New research shows that U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories hit $1.12 billion in May, a 37 percent rise over the same month last year. These parameters reported on Thursday by Market researcher NPD Group.


Take-Two Interactive Corp's Grand Theft Auto continues to be the No. 1 selling video game, and its version IV, released in April, sold 871,300 units in May. According to the research the top-selling hardware unit is Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. 675,100 units were sold in May. Nintendo's DS handheld player took second with 452,600 units sold. Those units have captured the top two spot's for four consecutive months. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 trailed with 208,700 and 186,600 units sold.


As to hardware sales, they rose 34 percent to $428.6 million, while software sales rose 41 percent to $536.9 million, compared to the same month last year. Sales year-to-date come to $6.6 billion and the industry is on pace to bring in revenue between $21 billion and $23 billion for 2008.

Reference:
http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=corp_welcome.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-06-13-video-games-sales-may_N.htm?csp=34

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:17 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Asus announced that it would launch the Eee Box at Computex, backing it with a Nintendo Wii-like controller. Asus was a bit more circumspect than rival Gigabyte, which announced its own Computex plans. Of note will be the Eee Box, which is expected to bring prices down in the desktop space as its notebook counterpart has within the notebook market.

One of Gigabyte's oddest announcements is the Asus Eee Stick, which appears to be almost the copy of the Nintendo Wii controller, but for the PC. Pricing and availability were not announced.

In the notebook space, Asus will announce the Mini PC Nova Lite PX24 – the world´s smallest mini PC equipped with a built-in independent graphics card. A compact 11.1-inch widescreen U2E notebook with a 32 Gbyte Solid State Disc memory module will also be announced. Finally, Asus will launch the ASUS G70 notebook, which utilizes a "Multi Dual-Engine" architecture for gamers.

In desktops, Asus will launch the ASUS Essentio CS5110 – the world´s smallest Desktop PC equipped with a fully embedded discrete graphic card, the company claimed, together with the Ares gaming PC.

Asus also plans to announce the ASUS P320 – the smallest Windows Mobile GPS PDA phone; the R700t PND, which utilizes a 3D map function to allow users to easily and conveniently view their GPS positions in real-time; and the M930 smart phone.

For detailed information check out the reference here.

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:42 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Hardware

Dominate, sales, incredible demand, breaking records, these key terms are invariably showing up in headlines, and becoming synonymous with PSP. This hardware is continually dominating sales in Japan. Weekly Japanese hardware sales fell across the board once more, but PSP retained its place at the top of the chart by some distance.

Having outsold its nearest competitor, Nintendo's Wii, by 22,500 units the week prior, PSP sales came in at nearly 30,000 greater than those of the home console during the week ended May 18. Sales were likely boosted again by the success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which blue shelled Mario Kart Wii to reclaim the top spot in the latest Japanese software chart and pass the two million sales mark. While DS software is selling extremely well in Japan, taking 15 of the top 30 chart places during the week in question, sales of the handheld fell 16,000 units week-over-week, although the system was only 6,500 units short of the Wii's total.

PS3 sales were only 700 units greater than those of its predecessor, but should pick up in the coming weeks as new bundle offerings appear closer to Metal Gear Solid 4's June 12 release. Xbox 360 sold around 200 units more than it managed during the week ended May 11, but its total was still shy of 1,500.

- PSP: 70,536

19,348 (21.53%)

- Wii: 41,572

25,736 (38.24%)

- DS Lite: 34,905

16,323 (31.86%)

- PS3: 7,701

353 (4.38%)

- PS2: 7,022

422 (5.92%)

- Xbox 360: 1,47

196 (13.56%)

Reference:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/25/japanese-hardware-sales-may-12-may-18-deja-vu-edition/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:02 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Games, Hardware, Nintendo, PSP, Wii, XBox

Microsoft has launched the gaming mouse-SideWinder. The new product segment is “limited”, if one can say “limited” about the number of video games fans.

SideWinder is very comfortable. Its weight is between 5-30 grams in 5 gram increments. The mouse has three main buttons that switch between DPI 400, 800, 2000. Other settings could be altered using special software.

SideWinder Features:
DPI resolution-2,000;
Max acceleration-20G;
Inches per second max speed-45;
Frames per second image processing-7080;
Clicks f the main buttons-9 million;
Quick Launch Button;
Programmable main buttons-5;
Advanced gaming software for programming macros and profiles and customizing game settings;
A wide metal scroll wheel;
Vertical metal side buttons.
Price-$80

SideWinder is expected to ship in October.

Posted by George S. at 9:48 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Hardware, Microsoft, Mouse