Folks, 2013 will be a distant memory soon. But before we say farewell, let's take care of some last minute business. The NPD of November.
At number 10: Fifa 14 by EA for the 360, PS3, PS4, XBone and Vita. Too bad it ain't on the PC.
At number 09: Disney Infinity by Disney Interactive for the Wii, Wii U, 360, PS3 and 3DS.
At number 08: Just Dance 2014 by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3, Wii U, XBone and PS4. Dancing fever has hit Generation 8.
At number 07: Skylanders Swap Force by Activision Blizzard for the 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, XBone and PS4. Spyro and co are still going strong.
At number 06: NBA 2K14 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360, PS3, PS4, XBone and PC. I don't see much of a difference in polygon count and textures
At number 05: GTAV by Take 2 Interactive for the 360 and PS3. Hey, where did Saints Row IV go?
At number 04: Madden NFL 25 by EA for the 360, PS3, PS4 and XBone. And with the Season coming to a close.
At number 03: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3, PS4, XBone, PC and Wii U. Shiver me Timbers across everything
At number 02: Battlefield 4 by EA for the 360, PS3, PS4, XBone and PC. WARNING: Glitch hazard.
And at Number 01: Call of Duty: Ghosts by Activision Blizzard for the 360, PS3, PS4, XBone, PC and Wii U. Still number 1 despite lower than usual reviews.
As for the hardware, the PS4 is the top selling platform of the month thanks to an earlier than usual release. But the XBone did well at 909,132, selling 101,000 per day. Watch out PS4, the XBone may be catching up to you.
The 360 did around 647K. Not bad for a system going out. The Wii U made a small jump to 220K, but both systems are triumphed by the 3DS at around 770K, beating last year's sales.
What will December 2013's sales bring? Stay tuned and have a happy new year.
Works Cited:
NeoGAF
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Industry done goof
Folks, we're nearing Christmas and it seems to be a jolly good time, is it?
Well not so much. Throughout the last week or so, it seems some bad omens have been popping up in the industry from consoles going horribly wrong to Youtube's constant flagging.
Well, let's round up the following Industry Done Goof segments
1) Killer Instinct Tournament spoiled by XBone 24 hour check in
Call this the worst thing to happen to any gaming tournament. During a Killer Instinct tournament, the XBox One lost its connection and the game was stopped completely.
To the announcer's cries of "Xbone, no!" the console boots players back to the main menu and the "Do you own this game or app?" message pops up.
"If you have a game disc, insert it now," read the on-screen instructions. "If there is no disc, make sure you are signed into Xbox Live. If you don't have rights for playing it, you'll need to buy it at the Xbox Store."
The prompt did not give competitors, who were playing together locally, the chance to save their progress and the battle was being livestreamed through Twitch at the time. From the video, it appears that the prompt was triggered when the Xbox One lost connection to the internet. The competitors were unable to continue from where they left off and the video ends with the announcer seeking help in restarting the game.
Well that's going to look bad on Microsoft's part if you can't play a tournament with a derped console.
2) Youtube's flagging simulator
Recently, many users are angry at Youtube over its videos getting flagged, meaning that any revenue made on Youtube videos all thanks to its overuse of Content ID as stated below
According to TubeFilter, YouTube told these MCNs last week that it would begin pre-screening a sample of their affiliates' videos for copyright violation before the video posts to YouTube in a process that could take as little as a few hours or up to a few days. The pre-screening system is also based on good behavior, so to speak, and affiliates who are never caught uploading copyrighted material will be checked less frequently.
That system seems to be causing some problems now, as popular YouTube channels are seeing a spike in copyright violation notices, which caused YouTube to remove ads from the video but not to necessarily take it down. For many very popular channels, this means a significant loss of revenue.
Really scary. Many believe that 1st party companies are flagging videos based on copyright content. But the real detail of this is even deeper. So deep that it might be scary.
What's more, the copyright violation flags seem to come from third parties that don't own the rights to the game in question. As VentureBeat reports, a lot of the videos flagged have been pre-approved by game publishers for monetization on YouTube and Twitch. But in one example, a YouTuber received a copyright violation notice for including video of Metro: Last Light from a company called 4GamerMovie. Deep Silver, the company that actually owns Metro: Last Light told VentureBeat that “it fully permits YouTube creators to monetize videos featuring their games.”
Yep. How's that for scary? When an unknown source that doesn't own the right to a franchise manages to trick Youtube into flagging a video for copyright violations, you know something is wrong.
3) EA under fire
They say when a game is bugged, developers will try to fix it up and call it a day, right? Not so with Electronic Arts. Recently, a group of shareholders have filed a lawsuit against EA for lying about its game Battlefield 4
On Tuesday, securities law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP filed a complaint that will likely lead to a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Ryan Kelly and anyone else who purchased EA stock between July 24 and December 4 of this year.
The complaint names EA as an entity as well as a few top EA men -- including Peter Moore, Andrew Wilson, and Blake Jorgensen -- as defendants, alleging that they violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and knowingly or recklessly made false or misleading public statements about the quality of Battlefield 4 in a gambit to juice sales.
The complaint alleges that senior EA executives knew -- and did not disclose to the public or public shareholders -- that Battlefield 4 was a buggy, incomplete mess that would not be able to function as advertised if it was released on schedule.
An incomplete mess? How dare you. It's not a glitch, it's a feature.
But of course, EA had to sp...I mean defend this one. With a bit of insult to injury applied
Once again, there are a few good quotes cited in the complaint, including a statement from an EA representative to Polygon's Dave Tach that read: "First, we want to thank the fans out there that are playing and supporting us with Battlefield 4. We know we still have a ways to go with fixing the game — it is absolutely our No. 1 priority. [...] We're not moving onto future projects or expansions until we sort out all the issues with Battlefield 4. We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel their pain. We will not stop until this is right."
The complaint further alleges that EA senior executives sold stock at inflated prices prior to the release of Battlefield 4, thus profiting from hype surrounding the game.
For example, the complaint alleges that EA CEO Andrew Wilson sold 40,000 shares of stock at a share price of $25.50 on July 26, with proceeds from the sale totaling more than $1 million -- $1,020,000, to be exact.
Ya know what? I think I'll just sit this one out.
4) Yoshi's Island invades Sonic Lost World
Okay. So this isn't a You Done Goof moment. But it's still something I wanna bring up.
Last week Wednesday, SEGA released a new DLC for Sonic: Lost World on Wii U. But what makes this DLC rage worthy isn't because it's 100% free, but because of the content on it. That's right. Yoshi's Island.
The Wii U version of Sonic: Lost World is getting two exclusive add-ons, one of which is a Yoshi-themed level that is available now as free DLC, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced today during a Nintendo Direct presentation.
Both pieces of DLC are levels are based on Nintendo franchises. "Yoshi's Island Zone" is a side-scrolling Sonic level that's filled with "Yoshi-themed thrills," said Iwata. That includes pipes, coins, Shyguys and piranha plants, along with Sonic's traditional loop-de-loops.
"Yoshi's Island Zone" is now available as a free download in the Wii U eShop. Iwata did not provide details on the other DLC level.
Actually, he did, as rumor has it the next DLC may be a Zelda themed DLC and it may be due out sometime next year. So Sonic fans, keep your eyes peeled, for Ganondorf may have snuck into this Sonic game to give the blue boy a run for his money.
Works Cited:
Polygon
Ars Technica
Gamasutra
Polygon
Well not so much. Throughout the last week or so, it seems some bad omens have been popping up in the industry from consoles going horribly wrong to Youtube's constant flagging.
Well, let's round up the following Industry Done Goof segments
1) Killer Instinct Tournament spoiled by XBone 24 hour check in
Call this the worst thing to happen to any gaming tournament. During a Killer Instinct tournament, the XBox One lost its connection and the game was stopped completely.
To the announcer's cries of "Xbone, no!" the console boots players back to the main menu and the "Do you own this game or app?" message pops up.
"If you have a game disc, insert it now," read the on-screen instructions. "If there is no disc, make sure you are signed into Xbox Live. If you don't have rights for playing it, you'll need to buy it at the Xbox Store."
The prompt did not give competitors, who were playing together locally, the chance to save their progress and the battle was being livestreamed through Twitch at the time. From the video, it appears that the prompt was triggered when the Xbox One lost connection to the internet. The competitors were unable to continue from where they left off and the video ends with the announcer seeking help in restarting the game.
Well that's going to look bad on Microsoft's part if you can't play a tournament with a derped console.
2) Youtube's flagging simulator
Recently, many users are angry at Youtube over its videos getting flagged, meaning that any revenue made on Youtube videos all thanks to its overuse of Content ID as stated below
According to TubeFilter, YouTube told these MCNs last week that it would begin pre-screening a sample of their affiliates' videos for copyright violation before the video posts to YouTube in a process that could take as little as a few hours or up to a few days. The pre-screening system is also based on good behavior, so to speak, and affiliates who are never caught uploading copyrighted material will be checked less frequently.
That system seems to be causing some problems now, as popular YouTube channels are seeing a spike in copyright violation notices, which caused YouTube to remove ads from the video but not to necessarily take it down. For many very popular channels, this means a significant loss of revenue.
Really scary. Many believe that 1st party companies are flagging videos based on copyright content. But the real detail of this is even deeper. So deep that it might be scary.
What's more, the copyright violation flags seem to come from third parties that don't own the rights to the game in question. As VentureBeat reports, a lot of the videos flagged have been pre-approved by game publishers for monetization on YouTube and Twitch. But in one example, a YouTuber received a copyright violation notice for including video of Metro: Last Light from a company called 4GamerMovie. Deep Silver, the company that actually owns Metro: Last Light told VentureBeat that “it fully permits YouTube creators to monetize videos featuring their games.”
Yep. How's that for scary? When an unknown source that doesn't own the right to a franchise manages to trick Youtube into flagging a video for copyright violations, you know something is wrong.
3) EA under fire
They say when a game is bugged, developers will try to fix it up and call it a day, right? Not so with Electronic Arts. Recently, a group of shareholders have filed a lawsuit against EA for lying about its game Battlefield 4
On Tuesday, securities law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP filed a complaint that will likely lead to a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Ryan Kelly and anyone else who purchased EA stock between July 24 and December 4 of this year.
The complaint names EA as an entity as well as a few top EA men -- including Peter Moore, Andrew Wilson, and Blake Jorgensen -- as defendants, alleging that they violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and knowingly or recklessly made false or misleading public statements about the quality of Battlefield 4 in a gambit to juice sales.
The complaint alleges that senior EA executives knew -- and did not disclose to the public or public shareholders -- that Battlefield 4 was a buggy, incomplete mess that would not be able to function as advertised if it was released on schedule.
An incomplete mess? How dare you. It's not a glitch, it's a feature.
But of course, EA had to sp...I mean defend this one. With a bit of insult to injury applied
Once again, there are a few good quotes cited in the complaint, including a statement from an EA representative to Polygon's Dave Tach that read: "First, we want to thank the fans out there that are playing and supporting us with Battlefield 4. We know we still have a ways to go with fixing the game — it is absolutely our No. 1 priority. [...] We're not moving onto future projects or expansions until we sort out all the issues with Battlefield 4. We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel their pain. We will not stop until this is right."
The complaint further alleges that EA senior executives sold stock at inflated prices prior to the release of Battlefield 4, thus profiting from hype surrounding the game.
For example, the complaint alleges that EA CEO Andrew Wilson sold 40,000 shares of stock at a share price of $25.50 on July 26, with proceeds from the sale totaling more than $1 million -- $1,020,000, to be exact.
Ya know what? I think I'll just sit this one out.
4) Yoshi's Island invades Sonic Lost World
Okay. So this isn't a You Done Goof moment. But it's still something I wanna bring up.
Last week Wednesday, SEGA released a new DLC for Sonic: Lost World on Wii U. But what makes this DLC rage worthy isn't because it's 100% free, but because of the content on it. That's right. Yoshi's Island.
The Wii U version of Sonic: Lost World is getting two exclusive add-ons, one of which is a Yoshi-themed level that is available now as free DLC, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced today during a Nintendo Direct presentation.
Both pieces of DLC are levels are based on Nintendo franchises. "Yoshi's Island Zone" is a side-scrolling Sonic level that's filled with "Yoshi-themed thrills," said Iwata. That includes pipes, coins, Shyguys and piranha plants, along with Sonic's traditional loop-de-loops.
"Yoshi's Island Zone" is now available as a free download in the Wii U eShop. Iwata did not provide details on the other DLC level.
Actually, he did, as rumor has it the next DLC may be a Zelda themed DLC and it may be due out sometime next year. So Sonic fans, keep your eyes peeled, for Ganondorf may have snuck into this Sonic game to give the blue boy a run for his money.
Works Cited:
Polygon
Ars Technica
Gamasutra
Polygon
Sunday, December 1, 2013
A New Gen Dawn part 2: NPD October 2013
Now with all this new generation gameapalooza, you all wonder what the previous generation has been doing. Well look no further than October's NPD.
At number 10: WWE 2K14 by 2K Games for the 360 and PS3. Do you smell what the Rock is cookin?
At number 09: LEGO Marvel Superheroes by Warner Bros Interactive/Traveler's Tales games for the 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS and PC. Hey wait a minute. Isn't Marvel apart of Disney?
At number 08: Skylanders Swap Force by ActivisionBlizzard for the 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U and 3DS. I wonder what ever happened to Crash Bandicoot?
At number 07: NBA 2K14 by 2K Games for the 360, PS3 and PC. Bet you can't jam.
At number 06: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3 and Wii U. Shiver me timbers, where's the PC version?
At number 05: Batman Arkham Origins by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, PS3, Wii U and PC. I dunno, I actually do miss Kevin Conroy as Batman
At number 04: Battlefield 4 by Electronic Arts for the 360, PS3 and PC. Will this have the guts to bring down Call of Duty?
At number 03: Pokemon Y by Nintendo for the 3DS. Actually, this isn't the superior version.
At number 02: Pokemon X by Nintendo for the 3DS. This is because of Charizard X
And at Number 01: Grand Theft Auto 5 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360 and PS3. But I sure miss the wackiness the earlier games had.
Apparently, thanks to Pokemon, the Nintendo 3DS holds its lead over the 360 with the former at 452K and the latter at 166K.
The next generation is upon us. How well will the 2 new systems sell? And what of the older systems? Will they hold up? Or will they fall? Stay tuned.
Works Cited: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=715970
At number 10: WWE 2K14 by 2K Games for the 360 and PS3. Do you smell what the Rock is cookin?
At number 09: LEGO Marvel Superheroes by Warner Bros Interactive/Traveler's Tales games for the 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS and PC. Hey wait a minute. Isn't Marvel apart of Disney?
At number 08: Skylanders Swap Force by ActivisionBlizzard for the 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U and 3DS. I wonder what ever happened to Crash Bandicoot?
At number 07: NBA 2K14 by 2K Games for the 360, PS3 and PC. Bet you can't jam.
At number 06: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3 and Wii U. Shiver me timbers, where's the PC version?
At number 05: Batman Arkham Origins by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, PS3, Wii U and PC. I dunno, I actually do miss Kevin Conroy as Batman
At number 04: Battlefield 4 by Electronic Arts for the 360, PS3 and PC. Will this have the guts to bring down Call of Duty?
At number 03: Pokemon Y by Nintendo for the 3DS. Actually, this isn't the superior version.
At number 02: Pokemon X by Nintendo for the 3DS. This is because of Charizard X
And at Number 01: Grand Theft Auto 5 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360 and PS3. But I sure miss the wackiness the earlier games had.
Apparently, thanks to Pokemon, the Nintendo 3DS holds its lead over the 360 with the former at 452K and the latter at 166K.
The next generation is upon us. How well will the 2 new systems sell? And what of the older systems? Will they hold up? Or will they fall? Stay tuned.
Works Cited: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=715970
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