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  Nintendo Responds To December NPD Sales, Seems Pleased

  Did you hear? Nintendo had a nice Christmas, giving 5 million good girls and boys Wiis and Nintendo DSs, smashing records left and right. Defensibly, Nintendo would like to brag about its accomplishments now. In its follow-up to NPD sales data that showed Nintendo moving 2 million Wiis and 3 million DSs in the United…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Microsoft Responds To December NPD Sales, Seems Pleased

  Microsoft is pretty positive about the Xbox 360s showing in December, calling it “the biggest month for Xbox 360 in history.” The company boasts outselling its Sony competition two-to-one for the holiday quarter. Mmmm… selective! But let ’em gloat, we say. While the Xbox 360 didn’t quite double sales of the PlayStation 3 last month,…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Sony Responds To December NPD Sales, Seems Pleased

  Given that Sony had its best sales of the year this December, it has reason to be pleased with its end of year sales. Corporately, it is, with the PlayStation brand “staged for continued momentum.” Sony’s response to today’s NPD sales figures for the U.S. point out… well, they point out everything. PlayStation 3 hardware…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Killzone 2 Demo Isn’t *Quite* Exclusive To GameStop

  You may have heard. The Killzone 2 demo is exclusive to GameStop. Meaning you have to part with money to play it. Savvy! But here comes the fine print: the demo’s not quite exclusive. Sony’s Scott Steinberg has told MTV that the demo will eventually be released to the American public. And released to the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2009
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  Gears Of War: Nine Million Served

  You may hate its multiplayer modes. You may abhor the fact it’s characters are so testosterone-fuelled they border on self parody. That doesn’t matter. The Gears of War series has sold nine million copies. Speaking with GameDaily, Microsoft’s Guy Welch has revealed that since Gears of War 2 was released in November, it’s sold four…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2009
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  Japan Takes A Week Off From Buying Game Hardware

  The nation of Japan started 2009 off rather slowly in hardware sales terms. Buying slowed to a crawl overseas, as they tend to do, at the turn of a new year. Looking at the drop-off, you’d think it’s rather grim, but that’s the New Year’s holiday hangover in action. No new video game releases means…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  PlayStation Store Update: Ultimate Magic Plus

  Last week’s PlayStation Store update for North America was a bummer. Not so this week, as gobs of things to buy and download and play freshen up the PlayStation 3. On the gaming side, there’s GTI Club+, Magic Ball and Ultimate Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts for the PSP. There’s even a Skate 2 demo if you…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  What Was 2008’s Best Selling Game In The U.S.?

  To be honest, we’re still not sure. The NPD Group released data for the “Top Selling Games Annual 2008” with Wii Play coming in at number one, boasting 5.28 million copies sold. Wii Play‘s sales for the year beat out Grand Theft Auto IV with a combined total of 5.18 million copies sold on the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Study: Gamers Aren’t Fat, Illiterate Manchildren

  A new study suggests that gamers are older, more active and more often female than previous industry figures have suggested. The Adult Videogame Market in the US: Tapping Into the New Diversity of Video-Game Players is a pricey consumer analysis put together by Packaged Facts. I don’t have three grand to drop on buying the…

  By AJ Glasser Published January 15, 2009
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  December’s Biggest Game In The U.S. Is… Wii Play

  Call of Duty: World at War couldn’t win the battle against the Wii in December, selling 150,000 units shy of Wii Play‘s staggering 1.46 million copies. Yes, that’s a lot of Wii Remotes. The mini-game compilation and NPD top ten mainstay fought off the Xbox 360 version of the latest Call of Duty handily. Factoring…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  More Memory, More Memory, More Memory

  To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Being An Only Child… I just installed some more memory in the computer, bumping it up to the motherboard max of 4GB. Firefox was sucking up so much memory I couldn’t take it anymore. Man, Firefox really does suck when it comes to memory leaks. Have you had any issues…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 15, 2009
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  Nintendo Breaks More Sales Records, Sells Over 5 Million Consoles In December

  The holidays were very merry for Nintendo which sold 3.04 million Nintendo DS handhelds during the month of December, ending 2008 with the best-selling console in the United States, blowing far past the console competition. Nintendo hardware secured the top spot last month — as it had done every month in 2008 — thanks to…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Guitar Hero: Metallica Dated For North America

  Metallica’s own Guitar Hero game will be riding the lightning on its way to retail shelves on March 29 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, according to the band’s official site. The second-class consoles, Wii and PlayStation 2, will get their own versions of Guitar Hero: Metallica, but not until Spring, which translates to…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Nintendo Isn’t Just About Old People Bowling, There’s Boxing Too!

  We’ve all had it up to our eyeballs with the mainstream press rolling out scenes of octogenarians Wii Bowling every time they want to talk about the successes of the Wii. Apparently so have they. So the press has moved on to Wii Boxing. Blanche Betten, a 76-year-old retired restaurant owner, hammered Bob Warner, 85,…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 15, 2009
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  More EA Cuts Go Live Today

  As the year progresses so do Electronic Arts’ planned and massive cuts. Today we hear that Mariam Sughayer, senior manager of corporate communications for Electronic Arts, and the person often quoted in official responses to rumors about cuts was herself laid-off today. Her position eliminated. Sughayer, who did an admirable job of getting official responses…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 15, 2009
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  Legends of Norrath Expands Again, Continues Passing Out Boosters

  Sony Online Entertainment’s online collectible card game Legends of Norrath expands again next month, following the story of the Ethernauts with the sixth expansion set, Against the Void. Yes, Legends of Norrath is an online collectible card game with a story, Against the Void is the second chapter in a three-part epic involving the Ethernauts,…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 15, 2009
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  Official Street Fighter IV Training Manual Packed with Cammy Junk, Seth Moves

  I just got a work-derailing, pants-tightening package in the mail today from Capcom. Inside were two Training Manuals for their upcoming fighter and copies of the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 debugs. The glossy 39-page training manual is an ode to everything Street Fighter IV. Inside you get backstory on both the tournament…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 15, 2009
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  DICE Rolls Out Speakers: Riccitiello, Takeuchi Will Say Awesome Things

  This year’s DICE Summit is bringing in the video gaming industry’s big guns. Who will be talking about the business of Designing, Innovating, Communicating and Entertaining? EA’s John Riccitiello for one, with an encore performance. Riccitiello will join Resident Evil 5 director Jun Takeuchi, Chris Cao, creative director of Sony Online Entertainment Austin, and Fallout…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2009
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  Garriott Will Get Back To Gaming One Day

  Sure his head is up in the clouds at the moment, but Ultima creator Richard Garriott hasn’t forgotten where he’s from. In an interview with GameDaily, Garriott discusses an eventual return to gaming. GameDaily writer and occasional Kotaku contributer N. Evan Van Zelfden (possible robot) got a chance to speak with Garriott about his future…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 15, 2009
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  Miyamoto, Spore Win Jim Henson Awards

  Video gaming makes up half of the list of this year’s Jim Henson Honors, with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and PC game Spore both landing awards. Established in 2005, the awards program acknowledges organizations, individuals or products that reflect the core values and philosophy of the legendary Jim Henson and the company he founded. Criteria used…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 15, 2009