PS3 Beats Xbox 360, but Wii Outsells All

Sony eeks out another win over Microsoft's Xbox 360 console in the month of May, while Nintendo reigns supreme with Wii and DS sales.


PS3 Beats Xbox 360, but Wii Outsells All

NPD figures for the month of May show PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360. A mere 22k separated the two consoles, hardly putting a dent in Microsoft's huge lead over the battle for total sales. 208,000 PS3 consoles were purchased last month and 186,000 Xbox 360s were snatched up by gamers. To date, 19 million Xbox 360s have sold worldwide compared against 13 million PlayStation 3s.

Unsurprisingly, both consoles were obliterated by Wii at 675,000. Even Nintendo DS performed better than either PS3 or Xbox 360, generating more sales than both consoles combined with 452,000 handhelds sold. Nintendo pushed through over a million game systems during May, which nearly doubles PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP sales combined. Counting PlayStation 2 sales and Nintendo still boasted larger sales.

Hand-in-hand with Wii and DS were solid game sales. Seven of the top ten selling games in May were on either platform. Mario Kart Wii took second place with 787,000 copies in a photo-finish behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV with 871k. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA IV were the only games to make the list for those consoles.

GTA IV Sales Set Guinness Record

A week after Take-Two announced that GTA IV had broken launch day records, the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed.


GTA IV Sales Set Guinness Record

According to Guinness, Grand Theft Auto IV sold an impressive 3.6 million units in its first 24 hours, totaling a record-setting US$310 million in gross sales.

The figures easily push the Rockstar game above all other entertainment record holders, including Halo 3 with $170 million in day one sales, Spiderman 3 with $60 million, and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million.

"The record establishes GTA IV as the most profitable entertainment release of all-time, far surpassing other video game, film and book releases," said Guinness.

Last week, GTA publisher Take-Two purported, "we believe [GTA IV] retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date."

Birthday Post: Pokemon Platinum Version Leaked

A low-resolution cell phone photo appears that announces Pokémon Platinum that features Giratina.

Pokemon Platinum Version Leaked

A low-resolution cell phone photo appears to show a page from the June issue of CoroCoro that announces Pokémon Platinum, a new Nintendo DS game that features Giratina. Because the magazine has not yet been released, the authenticity of the photo has not been confirmed.
The page offers screen shots from the game that show a new overworld scene and a new in-battle scene for Giratina. The male protagonist from Diamond and Pearl is wearing a blue outfit.
According to a rumor quoted by blue skY, the game will be released in Japan in September. Those who reserve the game in advance will receive a ticket to get an egg that will hatch into a Shinx that knows a special move. The eighth gym leader, Volkner, will be replaced, and a Battle Frontier-like area will be added.

EA Games Plans to Develop for Wii

Special versions of Madden football, NBA Live and others are in the works for the Wii.


EA Plans New Sports Games for Wii

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc unveiled two initiatives last week to breathe new life into its sports business by making games that are easier to play and customized for Nintendo Co Ltd's popular Wii console.

Key games such as "Madden" football, "NBA Live" and "FIFA" soccer will come out in special versions for the Wii, which has become the best-selling game system by drawing in older and female players with friendly graphics and simple motion-sensing controls.

EA is also starting a sub-brand dubbed Freestyle that will be home to a new set of games not tied to any existing league and therefore free of expensive licensing rights. The first game will be "Facebreaker," a cartoonish and whimsical boxing game due out in September.

"We can't be blind to the fact that different consumers are coming into games now and shame on us if we can't evolve and develop something for that crowd," Peter Moore, head of EA Sports, told Reuters.

EA expects to have sold about $1.3 billion worth of sports games in its fiscal year just ended in March, accounting for more than a third of total revenue.

Known for their sharp graphics and attention to detail, EA's sports games are among the industry's best-selling titles each year. But many gamers have criticized them for including few groundbreaking new features and increasingly complex controls that make them tough to play.

Showing off this year's lineup of sports titles at a new conference in EA's Vancouver studio, Moore said the company had not forgotten about its core fans who want the most realistic experience.

"While we have no intention whatsoever of dumbing down the experience that we all love and that drives this multibillion

dollar business ... we need to make sports games more approachable," Moore said.

Caught off guard by the Wii's success following its launch in late 2006, EA tried to adapt its sports games to the Wii, an effort Moore admitted amounted to basically tacking on the motion controls without changing the core game.

Moore, who joined EA from Microsoft Corp's games division to head up the sports business last September, said the new approach to the Wii marked a dramatic rethinking of what those players wanted from a game.

The model was "Wii Sports," a title from Nintendo included with every Wii that took bowling, baseball, golf, tennis and boxing and reduced them to a handful of simple motions.

"We learned some hard lessons. That was the type of sports experience they were looking for and we saw that and decided we needed to redefine what our sports games were about," Moore said. This year, EA's top sports games for the Wii will have "All-Play" added to their titles.

While versions for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 will be similar to previous years, the "All-Play" titles will have options to use simpler controls and quicker games.

"It's like how swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end. EA Sports has really only built a swimming pool with a deep end. It's intimidating for a lot of people to jump right in the deep end. With All-Play, we're building a shallow end," Moore added.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

Copyright 2007 Reuters.