Most Wii Owners Do Not Own Xbox 360, PS3

BY

From IndustryGamers:

According to a new report from The NPD Group, console cross-ownership among Wii owners in the U.S. is fairly low. Wii owners, who represent 32 percent of all gamers, for the most part stick to Nintendo’s console. Only 14 percent of Wii owners also own a PS3, while 26 percent also own an Xbox 360.

In the meantime, PS3 and Xbox 360 owners are far more likely to purchase a Wii as a second console. How much of that is attributed to Nintendo Wii having such a broad customer base is unknown, but it is interesting information for those of us outlining a multiple console strategy.

Rather than just port the same game to all three consoles, special consideration should be taken to the audience the Nintendo Wii has built up, with credence to the top sellers for that system (namely Wii Sports Resort and Wii Play).  These are games that would not make it onto a hardcore machine, so why continue to try and push hardcore titles on this platform

More proof ?  How about Madden selling a paltry 67K copies on the Nintendo platform as opposed to 500K on the other two?  If you’re not considering the Wii and the 360/PS3 two separate audiences by now, you re doing it wrong.

Don’t Edit Your Own Wikipedia

BY

From Kotaku:

It seems that a Tecmo employee has apparently been altering the company’s Wiki page a user with the company’s IP address has been making changes to the page. Some of those changes seem related to the events of last year, such as trying to hide info about who quit the company. Wikipedia has warned Tecmo about editing its own Wiki page.

If this is true, Tecmo is hardly the only company editing its own Wiki page. The issue that Wikipedia seems to be taking is that Tecmo appears to be covering up factual information that might make the company look bad.

Tecmo has had a rough go at it the past couple of years, with the culmination happening when star developer and mastermind behind Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden Tomonobu Itagaki left the developer and came back . . . to sue.

Even if the news is bad and your game’s or company’s history is on shaky ground, it is never a good idea to edit your own Wikipedia page.  You only end up looking foolish because Wikipedia will find you out and a little bit of attention turns into a whole lot of it.

Blizzard’s Next MMO To Have Broad Appeal

BY

Take this as a lesson to prove to you that going to the well doesn’t always make for the best business strategy. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently spoke at an event in which he said the next MMO from Blizzard, creators of World of Warcraft, would have a little more broad appeal.

Those of you expecting World of Warcraft II, well, shouldn’t.

The unnamed MMO has had very few details other than members of the original World of Warcraft team are developing for it, and it will be a completely new IP.

If the broadening of the PC and video game audience isn t clear from Kotick’s comments, consider extremely successful broad-based MMOs (we use the term loosely) like Club Penguin, whose membership is now larger than that of even World of Warcraft’s.

Wii Price Cut To $199?

BY

The Nintendo Wii has been the darling of the video game industry ever since its launch three years ago, quickly attaining cult status and massive sales, propelling the house of Mario to the top.

Unfortunately, the global economic downturn has resulted in sales declines across the board including the once-invincible machine.  Nintendo is now rumored to cut the price of the Wii from $249 to $199, long known as a price barrier that, once broken, leads to a deluge of sales.

The reports come from purported scans of an upcoming Toys R Us ad, and, if true, would follow price cuts on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 leading up to the big holiday season.

New PlayStation Firmware Leading To Increased DLC Sales

BY

From GI.biz:

“We’re ecstatic at the 3.00 upgrade because not only have our sales gone up 40 per cent since the update but for me personally it’s what I’ve been calling for and looking forward to for a long time,” said James Brooksby, studio head at Doublesix.

“I’ve always been saying that effectively when you boot up the PlayStation 3 there’s a 40 inch advertising space waiting to be used. Now instead of saying to the user ‘what would you like to play today’ – which is the basic console offering – it’s saying ‘this is what we think you should play today’ and that’s a major step forward for the entire industry and the digital distribution sector.”

The new PS3 firmware went live a couple of weeks ago and one of the big changes to the system s dashboard is the amount of advertisements for games and add-ons available on the PlayStation Store. Some users complained about the intrusiveness of these ads, but the sales figures cannot be ignored, and it is yet another way to get your game in front the audience.

Activision CEO: How About Guitar Hero Without A Console?

BY

Gamespot has an interesting interview with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick where the wallet behind the Guitar Hero series and the largest video game publisher in the world gives some hints into the future of the industry.

From Gamespot:

“I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is equal the playing field a little more and give you some leverage with first parties when it comes to downloadable content and the business model,” Kotick said.

The executive also told attendees to “expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,” specifically saying he’d been impressed with media hub functionalities shown by 1080p TVs that let users stream content from their PCs. He also suggested a day in not-too-distant future where players’ Facebook profiles will be integrated into Guitar Hero, letting them make songs to share with friends, post high scores or favorite songs on their profile page, and so on.

The idea of a significant game without the need of a console is certainly an interesting method of distribution, and could remove a hurdle tied to discussing a title s compatible platforms.

Get Confrontational: JB Smoove Throws Down

BY

JB Smoove, comic and co-star in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, stars in a viral video for Carl’s Jr. that compares Big Carl burgers to McDonald’s Big Mac.

Smoove pulls no punches in the comparison, going so far as to print out comparison photos and ragging on Big Mac for its filler bun in the middle, less beef and more.

Remember when video game commercials were this confrontational (Sega does what Nintendon’t)

 

Video Of The Day: The Building With Heart

BY

A fantastic light show made a building in the north east of England come to life and must be seen to be believed. The presentation was created over the course of a couple of weeks by TheDarkRoomTV for a secret event whose theme was heart, and you can see that theme in ample display in today s video of the day.

MTV VMA AFK: Jack Black Is Eddie Riggs

BY

Today’s AFK comes to us from the MTV Video Music Awards and has Jack Black, renowned comic and star of Tropic Thunder and School of Rock, donning fake muscles, wig and battle axe as Eddie Riggs, lead character in Brutal Legend. Enjoy the pic of Black hamming it up as the video game character to which he lends his voice, and look for the game in October