Call of Duty: Black Ops II and FIFA 13 are the two biggest entertainment releases of the year at UK retail.
Both titles comfortably outsold The Dark Knight Rises, the third best selling entertainment product of the year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II shifted 2.67m units, while FIFA 13 sold 2.6m units.for the year. The Dark Knight Rises sold 1.2m.
However outside of the Top Two, video games has a poorer showing in last year's chart, with Assassin's Creed III the next highest charter at No.13.
ERA boss Kim Bayley said: “2012 was a tough year for entertainment due to a number of factors, but this sharp 25% shrinkage in sales of the biggest titles suggests that the quality of releases was at least partly to blame. Luckily 2013 has got off to a good start with Skyfall already selling more than 2m copies – way ahead of last year’s biggest-selling video, The Dark Knight Rises.”
The full chart is below.

The data is courtesy of ERA, based on Chart-Track and Official Charts Company data.


THE ENTERTAINMENT TOP 40
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Activision Blizzard –––– 2,672,364
2. FIFA 13, Electronic Arts –––– 2,601,877
3. The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Home Video –––– 1,694,434
4. The Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Entertainment One –––– 1,515,604
5. Our Version of Events (Emeli Sande), Universal Music –––– 1,446,844
6. Now That's What I Call Music 83 (Various Artists), EMI Music/Universal Music –––– 1,389,006
7. Avengers Assemble, Walt Disney Studios ––– 1,349,937
8. TED, Universal Pictures –––– 1,188,295
9. War Horse, Walt Disney Studios –––– 986,870
10. The Hunger Games, Elevation Sales –––– 946,592
11. Mrs Brown's Boys – Series One, Universal Pictures ––– 913,145
12. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 20th Century Fox ––– 888,629
13. Assassin's Creed III, Ubisoft ––– 886,198
14. Now That's What I Call Music 82 (Various Artists), EMI Music/Universal Music ––– 866,031
15. Prometheus, 20th Century Fox ––– 853,079
16. Ice Age 4 – Continental Drift, 20th Century Fox ––– 819,009
17. 21 (Adele), XL Beggars ––– 816,317
18. Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows, Warner Home Video ––– 816,126
19. + (Ed Sheeran), Warner Music ––– 811,038
20. Now That's What I Call Music 81 (Various Artists), EMI Music/Universal Music ––– 756,035
21. Halo 4, Microsoft ––– 753,489
22. Born To Die (Lana del Rey), Universal Music ––– 743,210
23. Brave, Walt Disney Studios ––– 743,021
24. Bridesmaids, Universal Pictures ––– 710,185
25. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Elevation Sales ––– 707,875
26. Johnny English Reborn, Universal Pictures –––– 694,651
27. Mrs Brown's Boys – Series Two, Universal Pictures –––– 670,956
28. The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony Pictures –––– 656,620
29. The Woman In Black, Momentum Pictures –––– 654,589
30. Take Me Home One Direction, Sony Music ––– 643,433
31. Right Place Right Time, Olly Murs ––– Sony Music 597,370
32. The Adventures of TinTin – The Secrets Of, Paramount –––– 597,282
33. Babel Mumford & Sons, Universal Music –––– 592,173
34. Mrs Brown's Live Tour – Good Mourning, Universal Pictures ––– 585,925
35. Michael McIntyre Showtime, Universal Pictures –––– 579,011
36. Hitman Absolution, Square Enix –––– 571,248
37. Just Dance 4, Ubisoft –––– 562,453
38. Despicable Me, Universal Pictures –––– 549,111
39. Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Paramount –––– 545,502
40. Far Cry 3, Ubisoft -––– 540,237
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/call-...buster/0112263 ...

We’re now ten weeks into 2013 and so far it’s been a dreary start to the year.
Plenty of new releases have topped the charts, but they haven’t performed well enough to stop total sales declining by more than 20 per cent year-on-year.
Obviously retailers still have long-tail sellers like Black Ops II and FIFA 13 to keep tills ringing. But the truth is that, after their first few weeks on sale, these blockbusters can only slow decline rather than drive growth.
Why, in a year where we have already seen the release of DmC: Devil May Cry, Dead Space 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising, are consumers not flocking to shops?
“Gamers suffer fatigue from sequels and more-of-the-same experiences,” says Deep Silver’s international commercial director Menno van der Bil. “As an industry we have to be more courageous and proactive in finding new exciting forms of interactive entertainment.”
Michael Denny, VP of Sony Worldwide Studios, agrees: “Consumers crave new experiences and ultimately, new IP is the life-blood of the industry; without which, the market would stagnate with gamers having only a shallow pool of experiences to draw from.”
Fortunately, there’s a wealth of brand new games properties on the way in the next twelve months (see the graphic below).
The hunger for new games brands is nothing new. It wasn’t Call of Duty and FIFA?that got the industry talking at E3 2012; it was Ubisoft’s open world thriller Watch Dogs and Sony’s cinematic paranormal adventure Beyond: Two Souls.
Meanwhile, the few new IPs we have seen over the last year, such as Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs and Ni No Kuni, have found an audience.
The important thing is that the industry continues to explore new ideas. That’s easier said than done, of course – investing in the development of new IP is risky when you cannot guarantee success.
Countless new brands have failed but many publishers have shown determination in the wealth of fresh properties they have created – and Sony is chief among them.



“At this stage in the hardware’s lifecycle, publishers tend to rely on established franchises,” says Denny.
“But we’re proud to be in a position where we have an unprecedented number of exclusive new titles coming to PlayStation platforms: The Last of Us, Beyond, Puppeteer, Wonderbook, Until Dawn, Rain and Tearaway will all offer compelling and innovative new ways to play.”
The stage in the console lifecycle in which a new IP is released is certainly a factor.
In 2007, in the early months of the current cycle, we saw the debut of BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Portal, Uncharted and Mass Effect, which thrived with little competition.
Fast forward to 2012 and the only new IP released is Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored and Dragon’s Dogma, but these faced tougher market conditions, competing with both established franchises and those still-growing 2007 brands.
“It’s difficult when you’re coming to the end of a console cycle,” admits Ubisoft’s IP development director Tommy Francois.
“When a console launches, the line-up gamers have to pick from is smaller. If you want to make a bang later on in the lifecycle, not only do you need to innovate, you need to stand out from the competition, and that becomes harder with the technology constraints that we have.”
This was more than proven at the PS4’s reveal, where six of the eight titles showcased were new properties.
Even Street Fighter creator Yoshinori Ono told MCV he wanted to experiment with the PS4’s capabilities “without the constraints of working within an existing IP”.
Wii U has also introduced new brands like ZombiU and the upcoming Wonderful 101, and no doubt there are surprises in store for the next Xbox. New hardware makes both gamers and developers more receptive to new ideas.
“Once [new] consoles come that we can let creative people take more risk, and they feel they can take more risk because they know consumers can be more open,” says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
“When you come out with new machines and new possibilities, and you give talent the chance to express themselves using them, you will see a huge surge in creativity and engagement from gamers.”
Even incremental advances in technology can open the door for new IP. Kinect and PlayStation Move saw the arrival of Dance Central, Child of Eden, Wonderbook, Sports Champions and so on.
It’s the same with other entertainment industries, says Francois: “Pixar works like that. Every new IP, every universe they create originates from new tech: 3D software, rendering software, and so on. Monsters Inc happened because they found they could do new things with hair and fur.
“I think we’re very much like that with new technology. It comes with more power, new features, new input devices like Wii and Wii U did.”
Most experimentation with new brands and ideas ...

Tomb Raider is the biggest selling UK launch of the year so far, selling more than double the units of 2013′s previous top seller Aliens: Colonial Marines in its first week on sale.
GfK ChartTrack says that Tomb Raider has set a new record for the franchise, beating the previous best for the series, 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend. The 360 and PS3 versions of Tomb Raider set new week one records as the fastest selling individual formats of any Tomb Raider release so far, beating the record previously held by Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness on PS2 in 2003.
EA’s SimCity also sees a strong debut this week in second, with Namco Bandai’s Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 another new entry at number three.
The Ukie Games Charts UK all formats top ten chart for the week ending March 9th 2013, compiled by GfK Chart-Track, is as follows.
1. Tomb Raider
2. SimCity
3. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
4. The Sims 3: University Life
5. FIFA 13
6. Crysis 3
7. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2
8. Far Cry 3
9. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
10. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-c...mber-one-spot/ ...

We are raising funds to buy the iconic Atari brand, re-launch it, and give it back to you on the GCW Zero portable gaming console.

Atari is the Godfather of gaming. It is an icon that represents more than just a gaming company: it is one of the most recognizable names in gaming history. The company recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its assets are going up for sale.
We believe a new entity could be launched using smart, lean development teams and next generation hardware fit for today’s gaming environment.
GCW Zero is an open-sourced, handheld gaming platform that is creating the next wave of gaming: powerful enough to run classic PC games, emulate the game consoles we grew up with, and run homebrewed games seamlessly at high frame rates.
We want to combine the classic gaming experience of Atari with the awesome power of today’s handhelds - like the GCW.
We need your support and feedback to make this happen.
Please click here to show your support.... ...

UK games execs were left scratching their heads last month after a string of big budget action games failed to lift games retail out of the gloom.
Last month UK games stores sold 1,854,954 games, a drop of 19.9% over February 2012. And that’s despite big name releases including Dead Space 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Crysis 3.
In fact, the combined sales of those four games managed less than 275,000 units last month.
In total, stores generated £45.3m from software sales, a slightly softer drop of 17.6 per cent.
The turmoil on the High Street, driven by store closures at Blockbuster and HMV, will not have helped.
But the poor performances of new titles has still surprised many corners of the trade.
“It’s bleak out there,” said one UK publisher boss. “Nothing is selling as it should. Let’s hope next month’s titles can break through.”
Aliens: Colonial Marines was the top seller last month. The action title was not well received by critics, but the title managed to find an audience, driven by Sega’s marketing campaign.
Sega was the second best performing publisher of February, nestled behind EA – its top seller was Dead Space 3 at No.2.
Retailers will now be looking to March’s blockbusters to help arrest the market slowdown. The first is Tomb Raider, which was released this week. Square Enix says it wants the action title to be a Top Five title of 2013, so expectations are high.
BioShock: Infinite is also due later this month, and the 2K game is subject to huge press attention.
Meanwhile, there’s some overdue big titles for PC, 3DS and Wii U games this month, including the likes of SimCity, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and LEGO City Undercover.
All data is courtesy of UKIE/GfK?Chart-Track. And is for the four weeks ending February 23rd, 2013.
THE FEBRUARY TOP TEN
1. Aliens: Colonial Marines – Sega
2. Dead Space 3 – EA
3. FIFA 13 – EA
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
5. Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
6. Crysis 3 – EA
7. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Konami
8. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
9. Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Namco Bandai

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/febru...-shine/0112133 ...

Hi all, i need your help in collecting links to coders sites that i may be missing, if you know of any homebrew/emulator news we dont post and have a link to the site pleas post the link and a small description. Just lately ive discovered a mass of Gamecube Homebrew and esp emulators that i never knew existed - check out http://gcemu.dcemu.co.uk for more info - and it makes me wonder if theres lots more out there that the big sites have either been too lazy to post or just plain didnt know about.

The sad fact is that these days theres not a lot of active homebrew news sites left or at least ones that post legal stuff.

But any links would be awesome.

Thanks for reading and visiting DCEmu. ...

Hi all, its been a neccesary journey the last few weeks, the site through a lot of factors hasnt been its normal self, the massive slowdown of the Homebrew scene, the hacking of DCEmu and the loss of downloads (which was due to the hacking and server probs) and neglect of the site.

The last few weeks i have began the major task of moving all news items back into their proper forums away from the discussion forums, then i drastically cut the number of discussion forums down to the minimum.

With the news forums, back when we first upgraded to vb4 a lot of the news forums were merged and it didnt work because if you want android news only you dont want apple news in the same forum and that goes across all forums, now we have unmerged all the news forums bar the Open Source Handhelds forum which has merged together the likes of GP32, gp2x, wiz and caanoo.

MY next major task will which will take a long while is site by site to rebuild all the downloads for every single bit of homebrew released.

DCEmu was and still is one mans dream to have a site where downloads are free and easily accessible and within the next few months ill continue to put everything back to how it once was.

The site is getting updated with news more now than it has for years and the buzz i get from it is coming back, homebrew isnt at the moment the big scene it was 6 years ago but it will still continue and DCEmu will always be at the front posting news nearly every single day onwards.

This will also be sent out in an email so for those who do get this in an email why not come back and join in with DCEmu once more.

Thanks for your time

Webmaster

DCEmu - The Homebrew and Gaming Network ...

"In a dramatic call for action directly prompted by 114,000 signatures on a 'We the People' petition, the Obama Administration moments ago urged the reversal of a federal regulatory decision that had rendered the act of unlocking a cell phone illegal. From the reply: 'The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren't bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network. It's common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers' needs.' Statements from the FCC and Library of Congress indicate that they back the administration's position.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/03/...hone-unlocking ...

Week-on-week sales are down across the board in this week’s GfK Charttrack top ten.
There are no new entries in the top ten and four of those are non-movers – the top ten sellers in the UK for the week ending March 2nd 2013 is as follows, with week-on-week sales declines in brackets.
1. Crysis 3 (-43%)
2. FIFA 13 (-35%)
3. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (-60%)
4. Call Of Duty: Black Ops II (-32%)
5. Far Cry 3 (-23%)
6. Need For Speed Most Wanted (-19%)
7. Aliens: Colonial Marines (-55%)
8. Dead Space 3 (-45%)
9. Assassin’s Creed III (-28%)
10. Hitman Absolution (-17%)

http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-c...ains-top-spot/ ...