The latest Japanese hardware charts reveal an ongoing decline during what's traditionally a tough period for the market.

Overall, sales dropped by 42 per cent from the previous week, with PS3, Wii and DS hit the hardest. Only the PSP bucked the trend, its sales increasing by around 4 per cent thanks to strong demand for Another Century's Episode Portable, the current software number one.

MediaCreate speculates that the PSP - which two weeks ago was selling over 70,000 units - would have been far higher if not for an apparent stock shortage.

Japanese hardware sales, week ending January 16 (figures in parentheses denote previous week's sales):

PS3 - 33,190 (59,612)
PSP - 29,806 (28,757)
Wii - 21,291 (56,547)
DSi XL - 17,452 (44,122)
DSi -13,416 (38,486)
Xbox 360 - 2636 (3859)
DS Lite - 1956 (4510)
PS2 - 1629 (2547)
PSPgo - 1208 (4084)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rop-42-percent ...

Apple has announced that downloads from its App Store have now passed ten billion.

The iPhone firm revealed that around seven billion of those downloads had occured during the last year - following a record quarter in which Apple claimed $6 billion in profit.

The ten billionth App was downloaded on Saturday 22 January, with UK citizen Gail Davis from Kent being awarded a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the downloader in question. Her app of choice was Paper Glider.

"With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years-a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone-the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

"The App Store has revolutionised how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet."

While Schiller was referencing the likes of Android and Nokia in his statement, the iPad firm is currently involved in a legal showdown with Microsoft over Apple's claimed trademark of the term 'app store.'

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ring-last-year ...

Apple has announced that downloads from its App Store have now passed ten billion.

The iPhone firm revealed that around seven billion of those downloads had occured during the last year - following a record quarter in which Apple claimed $6 billion in profit.

The ten billionth App was downloaded on Saturday 22 January, with UK citizen Gail Davis from Kent being awarded a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the downloader in question. Her app of choice was Paper Glider.

"With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years-a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone-the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

"The App Store has revolutionised how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet."

While Schiller was referencing the likes of Android and Nokia in his statement, the iPad firm is currently involved in a legal showdown with Microsoft over Apple's claimed trademark of the term 'app store.'

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ring-last-year ...

LittleBigPlanet 2 has taken top spot in the UK software chart on its debut week, the PS3 exclusive making the most of a quiet week in the release schedule.

Mass Effect 2, which released on PS3 last week after BioWare's exclusivity period with Microsoft expired, made its way to seventh in the chart on the strength of its combined sales, 88 per cent of which came from PS3.

There was little movement elsewhere in the chart, with Black Ops, Just Dance 2, FIFA 11 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood making up the rest of the top five.

A full table is below. All figures are courtesy of Chart Track, (C)2010 UKIE Ltd.

Last Week This Week Title
New Entry 1 LittleBigPlanet 2
1 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops
3 3 Just Dance 2
2 4 FIFA 11
7 5 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
4 6 Wii Fit Plus
Re-Entry 7 Mass Effect 2
5 8 Kinect Sports
8 9 Gran Turismo 5
6 10 Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
13 11 Just Dance
11 12 The Sims 3
12 13 Dance Central
9 14 Fallout: New Vegas
15 15 Art Academy
Re-entry 16 Wii Party
17 17 Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
16 18 Wii Sports Resort
18 19 Football Manager 11
19 20 WWE: Smackdown Vs. RAW 2011

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-tops-uk-chart ...

If the rumours are correct, Sony will lift the lid on PSP2 – arguably the industry's worst kept secret – later this week in Japan. And Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has further fuelled speculation by telling Eurogamer that suggestions the console is as powerful as PS3 are "true".

Speaking to us at last week's Nintendo 3DS event in Amsterdam, industry veteran Cousens said, "We're at the tip of the iceberg" of portable gaming, as "mobile phones have only just got going" - with 3DS and PSP2 set to join the fray.

On the subject of Sony's next handheld – whose existence has never been officially confirmed by the company – Cousens said: "In portable areas, you're going to have statements, which are already out in the press, saying PlayStation Portable 2 is as powerful as the PS3 - which is true.

"So you're going to get mobile devices as powerful as what were considered notebooks. I just think it gets bigger."

The PSP2 is said to have touch controls on the reverse of the unit and 3G support that enables gamers to play online games and download software and movies. It is expected to release this year.

Meanwhile, the UK publisher boss was full of praise for 3DS, arguing that its arrival "jump-starts the industry this year - I think it's going to be absolutely enormous and open software opportunities for the creative process".

On the price of the hardware, Cousens said he didn't expect it to "take too long for that to fall below the £200 mark," adding: "Presumably there's margin in there for them to do that."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...owerful-as-ps3 ...

If the rumours are correct, Sony will lift the lid on PSP2 – arguably the industry's worst kept secret – later this week in Japan. And Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has further fuelled speculation by telling Eurogamer that suggestions the console is as powerful as PS3 are "true".

Speaking to us at last week's Nintendo 3DS event in Amsterdam, industry veteran Cousens said, "We're at the tip of the iceberg" of portable gaming, as "mobile phones have only just got going" - with 3DS and PSP2 set to join the fray.

On the subject of Sony's next handheld – whose existence has never been officially confirmed by the company – Cousens said: "In portable areas, you're going to have statements, which are already out in the press, saying PlayStation Portable 2 is as powerful as the PS3 - which is true.

"So you're going to get mobile devices as powerful as what were considered notebooks. I just think it gets bigger."

The PSP2 is said to have touch controls on the reverse of the unit and 3G support that enables gamers to play online games and download software and movies. It is expected to release this year.

Meanwhile, the UK publisher boss was full of praise for 3DS, arguing that its arrival "jump-starts the industry this year - I think it's going to be absolutely enormous and open software opportunities for the creative process".

On the price of the hardware, Cousens said he didn't expect it to "take too long for that to fall below the £200 mark," adding: "Presumably there's margin in there for them to do that."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...owerful-as-ps3 ...

More than half of GAME's customers trade in their old games to help buy new games.

Trade-ins were huge over Christmas, Group CEO Ian Shepherd told MCV.

"Even in the run-up to Christmas, when you would think most of our customers are buying games new in order to give them as gifts, you still have a lot of trade-in happening," Shepherd said.

"Around 50 to 60 per cent of the time, when we were selling a brand new game we were taking in a trade-in against it."

Shepherd's comments are sure to interest game publishers, many of which blame pre-owned sales for their financial woes.

THQ is one publisher that has attempted to combat used game sales.

Upcoming shooter Homefront will block used game buyers from progressing past level five in multiplayer.

EA's Online Pass requires users to redeem a one-off unlock code to access online features. Without it, a fee must be paid to play online.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...fund-new-games ...

42 per cent of all games sold for Xbox 360 motion-sensing add-on Kinect since launch were created by UK developers, new figures from UKIE/GfK Chart Track show.

The best-selling Kinect game by far is Kinect Sports, created by the Microsoft-owned, Twycross-based studio Rare.

Kinectimals, another Kinect launch game, was created by Cambridge-based UK studio Frontier Developments.

The UK accounts for 30 per cent of all PlayStation Move software unit sales since launch, UKIE said.

Meanwhile, UKIE points out that this week's number one game, LittleBigPlanet 2, was created by another UK developer: Guildford's Media Molecule.

Director general Michael Rawlinson said: "The array of strong products that our home-grown, UK talent is producing is something we can all be proud of. This just shows how our UK developer base remains one of the best in the world, and can continue to step up to the plate as the market develops and platforms evolve."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ect-games-sold ...

Consumer rights group Gamers' Voice plans to report Activision UK to the Office for Fair Trading for the "never-ending list of problems" gamers have found within the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

A formal complaint will be submitted to "the relevant government agencies that protect consumer rights in the UK" this week, Gamers' Voice pledged.

The decision follows the publication of an open letter to Activision UK detailing the many problems found within the best-selling game of all time. Gamers' Voice claims the open letter was ignored.

In December last year developer Treyarch admitted there were problems with the PS3 version and pledged to do something about it.

"We are aware that many online players have been experiencing connectivity issues since Tuesday's patch," wrote Black Ops community manager Josh Olin on the official forum.

"Forum feedback has been tremendously helpful. In fact, we've been on the forums, monitoring feedback and in a number of cases, working with community members directly, so please keep the feedback coming.

"In the meantime, know that we're committed to doing everything we can to support the best online experience, and we're working quickly to resolve this issue."

Patch 1.04, released earlier that week, promised to fix plenty of problems - NAT issues and spawn worries among them. The unwelcome reality, however, was the exacerbation of connectivity issues in PS3 online multiplayer.

"Clearly, CODBLOPS was the one of the biggest, if not the biggest releases of last year, which obviously leads to more people playing and more chances for bugs to be found," Gamers' Voice said.

"Our view is that it doesn't matter how big a game is, it should not be released 'unfinished' or with bugs that make the game unplayable, which are words we have seen in a lot of emails to us recently."

The group added: "Problems arise when, in the case with CODBLOPS, entire sections of the PS3 and PC gaming community are apparently being used as game testers for an extended period after a game's release, yet being asked to pay for the privilege. This is not a tenable way to treat us as consumers of videogames and it will not be tolerated."

Eurogamer has asked Activision for comment.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ack-ops-to-oft ...