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Wii Sales Overtakes Xbox 360
Sega to Bring back Jet Grind Radio?
Microsoft Crafts Movie Deal for Xbox Live
Wii Sales Overtakes Xbox 360 Thursday, 31 07 2008 by Guest
Sales of the Nintendo Wii video game console soared in the second calendar quarter of 2008, beating rival consoles from Microsoft and Sony. But Nintendo set a few other milestones in the quarter as well: The Wii surpassed total sales of the Xbox 360, as expected, and drove strong revenue gains at Nintendo.
Nintendo made almost a Billion dollars on revenues of $3.92 billion, a 34 percent year-over-year increase. But profits would have been even higher were it not for the poor performance of the US dollar against the Japanese Yen.
Nintendo shipped 5.2 million Wii consoles in Q2 2008, compared to 1.6 million Sony PlayStation 3s (PS3s) and 1.3 million Microsoft Xbox 360s. (Nintendo sold 3.4 million Wiis in the same quarter a year ago.) Microsoft's X360 came in fourth once you factor in the previous generation Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), which sold 1.5 million units in the quarter.
To date, Nintendo has sold 29.6 million Wii consoles worldwide, compared to 19 million Xbox 360 consoles and just 14.4 million PS3s. Nintendo and its partners shipped 40.4 million Wii software titles in the quarter, also outpacing the competition. 22.8 million PS3 games were sold in the quarter, compared to 19.2 million for the PS2. (Microsoft does not provide software sales figures for the 360, though the company does claim to have the highest attach rate--software titles sold per console--in the industry.)
Sega to Bring back Jet Grind Radio? Thursday, 31 07 2008 by UtahSaint
Kotaku is reporting that Sega maybe dipping into the well of Dreamcast franchises again. At Comic-Con last week the publisher was rumored to be planning on bringing back one of its more beloved franchises, Jet Grind Radio. After outings on the Dreamcast and Xbox, we haven't seen anything of the futuristic inline-skater since 2003's Jet Set Radio for the Game Boy Advance.
Sega's recently filed trademark, dated July 24, 2008 and separate from the original, Dreamcast era trademark, certainly has us thinking that a Jet Grind Radio update is more likely.
In addition to the typical "video game software" goods and services applied for, the new trademark adds things like "downloadable game programs", "game programs for use with mobile phones", and "game programs for use with hand-held game machines."
Microsoft Crafts Movie Deal for Xbox Live Wednesday, 23 07 2008 by UtahSaint
Microsoft has struck deals with five horror movie directors for a series of short films in a move aimed at boosting the original entertainment content available on its Xbox console. With competition fierce between Xbox and Sony’s Playstation 3 console, the rival companies are looking to films, TV programmes and other content to boost the appeal of their devices.
Xbox Live is preparing to release five short films following a deal with Safran Digital Group. SDG produced the films and enlisted the directors of Saw, Dawn of the Dead and The Amityville Horror to produce short, offbeat comedy films.
Scott Nocas, product manager for Xbox Live’s video programming and original content, said the company was treating the short films like TV pilots. Microsoft will show them in the 26 international markets that support the Xbox Live service and plans to commission more original content if the movies prove popular.
“We’re not in the TV business,” Mr Nocas said. “But we believe our consumers want bite-sized entertainment content that they can watch between [playing] games.” The SDG films come on the back of a concerted push into content by Microsoft. Last week, it unveiled a deal with Netflix, which will make thousands of film titles available for Xbox Live users to download.
Microsoft has also struck a deal with Endemol, the TV company behind the Big Brother franchise, to produce a special online version of its One vs 100 game for Xbox Live users. The films produced under the SDG deal will be available exclusively on Xbox Live but will then revert to SDG.
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