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LG celebrates 500k Optimus G Pro sales in its home country
We haven't even had the chance to see the 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro available outside Korea, but LG is already claiming a sales record. The latest supersized phone notched 10,000 orders at launch, leading to half a million sold just 40 days after its launch and ahead of its coming April update. We found plenty to like about the Optimus G Pro when we reviewed it -- that it closely follows the Galaxy Note II's succesful formula while packing the brand-new Qualcomm 600 quad-core CPU doesn't hurt. LG's pushed the phone with several promotions, including letting potential customers try one for 30 days to see how they live with its size. An LG executive quoted in the PR sees this increased communication continuing to push sales at home and abroad, but there's still no word on exactly when that will be on this side of the Pacific.
EVE Online hits 500,000 subscribers, heads into second decade
Most modern MMOs launch to an initial flurry of sales followed by a steady decline in player activity, but sci-fi MMO EVE Online has lived life in reverse. The game initially failed to secure a large number of launch sales but has since grown organically into one of the most successful subscription MMOs on the planet. EVE developer CCP Games told Massively today that the game has now officially broken the 500,000 subscription barrier. Subscription numbers hit the 450,000 mark following the relaunch of EVE's Chinese server Serenity in December of last year, and they have continued to climb ever since. This new subscription milestone is attributed to the success of EVE's recent Retribution expansion and the anticipation building over upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514, which is set on actual planets in the EVE universe. EVE is due to hit its 10th anniversary this year on May 6th, and developers have been taking the opportunity to look forward at what the coming decade will bring to the game. We caught up with CCP for a quick peek at the studio's plans for the future and to find out what kind of announcements we can expect from EVE Fanfest in April of this year.
The Secret World lures half a million potential beta testers into the underworld
Funcom's The Secret World may be about underworld societies waging a "behind the curtains" war against forces of darkness, but the beta signup is anything but secret. Over 500,000 potential testers have signed up on the MMO's website since Funcom opened beta registrations a month ago. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas says this is bigger than anything the studio has seen to date: "We are thrilled to see the amount of interest The Secret World is generating among gamers and the press, and exceeding half a million beta registrations six months before release is definitely something we are proud of. The gamer interest in The Secret World and the community size for the game is even greater than we experienced with Age of Conan at the same stage of development. We expect the community size to keep on expanding at an ever faster pace in the coming months as we approach open beta and launch." The Secret World is scheduled to launch April 2012 and will be subscription-based with optional microtransactions on top of that.
The $500,000 Atari 2600 game
We apologize for the crummy picture -- if you can find a better image depicting Gamma Attack, an Atari 2600 game which is apparently in smaller numbers than los Chupacabras, then we'd like to see it. According to eBay seller Wyatticog, there's less than 20 of this particular cart in existence, which may or may not justify his asking price for the game -- a cool half mil.We don't doubt that the game is rare, but $500k is a ton of loot. With that kind of expendable income, we could buy a small island, a Crysis-ready PC, or 8,000 video games that are actually worth playing. Unless there's some eccentric millionaire out there with an uncontrollable boner for games from the President Carter era, we doubt this one will fly off eBay's virtual shelves.
HD DVD nearing the half million mark in standalone player sales?
Just days after the HD DVD camp trumpeted the fact that 90,000 standalone players were sold in a single weekend after price cuts enabled the units to suddenly fit into quite a few budgets, the same team is now boasting that nearly 500,000 players have been moved to date. Granted, we're taking these numbers with a throw of salt, but according to Home Media Magazine, the recent price slashing has created around 100,000 new HD DVD owners, which, combined with the 320,000 or so units already in homes adds up to around 420,000. Apparently, backers of the format are surmising that the half million mark could be broken by the time Black Friday has made its mark. 'Course, these numbers mean little in the grand scheme of things, but you can bet it'll get people talking.
55-inch SED HDTVs on the way in '08
Canon & Toshiba brought SED out at CEATEC 2006 to show that this CRT in a flat panel's body will finally be hitting shelves in limited quantities by late 2007, and entering mass production in 2008. Leading the charge will be these 1080p 55-inch models with 450 nits of brightness, 50,000:1 contrast ratio (yes, you read that right), stunning 1ms response time...and no price tag yet. Part of the delay for SED has been so Canon and Toshiba can improve cost effectiveness to accompany the incredible specs, but with Samsung, Sharp and Sony releasing "Full HD" LCDs in the 50-inch range for around 5 large this fall, the market in 2008 could be tough to crack.[Via Reuters]
