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Edge lists top selling games of '08
Combining European and North American sales data, Edge has compiled a list of the top selling games of 2008. The figures are "guesstimates," due to the nature of how sales data is represented, but the site attempts to rank 60 games, all of which sold over a million copies. The top six are: Grand Theft Auto IV - 13 million Mario Kart Wii -11 million Guitar Hero (various) - 10 million Wii Fit - 9 million Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 7 million Call of Duty: World at War - 7 million The findings nearly match the North American NPD figures, with the exception of Madden, which slides down once Europeans get thrown into the equation. We're checking with NPD to see if it plans to release another global report -- in conjunction with Chart-Track and Enterbrain -- to the public. What will we bicker and complain about otherwise?Update: NPD let us know a global software list should be available "early next week."
Rockstar busts caps in GTA IV PC, releases patch
For those of you who like to terrorize Liberty City within the welcoming glow of a PC monitor, know that Rockstar has gone ahead and made some much-needed fixes to GTA IV on the PC. Some of these enhance the game's graphics, while other parts of the patch fix Xbox 360 controller support and even add support for driving wheels. It's a very big patch, so jack your way past the break for the full release notes. Download the patch at Big Download
Philosony: Will the real Alex Sheperd please stand up?
One thing that I think we all love about our chosen hobby is that the experience of a single game can be drastically different for each person. I don't mean this in the way we mean about other "static" media where we might each interpret what we read/see/hear in unique ways. I mean that though two people may play the exact same game, the cut scenes they view and the boss battles they fight may be completely different. This might be most evident in sandbox games or titles that have a prodigious amount of side quests, but sometimes even the main story can take wildly different paths depending on player input.Heavy Rain director David Cage has expressed his desire to create a game that allows you to really suffer consequences that affect the story and continue playing, always conscious of your input in the overall plot. We may be entering an era in which we gamers may not only see different stories but have to actually reflect on what the path we choose says about us as well as the story. When my recent play through of Silent Hill: Homecoming was rewarded with a less than satisfying ending I immediately cursed the game's writers for their ineptitude. But looking back I've begun to wonder: am I partially to blame? Are bad endings increasingly becoming the consequence of bad or even inconsistent decisions by players? Don't worry, the spoilers don't begin for another 300 words.
LittleBigPlanet leads in AIAS award nominations
The game industry's closest approximation of Hollywood's Academy Awards has to be the Interactive Achievement Awards. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has revealed its nominees for 2008, and LittleBigPlanet has managed to run away with ten category nominations, the most of any game this year. Ahem. And the nominees are: Overall Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Grand Theft Auto IV Left 4 Dead LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 Console Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Gears of War 2 Grand Theft Auto IV LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 See the rest, after the break.
1600 MS points? Get 'Lost and Damned'
Rockstar's first batch of DLC -- that's downloadable crime -- for the hugely lucrative Grand Theft Auto IV has been priced. The 360-exclusive expansion, dubbed The Lost and the Damned, will return players to the licentious Liberty City, starting February 17th for 1600 ($20). According to several online previews (compiled by GTAGaming), players will receive: between 10 and 20 hours of new gameplay; plenty of new missions; additional music; more weapons; and membership to a fearsome motorcycle club biker gang. Are you in?%Gallery-37692%[Via X3F]
Rockstar: No GTA IV follow-up coming before holidays '09
Though work continues on the upcoming expansion, The Lost and Damned, Rockstar has rubbished claims that a full-on follow-up to Grand Theft Auto IV is planned for release by the end of 2009. The rumor, which had its origin in the latest issue of Game Informer, suggested that Rockstar North was already preparing a new crime caper separate from the two DLC episodes headed to Xbox 360. Speaking to Kotaku, a Rockstar rep insisted that there was "no truth" to the reports, relegating the whole thing to the realms of wishful thinking. With the second episode of downloadable content scheduled to arrive towards the end of the year, we're much more likely to see a bonus-packed "Game of the Year" re-release of GTA IV. We're sure somebody gave it a Game of the Year award.
Take-Two: GTA franchise made $710 million this year
In a conference call today following the release of Take-Two's quarterly report, CFO Lainie Goldstein revealed the GTA franchise brought in $710 million so far this year. According to GameDaily, that aforementioned chunk of ducats would account for about 60% of the company's publishing sales. In Q4, GTA brought in $40 million, which is about 17% of the company's sales.So ... yeah. The newsflash is GTA makes lots of money for Take-Two, which clearly is a huge shock to us all. Guess it's a good thing the company locked down the Rockstar talent then, huh?
Take-Two cements long-term agreement with Rockstar 'senior creative talent'
The Houser brothers aren't going anywhere -- at least not anywhere that's out of the reach of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two. The company has announced a new long-term employment agreement with "key members of the creative team" behind Grand Theft Auto IV, including Rockstar rockstars, Sam and Dan Houser. The initial term of the agreement runs out on January 31, 2012 -- and by then the world will be close to ending for everyone, not just Take-Two.Also noted in the agreement is a new incentive compensation program for the Rockstar Games label, as well as Take-Two's intention to fund a new intellectual property "to be owned by a newly formed company controlled by key Rockstar Games team members." Whatever this mystery property entails, it will be published exclusively by Take-Two. Do we detect shades of Bungie and Microsoft?
UK's Telegraph names Fable II best game of 2008
The Daily Telegraph has thrown two pence in with its own "best of" video game round up, naming its top 50 games of 2008. Like X-Play before it, the conservative UK newspaper named Lionhead's Fable 2 as the best game to come along in the last 12 months, romancing the crown out from under near-winners, Fallout 3 and LittleBigPlanet. Other games sitting atop the heap included Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2, Spore, Grand Theft Auto IV and No More Heroes, with Left 4 Dead and Professor Layton rounding the publication's top ten. Check out the rather comprehensive list and let us know if your favorites made the cut.
New GTAIV: The Lost and Damned screens
The long-awaited downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV are nearly upon us and, thanks to Spike's Meh-tastic Video Game Awards show, eight new screens of the first chapter have been released. To recap, GTA IV: The Lost and Damned follows biker-gang "The Lost" and its eternal struggle for control over the leather clad, gruff dude stereotype all bikers in Liberty City seem to have nailed down. Or something like that. GTA IV: The Lost and Damned is set to drop exclusively on the Xbox 360 for a reported 1600MS Points on February 17, 2009, and will feature "new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City," along with new multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles and music. We expect "Bad to the Bone" will be at least one of those tracks. %Gallery-37703%
Grand Theft Auto IV PC patch needs a patch
Continuing in a tradition set forth by Bully, Rockstar's latest Grand Theft Auto IV PC patch may itself be in need of a patch. According to BigDownload, the update has created issues for some gamers' controllers, both Xbox 360 Windows controller and keyboard/mouse combination. For those already experiencing some major issues, it's probably worth downloading now. For everyone else, we suggest waiting until the next patch arrives. Maybe.
GTA IV, LBP and Home amongst TIME's top picks of the year
Time, the renowned weekly newsmagazine, has named its picks for top 10 games of year. Grand Theft Auto IV takes the top spot, while the only PS3 exclusive to make the list is LittleBigPlanet, which sits at third place. Other PS3 multiplatform titles on the list include Rock Band 2, Dead Space and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (really?). Want to know where those games are ranked and what else made the list? Check them out after the jump.On a related note, the PS3's community-based service Home is number 10 on Time's list of top 10 gadgets of the year. That's this year, 2008. Do the guys at Time know something we don't? Is this an indication that Home will definitely be released this year?Source -- Time's top 10 games of the yearSource -- Time's top 10 gadgets of the year
Time Magazine lists 'Top 10 Video Games' of 2008
On a list of "The Top 10 Everything of 2008" – a list that includes everything from the to-be-expected "Top 10 Olympic Moments" all the way down to the grocery-checkout-glamour of the "Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas" – we find Time Magazine's list of the "Top 10 Video Games." First, a navigational tip to the folks at Time: Maybe it's just us, but we'd probably file this one under "Arts & Entertainment" (next to movies, book, plays, and TV) and not under "Business, Tech & Sports" (next to the "Top 10 Financial Crisis Collapses"). Moving on ...We don't mean to undermine Time games guy Lev Grossman's picks by saying that the mag isn't exactly known for its writing on video games (unlike that other weekly news mag), but we get the feeling that – while Grossman has some solid (and unexpected!) picks – it won't look anything like most of your top 10 lists. Mainstream news-gatherers like Grand Theft Auto IV, Gears of War 2, and Spore make an appearance, but so do indie treats like Braid, an iPhone tower-defense game, and the Flash-based Hunted Forever. Climb through the list and come back to discuss the placement. Grand Theft Auto IV in the top spot? Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in the Top 10? Isn't Braid just for "people who smoke and people who drink"? Discuss!
Zelnick: It's not a financial crisis, just a 'car crash'
While talking up better-than-expected Black Friday sales at a Reuters Media Summit in New York, Take-Two Chief Executive Strauss Zelnick took a moment to tackle the global financial situation and its effect on the games industry. "I think everyone was encouraged by Black Friday," Zelnick said. "It was better than expectations, but it's pretty hard these days -- being slightly down is the new up."However, the Men's Fitness flexer refused to label the situation as a "financial crisis," opting instead for an intricate allegory from the Hideo Kojima School of Convoluted Comparison. "We're still seeing the car crash, and the ambulences [sic] are still showing up at the scene," he posited. "Maybe we're in the emergency room, but we're not even in the intensive care unit yet for a lot of these companies. But they will get there." But do we have an appropriate health plan? Are we under a general anesthetic? How long is the organ donor list? When we flatline, will we be haunted by the ghosts of all the kids we bullied at school?Source -- "Zelnick: Welcome to the emergency room"Source -- "Black Friday sales better than expected"
GTA IV 'The Lost and Damned' to premiere at Spike VGAs
In its continuing and unyielding quest for world exclusives, Spike TV is adding another notch to its already pretty well-notched VGA belt with the "world premiere" of "The Lost and Damned," the first of two Xbox 360-exclusive DLC expansions for Grand Theft Auto IV.There's not much more to glean from this press release – "The Lost and Damned" will provide "new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City with new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles; and a diverse soundtrack with additional music" – but we're imagining the actual reveal will be a little more ... revelatory. Find out December 14th at 9PM on Spike TV (or, alternatively, a couple minutes later on Joystiq). %Gallery-37692%
Rockstar aware of 'small number of fans' having GTA IV PC issues
"We are aware that a small number of fans are having problems running GTA IV on their PC's and we would like to assure them we are working to help solve these as quickly as possible," comes a statement from Rockstar, shortly after several players reported encountering problems running the open-ended crime caper. While the developer works on tracing issues like crashes and missing textures, the game's official support page asks "anyone that is encountering difficulties to contact their local technical support helpline for advice and recommendations. These telephone numbers can be found in the game's manual."The support page currently offers information on several known issues and other relevant advice. For instance, are you getting the "Application Failed to Launch" error? Well, the solution is simple! "Make sure you can run GTA IV."[Via Big Download]
GTA's 'The Lost and Damned' sold as $20 'token card' by Gamestop
A retail chain selling downloadable content? What madness does the world find itself plummeting into now? According to a listing on Gamestop's online store, the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto IV add-on episode, The Lost and Damned, can be purchased as an Xbox Live Marketplace token card. The product page indicates that no disc is included in the packaging -- it contains only the download code (nonrefundable!) and a two-sided poster.The chance to revisit the two-faced posers of Liberty City will seemingly cost you $19.99 when it releases on February 17th, 2009. The Lost and Damned's price has yet to be confirmed by Rockstar.%Gallery-37692%[Via Gamasutra]
First screens of GTA IV: The Lost and Damned DLC
Following yesterday's news in USA Today, Rockstar has officially announced the first of two DLC episodes for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV, titled "The Lost and Damned." The first high-res screens of the episode are out, along with a bare minimum of new details. In addition to what yesterday's report contained – that players will control a new lead character, Johnny Klebitz, a biker with Liberty City motorcycle club The Lost – today's announcement confirms that the episode will contain "new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City," along with new vehicles, weapons, multiplayer modes, and music. The episode arrives via Xbox Live Marketplace on Feb. 17, and (obviously) requires the original GTA IV to play. We've been wondering if a Gold account will be required as well, but Rockstar's announcement merely mentions an Xbox Live account as a prerequisite for download. So ... let's hear your theories on the plot. %Gallery-37692%
Grand Theft Auto IV DLC named, detailed, dated: 'The Lost and Damned' on Feb. 17
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/First_GTA_IV_DLC_confirmed_for_Feb_16_stars_a_biker'; USA Today reports that the first DLC episode for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV will be titled "The Lost and Damned" and will be available for download on Feb. 17, 2009. According to the article, the episode will star Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City biker gang The Lost.The paper's website quotes Rockstar VP of creative development, Dan Houser, who calls Johnny "a very different character than Niko, with a very different background," adding on the topic of plot specifics, "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City." Rockstar has not revealed pricing for the content, but we'll keep on top of that and any further details.[Update: Take-Two and Rockstar just confirmed the details with their very own press release, for those of you who refuse to believe anything in USA Today that isn't presented in chart form.] [Thanks, Ethan]
Report: Wii games dominate top 5 US sellers in '08 (so far)
Still obsessing over sales statistics, Gamasutra has crafted a report on 2008's five top-selling games in the US -- so far. Though some figures are approximated, there's assurance that "the maximum possible error in each figure should not affect the rankings." All consoles considered, the rankings are as follows: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (3.5 million, estimated) Mario Kart (3.4 million) Grand Theft Auto IV (3.2 million, estimated) Wii Play (3 million) Wii Fit (2.8 million) Be sure to check out the report for further details, several of which are likely to fuel the fanboy fires for, oh, the next fifteen minutes at least. We look forward to entertaining your "Wii games don't sell," "GTA IV is overrated" and "Wii Play is just a controller in disguise" arguments. We do not, however, want anything to do with your "Why isn't Golden Axe: Beast Rider on there?" madness.
