ranking
Latest
Top five best sellers for 2009 tracked for each console
Finding it hard to get interested in the June NPDs? Perhaps a visual aide from the folks at Gamasutra will help boost your enthusiasm. They've compiled the sales figures from all of 2009's NPD charts to find the top five best-selling games of the year thus far on each of the three home consoles.The big winner so far on the PS3 is Killzone 2, trailed closely by Resident Evil 5. On the 360, Resident Evil 5 is currently in the lead, followed by a surprising contender -- UFC 2009: Undisputed. The Wii's current leader is -- who'd have thunk it? -- Wii Fit, followed by Wii Play. For the full five for each platform, check out Gamasutra's writeup.
Game Developer Research lists 'Top 50 Developers' of 2009
Game Developer magazine (and its brainy Game Developer Research division) recently published its second annual enumerated accolades for the fine folks who make the games that you crudely jam into your home entertainment consoles -- or, in layman's terms, the "Top 50 Developers 2009" report. The rankings are based on how many games a studio created, the sales for those games, and their metacritic ratings. Quality of box art and amount of 'tude possessed by the games' protagonists, however, were not taken into consideration.The results are utterly shocking -- for the second year in a row, Nintendo took top honors, with fellow money-printing organization Blizzard taking second place. Ubisoft Montreal skyrocketed from 12th place in the '08 report to third place in the most recent rankings. Regardless of your fanboyism for a certain developer, we think we can all agree -- in such a financially (and employmentmentally) challenging time, we're just glad to hear there's at least 50 game developers that haven't been forced to shut down.The full list is posted after the jump.[Thanks, Braz!]
Blizzard moves from #47 to #1 in studio rankings
According to a recent list by Develop magazine, Blizzard has dethroned Nintendo to become the most bankable game studio in the world. I'm surprised they weren't there already, but I guess it's just this side of possible that Nintendo is hard to budge. Develop's top 100 is compiled by their editorial team and accounts for total sales, reputation within the industry, and a variety of other criteria. When all was said and done, the editors wrote, Warcraft "continues to do the sort of numbers previously reserved for crime syndicates and smaller members of the United Nations." Nicely put, but what I find most bizarre about the list is that Blizzard jumped from #47 to #1 within the space of a year (you'll find Blizzard's 2008 listing on page 82 of a highly annoying-to-navigate Issuu archive). While part of that's due to the merge with Activision, Develop claims that Wrath of the Lich King being the fastest-selling PC game in history was the greatest contributing factor. Hang on. WoW was doing just fine even before Wrath hit, so how did Blizzard manage to get itself ranked behind do-little studios with sales of around $1-2 million per game on the 2008 list?
Survey finds Nintendo to be the most reputable game company
It's fresh from celebrating the Game Boy's twentieth birthday and solid sales of the DSi, but it looks like Nintendo already has some more good news to boast about, with the Reputation Institutes's annual survey finding that it is by far the most reputable game company around, and the sixth most reputable company overall. That ranking is made all the more impressive by the fact that Nintendo apparently wasn't even in the top 200 in last year's list, and by the fact that it's the only strictly gaming company on the list at all, although Microsoft and Sony come in at 30 and 126, respectively. Hit up the read link below to check out the complete rankings.[Via Joystiq]
LG overtakes Motorola for third place in global handset shipments
Half a year ago, Motorola was still clinging tight to the number three spot in terms of worldwide handset shipments, but boy -- what a difference six months makes. According to numbers compiled by DigiTimes, LG Electronics managed to ship just over 100 million mobile phones in 2008, while Moto checked in with "just" 99.9 million shipped. That makes LG the third largest handset maker in terms of shipments, barely beating out Moto and Sony Ericsson who placed fourth and fifth, respectively. As expected, Nokia and Samsung are still holding down the top two spots, but it's the continued slippage of Motorola that's most significant here. You know what they say about being on rock bottom, right? We bet Motorola's wondering if that mantra applies here.[Via phonescoop]
Ranking your new loot
Our good friend Kestrel reminds you that as you're leveling up and getting all this new gear, there are quite a few good tools out there to let you know what's what in terms of what gear is best for you. Lootrank is the one Kestrel mentions most -- you can put in your own stats and check off which ones are most important to you, and it'll recommend and rate your gear from there. We've got our own list of other sites which will help, too -- Kaliban's great class loot lists (at wow-loot.com) have been all updated for Wrath, and of course ShadowPanther has lots of Rogue updates as well (though DruidWiki doesn't appear to be completely updated yet).MaxDPS.com is a very popular site for seeking and tracking gear upgrades as well, and I remain a fan of the simplicity of Gear Wishlist -- it doesn't get any easier than tossing your info into a form and having the site spit a huge list of gear options at you, based on the rankings from mulitple other sites.But no matter how you do it, there are plenty of ways to figure out which way to head for your next upgrade. There's a whole continent of new gear out there -- go get some.
Epic explains Gears 2's ranking system
Don't understand the Gears of War 2 rank system? Trust us, you are totally not alone. To alleviate some confusion, Gears 2 Community Manager SixOkay (guessing that's a pseudonym) has outlined how the game's inane touched ranking system works. The whole thing uses Microsoft's TrueSkill system, which itself is based on chess' Elo rating system.The system doesn't just track wins/losses for rank, but also notes what team is favored to win the match. Horde Mode and private matches won't affect rank, but quitting games will lower it. Despite the system lacking the transparency and addictive nature of the CoD4 and Halo systems, at least we get how it works now ... sorta.[Via X3F]
Japan stops ignoring the PS3, sales jump 900%
Looks like all is right with the world again, according to the latest numbers from Media Create. This week on Sony's home turf, the PS3 moved 39,587 units -- outselling the combined figures of the Wii and Xbox 360. Also worth noting is that PS3 sales jumped a whopping 907% from last week, when the PS3 sold only 3,931 units.As we reported yesterday, Grand Theft Auto IV for the PS3 took first place on the Japanese charts -- now we know it has sold 132,676 copies, while LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: Spec III sold 51,705 and 34,965 copies, respectively. You'll notice that Media Create has released slightly different numbers -- for example, the 360 version of GTA IV is in eighth place now instead of fourth place. Hardware sales are below, software sales are after the jump:Hardware and software sales for the week of October 27th - November 2nd: DSi -- 171,925 PSP -- 50,358 PS3 -- 39,587 Wii -- 23,123 DS Lite -- 16,369 PS2 -- 6,714 Xbox 360 -- 6,119
MaxDPS.com maps out your DPS gear
On Saturday's Gear Wishlist post, a few people brought up a site that was mentioned in the item weighting choices there: MaxDPS.com. And later that day, Dan Hyde himself, maker of the site, emailed asking us to take a look at it. It's been around for quite a while (and quite a few of our readers already like and use it), but this was the first time I'd really inspected it -- turns out it's a pretty complicated gear guide that's aimed at one thing: maxing out your DPS.In fact, that's the only thing it does -- there are no options, for instance, for Resto Shammies or Holy Priests (although Dan is working on healing gear rankings -- Holy Paladin is one of the newer options). All the site does is look at the stats on gear (and your own stats, if you punch them in), and then rank all the gear in the game to tell you how much DPS that piece will let you turn out. And if that's your goal, the thing can be pretty helpful -- I saw a few quest pieces on my Hunter that I could pretty easily upgrade to if I just wanted to up my DPS by about 10 or so.The only problem, of course, is that it's DPS only -- if you want to put together a set that is all about plus healing, or max out Intellect for whatever reason, you're still going to have to parse the gear that shows up in the ranks (which is one reason I liked Gear Wishlist so much -- you can rank for MaxDPS, or switch the rank over to item level or the Wowhead ratings for each piece). But once you've figured out what you want your character's main goal to be with gear at endgame, all of these sites will do their best to provide suggestions for upgrades to you, from all the stuff available in quests and PvP at level 70, up to the highest pieces you can find in endgame raiding.
North American TV shipments up 28% year-over-year, Samsung gets bragging rights
Despite the weakening economy here in the US and elsewhere, people are -- as predicted -- still showing interest in HDTV. Shortly after seeing what a nice Q2 the plasma sector had, DisplaySearch has revealed that TV shipments in general were way, way up in said quarter. In fact, North America saw the biggest year-over-year increase (28%) since the outfit started tracking TV shipments in 2004; then there's the 26% quarter-over-quarter growth, which is equally impressive. LCD TV shipments rose 52% compared to last year while PDP shipments shot up 34% in the same period, and it's safe to say that Samsung has the most to gloat about. It was the leading overall brand with shipments of its sets surging to a record 19.1% of all shipments in North America during Q2. Anxious to see who took the proverbial silver / bronze? Check out all of the stats in the read link below.
Motorola clings to number one spot in US sales, RIM still rocking
Uh oh, Moto. Go 'head with your bad self. Just days after posting a meager profit (but a profit nonetheless) and maintaining your position in third in worldwide mobile market share, along comes a report claiming that you're still numero uno in the United States. While handset sales overall shot up 5.3% here in Q2, Motorola maintained a 26% share and managed to stare down at least a few naysayers. In related news, LG held tight to the silver with 22%, while RIM gained a double-digit market share increase thanks to sales of its oh-so-hot BlackBerry handset. Number nerds, feel free to tap the read link for even more fractions and decimals.[Via RCRWireless]
Motorola manages minuscule profit, clings to bronze medal
It has been a solid tick since Motorola had a quarterly earnings report that it didn't just send over via the paper airplane method and run for the hills, but the most recent one was actually worth cracking a smile over. After moving more mobiles in North America than it expected too, shares shot up 13% and bullish analysts began to think that the worst was over. Chief Executive Greg Brown noted that Moto will be "adding substantially to its product portfolio" here in the near future, which will hopefully enable it to get a stronger grasp on the number 3 handset maker ranking. During the most recent quarter, the outfit shipped 28.1 million phones to just barely maintain its market share lead over LG, though it remains to be seen if it can keep this up. No pressure Moto, no pressure at all.[Via RCRWireless]
Mages and Rogues jump in Arena stats, while Hunters fall behind
Vhiari, keeper of the Armory stats, has updated once again, this time taking a look at Arena performance across all three rankings and all of the classes contained within. The 2v2 comparison (showing Arena rankings, across the bottom, with the percentage of players in each class at that ranking) tells the overall story: Mages are seeing major gains in the Arena, as are Rogues, which Vhiari speculates may be at the cost of Warlocks (who took a small tumble). And just as last time, Hunters continue to struggle in all three brackets -- 5v5 has the same situation as above, but in less extreme amounts.Of course, these are stats, and what these stats actually mean is up to you (and more importantly, up to Blizzard -- this is just a sign of who's getting which rankings at which levels, and this could be the result of many different things, so there's no reason to expect buffs or nerfs based on just this information). Still, it's a pretty clear look at just who's winning out there, for whatever reason -- the stats say Mages have done well the past few months, while Hunters continue to struggle inside the Arenas.[via WoR]
Famitsu best of 2007 list shows a lot of Xbox 360 love
The Xbox 360 has a reputation for being the underdog in Japanese sales, partly due to its status as the only American-produced console of the big three. So color us surprised by Famitsu's list of the top 25 titles of 2007, as ranked by the magazine's review scores, which features a lot of love for Microsoft's white wonder.Of the 25 titles ranked, a whopping ten are Xbox 360 titles. The games -- which include titles like Lost Odyssey, Halo 3 and Forza 2 -- make up the majority of the list, with the DS and PS3 tying at a distant second with five games apiece.The PS2 and PSP each had two games make the top 25 list, and the Wii lagged in last place with only one title (Super Mario Galaxy). Congrats go out to Microsoft. Now all they need are some strong sales figures in Japan to go along with their impressive scores.
WoW Insider is taking over the world
Reader Andy wrote in this morning to tell us about what he read while having his morning cup of joe. From the The Guardian's article on The world's 50 most powerful blogs: "46. WoW Insider"Ummm... really? Cool!While I consider us to be a major source of news, information, and QQness about World of Warcraft related things, I never really thought that we'd ever be included on a list like this. It's kind of nice. So who did we beat? And who beat us?
Game Developer Research releases "Top 50 Developers 2008" report
Much like the average review score report released earlier this week, we're sure that the report we're about to discuss will serve as ammunition for many a fanboy feud in the coming months -- Game Developer Research (a branch of Game Developer Magazine which was created in hopes of bringing a "new level of empirical measurement" to the gaming market) recently released their "Top 50 Developers 2008" report. Sadly, Backbone Emeryville, the artisanal minds behind last year's XBLA sleeper hit Yaris, didn't make the cut.Basing their rankings on sales figures, prolificacy, average review scores, and results from over 700 surveys issued to industry suits, GDR's list seems to be the most well-founded developer ranking we've ever seen (though Yarisians would probably disagree). We've got the whole list after the jump -- aren't you curious how your faves placed?
Sony vaults to top of latest North American LCD sales rankings, Samsung still king overall
Betcha didn't see this one coming. After Vizio and Samsung battled over the last few quarters for LCD supremacy here in North America, Sony has ratcheted up to number one after boosting its market share in said region from 9.7-percent to 12.8-percent. According to new research from DisplaySearch, Sony was the leading brand in the 40- to 44-inch, 45- to 49-inch and 50- to 54-inch LCD segments. 'Course, Samsung still remained king of the overall flat-panel market (and notched silver medals in both LCD and plasma sales), but it was Panasonic holding onto the top spot overall in PDP market share. Where's Vizio, you ask? Clinging to the bronze in both LCD and overall flat-panel sales. Hit the read link for lots more numbers -- if you're into that type of stuff, that is.[Via Widescreen Review]
Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD DVD player: 269000 sold
We're betting we weren't the only ones curious to know how many Xbox 360 HD DVD players were included in the 750,000 number we saw thrown out late last month, and while 269,000 may sound massive at first, it's really not all that surprising. If you'll recall, Microsoft managed to move 92,000 of these things last holiday season, and considering its perpetually lower price (comparatively speaking), it's been a fairly attractive option for Xbox 360 owners looking to get into the HD DVD game. According to new sales figures outed by NPD Group, over one-third of the HD DVD standalone player market is made up of the aforementioned units, and the attach rate to the 360 install base sits at 3.4-percent. 'Course, if the price of this thing keeps a-droppin', we could easily see that percentage climb higher once the dust settles from the end-of-year buying frenzy.[Via High-Def Digest]
Fantasy sports and MMO games
The Forge tackles an interesting question: are fantasy sports MMOs? Some of the more traditional sports fans would probably deny it, but Matt echoes a great case made by Charles Hudson: they feature repetitive gameplay, a combination of luck, skill, and strategy, and there is the obvious social element. I don't know if I would call fantasy sports "virtual worlds" (so this is likely the last you'll see of them on Massively for the foreseeable future), but it's definitely true that both fantasy sports and MMOs share the same type of social gameplay that's made them both so popular.Now, Matt says they also have a story, and to a certain extent, he's right. The real allure of sports is knowing all the stories behind it-- that Brett Favre's father passed away right before he played, or that the star hockey player is leaving right after the game ends to go see the birth of his baby. Behind all the stats, sports is one big storytelling session, and Sportscenter is the biggest daily soap opera of all time.But I don't think it's the story element that pulls in fantasy sports players-- it's the competitive element. The numbers all break down, and at the end of the year, you have a clear ranking that says who's better than who at predicting sports outcomes, and by how much. There is a certain amount of that competitive draw in PvP, but MMOs, I think, are far too distant from the actual numbers to make a sports fan happy. They may be interested in story, but at the end of the day, the game comes down to runs, strikes, and outs, and I think that's the way they like it.
AMD slips out of iSuppli's top 10 semiconductor suppliers
iSuppli -- the market research firm that keeps us up to speed on exactly how much each iPod pads Steve's wallet (among other things) -- has recently published its list of top players in the 2007 semiconductor market, and lo and behold, AMD isn't even in the top ten. It's noted that while Intel's chip revenue is expected to rise 7.7-percent in 2007, AMD's sales are predicted to sink some 22.7-percent for the year. Of course, AMD had only risen into the upper echelon of this list for the first time last year, but now it has fallen back to 11th, trailing the likes of Samsung, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Sony, NXP, Intel and Texas Instruments. If you're interested in seeing the details behind the numbers, be sure and hit the read link below. Oh, and please do keep the fanboy comments respectable, will ya?[Via PCWorld]
