Early estimates from Black Friday 2008 are slowly trickling in, and it would appear that Nintendo is off to a third straight killer year for the Wii. Impressive, considering they’re working with a sparse holiday software lineup and their only first-party offering is the tepidly received Wii Music. By all indications, Wii Fit is flying [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Playstation 3’
Wii Christmas 3: Fit with a Vengance
Posted in Marketing, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Sports games, The biz, tagged Black Friday, Blu-ray, Gears of War 2, Kung Fu Panda, Lego Indiana Jones, Little Big Planet, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Recession, Wall-E, Wii Fit, Wii Music, Xbox 360 on December 2, 2008 | 8 Comments »
24/7/360/PS3
Posted in Culture, Marketing, The biz, tagged 7-11, casual gamers, GameStop, Playstation 3, slurpees, video game retail, Wii, Xbox 360 on November 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
After a few successful trials with Halo 3, Gears of War 2 and WOW: Wrath of the Lich King, 7-11 announced this week that they’ll sell a selection of titles an on ongoing basis at locations across the country. I think this is a great move, and not just because I *love* Slurpees. As the [...]
Game Companies: “What Recession?”
Posted in Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, The biz, tagged Financial Crisis, NPD, Playstation 3, Reggie Fils-Aime, Wii, Xbox 360 on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In spite of the financial shitstorm general malaise on Wall Street, some of this industry’s heaviest hitters feel like this will actually be a Merry Christmas after all. As crazy as it sounds, they may actually be on to something. Looking at the NPD Report for October, the sector hasn’t gotten the same sucker punch [...]
Madden ready for primetime
Posted in Culture, Marketing, Sports games, The biz, tagged ESPN, Madden, NFL, NFL Countdown, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 on September 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Just in case you missed it, ESPN add a cool little feature to this season’s NFL Countdown pregame shows: their in-studio talent interacts with player models from Madden ’09. Brooks Barnes captured all the gritty details in a NY Times piece earlier this week – it’s certainly worth a read. ESPN has played a big [...]
My big huge crush on LittleBigPlanet
Posted in Culture, Indie games, Marketing, Sony, The biz, tagged Consumer Generated Media, E3, Guitar Hero, Leipzig Games Convention, LittleBigPlanet, PAX, Playstation 3, Rock Band, Smash Bros Brawl, Sony, Soul Calibur 4 on September 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As another stellar PAX show wound down this weekend, Sony completed a more-or-less clean sweep of industry show prerelease buzz for LittleBigPlanet. The construction/platformer/multiplayer collaboration defies all current genre (yours truly is calling it a “toybox” game) and is quick to make fans wherever it pops up. It dominated E3 “Game of Show” lists, was [...]
Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!
Posted in Marketing, The biz, tagged E3, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero World Tour, Leipzig Games Convention, Playstation 3, Rock Band 2, Street Fighter IV, Tokyo Game Show, Xbox 360 on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The annual Games Convention is going on this week in Leipzig, Germany. When it was first introduced in 2002, the GC was an oddity at best. It falls on the calendar barely a month after E3 and before the Tokyo Game Show, is open to the public, and is a mostly console show seated in [...]
Just another Madden Monday?
Posted in Culture, Marketing, Sports games, The biz, tagged EA, EA Sports, Electronic Arts, GameStop, Madden, Madden 09, Madden XX, midnight launch, Playstation 3, Rose Bowl, Xbox 360 on August 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
On Monday night, hordes of dedicated fans lined up outside their local Gamestops, Best Buys, and Wal-Marts to get their hands on Madden ’09, the 20th installment of EA’s powerhouse franchise. This year’s version shipped on the 360, PS3, PSP, and weirdly enough, the PS2 and Nintendo DS. I always get a chuckle out of [...]
All Good Things…
Posted in Marketing, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, The biz, tagged Castle Crashers, E3, Michael Pachter, Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 3, Shigeru Miyamato, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live on July 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When the most beloved game designer of all time thinks your product is crap, you may have an issue on your hands. I think it’s time for the ESA to hang it up on E3. The fact is, our audience is too far ahead of the curve, in terms of media consumption, to be well-served [...]
In the Year 20XX…
Posted in Culture, Old school, The biz, tagged Capcom, E3, Mega Man, Mega Man 9, Nintendo, Playstation 3, Playstation network, PSN, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live on July 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
E3 is once again upon us (albeit in its retooled, min-E3 format). I won’t cover every single announcement here – there are plenty of up-to-the-minute industry news sites on the blogroll at right, so set your RSS reader and fire away. But a week like this always has a few thought-provoking surprises, and presents a [...]
