Nielsen is now reporting for the months January-October of 2008, the Playstation 2 was the most played console. It took 31.7% of the minutes followed by the Xbox 360 with 17.2%. That is a pretty hefty gap, especially for a 8+ year-old console. Given that there are more Playstation 2’s around than Americans, it makes sense but still impressive. Sony seems to fair a little less well with the Playstation 3 which was behind the original Xbox and only ahead of the Nintendo Gamecube. The question still remains, when will a console dethrone the Playstation 2. I’d say that within the next year or so, the Nintendo Wii definitely will, but will it have the staying power of 8+ years that the Playstation 2 had? The entire list after the break:
All the RotPod team members would like to wish all of our readers a great New Year. We have a couple of resolutions, one of them being posting a lot more on the blog. Check back frequently for updates and have a great 2009.
Just in case you missed it, Microsoft released Dash of Destruction their Live Marketplace yesterday. The game itself is laughably mundane, but it costs not a single penny. Of course, that’s mainly because the whole thing is just an advertisement for Doritos. The biggest thing about this racer is probably that it’s one of the few games in which you can unlock all the achievements in under half an hour. But free is free and gamerpoints are gamerpoints, so play away to your heart’s content. That is, if your heart can bear it.
Earlier today, EA rolled out the 1.06 patch for Red Alert 3. The patch is designed to fix the automatch system by giving it a little bit of a speed boost. EA also says this will fix the crane exploit, which allowed players to use the crane to build structures at no cost at all. All together, these fixes are relatively small when compared to the last patch, which introduces the world builder along with numersous in-game fixes. Unfortunately, after a few users described their experiences on the game forums, it seems as if the patch broke the game rather than fixing it. The Korean version was especially impaired by the new patch, but hopefully these are isolated issues, and EA will fix the new bugs.
It’s official, as a follow up to the previous mysterious Metal Gear Announcement, Konami has revealed the next Metal Gear title, METAL GEAR SOLID TOUCH will be for the iPhone. The story takes place during Metal Gear Solid 4 and consists of 8 stages according to Konami Productions. Gameplay on these stages will also unlock special goodies for the iPhone, such as wallpapers. From the title, it seems pretty safe to assume that the game will be controlled with the iPhone’s touch screen. While the details on Konami’s official site are still lacking, Kotaku reports that the game will be available Spring 2009. I can’t wait!
The iPhone Dev-Team has announced that an unlock package is on the way for the iPhone 3g. Set for a release date of December 31, the unlock tool codenamed “yellowsn0w” is being adjusted to be user friendly such as familiar tools like QuickPwn. Unfortunately, iPod Touch 2G owners will have to wait as the Dev-Team made it clear that they have not been focusing on the iPhone’s younger sibling and that you should stop bugging them. Other than that, if you have an iPhone with a baseband version 2.11.07 or earlier, you can finally unlock your iPhone 3G just in time the the New Year.
Logitech recently announced the new Logitech G13 Gameboard. The gameboard consists of a 25 programible back-lit keys an LED display, and an analog, all presented in Logitech’s excellent gaming feng-shui. Like it’s full keyboard siblings, the G13 is capable of programming macro’s on the fly so you don’t have to use a configuration programevery time you want to create a new macro. The G13 also saves it’s game profiles on the device’s onboard memory, making it more portable between multiple computers. The 160×43 LED dot matrix display shows information from your system and games in realtime so you can check your stats in WOW, check your ammo in COD4, or check how much system memory is available. According to Logitech, the G13 will be available in December in the U.S. and Europe with an MSRP of $80. Hit the link for the official announcement from Logitech.
Contrary to previous reports that Home would be launching later this month, possibly the 17th, Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that Play Station Home will be launching everywhere tomorrow! Although it will still be a beta, everyone will be able join. Hit the link to get the entire official announcement.
A perplexing message was found on Konami Productions official website yesterday. The message can be seen above. There are many theories about what this message can mean, but mostly everyone is certain that there will be some sort of Metal Gear Solid released on platforms other than the PS3 or PSP. Some theories are that MGS will finally be making the move to the Xbox 360, which is both indicated by the color of the text and the power ring, which is present very prominently on the front of the Xbox 360. But, another theory is also that MGS will be releasing a mobile version for the iPhone as indicated by the ‘i’. Right now, everything is up in the air and your guess is as good as mine, but I’m going to put my money on the iPhone or mobile version. A Xbox 360 version of MGS has been rumored since MGS4 was announced years ago, but nothing has come to fruition and the evidence in this message is a little bit to coincidental (after all, that is the UNIVERSAL power symbol); however, I don’t want to rule anything out. You can hope, just don’t get too excited.
X-Play has revealed the release date for Killzone 2 on their daily show. The date: February 27, 2009. This date was made official for only the United States, but the other dates (for PAL regions) should be around that date. The game was originally slated for March of 2008, and then pushed back to Q4 of 2008, but now it has an official date of February after a slew of delays, problems, and few details about the game. The FPS does have some of the best graphics in any console game ever giving even Crysis, a PC game, a run for its money. The game is definitely set to impress with extraordinary multiplayer from what I’ve seen. The Playstation 3 desperately needs a game like this to thwart the rise in popularity of the Xbox 360 and maybe take some more market share. We’ll wait and see if this game can do it, but from what I’ve heard about it so far it might actually hold a chance of getting a lot more PS3’s off the shelves.
Circuit City filed for bankruptcy today. If you have been reading or watching the news for the past few weeks, this should not be a surprise. After all, earlier this month, Circuit City closed one fifth of their stores around the country due to the downward economy and fierce competition with other major electronics retailers like Best Buy and even online sources like Amazon and Newegg. Despite bankruptcy, a letter from President and CEO Jim Marcum stated that Circuit City still plans to operate the 566 remaining stores within the U.S.. Where customers might get ticked during the holiday season is the gift card. Circuit City is asking the Court for the authority to honor returns, exchanges, gift cards etc… Marcum concluded his statement hoping things would keep on going as usual. So if you get a gift card from Circuit City this holiday season, try to spend it soon if you can.
Here are a couple of StarCraft II Gameplay trailers straight off of the Blizzcon show floor. The gameplay still looks like the stuff that SC fans have come to expect, and the game’s visuals are looking very impressive.We still don’t have a release date, but hey, there’s a whole lotta’ BlizzCon left to come!
It seems like everyday there are more awesome levels of LittleBigPlanet coming out. We usually don’t post about them, but we are nonetheless impressed with the level of customizability that some people are reaching with the game. But by far my favorite is the following level. Upsilandre has created a calculator in LitteBigPlanet using a similar architecture to switches on a processor. He claims to have over 1,500 parts to make the calculator; it is definitely an impressing feat to any nerd out there. Here is a video:
This news comes straight out of Blizzcon: Blizzard has announced that the campaign mode of StarCraft II will be spread out over three different products. The initial release of Blizzard’s highly anticipated RTS will contain only a Terran story mode, and two expansions will add campaigns for the other two races at a later date. Don’t let this discourage you though, as Blizzard has promised a full fledged 30 hour singleplayer experience for each title. The subtitles for each game have also been revealed and are listed below.
Wings of Liberty (Terran Campaign, Initial Release)
Heart of the Swarm (Zerg Campaign, Expansion)
Legacy of the Void (Protoss Campaign, Expansion)
The game’s multiplayer mode will come in full and proper form with the initial release of StarCraft II, so we shouldn’t have to worry about getting watered down online play with the Terran-centric first game. No word on a release date as of yet, but we will be sure to keep you posted.
After months of waiting, Bungie’s secret Halo project has finally been revealed. The huge bombshell announcement that the studio originally planed to drop at E3 back in July has finally made landfall with the revelation of a new Halo 3 Expansion entitled Recon.
Set to hit store shelves next Fall, Recon will ship as a standalone disc and include an all new campaign and new multiplayer maps for current Halo 3 players. Set on Earth during the same timeframe as Halo 3, Bungie’s newest adventure will allow players to take on the roll of an ODST doing his part to help the UNSC finish the fight. Details are currently scarce, but we have been promised the core Halo gameplay that we have come to know and love over the years brought to us by a team made up of veteran Halo developers.
Bungie noted that they are working on a few other titles as well right now, but no word of any of those just yet. Hit the jump for the latest Halo 3: Recon trailer.
We’ve been trying to keep you up to date on the New Xbox Experience that was set to release this fall. And at their TGS keynote, Microsoft annouced that the fall update, which will encompass the New Xbox Experience, will be released on November 19th. The update is being received with a lot of praise by everyone who has played with it at the Tokyo Game Show. The update radically changes the GUI which I’m sure many fans of the blades will initially be against, but after some time the new intuitive, fluid, and active design should begin to catch on. Along with a new design, their is tons of new functionality. Some of the major features include ripping games to the HDD, streaming Netflix movies right to your console, and a radically different in-game menu. As we get closer to November 19th, excitement for the update will increase. Get excited.
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Avatars in the new Xbox experience" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US_038_playlist=videoByUuids_uuids_af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1_038_showPlaylist=true_038_from=msnvideo'); javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US_038_playlist=videoByUuids_uuids_af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1_038_showPlaylist=true_038_from=msnvideo');">Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience</a>
Yesterday, Major Nelson released a video of creating an avatar for the New Xbox Experience(XNE). For those who don’t know the XNE is the total revamp of the Xbox 360 Dashboard that is expected to be released with the fall update. It really is very different and adds a big new feature, avatars. These are very similar to Mii’s for the Wii and avatars for Playstation Home. It seems as if Microsoft wanted to get in the game. Just watch the video above to see the entirely new interface for yourself.
A new set of achievements for Halo 3 has been rumored for a little while, but no one knew any details about it’s contents and the date of it’s launch. It seems like today’s weekly update has fixed that. The updates can be expected this month, but it should also be noted that they keep floating back towards Halo 3’s one-year anniversary. In an update called Title Update 2(basically, a patch), Bungie plans on fixing many under the hood glitches in the game as well as crack down on cheating as well as bringing the following the achievements:
Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
Sure, there might be some minor graphical differences between these two versions of Mercs 2, but we don’t see anything huge from where we’re sitting. We understand that some of our readers will be looking through every frame of this video for the minute differences that will allow them to claim victory for one console over the other however, so we like to put it out there for them.
Here’s a rumor that’ll make you read on past the headline. OXM is reporting (in their October issue’s rumor section) that Gearbox Software, the company that ported Halo to the PC, will be developing the fourth installment of the Halo series. Allegedly, the title is going to be released as a launch title for Microsoft’s next console (please call it the Xbox 720!).
But wait, there’s more! A second rumor has surfaced today regarding Gearbox’s possible handling of a Halo game, this time from Variety. According to Variety’s Ben Fritz, a reliable source revealed that while no deal is currently in place, Gearbox has definitely been talking to Microsoft about developing some sort of Halo title.
While it is a little shocking to hear that a core Halo game could be developed by a studio other than Bungie, this rumor really isn’t that hard to believe. Bungie has hinted that they are interested in moving past Halo, and Gearbox does have some experience in working with the brand. Don’t count on hearing much more than the standard ‘We do not comment
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