-
Super Mario Bros Wii. Fastest Wii Title To Hit Three Million In Japan
Going on sale in Japan on December 3, 2009, Wii title New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold over 3 million games. In Japan, that’s not just fast for a Wii title, it’s the fastest. In its first seven weeks on sale, the game moved 3,002,753 units, making it the fastest title to hit the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
So, Does Japan Actually Read Game Magazines?
Apparently! Some people read Japanese game magazines like Famitsu when scans leak early onto the internet. Other people actually buy the print publications. But how many? The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association has released circulation numbers for domestic video games magazines. Data is between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. Title: Weekly Famitsu Publisher: Enterbrain…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
Vietnam Finally Gets The PlayStation 2 (And PS3, PSP)
Over the weekend, Sony Computer Entertainment began operations in Vietnam, marking the first time the PlayStation brand has been officially sold in the communist state. Sony’s first sanctioned (as in, not privately imported) PlayStation products in the country went on sale on Saturday morning, with the120GB PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (the PSP-3000) and PlayStation 2…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
Etrian Odyssey III Pushed Back
Upcoming Nintendo DS role-playing game Etrian Odyssey III: Visitor From Star Ocean from developer Atlus has been delayed in Japan. The game was originally slated for a March 4 release. Joining the typical dungeon crawling of the previous Etrian Odyssey games, the third installment will also feature ocean exploring. Atlus attributed the delay to “various…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
Plenty More TF2 Updates On The Way
Over two years on from the game’s release, every Team Fortress 2 class save the Engineer has received a major update. Does that mean, then, that there’s only one major update left in the game? No way. In an interview with Team Fortress 2 community site Community Fortress, Valve’s Robin Walker has said “We’ve got…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
What Do Gundam, Pro Evo and Nintendo Games Have In Common?
Last year in Japan, people bought tons of ’em, that’s what. Enterbrain, the publisher behind Japanese game magazine Famitsu, has released sales data for fifty biggest selling games of last year. The data was collected for the dates between December 28, 2008 and December 27, 2009. Where applicable, the data in the parenthesis is the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
Kenka Bancho, The Badass Gallery of Tough Guy Faces
This March, fighting game Kenka Bancho is coming to the silver screen in Japan with Kenka Bancho ~ Zenkoku Seiha (Nationwide Domination). It’s bringing hard-nosed facial posturing with it! The cute is provided by idols Erika Yazawa and Mai Satoda. Sneers by the dudes. Thanks, dudes! 里田まい『喧嘩番長 劇場版〜全国制覇』で「夢が叶った」 [Famitsu]
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
The Big Three All See Revenues Drop in 2009
Revenues were down for most video game companies in 2009, and the big three platform holders were no exception. Pretty clear, but if you need it spelled out a little clearer, nice graphs tend to do the trick. Put together by NPD fetishist Matt Matthews over at Gamasutra, it shows the decline in revenue all…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
Why Is Square Enix Raising Cash?
Square Enix, the company behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, announced a ¥35 billion ($386 million) zero-coupon convertible bond. As Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Securities Japan points out, “convertible” means that these bonds can be changed to shares at some point before they mature. While Square Enix has around ¥80 billion in on hand cash,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
EA Exec & Former EA Exec: Handbags At Twenty Paces
This is fun. A former EA executive last week went to town on the publisher’s business strategy and that of its boss, John Riccitiello. Rather than let the comments wash under the bridge, however, EA today responded. With snark. The former EA man in question is Mitch Lasky, who sold a mobile business to EA…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
A Week In Comments
Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing Comment by: Segador Nominated by: (Starman) #number258 I watched a friend go from a quality individual to a fat, pasty, loser in 12 months thanks to his addiction to WoW. He lost his very good IT consulting job because he would stay up past 3am, then crash, not…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 -
Blizzard Worth $7 Million In 1995, $7 Billion In 2007
What a difference a decade makes. Speaking with Game Informer magazine, Activision boss Bobby Kotick has spoken of the massive disparity between how much Blizzard was worth in 1995 compared to the price Kotick paid in 2007. In ’95, the Warcraft creators were purchased by Davidson & Associates. For a sum that, in 1995, Kotick…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
Rock Band Network Launching Tomorrow
MTV’s Rock Band Network, an ambitious program aimed at letting “anyone” upload a song to the game’s store, will be launching tomorrow, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a piece on MTV’s plans for the store, the WSJ piece opens with “MTV Games is hoping to goose sales of its flagging “Rock Band” series…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 -
Kotaku Off-Topic: Every Kiss Begins with Uranus
You might think you got your girl a nice sized rock when you popped the question, some gas giant at the edge of the solar system just blew the curve for the rest of us guys. Plenty of chatter today about games. Too much, even. Let’s take a break with some officially sanctioned off-topic discussion.…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 -
Trendy Mario Bros.
Half of this seems about as hamfistedly hip as a Mentos ad, but a team of design students at a Milan university identified five top global trends – guerrilla gardening, couch-surfing, carpooling – and used Mario to illustrate them. I guess by planting trees on the sly you bring a Fiat dealership to town, turn…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 -
Visit Age Of Conan: Rise Of The Godslayer’s Lovely Chosain Province
New screens for Funcom’s Age of Conan show off the distinctive Asian flair of the Chosain Province, the new area being introduced in the Rise of the Godslayer expansion pack. Going by the screens, the Chosain Province looks to be a bit more vibrant than any of the locations I visited during my time with…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 -
U.S. Army Trains with “SimCity Bagdad”
Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago. UrbanSim is the name of the training program, profiled in an item in the current issue of The…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 -
Sherlock Holmes Tracks Jack The Ripper To U.S. Xbox 360
JoWooD Entertainment and Dreamcatcher pit the greatest fictional detective of all time against one of the most notorious real-life serial killers in Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, coming in March to the North American Xbox 360. Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper is the fifth in a series of Holmes adventure titles developed by…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 -
Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing
Game-blame news from Romania: a 15-year-old boy said to be “dependent” on video games stabbed to death his adoptive mother, after she refused to pay the Internet bill in hopes the disconnection would put an end to his Counter-Strike addiction. In the narrative of the attack the boy, Ionut Savin (pictured), stabbed his mother (on…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010