Video game sales still in a slump versus a year ago
Video game sales fell for the third straight month in May. Even though the industry can’t beat the extraordinary numbers it turned out a year ago, it’s not quite time to panic. The recession is a drag, but the blockbusters for this year are expected in the second half, whereas a few huge titles debuted in the spring a year ago.
Overall U.S. video game hardware, software and peripheral sales fell 23 percent in May to… Continue Reading
The top 10 children’s video games coming your way
At this year’s E3 show, it was difficult to ignore publishers’ acknowledgment of the growing children’s market, including indie-influenced titles (such as Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life), a broadening scope of LEGO titles (LEGO Rock Band, LEGO Indiana Jones 2, and LEGO Harry Potter), and publishers’ return to the Mario Kart-influenced racing genre (Need for Speed Nitro, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing). Here are my picks for the best children’s titles of the show.
1. Scribblenauts (developer:… Continue Reading
The top ten video games of the coming year
At the E3 convention in Los Angeles last week I got to see a lot of what the video game industry has to offer in the coming year. Hands down, the best technology I saw at the show came from Microsoft in the form of Project Natal, the company’s motion-sensing system which detects your body movements and relegates the handheld controller to the dust bin. But since that system isn’t part of a game yet,… Continue Reading
Nintendo brings out Mario and other new titles to keep its top spot in video games
Nintendo is launching a new version of Super Mario Bros. for the Wii this fall as part of a line-up it believes will keep it in the dominant position in the video game business.
The company made the announcement at the E3 game conference in Los Angeles, where 40,000 game industry people are gathered this week to promote new games coming out this year.
Nintendo trots out Mario every couple of years or so with a new kind… Continue Reading
Marketing whiz tries to juice Sony’s PlayStation business in Europe
Sony has played executive musical chairs in its game division once again. Andrew House, until recently the chief marketing officer for all of Sony, has been appointed president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
The move is a big one — Europe is a key battleground in the console war. Nintendo and Sony dominate in Japan. Nintendo and Microsoft lead in the U.S. But Europe has always been up for grabs in this generation of console competition,… Continue Reading
Game Developers Conference preview
The Game Developers Conference kicks off Monday with a week-long series of events in San Francisco.
The main conference runs Wednesday through Friday, but a bunch of summits run Monday and Tuesday. Attendance is expected to be down slightly from last year’s 18,000, according to Meggan Scavio, director of the GDC, in an interview with the Associated Press. The event should be a mix of celebration and gloom. While the larger economy is shrinking, U.S. sales… Continue Reading