Darth Vadar. The “Alone With The Darth” boxart has been chosen by Kotakuland as its favorite finalists. Congrats to all who entered and a word about contest hijinx after the jump.
We actually had to go through and ban people for getting off topic while voting. If you’d like to discuss what you think of the contest or the prize, fine, but please do that in the contest reminder posts, not in the voting post. Doing that in the voting just gums everything up and makes counting the votes harder. It’s not only common sense, but common courtesy.
Another thing: Towards the end of the voting, we got spammed with a ton of votes by commenters who had never commented before. What’s even more iffy is that the commenters names were written in a similar pattern — like this “NameName.”
We did not count any votes from first time commenters for any finalists and will not in any future contests.
Much love to all who entered — Vader boxart winner, please send an email to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom to claim your prize. Be sure to include your address. CONGRATS!
Music sales are down, movie takings are down, consumer spending is down…lucky for British retail, then, that game sales are on the up! In fact, they’re so up that it’s making everything else look good.
Data released today by Britain’s Entertainment Retailers Association show that total entertainment sales - which combine the sales of DVDs, music and games - were up 4% from the same time last year. DVDs were up 1.9%, album sales were down 3.2%, while games, well, games were dragging everyone else’s average up, sales 17% higher than in 2007 with a combined 82.8 million titles sold across the UK in 2008.
The leap has been mostly attributed to the Wii, though it’d be interesting to see how the PS3 contributed, since Blu-Ray sales were up 358% from 2007.
Wii boosts UK games sales, music resilient [Reuters]
Why doesn’t the mainstream media ever focus on the positive aspects of Grand Theft Auto’s influence on our six year olds? Stealing the family sedan is petty in the name of perfect attendance.
Take the six year old offspring of Jacqulyn Deana Waltman and David Eugene Dodson from Wicomico Church, Virginia who swiped his parents’ Ford Taurus after missing the school bus. The unnamed boy told police he learned how to drive a decade early thanks to his experience with Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam.
Unfortunately, he crashed said Taurus after a six mile drive. Sounds about right. Don’t think I’ve ever had a car survive much longer than five miles in any GTA game.
“He was very intent on getting to school,” said Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. And good for him! Well, except for the fact that his parents have been charged with child endangerment and that he and his brother have been take into protective custody.
6-year-old takes family car after missing bus [AP/Google]
Ninja Blade gallery update
Dig ninjas on bikes and things that look like the offspring of the Enterprise and a worm from Dune? Well then, these 13 new Ninja Blade screenshots are right up your alley.
Despite an 18.8% drop in year to year PlayStation 3 sales in November, Sony Computer Entertainment America states early internal data puts them at a 130% increase over pre-holiday PS3 sales.
Although November saw relatively disappointing PS3 sales and analysts were expecting numbers to be slightly lower than or right on track with last year’s, Sony says that they’ve managed to more than double sales during the holuday period. SCEA VP of sales Ian Jackson knows the score.
“Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 percent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season—since Black Friday—and we’re also seeing a growth of nearly 40 percent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year.”
And what about the November dip? Merely an anomaly, created by the sales surge that came in November of last year following the introduction of the 40GB PS3. See? The PlayStation 3 has momentum! As long as December’s NPD numbers hold true to Sony’s internal data, everything will be just fine.
UPDATE: SCEA contacted us to let us know that the sales jump of 130% reflects the increase between sales before the holiday season and during it, and not year to year as previously reported. The article has been updated to reflect this.
Early returns show strong holiday video game console sales [CNET via Gamasutra]
For American readers, know this: British retailer Woolworths are done for. They close up shop today. But out in Woolworths warehouses across Britain are tons of Xbox 360 consoles. And Microsoft want them back.
To that effect, they’re preparing to sue Deloitte, the administrators of Woolworths’ rotting corpse. See, as an administrator, Deloitte would be expecting to make a quick buck selling off Woolworths remaining stock at crazy prices. Including 360 consoles.
To stop this from happening, Microsoft are going to argue that, under Britain’s “retention of title” rules, because Woolworths are on their way out and either haven’t paid for the consoles or owe Microsoft money, they can seize back the consoles.
Should be a good to-and-fro!
Scramble over Woolies’ stock [The Times]
The Redmond giant and relative newcomer to the console wars revealed that it has sold over 28 million Xbox 360s since launch. Yes, that’s much more than the originals Xbox’s lifetime sales.
In anticipation of next week’s NPD sales figures for the month of December, Microsoft’s director of product management Aaron Greenberg told the Los Angeles Times that sales were ahead of the company’s high-def competition… and widening.
Microsoft also whipped out its Xbox Live subscriber data numbers, hoping to impress the ladies. It puts Live membership at 17 million, with “a majority” of them being the Gold (read: paying) variety. Greenberg tells the Times that Live members have spent over a billion dollars with the service… almost enough to cover those big extended warranty bills.
Microsoft: Xbox 360 widens lead over PlayStation 3 [LA Times]
MTV decided to find out. Using the Wii’s Nintendo Channel - which tracks the playing habits of 1.6 million Americans - they’ve yanked out some data on what games you’re playing, and for how long.
The most-played game on the console (at least among those 1.6 million)? That one’s easy. It’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the average player (just the average player!) putting in 64 hours and 51 minutes. Or, in layman’s terms, more than a lot of people put into Oblivion.
Second is Guitar Hero III, at an average of 58 hours & 41 minutes, while Twilight Princess came in third at 46 hours, 29 minutes. Perhaps the most interesting (and sad) of the lot, though, is #13 on the list: Okami. It says the average time spent playing Okami has been a relatively paltry 19 hours & 43 minutes, meaning that’s a hell of a lot of people who don’t even get halfway through the game before calling it quits.
Shame.
Wii Software Stats January Update: ‘Animal Crossing’ Is A Beast, ‘Sonic’ Whimpers [MTV]
Nothing sells tickets to a movie about fighting, sexy fighting, better than faces. And that’s why I know Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is going to kill. Just look at all of those faces.
[ComingSoon]
Watch out, Japan! Western game developers are out to getcha. This concerns Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi a bunch. But should it?
Takeuchi confesses to Japanese magazine Famitsu: “I’m worried about the movements of Western developers. Japan is now their target — it’s the last big marketplace. The truth is that Western studios are making great games, and they’re going to continue to do so next year too.”
The Capcom producer hopes that his company (and other companies, too) can churn out big hits to lure Japanese players back. “It’s not good if Japanese developers are making games that can’t be enjoyed by Japanese people,” he adds. Competition is a good thing, and something that will hopefully help all players benefit.
Better Western games, better Japanese games, happier gamers everywhere.
Resident Evil 5 producer ‘worried’ about Western devs [Develop]
Ninja Blade gallery update
