The NPD Group has released its hardware sales data for the month of November 2009, showing that recent surge in PlayStation 3 sales has stalled, with Sony's console once again selling less than the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 sold 819,500 units in the US in November, up substantially from the 249,700 it sold in October due primarily to the holiday season. The PlayStation 3 sold 710,400 which, while also an improvement over October, was not enough to keep it ahead of the competition.

As is usual, Nintendo's DS and Wii consoles topped the chart, with 1.7 and 1.26 million sold respectively.

"While there has been a lot of focus on Wii sales as compared to last year, the system was still the best-selling console system by a margin of 54 per cent," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

"At this same point in the PS2 lifecycle, the PS2 was down in unit sales by 23 per cent over the previous year, but as history has shown, it continues to have a great deal of life left in it. So focusing on a comparison to Wii's stellar 2008 performance masks the reality of just how well this system is selling."

The full hardware chart follows.

1. Nintendo DS - 1,700,000
2. Nintendo Wii - 1,260,000
3. Xbox 360 - 819,500
4. PlayStation 3 - 710,400
5. PlayStation Portable - 293,900
6. PlayStation 2 - 203,100

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...below-xbox-360 ...

It looks like Activision's hopes for Tony Hawk: Ride are falling even faster than the average Tony Hawk: Ride player. IndustryGamers reports that this month's NPD numbers place the game at 114,000 copies sold across three platforms. Not that Activision is even paying attention to its own failure right now, distracted by the ridiculous success of its own Modern Warfare 2. This is the second disappointing month in a row for a big-box Activision game.

While we don't have a per-platform breakdown of the disappointing sales, a forecast released before today's NPD results estimated that just 13,000 copies sold on Xbox 360. All of this just confirms what we intuitively knew: skateboards without wheels just don't work.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/10/np...e-in-november/ ...

Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. Wii in Japan last week, giving the console its biggest first-week software sales in the country to date, more than 950,000 copies sold, according to Media Create.

That puts it ahead of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, ahead of Mario Kart Wii, and ahead of everything else released in Japan this week. While two new PSP games—Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus—scored second and third place with impressive numbers, their sales couldn't come close to the newest of New Super Mario Bros.

And speaking of New Super Mario Bros., the Nintendo DS original is still represented well on this week's chart, managing to score 24th place this week, many years after its initial debut.

As for the new games, Assassin's Creed II managed a top ten showing, as did PokePark for the Wii. In danger of slipping from Media Create's top thirty is poor old Dragon Quest IX. Hang in there, DQ!

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 953,000 / NEW
02. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP) - 287,000 / NEW
03. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus (PSP) - 223,000 / NEW
04. Sengoku Musou 3 (Wii) - 121,000 / NEW
05. Layton Kyouju to Majin no Fue (DS) - 85,000 / 392,000
06. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 75,000 / 1,822,000
07. PokePark Wii: Pikachu no Daibouken (Wii) - 64,000 / NEW
08. Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (DS) - 63,000 / 3,153,000
09. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 52,000 / 1,044,000
10. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) - 49,000 / NEW

11. Tokimeki Memorial 4 (PSP)
12. Power Pro-Kun Pocket 12 (DS)
13. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS)
14. Metal Fight Beyblade: Bakutan Cyber Pegasus (DS)
15. Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes W (Wii)
16. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360)
17. Momotarou Dentetsu 2010 Senkoku Ishin no Hero Daisyuugou ! No Ken (Wii)
18. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
19. Stitch! Ohana to Rhythm de Daibouken (DS)
20. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii Dodoon to 2 Yome! (Wii)
21. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (DS)
22. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (PS3)
23. Kaiju Busters (DS)
24. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
25. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
26. J-League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! 6: Pride of J (PSP)
27. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
28. Tamagotchi no Narikiri Channeru (DS)
29. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (The Best) (PSP)
30. Dragon Quest IX (DS)

http://kotaku.com/5423484/new-super-...new-of-the-new ...

Media review aggregator Metacritic has released a list of the top games and consoles of 2009, with the PlayStation 3 coming out on top of the site's first annual Game Platform Power Ranking.

The Game Platform Power Ranking isn't just about the average review score of games across the various platforms. Metacritic takes into account the number of titles scored a 90 or higher when calculating the winner, which explains how the PlayStation 3 came out on top, despite PC titles having an average score of 72.5 to the PS3's 72.0.

As you can see in the chart, the Xbox 360 takes third place, followed by the Sony PSP. Nintendo's two platforms take up the rear, perhaps as result of having more games released than any other console platform.

So the PlayStation 3 is the top console, what are the top games?
The PlayStation 3 tops the chart again, with the first three positions taken up with PS3 titles. In fact, of the three titles in the list that are platform exclusives, two of those belong to the PlayStation 3 - number one Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and the God of War Collection, with Xbox 360 racer Forza Motorsport 3 being the third.

Not one game in the top 10 best reviewed games for the year is for the Nintendo Wii, with only a lone DS game - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - joining the five PS3 and four Xbox 360 titles.

Going over all of the statistics, it looks like a matter of quality over quantity for the PlayStation 3. It's good to see the sun shining on Sony's black box, isn't it?

You can check out the full lists and breakdowns by platform over at Metacritic.

http://features.metacritic.com/featu...games-of-2009/

http://kotaku.com/5423709/metacritic...atform-of-2009 ...

Having been presented for its first year of public existence as a social platform, PlayStation Home is about to be pushed in a new way: As a social gaming platform.

"We have developed a forum for developers to come in and develop 3D social games," Buser told Kotaku during a Sony Playstation 3 showcase in New York. The goal is to spawn the development in Home of what Buser calls "mini-MMOs."

PlayStation Home has primarily been shaped as a social space up until now, enabling online-connected PS3 users to interact with each other in virtual movie theaters, courtyards, malls, houses and game-themed spaces. Users in Home chat together, dance together and flirt together — any quick visit to Home will verify that that last activity is quite popular.

Some of the spaces in Home have allowed PS3 users to play. There is a hedge maze in one space, a poker table in another. Ratchet & Clank's Home space includes a scavenger hunt and shooting game (pictured above); Uncharted 2's has a multiplayer modification of Risk. Those latter spaces, Buser said, are hints of where this could be going.

You would go to Home not just to hang out, but to play 3D "casual" games.

Buser had no mini-MMOs quite ready to announce yet, but was confident that the gaming expansion of Home is underway. The service turns one year old tomorrow, but Buser was cagey about how, if at all, that anniversary would be celebrated. Time, if not to launch mini-MMOs, to drop the "beta" tag from the project's status? Not something he could talk about now, he said.

http://kotaku.com/5423761/playstatio...on-the-service ...

As widely expected, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 moved over 6 million copies in the U.S. last month on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, making the first-person shooter November's best selling video game.

Settling for third, behind the two versions of Modern Warfare 2, was Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which managed 1.39 million copies. Nintendo's latest Mario adventure for the Wii did so with five fewer days on U.S. store shelves.

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II came closest to reaching New Super Mario Bros. Wii, with 794,700 units on the 360, 448,400 on the PS3. Combined, Assassin's Creed II came even closer, with 1,243,100 copies sold across both platforms.

The Xbox 360 and Wii tied for the number of top ten games appearing on each platform. The Xbox 360 scored top showings with Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, with Wii bestsellers Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort continuing to score big figures.

The full top ten, according to the NPD Group is as follows.

01. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) - 4,200,000
02. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) - 1,870,000
03. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 1,390,000
04. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360) - 794,700
05. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) - 744,000
06. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 720,200
07. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 679,000
08. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) - 448,400
09. Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360) - 362,100
10. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 315,000

Total software sales were a relatively healthy $1.406B, down just 3.1% from the November prior. Thanks, Modern Warfare 2.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has achieved the top spot for first-month sales of any game at the title level," says Anita Frazier, NPD analyst. "Halo 3 previously held the spot when it sold 3.3 million units in September '07 in 12 days at retail. MW2 bested Halo 3's daily sales rate by 16% in its 19 days at retail in November.""

"While this year's top-selling item bested last year's by 283%, it couldn't make up for softness elsewhere. The top 50 games this year sold 5% less units than did the top 50 last year."

http://kotaku.com/5423781/npd-modern...on-in-november ...

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Almost a month after the initial release, the coder ac-Portugal releases the first update for Lua MP3, a player file format. Mp3 developed programming language LUA. This update introduces some new features and fixes some bugs in the first version of the program.
Following the full changelog and the link to download.

Changelog v0.2:

Quote:

- Boot Removed
- If there are no drivers required, the program will ask you to install
- Removed the battery icon and replaced with the percentage
- E 'can access the options in any section of the program
- E 'can increase / decrease the brightness of the screen
- Added scrollbar to the list of music files
- Ability to enable / disable the joystick in the options
- If the HOLD button is activated, the screen will turn off the console
- It 'possible to delete music files from the list by pressing the
- The time and the percentage of battery power are present in every section of the program
- Improved some parts of code
- Warning when the level of battery charge is below 5%
- Single configuration file
- To exit the program, you must now use the key
- Fixed some bugs

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