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NPD: Year-Over-Year Sales Up 34%
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
NPD today released its official game sales numbers for November, and the numbers are showing amazing growth. Next Generation reports on the figures; year-over-year sales increased 34% to $1.7 billion. For this generation’s consoles, the Xbox 360 lead the pack with 551K sales. Nintendo’s Wii followed with 476K units, and the Playstation 3 trailed with 197K units. Supply issues hampered sales for the Playstation 3 and the Wii, and slightly under 200,000 consoles sold, Sony’s inability to provide consoles for their launch became apparent. Overall, though, last generation’s Playstation 2 continues to rack up huge sales, moving 664K consoles for November.
In the handheld arena, the Nintendo DS continues to absolutely dominate, selling 918,000 units in November. The Game Boy followed with 641,000 sold, and the PSP brought up the rear with 412,000 units sold.
On the software side of things, Gears of War took the number one spot, moving 1 million copies during the month. Final Fantasy XII sold 896,000 units, continuing that series’ success, and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold 412,000 copies, perhaps constrained a bit by Wii hardware supplies.
Overall, the industry is showing excellent year-over-year growth, and all three console manufacturers have something to smile about in November.
Read More 
| Next Generation
Gallery: NPD: Year-Over-Year Sales Up 34%
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Sony Issues Firmware Update For 1080i Issues
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Last night, Sony made a new firmware update available for the Playstation 3. Listed as version 1.3, the update is supposed to fix some of the issues people have been having with 1080i resolutions on their consoles. However, according to 1up, Sony attempted to fix the issue by boosting the priority for the 1080i resolution, which in effect breaks functionality for users HDTV sets that have native resolutions that support 720p.
Previously, users with 720p panels could enable both 720p and 1080i in their system settings, and when possible, the system would display content in the native resolution. Now with 1080i preferred, the system defaults to a resolution that requires the HDTV set to scale the video. The “fix” also doesn’t take care of the core issue: 1080i only users will still have the scaling issues that they had before, and 720p issues will have to toggle 1080i support on for Blu-Ray playback, and off for games if they want the best possible experience for their display. Until Sony can provide actual fixes for the scaling issues in games and Blu-Ray movies, they need to allow users to set resolution preferences individually for each media type on the system.
Read More | 1up
Gallery: Sony Issues Firmware Update For 1080i Issues
Iwata Believes Nintendo May Beat Earnings Estimates
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently spoke with Reuters after the launch of the Wii in Japan. In this interview, Iwata indicated that stronger than expected sales for the DS may help take Nintendo past their previous earnings estimates. There was some worry from both Nintendo and market analysts that the launch of the Wii might leech away sales from the DS; so far, it looks like that hasn’t happened. Instead, the momentum Nintendo has accumulated with the DS may be driving the popularity of the Wii up through a halo effect, much like Apple experiences with the iPod. It is still too early to tell if that is the case; consoles usually will see strong numbers at launch. Until the market has time to shake down, it will be hard to see how the DS and the Wii affect each other’s sales.
Read More | Reuters
Gallery: Iwata Believes Nintendo May Beat Earnings Estimates
Sony Releases PS3 Firmware Update 1.11
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Late last night, Sony released a firmware update for the Playstation 3, version 1.11. Now, Sony has finally updated their support pages detailing the changes for the new firmware. As expected with a minor firmware revision, there are very few changes; the most noticeable will be the addition of an account management feature under the “Friends” tab of the XMB. Sony also claims that some of the Playstation Network functionality has been revised. Some gamers believe that the update speeds up the Playstation Store and the Internet browser, but Sony does not include these in the list of improvements.
Read More | Playstation.com
Gallery: Sony Releases PS3 Firmware Update 1.11
Sony Discusses PS3 Upscaling Issue
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Many gamers with HDTV sets that only support the 1080i resolution have been disappointed with the way that the Playstation 3 handles upscaling issues. If a game does not natively support 1080i, the console will output a 480p signal, rather than scaling the 720p output. The officially “unofficial” Three Speech blog was able to talk with Sony about the issue, and find out the company’s viewpoint. Sony’s stance is that 720p is actually a higher resolution than 1080i; they believe that the output that one gets from a 720p signal is better than a 1080i signal. Sony claims that the lack of scaling should not impact that many users, and their ranking of signal quality is as follows:
1080p
720p
1080i
576p (480p for the US)
576i (480i for the US)
Current limitations on the Playstation 3 prevent resolution scaling from happening, but Sony again insists that this issue could potentially be fixed with a firmware update.
Read More | Three Speech
Gallery: Sony Discusses PS3 Upscaling Issue
Robbie Bach Talks Zune, Xbox, Movies, And Sony
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360,
Dean Takahashi from Mercury News was able to speak with Robbie Bach a couple of weeks ago, and they talked about a number of the challenges and achievements of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. Bach first discussed the recently launched Zune; as an iPod killer the device has gotten mixed reviews, but Takahashi also investigated why the company chose to enter that arena, rather than challenge Sony or Nintendo in the portable gaming realm. For Bach, the question was a matter of focus, and where the company wanted to put its energies; Bach actually felt that a lack of focus might be hurting Sony in this regard.
Bach also tied the Zune into the company’s efforts with Windows Vista and the Xbox 360, leading the discussion to Microsoft’s next generation console. Bach still feels that they are on track to make their goal of 10 million consoles shipped by year’s end, and with Sony floundering on console availability, this target now seems more likely. Bach also discusses the general financials for the Entertainment division; Microsoft still feels that they are on track for profitability in the division by 2008, but with the diversity of offerings in the group, this doesn’t mean that the Xbox 360 will necessarily hit that goal by then.
Bach also talks about the Halo movie, and the difficulties of managing original intellectual property. Part of the answer seems to be that Microsoft will do things with Halo when it feels right, and that seems to be part of the reason that the movie deal fell apart. While Microsoft would certainly like to see more game releases in the Halo realm, they also seem cognizant of the dangers of saturation. Overall, the interview gives decent insight into the business aspects of the Entertainment division, while not really addressing future developments.
Read More | Mercury News
Gallery: Robbie Bach Talks Zune, Xbox, Movies, And Sony
PS3 Sells for $9.99 on eBay
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Hot Deals, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
If you’re planning to make lots of money by hawking your launch-day PS3 on eBay, please please make sure that you know how to use eBay. Some poor sucker (who obviously spent a lot of time out in the cold to get it), accidentally just sold his brand-new, unopened PS3 for the grand total of $9.99 + $50.00 S&H. This year’s “Worst Use of the ‘Buy It Now’ Button Award” goes to this hapless auctioneer
It’ll be interesting to see whether the winning bidder ever gets his - my guess is that this’ll just end up in one negative feedback point for the seller, and no $10.00 PS3 changing hands.
Read More | Consumerist.com
Gallery: PS3 Sells for $9.99 on eBay
Gamer Builds Wireless Wii Sensor Bar
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Wii,
Once gamers figured out that the Wii sensor bar was little more than a housing for an array of LEDs, one had to figure some hacks would come soon. First, someone figured out that a couple of IR-based television remotes could replace the sensor bar. Of course, this was hardly practical. Now, Brian “DoctaBu” Moore has built a wireless sensor bar. The homemade bar is a little ugly, but apparently functional according to the video posted on the site. With a little work, a cleaner wireless sensor bar could be built for those gamers that have AV setups that aren’t really conducive to the wired sensor bar placement.
Read More | Doctabu's Livejournal
Gallery: Gamer Builds Wireless Wii Sensor Bar
Upgrade That 60 GB PS3 Drive!
Posted by Hector Martinez Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3,
I know what you’re thinking: “But, 60 GB is more than enough for all my PS3 needs!” Yeah right. They said the same thing about 1 Gig drives just a few years ago. Gamers Reports just posted a mini guide to help all hardcore gamers like us make the most of the system, and I don’t mean just game saves. The system is so much like a media center that I can see folks using up that space pretty quickly, what with all the HD videos and music streaming out of it. Luckily Sony had the good sense to make the built-in drive swappable. It’ll probably be just a matter of weeks before hackers find a way to rip other content into it as well, although I’m sure the firmware updates will try to prevent that, ala PSP.
Read More | Gamers Reports
Gallery: Upgrade That 60 GB PS3 Drive!
Sony Promises More PS3s By Black Friday
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Sony has promised more Playstation 3 consoles will be available by Black Friday in the United States, according to Gamasutra. Reporting from an official statement from the company, Sony claims that more systems are being airlifted in, and the company still believes that they will be able to ship 1 million units through December. If one believes that the launch had fewer consoles than Sony anticipated, then the company has some serious catching up to do. Of course, with the new consoles supposedly hitting on one of the craziest shopping days of the year and the attendant violence with past releases, gamers trying to get a Playstation 3 in all the madness may be experiencing “Black-and-Blue” Friday instead.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Sony Promises More PS3s By Black Friday
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