AllThingsD » PlayStation 3

Xbox Accounted for 40 Percent of All Videogame Sales in 2011

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:57:29 +0000

Microsoft dominated the videogame industry last year, with the Xbox capturing nearly half of all consumer spending from physical sales in 2011.

According to NPD data released today, about $6.7 billion, or 40 percent of consumer retail spending, was spent on the Xbox, breaking down into two categories: $2.1 billion on consoles and $4.6 billion on games.

The figures take into account U.S. retail sales of new physical videogame content, including portable and console hardware, games and accessories.

In all, those sectors generated revenue of $17.02 billion in 2011, an 8 percent decline over the $18.6 billion generated last year. (Yes, I repeat, Microsoft got 40 percent of that in 2011.)

The initial report does not take into account sales from digital formats such as downloadable content on the console, social and mobile games, or other categories, including used and rentals.

Those so-called “newer” categories generated $7.24 billion in revenues last year, an increase of 7 percent over the prior year.

The increase in spending on alternative formats, however, wasn’t enough to offset declines in physical retail. All told, consumer spending across both categories totaled between $16.3 billion and $16.6 billion, falling 2 percent over last year.

Separating physical and digital sales is quickly becoming an outdated concept, since the two are so intertwined. Consumers have the choice of purchasing many of the games over the Internet via a digital download versus buying them at Wal-Mart or Target.

NPD acknowledged today that it needs “deeper visibility” into digital distribution to get a complete picture of the industry, which will be its focus in 2012.

Still, the report can still be used as a litmus test to see what is performing well.

Overall, a surprisingly disappointing December is what dragged down results for the whole year, NPD discovered.

“Because of the great slate of content that came to market during the fourth quarter, I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred,” said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier, in a release.

Frazier added that December sales accounted for just 23 percent of the annual total, compared to the past 10 years, when December, on average, represented 28 percent of the total.

In addition to Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation also performed well, with both witnessing a 5 percent increase across all game categories for 2011. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii, which cannot display HD content, saw a decline year over year.

In a separate statement, Microsoft said that it outsold the PlayStation, the second-place console, by 2.7 million units, and that in all, it has now sold 66 million Xboxes and 18 million Kinect accessories. On a global basis, Sony said in a statement that it sold more than 6.5 million units worldwide this holiday season.

Here are the Top 10 best-selling games in December, according to NPD:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by Activision Blizzard
Just Dance 3 by Ubisoft
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Softworks
Mario Kart 7 for 3DS by Nintendo
Battlefield 3 by Electronic Arts
Madden NFL by Electronic Arts
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations by Ubisoft
NBA 2k12 by Take Two Interactive
Super Mario 3D Land for 3DS by Nintendo
Batman: Arkham City by Warner Bros. Interactive

Ubisoft Delays Game Launch Until May, but Plays Up Strong Holiday Sales

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:33:21 +0000

Ubisoft, a major games publisher, has preannounced its third-quarter revenues, reporting record holiday sales.

But it also warned that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, one of the Paris-based company’s big franchise hits, would be delayed by three months, or until its fiscal first quarter of 2012-13.

The game is expected to launch in North America on May 22, and in Europe on May 24, for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

Ubisoft said it was expecting third-quarter sales of 650 million euros ($828 million), up 8 percent over the same period a year earlier. That exceeds its previous guidance of 620 million euros ($790 million), which was at the high end of its range.

Two of the games that Ubisoft said performed well during the holidays were Just Dance and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The latter faced steep competition from both Activision’s Call of Duty and Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3. Ubisoft also said it continues to see growth from online sales, which would include social games.

“In continuation of the robust trends recorded for the first half of the fiscal year, Ubisoft reported record-high sales for the Christmas period, exceeding expectations,” said CEO Yves Guillemot, in a release.

Due to its strong third-quarter performance, Ubisoft said it was revising its full-year guidance to 1.08 billion euros ($1.4 billion) on the high end. Operating income before some expenses is estimated to be up to 65 million euros ($82 million), up from the previous estimate of up to 60 million euros ($76.5 million).

Final third-quarter results will be published on Feb. 15.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter maintained his neutral rating on the stock, and his 7 euro price target, based on the unclear release schedule and recurring delays.

Ubisoft, which trades on the Paris stock exchange, is currently trading at 5.23 euro.

Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:23:37 +0000

Turns out the big consumer electronics highlight of Microsoft’s final CES keynote last night was the six-year-old Xbox.

Microsoft was proud to announce that over its lifespan, more than 66 million consoles have been sold and that 40 million users have signed up for an Xbox Live membership.

To be sure, the Xbox continues to be one of the top-selling videogame consoles, beating both Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii for the past year.

But breathing new life into the device is the motion-controlled accessory called the Kinect, which was introduced right before the holidays in 2010.

Microsoft provided a sales update last night for the Kinect, saying it has now sold 18 million of the units, which represents about one in four Xbox owners. The last update — that 10 million had been sold — was provided 10 months ago when Microsoft said the Kinect shattered the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest-selling consumer device ever.

But the device’s future is a little hazy.

On the Xbox, one of the most popular use cases has been to play dance simulation games. The controller has yet to break substantially into the more hardcore titles. More recently, Microsoft has made it clear that the Kinect will be an integral part of the user interface by providing a wider selection of entertainment options in the living room.

On Dec. 6, the company rolled out a free update to Xbox Live that allowed people to use the Kinect to conduct a Bing search to find games, music and video across several providers. The user interface also allowed people to control the box with voice commands instead of the game controller.

During the keynote, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Kinect will be coming to Windows on Feb. 1.

In a follow-up blog post, Microsoft said the hardware will have to be optimized for the Windows platform, and the price will reflect that. The Windows-based device will cost $250, more than double the price of the Kinect for Xbox, currently $120 on Amazon.

Microsoft also points out that it can mark down the cost of the hardware for the Xbox because it is subsidized by the purchase of games.

The biggest change to the hardware perhaps is that the camera will be able to see objects as close as 40 to 50 centimeters away from the device, whereas the Xbox version requires you to stand a few feet away from the TV and use most of your living room.

Microsoft also said Kinect for Windows will support gestures and voice on Windows Embedded-based devices, such as systems in manufacturing, retail and other industries.

There will be a slightly cheaper version, priced at $150, for qualifying educational users, to fuel additional innovation on the platform.

Coming up with compelling reasons to buy the technology will be important, especially since Microsoft is charging such a premium price.

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What Connects a PlayStation Vita to a Walkman? A Designer.

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:57:22 +0000

Sony would consider itself very lucky if the PlayStation Vita has the same staying power as the Walkman, which celebrated its 30th anniversary two years ago.

Though it won’t arrive in the U.S. until Feb. 22, Sony’s newest handheld gaming device has stumbled out of the starting gate in Japan. The device sold 321,400 units in two days, but on Monday, Sony issued an apologetic statement after complaints emerged that the Vita was freezing and crashing.

But, for what it’s worth, there is a common thread between the two products: Sony’s new gadget was developed in part by one of the original creators of one of the most successful consumer-electronics devices of all time.

As the PlayStation blog reports today, the look and feel of the Vita was designed by Takashi Sogabe of the Sony Corporate Design Centre. It also notes that Sogabe, who has been at the company for 27 years, worked on the original Walkman.

While it probably isn’t entirely accurate that he worked on the original Walkman (since it came before Sogabe’s time), a bio on Sony’s Web site gives him credit for a “See-through Walkman,” and a “Beautiful Walkman.” He also worked on the PlayStation 3 and Sony’s e-reader.

The PlayStation blog will be posting a full interview with Sogabe later, but today’s post did offer some details.

Sogabe said the design team came up with various versions of the Vita, including one with a sliding back, and another that snapped shut like a clamshell.

He also said that they tried to incorporate two touchpads in place of the dual analog sticks, but that they weren’t accurate enough.

(Takashi Sogabe image courtesy of Sony)

(Walkman images courtesy of Wikipedia)

Videogame Consoles Still Selling Like Hotcakes, But How Much Life Is Left in the Aging Hardware?

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:30:29 +0000

Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii sold in record numbers last week as Americans kicked off their holiday shopping.

Experts Give the New Xbox Raves for Control, Creativity
(Dec. 6 2001)
Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Microsoft sold more than 960,000 consoles last week, with a majority flying off the shelves within a single 24-hour period.

Nintendo also said the Wii had the biggest Black Friday ever, selling more than 500,000 units on the day after Thanksgiving.

At one point during the shopping madness, a shopper pepper sprayed a crowd at a Wal-Mart to get her mitts on an Xbox (although reports now say police are investigating the incident to determine the cause of the attack).

Sony declined to release sales figures for the PlayStation 3 last week, but it is likely benefiting from a recent $50 price cut.

Such strong sales are mind-blowing.

People are lining up for — and in some cases fighting over — hardware that is five to six years old. It’s difficult to imagine any other consumer hardware that could attract that kind of demand after such a long period of time.

All three are nearing the end of their life cycles. The Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 are both five years old, and the Xbox 360 is a year older.

Nintendo announced that it will release a new console, the Wii U, later next year. Microsoft and Sony have not said anything official, but they are both expected to follow with competing launches in the same time frame.

It has long been a pattern for all three rivals to release new hardware at the same time. A European PlayStation executive recently hinted that Sony’s plan was to continue that trend because it was “undesirable” to be significantly later than the competition, according to IndustryGamers.com.

Despite the odds, there are at least three reasons why sales continue to do well.

The lineup of games is as strong as it has ever been for the consoles; all three have tried sprucing up the hardware with accessories and adding downloadable content; and, finally, consumers don’t have a choice — the only alternative is to wait another year.

First, the games: This year, publishers waited until now to release some of the hottest titles of 2011; hardcore gamers in particular will have their choice of any number of blockbuster hits.

Activision’s Call of Duty game is already a runaway success, grossing $775 million in the first five days it was available, to shatter all entertainment records.

Also in the hardcore genre is Electronic Art’s Battlefield 3, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, PlayStation’s Uncharted 3 and Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham City, which are all going head to head this holiday season.

But the consoles don’t just serve the hardcore genre anymore.

Last year, both Sony and Microsoft released motion-controlled gaming systems to rival the Wii’s technology, which has always been considered more family friendly and easy to use.

This holiday season, Sony and Microsoft are offering the most games ever for the Move and Kinect, respectively. Microsoft will have 75 new Kinect games available for the Xbox this holiday, four times last year’s number. Sony said the PlayStation Move is expected to launch 26 titles.

In addition to being used to play games, the consoles are turning into entertainment systems for the living room.

It started with the ability to use the Internet-connected boxes to stream Netflix to TV screens. Now the consoles are turning into media hubs, playing video, music and other content that is readily available over the Internet.

Microsoft and Sony have made entertainment a particular focus between their respective online networks, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Microsoft will make a huge push on Dec. 6, when it rolls out a free update to Xbox Live. Users will be able to conduct a Bing search to find games, music and video across several providers. To make it even more family friendly, the Xbox Live user interface will be controlled with voice commands, rather than by the game controller.

By the end of the year, Microsoft expects that nearly 40 TV and entertainment providers — including Comcast, Netflix, Hulu, ESPN and HBO GO — will be available on its system.

All of these reasons added up could keep the pedal on the gas for what in any other segment would be considered ancient technology.

In an interview, John Koller, director of marketing for Sony’s PlayStation, argued that there’s a lot left in the current generation of consoles.

As an example, he said its predecessor, the PlayStation 2, is 12 years old, but continues to be used in homes around the U.S. as a game player and DVD player. Similarly, the PlayStation 3 substitutes as a Blu-ray player.

Overall, the PlayStation 2 ended up reaching nearly half of all U.S. households.

If that can be used as a guide, then the PlayStation 3 still has a very long way to go. In fact, the goal may be unattainable if new hardware is coming around the corner.

To date, Sony has sold 18.7 million PlayStation 3’s in the U.S. That makes up just a fraction — less than 17 percent — of the 112.6 million households, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures.

“We are nowhere near where we could be,” Koller admits.

Next year, the true testament will be how the hardware sells as we get closer to the release of Nintendo Wii U and consoles.

Call of Duty Grosses More Than $775 Million in Five Days to Destroy All Records

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:52:44 +0000

Activision’s latest Call of Duty title has shattered all previous entertainment records, grossing more than $775 million in its first five days of sales.

The gory first-person shooter has managed to outsell all movies, books and videogames during its initial debut.

It even surpassed last year’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which grossed $650 million, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which sold $550 million.

In an interview, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick told AllThingsD that the game’s entertainment value compares well against other more accessible media options.

“I don’t think we have empirical evidence to support this, but the cost per hour is a lot lower than any form of entertainment,” he said. “In this difficult economy, you are getting a great value.”

The latest installment, called Modern Warfare 3, retails for about $60 and is available on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and for the PC.

He said for that price, you get a social experience because of the multiplayer capabilities; a cinematic experience with good imagery and a story line; and an interactive experience. “It touches on all of the compelling areas of entertainment,” he said.

Activision is claiming that the Call of Duty franchise is one of the most valuable entertainment properties worldwide, having exceeded $6 billion in revenue over its lifetime. At that level, Kotick says, it is up there with “Star Wars,” the Harry Potter franchise, and maybe “Lord of the Rings.”

In its first day on the market, Activision sold more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom at an estimated sell-through rate of more than $400 million.

It’s competing against a number of blockbuster first-person shooters that are being released this winter, like Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3, which came out late last month. That title sold five million units during its first week of sales.

Not only is Call of Duty a big revenue hit, but it’s also likely sucking away time spent on other media.

According to Microsoft, more than 3.3 million unique gamers logged seven million multiplayer hours with the game by the end of Nov. 8, the first day it was available. At one point, more than 3.3 million concurrent users played the game on Xbox Live.

A companion social network for the game, called Call of Duty Elite, is being sold separately for $50 for premium access.

Kotick said Activision will release more information about sales on that soon, but “the response has been much higher than we anticipated.”

Sony PlayStation Director Not Concerned That the Vita Will Miss the Holidays

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:02:17 +0000

Don’t compare it to the iPad, Nintendo’s 3DS, or even its predecessor, the PlayStation Portable.

Vita, the upcoming handheld device, is hoping it’s in a class of its own, says John Koller, Sony’s PlayStation director of hardware marketing.

It better be.

In the three years the device has been under development, smartphones and tablets have become mainstream and the need for dedicated portable gaming devices has been weakened.

And if Nintendo’s 3DS is any indication, Vita’s prospects aren’t good. The 3DS struggled after missing the holidays last season, and Nintendo was forced to cut the price drastically almost immediately.

“This is a larger game experience. We think we are insulated from the competition,” Koller said. “We love mobile games. Mobile and tablets games are additive.”

As an example, while an HD game on the iPad is large, a game on the Vita could range from 2GB to 4GB. That would take up a substantial amount of the iPad’s memory, and take an awful long time to download.

The horizontal device is large and fits in your hands comfortably.

There’s a touchscreen on the front and a touchpad on the back, there are both forward-facing and rear-facing cameras, there are dual analog sticks to support first-person shooters, and there’s integration with the PS3, which will allow game makers to provide the ability to start playing the game on the console, leave the house and pick up where you left playing on the Vita. If developers allow it, users will also be able to stream games that they bought for the console to their handheld using Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi version starts at $249 and the 3G version costs $299, not including a data plan with AT&T.

As with any new connected gaming device, it will also experiment with things such as augmented reality, social features — such as Twitter and Facebook integration — and location-based services.

Koller described the demand as robust. Of the current PlayStation Portable owners, 60 percent have said they will upgrade in the next 18 months, and of the console owners, 63 percent said they would buy one. Of course, those two markets have a lot of overlap.

Initially, the device was expected to come out before Christmas, but after it was announced at E3 in June it faced delays. Recently, Sony announced it would come out in Japan first, and then hit the U.S. and other areas on Feb. 22.

Koller said the delay was due to meeting demand and that pre-orders are “substantial.”

He added, “We’ve increased production materially since E3. We learned our lesson to make sure you have enough product.”

Koller argues that the PSP launched in March 2005 and it still sold one million units in the first week, so missing the holidays is not detrimental.

He believes with more than 100 substantial games in development worldwide, there will be plenty of reasons for people to buy it right away. That’s where the Nintendo 3DS faltered: Not enough 3-D games at launch to justify buying it.

Today, Sony is announcing a special bundle that will launch a week early for those who are particularly anxious to get their hands on the device.

The PS Vita First Edition Bundle will be available for pre-order starting today. For $350, consumers will get the 3G version of the device, a 4GB memory card, a travel case, and the game, Little Deviants. The devices will be available for pick-up on Feb. 15.

Forge Your Own Guitar Skills With Ubisoft's Rocksmith

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:00:54 +0000

Ubisoft has figured out a way for people to learn to play a real electric guitar using videogames.

The highly anticipated game, called Rocksmith, comes out on Oct. 18. Many are expecting it to fill a void in the music game genre, after big hit titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band took a nose dive.

The game — which will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — will cost $80, including a cable to connect the guitar and the console. A bundle including the game, the cable and a full-size Les Paul Junior electric guitar costs $200.

Rocksmith will be sold through all the normal channels and at Guitar Center.

In an interview, Rocksmith creative director Paul Cross told me that Ubisoft’s San Francisco office has been working on the title for about two years, after acquiring a company called GameTank.

The technology allows the guitar to be plugged into the console with one cord, and turns the TV into an amplifier. At that point, everything becomes digital, from tuning the guitar to creating different distortions with various pedals that consumers would normally have to pay for separately.

The game can accommodate users of all levels. To start, there are simple practice games that allow users to shoot ducks by hitting the right combination of strings. Or they can jump right into playing a song. The game will dynamically adjust, based on the number of correct notes a player hits. If they make too many mistakes, fewer notes come down the screen; if they do well, the complexity quickly ramps up.

If some parts of the song continue to stump you, there’s a practice mode option, where the game will break it down note by note. To keep it in the spirit of a game, players only have five chances, or “lives,” to keep from getting frustrated.

The interesting part is that, unlike other music games, there’s no beginner or expert mode — it’s all the same song, no matter who is playing. As players become more accomplished, they get more points, unlock new songs, and the crowd watching them grows in size.

The ultimate achievement is playing in “master mode,” which means you are playing from memory. In that mode, you get double the points.

Cross, who never played guitar until 18 months ago when he first started on the project, says he has been challenged to play Radiohead’s “High and Dry” at the company’s next work party — on stage and without the help of the game.

Despite what some critics say, Cross argues that the music genre hasn’t petered out. If Rock Band 3, which is considered a failure, managed to sell a million copies to the most hardcore fans, that’s still a success. “If we do a million units, and people say we failed, I’ll be OK with that,” he said.

Here’s a video of Cross demonstrating the game by rocking out — fittingly, in a Seattle hotel room — to Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” I do most of the talking, since playing the game, the guitar and talking to me at the same time is asking a little too much.

Who knows? Maybe that will someday be considered super master mode.

[ See post to watch video ]

Nintendo 3DS Sales Pick Up Steam After Price Cut

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:26:43 +0000

You know times are tough when the bright spot for the videogame industry in August was that price cuts drove increased sales of both Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation 3.

But never fear, better times await. The next four months will generate more than half of the industry’s sales that are made at retail, which could be more than enough to bring things back in line with last year’s performance.

The NPD Group today released its assessment of retail sales in August, which does not take into consideration electronic or other digital channels where games are sold.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier said almost everything related to games — software, hardware and accessories — declined in August, compared to the same month a year earlier. The one exception was portable game sales, which were driven by sales of Nintendo DS and 3DS software.

Price cuts benefited both Nintendo and Sony.

Sony trimmed the price of the five-year-old PlayStation 3 to $250 from a previously recommended price of $300, while Nintendo slashed the price of the struggling 3DS by $80, after the glasses-free 3-D handheld device had been on sale for only four months.

Nintendo said about 185,000 units were sold after the price reduction on Aug. 12, an increase of more than 260 percent during the comparable 19-day time period in July. During the entire month, the company sold 235,000 3DS game devices to outsell the original Nintendo DS, which still managed to sell 165,000 in August.

The PS3 price cut also allowed it to drive a notable uptick in sales year over year.

Xbox continues to maintain its lead over other consoles in the market, selling 308,000 units in August, which means it has outsold any other console maker for 14 of the past 15 months in the U.S.

In August, total U.S. game sales from retail, including all hardware and software, was $669.9 million, falling 23 percent from $873.8 million a year ago. Software sales in the period were hit the hardest, recording a 34 percent drop to $264.8 million from $403.5 million a year earlier.

Frazier attributed the bulk of the decline to Electronic Arts shifting the release of its latest Madden football title from August to September. The game launched on Aug. 30, which falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period.

Otherwise, the best-selling game in August was Square Enix’s Deus Ex, followed by EA’s NCAA Football 12 and Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Frazier added that the rest of the year could more than make up for the softness seen in 2011.

“Even though year-to-date performance of the new physical portion of the industry is down 5 percent, more than half of industry sales in this channel are still to be realized in the back four months of the year,” she wrote. “Given the strong release schedule in the coming months, new physical retail sales could still be flat to slightly up once full-year sales are tallied.”

Sony Trims $50 Off the Five-Year-Old PlayStation 3

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:30:46 +0000

Sony is cutting the price of the five-year-old PlayStation 3 to $250 from a previously recommended price of $300, the company said today. The version with twice the amount of storage, or 320 gigabytes, will cost $300, down from $350. The new pricing goes into effect Thursday.

Videogame Publishers Highlight Digital Revenues But Remain Divided on Meaning

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:13:28 +0000

Activision Blizzard joins a growing list of videogame publishers that are placing more emphasis on digital revenues over selling boxed games at retail.

In its first-quarter results released today, the company, which is known for its Call of Duty and World of Warcraft games, said its revenues from digital channels increased 30 percent year over year in the first quarter.

What’s more, on a non-GAAP basis, digital channels accounted for more than 50 percent of net revenues, or roughly $378 million.

However, what’s becoming clear is that the definition of digital is a moving target for all parties involved, a trend that will likely continue as companies experiment with new business models and ways to deliver games to consumers.

Activision’s big source of digital during the quarter came from the $15 content pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which provides new areas for players to explore that were not included in the the original game sold at retail. It’s available on Xbox today and is expected to launch on Sony’s PlayStation Network and the PC in the second quarter.

That’s much different from Electronic Arts, which said last week that its digital revenues for its fiscal year ended March 31 totaled $833 million, exceeding its forecast of $750 million.

When EA talks about digital, it refers to mobile games and social games on platforms, such as Facebook. For the most part, it’s not referring to downloadable content available on consoles (although it has that, too).

The differing points of view also come down to business models.

Mobile games and social games are often free and either monetized through advertising or through virtual goods that are purchased in the game. Online games are often paid for via subscriptions and console games frequently require a $60 upfront payment with the option of paying for more downloaded content later.

Thomas Tippl, Activision’s COO and CFO, said while digital revenues grew at 30 percent, it was also able to maintain margins of up to 50 percent since most of its digital content was leveraging the company’s large online communities and popular franchises.

Call of Duty and it’s $15 content pack is one example:

During the earnings call, Activision said that Call of Duty: Black Ops has now officially become the best-selling title of all time in dollars across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC in the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, the popularity of that title was able to drive massive sales of the digital add-on pack. While only released a few days ago, it has the potential to do better than most console games at retail.

“The Call of Duty content pack shattered records with 1.4 million downloads in the first 24 hours,” Tippl said. “We no longer think about launch events, but long-term on-going relationships with players. The response from fans underscores this approach.”

The company also discussed other digital initiatives, of which some could arguably be considered social, although they are not on Facebook.

In the works is a next-generation massively mutli-player online game; a micro-transaction game for China; a digital platform surrounding the Call of Duty franchise; a new property from Bungie; and Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure, a new children’s game coming out that will tie the Internet together with real-life $10 toys.

But not ever in the company’s earnings release, or during the call, did Activision place much emphasis on mobile games or social games.

Actually, Facebook was mentioned once. Activision said that since Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike launched on Feb. 1, players have spent an average of 58 minutes a day playing online, which is more than the 55 minutes an average Facebook user spends a day on the social network.

So, maybe it can build its own communities?

Still, one could argue that mobile and social are key components to the digital gaming experience.

In addition to Electronic Arts’ many investments in the space, including the purchase of Playfish, a social games publisher, Disney also acquired Playdom. Both plan to use the publishers to bring some of their more recognizable content from other platforms to Facebook. Social games are also becoming a massive business for privately held companies, like Zynga.

An analyst during Activision’s earnings call this afternoon asked about how the company viewed the various emerging platforms across the videogames industry.

In response, Activision’s CEO Robert Kotick said: “You hit on the most interesting of the fundamentals that are redefining interactive entertainment. More people are playing games than ever before.

“Facebook has done a good job of introducing interactive entertainment to people who have never engaged in gaming of that kind…We’ve always taken the approach of platform agnosticism. We deliver services across devices with a display and a microprocessor. We have to prioritize the resources based on the opportunity. As we look out three to five years, we see there being a lot more displays with microprocessors that will be capable of playing games. We are so excited about the prospects of the future. If it has a microprocessor and a display, our content can be there.”

PlayStation Network Still Down After Sustaining Injuries Last Week

Tricia Duryee — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:43:54 +0000

That’s some serious collateral damage. The PlayStation Network, which was attacked by hackers, has now been offline for five days, with no end in sight. A spokesperson on its blog wrote today: “I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.” The network, which provides PlayStation 3 users with downloadable games, movies and TV shows, originally thought it would be operational again over the weekend.

Sony Blames PlayStation Outage on "External Intrusion"

Tricia Duryee — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:14:29 +0000

Sony’s PlayStation Network was likely taken down by hackers and is not a victim of Amazon’s cloud services, which coincidentally faced widespread outages at the same time.

The PlayStation network, which allows people to play games online and watch TV and stream other content, continues to be down after three days. The attack has also affected Sony’s Qriocity services, which provides streaming video and music to various Sony products.

It’s unclear when the two services will come back online. UPDATE: The PlayStation Network continues to be down with no estimated time for recovery.

A statement posted late yesterday to the PlayStation blog blames the outage on an “external intrusion”:

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

Earlier this month, the PlayStation.com website was attacked by the distributed hacking group Anonymous, which is well known for trying to take down various web sites for their involvement in the Wikileaks scandal.

The group was reportedly angry at Sony after it sued two PlayStation 3 owners for releasing code that allows third-party software and operating systems to run on the console, reports ComputerWorld.

Anonymous has said it has nothing to do with the current problems.

Sony's PlayStation Network Faces Second Day of Outages

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:38:59 +0000

Sony’s PlayStation Network, which provides PlayStation 3 users with downloadable games, movies and TV shows, says it may be another day or two before a network outage is resolved.

UPDATE: The PlayStation Network continues to be down with no estimated time for recovery.

The problems were first addressed on Wednesday on the PlayStation blog, and in a troubling update yesterday, Patrick Seybold, the company’s senior director of corporate communications and social media, said it could be another day or two before they are back online.

“While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.”

A Sony spokesperson declined to comment further on the situation.

For now, while the outage corresponds with Amazon’s cloud difficulties, which has now been officially out for more than a day, there are no signs that there is any correlation between the two.

In fact, Sony’s outage is being blamed on Anonymous, the same hacker group involved in retaliation efforts surrounding the Wikileaks shutdown, because they were involved again earlier this month in shutdowns on various Sony sites, reports the Christian Science Monitor. It’s also plausible that something far less sinister, like routine maintenance, brought the network down.

Regardless, the outage is bad timing. Consumers are up in arms, as they were eager to play recent releases such as Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, SOCOM 4, and inFAMOUS 2′s beta release.

A user who goes by the name of mixedkidbx wrote: “WHAT???? MORTAL KOMBAT just came out and now i cant play online. I cant play 80% of my games that have online functions.” In another post, he added: “Right i got the inFAMOUS 2 beta too.”

The Sony PlayStation Network is similar to Xbox Live, and serves the same purpose of trying to extend the life of the console by adding new content via the Internet. It has 70 million registered accounts worldwide who have downloaded more than 1.4 billion pieces of content.

According to comments on the PlayStation blog, the platform is well used and is being missed. On average, at least two-thirds of PSN registrants play an online game once a week or more, and more than 70 percent of registrants make at least one purchase. In January, PSN reported its fifth highest month for revenue to date.

Sony Move Creator Richard Marks on the Future of Motion Control (But He Doesn't Call it That)

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:24:08 +0000

The Microsoft Kinect, which gives users the ability to play hands-free on their Xbox, was a runaway hit of the holiday season, selling eight million units.

Meanwhile, Sony released a similar accessory for the PlayStation 3 called the Move, which sold 4.1 million during the first two months.

The two devices signal a wave of new gaming techniques by moving your body and arms — and brings what the Nintendo Wii started to the next level.

All three motion-controlled platforms help introduce gaming to a new demographic, who would have never envisioned themselves being comfortable picking up a controller that has a dozen or so differently colored buttons.

For Sony and Microsoft, it also breathes new life into their aging gaming systems, by creating new reasons to buy games, or even the console.

Sony charges about $100 for one controller and one game; and Microsoft charges about $140 for the Kinect plus one game.

So, is it a fad?

Richard Marks, who created the Sony Move, said no we’ve just gotten started.

“I don’t call it motion-control, even though Sony does. We are adding a level of finesse to gaming that hasn’t been there before. By calling it motion-control, it’s selling it short,” he said.

While most of the popular titles for the platforms so far are centralized around dancing or sports, Marks said the technology has the ablity to add a lot more to the gaming experience.

In fact, that’s one big difference between the Move and the Kinect.

“The traditional controller is intimidating, so this is addressing that audience, but it is also addressing the same core gaming audience.”

With the addition of a gun attachment, players can then use it to participate in hard core games, such as Kill Zone 3, where users pull a trigger to shoot someone and physically duck behind obstacles, so they don’t get shot.

At first, he said they didn’t know how traditional gamers would react to adding Move to these games, but as it turns out, it makes the game feel much closer to reality. ”People don’t want to die as much, so they end up playing the game slower. It personalizes it more,” he said.

But adding Move to both casual and hard core game titles is just the beginning.

He says the technology has the ability to be so precise, you can imagine reaching your hand into a 3D world and picking up an object to inspect it. Or, in an intense fight scene, you could create a shield to defend yourself, by grabbing two sides of a imaginary fabric and stretching it to block a shot — using both hands.

He argues that’s a much more better experience than pushing a button. “It’s not a fad and it won’t replace the controller, but is good for when you want a special input.”

Where he thinks the technology will stop short is when it comes to bringing it to other devices.

The images in Minority Report, where Tom Cruise is moving around objects in thin air is not the best use case. “Doing that for eight hours a day is not practical. It’s being oversold because it’s cool. There’s more natural interfaces for that…The Move is a game controller, it was never desinged to be for the desktop.”

Here’s a video of Marks, who elaborates on his vision for the future of motion-controlled gaming, or uh, whatever he wants to call it:

[ See post to watch video ]

Nintendo's 3-D Gadget Faces Software Hurdle

Daisuke Wakabayashi and Juro Osawa — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:00:20 +0000

As Nintendo Co. readies to launch its 3DS hand-held game player Saturday in Japan, software developers are still wrestling with how to best utilize the device’s three-dimensional graphics.

Sony Corp. opened the door to 3-D videogames for consumers who own 3-D-equipped TVs last April by upgrading its PlayStation 3 home consoles using a software update. Nintendo’s new 3-D portable device should accelerate the shift because the gadget, unlike the PS3, doesn’t require a separate 3-D display or specialized glasses. The success or failure of any 3-D game platform will hinge on the ability of videogame makers to highlight the technology’s appeal versus existing software. Many software developers said they haven’t fully explored how to exploit the technology to develop new types of games. Nintendo plans to have eight games ready for the launch in Japan, but those games have only scratched the surface for incorporating 3-D into gameplay.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Sony's Music Service Comes to the U.S., Still Won't Work on the Go

Peter Kafka — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:30:26 +0000

There are a bunch of music subscription services in the U.S., all of which offer more or less the same thing at the same price.

And now there’s Sony. Which is offering less at the same price.

Sony is rolling out its (bear with me) “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” service today, and it’s a lot like MOG, Rhaposdy and other competitors: It sells access to all the music you want, whenever you want to hear it, for $10 a month.

But unlike its competition, Sony’s service won’t let you take the music with you on your iPod or mobile phone.

Which, as I’ve noted before, is pretty much the whole point of these things.

What’s Sony thinking? I chatted with Sony Network Entertainment head Tim Schaaff about it, and you can see our entire discussion below. Short version: Sony says it will make its music portable sooner than later; Sony thinks people will enjoy listening to the music on their TVs, controlled by their PlayStation 3s; and Sony will advertise the heck out of this thing.

There’s also an interesting backstory about why Sony isn’t launching with mobile. Or at least I’m sure there has to be. Right? But Schaaf won’t give that one up.

When Sony does go mobile, expect to see it on Android first. The company has been explicit about its interest in working with Google’s mobile platform, and hasn’t mentioned Apple and its iOS platform in its press materials. But I did get Schaaff to concede that, yes, Sony plans on working with Apple, too.

Except now that Apple’s new subscription terms seem to make it impossible for streaming music services to work in their present incarnation–Apple wants 30 percent of a low-margin product with high variable costs–it may be that none of Sony’s competitors will end up working on iPhones and iPods. Which would end up dramatically reducing the amount of ground Sony will have to make up.

Schaaff, by the way, should be an interesting person to talk to about Apple and its head-scratching subscription fiat. Prior to joining Sony in 2005, he had spent 14 years at Apple, and was intimately involved in the company’s media products.

But Schaaff is too politic to let me bait him into saying much about Apple’s moves, other than allowing that “it seems a little aggressive.” And then he can’t help himself: “Sounds like a good thing for Android.”

[ See post to watch video ]

Videogame Industry Suffers Massively Multiplayer Sales Decline

John Paczkowski — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:50:08 +0000

April was another lousy month for the videogame industry. With overall revenue down 26 percent and hardware down 37 percent, it was the worst monthly year-over-year sales decline since last July, according to research house The NPD Group. It was also the 10th time in the last 13 months that sales have fallen year-over-year.

Nintendo sold 277,2000 Wiis, down from 557,500 in March and 340,000 a year ago. The company sold 440,800 Nintendo DS’s, down from 700,800 in March and 1.04 million a year ago.

Microsoft sold 185,400 Xbox 360s, down from 338,400 in March, but up from 175,000 a year ago.

Sony sold 180,800 PlayStation 3s, down from 313,900 in March, but up from 127,000 a year ago. And it sold 65,500 PSPs, down from 119,900 in March and 116,000 a year ago.

What’s driving the drops? Blame the portable gaming industry, which contributed more than its fair share to the industry decline, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“The portable business across hardware, software and accessories accounted for 25 percent of total industry dollar sales in April,” Frazier explained. “But declines in portable sales compared to April ’09 accounted for 61 percent of the total industry decrease.”

That’s just abysmal, even if April is traditionally the slowest month of the year for videogame sales. Consider this: At 440,800, sales of the Nintendo DS tanked by more than 50 percent from more than one million last April.

So what’s going on? Perhaps consumers are postponing new portable game system purchases in anticipation of Nintendo’s new 3DS. Or perhaps they’re finding that their smartphones make fine gaming devices.

It’s not yet clear. But what is clear, and painfully so, is that the hardware refresh promised by Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT), which are adding new motion technology to their players, and Nintendo, which is debuting the 3-D version of its DS handheld, can’t come soon enough.

Streaming Video to a TV

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:01:45 +0000

Is there a device that would enable me to watch streaming movies from Netflix directly on my TV, without using a computer?

Yes, there are many. A small portion of Netflix’s huge catalog is available for streaming, as opposed to viewing on DVD, and the company has struck deals with various makers of set-top boxes and other TV-connected hardware that allow these movies to be played directly on a TV. Among these are the Roku digital video player, TiVo digital video recorders, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles. The simplest and least expensive is the Roku, which starts at around $80. A complete list is at netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices.

I’m going to graduate school, and need a PC mostly for word processing. I am not interested in gaming, movies, etc. I am looking at the Asus UL20A. Is that a good idea?

I haven’t reviewed this model, but, if you’re comfortable with its keyboard and screen, you should be fine using it mainly for word processing (though it’s capable of many other tasks). However, there are many competitors in this size and price range, and, unless you have already done so, I’d suggest shopping around to make sure the Asus is the best choice for you.

Which version of Windows (XP, Vista or 7) runs best using Apple’s Boot Camp?

I have run all three just fine on an iMac using Boot Camp, Apple’s built-in feature for booting Mac hardware into Windows when you like instead of into Apple’s (AAPL) own operating system. However, I would suggest Windows 7. It’s much better than Vista and much more modern than XP.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns, free of charge, at walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

How to Watch Video, Wirelessly, on Your TV Set

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:03:34 +0000

An increasing number of people are watching video, including TV shows and movies, on their computers, instead of via traditional TV sets.

Many young people don’t even bother with a cable or satellite subscription and just use their PCs or Macs to get their video fix.

[ See post to watch video ]

But computer screens are small, so some folks hook the computer up to the TV for their viewing sessions. The problem with this is that it can be complicated for the technically challenged. And it can involve long cables stretching across the floor, or leaving a computer you might want for other tasks permanently connected to the TV. So companies have been working on ways to beam Internet video wirelessly from your computer to your TV.

I’ve been testing two of these wireless PC-to-TV solutions. Both require a secondary device that remains connected to the TV to receive the wireless signal from the computer.

One product is a new system from Intel (INTC), several major laptop makers and the networking equipment company Netgear (NTGR). It’s called Intel Wireless Display, or Wi-Di for short. The other is a software product called PlayOn, from a company called MediaMall. It beams video to your TV through popular game consoles such as Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360, Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. Both of these products only work on Windows computers.

In my tests, both systems mostly worked as advertised, but each had some downsides. The Intel system works with any video from any site you can play on the computer, but the video disappears from the TV if you are playing it in full-screen mode and get the impulse to use the computer for any other purpose while it is playing. And it only works on a handful of new, specially equipped PCs.

The PlayOn system will work on an existing computer, and it keeps showing a video even if you choose to use the PC for some other task. But it can’t beam just any old video to the TV, only those from services PlayOn has enabled. For instance, you can watch TV shows and movies from Hulu (partly owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal and its Web sites) but not from your favorite random Web site.

Intel’s new Wi-Di system is so far only available on three specific laptop models, one each from Toshiba, Sony and Dell (DELL), that range from $900 to $1,050. And these laptops are so far only available from Best Buy (BBY). It also requires a small $100 adapter called Push2TV from Netgear, which comes free with these laptops.

Wi-Di requires computers equipped with Intel’s brand new 2010 Core processors, Intel’s graphics chips and Intel’s wireless chips. Netgear and Intel say the feature will be available on other PC models later in the year.

I tested Wi-Di with the $900 Toshiba E205, a capable laptop with a 14-inch screen. Setup was a breeze. I just plugged the Netgear box into my TV and pushed a special Wi-Di button on the Toshiba. I typed in a code number the first time I used it, and I was in business.

Instantly, anything showing on the Toshiba’s screen was wirelessly replicated on the TV screen, even though I was eight feet away.

I tested the system with YouTube, Hulu and many other Web sites with no hitches or glitches. I also played videos stored on the PC’s hard disk.

Video mostly played smoothly over Wi-Di, though the quality on the TV was a bit degraded from that on the laptop screen, and HD videos didn’t look nearly as good as normal HD TV broadcasts. Also, the system isn’t satisfying unless you are streaming a video that can be viewed in full-screen mode on the PC.

I tested PlayOn with a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and a PlayStation 3. After hooking up the PS3, I installed the $40 PlayOn software, which runs in the background. I then navigated to the Video section of the Sony’s menu, found PlayOn listed and used the Sony’s remote control to select from supported services, which include YouTube, Hulu, Netflix (NFLX), CBS.com (CBS), Amazon (AMZN) Video on Demand, CNN.com,and ESPN.com.

PlayOn also allows third-party plug-ins to add other Web video sources, such as NBC.com, but the company admits that the plug-in process can be clunky.

Video quality was about the same on PlayOn as on Wi-Di, and most programs played smoothly. With PlayOn, you don’t see the actual Web site, and you’re limited to the navigation system and options of the game console you’re using. So, I had to tediously find shows on the Sony by trolling through long lists.

PlayOn failed to display videos and photos stored on my PC, though to be fair the company lists this as a beta feature. And it displayed brief error messages frequently, even when it proceeded to play my chosen video properly.

PlayOn costs $40, and can be downloaded from www.playon.tv. You also must own or buy a game console, or one of a smattering of less- well-known TV adapters that the system supports.

Watching Internet video is a better experience with no wires to get in the way. But it can cost a lot, and needs some work.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Sony’s PS3 Suffers Massive Outage

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:00:57 +0000

Gaming sites were abuzz this morning with the news that Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 has a bug that is preventing users from being able to access PlayStation’s Internet network and in some cases blocking games from being played altogether.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Viral Video: "Heavy Rain" Bewitches, but Without Twitches–Is It the Future of Gaming?

Kara Swisher — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:57:08 +0000

Reviewers are falling all over themselves to praise a new videogame called “Heavy Rain,” which was released last week Sony (SNE) for its PlayStation 3.

Developed by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, using a 2,000-page script, it’s a murder mystery in the film noir genre, with a deep and complex plot.

The New York Times’s Seth Schiesel, for example, wrote on Friday, in what was a typical rave review of the “Heavy Rain”:

“In terms of eye-hand coordination or ‘gamer skills,’ Heavy Rain is negligible, even trivial, in its challenge, which will offend twitch fiends. Yet this is no simplistic Choose Your Own Adventure for children. This is a wrenching, often disturbing, almost entirely gripping experience for grown-ups.”

In other words, it goes without saying: Something with soul and creativity, unlike most of the shoot-em-up videogames now available.

But it is not without wrenching violence, concerning itself with catching the Origami Killer, a serial killer who drowns young boys in rain water.

There are four characters to play in the game, which can last up to a dozen hours, with the outcome changing depending on your actions.

While a few think the game feels too much like a straight-to-DVD movie, it might also be just the kind of change that the weak games market needs to reinvigorate itself.

Decide for yourself–here are videos of two of the many trailers for the innovative game, which seems deeply creepy:

The ABCs of Wii, Xbox and PlayStation 3

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:47:12 +0000

With holiday shopping comes anxiety about getting the right gifts. Does Dad already own a copy of “Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits”? Was Mom expecting a new pepper mill, or was that Aunt Carol? It’s even worse for people shopping for the video gamers in their lives: Understanding the technical specifications of each console can seem as difficult as getting to the highest level in a game of Halo.

This week, I’ve done the dirty work for you: I’ve amassed a collection of vital details about the three most popular systems—Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360, Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii—so that you can get a handle on what each offers and what it will cost you.

Nintendo Wii

Nintendo recently dropped the Wii’s price, for the first time, to $200 from $250. The Wii Console comes with a controller, an additional controller called a Nunchuk, and the Wii Sports game, which includes baseball, tennis, golf, bowling and boxing. It holds 512 megabytes of flash memory, but you can increase this by inserting SecureDigital memory cards. It also accepts high-capacity SD cards, or SDHCs, of up to 32 gigabytes.

The couch-potato world of videogamers was shaken up when the Wii, with its motion-sensitive remote control, was introduced about three years ago. Users can play Wii Golf, for instance, by swinging the remote like a golf club. In September, Nintendo added to its lineup a $20 remote-control accessory called Wii MotionPlus that was designed to add more precision to game motions. I tested this snap-on piece and found that it did make the Wii’s motions feel more realistic. But it works only with Wii MotionPlus games—and there are only six of them; 10 more are planned for 2010.

Wii encourages users to move around in more ways than just waving a remote: Its Wii Balance Board, which comes with the Wii Fit Plus game in a $100 bundle, works like a digital exercise step. It records the body’s weight shifts and movements for activities from yoga to wake-boarding.

The Wii accesses the Internet and lets users compete online against others. About 655 packaged games are available for between $30 and $50. Also, you can use pre-purchased Nintendo Points to buy and download about 150 WiiWare games and over 325 titles from the older Virtual Console library. Each game costs between 300 and 1,500 points, or between about $3 and $15.

WiiConnect24 can send messages from one Wii to another over the Internet, as long the two users exchange “Wii numbers.” Users can also surf the Web with Wii’s Opera browser. But beyond this, no other Web features—like downloadable movies, social-networking applications or streaming music—will work on this system.

Parental controls can be set on the Wii to restrict kids from using the Web browser, playing games that have a certain rating or communicating online.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Microsoft recently stepped up its game by adding features to its $200 Xbox 360 that make it well-rounded rather than strictly geared toward serious gamers. People who buy the Xbox LIVE Gold membership, for $50 a year, get applications for Facebook, Twitter, the Last.fm music-streaming service, online multiplayer game play, video chat, Netflix (Netflix subscription required), photo sharing via the Xbox, and movie or photo “parties” that allow users to watch a movie simultaneously with seven other friends.

Xbox LIVE Silver membership is free and includes basic features like voice and text chat, as well as access to the Zune video library’s 20,000 TV shows and movies to buy or rent. The Xbox also allows media-streaming over a home network. To wirelessly connect to the Internet on your Xbox, you’ll need to buy a $100 Wi-Fi adapter. By contrast, the Wii and PlayStation 3 have built-in Wi-Fi.

Anyone who owns a Microsoft Zune media player can buy a TV show or movie and download it to an Xbox or PC as well as the Zune. Zunes can be plugged into the Xbox to play music, as can Apple (AAPL) iPods.

The base Xbox comes with a wireless controller and 512 megabytes of memory. For $100 more, the Elite Holiday Bundle includes a 120-gigabyte hard drive, headset, wireless controller, and two games: “LEGO Batman: The Videogame” and “Pure.” More than 1,200 games are available for the Xbox, mostly costing between $29 and $60. About 350 of the games can be downloaded from the Xbox LIVE Arcade (costing 400 to 1,600 points, or $5 to $20) or the Games on Demand library.

Microsoft confirmed plans to introduce Project Natal, a system that lets people operate games with gestures and body movements rather than remote controls. Natal will work with all Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft won’t confirm a date.

Family settings let parents control whether their kids play games online and with whom they play, as well as the ratings of the games. A Family Timer regulates how long kids play.

Sony PlayStation 3

Sony’s PlayStation, like the Xbox 360, is designed with serious gamers in mind. Its base version costs $300 and includes a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a DualShock 3 wireless controller; $50 more buys a version with a 250-gigabyte hard drive. Both systems can be upgraded with any standard 2.5-inch hard drive. The PlayStation is also a Blu-ray disc player.

Like the Xbox, the PlayStation 3, or PS3, now offers extra features, but these features are all included in the PlayStation Network, which is free (not $50 yearly like Xbox LIVE Gold). These PlayStation Network extras include Netflix (NFLX) instant streaming, a Web browser, photo slide shows, the ability to stream media over a home network to the PS3, a Facebook application that shares game information with friends and the PlayStation Network video-delivery service, where users can purchase 2,400 high- and standard-definition movies and 15,000 TV episodes.

The PS3 and the PlayStation Portable, Sony’s portable gaming device, are married in many ways. A new feature called Blu-ray Portable Copy lets users make a free standard-definition copy of some Blu-ray movies for transfer to a PlayStation Portable. Remote Play lets people stream media files from the PS3 to the PlayStation Portable in Wi-Fi hot spots or remotely turn the PS3 on or off using the PlayStation Portable. Movies and TV shows from the PlayStation Network can be transferred to either system, so you can start a movie on a big-screen TV and finish it on the PlayStation Portable; the same can be done for games.

About 400 games are available on Blu-ray for the PS3; these cost between $30 and $60. More than 150 titles, costing between $3 and $40, can be downloaded directly to the PS3. Sony confirmed that it will release a motion-sensing controller, but it hasn’t set a date.

Parental restrictions for the PS3 include the ability to restrict games, DVDs and Blu-ray discs with certain ratings. Parents can also limit monthly spending or Web browsing.

Games: A Cheat Sheet

Here are some of the key differences among three popular videogame systems.

	NINTENDO WII	XBOX 360	PLAYSTATION 3
Price	$200	200 or $300*	$300, $350
Includes	Wireless controller, Nunchuk, Wii Sports	Wireless controller/ Wireless controller, headset, 2 games	DualShock 3 wireless controller
Additional remotes	$40 wireless; Nunchuk is $20	$50 wireless, $40 wired, $20 headset	$55 DualShock 3 wireless controller, $50 Bluetooth headset, $40 PlayStation Eye, $25 Blu-ray disc remote control, $50 wireless keypad
Memory	512 MB, can be increased with SD cards	512 MB, $300 Xbox comes with 120 GB	120 GB or 250 GB
Built-in Wi-Fi?	Yes	No. $100 Wireless adapter sold separately	Yes
Games	1,100	1,200	550
Cost of Games	30-$50; $3-$15 for downloads	Most are $29-$60; $5-$20 for downloads	$30-$60; $3-$40 for downloads
Other features	Web browser, ability to message other Wii consoles	Netflix, Last.fm, movie parties, MSN Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, photo sharing, online multiplayer gaming	Netflix, Facebook integration, photo slide shows, PlayStation Network videos, online multiplayer gaming
Extras	$100 Wii Balance Board and Wii FitPlus, $20 Wii MotionPlus	Xbox LIVE Silver is free, Xbox LIVE Gold is $50/year	Blu-ray disc playing, multiple tie-ins with Playstation Portable
Family Settings	Restrict online browsing, communication, game ratings	Restrict online play, with whom users can play, game ratings, time spent playing	Restrict online play, games or movies with certain ratings, monthly expenses, Web browsing
Relationship w/portable device	Wireless, free demo downloads from Wii Channel onto DS or DSi	Play videos bought anywhere on Zune, PC or Xbox 360	Blu-ray Portable Copy gives free copy of some movies for transferring to PlayStation Portable
Media streamed to console over home network?	No	Yes	Yes
* for Elite Holiday Bundle

Email: mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

Xbox LIVE Gold costs $50 a year. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated in the second reference to the price that it costs $50 monthly. Also, the Xbox 360 can be connected to the Internet via an ethernet cable for free, as well as via Wi-Fi. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that connecting your Xbox to the Internet would require the purchase of a Wi-Fi adapter.

Video Game Sales Tank

John Paczkowski — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:50:09 +0000

If the latest sales data are any indication, the videogame industry may be headed for a rough holiday season. NPD Group reports that revenue from consoles and software plummeted during October, falling 16.4 percent from September and 19 percent year-over-year. It was the industry’s seventh consecutive monthly decline.

“The continued economic turmoil, and in particular the troubling unemployment rate, is undoubtedly impacting industry sales,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Our latest Economy Tracker indicated that although consumers’ general opinion about the economy is improving, their outlook on their own personal situation is worsening. If consumers’ personal outlook continues to erode, they could very well be much more conservative with their holiday shopping this year.”

A somber warning for the videogame industry. Even recent price cuts on game consoles have done little to spur demand.

“Year to date, the hardware category has experienced the sharpest decline in the industry, with unit sales down 10 percent compared to the same time period last year,” Frazier wrote. “Recent price cuts helped spur a one- to two-month increase in unit sales, and this month’s Wii sales reflect that boost, but the other platforms have not sustained the sales momentum after price reduction.”

The videogame industry may be recession-resistant, but it is clearly not recession-proof, as some once believed. Sales data, below.

U.S. Hardware Sales, October 2009

Wii 506.9K

Nintendo DS 457.6K

PlayStation 3 320.6K

Xbox 360 249.7K

PSP 174.6K

PlayStation 2 117.8K

U.S. Top Ten Software Sales, October 2009

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, Sony) 537,000

Wii Fit Plus (Wii, Nintendo) 441,000

Borderlands (360, Take 2) 418,000

Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 314,000

NBA 2K10 (360, Take 2) 311,000

Halo 3: ODST (360, Microsoft) 271,000

NBA 2K10 (PS3, Take 2) 213,000

Forza Motorsport 3 (360, Microsoft) 175,000

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS, Square Enix) 169,000

FIFA Soccer 10 (360, Electronic Arts) 156,000

Netflix Coming to the PS3

John Paczkowski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:00:39 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]