Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 256 of 260)

      Wii MotionPlus is Selling Well Despite Industry Sales

      July 19, 2009 /

      The Wii MotionPlus.NPD’s June report looked a little dire for most of the video game world. Hardware sales are down, software sales are down, Sony doesn’t seem to improving, etc, etc. Nintendo, however, is proving itself to be the little engine that could with this generation. Despite lagging sales numbers, the Wii MotionPlus is selling incredibly well, and Wii Sports Resort isn’t even out yet.

      Let’s have a look at the numbers, shall we? You may remember the Wii only sold 361,700 units in June. Not huge numbers, and I certainly wouldn’t expect Wii MotionPlus sales to come anywhere close, especially without Wii Sports Resort. Now granted, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 was shipping with the new and improved dongle, but that’s really the only game taking serious advantage of the accessory.

      The MotionPlus sold almost 170,000 units in its first month, though, and that’s not counting the ones that shipped with the new Tiger game, which itself sold 272,400 units. All in all you’re talking about nearly a half a million units, and do I need to say again, Sports Resort isn’t out yet! By all accounts the game is awesome – a big improvement on the already excellent Wii Sports game. When it finally releases, you can bet you’ll see even bigger MotionPlus numbers.

      News, Nintendo Wii

      Does Sexual Orientation Have a Place in Online Gaming?

      July 18, 2009 /

      Lesbian Gamers hat.The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is hosting a talk about homophobia online and in video games this weekend. Xbox Live’s head of policy and enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, will be on hand to hear what they have to say.

      Toulouse is going to the talk at Electronic Arts, hoping to help Microsoft figure out what the hell to do about their orientation policy. As it is now, gamers aren’t allowed to list any information regarding orientation in their Gamertag or their profile. Toulouse is open aboutthe fact that it’s not the best policy in the world.

      “The overall policy we have today is that the expression of sexual orientation in a Gamertag or text field is not allowed,” he told Kotaku. “That doesn’t matter what the orientation is.”

      From that you might think he supports the policybut he’s since had a change of heart.

      “We recognize that the policy is not just, that some communities feel like they are being targeted. Our challenge is how [to fix that]. We are working on that now.”

      Toulouse’s team found that 98 percent of the uses of the word “gay” on Live was pejorative. How shocking.

      The best part of the whole thing is that Toulouse’s team is trying to find a way for LGBT folks to identify themselves without encouraging hate speech. I don’t know when they were last online, but certain racially themed hate speech type words get thrown around a lot.

      “I don’t know what shape or form it will take,” Toulouse said, “but yes we will go back and figure out how to make it work.” I sure hope so, buy realistically speaking, I don’t think this one has a clean fix.

      Source: Kotaku

      Reviews

      Xbox 360 is the Only Console Outpacing 2008 Sales

      July 18, 2009 /

      Xbox 360 is trouncing the competition.That’s according to Xbox group product manager Alan Greenberg anyway. In speaking to Gamasutra this week, Greenberg mentioned some stats that fly in the face of a recent NPD report. According to him, the 360 is the only console that outpaced its 2008 sales from January to June, and it did so by 20%.

      Greenberg’s view is a bit larger than the NPD report for June, which put video game sales down a whopping 31%. He also said Xbox Live downloads are up 73%. That’s all good news, for Microsoft anyway. But what of the other manufacturers?

      Far be it from Greenberg to hold back his comments. He says Sony’s big problem was relying on Blu-Ray to sell consoles, instead of games. Now that they’re back to selling core games, Greenberg thinks the PS3 could start to sell some more units. They need to. Sony’s June sales were nothing if not pathetic.

      Reviews

      The Conduit is Missing the Mark

      July 17, 2009 /

      The Conduit cover art.There was a whole lot of hype around Sega’s The Conduit when we first got word of it in April. The game was meant to grab the attention of the hardcore Wii gamer, but it seems to be missing its mark. NPD figures for the month of June show that the game has sold only 72,000 units.

      Now granted, the game has only been out since June 23rd, and NPD’s stats only go as far as July 4th, but 72,000 is measly. Puny. Almost laughable really. The only good news in this mess is that the game is faring better than MadWorld and House of the Dead:Overkill but that’s not saying much.

      It’s easy to point to the hardware at this point, to say the Wii wasn’t meant for any type of serious gaming. I’d say that’s mostly true – the graphics can’t hold up to the other systems by any means, and most of the audience for a game like The Conduit has probably played Halo or Killzone by this point, leaving a whole lot to be desired from Sega’s FPS.

      Do you think a serious shooter is possible on the Wii? I don’t know, at least not for now. They’d have to drop the gimmicky control scheme and give me something that feels a little more competitive before I’d vouch for the system.

      News, Nintendo Wii

      US Video Game Sales Plummet with the Recession

      July 17, 2009 /

      Video game sales on the decline.Research group NPD has put out some staggering numbers for the video game industry as a whole in June. Their report claims hardware and software sales fell a staggering 31%, in keeping with several other consumer markets.

      The less surprising news is the sales breakdown from June. The Wii remained on its pedestal, selling 362,000 units. The Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 remained in their respective 2nd and 3rd positions. Nintendo’s DS continues to crush the PSP, selling 767,000 units as compared to the 164,000 PSPs sold.

      Personally, I don’t find the drop particularly disconcerting, mostly because it’s industry-wide and, frankly, world-wide. Most markets aren’t looking too hot, and without any major releases in June (Prototype only sold 600,000 units – hush, fanboys) the industry can’t really hope to see big sales. The decline is, however, the largest since 2000. I’ll be interested to see how the rest of the year pans out.

      News, Nintendo Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

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