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

MEGATON News: Palermo back on, says Maradona

Ten years after failing to convert three penalty shots during a 1999 Copa America match versus Chile, Palermo "está entre los seleccionables" (translation: El Loco in the AFA pool of players). Martin Palermo achieved cult status among Boca Junior's "12th column" after scoring twice against Real Madrid during the now defunct, replaced by FIFA Club World Cup, Intercontinental Cup final in 2000. Maradona has confirmed that Palermo is on an impressive list of Argentine players if he would return to form after his eight month injury layoff.



via Terra

I have embed the video, since Terra had not....ciao!

NPD Videogame Sales Numbers for December 2008

Video game sales grew 19 percent, from 2007 to 2008, at $21.3 billion, according to NPD group.

2008 Dec
Hardware sales

PS2 410K
PS3 726K
PSP 1.02M
X360 1.44M
Wii 2.15M
DS 3.04M

Top 10 software sales

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE 1.46M
360 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR 1.33M
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD 999K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL 878K
WII GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR 859K
360 GEARS OF WAR 2 745K
360 LEFT 4 DEAD 629K
NDS MARIO KART 540K
PS3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR 533K
WII ANIMAL CROSSING: CITY FOLK 497K

Dec 2007
Hardware sales

* NDS: 2,470,000
* Wii: 1,350,000
* 360: 1,260,000
* PS2: 1,100,000
* PSP: 1,060,000
* PS3: 797,600

Top 10 software sales

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) 1.47 Million
2. Mario Galaxy (Wii) 1.40 Million
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) 1.25 Million
4. Wii Play (Wii) 1.08 Million
5. Assassin’s Creed (360) 893.7 K
6. Halo 3 (360) 742.7 K
7. Brain Age 2 (NDS) 659.5 K
8. Madden 08 (PS2) 655.2 K
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (360) 624.6 K
10. Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games (Wii) 613.0 K
11. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) [500K - 613K]
12. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock* (Wii) >500K
13. Rock Band* (Xbox 360) [463K]
14. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) [401K - 500K]
15. Mario Party 8 (Wii) [401K - 500K]
16. Assassin's Creed* (PS3) [401K - 500K]
17. Mass Effect* (Xbox 360) 401K
18. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) [385.7K - 401K]
19. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) [385.7K - 401K]
20. Mario Party DS (DS) 385.7K


* Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) >500k
* Mass Effect (Xbox 360) 401,000
* Mario Party DS (DS) 385,700
* Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) 147,600
* Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (DS) 117,200
* Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PS3) 56,500
* Nights: Journey of Dreams (Wii) 60,800
* TimeShift (PS3) 25,000
* PS3 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune - 206,000
* 360 Rock Band - 463,000
* PS3 Rock Band - 174,000

Meet The Chicanator! From EA Burnout Paradise

Criterion has finally announced the remaining cars from the Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars pack. Rounding out the list, is the cleverly named, Calvary Bootlegger an homage to The Chicanator. But what the hell is a Chicanator, one might ask, since Spanish is not known to all.

A Mexican White Bullanator would have a better ring!

At first, I thought it was Chicana - tor, a Chicano(a) is someone of Mexican descent but born and raised in the United States, especially from the West and Southwest regions of the country. But why would Criterion name a car that is a knock off the famous Dukes of Hazard 69-70 Dodge Charger, General Lee, The Chicanator (The Confederate flag is replaced with the Mexican one). I know, the car is named the Calvary Bootlegger but what the hell is The Chicanator, a fictional tv character in who drinks and drives, slaps chicas asses, and saves Paradise City from a white haired industrialist?

Maybe it is not Chicana, but Chica. What does Chica mean, it can have different definitions, chica can be reffered as; girl, young women, or plural, darling, maid or to describe something as small or tiny. The most probable definition of The Chicanator is The PussyWagon or The Babenator (Babenator does not work, needs more syllables). So are all Mexicans, who generally buy American automobiles, a stereotypical chauvinistic macho women hungry man who also bootlegs liquor? The only bootleggers that exist currently in Mexico are the ones who create the illegal pulque, similiar to moonshine, makers are so poor, they have a burro rather than a Dodge...

I have a few better ideas for The Chicanator. How about a different homage, maybe a factual person like The Shermanator, named after the other famous General of the Civil War General Tecumseh Sherman, painted navy Federal blue and grey with Old Glory on her roof because if the car was named General Grant it would be an uproar. Or not. Too insensitive to our Southern compartriots.

The Chicanator will just fly over the heads of everyone else, Mexicans and Women gamers will not even know, heck, do latinos or women even buy HD games, or do they just play the Wii? What about a famous Mexican general, El Zapata, El Pancho Villa or even better, General Santa Anna, with some awesome hydrolics and a horn that plays a the famous mariachi song, Las Mananitas or El Rey, and painted green or red?

My favorite name, I came up before I typed this raving blog post, El Chonchanator or El Luchadore. I just can not decide!

Entry to Shawn Eliott's Symposium: Review Scores

My entry to Shawn Eliott's Symposium: Review Scores

What does one of the "normal" people (as Dan Hsu describes us) feel about review scores? From someone who has read reviews since 1989 for purchasing decisions to now, my attitude has changed

At first, review scores have become the litmus test of a game that I am on the fence about or now nothing of. I want a review to answer the questions of a cynic, a skeptic or just a confused gamer if the game is worth one's time. It is especially true for sequels, sports games and now, all those Activision games that get once a year treatment.

Reviews are no longer the only source that influences my purchasing decision, I often listen to podcasts, the vidcasts, demos and/or follow the "buzz." Even previews have time to time influenced a decision, just recently, Shawn Elliott's Far Cry 2 preview spark an enough interest to buy the game. Stephen Totilo's daily dairies have become like a book club, as I play similar games, for example, I experience the same frustrations that Stephen faced in Dead Space.

Reviews will never go away, as Dan Hsu points out, "It’s ingrained in society and it’s pointless and stubborn to fight it. People don’t always have time to read a 2000-word, well-crafted review to get inside the brain of the reviewer. For most folks in this short-attention-span world, that “4 out of 10” usually says more than enough." The problem with Review Scores are not the scores themselves, but the fact that one person can never review the bulk of weekly game, as Roger Ebert does with the movies he watches for the Chicago Tribune. The last point is better reserve for the next topics.

Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box PC February 09 Release

"Just when I thought I was out, THEY PULL ME BACK IN!"

EA and Criterion have announced the release date of Burnout Paradise for the PC arriving in February 09.  EA has a checkered past with DRM issues, Crysis Warhead, Dead Space, Red Alert 3 and Spore.  Criterion's Alex Ward once claimed they will never do PC games and its overclockign shenanigans.  With Burnout PC, they seem to be moving away from DRM.

With Burnout Paradise, EA and Criterion will be distributing the a trial version for free, with a limited time demo all of Paradise City has to offer (download and dvd disc).  To purchase the full content, EA and Criterion have attached an ingame store, with a few clicks the trial version unlocks to the full retail game.  Details are limited, as the ingame store will be fully revealed in an upcoming CrashTV Episode. 

Are PC gamers going to be pulled into Burnout Paradise, a year after its console release?  Has EA learn its on how to properly handle consumers and DRM? 

Call of Duty: World at War

Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War is the next installment of the successful first person series and sequel to last year mutli-million seller COD 4 Modern Warfare. WaW returns to the battlefields of World War 2 with two new theaters of war, the American invasion of the outlying islands of the Japanese Empire and the Soviet Union invasion and defeat of Nazi forces in Germany. As much as the publisher, Activision, leads us to believe, WaW remains to be the same 'war' with only updated visuals, an uninspired world war two atmosphere and tired gameplay.

More of the same

In WaW there are two campaigns, the American invasion of the Japanese islands and the Soviet Union march to Berlin with each portraying war as a necessary method to eradicate evil. The portrayal of the Japanese soldiers are one of the changes in WaW. In previous COD games knife and melee attacks only occurred in close combat scenarios or when the player would rush to positioned enemies' stationary positions. Now, the Japanese soldiers are trained to do suicidal 'bonzai' bayonet attacks. After a successful knock down, the player has one to two seconds to execute a counter by pressing down on the right analog stick. The 'bonzai attacks' become so frequent it play as cheap gimmick rather than innovate design.

Another new wrinkle is powered by the amazing rendered foliage as seen in Modern Warfare, however, WaW allows only the enemy A.I. to take advantage of the environmental cover. Japanese fighters will cover in trees, hide as dead soldiers, and lay in grass. Never do they flank, advance to better cover or show any other type of A.I. behavior.

The Soviet Union campaign is more of the same as previous COD games. A sniper mission. Check. Street fighting. Check. A tank mission. Check. The tank episode actually was enjoyable and captured the 'total war' atmosphere games strive to reach. There was multiple infantry, other enemy tanks, and a continuous battle, the level was a breath of freshness. Unfortunately, there are multiple levels tread the same areas tried and done from the COD franchise.

As a now veteran of five call of duties, WaW is not the best, MW is, nor the worst tour, COD3 is. World at War at its best, becomes the frankenstein monster experience, made from the best and worse gameplay pieces of previous entries searching for a soul.

Two out of Five stars.

Watchmen Trailer...I am still on the fence

Alan Moore's Watchmen is perfect as graphic novel, and the movie seems to be just a rip off.

Well here is the trailer...

River y Chivas: Simeone is fired

The River defeat against the mexican club Chivas, the loss to Boca Juniors and at the bottom del Apertura, Simeone is fired during its worse tour in years.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Diego "Hand of God" Maradona to head the Argentine National Football Team ***NO JOKE***

I am in utter disbelief...not sure to laugh manically or call the token "che" to ask for his opinion. Carlos Bilardo is to be included on the coaching staff, but still this reeks of desperation.



UPDATE

Just talked to my token "che" friend, he dropped the phone...and cut his wrists....

From Reuters Soccer Blog