Not even Nintendo anticipated how the market would react to the Wii, which is why they’re still hard to find a year after launch, even after Nintendo almost doubled production of the console from 1 million to 1.8 million units a month, writes Wired. “Last week was Nintendo’s best since the Wii’s launch, with 350,000 sold in the United States alone. In comparison, Microsoft sold about that many Xbox 360s last month.”
video games
By 10.30.07
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Amazon will supposedly sell a unspecified but large number of Wii game consoles on Wednesday, October 31st at 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT). [NintendoWiiFanboy]
Valve "Deactivating" Customers Who Bought "Orange Box" Internationally
By 10.24.07
According to reader Todd, there are quite a few customers are finding their “Orange Box” games have been deactivated by Valve because they bought them from a seller that wasn’t authorized to do business with US customers.
Save At The Arcade By Buying Tokens On Ebay
By 10.17.07
If you still thrill to the joys of a real arcade, or take your kids to Chukee Cheese’s or Kings Dominion or other amusement parks, you can save on tokens by getting them on eBay. After reading about how you could do it on this Mighty Bargain Hunter’s post, we found a few auctions which looked decent:
Halo 3 Discs Arrive Pre-Scratched
By 9.25.07
Eager fans today cracked open the hot new video game Halo 3, only to discover that their game discs were already scratched. It seems in their midst of preparing for a global launch with mondo cross-promotion, Microsoft forgot to check they didn’t use the the DVD holders with the defective nubs.
Are Brain-Training Video Games Effective? The Japanese Think So
By 9.11.07
“Brain Age” and its recently released sequel are hugely popular video games in Japan and the US. What’s unusual about this is that the games are made for and marketed to “older people” (which in video game language means “anyone over 25”) as a way to improve your mental acuity by keeping your cognitive skills at peak levels. Does any of it work, or is it just a self-help fad for the 21st century? Sharpbrains.com interviews Go Hirano, a Japanese entrepreneur (their description, not ours) who provides a general overview of the current state of “brain training” and its borderline-scientific underpinnings.
"Bill Gates, You Suck"
By 9.5.07
Dan Jouver, a self-identifying southern Floridian, is yet another customer experiencing Xbox’s notorious Red Ring of Death product failure, multiple times, but unlike others, he is eventually driven to destroy his Xbox on-camera in a series of exciting scenarios.
Ads In Video Games: Annoying Intrusion, Or Welcome Dose Of Reality?
By 8.3.07
Advertisers are expected to quintuple the amount spent placing ads in video games over the next five years. Beyond mere brand placement, consoles with an internet connection are capable of displaying dynamic billboards that can advertise The Simpsons Movie today, and The Simpsons Movie Sequel: The Return Of Spider Pig, in two years. From the LA Times:
The player’s ability to don, kick, toss or use products is part of the appeal. In “Super Monkey Ball,” players try to get their monkey characters to collect Dole-branded bananas. And in “Tony Hawk’s Project 8,” players use Nokia phones.
After the jump, tell us whether you greet ads in video games with skepticism and disdain, or appreciate them as a dose of reality in an otherwise virtual world.
By 7.16.07
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Nintendo will introduce a step-board-like Wii peripheral that senses your movement, measures your Body Mass Index, ratcheting up the system’s physically active game factor. [Seattle P-I]
Video Game Spending To Overtake Music As Soon As This Year
By 6.25.07
Spending on video game products is poised to surpass the music industry as soon as this year, according to Ars Technica.
PricewaterhouseCooperss released the data in its annual “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook” report covering 2007 through 2011, which outlines expected growth in the entertainment, film, music, and video game industries, among others.
XBOX360 Consumer Pwns Microsoft Using Level 34 American Express Powers
By 6.20.07
Remember Richard? Microsoft and numerous commenters mocked him for trying to get his XBOX360 fixed under warranty repair because he had a random tech pry open the box, thus voiding the warranty.
Best Of Xbox
By 5.16.07
“”I don’t care if you bought your console yesterday, we still show your warranty is expired.””
Xbox360 Tells Customer "I Am Laughing At You" And Hangs Up
By 5.11.07
Is Xbox360 like the most fault-prone device in the history of video gaming or what? As if in a deliberate attempt to add injury to insult to injury, Microsoft provided only a 90-day warranty, AND staffed their call centers with a goodly numbers of jerks. To wit, this recent conversation Richard had when trying to get his Xbox360 fixed under warranty repair:
Wiis At Target This Sunday
By 4.28.07
At least 60 Wiis will be arriving and selling at Target stores this Sunday, according to an inside source.
9 Insider Secrets From A Retail Video Game Salesman
By 2.27.07
A salesman working at a popular video game store shares nine insider tips for customers:
The Xbox360 Fiasco
By 1.30.07
ata on his new Xbox360. Only problem is that it came without a controller. So he returned it to Walmart. The next Xbox he bought had the “ring of death” failure. Another return. He tested the next one in-store, and it was fine, only to return home and have it not work when he tried to play any games on it. So he returned everything to Walmart, including games, got all his money back, and bought everything a GameStop.
PSP Flog Not Greg Meyerkord’s Fault
By 12.15.06
Greg Meyerkord, the man whose name appears on the PSP flog domain registration, has put up a website to debunk all the haters.
