As someone who owns eight different video game consoles and spends as much as four hours a day "gaming," Rumen is all but a certified expert on today's video game market. Rumen knows something that no Wall Street analyst does - how today's video game audience thinks. He knows what games are on the cutting edge, and more importantly, what games and consoles are most playable and popular among his peers.]


Despite all of the uncertainty of 2008, video game sales have been booming.

U.S. sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories surged 36% in the first half of the year to $8.27 billion. That even outpaces the $6.1 billion grossed over the same period in 2007, which was a record year for the industry.

Indeed, the video game industry has acquired the reputation of being recession proof, and the statistics bear that out. In 2002, after the technology bubble burst, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22%. Meanwhile, video gaming revenue climbed 43%.

And after a banner year in 2007, in which industry sales soared 50% to an all-time high of $18.85 billion, 2008 - even with all of its misgivings - is shaping up to be a new industry standard. Worldwide revenue is expected to exceed $57 billion in 2008, up 35% from the 2007 record of $41.9 billion.

With 267 million video games sold, an average of nine games per second were carried out of retail stores across the country last year. But as remarkable as that is, video games are flying off the shelves even faster in 2008, with sales up 41% in the first half of the year.

As the world’s leading format of entertainment, the video game industry had global sales of $41.9 billion in 2007 - double the total sales of 2002, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. At this rate, global sales will hit $68.3 billion by 2012. That’s a 10.3% annual increase over the next four years.


The Video Game Cheat Sheet
Video games have come a long way from the days of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Pong…

There are gun-toting shooter games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Grand Theft Auto. There are fantasy, or role-playing games (RPGs), like Spore and Final Fantasy, that allow players to reshape an imaginary world in their own image.

And now, with recent advances in motion and sensory technology, there are games like Guitar Hero, MarioKar, and Wii Fit, that allow players to become active participants in the games they play, and physically control the onscreen action.

Here’s a quick look at the games that have sold the most copies over the past 12 months, in order of sales to date. (Note that the sales figures are approximate, and that the release date is the first date the game was released globally.)

1. Call of Duty 4 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC (10 million copies sold-Released November 6, 2007)-Activision, now Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)

2. Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 (8 million copies sold -Released September 25, 2007)-Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

3. Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC (6.5 million copies sold -Released April 29, 2008)-Take Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO)

4. Mario Kart Wii for the Wii (6.5 million copies sold -Released April 10, 2008)-Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NTDOY.PK)

5. Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii (6 million copies sold -Released November 1, 2007)-Nintendo

6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii (5 million copies sold -Released January 31, 2008)-Nintendo

7. Wii Fit for the Wii (5 million copies sold -Release December 1, 2007 (in Japan, later elsewhere)-Nintendo

8. Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3 (3 million copies sold -Released June 12, 2008)-Konami Corp. (KNM)

These are the games that have proven most popular over the past year. It’s important to note that all except one, Wii Fit, are sequels to previous releases. This is important because it shows that gamers are most comfortable buying and playing updated releases of games they’ve enjoyed in the past.

Likewise, the newest installment of the popular John Madden NFL football series is a sure-fire seller every year.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1085...ecession-proof ...

As someone who owns eight different video game consoles and spends as much as four hours a day "gaming," Rumen is all but a certified expert on today's video game market. Rumen knows something that no Wall Street analyst does - how today's video game audience thinks. He knows what games are on the cutting edge, and more importantly, what games and consoles are most playable and popular among his peers.]


Despite all of the uncertainty of 2008, video game sales have been booming.

U.S. sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories surged 36% in the first half of the year to $8.27 billion. That even outpaces the $6.1 billion grossed over the same period in 2007, which was a record year for the industry.

Indeed, the video game industry has acquired the reputation of being recession proof, and the statistics bear that out. In 2002, after the technology bubble burst, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22%. Meanwhile, video gaming revenue climbed 43%.

And after a banner year in 2007, in which industry sales soared 50% to an all-time high of $18.85 billion, 2008 - even with all of its misgivings - is shaping up to be a new industry standard. Worldwide revenue is expected to exceed $57 billion in 2008, up 35% from the 2007 record of $41.9 billion.

With 267 million video games sold, an average of nine games per second were carried out of retail stores across the country last year. But as remarkable as that is, video games are flying off the shelves even faster in 2008, with sales up 41% in the first half of the year.

As the world’s leading format of entertainment, the video game industry had global sales of $41.9 billion in 2007 - double the total sales of 2002, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. At this rate, global sales will hit $68.3 billion by 2012. That’s a 10.3% annual increase over the next four years.


The Video Game Cheat Sheet
Video games have come a long way from the days of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Pong…

There are gun-toting shooter games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Grand Theft Auto. There are fantasy, or role-playing games (RPGs), like Spore and Final Fantasy, that allow players to reshape an imaginary world in their own image.

And now, with recent advances in motion and sensory technology, there are games like Guitar Hero, MarioKar, and Wii Fit, that allow players to become active participants in the games they play, and physically control the onscreen action.

Here’s a quick look at the games that have sold the most copies over the past 12 months, in order of sales to date. (Note that the sales figures are approximate, and that the release date is the first date the game was released globally.)

1. Call of Duty 4 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC (10 million copies sold-Released November 6, 2007)-Activision, now Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)

2. Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 (8 million copies sold -Released September 25, 2007)-Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

3. Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC (6.5 million copies sold -Released April 29, 2008)-Take Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO)

4. Mario Kart Wii for the Wii (6.5 million copies sold -Released April 10, 2008)-Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NTDOY.PK)

5. Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii (6 million copies sold -Released November 1, 2007)-Nintendo

6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii (5 million copies sold -Released January 31, 2008)-Nintendo

7. Wii Fit for the Wii (5 million copies sold -Release December 1, 2007 (in Japan, later elsewhere)-Nintendo

8. Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3 (3 million copies sold -Released June 12, 2008)-Konami Corp. (KNM)

These are the games that have proven most popular over the past year. It’s important to note that all except one, Wii Fit, are sequels to previous releases. This is important because it shows that gamers are most comfortable buying and playing updated releases of games they’ve enjoyed in the past.

Likewise, the newest installment of the popular John Madden NFL football series is a sure-fire seller every year.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1085...ecession-proof ...

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a recent press event in London, Wheelman creative director Simon Woodroffe revealed that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV has changed what gamers expect from an open world action title.

"Our game was already quite different, but GTA 4 moved the bar in terms of what people expected from an open-world driving game," said Woodroffe. "Before GTA 4, open-world driving games generally had more accessible, more arcade-like, handling. Even the previous GTAs were like that. But GTA IV moved the bar towards realism - even super-realism, you know?

Woodroffe noted that this change from easy Arcade-style vehicle handling to something more realistic dramatically affected the feedback he was getting on his game.

"At first I found it fairly frustrating, in comparison with Wheelman, but it was different enough to make us say, 'Look, people obviously want a more realistic experience. They don't want to be given things for free'. They want to feel like the ultimate driving hero, but they don't want to feel like they're being given it for nothing - otherwise there's no sense of accomplishment," Woodroffe explained. "We started to get feedback from our focus testers, within weeks of GTA 4 coming out, that the basic driving was dropping in popularity. It had gone from being the most highly rated element, to one of the lowest on the list. And I'm looking at this and thinking, "There's only one reason for this. GTA 4 has changed gamers' expectations"."

He continued: "... our job is to be up-to-date with current expectations and to manage them well. I'm very big on choice, and I'm very big on design and control systems. All the physics stuff stays very close to me and the design team, so it was work for a few hours or so, and polishing things up for a week or two, to change the way Wheelman felt to be a little more realistic and a little more grounded, based upon the feedback we were getting, based upon the impact of GTA 4."

Woodroffe now feels that Wheelman has been adapted based on feedback from testers and is "right on the money in terms of what people expect from an open-world racer".

http://www.videogamer.com/news/01-12-2008-10070.html ...

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a recent press event in London, Wheelman creative director Simon Woodroffe revealed that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV has changed what gamers expect from an open world action title.

"Our game was already quite different, but GTA 4 moved the bar in terms of what people expected from an open-world driving game," said Woodroffe. "Before GTA 4, open-world driving games generally had more accessible, more arcade-like, handling. Even the previous GTAs were like that. But GTA IV moved the bar towards realism - even super-realism, you know?

Woodroffe noted that this change from easy Arcade-style vehicle handling to something more realistic dramatically affected the feedback he was getting on his game.

"At first I found it fairly frustrating, in comparison with Wheelman, but it was different enough to make us say, 'Look, people obviously want a more realistic experience. They don't want to be given things for free'. They want to feel like the ultimate driving hero, but they don't want to feel like they're being given it for nothing - otherwise there's no sense of accomplishment," Woodroffe explained. "We started to get feedback from our focus testers, within weeks of GTA 4 coming out, that the basic driving was dropping in popularity. It had gone from being the most highly rated element, to one of the lowest on the list. And I'm looking at this and thinking, "There's only one reason for this. GTA 4 has changed gamers' expectations"."

He continued: "... our job is to be up-to-date with current expectations and to manage them well. I'm very big on choice, and I'm very big on design and control systems. All the physics stuff stays very close to me and the design team, so it was work for a few hours or so, and polishing things up for a week or two, to change the way Wheelman felt to be a little more realistic and a little more grounded, based upon the feedback we were getting, based upon the impact of GTA 4."

Woodroffe now feels that Wheelman has been adapted based on feedback from testers and is "right on the money in terms of what people expect from an open-world racer".

http://www.videogamer.com/news/01-12-2008-10070.html ...

The DS Emulator for Windows has seen a new build released today, heres whats new:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

Of course Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is coming to North America and it is getting a speedy localization too. Square Enix will release the Wii/DS game in Japan first on January 29 with a limited edition Nintendo DSi. A few months later in the spring Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time will cross the pond when Square Enix publishes it in North America.

The story is about a sixteen year old hero who just returned home from a monster filled forest and a rite of passage. In his village he finds a young girl with “crystal sickness” and only the hero is brave enough to leave home to find a cure for the weak girl. You play as the hero which can be any of the four races in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles universe: Clavats, Lilties, Selkies, or Yukes. The character you make can be further customized by changing equipment and using your Mii. Yes, Square Enix is publishing the Wii and DS versions in North America too. However, they haven’t announced a price for either console. Gamestop lists both games at $39.99 which sounds about right.

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/12/01...ed-for-spring/ ...

Of course Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is coming to North America and it is getting a speedy localization too. Square Enix will release the Wii/DS game in Japan first on January 29 with a limited edition Nintendo DSi. A few months later in the spring Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time will cross the pond when Square Enix publishes it in North America.

The story is about a sixteen year old hero who just returned home from a monster filled forest and a rite of passage. In his village he finds a young girl with “crystal sickness” and only the hero is brave enough to leave home to find a cure for the weak girl. You play as the hero which can be any of the four races in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles universe: Clavats, Lilties, Selkies, or Yukes. The character you make can be further customized by changing equipment and using your Mii. Yes, Square Enix is publishing the Wii and DS versions in North America too. However, they haven’t announced a price for either console. Gamestop lists both games at $39.99 which sounds about right.

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/12/01...ed-for-spring/ ...

Steal Princess was an easy game to identify since it is using the same name as its Japanese counterpart. The Dark Spire is more elusive. Like Steal Princess it’s for the DS and the ESRB says Atlus is publishing it. However, I don’t recall any game from Japan with exactly the same name. It could be a European game since Atlus USA is publishing Trackmaster, but there isn’t a European developed DS game called The Dark Spire either. Fortunately, the ESRB database now comes with descriptions and this is a summary of the Dark Spire.



This is a role-playing game in which players traverse through a dungeon to look for a stolen treasure. Players encounter monsters throughout the dungeon and can choose from a list of actions such as “attack,” “defend,” and “run.” Some story elements have graphic descriptions of violence (e.g., “…cut his own wrists and sprayed his blood” and “the sword impaled her through the chest”). Character accessories can include “bikini armor” and a “frilled codpiece,” while one scene mentions an “erotic panda.” Expletives (e.g., “bastard” and “hell”) can be seen in the dialogue, as well as references to alcohol products (e.g., “breath that reeks of rum”).

Hmm… dungeon crawling with basic RPG commands? Could this be the English version of Elminage DS Remix? Anyone else have a guess? “Erotic panda” could be a big hint too!

Update: Kid Marin had a great guess Genmu no Tou to Tsurugi no Okite from Success. Since Atlus and Success have close ties the Dark Spire may just be this retro dungeon crawler.

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/12/01...me-from-atlus/ ...

Marvelous is co-publishing most of their games with XSEED, but Atlus still seems to be taking care of some Marvelous titles. On top of Luminous Arc 2 Atlus picked up Steal Princess, Climax’s spiritual successor to Landstalker. Not entirely unsurprising news since an English version was already announced for Europe, but it’s good to have some sort of confirmation of a North American release even if it’s just an ESRB leak as of now.



I played the Japanese version of Steal Princess and it starts off slow as molasses with a bunch of training levels. Once you get past the first batch Climax has some brain bending platforming puzzles to solve. Post-game players can create and trade user created Steal Princess levels over via Nintendo Wi-Fi. There are six spots for user levels on one DS cart and if Atlus can do one thing to improve the game over the Japanese release its creating a community for Steal Princess map makers.

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/12/01...north-america/ ...