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.

Bungie may be good at making Halo games, but they are also fairly good at teasing the living hell out of their fans.  The latest example is a video which displays the voice of Luke Smith magically coming out of a blue Spartan.  Amazingly, the video is entirely in-game footage.

The video was made as Bungie’s response to the Edge Innovation Award (which Halo 3 has won two years running now), and it displays this blue spartan running around various parts of the multiplayer map “Rat’s Nest” being a really jerk by telling us that Bungie is hard at work at some project.  While he wouldn’t say what the project was, there was plenty of hints that it was another Halo game (the biggest being that the video is run in Halo 3 itself).  At one point he even says, “Even though in Halo 3 you finished the fight, it doesn’t necessarily mean the rides over.”  Isn’t that confirmation enough?

However, the video could just be teasing a map editor (go to the very end) or maybe AI enemies in multiplayer.  What do you think?

From the beginning of time, Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers have been dueling about who’s console is the more graphically powerful.  In these skirmishes, terms like CPU, GPU, and RAM have been thrown around, but now those folks on the PS3 side of the fray have another weapon in their arsenal: disc format.

You may think that disc size has absolutely nothing to do with graphical quality of games.  It all has to do with the raw power of the console’s CPU, RAM, etc., you might say; the discs are just used to store the data that is pushed through the processors.  Yes, but no.  Let me explain.

The Xbox 360 version of the upcoming first person shooter Rage will be shipping on two DVDs.  The PS3 version, however, will fit on one Blu-ray disc.  Developer id Software’s John Carmack says that the PS3 version of the game will look much better.  Why?  Because of the limitations of the DVD.  Apparently, the company will be using a “different type of compression” on the Xbox 360 version of the title to keep the game on two discs, so they don’t have to pay high royalty costs for a third disc.  This “compression” will make Rage on the Xbox 360 graphically inferior to Rage on the PS3

Up until now, there has been very few disadvantages to buying a game that comes on multiple discs.  Sure you have to get your lazy self up to swap discs every so often, but the core game looked exactly the same.  Now that id Software is setting a precedent of graphically crippling the 360 version of a multi-platform game to fit it on a certain amount of discs, will other companies follow suit?  Will 360 gamers be forced to look at blurry counterparts of beautiful PS3 games because Microsoft didn’t install a more future-proof drive into their console?

I don’t think so.  I still believe that games that require multiple DVDs will remain the exception this generation.  Most games will still be able to fit on one dual layered DVD.  Why?  Read this and you’ll find out.  However, we probably won’t know for sure until this generation is over.  In the meantime, let’s go back to watching those fanboys verbally abuse each other, this time with new evidence to back up their claim.

Crackdown was probably the “biggest” sleeper hit of 2007 but most people attribute that to the fact that a Halo 3 beta key was packed into every copy of the game.  What they don’t realize is that the game could have stood on its own just as easily.  The addicting RPG elements (agility orbs!), the interesting cartoony art style, and the brilliant online co-op were what made this game great.  Not some beta packed into the disc.

However, Realtime Worlds, developers of Crackdown, are not currently working on a sequel, as they are busy working on APB, which has been nicknamed a “Crackdown MMO”.  So does that mean all talks of a real sequal are done?  Not exactly.

Speaking with VG247, Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin MacDonald suggested that after APB is completed, Realtime Worlds may decide to make a sequel to the open world, futuristic cop shooter.  He said, “I don’t think the door’s closed. Obviously, right now we’re tied up with APB and everything else, but hopefully in the future we’ll have the resource and something can be worked out with Microsoft.”

He also said, “It was a horrible, horrible decision that we still dwell on,” about the choice to not directly move on to a sequel for Crackdown.  So why did they move away from Crackdown?  His explanation was: “We’ve got to stay in business. And the numbers just didn’t add up. We’re not in the business of doing things because we’d like to, if we can’t guarantee that it makes sense for the company. That doesn’t work.”

So it was all about dollars and cents.  Wait, doesn’t Microsoft have plenty of dollars and cents?  Hey Microsoft, could you send a few of those to Realtime Worlds because I’d really like to see a Crackdown 2 sometime soon.

[via VG247]

Call of Duty 4 is a fantastic shooter, both single player and multiplayer.  In fact, it is so fantastic that it knocked Halo 3 off the Xbox Live top played games list just a few months from release, a feat that wasn’t expected to be achieved for at least a year after launch.  So it’s know wonder that gamers like it.  What is surprising is the fact that Bungie employees enjoy the game that outshone their own superstar.  Heretics!

Speaking in an interview with Game Industry, Bungie Lead AI Programmer Damian Isla, a fan of Call of Duty 4, said:

We have a lot to learn from their success too, they did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to.

I think it’s a great game and single player obviously is fantastic… they did a hell of a job with their set pieces, of scripting certain moments that they were really sure the player was going to actually see and experience first hand. The way that they use those moments to craft the player experience…Halo has a lot to learn from.

Later in the interview he stated that Halo has plenty of in-game sequences that many gamers unfortunately miss, probably because they are too busy throwing a plasma grenade at a brute to notice.  He said that because Halo is a “simulation” style game, which adds plenty of replayability, scripted sequences are much harder to implement.

But even without that excuse making for Halo, this is very, very high praise coming from Bungie.  It’s always good to hear developers implementing other developers’ good ideas and hopefully improving the game that they are working on.

At a Microsoft game exhibition in Taipei, where it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII would also be available for the Xbox 360 in Taiwan, there was also a very interesting Xbox 360 spotted.  This 360, found inside a kiosk, is decked out in a Dark Knight theme.  Freaking awesome.

Ars Technica seems to have gotten an(other) insider scoop on an upcoming Xbox 360 price cut.  This mole, the same one who leaked the price cut on the 20 GB SKU and revealed the 60 GB model, gave them information that all of the 360 SKU’s will be receiving heavy price cuts early September.  They are as follows: Arcade model (no hard drive) for $199, Pro model (60 GB) for $299, Elite model (120 GB) for $399.

While this news is a couple days old, this story got a fresh boost today as a VGChartz member “found” a picture that confirms a September price cut for the Arcade SKU.  This picture shows an SKU inquiry done by the member and the September 7 price cut date is scheduled one week after Infinite Undiscovery’s release and two weeks before the Xbox 360 timed-exclusive release of Rock Band 2.

Many people are wondering if Microsoft is taking a huge hit profit wise by selling their consoles at such a low price.  Well the VGChartz writer guesstimates that the Xbox 360 production costs have fallen to $140.15 to $182.19, so even at that extremely low price point, Microsoft would still be making money for each console sold.

If this rumor is true, and at this time it is looking like it will come to fruition, this could be a very heavy blow by Microsoft to the competition.  With an Xbox 360 available that is $50 less than the Wii, Microsoft could potentially steal away many of Nintendo’s customers, who will look all the extra features and better graphics they will receive with an Xbox 360 over the Wii.  Also, the $299 60 GB SKU will square against the comparable 80 GB PS3, which retails at $399 (at the moment).

However, this leak will probably slow the already stagnant 360 sales even farther, as people will wait till September to buy their consoles.  So if this mole works for Microsoft, he probably did the company quite a bit of harm by releasing this information.  He did give us bloggers some good information to talk about, though.

It seems as though EA isn’t the only company trying to buy out Take-Two these days.  According to Seeking Alpha’s Stephen Frankola (and rumors that have been thrown around for ages now), Microsoft may be moving in to snatch up Take-Two.

Frankola says that Microsoft is a likely suitor for many reasons.  He compares this potential acquisition to that of Bungie Studios, which brought them three of the best selling games of all-time in the Halo series.  For example, Halo 3 made $170 million in just one week, which is higher than many huge blockbuster movies (The Dark Knight is out of this comparison).  However, obtaining Take-Two would give them an even bigger hit with the Grand Theft Auto series.  To compare, GTA IV sold over $500 million in a week (although, to be fair, GTA IV was out on two consoles, whereas Halo 3 was released on only one).  This franchise alone would more than make up for the cost of the acquisition in a few years time.

On top of the ridiculously popular GTA franchise, Microsoft would also get the upcoming Bioshock franchise, which has tons of potential to become huge, as well as Take-Two’s huge sports library.

But, how much will Take-Two cost?  Frankola expects a $2.5 billion bid, which is roughly $32 a share.  This is over 25% higher than EA’s last bid, which was close to $25.  This may seem like a lot of money, but to Microsoft, it’s just pocket change (unlike the Yahoo bid).  It would only use about 10% of Microsoft’s available cash, in a transaction that’s only 1% of their market cap.

So what’s holding Microsoft back?  There seems to be no downside to this agreement for Microsoft, right?  And while I am strongly against consolidation of companies in the gaming world, I agree that this seems like an extremely smart business move for Microsoft.  With Take-Two’s developing power, Microsoft’s first party could finally compete with the much stronger offerings from Nintendo and Sony’s first party.  Also, if the next Grand Theft Auto was exclusive to the Xbox platform, Sony could be in deep trouble.

Microsoft’s new 60 GB Xbox 360 SKU was supposed to start hitting store shelves in “early August” but, once again, Target decided to break street date and seems to be selling 60 GB Xbox 360’s right now.  Plenty of interweb users across the country have made claims that they have visited their local Target and seen a 60 GB SKU in the display case, and a few even took pictures (look above).

Now Target has always been very, very bad when it comes to releasing new Xbox 360 SKU’s when they are supposed to be released, but you would think that after their fiasco with the Elite SKU’s release, they would wise up and actually listen to when they are supposed to release the things.  When will Target ever hit the targeted release date?  Ok, I’ll admit it, that was bad.

[via Penny College]

The Xbox Forums are alight because user “TFD655321″ has made the claim that you can now play Shadowrun online multiplayer with a Silver Account.  This news comes at a very inconvenient time because there is a Live Weekend going on at the moment, which means that Xbox Live is free for Silver users anyway.

However, the unusually named user claims that he has been playing Shadowrun since Wednesday night, long before the start of the Live Weekend, midnight on Friday.  Many other gamers in the same thread have made the same claim and have been playing Shadowrun for free since Thursday.  Users in the thread also claim that two other games work with this “glitch”: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition and Universe at War: Earth Assault.

I personally have not tried this to confirm if it is true or not, as I don’t have any of those three games.  However, many, many users are going to the thread and insisting that with their Silver Accounts, they can now play these three games.  Of course, much of it is probably confusion, due to the fact that it is a Live Weekend.  There seems to be a grain of truth in the claim, though.  That many people can’t be oblvious to the Live Weekend.

So now the question is whether this was a glitch in the system, or a move towards freeing Xbox Live.  With Shadowrun, it may have been a glitch, since Games for Windows Live is free now and Shadowrun has cross-platform multiplayer.  However, that reasoning doesn’t work with the other two games, as they don’t have cross-platform multiplayer.  So could this have been a sneaky step from Microsoft towards making Xbox Live free?  I doubt it; Microsoft usually likes to parade about what they are doing to help gamers.

I guess we’ll figure out if this is legit or not later today, as the weekend is over.  And the answer to whether or not this change will be permanent, if it is real, will be answered in due time.

[via Kotaku]

Microsoft, like all companies, is trying to branch out from its purely software roots.  One of their first sign of this branching was announcing the Xbox gaming platform.  Other examples include the Zune and Microsoft Surface.  Well, it looks like Microsoft has taken another step in diversifying their company because they have announced that they are co-producing a series of short comedies that are to be distributed over Xbox Live.

For these shorts, Microsoft is working in collaboration with Safran Digital Group, known for the Scary Movie series and Meet the Spartans.  Also noted was the fact that although these films will be comedies, they will be directed by horror movie directors to appeal to the gamer audience.  It doesn’t make sense to me either.  These comedies will last approximately 10 minutes long, are made in full high definition, and will be distributed on the Zune Marketplace and over MSN, as well as Xbox Live.

These short comedies are actually pilot episodes, which means if one of them takes off, Microsoft has the full right to distribute the IP as a television show, movie, comic book, etc.  “What’s great about it is it stays Xbox branded,” says Scott Nocas, group product manager at Xbox Live. “We get to be a part of it throughout the entire life cycle of the IP.”

So now on top of the Netflix movies, we will be getting original and exclusive video content on Xbox Live.  Will this be the final stake driven through the Playstation Network’s movie service?  Not exactly.  You have to realize that the Playstation Network has full access to Sony’s movie studio, which will lead to many Playstation exclusive movies.  And in addition to that, Sony is also looking into getting exclusive video content on the Playstation Network.  “We’re looking at having content that you can’t find anywhere else, investing in our own content and having it debut on the PlayStation Network,” said Peter Dille, executive Vice President of marketing and the Playstation Network.

[via WFAA]

Today, at Comic-Con, Cliff Bleszinski presented Gears of War 2 to attendees.  Before you get too excited, you should know that he walked fans through the same Sinkhole level that he showed at E3.  But while the walkthrough may be old hat to you E3-ers, he did reveal a couple new things about Gears of War 2.

First of all, he officially announced that Gears of War 2 is being scored by Steve Jablonsky, composer of films like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Transformers.  Bleszinski mentioned that Gears 2 was scored by Jablonsky in The 1up Show last week, but it wasn’t formally announced till now.

But the more interesting announcement made was that Gears of War 2 will carry “linked achievements”.  This means that goals accomplished in the original Gears will carry over to Gears 2.  In the announcement, Blezinski gave three examples of this system: (these could be spoilers if you haven’t finished the original Gears of War yet)

• Complete Act One in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Anthony Carmine in Gears of War 2
• Find 10 COG tags in Gears Of War, unlock Minh Young Kim in Gears of War 2
• Kill Raam in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Raam in Gears of War 2

Other than giving those examples, Bleszinski didn’t really elaborate on the “linked achievement” system.  He didn’t even say whether or not the unlockable characters will be playable in single player, multiplayer, or both in Gears of War 2.  And why didn’t he mention this information at the Microsoft press conference?  Was it because he didn’t have enough time?  Whatever it is, it sounds like this “linked achievement” thing could be pretty cool.  I’d like to see this expand to other franchises.  For example:

• Understand the story to the first two Halo games, unlock a playable Cortana in Halo 3
• Buy every Madden game since 2002, unlock a vintage helmet in Madden 2009
• Actually play Wii Play for the mini-games, unlock… nothing.  You don’t deserve anything.

[via Kotaku]

As far back as a few months ago, rumors had been floating around everywhere that Splinter Cell: Conviction was headed towards a total redesign by Ubisoft that would push the release date of the game well into 2009, especially since the game wasn’t shown at E3.

Well, those rumblings have been confirmed, as Ubisoft announced today that Splinter Cell: Conviction will be delayed until the companies next fiscal year.  Ubisoft’s fiscal year starts in April, so that means the game would release April 2009 at the very earliest.

So what was the reason for this delay?  Was it because Splinter Cell: Conviction’s developers couldn’t bear the fact that Assassin’s Creed had better crowd gameplay than Conviction was set to be having, as some people have suggested?  Or was it because Sam Fischer is on an elongated mission and hasn’t had time to film the cutscenes yet?

[via Joystiq]

[Update: It turns out the source that I found this news on wasn't quoting the article properly.  So, the entire news story could be false.  Bioware could still develop Mass Effect 2 and 3 for every console.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.]

After Bioware was acquired by EA, many gamers were worried that EA would force the developer to make multiplatform games and continue churning out titles.  Xbox 360 gamers were especially worried, as they didn’t want to see the Mass Effect trilogy end up on any other system, except for maybe the PS3.  Why, you ask?  Because every second spent making the DS version of a game could be used to polish up the Xbox 360 version even more.

Well, those of you who want to see the Mass Effect trilogy appear exclusively on the 360 just got your prayers answered.  In the just released September issue of gaming magazine Australian 360, Bioware CEO Ray Muzyka has made the commitment “to bring the Mass Effect trilogy exclusively to the Xbox 360″.

This news comes in direct contrast to the recent news of third-party titles going multiplatform, like Final Fantasy XIII.  But why would Bioware not release this game on the PS3, where it could potentially sell millions of copies.  Well there are two answers.  The Bioware CEO answer: “we’re always very ambitious in our goals and the most important thing is quality, so we’re never going to compromise that”.  Or the realistic answer: Bioware has some sort of exclusivity contract with Microsoft.  You decide which one you believe.

But after this trilogy is completed, maybe a DS Mass Effect will become a possibility.  The article stated: “it was suggested that once the trilogy has closed the IP could begin to move in new directions”.

Also noted was the fact that this trilogy not only will be exclusive to Microsoft, but it will also be exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform.  And with the next Mass Effect expected to be released in 2009, that gives a two year gap between each release.  So, we can speculate that Mass Effect 3 is due in 2011, which, by most estimates, is at the very end of the 360’s console cycle.  In fact, some analysts are even saying that the Xbox 720 will be released in 2010.  So how’s that going to work out?

[via XboxOZ360]

Plenty of buzz has been going around the past few days about Microsoft’s not so surprising announcement of a complete dashboard revamp this Fall.  And surprisingly, a lot of it has been negative.  Well I’m here to give you the facts about the New Xbox Experience, as Microsoft has been calling it.

Let’s start out with a great developer walkthrough of the New Xbox Experience:

The Dashboard

So the new dashboard is now filled with various channels, including My Xbox 360, Community, and Videos, which you switch by going up or down and navigate through by going left or right.  It seems as though it’s perfectly designed for those people who navigate the Xbox 360 using a remote control.  So that makes about four people happy.

As for the channels themselves, they look very…interesting.  Don’t get me wrong, the Game and Primetime channels are very clean, but the Community channel just looks like a mess to me.  Having all of your friends’ characters on one screen at the same time just doesn’t sound fun to me.

The Guide Button

To those of you who preferred the old blade system by far, it may seem like you’re in trouble because the new dashboard update is mandatory.  However, hitting the Guide button now brings up an interface very, very similar to the original Xbox 360 dashboard.

And it’s important to note that this blade system is accessible at anytime.  That means when you’re playing Call of Duty 4, you can just hit the guide button and jump into one of your XBLA games at any time.

Avatars

So there is a new Avatar system for the Xbox 360 and, yes, they look very much like Miis.  Like I said above, they seem to all appear on the Community channel representing each one of your friends and they are designed to become your Gamerpic.

So does that make all of the gamerpics, which you spent wasted money on, useless?  Not exactly, because these avatars are completely optional, unlike the update.  So your gamerpics will still be usable.  On the same note, so will your themes, which Marc Whitten said will look “beautiful” on the new interface.

Installing Games on HDD

With this new update, Microsoft has also allowed users to install full games onto their hard drives.  This feature should quicken load times, but also anger 20 GB SKU owners, who already get mad at having to delete demos and videos every other week.  The game also has to be inserted in the disc drive for the game to play, which gets rid of the possibility of trading a game around so you don’t have to buy it.  Unfortunate, but completely understandable on Microsoft’s part.

Netflix

In the Video channel of the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft has just added support of Netflix movies.  This means that if you have a Netflix account, you can stream movies to your Xbox 360 at any time.  This effectively doubles the starving Xbox Live Video Marketplace and makes it a contender in the digital video arena.  The quality for these movies is largely dependent on internet speed, but although they are below DVD quality, they still look good.

No Browser Support

Although the Xbox Live Marketplace is becoming accessible through any computer, the internet is not becoming accessible through the Xbox 360, at least on this update.  It is strange, especially considering that both the PS3 and the Wii have built in web browsers.

Well there you have it, folks.  That’s all the information you should need about the upcoming New Xbox Experience.  Hopefully knowing more about the New Xbox Experience will make you more excited for the update.  Or, it could just as easily make you dread the day it’s released.