Gadgets and Video Games

You may have assumed this from the climbing PS3 sales Sony reported last week, but a report from Research and Markets provides further confirmation that the system is increasing in popularity around the world. “The PS3 is dominant in Japan and Korea,” the report notes, “and as of June 2008, has begun to outsell the Xbox 360 in Europe. It is also steadily increasing its market share in all other regions across the globe, including in the North American market.” The Xbox 360 is still ahead of the PS3 in North America. It’s worth noting that the increase in sales in Europe predates the price drop and introduction of the PS3 Slim. Research and Markets also provided a bit more information about the distribution of console sales

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Report: Global PS3 market share increasing

Danish developer Press Play would like to draw everyone’s attention to Max & the Magic Marke r’s US release on WiiWare this March. The game released late last month on European WiiWare for 1,000 Wii Points. M&TMM is currently available in the US, directly from Press Play and digital distributors, for PC and Mac at a suggested price of $20. With a WiiWare demo for the game uncertain, we suggest you try it over on the official website . We’re also drawing a direct link to some gameplay videos here .

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Max & the Magic Marker scribbles down March US WiiWare release

If you’re wondering where Rock Band 3 is, a year and a half after Rock Band 2 and five months after the launch of The Beatles: Rock Band , it seems EA isn’t sure it’s going to get to publish it. During an investor conference call, EA execs revealed that the publisher’s deal with Viacom (the company that owns MTV, Harmonix, Rock Band and maybe you as well) is only active through fiscal year 2010 (which ends March 31). Presumably the deal somehow includes the yet-to-be-released Green Day: Rock Band — but EA’s unlikely to announce any more Rock Band games until it knows it has the license locked down for another year. EA: Rock Band deal with Viacom only through March 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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EA: Rock Band deal with Viacom only through March 2010

A post on the Bioware forums has revealed that two new bits of DLC will be coming to Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network tomorrow, February 9. Players will be able to download both a new set of armor and a new shotgun for free via the game’s DLC pipe. The Cerberus Armor ups heavy weapon ammo capacity, shields, and health by 10 percent each, and the M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is “a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads” that “also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties.” But those “treaties” were never ratified by the Citadel Council anyway, so who cares?

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New Mass Effect 2 DLC armor, shotgun available tomorrow

Well now, this is a little perplexing. Speaking on today’s EA earnings call, a spokesperson for the company said that something “far-reaching” for Mass Effect would arrive in Q4 of EA’s fiscal 2010, which translates to sometime between January 1 and March 31 of 2011. The perplexing part is that no mention was made of the multiplatform Dragon Age release referenced in the pre-call release for the same period.

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EA: Something ‘far-reaching’ coming for Mass Effect in early 2011

Right off the bat, you should know this: for EA, losing $82 million in the third quarter of a fiscal year is an enormous improvement. Compared to the same period last year (”Q3″ for EA is October 1 – December 31), the company lost 559 million fewer actual physical dollars. Yes, really. Now that we’ve told you that, we should also note that the publisher pulled in 24.85 percent less revenue year over year (down to $1.243 billion in Q3 2010 from $1.654 billion in Q3 2009). That said, Playfish had “two of the top ten Facebook games” for the quarter! Good thing EA spent $300 million on those folks, eh

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EA loses $82 million in fiscal Q3 2010, revenue down 25%

EA’s tentative release schedule for Q4 of its fiscal 2011 (or, as us normal people call it, January-March 2011) contains more than a few intriguing entries. You already heard about the new Dragon Age game — but listed just below that is an untitled “Shooter from Epic TBA.” Of course, this can only mean one thing: Gears of Madden 2012 is within spitting distance of becoming a sweet reality! Wait — what’s that?

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Dead Space 2 and EA’s Epic shooter slated for early 2011

Thanks to today’s EA earnings report (EArnings?) we’re starting to get an idea of how the company’s holiday season is going to shape up. This is all subject to change, of course, but as of right now it would appear you can look forward to Crysis 2 , NBA Jam and EA Sports MMA sometime between October and December of 2010. Filling out the holiday quarter are some yet-to-be-formally-announced titles like The Sims 3 on consoles, a new Need For Speed game (perhaps the Criterion-developed one ?) and a new Harry Potter game (likely tied to this November’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I) .

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Crysis 2, Sims 3 on consoles, NBA Jam due Holiday 2010

According to EA’s list of upcoming titles in its latest earnings report , a couple of high-profile games are going to be released this summer between July 1 and September 30: Realtime Worlds’ crime-themed MMO APB (which is likely to be the “major MMO” to whose spring release John Riccitiello referred to previously ), and … a “TBA” Medal of Honor title — possibly the one with the beard . EA did say that game would be out before March 2011! The summer release is listed for consoles, PC and handhelds . Also due out in the quarter: the expected spate of annual sports franchises ( Madden, FIFA, FIFA Online, NHL ), a Monopoly game for consoles and handhelds, and a new MySims title — we’re guessing MySims Sky Heroes .

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Medal of Honor, APB dated for Summer 2010

Just before today’s sure to be thrilling investor’s call, EA released a fact sheet to the folks gearing up for the hour-plus finance-a-thon — a fact sheet that revealed two “TBA” EA Sports Active games set for release on consoles in the third quarter of the company’s fiscal 2011 (October 1 through December 31, 2010, in human being time). We’ve yet to hear anything on a new EA Sports Active title for the Wii, though we did hear some rumblings at E3 last year that the franchise would be headed to Sony and Microsoft’s respective motion-based outings. And considering the unannounced titles are set for release in line with the announced release of Microsoft’s Project Natal , and perhaps just after the PlayStation Motion Controller , there’s a good chance that these pending EA Sports Active releases are for those platforms — maybe one for Natal and one PlayStation; or one for Natal and Playstation and one for Wii

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Two EA Sports Active games due Holiday 2010