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Smartphone sales in China plummet to their lowest in six years
It's no secret that smartphone sales are on the decline worldwide as consumers hold on to their handsets for longer. The trend is particularly visible in China, the world's biggest tech market, and a major battleground for the industry's leading manufacturers. When China slumps, even Apple and Samsung get burned. And the latest official sales data out of the country, via Reuters, paints a dire picture. Smartphone shipments in China fell to their lowest in six years in February, according to a government-affiliated research group.
Bohemia Interactive acquires a new team for DayZ and assembles a roadmap
Are you ready to kill your fellow survivors and take their stuff in DayZ? If so, you've got plenty of company; according to creator Dean Hall, the game has sold 1.7 million copies on Steam thus far. It's given the team good reason to expand, at that. Bohemia Interactive has acquired Cauldron Studios, now renamed Bohemia Interactive Slovakia, and will be putting that team to work developing more content and systems for the zombie sandbox experience. Hall also outlined a roadmap of the game's coming updates, stating that the end of April should see the inclusion of fireplaces, loot respawns, and crossbows. New pistols and AI pathfinding are next on the list, followed by a 64-bit upgrade and the inclusion of animals for players to hunt and cook. Whether you're looking forward to what comes next or just like the current state of beating up players and taking what they've found, if you're a fan of the game you should take a look at the full rundown.
Report: PS4 UK sales jump 106 percent after Infamous: Second Son
Sucker Punch's open-world action game, Infamous: Second Son, contributed to a 106 percent increase in PlayStation 4 hardware sales in the UK this week, MCV reports. Second Son claimed top honors in the GfK Chart-Track UK software sales rankings earlier today, beating out high-profile recent releases like Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes and Dark Souls 2. Titanfall's recent release triggered a similar sales spike for the Xbox One last week, leading to a 96 percent boost in UK sales for Microsoft's console. [Image: Sucker Punch]
The Last of Us surpasses 6 million units sold
Developer Naughty Dog revealed today that its PS3-exclusive post-pandemic survival game The Last of Us has sold more than six million copies worldwide since its launch in June last year. The latest sales figure likely includes digital purchases and copies of The Last of Us packaged with PlayStation 3 consoles, including last year's Amazon Black Friday bundle. The Last of Us topped Joystiq's list of the best games released across all platforms in 2013. Naughty Dog's announcement follows up on last month's launch of The Last of Us' "Left Behind" DLC, and accompanies recent reports stating that an upcoming film adaptation will stick closely to the game's storyline. [Image: Naughty Dog]
Grand Theft Auto 5 ships 32.5 million copies
The total number of Grand Theft Auto 5 copies Take-Two has shipped to date now exceeds 32.5 million. The number comes from the company's fiscal third quarter 2014 earnings report, in which it declared its money-making game the "best-selling video game of 2013," citing data from NPD. By comparison, the publisher also noted the entire NBA 2K series has shipped 35 million units to date. The number of copies shipped by Take-Two doesn't precisely indicate the number sold to customers, of course. GTA 5 has sold well regardless, earning an estimated $1 billion for the publisher in its first three days at retail. It sold 3.67 million copies at retail in the UK in 2013, leading all games in the region.
DayZ sells 400,000 copies in its first week of early access
The holiday season makes zombies of us all, as we lurch hither and yon through a combination of exhaustion and overeating. So it's totally understandable that you may have forgotten to really check in on the activities of DayZ's early access during the holidays. But now we're all back up and running, and it turns out the game did quite well for itself, with 400,000 copies sold during its first week of early access on Steam. The official update stresses once again that the game is still very much in an early state, and the people who purchase it should be ready to take part in the ongoing development progress rather than expecting to get a finished game. While the team has understandably been taking a bit of a break over the holiday season, the game has its immediate future already mapped out. Despite the delays, the game seems very much alive in its current state.
Gran Turismo 6 tops weekly sales charts in Japan, moves 200,000 units
Polyphony Digital's PlayStation 3-exclusive racing sim Gran Turismo 6 ranks as Japan's biggest-selling software title in its debut week, selling over 200,000 copies since its launch on December 5, according to sales data analyst Media Create. Gran Turismo 6 takes the top chart spot in Japan with 204,784 total copies sold to date. A revised version of Square Enix's Wii MMORPG Dragon Quest X claims second place with 117,432 units sold in its first week of release. Nintendo's Pokemon X and Pokemon Y finish at third place with 111,790 copies sold this week, for a total of 3,200,919 units sold in total. Gran Turismo 6's first-place finish in Japan follows up on its sluggish start in the UK, where it sold five times fewer copies than its predecessor Gran Turismo 5 sold in its debut week in 2010. North American sales data for Gran Turismo 6 is not yet available.
The iPhone is doomed, and it always has been
Every single version of the iPhone to ever be released has been doomed. In fact, some of them were so doomed I'm surprised we even acknowledge their existence anymore. Apple needs to just give up before the company has to start selling coffee mugs from its headquarters just to turn a profit. Wait, Apple already does that? My god, it's happening. But don't take my word for it, let's look at all of the extremely well-thought-out arguments as to why each new iPhone was going to flop... until it didn't. iPhone - 2007 It doesn't do 3G - What is this, the dark ages? It's locked to AT&T - Wow, Apple, way to kill your not-even-good smartphone idea before it even got a chance. The camera sucks - No flash? Almost zero options? What a joke. No picture messaging - My brother needs to see this burrito I'm going to eat. No removable battery - Has Apple learned nothing from criticisms of the iPod? No physical keyboard - Smartphones are supposed to have physical keyboards, that's just a fact of life. iPhone 3G - 2008 Still locked to AT&T - Apple must have sold its soul to the devil. No video recording - A brand-new iPhone, still no video recording. Is this a joke, Apple? Can't use it as a 3G modem - Once again, Apple falls behind the top-of-the-line smartphones. From metal to plastic - Why would you ever think switching from brushed aluminum to plastic was an "upgrade?" The ugliest phone on the market just got uglier. Same camera - This camera was trash in 2007, and it's even trashier trash in 2008. iPhone 3GS - 2009 Still locked to AT&T - Seriously? This is getting a little ridiculous. Videos suck - Apple finally added video, it's a shame the quality is abysmal. The name sucks - What the hell is a 3G S? And is it 3GS or 3G S or 3Gs? Confusing the customer is going to lead to lost sales, Apple, mark my words. No tethering (at launch) - We're now on our third iPhone and Apple still can't figure out a way to get tethering to work. It looks the same - When people buy a new smartphone, they want it to look different. Nobody with an iPhone 3G is even going to care about this one. iPhone 4 - 2010 Still locked to AT&T (at launch) - Someone at AT&T must have some great blackmail on Apple's bigwigs. Antenna issues - Well, that's it for the iPhone brand. Nobody is going to buy a phone when there are videos online showing that just holding the thing causes it to break. Bye bye, Apple! It's a 4, but not 4G - Apple is just trying to trick us into thinking this is a 4G phone. Don't be fooled! Boycott! The cameras still suck - They added a front-facing camera? Who even makes video calls? The rear camera is only 5 megapixels, and what's this weird green tint to my photos? Fail. The new design is horrible - Phones are supposed to be sleek, not boxy. How am I supposed to slide this into my pocket? iPhone 4s - 2011 Same old design - Apple is so far behind in the screen size game they'll never be able to catch up Siri is lame - Apple bet on the wrong virtual horse here, and Siri is going to lose. Battery life is horrible - If I can't go three days without charging my phone, I'm taking it back. Still no 4G - 3G is, like, *so* yesterday. No NFC - Near-field communication is the future, and Apple will be left behind. iPhone 5 - 2012 Screen size, again - A measly half inch? That's what you give us for waiting half a decade? That's it Apple, I'm never buying one of your phones again. Ever. Design is unchanged - It's just a taller 4S, which was just the same as the 4. I'm not buying the same phone for a 3rd time. The Lightning cable - Great, now all my old iPhone charging cords are useless. People will see through Apple's game. They'll go bankrupt for trying scam smart consumers! iPhone 5s & 5c - 2013 Two models - Splitting your market in half? Nice move, Apple, the end is surely nigh. Screen size, again - These things are puny compared to Android phones, who would even want one? Colors are dumb - The iPhone 5c is just a regular iPhone 5 with a fancy plastic back, and the iPhone 5s only gets that ugly gold color added? It's like Apple doesn't even care any more. Touch ID is pointless - Who even locks their phones these days? My phone is always in a safe plac... where'd my phone go? iOS 7 is confusing - Where'd my cute little wooden newsstand go? That's it, I'm switching to Windows Phone. See what I mean? Apple's iPhone has always been doomed. It's just a good thing that being doomed has never stopped it from selling in record numbers. Note: Just to be 100% clear (after seeing a few comments from confused readers), I know the iPhone isn't actually doomed. On today, a new iPhone launch day -- the day each year when the articles claiming "Apple's New iPhone is Crap!" hits a deafening pitch -- I wanted to point out that, according to naysayers, every single iPhone has been "doomed." [Image credit: magic_quote]
Tekken Revolution downloaded 2 million times, franchise to-date units crest 42 million
The Tekken franchise ain't doin' so bad for itself, according to a few humblebrags dropped by series producer Katsuhiro Harada during our recent visit to Namco Bandai HQ. "In three months we've achieved two million downloads," Harada said of Namco Bandai's free-to-play, PlayStation 3-exclusive spinoff Tekken Revolution. "The Tekken franchise," he added, "has told 42.5 million copies worldwide to date – making it the top in the genre – and 20 million of those or more have come from Europe." Harada also pointed out that "most of the user audience" for Tekken Revolution exists in the United States, with the Japanese audience "a close second," and that these results are "different from the traditional numbers" typically seen with packaged Tekken releases.
BioShock Infinite sales pass 4 million
Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick has revealed that BioShock Infinite has sold more than 4 million units since its release last March. This comes hot on the heels of the first-person shooter's new DLC and the announcement of an impending return to more nostalgic, sub-aquatic pastures. "BioShock Infinite is North America's best-selling multiplatform release so far this year, according to NPD," Zelnick said during an investor conference call following the release of Take-Two's financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014. "The title has crossed the 4 million units selling mark, and we expect it to become the top-selling release in the BioShock franchise."
March NPD: BioShock Infinite rises to the top, Tomb Raider in second
The sales-tracking data hounds at NPD have released their figures for March 2013, which collectively place hardware sales down, physical software sales slightly up, and BioShock Infinite at the top of the best-selling pile.The physical retail sales sector of the U.S. video game industry pulled in 10 percent less coin than it did during the same five-week period in 2012, amassing a total of $992.5 million between March 3 and April 6, 2013. Hardware sales took the biggest hit out of the three monitored retail sub-categories, bringing in a total of $221.6 million, a 32 percent year-over-year decrease. Microsoft's Xbox 360 claimed its 27th month as the best-selling console in America, selling 261,000 units, down 13.5 percent from last month.Meanwhile, overall physical software sales (console, portable and PC games) outperformed March 2012 by two percent: $602.4 million in 2013, as compared with last a total of $592.2 million in sales last March.BioShock Infinite took an immediate victory over the rest of the period's release calendar, with Tomb Raider and Gears of War: Judgment rounding out the podium lineup. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon placed sixth overall; we learned yesterday it has sold 415,000 units. Though that figure's retail-to-digital ratio remains undefined, the "vast majority" of sales took place at retail, according to Nintendo's Scott Moffit.As always, jump on through for the top 10 best-selling games of March, 2013.
Tekken Card Tournament crests 1 million downloads, celebrates with discounts
Tekken Card Tournament was downloaded over a million times (in aggregate) within the first four days of its availability on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon's Appstore for Android, Namco Bandai has announced. That's not counting however many people played the game directly in their browser, either.To signify the occasion, Namco Bandai has enacted a 48 hour, 30 percent off sale for all in-game booster packs, as of 11 a.m. Eastern this morning. Do note: this discount applies to the packs of cards themselves, which must be purchased using in-game currency. The purchase price of the in-game currency itself, however, has not been discounted, though you'll still get more for your credits while the sale is in effect.You can always earn credits by winning matches and stuff too, but who has time for that in this modern age?
Telltale: The Walking Dead has sold 8.5 million episodes
Telltale's acclaimed episodic series The Walking Dead has sold over 8.5 million episodes, CEO Dan Connors told The Wall Street Journal. Connors said that about 25 percent of the sales come from iOS devices, and "at about $5 per episode, that's roughly more than $40 million in sales, not including any promotions."Of course, The Walking Dead has seen its share of promotions, and is even a part of this weekend's Steam Holiday Encore sale. With Telltale Games planning to expand in the coming months, these sales numbers could equate to a much bigger conference room.
Sony: 30M PS3s sold in EU/PAL territories
As of December 17, the PlayStation 3 has sold 30 million units across the great breadth of the United Kingdom, the European Union and everywhere else that PAL-configured consoles are sold, Sony has announced. At least five million of those units were distributed to households in the UK alone, though how the other 25 million are divvied up is anyone's guess.Let's put that number into context by first surmising that the median weight of all existing PS3s is 9.35 pounds per console, assuming an even spread of Phat PAL and Slim PAL models across the world. That's 280.5 million pounds worth of PlayStations, or the approximate weight of 112,200 Volkswagen buses, assuming an average weight of 2,500 pounds per bus, and that all the hypothetical buses used were manufactured before 1967.Hey, we never said the context would be meaningful.
Nintendo moves over 300K Wii U consoles in Japan after first week
Nintendo had a so-so stateside Wii U debut, but with 300,000 units chalked up after a week in Japan, it's become the seventh best hardware launch in that country, according to Famitsu and Enterbrain. Games selling well alongside the device include evergreen Super Mario, which tagged along to the tune of 170k units, while Monster Hunter rang up 110k titles. All that is a modestly successful debut for the console at home so far, considering that its more revolutionary predecessor became a monster hit after selling a fourth-best 370,000 copies during its first week in the island nation. On the other hand, Sony's PS Vita also racked up decent early numbers, and we all know how that turned out.
Report: 70 million Xbox 360s sold to date
Since its launch way back in 2005, the Xbox 360 has been purchased a grand total of 70 million times, according to IGN. This figure is up by nearly three million units since last April, when the global total rung up at 67.2 million.Conceptualizing that many Xboxes is kind of hard to do, so let's put that figure into a ridiculous, arbitrary context. An olympic-sized swimming pool, for instance, holds about 424,935 Xboxes, assuming a pool volume of 88,528 cubic feet and Non-S model 360s. In order to hold all the Xboxes sold in the world so far, it would require 165 olympic-sized swimming pools, with that 165th pool having a tiny little bit of space left over for some controllers and a copy of Condemned: Criminal Origins.To put it another way, if every Xbox sold in the world were put on one side of a giant scale, 2,156 blue whales would need to be placed on the other side for it to balance properly, assuming a median weight of 250,000 pounds per whale. That's kind of a lot of Xboxes, you guys.
Google Play hits 25 billion app downloads, holds celebratory yard sale with $0.25 games
Google Play crossed a rather significant milestone this morning: something to the tune of 25 billion app downloads. While the accomplishment is weighty enough on its own -- especially given that the store also offers books, music and movies, which aren't included in this tally -- Google is celebrating in symbolic style with a number of apps and games for sale at just $0.25 over the next five days. Among the mix of discounted titles, you'll find publishers such as Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, Runtastic and Full Fat. Not to stop there, shoppers will also discover a curated collection of 25 must-own movies, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and 25 top-selling magazines. With today's announcement, it was revealed that 675,000 apps and games now live in Google Play -- a healthy increase when compared to 600,000 titles and 20 billion installs just three months ago. As you might expect, Apple still claims the largest selection with 700,000 titles in its App Store, although with such a thin separation between the two, we may see Google Play eclipse its rival in short order.
Nokia: 7 million Lumia phones sold to date in 54 countries, 4 million in the last quarter
Fresh on the heels of the much-anticipated Lumia 920 announcement, some new figures have come to light regarding its predecessors' success. According to the Finnish phone-maker, a total of 7-million Windows Phone / Lumia devices have shipped to date. The firm was also keen to point out that this number comes from 54 markets in total -- some 130 different operators. While this might seem modest, especially with only 600,000 of those sales being in the US, 4-million of those Lumia devices were sold in Q2, roughly double that of the preceding two quarters, so things are on the up. Now it just remains to see what impact any new Windows Phone 8 phones will have.
Samsung: 10 million Galaxy Notes have been sold, worldwide
Samsung's got more reasons to celebrate today than just the release of its latest pen-friendly tablet -- the company also let it be known that it has managed to sell 10 Million Galaxy Note devices, globally. The electronics giant also hit that milestone with its Galaxy S III handset a little under a month ago.
EVE Evolved: Four things MMOs can learn from EVE
New MMOs are released every year, and we often see them repeating the same mistakes as previous games or releasing without tried-and-tested mechanics. It just seems like common sense to learn from the years of mistakes and successes of other companies and previous titles, but it isn't always clear how to apply game mechanics or lessons from dissimilar types of game. EVE Online is as dissimilar from the typical MMO as you can get, but there are lessons to be learned from its turbulent nine-year history that can be applied to all MMO development. EVE has helped prove that you can start small and grow rather than raking in huge launch sales and then fading away. The past year has also shown conclusively that iteration on existing features can trump big expansions. EVE's market system and single-shard server have both been commended countless times over the game's nine-year history, and yet in all that time, few games have tried to replicate those features. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at four lessons learned from EVE Online that could easily be applied to other MMOs.
