-
Joel for Noël
Following last week’s Queen pack and Bon Jovi before that, famed ivory-tinkler Billy Joel is the latest contemporary recording artist to scissor-kick his way onto the Rock Band Store.
As of 14th December, you’ll be able to lose your mind to the following piano-led anthems:
If you can bring yourself to forgive Harmonix for the shocking absence of Uptown Girl from that list, the whole pack is available for £9.99 / 14.99 / 1,600 MS Points / 2,000 Wii Points.
-
Pachter, Wilson put NPD figures into perspective, weigh in on underwhelming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood sales, Kinect and Move bundles.
It wasn’t surprising to see Activision’s blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops atop the industry-tracking NPD Group’s November US retail sales chart yesterday. However, industry analysts this morning released notes to investors that offered some additional perspective on the scope of the game’s success.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter noted that US sales of Black Ops (announced by NPD as 8.4 million for November) suggest global sales for the month of roughly 14 million, or over $900 million. If 14 million copies of the game were sold to consumers in November, Pachter said Black Ops will have no problem exceeding the sales of Modern Warfare 2 by a large margin, as last year Activision had only shipped 16 million copies of the game for November and December combined, much less sold through them.
In his own note to investors, Pacific Crest’s Evan Wilson upped his Black Ops sales projection from 16 million copies generating $841 million to 20 million copies and a cool $1 billion of revenue for Activision. Wilson said Activision titles like DJ Hero 2 and James Bond 007: Blood Stone have been struggling to meet expectations, but said Black Ops alone makes Activision a cut above its industry peers.
“On a relative basis, it is still a mansion in a trailer park,” Wilson said of Activision.
While Black Ops excelled, mild disappointment was a recurring theme in the analysts’ NPD reactions. Even the second-best seller of the month, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, was labeled “modestly disappointing” by Wilson, because the game failed to match the first-month sales from last year’s entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed II. Wilson acknowledged part of that was due to the lack of PSP and DS tie-ins this year, but mainly attributed the shortfall to disappointing sales of the console versions. However, he did note that he expects the game’s sales to grow year-over-year in Europe.
Wilson also expressed disappointment in sales of Kinect games. Despite the hype Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera system generated, Wilson said software for the unit totaled sales of $57 million, or about 4 percent of game sales for the month. Wilson didn’t weigh in on the peripheral’s most highly promoted titles, but he did say that Electronic Arts’ third-person shooter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (the 360 version of which supports Kinect) was another disappointment, as the blockbuster movie tie-in sold fewer than 100,000 copies.
Kinect hardware fared better, with Pachter saying about half of Xbox 360 hardware sales purchased in November were bundles including the camera peripheral, enough to outsell Sony’s Move-equipped PS3 hardware bundles by a ratio of 5:1.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Call of Duty: Black Ops poised to far outsell Modern Warfare 2 – Analysts” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:25:22 -0800 -
Pachter, Wilson put NPD figures into perspective, weigh in on underwhelming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood sales, Kinect and Move bundles.
It wasn’t surprising to see Activision’s blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops atop the industry-tracking NPD Group’s November US retail sales chart yesterday. However, industry analysts this morning released notes to investors that offered some additional perspective on the scope of the game’s success.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter noted that US sales of Black Ops (announced by NPD as 8.4 million for November) suggest global sales for the month of roughly 14 million, or over $900 million. If 14 million copies of the game were sold to consumers in November, Pachter said Black Ops will have no problem exceeding the sales of Modern Warfare 2 by a large margin, as last year Activision had shipped only 16 million copies of the game for November and December combined, much less sold through them.
In his own note to investors, Pacific Crest’s Evan Wilson upped his Black Ops sales projection from 16 million copies generating $841 million to 20 million copies and a cool $1 billion of revenue for Activision. Wilson said Activision titles like DJ Hero 2 and James Bond 007: Blood Stone have been struggling to meet expectations but said Black Ops alone makes Activision a cut above its industry peers.
“On a relative basis, it is still a mansion in a trailer park,” Wilson said of Activision.
While Black Ops excelled, mild disappointment was a recurring theme in the analysts’ NPD reactions. Even the second-best seller of the month, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, was labeled “modestly disappointing” by Wilson, because the game failed to match the first-month sales from last year’s entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed II. Wilson acknowledged that part of that was due to the lack of PSP and DS tie-ins this year, but mainly attributed the shortfall to disappointing sales of the console versions. However, he did note that he expects the game’s sales to grow year-over-year in Europe.
Wilson also expressed disappointment in sales of Kinect games. Despite the hype Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera system generated, Wilson said software for the unit totaled sales of $57 million, or about 4 percent of game sales for the month. Wilson didn’t weigh in on the peripheral’s most highly promoted titles, but he did say that Electronic Arts’ third-person shooter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (the 360 version of which supports Kinect) was another disappointment, as the blockbuster movie tie-in sold fewer than 100,000 copies.
Kinect hardware fared better, with Pachter saying about half of Xbox 360 hardware sales purchased in November were bundles including the camera peripheral, enough to outsell Sony’s Move-equipped PS3 hardware bundles by a ratio of 5:1.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Call of Duty: Black Ops poised to far outsell Modern Warfare 2 – Analysts” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:25:22 -0800 -
Classic FPS out this month.
Quake Arena Arcade will available on Xbox Live Arcade from 15th December, publisher Bethesda Softworks has confirmed.
It’s about time too the game was first announced more than three years ago.
Based on id Software’s beloved 1999 shooter Quake 3 Arena, you’ll be able to frag up to 15 of your friends in six game modes, including ‘Deathmatch’, ‘Capture the Flag’ and ‘Harvester’.
-
Port of Xbox 360, PC RPG arrives on Sony’s console next month; European launch pegged for January 21.
Ever since the first Mass Effect launched in 2007, PlayStation 3 owners have been unable to sample the sci-fi role-playing game series–unless they own an Xbox 360 or PC. Today, though, Electronic Arts finally dated the series’ debut on Sony’s console. The publisher confirmed to GameSpot that Mass Effect 2 will arrive on North American PS3s on January 18, with a European launch to follow on January 21.
Mass Effect 2 for the PS3 will include the original game and several downloadable content packs released for the game on a single Blu-ray disc. The extra content includes the Lair of the Shadow Broker, Project Overlord, Kasumi: Stolen Memory, and Blood Dragon Armor packs.
PS3 gamers who purchase Mass Effect 2 new will also gain access to the Cerberus Network, which offers free content ranging from the Zaeed character missions to the Hammerhead hovertank. Used-game purchasers who want said content will be required to purchase access to the Cerberus Network.
BioWare will also be offering a make-good to PS3 gamers for the absence of the original game on Sony’s platform. The studio’s Edmonton arm will be collaborating with Dark Horse Comics on an interactive comic that helps fill in the story leading up to the events in Mass Effect 2. Choices made while reading the comic will also have an effect on players’ character creation.
For an idea of what to expect from Mass Effect 2 on the PS3, check out GameSpot’s coverage of the Xbox 360 edition.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Mass Effect 2 lands on PS3 Jan. 18” was posted by Staff on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:25:08 -0800 -
Plus: GT5, Donkey Kong sales figures.
Xbox 360 Kinect bundles outsold PlayStation 3 Move bundles by a factor of more than five to one in the US last month, according to a retail analyst.
Wedbush Morgan’s professional tongue-wagger Michael Pachter let the news slip to GameSpot, adding that a third of all PlayStation 3 sales were Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect pack-ins.
In other NPD-related news, a few more figures have slipped out following the newly data-free monthly US sales report released yesterday.
-
Tech firm gives modders a leg up.
The tech firm behind the Kinect’s camera sensor has released open-source drivers for the Xbox 360 add-on, opening the way for modders to put their own spin on the peripheral.
According to Develop, Israeli company PrimeSense has set up an NI devices, applications and middleware organisation too.
The open-source OpenNI Framework provides an API for writing NI apps and offers middleware that allows access to RGB-D sensors like Kinect and PrimeSense’s development kit PSDK 5.0.
-
Crashes, save corruption finally fixed.
A huge update for the PlayStation 3 version of Fallout: New Vegas has just gone live, with PC and Xbox 360 roll-outs expected next week.
The keenly-anticipated patch addresses a long list of issues with Bethesda’s brilliant-but-broken action RPG, including fixes for game crashes and corrupted save files.
The full rundown of tweaks, as posted on Bethesda’s blog, is as follows:
-
Becomes the latest UK retailer to offer trade-ins, covers postage costs itself.
Amazon has become the latest UK retailer to allow customers to ditch their unwanted games after announcing the launch of their trade-in programme today. The firm has been running a similar operation in the US since March 2009.
-
“Super Sports” pack includes 13 new race and pursuit events; content also adds three new cars: Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Gumpert Apollo S, and Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport.
Get the full article at GameSpot
“Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit DLC out Dec. 21” was posted by Eddie Makuch on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:04:57 -0800
