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Riot apologizes for League of Legends tournament issues
If you peek, you did cheat -- or so sayeth Riot Games. The studio came forth to address several issues with this past weekend's $2 million League of Legends tournament, including allegations of cheating by participants. Viewers noted that tournament players were looking at competitors' minimaps on the large screen, and Riot admits that it didn't do enough to keep that particular temptation at bay. VP of eSports Dustin Beck apologized to LoL fans: "We're trying to deliver an extraordinary experience for viewers, and yesterday didn't live up to our goals. In hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake." Riot is rescheduling the problematic matches and promised that the remainder of the tournament will be minimap temptation-free. Beck also mentioned that the team is looking into several disconnects that happened during the event. As an apology for what happened, Riot is granting all players double influence points for 24 hours following the finals match on October 13th.
Star Wars: The Old Republic beta test attracts 2 million players
It's no secret that Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent memory, and the game's recently concluded public testing phase confirms the hype. The game's publisher, EA, announced that the SWTOR test phase drew in over 2 million players, and of those 2 million, 750,000 unique players jumped into the game over the Thanksgiving weekend alone. EA also shared some interesting statistics about the game's test players. Over the holiday weekend, players averaged about 12 hours of game time each for a grand total of over 9 million hours of playtime across the playerbase. If you didn't get a chance to try the beta, or if you simply couldn't get enough, you don't have much longer to wait. The game launches in about two weeks on December 20th, with pre-order head start beginning on the 15th.
Samsung Tabulates 2 million slates, 80 million phones sold in Q4 2010, breaks revenue records
Score one for Samsung in its eternal struggle against South Korean nemesis LG. Whereas the Life's Good crew were licking their Q4 2010 wounds yesterday, Samsung's had the pleasure of announcing that the final quarter of last year helped it bust through all its previous fiscal records: total revenue ($139b), net income ($14b), and operating profit ($15.5b) all reached all-time highs. The fourth quarter's contribution was $2.7b in operating profit, 80.7 million mobile devices sold, 12.72 million flat panel TVs shipped, and two million Galaxy Tabs distributed to Android lovers yearning for some Froyo. That last number's pretty important as it shows the Tab's sales have almost doubled over the last month of the quarter -- it reached one million sales in early December -- indicating that there is indeed a hunger for slate-based computing. Oh, and if you're wondering what Samsung's planning for the future, there's a reminder that a device with a Super AMOLED Plus screen and a dual-core processor is coming to replace the Galaxy S in the first half of 2011. Good to know. [Thanks, Tascien]
Samsung's HDTV-based app store passes two million downloads
Reaching two million downloads in a year may seem paltry considering Apple's app store delivered 1.5 billion downloads in its first year, and the Mac app store passed one million downloads on opening day. Still, it's the largest number we've seen from a TV maker, and when you factor in that Samsung's store just passed one million downloads back in November, it seems the Korean tech giant has a good thing going. Naturally, we knew the company was serious about apps when it announced the Free the TV contest late last summer to lure developers to the platform, and today the app store is available in over 120 countries and features roughly 380 applications, 259 of which are free. It also doesn't hurt that the brand has already sold boatloads of Smart TVs and plans to ship 12 million more in 2011. The question is, when the store hits the 10 million mark, can Samsung possibly pull off a new interpretive dance that tops its 2011 CES keynote? We certainly hope so. For the full announcement, check out the press release after the break.
Apple sells two million iPads, international launch likely the main culprit
Apple has just trotted out its latest sales milestone for the iPad: two million devices have now been sold since the slate's launch on April 3. We promise we won't bother you with sales figures every time another million gets rounded, but it's notable that the company has managed to maintain the rapid pace it achieved with its hero tablet during its first month on the market. Of course, that big international launch just a couple of days ago would surely have had something to do with it as well. Ah well, good for them.
Toyota moves its two millionth hybrid vehicle, Ma Earth tips her hat
It's incredibly hard to believe that the original Prius went on sale a full dozen years ago, but as the debatable face of the hybrid reaches its third generation, Toyota as a whole is celebrating the sale of its two millionth hybrid. As of August 31st, global sales of the automaker's hybrid fleet has surpassed 2.01 million, and as of now, there are 13 hybrids in the company's lineup. Later this year, Lexus (the outfit's luxury brand) is set to see its fourth hybrid hit the streets, and it's been said that Toyota could have a hybrid version of every motorcar it sells by the end of the next decade. Not like it'll matter -- we'll all be cruising around in Jetson-mobiles or Tesla Roadsters by then, anyway.
Zune breaks 2 million sold, stealing market from Creative not Apple
Microsoft is still toiling away at the Zune, but there isn't a whole terrible much to show for it so far in regards to market impact. They just broke the 2 million mark, almost a year after they hit 1 million in May 2007. That means growth has hardly accelerated since the second-gen players hit the scene. Zune's overall market share has grown from three to four percent, but that's most likely a steal from Creative (which sunk from four to two percent) than a steal from Apple or second-place SanDisk (with a billionty and 11 percent, respectively). But don't worry, we're sure that 2.5 update is going to change everything.
