Unreal Tournament III and The Orange Box finally make their way to PlayStation 3 this week.
It’s a good week for PS3 owners as they’ll finally be able to get their hands on one of this year’s best (and best value) packages in the form of The Orange Box, as well as Epic’s 2007 PS console exclusive shooter Unreal Tournament III.
There’s also a host of Wii titles making their way to stores this week, thanks largely to publisher Destineer, while it’s pretty quiet on the Xbox 360, PSP and DS front.
BioShock is current tied with the Orange Box as best rated title for Xbox 360, so it's no surprise that the game did incredibly well at the recently announced Spike TV Video Game Awards.
BioShock took home three prizes for the night: Game of the Year, Best Xbox 360 Title as well as winning for Best Original Score.
Halo 3 was honored too, taking home two awards -- for Best Multiplayer Game and the quite whorishly titled Most Addictive Video Game Fueled By Dew. The producers really oughta be ashamed for that one.
BioShock and Halo 3 earn most nominations when Spike TV unveiled the list of nominees for its 2007 Video Game Awards
To be eligible, a game must have been released between November 16, 2006 and December 1, 2007. The nominees were chosen by Spike TV's advisory panel, which is made of nearly two dozen game journalists.
BioShock and Halo 3 received the most nominations, with seven each, including nominations as Game of the Year and Xbox 360 Game of the Year. No Wii or PS3 exclusives were nominated as Game of the Year.
The "Most Addictive Game" category will be selected by online voters polled on the official VGA website.
The 2007 Video Game Awards will be shown on Spike TV on December 9. The complete list of nominees is as follows:
Game of the Year
- BioShock
- Halo 3
- Mass Effect
- The Orange Box
Best PS3 Game
- Heavenly Sword
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Warhawk
Click the read more link for the full list of nominations..
Madden NFL and FIFA 08 weren’t enough to keep Electronic Arts from posting lower sales and a net loss for its fiscal second quarter, but the firm still beat guidance.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based megapubisher reported revenues of $640 million, down 18 percent year-on-year for the quarter ended September 30. Guidance was set to be between $465 and $570 million.
Net loss for the quarter amounted to $195 million versus net income of $22 million a year ago. Loss per share was 62 cents, which likewise beat Q2 guidance.
EA said that August’s Madden NFL 08 was the prime seller for the quarter with 4.5 million units sold. FIFA 08 sold 2.9 million copies worldwide. The new MySims for Wii and DS sold over 1 million copies, according to the company.
The biggest news for EA during the quarter was the October announcement of plans to acquire revered independent duo-studio BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million. Following the announcement, EA shares hit a two-year high.
"We think this will be a great holiday season for consumers," said CFO Warren Jenson in a statement. "We plan to launch over ten titles including The Simpsons Game, Need for Speed Pro Street, Hellgate: London, Rock Band, NBA Live 08, SimCity Societies and Crysis."
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, EA expects revenues of $3.35 to $3.65 billion, up $150 million from previous guidance. Loss per share is expected to be between $1.60 and 91 cents, a greater loss than implied by previous guidance of between 63 cents and 10 cents.
For the big holiday December quarter, EA expects revenues of $1.3 to $1.6 billion and loss per share between 28 cents and income of 12 cents.
EA also announced plans to close down facilities including EA Chertsey over the next two years as part of restructuring plans that may amount to charges between $90 and $110 million. Most of these charges will be felt this fiscal year.
As you may know, Microsoft announced Q1 FY08 earnings results this afternoon. Xbox 360, the leading next-generation game console, announced life-to-date sales of 13.4 million consoles worldwide.
The Entertainment and Devices Division revenue grew more than 90 percent to $1.9 billion, driven by “Halo 3” (MGS) and higher than expected Xbox 360 console sales. Xbox 360 console units also saw an increase of more than 90 percent driven by the August console price cut, the record-setting launch of “Halo 3” and an earlier ramp-up to the holiday season in anticipation for the greatest holiday lineup in history.
Below is a summary of the news:
During the quarter Xbox 360 sold more than 1.8 million units, bringing life to date sales to about 13.4 million worldwide.
The strong demand for “Halo 3” generated approximately $330M of Microsoft revenue.
Looking ahead, the upcoming quarter has historically held almost half of all video game industry hardware and software sales. An upswing in console sales combined with software sales that last month alone outsold software sales for PS3 and Wii combined 3:1(according to NPD) have put Xbox 360 in a great position for the holiday season.
On top of that, Xbox 360 continues to drive third-party game sales across all platforms. Since November, third party partners have seen their titles hit the top ten 27 times for Xbox 360, compared to 2 for PS3 and 1 for Wii according to NPD.
Additionally, starting with “Madden NFL 08” (EA), we have an unprecedented string of titles that should each sell at least a million units, including “BioShock” (2K Games), the record breaking “Halo 3” (MGS), “Project Gotham Racing 4” (MGS), “Mass Effect” (MGS), “Guitar Hero III” (Red Octane/Activision) and “Call of Duty 4” (Activision). These titles make up the greatest holiday line up in video game history and it’s only available on Xbox 360.
This, paired with the new Xbox 360 Arcade at $279.99 that comes with a wireless controller and five free Xbox LIVE Arcade games along with two additional SKUs with price points of $349.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 and $449.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 Elite which includes the addition of two games including “Forza Motorsport 2” (MGS) and “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” (Activision) for a retail savings of more than $90, providing gamers with an unmatched interactive entertainment experience.
Of note, the Microsoft earnings conference call was transmitted live at http://www.microsoft.com/msft/default.mspx and the replay and press release will be available there as well.
Hot on the heels of a price reduction for all Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft is now giving holiday buyers even more value by including two great games with every Xbox 360 console and Xbox 360 Elite, a retail savings of $90 for consumers.
The acclaimed “Forza Motorsport 2” (Microsoft Game Studios) and “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” (Activision) will both be included for the recently reduced prices of $349.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 and $449.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 Elite. Both bundles will be available retail-wide by the end of October.
Xbox 360 offers the best value this holiday and is the only place you can play all the titles in the greatest holiday line-up of video game in history. This line-up includes “Halo 3” (MGS), which became the fastest-selling video game ever and is making history as one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time.
“Halo 3” (MGS) is just one title in an incredible holiday line-up that are all only available on one game platform, Xbox 360. Starting with "Madden NFL 08" (EA Sports), Xbox 360 has an unprecedented string of no less than seven blockbuster titles, each of which we expect to sell at least a million units, including "BioShock" (2K Games), the record breaking "Halo 3" (GS) "Project Gotham Racing 4" (MGS), "Mass Effect" (MGS), "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" (Activision) and "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" (Activision).
Xbox 360 is home to the most critically acclaimed next generation games according to Metacritic.com, the leading aggregator of game reviews from more than 100 publications. Of the top 30 next generation game titles on Metacritic.com, 21 are on Xbox 360 and five games exclusive to Xbox 360 score above 90 out of 100. In fact, “Forza Motorsport 2” (MGS) has received an aggregate review score of 90, producing a “Universal Acclaim” rating.
The most-respected game reviewers have spoken and according to them, Xbox 360 has more than double the games of the Playstation 3 and Wii receiving a score of 90 or higher.
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There’s also a host of Wii titles making their way to stores this week, thanks largely to publisher Destineer, while it’s pretty quiet on the Xbox 360, PSP and DS front.
The full list of winners follows:
BioShock and Halo 3 received the most nominations, with seven each, including nominations as Game of the Year and Xbox 360 Game of the Year. No Wii or PS3 exclusives were nominated as Game of the Year.
EA said that August’s Madden NFL 08 was the prime seller for the quarter with 4.5 million units sold. FIFA 08 sold 2.9 million copies worldwide. The new MySims for Wii and DS sold over 1 million copies, according to the company.
