The Lund Report: XBLA Sales Figures
- Scribbled on July 30th, 2010 by Jordan Lund
- Filed in Features, Microsoft Xbox 360, NPD, Xbox Live Arcade
One of the things missing when talking about NPD sales for hardware and software are sales made through digital distribution sources. Fortunately we can add one piece to that puzzle.
FADE (Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment) has released sales figures from the first half of 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade. Since the dollar figures are US dollars, and Microsoft currently sells points at a rate of 80 points per dollar we can take the revenue, multiply by 80 to get the total number of points spent and divide by the point cost to figure out (roughly) how many copies of each game were sold.
For games where the price has changed, the best we can do is come up with a range, minimum and maximum.
- 01. Toy Soldiers – $4.6 million (1200 Microsoft Points) – 306,667 copies sold.
02. Trials HD – $4.4 million (800 – 1200) – Between 293,333 and 440,000 copies sold.
03. Castle Crashers – $2.9 million (800 – 1200) – Between 193,333 and 290,000 copies sold.
04. Battlefield 1943 (EA DICE) – $2.5 million (800 – 1200) – Between 166,667 and 250,000 copies sold.
05. Perfect Dark – $2.4 million (800) – 240,000 copies sold.
06. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – $1.8 million (800 – 1200) – Between 120,000 and 180,000 copies sold.
07. Family Game Night – $1.7 million (400 – 800) – Between 170,000 and 340,000 copies sold.
08. Shadow Complex – $1.2 million (800 – 1200) – Between 80,000 and 120,000 copies sold.
09. Magic: The Gathering – $900,000 (800) – 90,000 copies sold.
10. Call of Duty Classic – $800,000 (1200) – 53,333 copies sold.
So what can we learn about this, besides the fact that Magic: The Gathering is more or less done?
Monday Night Combat: Sniper Video
- Scribbled on July 30th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Videos, Microsoft Xbox 360, Shooter, Xbox Live Arcade
In his case, it’s NOT a job, it IS mental sickness!
NBA 2K11 Soundtrack Revealed
- Scribbled on July 29th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Sports
2K Sports has revealed the NBA 2K11 soundtrack, which features such varied artists as Snoop Dogg, The Alan Parsons Project and even Ron Artest himself.
“NBA 2K is the basketball game that everyone plays, from NBA athletes to celebrities to music artists. Snoop has been a long time fan of the NBA 2K series and because music is such an integral part to the gameplay experience, it was a perfect fit for this year’s title – one of the greatest rappers making an exclusive track for the greatest NBA game,” said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. “With NBA 2K11 we hope to exceed expectations by featuring both an impressive array of established artists like Big Boi, Kid Cudi and Drake who definitely balance the hoop action, alongside emerging talent, such as the winners of our national MC/producer contest.”
Click “Read more…” for the full song list.
Halo: Reach “The Battle Begins” Trailer
- Scribbled on July 29th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Videos, Microsoft Xbox 360, Shooter
The first trailer to depict the Halo: Reach campaign has been released by Bungie, and if this doesn’t make your heart race if you own an Xbox 360, then you’re clinically dead.
(Thanks, Xboxic.)
Dungeon Siege III Debut Teaser Trailer
- Scribbled on July 29th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Videos, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, RPG, Sony PlayStation 3
The classic Dungeon Siege series is back, and brought to you by – Square-Enix? It’s still strange to see that company attached to classic Western titles, but with their purchase of recent properties like Eidos, this is precisely the market penetration they want.
Let us know if you’re excited for Dungeon Siege III, which will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
SOCOM 4 Delayed Til 2011
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Move, Release Date(s), Shooter, Sony PlayStation 3
SOCOM 4 has been delayed til 2011, reports 1Up.com.
While the game was playable at both GDC and E3, it seems that it wasn’t quite ready. Zipper didn’t say why the game has been delayed, but they did say that they didn’t want to take “any shortcuts.”
“Instead, we want to deliver the best and most immersive SOCOM game we possibly can and we’re going to use our extra time to do just that,” Zipper Interactive community manager Jeremy Dunham wrote.
Odds that including PlayStation Move support is a chief factor for its delay?
Starcraft In Five Minutes
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Videos, Humor, Mac, PC, Strategy
Did you pick up Starcraft II but regret you didn’t play the original Starcraft? IGN will get you up to speed by rehashing the entire plot in a five minute video, with tongue planted firmly in cheek – enjoy!
Monday Night Combat: Assassin Advice
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Videos, Humor, Microsoft Xbox 360, Shooter, Xbox Live Arcade
Uber Entertainment has released a trailer of the Assassin class from their hot Xbox Live Arcade game coming out in two weeks, Monday Night Combat, which can best be described as Team Fortress 2 meets Smash TV.
Their advice in dealing with this deadly witch?
- Her blades are deadly, keep her distance. If she’s shooting shurikens at you, keep your distance, watch wall bounces and hope for the best.
- You can’t out run her. So kill her fast!
- Be observant, watch for the warble and listen for the hum of her cloak. If all else fails, get a tank and light her up!
- If she smoke bombs you, look to the skies. Better yet, take her down before she has a chance to smoke bomb you then laugh hysterically.
Monday Night Combat comes out August 11 on Xbox Live Arcade.
(Thanks, Xboxic.)
COMIC CON ‘10: No Portal 3D Til Portal 3
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Comic Con, Interviews, Move, Puzzle, Shooter, Sony PlayStation 3
When asked about 3D for Portal 2 on the PlayStation 3 at San Diego Comic Con, Doug Lombardi handwaved any discussion by stating they’d consider it for Portal 3. Valve had already been on record as saying there would be no Move or 3D on Portal 2.
Move and any 3D plans “will have to wait for Portal 3 or another title,” he said. “We won’t be supporting those in Portal 2.
Considering the rate of releases for most Valve IPs, Portal 3 will probably be out by the time the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are out, which will be a time when 3DTV’s have flooded the market and both consoles can handle 3D with 1080p easily. The reasoning is probably close to David Jaffe’s decision to ditch Move and 3D for Twisted Metal - they’re unnecessary features that would clog development time, even though Valve now has a “dedicated PS3 team”.
Let us know what you think.
Madden NFL 11 Demo Available
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Demos, Microsoft Xbox 360, New Release(s), PlayStation Network, Sony PlayStation 3, Sports, Xbox Live Marketplace
As expected, the Madden NFL 11 demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.
Starcraft II Easter Egg: Lost Viking Shoot ‘Em Up
IGN discovered a nice little Easter Egg in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty: an arcade cabinet with a shmup called Lost Viking.
If you happen to find the arcade machine sitting in the cantina of the Hyperion, lead character Jim Raynor’s spaceship, you’ll find this. It’s a game called Lost Viking, an in-joke referring to Blizzard’s old SNES puzzle-platformer. Only it’s a top-down scrolling shooter where you pilot a Viking craft, a Terran air unit, against Protoss and Zerg forces.
Let us know if you’ve fooled around with this game-inside-a-game.
VGRT Episode 20: Google Will Rule the Earth
- Scribbled on July 28th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Game Genres, Hardware Peripherals, Industry News, Platforms, Podcasts
Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak are joined by Jordan Lund as they bask in the post-Comic Con, and realize Google will be taking over the world piece by piece. They laugh at Fred Phelps, cry at the stabbing, and cringe as Epic Mickey meets the focus groups.
They also discuss the new Halo game in development, Sony’s latest lies, David Jaffe rejecting 3D and Move support, Kinect’s $150 price tag, the Halo: Reach bundle, the announcement of Alice: Madness Returns, the new Capcom/Namco coproduction, Atlus extending multiplayer support for Demon’s Souls, and women’s purchasing power in gaming.
Question of the week: what feature would you most like to see in the next gen?
Listen in on the player below, download it directly here, or subscribe to iTunes!
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Released
- Scribbled on July 27th, 2010 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Mac, New Release(s), PC, Strategy
It’s a national holiday in South Korea today, and there’s quite a few happy people in North America and Europe, too, as Blizzard’s long awaited Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has officially arrived for PC and Mac, though GameStop has been holding midnight launches last night.
Let us know if you bought Starcraft II and are enjoying it now.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Patched
- Scribbled on July 27th, 2010 by Jordan Lund
- Filed in Industry News, Legal Brief
The Library of Congress announced today huge changes in the way the Digital Millennium Copyright Act works in regard to a number of locking technologies which previously prevented a number of forms of fair use. Arstechnica has the full legalese and a human readable translation here.
They will allow you to crack the CSS on a DVD if you need to take out short clips for non-commercial or educational use. You can jailbreak your iPhone to install non-Apple approved software. If you believe your Xbox game has a security flaw, you can crack it for the purpose of investigating and reporting that flaw. If you own any DRM’d eBooks, you can break them for the purpose of feeding them into a text to voice reader.
This is all fantastic news for believers of fair use. Expect Apple, the MPAA and every video game manufacturer to file suit in… – what time is it now?
Pachter Predicts Higher 3DS Prices
- Scribbled on July 27th, 2010 by Jordan Lund
- Filed in Industry News, Nintendo DS, Rumor Mill
I caught a lot of flak from the Nintendo defense force for having the temerity of pointing out that the 2010 sales for the Wii and DS aren’t matching up with 2009. Wii sales are down around 19% and DS sales are down 25% when you compare January to June sales.
Well it turns out that industry analyst Michael Pachter noticed too. Of course, he comes to the wrong conclusions, but at least he noticed!
Pachter cites the lost sales as the reasoning behind a potential price increase for the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS games, floating a hypothetical price of $250 for the system and $29 per game. Pachter has made predictions like this in the past. My personal favorite was predicting that Sony would clear out European models of the PlayStation 3 by moving them to America, despite the video format and voltage differences.
Now, I’ll grant that the new 3D technology could end up being more expensive, but $250? For a handheld? Is Pachter confusing Nintendo for Sony? I’ll go out on a limb here and say there is NO WAY the 3DS is going to be priced higher than the Wii.
As for the average price of 3DS games, he’s mis-calculating the average price of games on the DS. First party and high profile 3rd party DS games typically launch at $35. In announcing an average price of $25 he must be looking at a mature library of deeply discounted and other (crappy) budget games.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see the 3DS launch titles priced at $35 each – just like the DS games were. The difference is that this doesn’t represent the price increase that Pachter seems to think it does.
