EA and Bioware Announce New Pre-Order Gear for Mass Effect 3

Electronic Arts and Bioware today revealed some new goodies available to players who pre-order the upcoming finale to the mega-hit franchise, Mass Effect 3.  The items will be available via a DLC code which will be included with your purchase of the game as a reward to those who ordered early.

Read On »

Kinect May Be The Hot Item This Christmas Season

Now I have to admit, I chuckled a little bit when Kudo Tsunoda said that Kinect sales would, “blow away any of the sales you’ve seen with iPad.”  But, you have to admit that selling over 2.5 million units in 25 days is extremely impressive.  Moreover, it looks to be on track to actually be a good contender to blow out Apple’s impressive record with the motion controller. Furthermore, there appears to be a shortage… Read On »

VGChartz Sales Data On Kinect Sparks Remarks From Greenburg

Yesterday, VGChartz released initial sales data for Kinect for the Xbox 360, stating that the device had sold almost 480,000 devices between its launch on November 4 to the week ending November 6.  For two days worth of sales, it’s not a figure to laugh at.  Especially considering that it took the Playstation Move four weeks to reach a similar number.

But Mr. Aaron Greenburg, Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, is indeed, laughing.  Per his post on Twitter, “LOL’ing at sales reports from VGChartz, why do people release info as official when there is no source or science behind the #s?”

VGChartz has come under fire before for the accuracy of the data that it reports.  Many times, their data will be corrected when groups such as NPD release their own tracking data.  However, with NPD no longer reporting their data to the public, VGChartz is the only source left for many bloggers, myself included, to gather semi-accurate sales data.

Brett Walton left a comment in the Kinect article stating, “I’m a little disappointed that a senior figure like Mr Greenberg decides to comment in such an immature way rather than maybe offer the actual figure for example.

As ever, it is entirely possible that our figures aren’t perfect (they are only estimates from samples afterall), but they shouldn’t be that far out.”

So is this another example of VGChartz guesstimates being way out of what the actual numbers are?  Or could Mr. Greenburg be clutching on to the real sales data because the true numbers aren’t as impressive?

Stay tuned.

~W75

October Sales Data – Christmas Season Predictions

Nintendo down 50%, Sony Leads The Month Sony led the month of October with over 990,000 unit sales pulling ahead of Microsoft by almost 230,000 sales in the last two weeks.  Two contributing factors to Sony pulling ahead were most likely the launch of the Playstation Move, Sony’s motion controller, and anticipation of Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360, with people opting to pre-order the Xbox 360S 4GB and 250GB bundles with the Kinect device. More… Read On »

Kinect Sold Out On Amazon/Best Buy – Resellers Taking Advantage

As reported earlier this week, Amazon and Best Buy appear to still be sold out on Kinect sensor pre-orders.  As a matter of fact, checking on Amazon’s list of sellers under “See My Buying Options” reveals that their third party resellers have now upped the price over $200 for their Kinect pre-orders.

Another check on eBay reveals that sellers are doing the same there.  Charging anywhere from $159.99 to $300 for a pre-order there.

Savvy Shoppers should know that if you instead go to sites such as Newegg, or Walmart with their $199, two game bundle, or Gamestop instead of these other third party resellers.

While I would like to believe that it’s the innovation in the new product and its easy to use interface, I’m much more inclined to believe that these sell-outs are largely happening due to the Oprah and Ellen effect.

Best Buy Sold Out Of Kinect Standalone Again

After hearing that Kinect was sold out on Amazon.com, I decided to check out the usual haunts and found that Best Buy is again sold out of the standalone Kinect unit, and still has not restocked their Kinect 250GB Console Bundle.

Newegg and Gamestop appear to still be taking orders however.  Looks like Microsoft continues to underestimate demand for their product.  This is the second time that the largest retailers of Xbox products have run short of Kinect Standalone units in just a few weeks.

Source: PunchJump; BestBuy

Console News For Monday, October 25th

Remedy On Why Alan Wake Took So Long

A recent interview with Matias Myllyrinne of Remedy stated in an interview with VG247 that it, “could be that we shared with the world too early,” and, ““To be fair, we did not think it was going to take this long to get right, so when we announced we did not think folks would have to wait for so long.”

He goes on to say, “The first Max Payne was a similar story too, but I think as long as you can live up to the vision you set to build people will still be excited and welcome the game when it is done.”

Considering that both games are epic in their own fashion, I think it’s safe to say that in this case, it was well worth the wait.

Source: VG247

How To Fix The RROD – Marine Corps Style.

All I can say to this is…Hu-Rah!  Apparently, the RROD is possible even in the middle of the desert.  And one Marine shows us how the Corps fix that little problem.

Source: Unrealitymag.com

Sony recalls Shuan Wtihe Skatebaording Doo Too Speeling Error?

 Strategy Informer is reporting that Sony has recalled the PS3 version of Shaun White Skateboarding due to a misprinted disc.  SCEA had this to say regarding the issue:

“There was a manufacturing issue with a misprinted disc at Sony Computer Entertainment America and the wrong version of the Shaun White Skateboarding PlayStation 3 game was shipped to retailers. We’re working with Ubisoft to correct the issue.”

Corrected copies of the game will be available in stores by this Thursday.

Source: Strategy Informer

Activision hiring PI’s to stop Black Ops Pirates?

I actually had to double and triple check this one before posting it.  Apparently, Activision has hired private investigators to track down pirates of the up and coming Call of Duty: Black Ops, and are “kindly” asking for the discs to be returned and to stop selling illegal copies of the game.

This is an unusual tactic for Activision, considering that they have a battery of lawyers ready to sue pretty much anyone and uses shady tactics when dealing with their own employees.

I’m positive no baseball bats were used in the recovery of those discs…right?

Source: Venturebeat

MS VP Says Kinect Pre-Order Numbers Are Good

Joystiq reports that during an interview with Phil Spencer, VP at Microsoft Games Studios, stated that Kinect, “Pre-order numbers are good,” and that, “The retail channel seems to be excited for what we’re doing. We feel good about our supply that we can build. I imagine we’re going to have to work hard to fill out the demand that’s out there, is kind of our sense, but we’re willing to work hard so that’s fine.”

Considering reports that retailers such as Best Buy, NewEgg, and Gamestop have had to resupply allocations for pre-orders, it might just be quite a sales rush come November 4.

Source: Joystiq

News for Tuesday, October 19th

AT&T Offering Free Month of Zune Pass With Win7 Phone

AT&T Wireless is offering a 30-Day trial of Zune Pass with the purchase of a Win7 Mobile Phone.  Dubbed the “Entertainment Pack”, you also get access to 30 days of AT&T’s Uverse services, as well as ilomilo, a new, cutesy Xbox Live game.

Source: AT&T; ilomilo

Best Buy Still Doesn’t Have Any New 250GB Slim/Kinect Bundles?

Apparently Best Buy is still having issues with procuring the $399 Xbox 360S Bundle with Kinect for pre-order.  With Microsoft stating that this is a bigger launch than that of the 360, you have to wonder exactly how many units have been pre-ordered, since the 360 only had 400,000 units available when it launched in 2005.

Source: BestBuy

Kinect To Launch With 17 Titles This November

Looks like the guys over at Wired UK have gotten the up-to-date launch list for Kinect this November.  Not much has changed with the exception of a couple more games from Konami.  With all of the sports and fitness games releasing at launch, there are going to be a lot of skinnier geeks this coming spring.

Source: Wired UK

Call of Duty: Black Ops Stolen From The Presses?

Apparently, some guy (or gal) in Alabama swiped a few copies of COD: Black Ops from the presser not too long ago.  Shortly thereafter, the enterprising thief sold the copies to a few upstanding gentleman on some of the forum sites dedicated to cracking and copying software.  One person in particular, “Ungodly Leaker”, who was responsible for the leaking of Halo: Reach apparently had posted that they received a copy as well. 

With almost 1.8 million pre-orders placed, this looks to be yet another very hot download for the less than ethical gamer.

Source: Escapist; VGChartz

Halo: Reach Stats Updated By Bungie

Bungie released updated statistics on gameplay and matchmaking this last Friday.  Some interesting numbers:

16,445 Man-Years have been spent playing Halo: Reach (Not to be confused with Dog-Years)

784,000,000 player-games have been played (1 game with 4 players is tallied as 4 player-games)

544,000,000,000 Credits have been earned (spend that money, playa!)

3,900,000 Screenshots have been uploaded (and plenty of them feature juvenile looks at Kat’s “bad side”)

5,970,000 total files have been uploaded (your bandwidth bill is in the mail)

300,000,000 Mountain Dews were do’d

If only the real world economy was based on Halo dollars…

Source: Bungie.net

Console News For Monday, October 18th

Weekly Sales Update: Microsoft Pulls Ahead of Sony for Year On Sales

Microsoft this week finally pulled ahead of Sony in sales for the year by 1,000 units for the year last week.  This comes after Sony managed to have a commanding 1 million unit lead before the 360S was released last June.  While it’s still anyone’s game with the Christmas season looming, things are looking well in Microsoft’s favor.

By the numbers:

Console	Americas	Japan	EMEAA	Worldwide
	118,030	51,427	92,225	261,682
	92,079	2,700	68,995	163,774
	70,156	18,659	69,405	158,220
	61,067	12,266	57,356	130,689
	21,449	34,747	29,503	85,699

Source: VGChartz

Total monthly sales for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 stand at 269,067, 308,145, and 343,265 respectively for October.  With a few weeks to go, it looks as though console sales are starting to warm up for the Christmas season.  Unfortunately for Nintendo, it doesn’t look like the Wii will be doing well this month, being behind number 2 placeholder Sony at 269,000 sales for the month so far.  This is a shortfall of almost 40,000 units behind Sony and a little over 60,000 units behind Microsoft.  This may turn out to be the first October that Nintendo has failed to sell more than 1 million units since launch.

Konami Dates Kinect for Xbox 360 Titles

Konami recently released a presser announcing the dates of their upcoming Kinect for Xbox 360 titles.  Konami, not to be outdone by upstart Harmonix in the dance ring is releasing Dance Evolution on November 10th along with CROSSBOARD 7, a racing game with animals.

On November 25th, Konami will release Sports Island Freedom under their Hudson Soft brand.  This title will add a few unique sporting events to the already sports packed game line-up including: Archery, Paint Ball, Beach Volleyball, Dodge Ball, Kendo, Mogul Skiing, Snowboard Cross and Figure Skating.

Source: GamersHell

Microsoft Spending $1 Billion on Kinect, Windows Mobile 7 Marketing

Microsoft is shelling out a lofty billion dollars on their marketing campaign for Kinect and Windows Mobile 7 to make sure it stays in the game of…gaming…and…phoning.  Money spent includes Ads on Nickelodeon and Disney (presumably for Kinect.  Unless they’re marketing phones really early nowadays),  product placement ads on Glee and Dancing with the Stars’, a Times Square Event and ads in various magazines.

What really makes me angry about this is that there are plenty of innovative products that Microsoft comes out with that just get thrown at the wall just to see if they stick.  Perhaps if they gave the Zune team a bit more than enough to cover money for lunch, they’d see more ZuneHD sales.

Source: TheNextWeb

Nintendo Wii Getting NetFlix Without A Disc

Following in the footsteps of the Xbox 360 and PS3, Netflix and Nintendo have announced that you will no longer be required to use a disc to stream your multimedia goodness on the Wii without the use of a disc.  Which is great, if you like watching your hi-def shows in 480p.  Good future proofing Nintendo.

Source: Business Wire

Fallout: New Vegas DLC Announced Before The Game Even Releases

Bethesda Softworks recently announced that Xbox Live will be getting the first New Vegas downloadable content before the PS3 will.  Now, call me old fashioned, but shouldn’t we be talking about the game before it launches?  And not its DLC?

Could The Gran Turismo 5 Delay Hurt Sony Sales This Christmas?

Recently, Sony came out and stated that Gran Turismo 5 would be yet again delayed from it’s November 5 release to “Holiday 2010”.  With just three weeks to go, there is speculation aplenty as to what is causing this many times delayed game to be pushed back at the last minute.

According to VGChartz, Kazunori Yamauchi posted on his Twitter, “Apologies for the delay, It’s because time and labor were spent ironing the kinks out of [the game’s] complex system. I’m really sorry. Everyone, it’s inexcusable… Wait a little longer.”

It kind of sounds like they found a pretty critical issue with the game at the last minute.  But only time will tell.  But what does this do to their Christmas lineup?

VGChartz has listed over 200,000 pre-orders for GT5, so while it’s not a blockbuster game for the PS3 like Call of Duty: Black Ops, it’s still a flagship title with a lot of anticipation and buzz about it.  And with any flagship title, any console maker can be guaranteed that many of those pre-release orders will also come with game sales.

Sony’s 2010 sales lead has been precipitously slipping ever since Microsoft released the Xbox 360S this last June.  And while the Move has already garnered 460,000 sales in it’s first month, the highly anticipated Kinect sensor is expected to do far better, even more so with the recent news that major retailers globally have been selling out of their allocated pre-orders.  Sony needs to bolster their holiday lineup if they’re going to maintain the ever so slight sales lead that was at one point over a million unit gap.

Looking at the presales charts so far, Sony could very well lose out to Microsoft at the end of the year if it’s only exclusive in the top ten pre-sales is pushed back too far.  Those software sales may be reduced with people opting to purchase different games instead, or even worse, forgoing the purchase of a PS3 altogether for one of its competitors.

Hopefully we’ll hear some new news soon.  But if Sony doesn’t get GT5 out of the door by Black Friday, I think it could very well have an impact on their year end sales.