Joystiq [PlayStation]

If you haven't heard, the PlayStation Wii is so successful, it pretty much prints money. Wait, Sony didn't make the Wii? Then how did the market analysts of DFC Intelligence come to the conclusion that "Sony was saved by the success of the Wii?"

According to DFC, the Wii's mainstream appeal forced Microsoft into a successful, but not entirely dominant position. "The main danger Sony faced was that the Xbox 360 would become embedded as the system of choice. Instead consumers flocked to the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 had solid sales, but they have not been enough to give Microsoft anywhere near a breakout market position," the report explains.

Should enthusiasm for the Wii wane this holiday season, the recent price drop, coupled with with impending release of God of War III, finally positions the PS3 as a viable choice for mainstream consumers, the report notes. EEDAR's Jesse Divnich agrees, pointing out that Sony can finally utilize its leverage from the previous generation. "People who purchase a PS2 are more likely to purchase a PS3 in the future. Consumers, believe it or not, are pretty loyal."

Three years after the launch of the PS3, Blu-ray is also finally becoming a marketable feature for mainstream consumers, the report argues. "This holiday season Blu-ray movies are finally getting a major focus at retail ... Blu-ray clearly now becomes a strong selling point for the PlayStation 3." Undoubtedly, SCEA will create an ad that focuses on this aspect of the system that "only does everything."

While DFC's report comes off as incredibly bullish, it's understandable to see why there's some doubt over Sony's ability to capitalize on the moment. Let's not forget, this is a company that managed to fall from first to last place in the course of a year. "The cards are in Sony's favor and now is the time to make the most of them ... Now is the time for Sony to shine ... or else."

[Via CVG]

Source - Is it Time for the PlayStation 3 to Shine?
Source - How the venerable PlayStation 2 made it to 9 years old

Is the print wearing off of the cover of your Demon's Souls strategy guide? It's not entirely because you've been holding it for hours with your sweaty hands, desperately thumbing through the few pages in a feeble attempt to improve your in-game performance. Atlus announced that the cover to the guide, included with the Deluxe Edition of the RPG, is conducive to "unusual cover ink/wear fading."

And because Atlus knows that you've grown attached to your security blanket strategy guide, the company will only ask you to send in the cover and first page if you'd like a replacement, and not the whole book. Full details on the replacement program will be posted here.

Tomorrow's one of those days when it'll be nice to be a PC gamer. Not only will you be able to get a title update for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (the full details of which are available here) you'll also be the first to get your hands on the "Skirmish" DLC, which includes four new multiplayer maps and two new Fire Team Engagement missions. The console title update (which you can read about about here) is due on the 360 tomorrow and on the PS3 "shortly after."

Moreover, when Skirmish is eventually released on consoles, it'll come with a price tag of 400 points ($5) on 360 and $3.99 on PS3. Sure, the price discrepancy will cause a flare up in the console war, but what do you care? You're a PC gamer. You rise above.

For some reason, Activision is intent on blowing cash on Modern Warfare 2 advertisements, despite record pre-order numbers, and anticipated record-breaking sales. At this point, tossing out slick television commercials – like the one you see above, showing some more fightin' on American soil – just seems like kicking everyone's wallets while they're down. We've already got the game pre-ordered! We can't pre-order it anymore! Uncle!

In a written response to allegations from Fidgit that Electronic Arts had forced developer BioWare to remove features in Dragon Age: Origins with the intention of selling it as future DLC, BioWare lead systems designer Georg Zoeller says the parent company has "nothing" to do with the decision. At the crux of the argument is the game's launch DLC, Warden's Keep, which gives players a "storage chest" to help expand the in-game inventory, among other additions. Fidgit claims the DLC was pre-planned to "bilk users for more money."

According to Zoeller, Dragon Age originally featured a small storage chest in the game's party camp, but quickly became an issue due to story elements in the game that would change the camp's environment; so the storage area was removed. "We decided that it was not really necessary anyway since the item limitation was rather generous compared to the initial designs at least," Zoeller wrote. Later -- during a brainstorm session -- the team decided to include the chest in premium DLC, which was then made available at launch.

Zoeller claims "storage limitations" were never pinpointed as problems by the game's quality assurance team, because "after all, it was part of the design." While the Bioware designer doesn't have an issue with anger toward the decision, he vehemently denies EA was involved for the sole purpose of getting more money out of players. With the DLC already available across all platforms (560 / $7, or free to deluxe edition players), it's up to players to make their opinions heard by voting with their wallets.

Even though John, Paul, George and Ringo have been rocking the disc tray of your favorite console with The Beatles: Rock Band, its expectation-exceeding sales haven't helped boost overall Rock Band sales. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told USA Today the "economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like." There's still hope that Rock Band could at least break even or show a small profit, though Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said that will depend entirely on the franchise's performance this holiday season.

Despite tanking sales, the music genre still remains one of the best in the industry and The Beatles: Rock Band shows us that the right approach could still determine financial success in the space. Its September debut was very fortuitous and it even managed to best Guitar Hero 5 in the US -- which not only came with a free game, but is also one of the most recognizable brands to the mainstream.

Source - USA Today
Source - Viacom earnings report

We haven't heard anything about Cipher Prime's plans to port its hypnotic musical puzzler, Auditorium, since the studio won a publishing contract in the 2BeeGames competition back in July. Today, a press release from newly named publisher Zoo Games revealed a few details about the title's console destinations: It's coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, both as a PS3 and PSP download "early next year."

For those who want to know what the soothing buzz is all about, you can check out Auditorium for free on the 2BeeGames site. For those who can't access that site for some reason, just turn on some classical music, go turn on the nearest water faucet, and try to redirect the stream with your hands.

THQ has released its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2010, which ended September 30, 2009, and things are mostly looking up. The company lost money this quarter compared to the same period last year, posting non-GAAP net sales of $100.38 million, down from $151.62 million during Q2 of its fiscal 2009. However sales are up for the entire year, with THQ posting net sales of $334.28 million for its fiscal 2010 thus far, up from $272.69 million last year, a 22 percent increase.

THQ blamed the second quarter dip on a lack of new titles, though it hopes to have a good holiday season thanks to a "strong mass-market line-up" including WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2010 and MX vs ATV Reflex. The company was also sure to mention its triumph in the JAKKS Pacific lawsuit, which resulted in a much lower payment to the longtime WWE series developer (though the scuffle is still haunting the publisher).

Finally, THQ promised to prevail in its march to profitability by the end of fiscal 2010. Though the company expects its Q3 2010 to be 5-10 percent lower than the same period last year, it predicts Q4 sales will exceed those of last year. A reasonable hope, given that all of THQ's major releases drop in its fiscal Q4, including Darksiders, Metro 2033 and the Dawn of War 2 expansion, Chaos Rising.

Those of you taking your King of the Iron Fist Tournament fighters to the internet have been experiencing some major issues, notably: when trying to compete online in any sort of meaningful way, you're met with acute, game-ending connectivity issues. Namco recognized that today and issued a response, stating, "To improve the online game experience for players ... Namco Bandai games is developing a downloadable update which will be available as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures."

Unfortunately, no date for the patch has been given, though the publisher does add, "This is separate from the online co-op Scenario Campaign mode update." We've pestered Namco for more details on exactly what the patch will aim to fix and when we might hear more about it but, until that time, know this: something is being fixed at some point.

Hans Zimmer may have a laundry list of feature films he contributed to on his resume, but the renowned film composer says he still had to approach his work on Modern Warfare 2 "truly as a novice." In an interview with USA Today, he speaks like a true convert. When asked about the legitimacy of games as an art form, he frankly states, "Absolutely, that we can't even question anymore."

Zimmer says his first experience working on a game has, unsurprisingly, been very different than working on a film. "I had never done this before, so it was nice to sort of go at it a little fresh." Due to the length of major video games (even the shorter ones), Zimmer was forced to create considerably more music than the average project. "I never added it up [because] then I would have panicked," he admits. Looks like that "ridiculous" budget was good for something!

On the conference call covering Ubisoft's Q2 earnings, management had a chance to discuss its strategies for the company, including support for both Microsoft and Sony's motion control accessories. "We will also be ready with some very nice innovations when Natal and Motion Controller are launched on the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, reminding us that a 2010 release for Project Natal is all but confirmed at this point. He later explained that Ubisoft will "also have some games that will come on the new machines that are going to come in the future" and "are working to be ready for the new accessories or new machines that will come soon." Whether Guillemot is talking about the aforementioned motion control accessories or new consoles altogether (or both!) wasn't clear.

Continued →

The multi-platinum rock band No Doubt has filed a lawsuit against Activision in a L.A. County Superior Court claiming its likeness was "transformed" into a "virtual karaoke circus act" in over sixty songs in the recently released music title, Band Hero. According to TMZ, No Doubt claims gamers were only supposed to be able to use their likeness with three of its own tracks; however, the band is available as playable characters through the game's entire music catalog.

Of particular note is lead singer Gwen Stefani's displeasure that her likeness can be used to sing "Honky Tonk Woman" by the Rolling Stones -- a song which references sex with prostitutes -- using a male voice and mannerisms. For its "circus act" inclusion, No Doubt is seeking an injunction to halt the "unauthorized use" of the band's name and likeness, as well as an unknown amount of damages (aka mad monies). Seems like Activision can't keep rock stars happy, dead or alive.

[Via TeamXbox]

Relations between Sony Online Entertainment's John Smedley and the guys from Penny Arcade have clearly improved since the Donut Debacle of 2006. Smedley recently took a moment to talk to Jerry "Tycho" Holkins about Magic: The Gathering Tactics, revealing a few savory tidbits about the title -- the most delightful of which being the fact that the PS3 and PC versions of the game will be interconnected, allowing a player to use his account (and all his meticulously crafted decks) on both platforms.

Basically, if you've got a laptop, a PS3 and an unslakable hunger for thin, rectangular artifacts imbued with immeasurable power, then your social life and work ethic are about to be assaulted on all sides. Good luck with that!

"Interactive movie technology," you may find yourself asking, "isn't that just another word for video games?" Well, grandpa, yes and no. While this recently filed patent from Sony Computer Entertainment America will likely be implemented in some form of game -- our guess is PlayStation Home -- it doesn't really resemble anything we've ever seen from a ludological offering. Basically, SCEA is designing a framework for "avatars" to interact with a film in a number of different ways, such as tossing tomatoes at on-screen actors, or climbing into the film to deliver a swift kick to one of the characters' behinds.

The patent's illustrations resemble pencil-drawn versions of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where a player's avatar can be seen sitting in a chair in front of the interactive movie. These interactions can even be scored, granting bonus points for a well-aimed tomato toss. We have no idea how well this type of technology would work, but our deep, deep fondness for Mike and the 'Bots makes us more than a little interested in how SCEA is planning on using it.

[Via Siliconera]

Knowing now that we won't be able to get our hands on a retail copy of Bayonetta on this side of the Pacific until January 5, it's hard not to be frustrated when the game's publisher releases more footage reminding us how much fun the combat is. It might be incredibly silly that she has guns on her feet, sure, but they're guns on her feet. It makes the thought of kicking an enemy all the more enticing!

It's also just plain nice to see a trailer for this game that focuses on how the gameplay works, rather than on its hyper-sexualized main character. Also: she fires a bazooka at a demon wearing a tuba. If that's your kind of thing.