72,721 in Japan since January. That's less than a tenth of what the PS3 has managed. All in all, the Xbox 360 has sold 1.5 million units in Japan since launch, as Microsoft reported in June.
Only a measly million units in Japan. It seems some Otakus do not appreciate what it means to be a Patriot. I mean, why drool over the looks of a Moe anime girl when you could be gunning down the most vile of terrorist in a Call of Duty game and proving that you are a Patriot to the free world. Remember Otakus: Killing Terrorists is good. Looking at Moe is bad. It's not like I'm a secret Brony who has a collection of My Little Pony toys like Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Derpy Hooves.
We leave you now with a new feature coming to World of Warcraft when you can kill Deathwing. Closet Victoria Secret lovers, this is your day again
The transmogrifier is the feature players have been begging for for years; it provides the ability to alter the visual look of your armor into something more desirable. Don't like the look of your tier 12? Then reskin it with a tier you do like. It is made clear that you can only skin your armor as things your class could/should wear. For example, plate armor can only be transmogrified into other plate armor, and if you're a mage, you can't transmogrify your set armor to look like that of a different class. Currently, it's undecided whether you can only transform your armor into something you've previously acquired or not, but it's a possibility for the system. Needing to acquire gear before you can use it as your armor skin will lead to players frantically running old content to assemble their dream gear.
Works Cited:
Joystiq
IGN Wii
IGN 360
Wow Insider(Joystiq)
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Gamings got the blues
Folks, we've already been through some bad news lately with the economy. During the weekend, the United States lost its AAA rating, putting it behind the United Kingdom, Canada, and even the Isle of Man. It seems a small isle full of men is a better investment than America. One industry that is hit hard: Video Games
"We continue to believe that sustained software sales growth will remain elusive until hardware sales rebound for an extended period of time. In our view, given the 3DS's weak debut and the limited impact from May's Wii and June's DS Lite price cuts, a rebound is unlikely to happen until Microsoft and Sony cut the price of their consoles." - Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter
Exactly. Nintendo's failure in keeping Wii, DS and 3DS sales high combined with Sony and Microsoft not cutting the price on the 360 and PS3. It's rather obvious. All 3 are really secret member's of Obama's cabinet. Satoru Iwata, Kaz Hirai, Steve Balmer. I bet the Tea Party is gonna be furious over this. But that's not the only thing that went down. Even the Stock Market isn't being kind to Video Games
Video game stocks were not immune to the downturn, and Sega Sammy Holdings, the parent company of Sega, was among the hardest hit. Its stock on the domestic pink sheets closed down 37 cents, or just about 6.75% on the day, to $5.12 a share. Before today, the stock was climbing toward its 52 week high of $5.82.
Nintendo was also impacted, down nearly 5 percent. News of Sony affirming the PS Vita launch in 2012 domestically probably helped shares of that company plunge over six and a half percent during the trading day, and another nearly quarter of a percentage point after hours. Microsoft fared slightly better, down over three and a half percent at the close of the trading day but up a penny after hours.
Other gaming companies, including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, also sustained losses today.
It's as if the Wall Street Gods are angry and they're punishing Video Games because they're too liberal. Folks, we need to put Conservative values back into video games before it gets worst, like Jobs being lost
THQ Inc., (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced a strategic realignment of its internal studio development teams to better align resources with the company's future portfolio of interactive entertainment. THQ is in the process of transitioning its portfolio away from licensed kids titles and movie-based entertainment properties for consoles and has also decided not to actively pursue further development of the MX vs. ATV franchise at this time. As a result, the company announced the closure of two studios in Australia, and the elimination of a development team at the company's Phoenix location. The company is maintaining its Quality Assurance team in Phoenix.
THQ's five internal development studios are focused on key initiatives and franchises: THQ Montreal, creating an unannounced new IP with a team led by industry veteran, Patrice Désilets; Volition, Inc., developing the highly anticipated upcoming game Saints Row(R): The Third,(TM) and inSANE(TM) in collaboration with renowned film director Guillermo del Toro; Relic Entertainment, creators of Company of Heroesand the upcoming Warhammer 40,000(R): Space Marine(TM) for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system; Vigil Games, developing Darksiders(R) II and next year's MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online(TM); and THQ San Diego, developers of WWE All Stars and creating best-in-class fighting games.
Today's actions will result in a personnel reduction of approximately 200 people. All affected employees are eligible to apply for open positions within the company globally.
....
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The damage has been done.
However, there is some good news going on. It seems Duke Nukem Forever, a game that was panned by critics, has done well in sales.
Though flagged by critics as a major letdown, the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever was able to maintain its near mythological status to win the hearts of more gamers than you might think. Perhaps vindicating statements from Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford, the game was certainly a success in the eyes of Take-Two. While many complained about shoddy work, the game was able to put in a black figure for Take-Two’s ledgers, enough to ensure a success.
Take-Two noted in their quarterly review today that “despite its disappointing reviews, Duke Nukem Forever was profitable for Take-Two.” No actual sales figures were given for the game at this time, however.
Hey like Duke says, "Hail to the King, Baby" even if the king was way past his prime.
Works Cited
GoNintendo
TSSZNews
THQ Investor
Industry Gamers
"We continue to believe that sustained software sales growth will remain elusive until hardware sales rebound for an extended period of time. In our view, given the 3DS's weak debut and the limited impact from May's Wii and June's DS Lite price cuts, a rebound is unlikely to happen until Microsoft and Sony cut the price of their consoles." - Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter
Exactly. Nintendo's failure in keeping Wii, DS and 3DS sales high combined with Sony and Microsoft not cutting the price on the 360 and PS3. It's rather obvious. All 3 are really secret member's of Obama's cabinet. Satoru Iwata, Kaz Hirai, Steve Balmer. I bet the Tea Party is gonna be furious over this. But that's not the only thing that went down. Even the Stock Market isn't being kind to Video Games
Video game stocks were not immune to the downturn, and Sega Sammy Holdings, the parent company of Sega, was among the hardest hit. Its stock on the domestic pink sheets closed down 37 cents, or just about 6.75% on the day, to $5.12 a share. Before today, the stock was climbing toward its 52 week high of $5.82.
Nintendo was also impacted, down nearly 5 percent. News of Sony affirming the PS Vita launch in 2012 domestically probably helped shares of that company plunge over six and a half percent during the trading day, and another nearly quarter of a percentage point after hours. Microsoft fared slightly better, down over three and a half percent at the close of the trading day but up a penny after hours.
Other gaming companies, including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, also sustained losses today.
It's as if the Wall Street Gods are angry and they're punishing Video Games because they're too liberal. Folks, we need to put Conservative values back into video games before it gets worst, like Jobs being lost
THQ Inc., (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced a strategic realignment of its internal studio development teams to better align resources with the company's future portfolio of interactive entertainment. THQ is in the process of transitioning its portfolio away from licensed kids titles and movie-based entertainment properties for consoles and has also decided not to actively pursue further development of the MX vs. ATV franchise at this time. As a result, the company announced the closure of two studios in Australia, and the elimination of a development team at the company's Phoenix location. The company is maintaining its Quality Assurance team in Phoenix.
THQ's five internal development studios are focused on key initiatives and franchises: THQ Montreal, creating an unannounced new IP with a team led by industry veteran, Patrice Désilets; Volition, Inc., developing the highly anticipated upcoming game Saints Row(R): The Third,(TM) and inSANE(TM) in collaboration with renowned film director Guillermo del Toro; Relic Entertainment, creators of Company of Heroesand the upcoming Warhammer 40,000(R): Space Marine(TM) for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system; Vigil Games, developing Darksiders(R) II and next year's MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online(TM); and THQ San Diego, developers of WWE All Stars and creating best-in-class fighting games.
Today's actions will result in a personnel reduction of approximately 200 people. All affected employees are eligible to apply for open positions within the company globally.
....
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The damage has been done.
However, there is some good news going on. It seems Duke Nukem Forever, a game that was panned by critics, has done well in sales.
Though flagged by critics as a major letdown, the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever was able to maintain its near mythological status to win the hearts of more gamers than you might think. Perhaps vindicating statements from Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford, the game was certainly a success in the eyes of Take-Two. While many complained about shoddy work, the game was able to put in a black figure for Take-Two’s ledgers, enough to ensure a success.
Take-Two noted in their quarterly review today that “despite its disappointing reviews, Duke Nukem Forever was profitable for Take-Two.” No actual sales figures were given for the game at this time, however.
Hey like Duke says, "Hail to the King, Baby" even if the king was way past his prime.
Works Cited
GoNintendo
TSSZNews
THQ Investor
Industry Gamers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)