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NPD: Wii reclaims lead in US sales, but console gaming market shrinks by a fifth
The NPD has released its US video game industry figures for October, which reveal that total monthly revenue from hardware, software and accessories among all manufacturers fell to $1.07 billion, constituting a 19 percent drop from what the American gamer spent over the same period last year. After being toppled from its chart-leading ways in September by a price cut-boosted PS3, the Wii has regained its sales throne by chopping $50 off its own entry fee, making itself buoyant in the US, if not the world. The PS3's own sales have suffered a slump after the September euphoria, while the 360 is still wearing the dunce cap in third place. Microsoft's response has been to keep banging that drum about being the only console to show year-to-date growth, but when you're selling less than half as many consoles as Nintendo, you have to grasp at whatever straws are nearby. Speaking of Nintendo, its DS sales so far this year have continued at such a rate as to threaten its own 2008 hardware sales record -- set by the Wii -- with ten million units sold. So there you have it: Sony fails to maintain its September lead, Nintendo keeps churning, and Microsoft keeps hoping for better times ahead. Full list of figures after the break.
World of WarCrafts: From Naxx to Pinky Street
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by contacting our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) -- not-for-profit work only, please.Is there somewhere in game that feels like home to your character? Reader Asphydel's characters hail from Pinky Street – literally. Pinky Street is a line of four-inch anime figurines that come with interchangeable parts, allowing you to create trendy, custom figures with your own look. The line encourages customizations, from swapping out parts and accessories to adding entirely new paint jobs. Asphydel of Ghostlands-US took the look a step farther, bringing her figurine into the World of Warcraft with Pinkycized versions of her Priest and her boyfriend's Mage. "I actually have a background in art and had taken a class in 3D," she explains. "We had a small section on making molds, so it was pretty darn easy for me to follow various suggestions and ideas I had found online. I can imagine that it can be a little overwhelming for anyone who has never looking into it ... O_o I knew it was for me in my first classes."
TurpsterVision: FigurePets Unveiling
We can't believe it either – Turpster has been let loose on WoW.com to bring you videos from in and around the World of Warcraft! You've heard him on The WoW Insider Show now see him on TurpsterVision right here on WoW.comToday FigurePrints revealed their brand new line of 3D printed WoW products in the form of 3-piece collectible non-combat pets -- FigurePets! As always I was on hand with a camera, a knife and a box of products to open cautiously on camera to give you the first impressions on this exciting new product range.Also I managed to sit down with Ed Fries, the FigurePrint founder, and ask him a few questions about the new FigurePets and what else might be on the horizon for 3D Printed WoW Products.Behind the break you'll find the video, interview and a photo gallery of the FigurePets.
There could be up to a million Chinese gold farmers
A new report on MMO gold farming claims that there are about 400,000 working in China on gold farming and trading, and that there could be as many as 500,000 to even a full million. Of course there's no way to tell exactly how many people are employed in the business (and the number almost certainly doesn't stay constant for long), but according to interviews and surveys done of business there, that's the number they've come up with. They also claim a $10 billion a year turnover, however, and that number seems way high, though remember that they're talking about all MMOs, not just World of Warcraft. The report has some other interesting information about how China does gold farming: there are a number of brokerages staffed by English speakers in the larger cities that handle the actual transaction, and then the farms themselves are usually outside the cities, where cheaper labor is available. Typical pay in the farms is about $140 a month plus food and board, working in about ten hour shifts, while pay is higher in the city-based brokerages. Most employees are younger guys, who play while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and lots of their ingame tasks are automated with custom-made and adapted software.
Billboard: iTunes prices up, sales down
I coulda told you this, though I am a little surprised that we've seen the results so fast. Despite iTunes having put the new tiered pricing into effect just last week, Billboard is reporting that they've already seen sales drop on the higher-priced tunes. The iTunes Top 100 chart has 40 different songs with a new price of $1.29, and one day after the changes, those songs dropped an average of 5.3 places on the chart, while cheaper songs moved up on average. And on the second day of the price change, ten of the tracks that saw their prices rise within 24 hours dropped a huge 12.4 chart positions on average.Of course, we're talking only a matter of days here, and there are all kinds of things that could have affected this average drop -- lots of the tracks that became expensive were from a Rascal Flatts album, and it could be just that the album has lost popularity, bringing the average down. And don't forget that even though these sales figures may be dropping, they haven't dropped nearly enough to show a loss of revenue (though fewer songs may be selling, they're still making more money).But for those convinced that higher prices mean lower sales numbers, these first few days of figures will seem to connect all of the right dots. We'll have to wait and see if the long-term effects match up to the figures Billboard has seen so far.
DC shows off Series 5 figures
DC has officially announced their latest series of World of Warcraft action figures, and while there are only four figures shown off so far, they look awesome. These are the same figures we saw in the coverage of the New York Comic Con -- there's Lo'gosh (better known as Varian Wrynn, the new King of Stormwind), Hunter Alathea Moonbreeze and her pet Sorna, a demon form Illidan (hot!), and Rottingham, a Ghoul. We've got pictures of all the new figures in our gallery below.Unfortunately, we aren't going to see this for sale for a long, long time -- DC has the date of release set as October 28, 2009. That doesn't really seem right to us (they only want to release four figures this year?), but that's what they say, so we'll go with it. Still, that Illidan figure looks awesome. The Hunter would be cute, and Lo'gosh would be nice to have if you're a fan of the comic book series, but Illidan is definitely the standout so far. Also check out all of our other DC figure galleries after the break.%Gallery-45214%
iPhone owners make up 14% of mobile game downloaders
Hot off the heels of the news that the iPhone is dominating independent mobile gaming comes this interesting statistic: 14% of all people downloading mobile games are doing so on an iPhone. Market research group comScore says that not only is the iPhone picking up double digits of all game downloads overall, but that 32.4% of all iPhone users have downloaded a game. We're not sure if this means purchased a game over the air or bought it in iTunes' App Store and then transferred it onto the phone, but that's a lot of downloading.And the numbers are increasing -- 8.5 million Americans downloaded mobile games onto their devices in November of last year, up 17 percent from the year before. And smartphones in general are growing -- last year, there were zero smartphones sitting in the top 10 mobile devices for downloading, says a comScore analyst, and this year, six of the ten on the list are smartphones. Sounds like an emerging market to us, and the iPhone is sitting right on top.
WoW minis wins Game Product of the Year
Diamond Comics, a big distributor of comics and collectables, has given out its Diamond Awards for 2008, and Upper Deck's WoW minis game is a winner. The game won Game Product of the Year -- Upper Deck says that "not only did it capture the hearts of World of Warcraft fans across the globe, it also redefined the entire miniatures category."We'll have to take their word for it (as we haven't played that many minis games before), but the game was a lot of fun when we played a round of it at BlizzCon last year -- it's kind of a mix between turn-based strategy (in that you take turns moving your characters and attacking or defending) and Arena play (in that lots of the character abilities are borrowed straight from the ingame classes). We can speak to the quality of the game as well -- the little miniatures look great, and the game boards and cards were very colorful and well-done.So grats to Upper Deck for picking up the Diamond Award for their new minis game (the company also nabbed a few other awards for their Marvel Masterpieces cards and their sports card lines). If you'd like to check the game out, you can pick up starter packs at most hobby and game stores, and Upper Deck periodically offers events around the country. Some of which we often post about here on WoW Insider, so stay tuned.
DS Daily: Must. Have. It.
As gamers and general obsessing types of folk, we find our love of games doesn't actually stop at just the game. We buy figurines, peripherals bearing the likeness of characters we enjoy, and posters, among other things. What we're asking you today is which of these franchises to do you go beyond just the game with? What characters or games do you own figurines, posters, and soundtracks for?
Majority of player base does not have a level 80 character
Vaneras on the EU forums this morning responded to some criticism that everyone is already 80, etc... He makes a few interesting points.First, he notes that they have internal numbers that the majority of players don't yet have a level 80 character. This might be a known or assumed fact by some, but for many of us it's interesting to hear Blizzard extrapolate on the issue.Vaneras goes on to point out an important tidbit – don't assume just because all your friends are 80 that everyone else is as well. People that play all the time tend to gravitate towards other people that play all the time, and folks that only log on once or twice a week gravitate towards each other as well.This means that just because everyone on your friends list is 80 doesn't mean the whole server is yet. I know that for myself nearly everyone's main is either 80 or high 70s now, and most have alts quickly getting up there in level too.But then I'm reminded of my brother, who just dinged 77 a couple days ago.This is also good to know as it means battlegrounds and Wintergrasp will be filling up more as a greater number of folks ding. That's only going to lead to more fun for everyone.
WoW minis are out
As predicted, the WoW Minis game from Upper Deck has launched -- starter packs and booster sets are now available at a collectible store near you. I got to play the game with one of its designers at BlizzCon, and I actually found it a lot of fun -- it's very much like a turn-based Arena match, though there are fewer abilities to choose from, and if your characters are killed, they actually come back, as the victory is points-based, not just a deathmatch. But it's very similar to Arena matches in that you spend points on abilities, terrain can help or hurt, and each class has its own counters and tactics.I found it to be a lot of fun, and probably would get involved in it if I had a friend I could also sucker into it, but no dice so far. Plus, it's two hobbies in one -- not only do you get a fun strategy game (that's surprisingly versatile -- you can play with more than two players if you like, and your victory points requirements are based on your characters, not the opposing sides', so you can play with whatever characters you like), but you also get to collect some cool minature reproductions of some of Warcraft's most famous faces. Good deal. Have you checked the game out yet, or is it something you're interested in?%Gallery-33212%
HTC CEO expects to move 600,000 G1s this year, more in 2009
With all sorts of outlandish figures being bandied about regarding sales / expectations for the T-Mobile G1, someone intimately close to the situation has finally chimed in with his take. Peter Chou, chief executive and co-founder of HTC, stated in a recent interview that it expects to ship over 600,000 G1s this year, and while he wouldn't come clean on an exact figure for 2009, he did proclaim that "in general, we think we can do more next year." We aren't betting the farm that his prediction will come true or anything, but it certainly falls within the realm of feasibility. Oh, and if you were wondering how Mr. Chou planned on convincing potential iPhone buyers to opt for the G1 instead, he reckons that the full QWERTY keypad will handle that for him -- after all, "Americans are very keyboard-oriented." [Via mocoNews]
Blu-ray Disc sales up 396% year to date in UK
Looking for candidness? We aren't too sure we believe these numbers, but a new writeup from Hollywood Reporter has it that Blu-ray Disc sales in the United Kingdom are up a mind-melting 396% for the year to date. Yep, 1.5 million units have been moved, which -- if accurate -- gives a clear indication of just how quickly consumers on that side of the pond are siding with Blu in this post-format war world. Purportedly, the figures were derived from the British Video Association, and the report with this nugget also had data regarding the upward trends in both DVD sales and theater attendance. But hey, when there's all of five or so HD channels to watch, it's not too shocking to see citizens get their high-def fix via another method.[Via GameFocus, image courtesy of WikInvest]
WAR battles Spore, The Force Unleashed for top of EU sales charts
Warhammer Online pulled off some impressive sales figures in the European market this past week. The Swedish sales chart shows WAR at the #1 and #4 (for the Collector's Edition) spots in that country, beating out the highly anticipated Will Wright project Spore. WAR also topped the charts in Spain. In Germany it came in second behind the heavily marketed console game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.Of course an MMO dominating sales charts is nothing new. World of Warcraft has done so on and off since its launch four years ago, and Age of Conan debuted at #1 in many regions, even defeating the critically acclaimed BioWare tactical RPG Mass Effect which launched in the same month. It's also worth noting that the Warhammer IP is very popular in Europe, perhaps more so than in North America.This news jives well with the report that half a million users have registered for the game. On the other hand, similar numbers were thrown out around AoC shortly after its launch. It's doing okay, but it didn't turn out to be a landscape-altering success that some folks projected, and that some are expecting from WAR as well
Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month
A month ago, Apple was crowing about selling one million iPhone 3G handsets over its opening weekend. In a month, they've tripled that figure. According to Fortune and analyst Michael Cote of the (eponymous and nascent, from what I can Google) Cote Collaborative, Apple has already hit the three million mark, with many investors expecting only three to four million handsets sold by the end of the quarter. Cote is a former T-Mobile executive, who Scott Moritz says has been accurate with his predictions in the past. It took over 10 weeks for the original iPhone to sell just one million handsets. The iPhone 3G accounts for almost a third of all iPhones sold, ever. Cote says that meeting demand will be Apple's challenge going forward, as it enters 20 new countries on August 22 -- almost doubling its market presence worldwide. "The demand is so strong it may impact or delay the new countries coming on," he said.
DC shows off what look like Series 4 Figures at ComicCon
Empire magazine is already posting pictures from this weekend's ComicCon out in San Diego (WoW Insider also has correspondents there on site), and though they have no idea what they've stumbled across, it sure looks to us like what might be DC Unlimited's Series 4 WoW figurines. And rather than just the standard player characters, Blizzard and DC are going a little NPC for this series -- as you can see above, they've included everyone's favorite elite gnoll, Hogger himself. Also included in the series are a Succubus of some sort (with what looks like a Tauren with a polearm in the back there), and a gun-wielding Tauren Hunter.The figures all have signs that say "Worldwide Debut Friday 4pm" on them, so it looks like we're getting to see them a little early. And Blizzard is excited, too -- Slorkuz has even written a poetic ode to Hogger in honor of his likeness being immortalized.We'll keep an eye out for more info -- looks like DC is expanding their action figure line to include a few more less traditional character types. Who else should they honor with a figure in the future?
Chrono Trigger goodies, just in time to appeal to your sense of nostalgia
With the recent announcement of Chrono Trigger DS, the DS Fanboy staff have been salivating for weeks now. In fact, we've all tied buckets around our necks, to save our precious t-shirts from being drenched. Life is all about adapting.If you find yourself in the same crazed state of mind as us, desperate to get your hands on the final product, know some cool Chrono Trigger collectibles just went up on eBay. They're a set of keychain figurines and some Prism cards. The keychains are especially nice, but cost about twice the going rate on a SNES Chrono Trigger cart.Source - KeychainsSource - Prism cards[Via Gamesniped]
PS3 outsells 360 in Australia
For Quarter one of 2008, that is. It's a small victory for our sleek black box; however, it surely is an interesting victory considering that the PS3 is a very pricey machine down under. According to Sony managing director Michael Ephraim who spoke with PALGN, the PS3 outsold the 360 by 45% in Q1 2008. Ephraim believes that, "it's a matter of time before [the PS3] surpass the install base [of the Xbox 360 in Australia]." It looks like this far away PAL continent is starting to follow the footsteps of their European friends. Could Australia become the next Sony stronghold? Ephraim thinks so, "[Microsoft] were very weak in Continental Europe, so they have done fairly well here, but with the rate we're going we will definitely surpass the install base, we're just guessing somewhere around the end of the year, if not sooner if the trend keeps going the way it is." [Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo's limited-edition stuff
A few weeks ago, we saw concept art of the promotional stuff SNK's using to try to trick Japanese otaku into dropping $91 for the "Special Box" edition of Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo, including two Nendoroid figurines. Now pictures of the real materials are online to look at, in case you would like to see what people are going to be waiting nervously in front of Akihabara electronics stores for.In addition to the Maho Akai and Seika Koron figurines and Lulu and Kuro phone strap, the set comes with a guidebook to the students in the game's schools, and a color-changing card that allows you to rub the image of a sweater off of a picture of Haori Kureha. And shame. Shame is in the box.
Breakfast Topic: Figureprints
When we first heard about Figureprints, everybody seemed fairly keen to get one -- there were thousands of people trying to get in on the drawing, and lots of folks were more than willing to put down their $100 for a custom, real-life figure of their characters created directly from the in-game models.But as the Dude (if censored) might say, new stuff has come to light. We've seen the first Figureprints off the press, and the quality, so far, hasn't been impressive, to say the least. We should note that Figureprints is replacing that figure in the gallery, but we'd like to know: has all of this new information changed your mind about Figureprints?Are you still excited to get one, or have you changed your mind from originally liking the idea to not so thrilled about the actual product? Or, like Matthew Rossi, have you said "This aggression will not stand, man," from the beginning? OK, that's not really what he said (I just wanted to quote the Dude agaIn), but where are you at on Figureprints lately? Yea or nay?
