NPD Top Five Selling Games for 2008

NPD List;

Top-Selling Games In The U.S. For 2008

(All versions combined. Units in millions)
1. Wii Play 5.28
2. Madden NFL ‘09 5.25
3. Grand Theft Auto IV 5.22
4. Mario Kart w/ Wheel 5.00
5. Call of Duty: World at War 4.63

One interesting note, all of the top five form a different outlook on how to sell a videogame;

1. Mini games bundled with an extra controller
2. Multi-SKU(NO PC)with Special Edition and a Spanish Edition of a long running sports franchise
3. HD Multi SKU Sequel from popular developer
4. Exclusive sequel with a peripheral
5. HD Multi SKU sequel of a popular fps franchise

Too Human, Denis Dyack, Bringing it Home E3

With only a few weeks for the release of the highly anticipated Action RPG Shooter, Too Human, today was the announcement of a demo to be on XBL. Microsoft's Bringing it Home E3, in the past has conisted of videos, vidocs, demos, and trailers for all the software shown at E3 available with a simple download interface via Xbox Live.



The demo of Too Human completes Denis Dyack's goal of world domination, err, to reach out to gamers without the Neogaf snark filter. Xbox live users love their demos, and is arguably a great way to get the game out to gamers who do not get all of game info from the Gaming Press or Gaming Forums. Bioshock is prime example, of how a demo, increased awareness before its release.

Is Too Human this year's Bioshock? Besides being released in August, offering replayability and offering a story besides "the bald space marine", action RPG's can be hit or miss. Action games this year have been lacking in sales as well, Devil May Cry 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have been critically thrashed for its unchanging and unevolving gameplay.

During the week of Denis laying out his, For or Agaisnt NeoGaf Post, I sent a few words of encouragement to Denis, that I would play Too Human before jumping on the hate or love bandwagon. He replied,

Denis Dyack
still figuring it out
(06-27-2008, 06:52 AM)
Reply | Quote
Fwd Re: Your "Pepsi Challenge" #
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by dasupremeone:
Hi Denis,

Your "Pepsi Challenge" while foolish to some, is an admirable one under the circumstances of how the internet may fuel the fire of a "bad word of mouth." I will take your "Pepsi Challenge," but the issue is, I do not own a 360. I can be your "guinea pig" and play the game without any fanboy influences, and I also can vouch that I do not have a predetermine "for" or "agaisnt" vote on Too Human. I can also post on my blog, "latinogamer.blogspot.com" my impressions of the game. Let me know what you think? I can probably borrow a friend's console, all I would need from you would be a copy of the game. Heck, send me a 360 and two copies, I can verify the co-op as well.

Ciao

Juan


Hi Juan,

Thanks for writing. The fact that you want to wait to play before making a call is the right thing to do and is actually one of the points of the thread. It is a fools challenge otherwise. :) Please try the game when you get a chance and write me with your impressions. I would love to hear them.

Best regards,
Denis




It is odd that a major head game developer would respond to the fans. Does Speilberg, Del Toro, respond to fans before a movie is released? Or even listen to critiques before the movie is edited? It just shows that Denis is a gamer at heart, and is making games for the end gamer in mind, and not just for the "dollar dollar bill yall."

HD Movies are now...

The era of HD movies began at this year CES. I was not able to go to this years event, but gaming blog site Kotaku has been pumping out the coverage. Two important changes to the HD Format wars, MS goes the way of a download service, whereas Bluray seems to have won over HD-DVD.

The Sony articles
http://kotaku.com/341998/paramount-moving-to-blu+ray-hd+dvd-dead-can-we-all-just-get-on-with-our-lives-now
http://kotaku.com/341869/sony-makes-blu+ray+to+psp-movie-transfer-official
The MS article
http://kotaku.com/341367/mgm-disney-abc-all-coming-to-xbl

Having used both systems and Comcast's On Demand, the landscape of home movies is changing. There are positive and negative points for all three delivery systems, but Sony may come out ontop if it can deliver a similiar download service via their PSN Store ala Comcast or Xbox Live.

The UMD is dead. So long unliked friend.