Second Story Gamer

Guess what?  It’s the 15th of the month again and you know what that means: NPD numbers!  Well let’s take a look, starting with the console sales.

Hardware:

1. Nintendo DS - 608,400
2. Wii - 555,000
3. PlayStation 3 - 224,900
4. PSP - 221,700
5. Xbox 360 - 204,800
6. PlayStation 2 - 155,500

Compare that to June’s scorecard and you get a surprising result.  Every console sold fewer units in July than they did in June, the biggest being the PS3 which saw a drop of 180,100 units, about 45% less than June.  That being said, it still sold a very respectable amount, beating the Xbox 360 by over 20,000 consoles.  However, both of them were still clobbered by the monthly juggernauts: the Wii and DS.  It’ll be interesting to see whether the 360 will bounce up in the August numbers due to the “price cut”.

Software:

1. NCAA Football 09 (Xbox 360) - 397,600
2. Wii Fit (Wii) - 369,600
3. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) - 309,700
4. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 284,000
5. NCAA Football 09 (PS3) - 242,500
6. Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360) - 218,900
7. Mario Kart w/ wheel (Wii) - 174,500
8. Rock Band Special Ed. Bundle (Wii) - 165,800
9. Soulcalibur IV (PS3) - 155,800
10. Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360) - 147,600

So on top of slow hardware numbers, July gave us some fairly low, but not horrible software figures.  Edging out Wii Fit was the Xbox 360 version of NCAA Football 2009 and Wii Play continues to stay on the chart, moving up to position four.  Expect Soulcalibur IV to be on the August’s chart as well, because it was released on July 29.

Well there you have it folks, another month gone.  And this month is very out of the ordinary because instead of the unprecedented growths we’ve had the past few months, the gaming industry slowed down.  While that may have something to do with the fact that July was a four week month while June was a five week one, but it may be correlated to the slowing down economy.

Have you ever wondered what fabled game designer Shigeru Miyamoto does on the weekends?  This may seem like only of interest to Miyamoto stalkers who are looking for a good place to ambush him, but it turns out that the answer to this question may be more important to the gaming industry than you may think.

It is well known that Miyamoto bases many of his games off personal experiences or interests in his life.  For example, Miyamoto created Pikmin because he was very interested in gardening at the time and he took up music lessons recently and out popped Wii Music.

Well, you must realize how useful it would be to other developers if they knew what Miyamoto was doing at the time.  For instance if a game developer knew that Miyamoto had recently become interested in tree climbing, he would quickly start making a tree climbing game that could beat Nintendo to the punch.

Nintendo has seen this potential risk and is now banning Miyamoto from talking about his hobbies, according to The Times Online.  This may seem a bit excessive, but who knows how much money could be stolen from Nintendo if another developer knew that Miyamoto had recently become obsessed with ladybugs.

Miyamoto stalkers, your job just got harder for you, but look at the bright side.  If you do manage to catch Miyamoto in the act, some game developer may pay a hefty price for your information.

Tucked into Nintendo’s flaming turd of a press conference at E3 was the very interesting announcement of a peripheral that attaches to the Wiimote that allows for 1:1 functionality.  However, at E3, Nintendo only showed this game with Wii Sports 2, so there wasn’t much technical information or potential uses demoing going on.  Well, boring tech company AiLive has given us a pretty boring demo of MotionPlus that is surprisingly exciting, except for the horrible handycam and the monotonous techie giving the demo.  The company really displays the potential of Wii MotionPlus and, I have to say, I’m actually pretty excited for it now.  Tip: skip to around the 1:50 mark; that’s when it get’s interesting.

[via Kotaku]

Yep, I’m back, guys.  The training is now over, but what a week it was to miss.  Not only did I fail to report on E3 happenings, I also missed the June NPD numbers.  But now that that fiasco is over, the posts will be coming out as daily as possible.

On to the news.  Obviously, E3 was last week, and Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo had some big announcements to make.  I’ll just highlight the major points of each keynote.

Microsoft

• Gears of War 2 was given the official release of November 7, 2008.  In addition, an announcement was made of a new mode called “horde”, where you and four friends cooperatively battle out hordes and hordes of locust.  I like their name decision.

• The constantly rumored Mii-like Xbox 360 avatar system was finally confirmed.

• Also heavily rumored, the Xbox 360 Dashboard will be getting a total revamp.  This redesign will be adding a community channel where you can share photos with friends, invite people to a “live party”, or other things.

• The Xbox 360 will be getting exclusive rights with Netflix to their large library of on-demand programming.  Subscribers who already have Netflix will be able to use this service for free.

• And perhaps Microsoft’s biggest news: Final Fantasy XIII will be releasing on the Xbox 360 the same exact day as the PS3 version.  When that day is, nobody knows.

[via Joystiq]

Sony

• Third-person shooter Resistance: Retribution is coming to the PSP.  It is being made by Bend Studio.

• Andy Beaudoin from Zipper Interactive (known for SOCOM) announced MAG, short for Massive Action Game (insanely creative, eh?).  The game breaks up 256-player human battles into groups of 8, who fight each other to the death.

• The 80 GB PS3 will be dropping to $399 come September.  Sony CEO Jack Tretton stated that the console will have “the current functionality of the 40 GB PS3″.  So does that mean no backwards compatibility?

• Not shockingly, but still excitingly, Sony announced God of War 3 for the PS3.  Unfortunately, the game is due “after this holiday season” so don’t expect it till 2009.

[via Joystiq]

Nintendo

• Nintendo announced Wii MotionPlus, an accessory for the Wiimote that works with the sensor bar and accelerometer to “allow for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation”.  Whatever that means.

• Wii Sports Resort was announced for the Wii.  It will be bundled with the previously mention Wii MotionPlus and will include Frisbee, jetskiing, and sword-dueling.

• Animal Crossing: City Folk announced for the Wii.  No release date has been announced, but the graphics have been confirmed to look Gamecube-esque.

• GTA: Chinatown is coming to the DS.  Don’t crick your neck doing that double take.  Not much is known about this game except for the fact that it is getting a new engine, characters, and gameplay.

• Nintendo also announced the long rumored Wii Music.  This game uses the Wiimote and nunchuck, as well as the Balance Board for foot tapping, simulating a drum set.  Apparently, there will be 50 different instruments, but personally, I just don’t get this game yet.

[via Joystiq]

Allright, well those are the main points that were revealed earlier this week.  So who do you think had the best E3 presentation?

Perfect time to announce a new IP, Nintendo.  Wii gamers were just getting restless about the seemingly vast desert ahead of them, with nearly no Nintendo published games releasing for the Wii this holiday.

However, this game just leaves me chuckling.  First of all, the game is called Captain Rainbow (yes, snickers all around).  And secondly, just watch the first look trailer (available thanks to WiiFolder, and shown below)

But, underneath all the silliness, is an adventure game that could have a potentially…different story in it.  1up reports that it’s about a nerd named Nick who really likes to watch his favorite superhero, Captain Rainbow, on television.  The trouble is, Captain Rainbow isn’t high on the cool scale with many other kids and his ratings are suffering.  So Nick decides to go to the fabled island called Mimin where, yes, all your wishes come true.  But, due to some strange event, it is Captain Rainbow that has to help out all the islanders with their wishes. Yeah, I don’t really get it either, but from that last sentence I think that this game will involve a lot of fetch quests.

Like Super Smash Bros., this game will be perfect for ultra-hardcore Nintendo fans.  That is because all of the residents of Mimin Island are past obscure Nintendo characters, such as Birdo, the golfer from Golf on the NES, and Hikari from the Japan-only adventure game Shin Onigashima.  I told you it was going to be ultra-hardcore.

No release date has been announced yet, but I would expect more information next week at E3.

First Look Trailer:

After much analyst speculation, NPD numbers have finally come out.  And yes, May continued the unprecedented growth that makes one wonder if the gaming industry is really recession proof. On to the numbers; we’ll start with the software figures:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 871,300
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 787,400
3. Wii Fit (Wii) - 687,700
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 442,900
5. Wii Play (Wii) - 294,600
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 171,100
7. Iron Man (PS2) - 130,600
8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 116,800
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 107,000
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 102,000

So Grand Theft Auto IV kept its crown in spite of very strong competition from Mario Kart and Wii Fit.  But the interesting thing is the sales difference between the Xbox 360 and the PS3 version;  the Xbox 360 version outsold the PS3 nearly 2-to-1, which is almost in line with Microsoft’s Aaron Greenburg’s previously thought completely wrong predictions.  Other than that, the numbers are pretty much straightforward, as the Wii had a great month with titles Wii Play, Smash Bros, and Guitar Hero III also on the list.  Curiously, hyped up new titles Haze and Boom Blox were absent from the list.

Overall, software sales were almost in line with previous analyst predictions, bringing in $536.9 million, up 41% from last year.  On to the hardware numbers:

1. Wii - 675,100
2. Nintendo DS - 453,600
3. Playstation 3 - 208,700
4. Xbox 360 - 186,600
5. PSP - 182,300

Although the Wii didn’t sell as many units as last month, it still had a fantastic month.  And it turns out the analysts were wrong about their hardware numbers.  The PS3, expected to be 25,000 below the Xbox 360, actually beat it by 20,000.  But both consoles still didn’t meet the expectations driven by GTA IV, but we may see a bump this holiday season.

However, total hardware sales were $428.6 million up 34% from last year.

So software sales across all platforms were very, very good, but hardware sales were slightly lacking on the Xbox 360 and PS3, considering that GTA IV was supposed to drive hordes of consumers to stores to purchase consoles.  Maybe a price cut would fix that issue.  You hear me Microsoft?

With NPD numbers set to come out later this week, analysts are predicting what they will be.  After April’s outstanding figures, in which software sales alone were up 68% from April 2007, most analysts are predicting another double digit jump for May.

The various predictions range from a 30% gain to a 43% gain, which correlates to $495 to a $545 million in software sales.   A big seller for May, according to these analysts, will likely be Wii Fit.  Although it was somewhat supply constrained in the US, they are predicting sales of about 600,000.

On the hardware side, the Wii is expected to dominate the market with another 750,000 unit month.  On to less obvious news: the Xbox 360 is expected to pull out in front of the PS3 with 250,000 units, compared to the PS3’s 225,000.

Most analysts previously said that May was the month where GTA IV would impact console sales the strongest, but with these low predictions for Xbox 360 and PS3 sales, I think they were mistaken.  250,000 units is a respectable number but nowhere near what was expected of GTA IV’s influence.  That said, I think that we will probably see console sales due to GTA this holiday, because GTA IV will definitely have legs.

Keep in mind that these numbers are just predictions and could be totally wrong.  We’ll just have to wait and see later this week whether or not these analysts were correct.

[via Joystiq]

By the way, I hope you like the new site layout.

Since almost every other gaming blog is talking about the recently showed iPhone games (Super Monkey Ball being one of them), I decided to report some news you may not have heard.  Like the fact that some major Call of Duty 5 (dubbed Call of Duty: World at War) information has been revealed.  Unfortunately, it’s been mostly forgotten under heaps of WWDC news.

A UK gaming magazine called gamesTM has revealed the first details of Call of Duty: World at War.  According to the magazine, Call of Duty 5 will (unfortunately) be set in the Pacific theater of World War II and will be developed by Treyarch, who made Call of Duty 3.

Also revealed are the systems Call of Duty: World at War is releasing on: the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii; a separate team within Treyarch is developing the Wii version.  All versions will be running on the Call of Duty 4 engine.  That’s right, Treyarch managed to get the Call of Duty 4 engine up and running on the Wii so, hopefully, the Wii version will look very good.

The magazine also stated that their would be co-op in the game, something new to the Call of Duty series, and that the multiplayer will involve vehicle and squad based elements.

The story, the magazine says, will be “as gritty as any game out there”.  For example, here is how one of the levels plays out:

The opening scene of the first level we are shown is a Japanese commander stubbing a cigarette out in the eye of a prisoner before slitting his throat - the blood splatters and dribbles down the side of the tent you are being held in. He turns towards you to deal out the same treatment but help arrives just in time. Cue a daring level-long escape.

It could be gut-wrenching, but it also has the possibility of being disastrously cheesy.  Sorry for being the pessimist, but after Call of Duty 3, I’m approaching anything with Treyarch’s name on it with caution.

[via videogaming247]

At the Konami Gamer’s Night yesterday, Konami unveiled Rock Revolution which is a music game in which users can collaborate to form a band with multiple instruments (the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals).  This game is said to feature 40 songs on the disc with more available through DLC and online co-op.  And yes, the game uses the same colored notes running down the screen method as shown in the video below.  I think I’ve heard of this game before…

Okay, so we all know that this game will be nearly identical to Rock Band (and Guitar Hero 4), but there are a couple of minor differences between the games.  First of all, Rock Revolution will have a drum set that has six pads and a pedal, compared to Rock Band’s four pads and a pedal (and Guitar Hero 4’s three pads, two cymbals, and a pedal).  Six pads seems a bit excessive to me, but hey, I’m no Rock Revolution tester.  An interesting feature that Konami is adding is the “Jam Session”.  This feature will supposedly let you record your own songs.  I have my doubts, but we’ll see.

One thing that Konami must do is make their game compatible with all the instruments available on the market.  There is no chance that I will buy this game if I am forced to buy a huge bundle to play it.  The bundle I bought with Rock Band should be enough.  But because the drums have six pads and the colors of the notes are in a different order for some instruments (check out the video), I think Konami will try to force us to buy their instruments to play the game.  And ultimately fail.

But come on Konami, why do you have to copy Rock Band now?  Can’t you wait a couple years?  This year, stores aren’t going to have enough room to stock bundles for every system that Rock Band, Guitar Hero 4, and Rock Revolution are available on (Rock Revolution is coming for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS).  However, I have a tip for you Wal-mart employees who are cringing in fear about finding space for three huge bundles: use the CD aisle.

[via Joystiq]

Nintendo has finally opened their eyes to what we all see around us.  Or rather what we don’t see: Nintendo Wiis on store shelves.  I haven’t seen a Wii at any store in about seven months.  So Nintendo is finally increasing production of their console to 25 million units in the next year, which is about 2.4 million units a month.  They are finally doing what consumers have been begging them to do for months.

I have a question: do they really expect to sell that many units every month for the next year?  The Wii may sell like hotcakes but do they really expect it to average 2.4 million a month?  It sold a very high 721,000 in March but that is nothing compared to 2.4 million.  Maybe the Wii has always had the potential to sell many times more units than it has but its been restrained by supply issues.  However, I can’t see a consistent 2.4 million throughout the year .

And what took them so long to decide to ramp up production lines?  Were they looking at our country’s falling economic rates and proceeding cautiously (though games don’t seem affected by that rate…yet) or were they artificially keeping the demand and the hype for the console high.  My guess is the latter statement because every business loves keeping their company in the news.  But this flooding of the market is contrary to that objective.  If they wanted to keep the Wii hype high, they would keep trickling out shipments.

Maybe this is Nintendo apologizing to people like me who moan about the fact that we can’t find Wiis.  More likely, it’s a clever business move.

[via Kotaku]

It’s that time of the month again: NPD time (also known as the brief period where the internet explodes from fanoboys declaring their console’s superiority through sales numbers from the previous month).  Let’s start out with the hardware numbers and then move to software.

Nintendo won once again by selling 721,000 Wiis and 698,000 DS’s.  The Wii is still unable to be found in stores and the DS continues its hot streak.  It will be interesting to see if the DS sells as many units this month with the recent news that there will be a new model released at E3.

Sony did very decent with their Playstation Portable selling 297,000 units and their PlayStation 3 selling 257,000.  But the Xbox 360 pushed ahead of the PS3 (barely) for the first time in 2 months selling 262,000 consoles.  So maybe there was some truth in that whole supply shortage story.  The PS3 and the 360 will probably swap the lead many more times this year (like COD4 and Halo 3 used to do).

Total hardware sales raked in $551.3 million, up 43% from last years’ $377.9 million.  Is this further evidence that video games are recession-proof?

Here is a full list of the hardware sales:

1. Nintendo Wii - 721,000
2. Nintendo DS - 698,000
3. PlayStation Portable - 297,000
4. Xbox 360 - 262,000
5. PlayStation 3 - 257,000
6. PlayStation 2 - 216,000

Software sales were also very good with Super Smash Bros. Brawl leading the pack with 2.7 million copies sold.  It was overall a shooter dominated lineup that had no major shockers.

Here’s a list of the top ten games sold:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 2.7 million
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360) - 752.3K
3. Army of Two (Xbox 360) - 606.1K
4. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 409.8K
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) - 340.5K
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) - 301.6K
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 264.1K
8. Major League Baseball 2K8 (Xbox 360) - 237.1K
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 237K
10. Army of Two (PS3) - 224.9K

So there were no huge surprises.  But it was a very, very good month for the video game industry.

[via Joystiq]

The MTV Gaming Blog has just been given exclusive information by an “inside source” that Microsoft has been developing an answer to the Wiimote and that it is scheduled to release before the end of this year. The insider goes on to say that Microsoft assigned Rare to the job and that they have been working on it since last August. The main difference s between the Wiimote and the Xbox 360 version of the controller are that the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have a separate controller in the other hand (the Nunchuck) and that the Xbox version uses an analog stick instead of a D-Pad.And rest assured, the 360 will not become mini-game haven like the Wii according to this insider. The source says that Microsoft plans not to just use this peripheral for casual games like Wii Sports, but that “they want the usual assortment of ‘Halo’/ ‘Gears’/ ‘Forza’/ whatever, just in waggle form”. I don’t know how they are going to manage those types of games with just this controller but we will see.

So is this the answer Wii fans have been dreaming of? A high power console that can churn out HD graphics but still use the fun intuitive motion sensing control screen? Not according to this source. He says, “The biggest parts of their marketing materials outline how easy it would be for third parties to port their Wii games to the 360.” Let me get this straight. The Wii will be the console they are developing the game for, and that game will be ported to the 360? So we will get slightly higher res Wii ports? Fantastic. Hopefully he only means the old games that Wii developers have made and that all new motion sensing games will be developed with the Xbox as the lead platform.

I don’t know if I agree with this strategy by Microsoft. Sure, the only console I have is an Xbox 360 and I would love to play with motion controls. And this seems like one more step towards a one-console future, which I’m sure anyone who likes to save money would love. My problem with it is that it seems like Microsoft is just ripping off Nintendo’s idea because Nintendo has suddenly become the top dog.  And Nintendo fanboys may just complain themselves to death.

And I’m not even sure if it would help very much. I think people have always associated the motion controlling interface with the Wii and may disregard the Xbox 360’s version totally. But I’m sure it’s nothing some heavy marketing could fix. Hopefully they market this better than they market the fact that you can download movies on your console. My friend, a softcore gamer, found out about that useful feature just a few weeks ago. Then again, he isn’t the smartest kid on the planet.

Now, we must all wait till the announcement arrives and the internet explodes for a day or two, then life moves on, or they’ll be no announcement, the internet lives on, and life will move on.

[via Kotaku]

The Wiimote is good for many things: training surgeons to have steadier hands, playing WoW without a mouse and keyboard, and occasionally playing Nintendo published games on the Wii.  The U.S. Military is adding another use to our favorite white accelerometer rigged remote.  They are actually using it to control iRobot developed “Packbot“.  The Packbot is designed to disarm explosives and mines.  Anything done to save soldiers lives is a good thing.  I wonder if it would work better with a Gamecube controller though?

    Nintendo really needs to get their whole Wii shortage thing together.  After being on the market for a year and a half, there should be atleast a few Wiis in the market.  But no, I haven’t seen a Wii in three months.  It was bad enough having to sit through Super Mario Galaxy without one, but now Super Smash Bros Brawl is out taunting my lack of Wiiness.  How hard could it really be to make those things?  Just go to Gamestop and buy all of their used Gamecubes and take out the processors and jam them into white boxes.  That’s all there is too it isn’t there?  Yes, Wii fanboys, I went there.

But seriously though, I know plenty of people who would buy a Wii in a second if they could find one.  I’ve got to give Nintendo credit though; if they artificially sustained the flow of the hardware,  it sure has had a great effect.  It has become the Tickle Me Elmo and now everyone wants it, even if they aren’t gamers.  It’s the same reason people wanted PS3’s or Xbox 360’s crazily when they came out.  As soon as they became readily available, the hype died down and so did the sales.  I wonder when that day will be for the Wii.

    Next-gen.biz has just released a chart showing the averages of review scores of various publishers from 2005 to 2007. Unsurprisingly, SCEA and Nintendo top the list with very respectable average scores of 77.9% and 75.1% respectively. But a surprising third is Capcom. There’s another reason why Microsoft should just buy them. Speaking of Microsoft, they are seventh on this list with an average rating of just 69.2%. I guess that’s surprising because we only get coverage of their good games. You have to remember they also release garbage like Fusion Frenzy 2 and Viva Pinata Party Animals (and who develops those games?). The rest of the list is relatively surprise less, with Take Two right below Microsoft, and Ubisoft and Activision (who both release very bad licensed games) far below them. I have never even heard of Conspiracy, the company on the very bottom of the list, which probably speaks to the quality of its games. And yeah, that’s about it. I know, it’s a slow news day.