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Japanese hardware sales, 11 September - 17 September: English Sonnet edition
The DS Lite in Japan, a force highatop its mighty throne, which cannot fall,all others can do naught but look and sigh,their sales so impeded by strongest wall. For the Lite and the 'Two, arrows rise, yet the PSP sinks to the abyss,the downward red glare is blinding to eyes, so vastly clear that something's amiss. Wii will do well, if past numbers are true, the people are ready for a new sun to shine, and as Sony stumbles almost on cue,Nintendo steps up and gives us a sign. For the full story, simply check below, though these figures may prompt a languid "so?" - DS Lite: 134,885 21,045 (18.49%) - PS2: 34,189 14,307 (71.96%) - PSP: 26,995 2,146 (7.36%) - GBA SP: 2,330 226 (10.74%) - Game Boy Micro: 1,244 557 (30.93%) - Xbox 360: 928 166 (15.17%) - Gamecube: 630 66 (9.48%) - DS Phat: 478 580 (54.82%) - GBA: 27 14 (107.70%) - Xbox: 7 2 (40.00%) [Source: Media Create]
Japanese hardware sale chart - Sept. 4 - 10, the war in percentages
Well, look how the mighty have fallen. The Nintendo DS Lite, which is the PSP's biggest competitor, saw a 50-percent decline in hardware sales last week. Never mind sales numbers ... who cares about those anyway? It's all about percentages, baby.The PSP surged on with a six-percent jump in sales that can most likely be attributed to Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition's total domination in the software sales chart.- DS Lite: 113,831 115,108 (50.28%)- PSP: 29,141 1,642 (5.97%)- PS2: 19,882 2,821 (12.43%)- GBA SP: 2,104 647 (23.52%)- Game Boy Micro: 1,801 10 (0.56%)- Xbox 360: 1,094 156 (12.48%)- DS Phat: 1,058 738 (230.63%)- Gamecube: 696 159 (18.60%)- GBA: 13 9 (40.91%)- Xbox: 5 5 (infinite%)- Wii: 0 0 (0%)The PSP needs to keep looking in its rear-view mirror, however, because the DS Phat also saw a big spike in its percentages with a whopping 230-percent increase. But, I expect this to be short lived due to its "teh suck."Also, look at how crappy the Wii is selling. Hah hah, it's being outsold by the original Xbox and hasn't even sold a single unit! Those percentages look pretty bad.(Via Joystiq)
Japanese hardware sales, 28 August - 3 September: verbose edition
As per our fine comrades at the affluent webcomic Penny Arcade, we residing at the fanboy congregated to bestow upon you a post of great vim. Certainly, the readership is quite familiar with the veritable monarchy that the DS Lite has been erecting via its accrued sales numbers; today, the standing ruler has evidently resisted its supplantation. The fact that the DS Lite might even transcend a neoteric console (in its third revision!) is a statement of certain verisimilitude, as we can easily ascertain from the following quantitative analysis: - DS Lite: 228,939 65,665 (40.22%) - PSP: 27,499 2,446 (8.17%) - PS2: 22,703 874 (4.00%) - GBA SP: 2,751 32 (1.18%) - Game Boy Micro: 1,791 28 (1.54%) - Xbox 360: 1,250 53 (4.43%) - Gamecube: 855 18 (2.15%) - DS Phat: 320 90 (21.96%) - GBA: 22 8 (57.14%) - Xbox: 0 12 (100.00%) One might even conjecture that the leading candidate was, at one point, an inscrutable conundrum. [Source: Media Create]
Nokia to switch up naming scheme, follow Moto's lead
5200, 6136, E70, N70, N73. We lost track of what's what in Nokia's soup of numbers and letters about twenty or thirty phones ago; maybe our jaded minds can't handle the constant onslaught of new devices anymore -- or perhaps we're just getting old -- but it sounds like help is mercifully on the way. After watching brands like Motorola's RAZR and LG's Chocolate dominate pockets and purses for the last couples years, our favorite Finnish phone manufacturer has dropped hints that it, too, will be switching from numbers to names for at least some of its future products. Ironically, the news comes just as HTC is going the other direction with its naming scheme, moving from names to numbers -- but with monikers like "TyTN" plaguing their stable, we're thinking that was the right move. No word on what kinds of words might pop up in the Nokia lineup, but our vote goes to names of Finnish cities (who wouldn't want a Nokia Oulu?).
Macworld delves into gaming on the MacBook
While the performance line between Apple's high and low end mid-range portable notebooks has lost some serious girth with the introduction of the MacBook, anyone hoping to snag a portable Mac for gaming has some tough decisions to make. The Pro machine packs a a high-end dedicated 3D card that can chomp through today's most demanding games without breaking a sweat, but the MacBook has an integrated Intel graphics chipset, borrowing RAM from your main system stash and dragging down performance. But how much of a drag is that Intel GMA 950 graphics chip, really? What games can it run, and where is the line actually drawn?If you've been searching for answers to questions like these, I think Rob Griffiths over at Macworld might have cut your googling short with MacBook gaming: A graphics concern? Rob investigated this whole 'integrated graphics card' issue and found that the MacBook can perform surprisingly well, as long as you max it out with as much RAM as you can afford. Testing an unofficial Universal version of Quake 3 (while old, it is fairly 3D-intensive), the MacBook cranked out 52 fps with 512 MB of RAM (which is already a great stat), but once he maxed the machine to 2 GB, Quake 3 offered up 98 fps.Rob explores gaming performance on the MacBook with a wide variety of other games, both in and out of Rosetta, and even lays out two separate 'what can/can't you play' sections to get down to specifics. Check out the full story if you're still biting your nails on deciding just how much you'll need to pony up to get your mobile Mac game on (also: stop biting your nails. It's a nasty habit).
MMO statistics show WoW wins
We've pointed to MMOGChart before, but the site's latest update is worth commenting on. With subscriber numbers for all major MMOs through to May 2006, there's one game that stands head and shoulders above the rest -- no prizes for guessing which.In fact, the pie chart above shows that over half (50.6%) of all MMO subscriptions are for World of Warcraft. The growth of WoW has been phenomenal, and it's great to be part of its popularity. However, we all know that WoW isn't without its problems, and it's going to be hard for a challenger to come along and threaten WoW's dominance.[Via Joystiq]
HDTV Listings for May 12, 2006
What we're watching: No season finales here folks, the NBA Playoffs second round is not yet on elimination game status, while Close to Home, Las Vegas and Numbers continue their seasons as normal tonight. Numbers brings back bird flu as a topic, if Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America didn't already scare that nasty air-breathing habit out of you.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Brain Maiming: New Sudoku game
Nintendo sends word regarding a matter of gray importance: Sudoku. Not to be confused with the murderous little Japanese girl that crawls out of the television on a weekly basis (that would be Sadako), the puzzle game has addicted many with its gentle massaging of that most intelligent and squishy of organs, the brain. With 400 different puzzles (all selected by the original creators of Sudoku), however, Sudoku Gridmaster is likely to be less of a massage and more of a brutal mashing. Not content with sticking some Sudoku puzzles in the upcoming Brain Age, Nintendo is releasing a stand-alone title featuring four difficulty settings and input via the touch screen. If you're keen on subjecting your brain to that sort of thing, make a mental note of Sudoku Gridmaster's June 26 release date.
iWork just helps bring AppleWorks customers into 20th century
Since iWork 06 was clearly the 5th wheel of yesterday's keynote, I'd throw money down that it is (unofficially) nothing more than a 20th (note: not 21st) century version of AppleWorks just to give those who still use it something OS X-ish to switch to. I would also bet that Apple is sick of supporting that old horse and could simply be using iWork to help put it out to pasture.If you watch yesterday's keynote, iWork 06 gets a mention on stage but almost immediately a "well we don't have time for it now, but you can check it out on the web" from his Steveness.Um, what? You're going to mention this software you introduced barely a year ago but then promptly drop-kick it off stage? And where is Numbers, one of the supposed missing links that could propel iWork into the "useful" category of so many users software toolbelts?Given this year's "we barely care" treatment of iWork, I think it's safe to say that Apple really isn't planning on stacking it up against Office. At least, not anytime soon.
