Microsoft has announced it’s new Xbox 360 Splinter Cell Conviction Special Edition Bundle.
The package includes the standard edition of Splinter Cell Conviction, a 250 GB hard drive, as well as two wireless controllers. So It’s pretty much the same as the Modern Warfare 2 Bundle but not.
For $399 all of this gaming nirvana can be yours in April. Check out a couple more pics of the bundle below, if you so chose. And you shall.
GameStop has started rolling out a TV ad this week informing us of their latest ploy to get you to spend cash at their stores. And I like what the ad has to say (for once). From now until March 14th you’ll get an extra 50% on every trade-in you bring to their store. Use your Edge card and you can sweeten the deal with an extra 10%.
Of course as usual newer games will net you bigger paybacks so keep that in mind. With a lot of great games having been released already and even more on the way this will help keep you from selling drugs to support your gaming habit, and that’s a good thing.
In a time when BioShock 2, FIFA 10, New Super Mario Bros and even Modern Warfare 2 are all vying for your hard earned cash the number one game in all of the United kingdom is…Aliens vs. Predator?! Really UK, really?!
The sci-fi shooter definitely had some stiff competition but it still managed to take the top spot. It’s worth noting that it came in number one ahead of Just Dance, so this may give you some insight into what kind of games are popular across the pond.
I found the game to be disappointing and never really got into it, you can try it out for yourself if you haven’t already. The multiplayer demo is available for download on Xbox Live.
Hit the break to see the top 20 games.
Xbox Live’s Major Nelson released his weekly activity report for Xbox Live yesterday. I was a little surprised by some of the new entries making their way towards the top of the list. Two of the five games played on Xbox Live last week were actually just demos. Both the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Aliens vs Predator demos did quite well, helping to knock FIFA 10 and Call of Duty 4 out of the top five.
Hit the break to see the top ten played games last week.
Criterion Games is finally done with pumping out new content for Burnout Paradise. Since the game hit store shelves several years ago they have released almost ten different DLC’s for the over-the-top racing game, making it one of the most supported games post release. Golf clap!
Criterion isn’t stopping there though. From now until March 31st you can get Burnout Paradise and all of the accompanying DLC for just $29.99. That’s over $100 worth of game and content for around thirty bucks…not bad. But if $29.99 is too rich for your blood they are also offering the game with some of the content for $19.99. Just fork over the extra ten bucks and get the whole shebang you cheap bastard.
Hit the break to get a full breakdown of what each package will get you.
It looks like EA is finally going to pull the plug on it’s struggling NCAA Basketball franchise. The series has had dismal sales in the last five or so years (not that it was ever hugely popular) and hasn’t kept critics or fans impressed either. The game was glaringly vacant from the publisher’s financial filing on Monday which lead to talk of the game being discontinued.
EA Sports’ David Tinson confirmed that the franchise was indeed no more in a statement give to Game Informer:
“We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we’re currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business. This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions.”
EA Sports was the only publisher still pumping out NCAA licensed basketball games since 2K Sports ended it’s NCAA run last year, pulling out of the market. Next year will be the first year since 1998 that there will be no college basketball game on the market. Developers working on the series will be dispersed onto other projects. One’s that make EA money.
2009 was the most profitable year for the Xbox Live Arcade service so far according to estimates by the research group Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE). The online gaming hub made $103.4 million dollars in the 2009 fiscal year, a whopping 34% jump in profits from 2008. Recession…what recession!?
One of the major factors in the increased profits was the average cost for an XBLA game, which rose from $8.33 in 2008 to $9.12 in 2009. The extra $0.79 increase on average still isn’t that bad considering some of the great games we saw last year. It’s clear that a lot of developers and publishers are directing a lot of effort into developing quality games for the service, and it’s paying off.
EA’s Battlefield 1943 took the top honors last year as the highest selling title. To find out who else made the list hit the break.
Retailers Walmart and Best Buy launched pilot programs last year to test game kiosks in some of their stores. Walmart tested the kiosks in almost eighty of their stores while Best Buy tip toed into the market with only two. Both retailers were trying to find a cost effective way to take a bite out of GameStop’s lucrative used game buy-back program. As of today both of those pilot programs will have to come to an end.
According to Industry Gamers e-Play, the company who supplied those kiosks to both Walmart and Best Buy has suspended operations. The company’s website only features the following ominous message:
e-Play, LLC has suspended operations. Thank you to all our customers. For more information call 1-866-602-6014
I called the toll-free number listed in the massage, it’s just an automated message explaining how to return games and asks if you would like to leave a message.
It looks like GameStop’s hold on the used game business will remain intact. Both Walmart and Best Buy will have to go back to the drawing board if they wish to get back into the used game marketplace.
Kiosks still left at the selected “test stores” will be removed in the coming weeks.
THQ had a lot riding on UFC 2009 Undisputed. The publisher was a financial mess and really needed their marquis MMA game to do well. Luckily for them it did.
According to an announcement by THQ earlier today UFC 2009 Undisputed has sold 3.5 million copies to date. That includes both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales. Even with early issues with online play, the game was well received by critics (including myself) and fans of MMA bought the game in droves. And it has paid off huge for THQ.
To celebrate the game’s success it will get a price cut on both consoles, dropping the price to $29.99. A great deal for one of the best fighting sims on the market. A not-so-great deal if you were one of the 3.5 million people who forked over the full $59.99.
2009 was a huge year for the gaming industry. Games like Modern Warfare 2 shattered sales records and raked in profits never before seen. We are talking swimming in gold Uncle Scrooge like money. And if Steam’s user base growth is any indication then Valve is riding the success wave as well.
In 2009 the digital software distributor saw a 25 per cent growth from it’s user base in 2008. The service now has over 25 million registered users logging an average of 13 billion minutes of playing time a month.
Valve’s president Gabe Newell had this to say about their success:
“Steam turned five years old in March 2009. With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years – such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks – we’ve seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”
With so many people ready to put the last nail in PC gaming’s coffin it’s good to see that Valve is doing everything they can to keep it relevant.
SOURCE: GamesIndustry
Amazon is slashing it’s price on your favorite mercenary dynamic duo’s sequel. Their featured Game Deal of the Day drops the price of Army of Two: The 40th Day by $20 from $59.99 to $39.99 on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions. But the deal is only good for today and will only last as long as their supplies do.
Kicking ass is tough on a tight budget. Looks like Amazon is here to help. Head over and snag a copy before it’s too late!
We can all agree that the Spider-Man franchise has gone stale in recent years. Some might say in film as well as gaming. Three titles in the franchise have been released in the last five years. Web of Shadows, Friend or Foe and Battle for New York have all come and gone. None of which received stellar reviews and all suffered from dismal sales figures. But Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has an explanation.
In a recent interview with Game Informer he admits that they all just “sucked”.
