Harmonix is working on a new downloadable game. The unannounced title was revealed through the resume of designer Brian Chan and is set to come to XBLA, PSN and Facebook.
Chan previously worked as senior designer on Rock Band 3 and is credited as lead designer on this new project. Harmonix relea…
2K should take a cue from its own basketball game if it plans to get back onto the ice with a new hockey game.
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Hardware revenues drop 28 percent year-over-year; software sales slide 14 percent with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topping the charts.
The US retail gaming industry has had a rough go of it in recent years, but the fourth quarter of 2011 was shaping up well. Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City helped push October’s retail revenues into positive territory, and the Call of Duty juggernaut’s annual deployment the following month did its usual record-setting thing, leading to the best November sales ever for the industry. Today the NPD Group released its US retail sales data for December, dismissing any notions that the industry’s economic recovery would be smooth sailing from here on out.
Last month, retailers in the US pulled in $ 3.99 billion in sales, according to the NPD Group. That’s a 21 percent dip from the $ 5.07 billion posted for December of 2010. No segment of the industry took as proportionately big a dip as hardware sales, which shrank 28 percent year-over-year to $ 1.32 billion. Accessory sales were down 27 percent to $ 628.7 million, while software sales were as close to a bright spot as the month’s numbers yielded, down just 14 percent to $ 2.04 billion.
“December was very rough for new physical sales of video games hardware, software and accessories,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a note following the numbers’ release. “Because of the great slate of content that came to market during the fourth quarter, I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred. This year, December accounted for just 23 percent of annual sales, while the average for the past ten years has been 28.”
As for which games sold well, the winners’ podium featured three distinctly different games covering a wide swath of gamers. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topped the charts, followed by Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As for other notable games that didn’t make the top 10 multiplatform chart, the NPD said that Activision’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure would have finished fourth overall in December if its ancillary action-figure packs–currently counted as accessory sales–had been folded into its software sales total. Meanwhile, the PC-exclusive Star Wars: The Old Republic finished 14th overall on the multiplatform charts, and the Wii-exclusive The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the 10th-best-selling single SKU for the month of December.
DECEMBER 2011 US GAME SALES (Oct. 30 – Nov. 26)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $ 3.99 billion (-21%)
Non-PC hardware: $ 1.32 billion (-28%)
Non-PC software: $ 2.04 billion (-14%)
Accessories: $ 628.7 million (-27%)
Total software: $ 2.14 billion (-15%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR DECEMBER 2011
Title (Platforms) – Publisher
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, PC) – Activision
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360) – Ubisoft
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360, PS3, PC) – Bethesda Softworks
4. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) – Nintendo
5. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) – EA
6. Madden NFL 12 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) – EA
7. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (X360, PS3, PC) – Ubisoft
8. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, Wii) – Take-Two
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) – Nintendo
10. Batman: Arkham City (X360, PS3, PC) – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
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GameSpot’s Wii News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
Hardware revenues drop 28 percent year-over-year; software sales slide 14 percent with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topping the charts.
The US retail gaming industry has had a rough go of it in recent years, but the fourth quarter of 2011 was shaping up well. Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City helped push October’s retail revenues into positive territory, and the Call of Duty juggernaut’s annual deployment the following month did its usual record-setting thing, leading to the best November sales ever for the industry. Today the NPD Group released its US retail sales data for December, dismissing any notions that the industry’s economic recovery would be smooth sailing from here on out.
Last month, retailers in the US pulled in $ 3.99 billion in sales, according to the NPD Group. That’s a 21 percent dip from the $ 5.07 billion posted for December of 2010. No segment of the industry took as proportionately big a dip as hardware sales, which shrank 28 percent year-over-year to $ 1.32 billion. Accessory sales were down 27 percent to $ 628.7 million, while software sales were as close to a bright spot as the month’s numbers yielded, down just 14 percent to $ 2.04 billion.
“December was very rough for new physical sales of video games hardware, software and accessories,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a note following the numbers’ release. “Because of the great slate of content that came to market during the fourth quarter, I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred. This year, December accounted for just 23 percent of annual sales, while the average for the past ten years has been 28.”
As for which games sold well, the winners’ podium featured three distinctly different games covering a wide swath of gamers. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topped the charts, followed by Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As for other notable games that didn’t make the top 10 multiplatform chart, the NPD said that Activision’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure would have finished fourth overall in December if its ancillary action-figure packs–currently counted as accessory sales–had been folded into its software sales total. Meanwhile, the PC-exclusive Star Wars: The Old Republic finished 14th overall on the multiplatform charts, and the Wii-exclusive The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the 10th-best-selling single SKU for the month of December.
DECEMBER 2011 US GAME SALES (Oct. 30 – Nov. 26)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $ 3.99 billion (-21%)
Non-PC hardware: $ 1.32 billion (-28%)
Non-PC software: $ 2.04 billion (-14%)
Accessories: $ 628.7 million (-27%)
Total software: $ 2.14 billion (-15%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR DECEMBER 2011
Title (Platforms) – Publisher
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, PC) – Activision
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360) – Ubisoft
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360, PS3, PC) – Bethesda Softworks
4. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) – Nintendo
5. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) – EA
6. Madden NFL 12 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) – EA
7. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (X360, PS3, PC) – Ubisoft
8. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, Wii) – Take-Two
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) – Nintendo
10. Batman: Arkham City (X360, PS3, PC) – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
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GameSpot’s Wii News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
Deus Ex: a game so good it gave us actual neuroses about its sequels. Invisible War, [..]
PC Gamer » PC Gamer | The global authority on PC games
Atlus has just announced their newest game, Gungnir, from Sting. Gungnir is a PlayStation Portable strategy role-playing game featuring an epic story with slick …
Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, THQ, Konami, Namco Bandai, and Majesco allegedly infringed on patents held by interactive sports simulation maker Impulse Technologies.
Impulse Technologies is giving an assortment of exercise game publishers’ legal teams a workout. The company last week filed a patent lawsuit in United States District Court against Nintendo and a handful of its third-party partners alleging that their Wii exercise games infringed on an Impulse-held patent.
Beyond Nintendo, the suit names Electronic Arts (EA Sports Active 2.0), Ubisoft (Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout), THQ (UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System), Namco Bandai (Exerbeat), Konami (Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3), and Majesco (Zumba Fitness 2). Each of those companies is accused of using the Wii, Wii Remote, and Wii Balance Board in violation of a 1996 Impulse patent covering interactive experiences “where the motion of the player is tracked to effect movement of a virtual avatar, and the exertion of the user is monitored.” A visualization included with the original patent filing shows a user standing on a pressure sensor board with an accelerometer strapped to his leg.
Impulse Technologies is the parent company of TRAQ Ltd., maker of the Trazer fitness system, which is marketed to gyms and athletic training centers and uses the patent in question. Billed as an “interactive sports simulator,” the system lets users work out in front of a TV screen, with minigames taking them through a variety of exercises, sometimes with peripherals like resistance bands or foot switches that need to be activated.
This is the second major gaming suit from Impulse this year. In July, the company filed suit against Microsoft and eight third-party publishers alleging that the defendants’ Kinect games infringed upon a half-dozen Impulse-owned patents. The sued publishers included all the aforementioned third-party publishers (in some cases for the Xbox 360 versions of the same products), as well as Sega (for Virtua Tennis 4 and Sonic Freeriders) and Harmonix (for Dance Central). With the exception of Namco Bandai and Konami, all of the sued companies in that suit have filed counterclaims against Impulse.
A TRAQ representative declined to comment. As of press time, none of the game publishers had returned GameSpot’s request for comment on the suit.
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GameSpot’s Wii News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
Fun fact: the original XIII – a cel-shaded, comic book-based shooter released in 2003 – ended [..]
PC Gamer » PC Gamer | The global authority on PC games
4 new shots posted.
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GameSpot’s iPhone/iPod News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
Square Enix has announced that the upcoming Final Fantasy 13-2 will have both DLC and mini games, including Chocobo racing. According to FF13-2′s producer Yo …
Continue reading Final Fantasy 13-2 Will Have DLC And Chocobo Racing Mini Game%7Cutmcsr%3D(direct)%7Cutmcmd%3D(none)%3B%2B__utmv%3D65129146.-%3B "Final Fantasy 13 2 Will Have DLC And Chocobo Racing Mini Game"){kind=small}
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Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures!
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