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Guild Wars announces 8th anniversary event
The eighth anniversary of the launch of Guild Wars is coming at the end of this month, and ArenaNet has announced the planned celebrations to run from April 22 through April 29. Those fans who have been with the game for several years might recognize the familiar Shing Jea Boardwalk and Roller Beetle racing festivities, but don't forget to test out your dodgeball skills in the Dragon Arena and talk to Ceira over at Embark Beach for some goodies. Those characters celebrating eight or more years in the game will be honored with a special in-game gift card that allows them to grab their choice of birthday gift boxes from years past. Of course there's much more to the event than this, and you can read all about it at the official announcement page and look for our own anniversary article celebrating 8 years of Guild Wars coming soon.
iPad hits 50,000 apps in eight months
MacStories points out that according to the listings in the iTunes App Store, the iPad has reached an unofficial total of 50,000 apps in just the eight months since software started selling for the device. For comparison's sake, the iPhone (which basically means the App Store in general, since that was the first device that could run Apple's apps) hit that total right around the year mark, between July 2008 and 2009. iPad apps first went live in the App Store back in April of this year, and at the time, I noted that it was the best selection of original software for a hardware launch that I'd ever seen on any device -- console manufacturers would love to have had the support that the iPad did when it launched. And that developer interest has continued -- while I think we have seen the price drops that a lot of developers expected (though probably slower than was predicted), developers are still extremely interested in developing for the iPad itself, even inside of the iOS environment. And as MacStories notes, this makes you wonder what the response will be to the Mac App Store when it launches early next year. In that case, we've got an established platform (remember, no one, not even most developers, had held an iPad in their hands when the apps on the App Store went live in April) with an existing software library that's moving into a new venue, so it'll be extremely interesting to see what happens, both from a developer perspective and as a consumer of Mac software. Maybe next May we'll be talking about an even faster run to 50,000 apps for sale.
Apple: Nine ringtones is too much
Now this is just getting silly. Apparently there is a bug with the iPhone where if you try to automatically sync more than eight ringtones up, only the first eight will sync. Nine, according to Apple, is too many ringtones to automatically sync up at one time. To get more than nine on, you've got to select the actual ringtones in iTunes, and set the iPhone to manually sync "selected ringtones."We can't see how there's any feasible reason for that-- except that somehow, in Apple's contracts with AT&T or the record companies, it was specified that only eight ringtones can be synched at any one time. Loony. Either that, or this a just plain passive-aggressive swipe at the folks actually trying to get ringtones past Apple on the iPhone.At any rate, slow down on the ringtone syncing, there, buddy. Nine is way too many.
Wii hits an unofficial eight million sold
Start your engines, fanboys. According to vgchartz.com, which is where we go to hang out when we're bored, the Wii just yesterday surpassed eight million units sold since its November 19th launch in North America. That's fast. That's really fast. Check out this graph with the option "align launches" enabled; it's staggering.So, here we go. By the end of year, Nintendo Wii sales will most likely have surpassed the Xbox 360's one-year head start to become the current generation leader, and heck, we might just "win" this thing. Who'd have thought such a turnaround was possible? And why the hell didn't we buy NTDOY stock? Dammit.Bask in the glory, guys. Most likely, one of those eight million is yours.
Ubisoft pledges fourteen games by March
Ubisoft has shown perhaps the staunchest third party support for the Wii, previously pledging a ridiculous eight games at launch. As if that wasn't enough, the go-get-em' developer has stated in a recent financial report that they will be releasing no less than fourteen games by March 2007. Since Ubisoft has announced no other games then those coming at launch, the additional six are completely unknown.Though we may not know much, apparently one of the six is a "non-announced new brand", implying an original IP. Are the others, then, mere sequels, ports, and remakes? Well, the more the merrier, we say. A particularly sad detail, however, is that the report specifically mentions only seven games at launch, which means one of the original eight may not be on the streets come November 19th after all. Which is it? Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, and GT Pro Series are the likely candidates, though we won't know for sure till close to launch time.Now remember, kids, say your prayers for love, peace, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 every night, and maybe one will come true. You know which one we want.[via Joystiq]
