…in record sales. So far, after all the hype and advertisement for the Wii Music, it’s sold below 81,000 in Oct. But I really think that with the current economic crises, people are more tempted to use their money for food than for games, honestly.
When the NPD Group released its October sales figures yesterday, one title was noticeably absent from the top 10–Wii Music. For weeks, cash-flush Nintendo has been heavily hyping the title, the last of the “Big Four” nontraditional properties–along with Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit–conceived to appeal to nongamers. It even brought out legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto to show off his latest creation to the US press.
Unfortunately, it seems not even a media blitz aided by the charms of the creator of Donkey Kong could spark Wii Music fever. According to raw NPD data, Wii Music sold just under 81,000 units in the 11 days after it went on sale on October 20. The number is merely a fraction of the 687,700 units Wii Fit moved domestically in a similar period when it went on sale on April 19.
Though many will blame the discordant live jam session at Nintendo’s E3 2008 conference for Wii Music’s lackluster debut, there are two more likely reasons. First and foremost, the rhythm genre is saturated, with Rock Band and Guitar Hero duking it out for supremacy as Rock Revolution, Ultimate Band, and others struggle to catch up.
I have always been a big fan of mortal combat. My favorite character in the game is Sub Zero because I like how i can freeze my opponent’s ass whenever I want and inflict a lot of damage. And now, they’ve come out with a game where Sub Zero can now beat the shit out of Batman. I cannot wait to get my hands on this game…the two worlds are definitely colliding. Watch the trailer.
This was because there were racist sentiments in the game. Some muslim fanatic complained that the game quoted some Quran phrases in the soundtrack, thus deemed inappropriate. But it’s alright if someone created a game of islamic warriors killing infidels though…
Sony’s Little Big Planet is one of the most high-profile releases of this holiday season. Developer Media Molecule has seen its game go from indie darling to AAA system-seller in the past year, thanks to the many appearances that the game has made at trade shows and events.
However, fans of the game are going to have to wait slightly longer to get it. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it is recalling the game from retailers after it learned that the soundtrack featured some Arabic-language lines from the Qur’an backed with music. A SCEE representative also confirmed to GameSpot that this recall would be global, and could not confirm when the game would now actually hit shelves with the offending music removed.
The confirmation follows rumours that that Singing Safari level of the game features a song with two expressions found in Islam’s central holy text, the Qur’an. Cached pages on the official PlayStation forum claim that the two phrases are (literally translated from the original Arabic): “Every soul shall have the taste of death” and “All that is on earth will perish.”
Tecmo was offered 200million by Square Enix but was rejected. For those who are uninitiated, Sq. Enix are developers of games such as Dragon Quest and Ninja Gaiden and to be merged with them could be a very lucrative venture but who knows, chances are Tecmo are not interested in its rival’s generous offer and has showed interest in Koei another Japanese label famed for Dynasty Warriors.
Last week, Square Enix sent waves through the game industry by announcing a “friendly” offer to buy Tecmo for around $200 million. The unsolicited bid would’ve added the action games of the troubled latter, which includes the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series, to the massive role-playing portfolio of the former, which features the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series.
While Square Enix’s offer put a generous 30 percent premium on Tecmo’s stock, it also had a firm deadline of Thursday, September 4. Today, Tecmo President Yasuharu Kakihara rejected it outright, according to the Reuters news service. Instead, the publisher announced is in talks to merge with another Japanese game label, Dynasty Warriors-maker Koei.
“Through a merger, we expect we can grow further by respecting both companies’ identities and having an environment in which employees can fully exhibit their skills,” the two companies said in a joint statement. Kakihara also said he would not consider another offer by Square Enix, which is considering its next move.
Rush, one of the more popular rock bands (some say they are the best), has an album, Moving Pictures, that was going to be available to Rock Band DLC. Fans were ecstatic but a little glitch has prevented the download from going live.
Making music on toy instruments is tough enough on its own, but that goes doubly so when players have nothing to strum along to. Rush fans have learned that the hard way this week, given that the promised full-album download of the prog-rock act’s 1981 record Moving Pictures did not make it onto the Xbox 360’s Rock Band store yesterday.
The good news is that Harmonix is aware of the issue. “Just so you know, we know that Rush’s Moving Pictures isn’t up yet,” said community manager Sean Baptiste on the developer’s official Web site. “There is a technical difficulty that is being worked out. I’ll alert you when it is all clear.” The bad news is that, as of press time, Harmonix had not established a time frame for when the DLC will be available.
Rush’s Moving Pictures is the latest full-album download to be added to the MTV Games-published rhythm title. The track pack, which includes such classic rock-radio staples as “Tom Sawyer” and “YYZ,” is expected to appear in the PlayStation 3 edition of the game tomorrow.
What GameSpot heard: At the beginning of August, Ars Technica’s Opposable Thumbs blog predicted that Microsoft would be slashing the price of its three Xbox 360 models. According to the site’s mole–which accurately predicted the launch of the 60GB 360–the 120GB Elite would slip $50 to $399, the now-60GB Pro would fall $50 to $299, and the hard drive-less Arcade would slip $80 to $199. The last reduction would have the potential to upend the console race, as it would make the powerful 360 $50 cheaper than the best-selling $249 Nintendo Wii.
Today, game-blog Joystiq appears to have uncovered confirmation for one third of the price-cut theory. This evening, the site posted what it claims is a scan of a forthcoming promotional flyer for RadioShack, which began selling games late last year.
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