People who worry that in five years we’ll be facing the impending launches of Halo Tennis 4 Master Chief Racing 2 are completely understandable. It’s the most popular franchise in Microsoft’s catalog, and if you’ve seen what has happened to Mario and Sonic over the years, it doesn’t take much of a leap to imagine terrible spinoff after terrible spinoff.

At Comic-Con last week, Frank O’Connor (Bungie’s former community manager who now oversees the Halo franchise at Microsoft) explained that there are a lot of opportunities to delve into the Halo universe, but they don’t plan on abusing the franchise, reports Eurogamer.

“The Halo universe is really, really big now,” he said. “Literally the Halo games have only covered one year; a couple of months within a year in fact.

“We have a really detailed story bible, we do really have it all planned out. There are so many areas of the universe to explore, the real challenge is picking which is the most exciting area for people. Is it UNSC Marines fighting alongside Spartans against the Covenant? Or is it what happens next after Master Chief’s appearance in Halo 3?”

“We have a well defined, carefully orchestrated, properly planned universe to explore not exploit,” O’Connor continued. “And that’s the tricky part: what are the things people want to do? We have to pick things that people want. That’s what you see with the range of McFarlane toys – people want their armour permutation.

“Give them things they really want and make sure they’re high quality is the formula.”

There are at least three Halo games in development right now between Bungie, Peter Jackson, and Ensemble with Halo Wars. Even as a Halo fanatic, I really don’t want to see too many Halo games released, because I’ve seen what that can do to a franchise. Hopefully Frankie is right and we don’t see Master Chief at the Olympics anytime soon.

I’m a big fan of Boom Blox; it’s one of my favorite Wii games, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with any third-party title on the platform. The overall reaction to the game was quite positive, as the game garnered solid reviews. But according to the NPD Group (via GameDaily), the game sold only 60k copies in May, coming in at #25 for the month — surely that’s not what Electronic Arts had in mind for their Steven Spielberg-branded game had in mind, particularly in a month where sales of the system were so high at just over 675k.

Analysts have been split about what this means. Ben Schachter said, “While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” before adding, “To-date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market.”

Anita Frazier disagrees and simply believes the game was caught in a month where the attention was directed to things like Wii Fit and GTA, which is the theory I personally subscribe to. “It’s still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I’m suspecting the marketing just didn’t break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for,” she said.

Earlier this week, however, EA CEO John Riccitiello told the audience at the William Blair Investor Conference (via MTV Multiplayer) that sales were actually on target, and that it had actually “met our expectations internally.” He also remains hopeful about the game’s future, saying, “A title like this one — can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it’s just gotta keep selling.”

Glorified demo or not, Sony has to be mighty pleased with the early performance of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in the UK. The game has debuted as the top selling game in its first week, breaking the record for fastest weekly seller on PS3, previously held by Resistance: Fall of Man.

The chart also has Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in the number two and three spots, and Call of Duty 4 comes in at number seven, proving that the game isn’t only selling like crazy in the United States.

Hopefully this doesn’t lead to an onslaught of releases of incomplete games at slightly discounted prices; the last thing we need is for the games we buy to no longer include all of the features we’ve come to expect from a retail product.

These numbers are courtesy of ELSPA, as compiled by Chart Track.

via Next Gen

For the fourth month in a row, Call of Duty 4 on Xbox 360 has reigned supreme atop the sales charts once again. A mere thousand units sold separated it from the number two game, Devil May Cry 4 (also on 360). Wii Play has been a mainstay since it was released, it would seem, and it comes in at number three. The Wii and PS2 versions of Guitar Hero III also managed to stay in the top ten, leading Rock Band on 360 which came in at number ten.

Despite another month of strong sales for the PlayStation 3 (superior to the 360 for the second month in a row) only a single game, Devil May Cry 4, was in the top ten. Are people still not buying Ratchet and Uncharted, or are people simply buying the PS3 to use as a Blu-ray player?

Seeing lost Odyssey make the list was a pleasant surprise, and I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by Turok making the list. I didn’t find it to be anything particularly special (and Yahtzee seemed to agree) but whether it was nostalgia or the promise of being able to shoot dinosaurs, it sold just under 200,000 copies.

So, will Call of Duty 4 finally be unseated in March? We’ll find out in under a month, but something tells me that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will certainly play a role in the matter.

February 2008 Software Sales

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 296,200
2. Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360) — 295,200
3. Wii Play (Wii) — 289,700
4. Devil May Cry 4 (PlayStation 3) — 233,500
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) — 222,900
6. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS) — 205,600
7. Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360) — 203,600
8. Turok (Xbox 360) — 197,700
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PlayStation 2) — 183,800
10. Rock Band (Xbox 360) — 161,800

Much unlike the hardware NPDs for January, the software numbers aren’t at all surprising. While seeing Call of Duty 4 continue to rock the charts at #1 for the third straight month, with the PlayStation 3 version also making an appearance at #8. Other than that, it was a pretty standard month – Wii Play sold lots, as did Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, and of course a Mario trifecta of Mario Galaxy, Mario Party, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

January 2008 Software Sales

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330,900
2. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) – 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) – 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) – 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PlayStation 3) – 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (Nintendo DS) – 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS) – 133,000

Burnout Paradise did fairly well with just over 144k given that it only had a little over a week to sell; the same goes for Mario & Sonic. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin likely suffered from that release period, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make it into the top ten next month.

Activision seems poised to have another huge year (even though the fiscal year isn’t even up), and that Vivendi merger still isn’t complete. That must be scary for other publishers.

Ever wonder what games are selling in the Netherlands? You don’t need to wonder anymore. Apparently our friendly Dutch gamers are still buying Wii games more than anything else. Surprisingly, only one Xbox 360 game is even on their top 10 list. Here’s the top 10 sales list from 1/18 – 1/24 in the Netherlands:

1 MARIO & SONIC OLYMPIC GAMES (Wii) SEGA
2 SUPER MARIO GALAXY (Wii) NINTENDO
3 CALL OF DUTY 4/MODERN WARFARE (PS3) ACTIVISION
4 CALL OF DUTY 4/MODERN WARFARE (PC) ACTIVISION
5 CALL OF DUTY 4/MODERN WARFARE (XBOX 360) ACTIVISION
6 LINKS CROSSBOW (WII) NINTENDO
7 ASSASSIN’S CREED (PS3) UBISOFT
8 ZACK & WIKI (WII) NINTENDO
9 MARIO PARTY 8 (WII) NINTENDO
10 UNCHARTED/DRAKE’S FORTUNE (PS3) SONY

Via Dutch Charts

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Nintendo DS shipped to stores in North America yesterday. The athletic competition between two of the most popular heroes in gaming is now available for your portable gaming pleasure and includes 8 different characters from each gaming universe in a series of Olympic events just like the Wii version.

Packed with 16 official challenges including two DS exclusive events: the 10m Platform (Diving) and Pursuit (Cycling) along with eight Dream events –five of which are exclusive to the DS: Dream Canoe, Dream Boxing, Dream Basketball, Dream Long Jump and Dream Shooting; available in both single and multiplayer modes (up to four players).

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Nintendo DS is rated “E” for Everyone. For more information about the game, please visit the official website and our previous posts.

Via: Press Release

For the most part, the top 10 best selling games of November and December are almost exactly the same, save for a few small items. For the second straight month, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 was the top selling game with Super Mario Galaxy coming in at number two. Mixed into the rest is what you would expect: big new releases and Madden. Activision ended up with three titles in the top ten which makes the merger with Vivendi all the more frightening for the rest of the games industry.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 1,470,000
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 1,400,000
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PlayStation 2) – 1,250,000
4. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) – 1,080,000
5. Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) – 893,700
6. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) – 742,700
7. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo DS) – 659,500
8. Madden NFL 08 (PlayStation 2) – 655,200
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) – 624,600
10. Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games (Wii) – 613,000

I’m done talking about Wii Play at this point; I just view it as a perpetual lock for the top 10 every month until Nintendo releases a new bundle or the Wii loses steam. Super Mario Galaxy doing well is no surprise, but I was pretty shocked to see Brain Age 2 make the list. Given that the Brain and training games are more geared towards a Japanese audience, I didn’t expect to see the game sell nearly so well.

Mario and Sonic hasn’t been reviewed particularly well, but slapping those two names onto a game on a console that sells so well is bound to produce results. I’m only surprised it didn’t sell more than it did.

Halo and Madden were almost certainly high on many folks’ wishlist, so seeing them sell well in December is a given. One little somewhat unsurprising nugget: despite selling a million units in the month, the PSP didn’t have a single game on the top 10 list.

My curiosity has been piqued by Guitar Hero III’s disappearance in November on 360 (while the Wii and PS2 versions made the top 10), only to see it reappear this month with no Wii version to be seen.

That’s almost like …well, it’s like something.

For those of you wanting to play Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the wait is over. Arriving in stores today, fans of both video game heroes will be able to see who indeed is the biggest, baddest, and all around greatest team around: Team Mario or Team Sonic. No matter which characters you decide to choose from, it looks like it will be a pretty fun game for you and three of your friends – or alone. Plus, how can you go wrong with characters from each game – especially if, like me, you are fond of both heroes and their cronies.

Look for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Nintendo DS to hit stores in January 2008.

By now, Smash Bros. Brawl fans have all heard the news that Sonic the Hedgehog, one of video games’ more venerable, classic characters, will be appearing as a playable character in the game. As exciting as this news is, it was a pretty obvious attempt by Nintendo to soften the blow that the game would be delayed until February of next year. That’s not a bad motive for revealing the big secret when they did, but I can think of one very good reason that Nintendo maybe should’ve kept the lid on that bit of information just a little while longer. Seven words: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

When Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games was first announced, it caused a huge stir for one simple reason: Mario and Sonic finally in a game together. It was something fans of both characters had been requesting for years. It didn’t matter that it would be based around the upcoming Olympics, which has shown a history of not making good game material. At best, it looks like another Wii Sports; at worst, it’s another collection of mini-games on the Wii. But still, gamers the world over would be willing to shell out the money just for the simple fact that Sonic and Mario were finally together under one title.

Now, why bother? If you hold out for just a few more months, you can own what’s sure to be one of the best games for the Wii, with Sonic as just icing on the cake. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is already facing enough competition just from its November 6 release date, which has Call of Duty 4 dropping at the same time. It’s not even the only Wii game being released that day, since Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and The Bee Movie Game are all hitting store shelves around that time. Now though, it’s competing against itself being “that other game with Mario and Sonic.” Of course, the game is being published by Sega, but I doubt Nintendo would want to intentionally hurt a Wii-exclusive title.

The game may still turn out to sell fairly well, but I’d wager not as much as it would if no one knew that Sonic was definitely going to be in Smash Bros. Brawl. The main thing it had going for it was the novelty of two of gaming history’s most iconic characters bundled in the same package. With Sonic appearing in Brawl though, that novelty has worn off. Why play a game putting Sonic through some random sporting events, when you can have him actually using his powers in another game? Mostly, I just now realized how little I care about this game now that Sonic is joining the Smash Bros. group.