Hasta La Gadget!

It was with heavy heart that we reported in February the Guitar Hero franchise was dead, done in by an addiction to half-baked sequels and a growing tolerance of commercialization. It felt like the series being put out to pasture was for the best, but maybe this old rocker still has some life in its leopard-print pants yet. Dan Winters at Activision sat down with gamesindustry.biz and clarified that “the brand won’t go away,” that the company just isn’t going to release a new one this year. You know what that means: next year you’d better be ready to dust off those flimsy guitars and rock once again like it’s 2009.

Guitar Hero said to not be dead yet, will continue to rock from beyond the grave originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  gamesindustry.biz  | Email this | Comments

Video games have never had a problem sitting alongside movie DVDs and music CDs (back when such things were distributed physically) in stores, so it’s frankly overdue to see them pop up in a mainstream awards show like the Grammys. The US Recording Academy has finally deigned to address video games and their aural landscapes as a separate class of entertainment, and has now amended four of its awards to spell that out. What was formerly known as “Motion, Television, or Other Visual Media” is now reclassified as “Motion, Television, Video Games Music, or Other Visual Media,” leading to there now being four awards that explicitly recognize excellence in video game music scores. Guess that was inevitable after Christopher Tin’s Baba Yetu won a Grammy this February, ostensibly because of its inclusion as one of the marquee songs on Civilization 4, but in a category entirely unrelated to gaming. Skip past the break to hear it for yourself, along with a couple of other favorites of ours.

Continue reading Four Grammy Awards renamed to include ‘video games music,’ underline its growing importance

Four Grammy Awards renamed to include ‘video games music,’ underline its growing importance originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq, The Escapist  |  IndustryGamers  | Email this | Comments

We’ve been hearing rumors of an 18-inch addition to the Alienware line for some time, and now its big-eyed visage is making an appearance — in Canada. The M18x configuration page has gone live on Dell‘s Canadian site, though curiously it’s displaying what looks to be a picture of the M17x. The system starts at just over $2,000 CAD with a 2.8GHz Core i7 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB of storage, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics. But, our more well-heeled neighbors to the north can step up to a 3.4GHz processor, 8GB of memory, 750GB of storage, and dual AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics cards, pushing the price up nearly another $1,000. The 18.4-inch display manages a full 1080p resolution and you can have any operating system you like — so long as its Windows 7 Home Premium. The estimated ship date has this thing leaving the factory in early May, which means it should start hitting the domestic configurator soon enough.

Update: Daniel wrote in to let us know that the M14x is there as well — though it looks to be in the process of being taken down.

[Thanks, Nicklas]

Alienware M18x appears on Dell’s Canadian site, glares at you from afar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Dell  | Email this | Comments

As you may have noticed, Apple has been more serious about gaming lately that it was even during its Pippin-fueled haze in the mid-1990s, and it’s now offering yet more evidence of just how invested it is with a pair of new hires. While the company isn’t confirming the move just yet, MCV is reporting that Apple has snatched up Nintendo UK’s former head of communications, Rob Saunders, who just left the big N last week and will apparently be focusing on PR for iOS apps at Apple. What’s more, he’ll reportedly be joined at Apple by former Activision PR director Nick Grange, who’s said to be focusing specifically on the iPad — which, as we’ve seen, can be a pretty versatile gaming device in its own right.

Apple reportedly hires top UK gaming PR execs from Nintendo and Activision originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Apple Insider  |  MCV  | Email this | Comments

This article was written on October 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

When Halo 3 broke the record in the video game industry by selling over 1 million pre-orders, we knew September was going to be a huge month for Microsoft. Not only did they sell millions of dollars worth of Halo 3 games, they also sold millions of dollars worth of Xbox 360 consoles.  The official numbers that detail how many Xbox 360 consoles actually sold won’t be released until Thursday (October 18th), but we’ve got a pretty good idea at just how great of a month it was thanks to Wedbush Morgan Analyst, Michael Pachter.

According to Pachter, Halo 3 helped sell 450,000 Xbox 360s in the month of September. The number he’s given means that the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii by 25,000 units. That doesn’t mean that the coming months will be all downhill for Microsoft though. Pachter went on to say “Although we think that sales of Halo 3 accounted for virtually all of the growth during the month, we think that the game drove hardware sales and positions the industry for even greater sales in November and December, when many Halo players will be ready for a new challenge.  We are optimistic about software sales through the end of the year.”

Here’s the breakdown of the predicted sales for the month of September:

1. Xbox 360 – 450,000 units
2. DS – 430,000 units
3. Wii – 425,000 units
4. PSP – 252,000 units
5. PS2 – 222,000 units
6. PS3 – 150,000 units
7. GBA – 65,000 units

Another factor that probably helped the Xbox take the #1 spot is that conveniently timed price cut. Back in early August Microsoft dropped the price of the Xbox 360 console by 50 dollars.  Considering Halo 3 costs a little over $50 for the standard edition, consumers were able to get the console plus the game for what the system originally cost. Not a bad deal!

In general, software sales are expected to reach $655 million this year which is 47% higher than in 2006.  With both the PS3 and the Wii launched late last year, it’s no surprise that 2007 will have been so successful. Pachter also predicts that a PS2 price cut is possible before the end of the year, and his guess is that it will be priced at $99! If that’s true, I imagine we’ll see software sales increase even further thanks to those who just can’t pass up a good deal on a console!

Source: CrunchGear

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Halo 3 Official U.S. Release Date is September 25thHalo 3 Brings in $170 Million in the First 24 HoursHalo 3 Ending LeakedXbox 360 Price Cut on August 8th – In Time for Halo 3!Bungie and Microsoft Breaking Up?