• piracy

    Xmas Console Sales Affected By Piracy. No, Seriously.

    It's all fun and games using 'Piracy' to describe copyright infringement when you want to reframe the debate and equate the sharing of intellectual property with aquatic larceny, but what happens when your actual ship-based armed robbers yo-ho-ho into view? What then, Mr cognitive linguistics smartypants?

    The holiday games market is under threat this year from actual, proper Somali pirates who are preying upon cargo ships off the Horn of Africa and beyond. Sadly, this lot seem to be eschewing Cornish accents and peg legs in favor of AK-47s and huge ex-Soviet trawler ships.

    Shipping firms are now faced with the choice of braving pirate-infested waters or taking costly detours that can delay goods by several weeks.

    "Despite all the publicity over piracy it will really hit home when consumers in the West find they haven't got their Nintendo gifts this Christmas," said Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers' Federation.

    No Nintendo Game This Xmas? Blame Somali Pirates

    6:40 PM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By Stuart Houghton
    5,685 views, 120 comments

    Most discussed DukeOfPwn: Turns out real pirates are, like people who pirate games, complete assholes. more »

  • nintendo

    It's That Time Of Year Again - Nintendo Expecting Wii Shortages

    You can tell it is nearly Christmas - perfume adverts are on TV, frost is biting your nose in the morning and Nintendo have announced that they might be short of Wiis again. Or are they?

    "We're producing an unprecedented level of hardware to try to meet demand,” said Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime, “We're flowing products into stores on a very regular basis. Once you see it on the shelf, you ought to buy it.”

    Now, cynics might suggest that there is the tiniest possibility this might be a non-too-subtle marketing ruse aimed at encouraging you get down to the shops and buy up an armful of Wiis so that a) you will get one and b) there will then be a newsworthy shortage. Good job we aren't cynics. More »

    3:20 PM on Mon Oct 27 2008
    By Stuart Houghton
    3,174 views, 128 comments

  • microsoft

    Microsoft Splurging Millions On Xmas

    No, not just on Steve Balmer's Xmas stocking (he is getting hundreds of Zunes). Microsoft are preparing for a full-on Xbox marketing blitz this Christmas.

    Microsoft UK's Regional Director Neil Thompson told MCV that the recent price cuts are just the start of their holiday season campaign and that Microsoft are ready to spend big to ensure the Xbox 360 comes out on top,

    “On marketing we’ll spend tens of millions[of pounds] – we’re going to engage in a very bold promotional push from now until Christmas.”

    Thompson promised that (in the UK at least) there would be no console shortages this year saying that he had been "very bullish on supply."

    Xbox spending ‘tens of millions’ on Xmas [MCV]

    3:20 PM on Fri Sep 19 2008
    By Stuart Houghton
    1,958 views, 45 comments

  • feature

    Nintendo Torpedoes The Wii Grey Market

    Twas the month before Christmas and all through the land,
    Not a single retailer had one Wii on hand...

    More like the year before Christmas, actually. An entire year where not a day went by that hundreds of electronic and gaming retail employees didn't have to negatively answer the same nagging question. "Do you have any Wiis in stock?" Even though the console sold relatively briskly in the year following its launch, getting your hands on one meant you either won a contest, knew someone who worked for a retailer, shadowed UPS trucks or were just plain lucky.

    As the holidays season started heating up, things looked bleak for parents and gamers looking to get their hands on Nintendo's tiny, motion-controlled console. Rumors of chip shortages ran rampant, and I personally was certain that the eBay grey market price for the hot gift item would far meet if not surpass the highest numbers seen during the initial late 2006 release window.

    Miraculously that never happened. At the very last moment, in a series of moves that gained them criticism from fans, Nintendo managed to pull together enough supply to curb the often ridiculously inflated eBay demand before it was too late.


    More »

    Feature

    11:40 AM on Mon Jan 7 2008
    By Mike Fahey
    65,271 views, 88 comments

  • media

    Kotaku Kristmas Kard, 'Still Not Banned'


    Hmm...maybe we overdid it with the whole "K" for "Kotaku" theme, but we've put together a special holiday ecard just for our readers. Why? Clearly the internet is short of obnoxious electronic entertainment. And when Valve agreed to lend us the background of a certain very popular song from Portal, we just couldn't help ourselves... So from the entire Kotaku staff, happy holidays and merry whatever you celebrate. And to Valve, thank-you...and we're very, very sorry. Voices in order of butchery: Michael Fahey, Mark Wilson, Brian Crecente, Brian Crecente, Luke Plunkett.
    Lyrics by Fahey, Crecente and Wilson
    Video by Mark Wilson

    8:00 AM on Mon Dec 31 2007
    By Mark Wilson
    33,162 views, 396 comments

    Latest by basseman: that was not so bad except, on little thing. you know when people write that they´re ears are bleading? my ears more »

  • playstation 3

    The PlayStation PhoneBook

    Imagine this scene: A 13-year-old boy awakes Christmas morning and runs down the stairs to the tree where he finds a brand new Playstation 3 box waiting. Tearing open the sealed box he finds inside not a sleek, black Playstation 3 but a bulky, yellow telephone book.

    The teen was amused, the parents... not so much.

    Teen Opens PlayStation 3 Box, Finds Phone Book Inside! [MyFox Utah]

    6:00 PM on Wed Dec 26 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    13,573 views, 138 comments

    Latest by ivealwaysgotmail10: @Veltis: Are you serious? I AM REID GODSHAW, The supposed kid "hired by fox" to pose as the kid with more »

  • amazon

    Wii Wins the Amazon Christmas

    Amazon is just giddy with excitement. The holidays are over and they are bursting at the seams with money spent on presents. Their annual "We made a shitton of money during the holidays" press release went out this morning and in it the the Wii as their top selling console and Call of Duty 4 as their top game.

    While they don't release any specific numbers for their video game sales, they do say that Amazon sold Wii system "at approximately 17 per second when they were in stock."

    Here's the top ten current lists of video game and hardware sales on Amazon:

    Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Wii Nunchuk control
    Wii Play with Remote
    Wii Remote
    Wii Charging Station
    Wii
    Assassin's Creed for the Xbox 360
    Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training
    Playstation 3 Wireless Sixaxis Controller


    The PSP 2K, in the number 12 spot, was the next best-selling platform after the Wii

    Amazon.Com Best Sellers [Amazon]

    4:00 PM on Wed Dec 26 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    2,422 views, 55 comments

    Latest by Benjo: And why are we not surprised? more »

  • microsoft

    Xbox LIVE Celebrates A Bumpy Holiday

    According to a few reports we've spotted on the web, some Xbox LIVE users had difficulty connecting to the service (while others claimed complete outages) during and around December 25th. We wrote Microsoft's own Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb regarding the issue, along with an inquiry whether or not a lighter holiday-celebrating LIVE maintenance staff may have had difficulty handling new users. Hyrb responded:

    ...LIVE was never completely offline. We did have some spotty issues over the weekend, but the XOC (Xbox Operations Center) was fully staffed (as it always is 24/7/365) and they addressed the issue as quickly as they could.
    And then Hyrb wondered silently*, "It was freaking Christmas for Christ's sake! Don't these people have lives???"

    *In case my blatant sarcasm was unclear to anyone, Kotaku has no proof that Hryb was actually thinking this.
    LIVE failed help [via maxconsole]

    12:40 PM on Wed Dec 26 2007
    By Mark Wilson
    4,340 views, 41 comments

    Latest by a-small-white-x: @WarlockSoL: yah the same thing happened to me i was connected to xb live and i could see my friends more »

  • serious games

    Where Are The Christmas Games?

    Ian Bogost—of Persuasive Games, Water Cooler Games and Kotaku guest-editing fame—wonders in print via Gamasutra where the holiday-themed games are. Alongside a quick primer on winter, Christmas and Hannukah specific content, such as Christmas NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn and The Sims 2 Holiday Stuff, he explores the potential gain that publishers and developers could reap from throwaway titles that appeal to the holiday spirit. Sure, there are a few snow and ice levels thrown about, but no one's taking Christmas seriously. More »

    4:20 PM on Thu Dec 20 2007
    By Michael McWhertor
    2,215 views, 62 comments

    Latest by eridener: Wasn't there an area in Secret of Mana where you rescued Santa after he was turned into a demon or more »

  • holiday greetings

    A Raving Christmas

    Is it just me, or are the Rabbids slowly losing their charm? When the first game was deep in its initial marketing blitz we saw some truly hilarious shorts coming out of Ubisoft's Rayman Raving Rabbids team, but now as the second game has just failed to reignite the Rabbid fever in me. Yes, this is a terrible way to react to a heartfelt Christmas greetings advertisement, but worry not - I've got a line on an adorable little scamp who walks with a crutch who'll "God bless us, everyone" us out of this depressing line of thinking in no time. WAAAAHHHHHH!

    9:40 AM on Wed Dec 19 2007
    By Mike Fahey
    13,902 views, 51 comments

    Latest by sandwiches: @sandwiches: It's "THEIR appeal", not "THEY'RE appeal", you fucking retard. more »