Source: videogamesblogger.com

Gears of War 2 has hit an astounding 3 million units sold, a major milestone, in it’s first month on store shelves. Just for comparison’s sake, the original Gears of War that released for the Xbox 360 in November of 2006 took ten weeks to reach 3 million units sold. And Gears 2 did it in four.

This was confirmed by Edge who spoke with Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein via an e-mail where he stated that “Microsoft [the game’s publisher] confirmed to me this afternoon that Gears of War 2 sell-through surpassed 3 million units as of last week.”

To date the original Gears of War has sold close to five million copies.

As for the sequel, Gears of War 2 has consistently been one of the top played Xbox Live games online since it’s release on November 7th.

Don’t forget to check our Gears of War 2 cheats page as well as this interview with Gears of War 2’s Marcus Fenix voice actor John DiMaggio, as well as the awesome Gears of War 2 Last Day Trailer and Gears of War 2 Rendezvous trailer and finally, this interview with Gears of War creator Cliffy B. about Gears of War 3 and the Gears of War movie.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Nintendo has announced that they have sold an incredible 800,000 Wii units during the Thanksgiving week holiday, from November 23rd to November 29th.

That is more than double the amount (of 350,000) sold during the same week last year, despite the economic troubles. In fact it’s so much that Nintendo nearly matched the entire November 2007 monthly sales figures with the sales of the Wii during Thanksgiving week 2008, an incredible achievement.

As of September 30th, the Wii has sold nearly 35 million units worldwide, making it easily the best-selling platform of the current console generation.

And the monthly outlook for November may be even rosier. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter estimates that the Wii sold a whopping 1.4 million units during November (He also predicts record sales of the reduced-price Xbox 360 at 800,000 units and steadily advancing PS3 sales at 400,000 units). Overall Pachter predicts that console sales overall were up 17% during the month of November with handheld sales dropping 5%.

As far as Nintendo’s DS handheld is concerned, sales were up 20% of last year for the week of Thanksgiving, but Nintendo did not provide exact figures. The uptick in sales comes despite the unveiling of the DSi, which is the third redesign in the DS system hardware that includes built-in cameras, a web-browser and the ability to download software via an online store. The DSi won’t be released until “well into 2009″ and has been selling briskly in Nintendo’s home country of Japan since it went on sale last month. Despite that, sales of the DS in the U.S. are still selling like hotcakes as is the Nintendo Wii, which is simply off the charts.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Ben 10: Protector of the Earth has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide announced D3P (short for “D3Publisher”, the name of the company) who released the game in October of last year for Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP.

The game is based on the hit Cartoon Network show of the same name and was developed by 1st Playable Productions (with the DS version done by High Voltage Software).

In the game, players follow the animated show’s star Ben Tennyson as he uses the alien Omnitrix device attached to his wrist, using super powers and changing into alien forms to take on puzzles, challenges, and skirmishes.

“Having our first-ever Ben 10 interactive game be as successful as it has is a huge accomplishment for us and this is another milestone of which we’re very proud,” says Cartoon Network Enterprises’ vice president Christina Miller. “We look forward to continued success as we build the brand’s interactive franchise with a great partner in D3.”

D3P also recently released a follow-up, Ben 10: Alien Force, based on the new Ben 10 show that takes place five years after the original. The sequel was shipped to stores in late October for Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has become the best-selling PC game of all time, topping out at nearly 3 million copies sold in the first 24 hours worldwide (2.8 million is the exact number).

This, of course, proves how huge of a franchise World of Warcraft is. And how strong of a brand name Activision Blizzard have in their hands.

The previous record was held by the previous World of Warcraft Expansion Pack, World of Warcraft – The Burning Crusade which sold nearly 2.4 million copies on the day of it’s release.

“We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard’s CEO and co-founder. “Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead.”

WoW’s subscriber base recently topped 11 million user worldwide and it looks like it’s not going to slow down anytime soon.

Via CVG

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Give credit to Microsoft where it’s due, sales of the Xbox 360 are projected to exceed the lifetime instal base of the original Xbox by November, where the Xbox 360 will surpass 25 million units sold.

In Microsoft’s own words: “By the end of this month, we expect our global installed base to reach 25 million units, surpassing that of the first Xbox,” said Mindy Mount, CFO of the Xbox business, at the BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference.

This is a big deal because of Microsoft’s huge investment, at a gigantic loss, to break into the video game market. Now we all knew that the Xbox 360 was a successful platform, but this proves that there is more interest in the Xbox than ever before, and an important milestone to be able to surpass Microsoft’s first console.

And this is only the start, Mindy Mount went on to say. That’s because “more than three-quarters” of a console’s lifetime sales are made when the system falls to the “sweet spot” price point of $199.99 or lower. Which is the price of the lowest-end Xbox 360 available, the Arcade, reports Edge.

According to Microsoft, recently introduced 360 price cuts saw Xbox sales jump 42% month-on-month in the States, 62% in Europe and 500% in Japan.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

The latest first-person shooter from Ubisoft, Far Cry 2, has done great for them, selling one million copies worldwide in just under three weeks across the three platforms the game was released on (Xbox, 360, PlayStation 3 and PC).

Which is always good news for publishers due to the economic slowdown and the fact that that there have been several huge releases vying for the wallets of gamers everywhere, including the likes of Gears of War 2, LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Spore, Mirror’s Edge, Call of Duty: World at War and Resistance 2.

Far Cry 2 is the sequel to the original Far Cry (released way back in March of 2004) and this time is set in the planes of Africa with a new storyline, new characters and an open world complete with realistic fire that can burn anything in your path.

Far Cry 2 got pretty good reviews from video game publications and has a rating of around 86% for all versions on gamerankings.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

October’s American video game sales data from the NPD is in, and like almost any month the past year, it shows an unchanged result: A Nintendo system on top, this time the Wii outsold all other systems.

NPD analyst, Anita Frazier, had this to say: “The video games industry grew an impressive 18% year-over-year in the first month of the critical fourth quarter. With 10-months under its belt, the video games industry is still poised to top $22B in annual sales in 2008. — The sales results are mixed this month, however. The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26% across hardware, software and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14%. Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7%.”

Video game hardware overview:
1. Nintendo Wii — 803,000
2. Nintendo DS — 491,000
3. Xbox 360 — 371,000
4. PlayStation Portable — 193,000
5. PlayStation 2 — 190,000
6. PlayStation 3 — 136,000

Xbox 360-exclusive Fable II had a strong launch with over 790,000 sales thanks to both the standard and limited editions. The NPD mentions that “The expanding variety of content available for consumers to play is clearly paying off for the industry. Looking at the top 10 games for the month, half are “M” rated games while the other half are “E” rated games and they span disparate genres. There is something for everyone on this list.”

Video game software overview top 10:
1. Fable II (Xbox 360) — 790,000
2. Wii Fit (Wii) — 487,000
3. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) — 375,000
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) — 290,000
5. Wii Play (Wii) — 243,000 — 282,000
6. Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360) — 270,000
7. SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation (PS3) — 231,000
8. Little Big Planet (PS3) — 215,000
9. NBA 2K9 (Xbox 360) — 202,000
10. Dead Space (Xbox 360) — 193,000

Source: videogamesblogger.com

It’s official: Fallout 3 has been a phenomenal hit for developer Bethesda, who has announced that the game enjoyed record sales as they shipped approximately 4.7 million units of the game to stores worldwide. With retail sales in excess of $300 million dollars for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions. Ka-ching!

And here are the obligatory interesting Fallout 3 facts, some even sales related!

* Fallout 3 released in North America on October 28 where it was sold at over 2,000 midnight store openings nationwide.
* Quickly after it’s release, the game became one of the industry’s top sellers around the world for the year.
* In the UK, the game wasn’t released until Friday, October 31st where it’s rapid sales led to Fallout 3 being ranked #1 among all video games in terms of sales, as well as being the #1 game on each of it’s three platforms.
* Fallout 3 was hailed as one of the most anticipated games of 2008.
* Critically acclaimed, the game received top scores, including perfect scores of 10 out of 10, from several media sources including: Official Xbox Magazine, Gamespy, GamePro, UGO, the Associated Press, MSN, The Washington Post, Guardian, FHM, Scripps Howard, G4-TV, The Toronto Star and Eurogamer
* Fallout 3 was an extremely successful follow-up to their last game, 2006’s “Game of the Year” hit The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which remains one of the highest scoring games ever published and earned many “Game of the Year” awards that year.
* Fallout 3 has been featured on over 100 magazine covers across the world and is available in eight languages.
* Fallout 3 shipped with a regular edition as well as a Fallout 3 – Limited Collector’s Edition.
* Fallout 3’s Official Game Guide also saw strong sales for both the regular and collector’s edition.
* Fallout 3 has yet to be released in Japan, where it hits stores on December 4th in censored form.
* Fallout 3 features one of the most realized game worlds ever created

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Metal Gear Solid 4 has sold 4.33 million copies worldwide, according to Konami who has released their fiscal report for the second quarter of 2008 ending September 30th. The game even managed to sell 400,000 units during the 3 month quarter.

Other interesting bits of sales information include: (FY2008 Q2 Apr–Sep ‘07 through FY2009 Q2 Apr – Sep ‘08):

* North American Konami sales were up three million compared to last year.
* Last year 38% of sales were on the PS2, this year that number has been replaced by the PS3 (thanks of course to MGS4).
* DS sales shrunk from 30% last year to 11% this year.
* Wii sales grew from 8% to 17%
* PS2 sales shrunk from 38% to 18%
*Konami notes that “Sports, Music and Quiz games showed solid sales”.
* Konami also noted that Japanese multiplayer arcade machines showed solid sales.
* Lastly, Konami noted that the Metal Gear Solid series continues to sell well. Which definitely bolds well for the future of the franchise, which, with four plus million sales, is anything but dead.

Konami’s outlook/product slate looks like this:

1. Deploy global operation
2. Promote stable growth of existing franchises and utilize existing IP
3. Expand products and services utilizing online network

GAME RELEASES
* “Dance Dance Revolution HOTTEST PARTY 2” ?Wii North America: Now on sale Japan: December?
* “Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2” ?PS3, Xbox 360, Wii North America: this winter?
* “PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2009”, “WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven 2009”
?PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, PSP, PC Europe: Now on sale Japan, North America: November? * Wii version: 2009
* “PUROYAKYU SPIRITS 5 KANZENBAN” ?PS3, PS2 Japan: December?
* “Castlevania Judgment” ?Wii North America, Europe: TBD Japan: Jan ‘09?
* “Silent Hill: Homecoming” ?PS3, Xbox 360 North America: Now on sale Europe: Feb ‘09 Japan: TBD?
* “GENSO SUIKODEN TIERKREIS” (DS Japan: December?

The fourth Metal Gear Solid game saw an older Snake return in a story driven adventure that featured a plethora of upgrades to make the series more accessible to Westerners by ridding the series of some of it’s archaic elements it had been hanging onto from past games. New gameplay features included a remote-controlled Metal Gear Mk. II and enhanced Close Quarters Combat system (CQC).

Set in stages that include the Middle east and South America, Snake is tasked with making his way through a series of battlefields using his legendary stealth abilities and his new OctoCamo stuit to avoid detection and reach his target–his archrival Liquid Ocelot. Also returning in the fourth chapter were classic and beloved MGS characters Meryl Silverburgh, Raiden, Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich, and Eva and Roy Campbell.

The game was hailed by critics and consumers alike and received rave review scores across the board when it was released to the gaming market on June 12th, 2008.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

It is a good time to be Nintendo. The company can seemingly do NO wrong as it has once again shown very good numbers, even amongst the global economic downturn as Nintendo released their first half of 2008 financial results from April 2008 to September 2008.

Nintendo had a record-breaking six-month period. Profits for both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii were up a whopping 36% during the second quarter of 2008 from the year before!

Even though Nintendo cut it’s profits forecast 3% due to a stronger yen, things are still looking mighty good. They upped their forecasted Wii sales from 26.5 million to 27.5 million and upped DS software sales to 207 million units from 197 million.

And just in case you had any doubt that Nintendo was sitting pretty, here is President Satoru Iwata in his own words, “I think it is safe to say strong game demand is intact despite all this talk about the financial crisis.”

And that is true. Even though Sony’s 2008 profits are down, Sony’s game division was up.

Here are some interesting numbers:

* Lifetime sales of the Nintendo Wii are at 34.55 million units
* Lifetime sales of the Nintendo DS are at 84.33 million units (MORE THAN THE GAME BOY ADVANCE! Which reached lifetime sales of 81.36 million units)
* Wii Fit has sold an incredible 8.7 million units worldwide since it’s launch in Japan last December.
* Nintendogs has shipped nearly 20 million units worldwide.
* Although the DS has outsold the GBA, “Game Boy” still wins out if you combine sales of the original Game Boy with that of the Game Boy Color, where the record is set at lifetime sales of 118.69 million units.

Although things may seem to be all rosy, it isn’t ALL good news however. Shares in Nintendo have lost 59 percent since the start of the year through Wednesday, underperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which fell 46 percent.