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

According to unofficial sales numbers from Japan , Final Fantasy XIII has fallen down to number four on the sales list over there, after a very big million-plus release day and a record-breaking first week . But otaku take heart: even though sales of the game dropped over a million units in the second week, this wasn’t unexpected. Final Fantasy games always tend to take a dip after the “day one purchase” audience gets their copies. The last iteration of the series took a 1.5 million unit hit in week two. But even with the lower sales, about 200,000 copies were traded for the appropriate cost in yen, which indicates Square Enix is likely still on track to meet or exceed its six million target worldwide .

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Final Fantasy XIII sales plunge in Japan

Tales of Monkey Island’ s fourth chapter will be available for download on this Friday, October 30. The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood features Guybrush stuck on Flotsam Island with a bunch of poxed pirates (including a greenish, poxed Elaine). Will he be tried and executed? Our guess is yes . The middle of this episodic game series seems like the right time to kill off the beloved protagonist of a long-running franchise.

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Attend Tales of Monkey Island’s Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood on Oct. 30

Listen up, soldiers — we’ve got new intel from the PS Blog on the enemy and it appears your unique set of SOCOM: Confrontation skills are needed in the snow-covered lands of eastern Europe. If you’ve got the mettle, we’ll be taking the fight to the enemy in five new warzones: Uprising; Entrapment; Blizzard; Night Stalker; and Vigilance — two of which are brand new zones of conflict while the remaining three war zones are from previous SOCOM campaigns. We’ll also be needing those of you brave enough to enlist to hit the books and gain intel on Arms Run, an all-new multiplayer mode where players must destroy or activate a series of dynamically placed missile silos. Considering we’re tossing you out into these icy, blinding conditions, we’re also providing you with more than the fancy white goose-down gear you see above (we pay extra for goose feather because we care ): soldiers who enlist in the new Cold Front DLC pack will also gain access to a new thermal scope attachment, allowing you to spot the enemy much more effectively

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Cold Front DLC sweeps across SOCOM: Confrontation

Comrades, EA Mobile will attempt to bring full-scale RTS action to the iPhone this October with Command & Conquer: Red Alert . Control the Allies or the Soviets in 12 levels as you “drag and scroll to gauge the battlefield. Pinch-zoom in and out of the action.

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert invades iPhone in October

We’re only a few scant weeks away from the release of Gearbox Software’s Mad Max -inspired FPS Borderlands , but that doesn’t mean we’re fully sated in the way of gameplay trailers. No sir, we were more than happy to watch the split-screen co-op above, all the while envisioning a future couch being sat on, whiling away hours with a buddy by shooting raiders in the face. Speaking of which, what do future couches look like ..

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Watch a co-op killing spree through Borderlands

Kicking off Tokyo Game Show 2009 with a kick digitally translated into a game, Microsoft has announced massive industry support for upcoming motion device Project Natal . Trumpeting a laundry list of gaming industry all-stars from Activision to Ubisoft, it appears that every major publisher is in some way “actively working on games for Project Natal.” Microsoft says publishers received development kits in early June and have been hard at work ever since. EA’s Peter Moore thinks Natal “could fundamentally change the way people play sports games” while Capcom’s Keiji Inafune says it “will expand the possibilities of gaming.” In fact, Microsoft is so intent on proving that developers love it, the company is hosting a panel at TGS featuring the aforementioned Inafune, Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi and Konami’s Hideo Kojima. Wait a minute, Kojima is working with Project Natal? But we can’t do any of that crazy Raiden ninja stuff! TGS 2009: Every major publisher ‘actively working on games for Project Natal’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:29:00 EST

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TGS 2009: Every major publisher ‘actively working on games for Project Natal’

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Far too often, we here at the Institute for Japanese Hardware Sales Tracking deal in half-truths for the purpose of attempted comedic affect. Sometimes, we deal in reverse-truths. Other times, supertruths — but how would you even be able to tell? Ah, see.

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Japanese hardware sales, Aug. 10 – Aug. 16: Science edition

Eidos has announced that a teeny, tiny, adorable demo for Mini Ninjas is on the way for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this week. The PC and Xbox 360 demos will be available this Wednesday, August 19. PC users will be able to download the demo from the official Mini Ninjas website , while Xbox 360 owners can grab it right of of Xbox Live Marketplace . The PS3 demo will be available on Thursday, August 20, along with the usual PSN update

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Mini Ninjas demo sneaking onto PC, PS3, 360