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Modern Warfare 2 sells “just fine” on PC

James Hyde — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:34:27 +0000

Whenever a game is released on the PC, piracy is always an issue, with a piracy rate of 90% according to some (for every game that’s sold, 9 are pirated). The PC edition of Modern Warfare 2 faced another possible hurdle: the boycott. However, as we showed earlier this month, it didn’t really work, as everyone is playing MW2 these days. Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling said that MW2 was its most successful PC game to date, saying:

“The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has actually outsold the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in it’s first week. Essentially, all this percentage proves is that the console versions sold great, not that the PC version sold poorly”.

The percentage he’s talking about? 3%. The amount of PC sales accountable for the overall sales of Modern Warfare 2. Just 3%.

Steam bans grey-markey MW2 keys

James Hyde — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:25:09 +0000

Those who purchased Modern Warfare 2 keys on grey-market, in other countries or as part of a discount group of keys which were sold to Internet Cafes, have now been banned from playing online, Valve revealed today. Valve’s BurtonJ says:

“If you purchased just a cd key for the game then you purchased from an illegitimate seller and the game has been revoked.”

He went on to say that users should try and get a refund for their keys and get a legitimate copy of the game. Perhaps through Steam.

Steam has 70% of PC download market, says Stardock

James Hyde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:33:35 +0000

We always knew that Steam was a massive endeavor, continuously filling up the treasure chests in Valve’s basements. But we never really knew how big a chunk of the market it has, and now Stardock, one of its competitors, says that Steam has about a 70% of the digital distribution market share on the PC, which, as Kotaku points out, is about the same market share that Apple has in the digital music download sector.

This can only add to the criticism that Valve and Steam should be separated into different companies. But don’t count on that any time soon.

Sony looking into paid subscriptions for PS3 online area

James Hyde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:26:08 +0000

Sony’s Kaz “Riiidge Racer” Hirai said during a presentation yesterday that Sony expects the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and PSP to generate $500 million in revenues this fiscal year, but, he also added another thing, a far more disturbing picture…

Hirai mentioned that Sony was looking into “premium subscriptions” for the online service, much like Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox 360. The PS3’s bit selling point has always been that it’s free to play online, and that may change soon. Hirai is quoted by CVG saying,

“Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.”

Great. Just as we thought the PS3 was catching up to the Xbox 360.

MW2 rockets GameStop Q3 profits

James Hyde — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:06:37 +0000

One of the biggest winners from the successful launch of Modern Warfare 2, besides Activision, is GameStop, which saw its Q3 profits hit $52 million, on $1.8 billion in revenue. GameStop said the profits were fueled by Modern Warfare 2, which was the biggest launch in the history of the company, and sold 2.5 million copies in its first 72 hours. The company projects the good times into the upcoming months, with the release of Assassin’s Creed 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Modern Warfare 2 brings in $550 million so far

James Hyde — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:27:35 +0000

It’s no secret that Modern Warfare 2 was going to move a lot of dough for Activision, but how much? Well, $550 million, that’s how much, according to the publisher. The game has now sold almost 10 million copies, and has generated over half a billion dollars in revenue in the first five days of its release. While you’re crunching over those number, you can check out our Modern Warfare 2 review.

60% of UK Xbox 360s have failed

James Hyde — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:07:15 +0000

It’s no secret that the Xbox 360 hardware hasn’t been the most stable out there, in fact, it’s quite crappy, with an estimated “official” failure rate between 30 and 40 percent. But it seems that the rate is even larger in the UK, where CNet recently did a poll which revealed that a whopping 60% of the consoles have failed at one point or another. While it’s not a scientific study, it’s still surprising, especially considering that GameInformer did a similar study in the US, where over 50% of the users reported console malfunctions.

Assassin’s Creed Lineage, Part 3

James Hyde — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:29:56 +0000

Yesterday we posted the second part of Assassin’s Creed Lineage, and today, you get the conclusion of the short story. Enjoy.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC to support DirectX 11

James Hyde — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:22:29 +0000

In a rather surprising move, DICE confirmed (via Twitter) that Battlefield Bad Company 2 for the PC will support DirectX 11, which was introduced with Windows 7. The news was announced by AMD, which is in cooperation with DICE to add DX 11. The game will still use the fist edition of the Frostbite engine, while Frostbite 2 will fully support DX 11, and is the engine used in the upcoming Battlefield 3.

Banned Xbox 360s flood Craigslist

James Hyde — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:50:33 +0000

Oh boy, who’d have expected this: after Microsoft banned and bricked a million Xbox 360s, which were modded to play pirated games, XBox 360 consoles are now appearing on Craigslist all over the US, with prices starting as low as $120. While it’s fairly cheap and you might play games offline, you can’t go online with your modded console from Craigslist, and what’ and Xbox 360 without Xbox Live anyway? Oh, and there’s no warranty on modded consoles. Just so you know.

Xbox 360 sells 10 million units in Europe

James Hyde — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:50:12 +0000

Europe has usually always come in second to North America when it comes to game and console sales, despite having a larger population. Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 has sold 10 million consoles in Europe, Africa and The Middle East (although the latter two only account for a few hundred thousand units).

The console has sold 12 million units in North America and 1 million in Japan since its release back in 2005, with worldwide sales topping 30 million.

Microsoft banning 1 million Xbox Live users

James Hyde — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:16:12 +0000

Information Week suggests that Microsoft has banned over 5% of Xbox Live members because they use modded consoles. Since there are just over 20 million Live members, it means over 1 million accounts have been suspended because they use modded consoles, which makes them play pirated games.

Need For Speed 2010 confirmed

James Hyde — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:43:26 +0000

EA has confirmed that developer Criterion has a Need For Speed game ready for 2010, after working on the Burnout series for a long time, indicating that the series will now have yearly installments, much like their EA Sports series. EA also revealed that Need For Speed Shift has shipped over 2.5 million units, while actual sales numbers were not disclosed.

EA to cut jobs at Maxis and Pandemic

James Hyde — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:37:39 +0000

The recent announcement of job cuts at EA was accompanied by little more information on where the cuts would be made, as EA operates a lot of studios worldwide. Now a rumor suggests that the cuts will target studios Maxis and Pandemic, who worked on Mercenaries and The Saboteur.

The rumor also suggests, quite stunningly, that the entire team behind Command & Conquer 4 will get sacked after the game is complete. How’s that for “motivation”?

EA CEO frustrated by weak Wii game sales

James Hyde — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:54:43 +0000

During a recent conference all, EA CEO John Riccitiello expressed his frustration with games on the Wii selling not as well as they have, and not selling as well and they used to. He said,

“To be honest with you, I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated. And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share.”

Riccitiello also added that Nintendo should support 3rd party developers more, and that EA has reached out to Nintendo to partner up and push third party titles even stronger.

IO Interactive working on a secret game

James Hyde — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:05:46 +0000

IO Interactive, the Danish developer (owner by Square Enix), is best known for the Hitman franchise and the recent Kane & Lynch and Mini Ninjas (read our Mini Ninjas review).

While the developer has confirmed it’s working on Hitman 5 and Kane & Lynch 2, CVG reports that a secret source tells them IO is working on a game “unlike anything else”, and note: “Imagine all the violence of Hitman and Kayne & Lynch but not scripted”.

Nvidia’s DX11 graphics card delayed until 2010?

James Hyde — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:22:23 +0000

Fudzilla claims it has details that point towards Nvidia launching their next generation graphics chip, codenamed Fermi, in January 2010, as opposed to in December, as originally planned. Granted, Nvidia never officially announced a release date, but did mention December as a viable time.

However, DigiTimes — a far more reputable source than Fudzilla — claims that the date is even further into 2010, as Nvidia CEO stated that the card will likely launch in the first fiscal quarter of 2010, which begins in March. If true, this will mean that AMD’s cards, which are already out, will be given a good 6 month head start as the only DX 11 cards available on the market.

Wii Fit Plus claims top stop on UK charts

James Hyde — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:14:14 +0000

Nintendo Wii Fit Plus expansion to Wii Fit has takes the top spot on the sales charts in the UK (read our Wii Fit Plus review), while the highly regarded Dragon Age Origins debuted at a solid 5th spot, the full top 10 list below:

1. Wii Fit Plus
2. FIFA 10
3. Wii Sports Resort
4. Football Manager 2010
5. Dragon Age: Origins
6. Forza 3
7. Mario & Sonic Winter Olympic Games
8. GTA4: Episodes from Liberty City
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
10. Tekken 6

Gran Turismo 5 delayed for “marketing reasons”

James Hyde — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:54:11 +0000

Gran Turismo 5 has been delayed many times, indicating that the developer wants to make a perfect game, which is good (unless your game is called Duke Nukem Forever). GT5 has a firm release date for March 2010, but it appears that the game could’ve been released earlier, and it’s held back until March for marketing purposes. Now developer Polyphony Digital revealed that while the March 2010 date is set for Japan, Sony us still thinking about when to release it to the rest of the world, and it may very well be later in 2010, possibly in Fall 2010 (although this is pure speculation at this point).

EA acquires PlayFish for $300 million

James Hyde — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:47:51 +0000

EA has announced that they’ve acquired social network game developer PlayFish for 300 million dollars. PlayFish, which makes games for social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, will receive an additional $100 million if certain sales/revenue goals are met before 2012. PlayFish has developed 10 titles which have 60 million active users on Facebook and MySpace and over 1 billion play sessions each month.