Wowzer writes "Nintendo just announced its quarterly sales for the end of 2006. Sales for the 9 months were up 72%, while net income was up 43%. From the article: '[There will be] worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii systems by the end of March 2007. Nintendo has sold 35 million DS and DS Lite to date ... As for the next fiscal year, Nintendo expect to sell around 23 million DS Lites, bringing the estimated total of DS units to 58 million by March 31, 2008.' New Super Mario Bros. seems to have legs of its own with 8.64 million copies sold worldwide and continued strong sales. But they seem slow to ship out those Wii with 4 million manufactured last year and 810,000 of those not arriving to stores until now."

mattnyc99 writes "After discovering a blinking problem associated with the HDCP handshake from an HDMI cable to the PlayStation 3, then solving it, Popular Mechanics has now set off a mini-war between Westinghouse and Sony. The 1080p TV set maker appears to be blaming Sony as the source of the blinking PS3, and the two powerhouse companies have organized a meeting to settle the score. From the article: '[Westinghouse had] one suggestion for PS3 owners with blinking Westinghouse televisions: Purchasing an HDMI to DVI adapter to bypass HDCP. Average cost of an adapter: $30. As we reported last week, Popular Mechanics has found an even easier solution: Unplugging the HDMI cable, and then plugging it back in'"

Andy_R writes "Sony has finally committed themselves to a European launch date for the PS3, after disappointing European fans by not having the promised worldwide simultaneous launch, then missing the lucrative Christmas period. The BBC is reporting that the console will arrive on the 23rd of March. EU fans will only be getting the 60Gb version at first, and it will be priced at 599 Euros or 425 pounds in Britain. At today's exchange rates, that's US$ 835.99! From the article: 'A problem manufacturing blue diodes, used in high-definition Blu-ray disc drives, forced the Japanese firm to announce another delay but only for European customers. Sony said the decision was made because Europe was logistically the most complex market for distribution."

1up is reporting on comments from SCEA's Jack Tretton, who responded to the question "Will we see the PS3's price drop?" with the point blank answer of not anytime soon. Mr. Tretton responded with what has now become the Sony party line: it cost a lot to develop, and gamers are getting a lot of machine for their money. Therefore, the high price is justified if you consider what is being offered. From the article: "By way of comparison, the PS2 dropped a hundred bucks in price during the first 550 days of its lifespan -- from $299 to $199 USD. Tretton's words would seem to suggest that the PS3's price point may take significantly longer than a mere year and a half to reach the same threshold. Given that scenario, one would really hope that Sony has some kind of ace-in-the-hole for keeping our collective attention (and purchasing enthusiasm) squarely focused on the PS3."

simoniker writes "What do game designers need to know about statistics? Age Of Empires DS designer Tyler Sigman focuses on statistical topics that he believes should be understood by game designers, in a new article. His reasoning: 'In the game I just finished, we recorded data from play sessions and then set challenge levels in the game based upon the mean and standard deviation values from those recorded data. We set Medium difficulty to be equal to the mean values, Easy difficulty to be equal to the mean minus a certain amount of standard deviations, and then Hard difficulty equal to the mean plus a certain amount of standard deviations.' Would all games be better if they were tuned mathematically?"

marcellizot writes "Handheld site Pocket Gamer has a new monthly DS homebrew review roundup, which kicks off today with an update on slot-1 hardware methods, plus a look at DS Motion, Lemmings on DS, Flashback DS, Tetris Attack DS and more. From the article: 'The latest hardware is the slot-1 type, which is a DS-sized card and requires no additional hardware or modifications to the DS. These are much simpler to use than slot-2 devices, but as the majority of homebrew was designed for the slot-2 hardware and it's ability to boot GBA software, there are some compatibility issues. They are thankfully being ironed out, and as slot-1 devices become the standard we fully expect that all new homebrew will be designed with them in mind.'"

An anonymous reader writes to mention an EToyChest article with a bit of perspective on the departure of Doug Lowenstein from the Entertainment Software Association. Lowenstein, who helped to kickstart the group, was instrumental in the ESA's grown and continued well-being. Now that he's moved on a new gig, the article points out that the industry is in for some changes in the years ahead. From the article: "Doug Lowenstein, a man that Jack Thompson has likened on separate occasions to such delightful despots as Saddam Hussein and Hitler, has been the advocate de jour for the industry since he signed on in 1994. Refusing to directly engage firebrands like Thompson in televised debates, Mr. Lowenstein has a history of picking and choosing his battles. Where Thompson prefers to argue his position in front of cameras, Mr. Lowenstein fought his battles quietly, but persistently. Under his guidance, the game industry has undergone its biggest transformation; it's now expected to gross in the area of $12 billion worldwide, more than four times the business it was doing when he signed on. While one would hesitate to give Mr. Lowenstein credit for the industry's success, his steady hand has been instrumental in sidestepping many of the media landmines that we've come across on the way. "

pl1ght writes in to say that that the much maligned PS2 back-compat issues the PS3 has been experiencing are now a thing of the past. The newest software update takes the OS from version 1.4 to 1.5, and in doing so seems to have cleared up the worst of the blurry and unreadability problems. There are apparently "still problems with specific releases that have yet to be addressed, but for the most part, your library of old releases should run no problem now -- and with higher clarity than was ever possible on the other machines, to boot." Nicely done, Sony.

Petey_Alchemist writes "Silicon Valley gossip rag Valleywag is carrying a story about Second Life being a new spin on the old pyramid scheme. The article, which consists mostly of selections from the report of financial consultant Randolph Harrison, suggests that not only are most people deceived about the amount of money they can make in Second Life, but also about how easily they can withdraw it. It says 'Like the paid promotion infomercials that run on CNBC, sadly SecondLife is a giant magnet for the desperate, uninformed, easily victimized. Its promises of wealth readily ensnare those who can least afford to lose their money or lives to such scam in exactly the same way that real estate investor seminars convince divorcees with low FICO scores to buy houses sight unseen with no money down.'"

Kotaku is reporting that the 20GB PS3 is down by 20% the the Akihibara district of Tokyo. Reports from both here and in Japan would seem to indicate that PlayStation 3s are sitting on shelves, as gamers wait for price drops or new games. The Tokyo merchants are anxious, it seems, and ready to get their consoles out the door. From the article: "The 20GB version originally books at 49,980 yen (US $412), but is being offered for 39,980 yen ($329) in a sale ending February. The shop is knocking a flat 10,000 yen ($82) right now. Japanese bulletin board 2chan reports that this at other Don Quijotes as well. It's interesting to check out the PS3 vibe at 2chan; Reasons for not buying go from 'there are no games I want' to 'video stores don't rent Blu-ray movies.' Well, not yet that is."

Computer and Videogames is reporting that 2.4 Million copies of Burning Crusade were sold on the first day of retail sales. Those numbers are just for North American and the EU, too, which totally discounts any sales the box may have had in Asian markets. Even without our eastern brethren, that number pretty much destroys every other launch-day sales number for a PC game. Meanwhile, the same gent that teased us with the next StarCraft game has tossed out this bone as well: Blizzard's next MMOG 'won't be another WoW'. From the article: "'When we announce our next MMORPG it's not going to be another WOW--we're not a company that tends to tread the same ground,' he told British film magazine Empire. 'It'll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level.' American Blizzard reps declined to expand on Bassat's comments, although the fact that the company began hiring real-time strategy developers last summer might offer a clue." So ... another Blizzard MMOG. Huh.

Gamsutra reports that Harmonix is now working on a new music project, confirming their absence from any future Guitar Hero games. From the article: "[Harmonix producer Daniel Sussman] added specifically: 'We are instead working on a different music game project, one that is a bigger and more ambitious endeavor than we felt we could pursue within the bounds of the Guitar Hero franchise.' Further specific details on exact subject and publisher for the game are not being released at this time." One can only hope that Neversoft's hand at the wheel will not result in any shakeups in this truly excellent series.

1up has a look at Arkane Studios' extremely ambitious new project. Called The Crossing, the FPS title looks to combine single and multi-player modes in a new way. From the article: "In the simplest sense, story missions are single-player shooting with an exception: Naturally intelligent human opponents take the place of A.I. There are two types of players: Elites and skirmishers. Elites are gamers playing the game in story mode. They're beefed up, heavily armored, and heavily armed. They have to be able to hold their own against a swarm of skirmish players. Skirmishers are gamers who typically play on multiplayer maps: well-trained, rank-and-file soldiers playing primarily to have some quick fun and increase their rank through defeating the occasional Elite. Skirmish players can also invade story maps and 'possess' A.I.s ala Agent Smith in The Matrix." So even if you're playing through the story, you'll still be challenged by the 'NPCs', all of whom will be played by a real-life human. Sounds like it could either be awesome or a total flop. Which side are you leaning on?

njkid1 writes "As part of a plan to expand its advertising efforts to all forms of media, it would appear that Google is actively seeking to get involved in the in-game ad business. A Wall Street Journal report states that the company is in talks to acquire Adscape Media. From the article: 'If Google does purchase Adscape, it would give the web company an opportunity to leverage a whole other medium, one that Google has apparently been interested in for some time now ... Interestingly, Google had apparently considered an acquisition of in-game ad firm Massive Inc. last year before Microsoft came along and bought Massive for around $200 million. The Journal report suggests that an acquisition of Adscape would only fuel the long-standing competition between Microsoft and Google, as Google could potentially form an alliance with Microsoft's video game rival Sony.'"

The folks at 'The 1up Show' had the chance to interview David Jaffe, the well-known designer behind God of War. They discuss his upcoming project for the PS3, Calling All Cars, the future of the God of War series, as well as the ever-increasing price of making games. From the article: "A lot of games recently it's cell phone, PC, DS, PSP, if you look at EA they blanket it -- it's everywhere. As a gamer, I kind of miss the 'you can only get it on this system.' There's kind of an excitement that was about that back up until recently. With this new hardware, though, that idea is seems to be going away. Is it really all going to come down to first party now? Or it ultimately going to come to one system? 'Cause 10 years from now there's going to be one system because there's so much more third party software than first party software from any hardware manufacturer. It may not be feasible to make it the war of the first party or the war of the exclusives." The entire interview is viewable online.

Gamasutra is reporting that legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto will be headlining a GDC keynote during the event this March. Jamil Moledina, the director of GDC, covers what Miyamoto will be talking about and a bit of his long history in a post to the GDC blog. From that post: "Getting him back to GDC has been tricky. While having spoken at GDC in 1999, Miyamoto-san's commitments are considerable. Thankfully his boss gets what GDC is for. As you may know, Satoru Iwata has inspired the GDC audience two years in a row, with iconic and revealing addresses. Both instances mapped to surges in developer interest in and support for Nintendo's platforms, which speaks to the dramatic symbiosis between platform and developer -- as well as the effectiveness of the GDC biosphere in enabling the productive sharing of knowledge and experience."

njkid1 writes "In the first published interview since the news broke that Neversoft would be taking over development, RedOctane is speaking out on the decision and what it means for the future of the franchise. From the article: 'Internalizing development allows for more control of the creative elements of the game and, in this instance, provides for a much more robust and feature laden franchise. We believe that having the talented group at Neversoft, with their unprecedented string of market success with the billion dollar Tony Hawk franchise, develop the next Guitar Hero game will allow us to vastly enrich the consumer experience. We are excited to further the music and rhythm-based videogame genre, and Neversoft has the full experience, knowledge, and talent to do this.'" As nice as it is to hear from RedOctane, I'd rather hear the fully skinny from Harmonix.

The word from the site Computer and Videogames is that BioWare will be offering episodic content for all of its upcoming games. This includes Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Jade Empire: Special Edition. CEO Ray Muzyka, in an interview with CVG, talks about this and many other elements of the coming year in PC gaming. From the article: "The videogame market is very cyclical and PC and console gaming have an uneasy alliance - as new console systems are released, early adopter fans move over to check those games out and as PC systems reach and surpass console systems at the end of a console life cycle, a good number of those early adopter fans move back over to PC gaming. Console gaming is huge of course, especially when you add in hardware sales, but it's hard to quantify the enormous impact of online gaming on the overall PC market - retail sales just don't capture the revenues from the increasingly successful PC MMOs as well as digital distribution and episodic gaming (which are both gaining strength year after year)."

Next Generation has a quick post about NPD's PC games data for 2006. The market was just about even, only increasing by about 1% to $970 million. World of Warcraft and The Sims were the two top-sellers last year, with WoW pushing about a million units and Sims titles occupying five of the top ten slots for the year. From the post: "PC games included, 2006 industry sales were up 18 percent compared to 2005, and 15 percent higher than the $10.5 billion generated in 2002, the former record-holding year. The PC numbers don't include subscriptions and paid online content. The NPD also revealed the top ten US retail PC titles of 2006 by units. WoW beat out second place The Sims 2 by a sizable margin, with EA's hit selling over 598,000 units (list placement includes special editions of applicable titles)."

simoniker writes "Over at the education site Game Career Guide, they've got an in-depth primer of Microsoft's XNA, including interviews with Julie Ellen and Joe Nalewabau of Microsoft about the PC and Xbox 360 indie/student homebrew construction tool, as well as chats with two developers (Benjamin Nitschke and Alex Okafor) who have worked with XNA to some notable effect. Microsoft's Ellie claims of the efforts: 'Homebrew and independent developers are often very talented and have lots of creative ideas. Being able to officially write games directly for a retail console right at home is a first and could be very empowering for them. For the homebrew and indie scene to succeed we need to provide two things: great tools and access to a large audience. We're working on both.'"