As expected, Microsoft continued to tout the fact that the Xbox 360 has surpassed 10 million units sold in the United States. Since they first made the announcement a few days ago, they’ve bumped that figure up to 10.1 million sold.

Surprisingly little from the press release Microsoft sent out had to do with figures that would stem from the 360 having been on the market for a year longer than the competition. That could be because they dedicated an entire portion of it to talking about how wonderful Grand Theft Auto IV has been performing on the 360. They even say it’s “outselling the other platform’s version by nearly 2:1 in the U.S.” — “other platform”? What’s up with that?

Hit the break for the full spinjob.

image via CrunchGear.com

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As it turns out, GameStop’s claim that 64% of all copies of GTA IV sold were on Xbox 360 was spot on — 64.9% is the exact number if you do the math with NPD’s numbers for the month of April. Between the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, GTA IV managed to sell 2.85 million even though it was released on April 29 — not too shabby.

Mario Kart Wii, meanwhile, sold more than a million copies. That’s a million plastic wheels out there in the wild, imparing people’s ability to control the game properly. And of course, with the number of Wii systems that sold in April, you know you’re going to see a lot of Wii Play sales, and that we did. Smash Bros. had a big drop off, from 2.7 million in March down to 326k in April. Not that Nintendo should be complaining, with five of their games in the top ten, with six of the top ten on Nintendo platforms.

April 2008 Software Sales

GTA IV (360) - 1.85M
Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) - 1.12M
GTA IV (PS3) - 1.00M
Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 202,000
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 202,000
Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 152,000
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 141,000

Call of Duty 4 on 360 continues to do its best Mustafa impression, as it just refuses to be kicked out of the top ten. Could next month finally see it kicked out? I’m going to go ahead and predict a bold “no.”

Flickr user Matthew Johnston has posted some pretty interesting side by side comparisons of spots in Liberty City vs. real-life parts of NYC. There are definitely worth a look, and instead of posting them all here at once, I will just let you click through the link at the bottom.Say what you will about Rockstar all you GTA IV naysayers, their attention to detail and dedication to immersive experiences are almost second to none.

Via: Flickr

Firefly Studio’s Simon Bradbury sat down for a Q&A with Gamasutra. The interview is full of crunchy bits from the development aspect of gaming. The Dungeon Hero and Stronghold Crusader Extreme designer talks about organic and inorganic AI pathfinding as well as going postmodern with NPC dialogue cues. There are bits about the Stronghold Crusader sequel as well as Firefly’s new IP Dungeon Hero. Bradbury also talks about working with Take-Two in the past and Gamecock at this time.

One of the things Bradbury talks about is what he believes makes a successful offline PC game at a time where MMOs and casual games are dominant.

“…it’s going to be maybe a bit more casual and that’s where we’ve pitched Dungeon Hero. The combat’s got to be fun, and easy, but the skill is to make a game that is very accessible and casual, but at the same time rewards people who want to work at it.

But you haven’t got to make the game hard to start with, like a lot of games do. For example, remembering all the combos - it’s really not fun - so we wanted a game where you can see all the moves from the start, and the skill is using them properly.”

Read the full Q&A with Simon Bradbury on Gamasutra.

Welcome to the latest edition of Pachter Predicts, where Wedbush Morgan analyst and my sworn adversary Michael Pachter makes his predictions for the past month’s console sales here in the United States. For the second straight month, Pachter has predicted that the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360. (Although last month his prediction turned out wrong, as the 360 had a 5,000 unit edge over the PS3.)

Here are his predictions, with last month’s numbers in parentheses:

Wii: 600,000 (721,000)
PS3: 290,000 (257,000)
Xbox 360: 275,000 (262,000)
PS2: 160,000 (216,000)
DS: 550,000 (698,000)
PSP: 235,000 (297,000)

If Pachter turns out to be right, it looks like the 360 and PS3 won’t have seen a major boost in sales as many have thought they would. He attributes his predicted higher sales of the DS and Wii to their greater availability.

As for Grand Theft Auto IV, he expects it to have sold 3.3 million units in its first six days in the US alone, and also notes that he expects 20 games to have cracked the 100,000 unit mark in April, compared with only nine last year.

Those of you who still find yourself looking for a Wii, Pachter thinks that situation might be soon resolving itself: “We believe that Nintendo has diverted a significant portion of its available supply to Europe since April 2007, as the weakening dollar has made US sales less profitable for the company… We expect the supply situation will begin to improve over the next several months. We expect a surge in supply in the US for Wii Fit’s May 21 launch here, and believe we could see as many as 900,000 Wii units show up at retail this month (May).”

via Next Gen

Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star took the Parents Television Council up on an interview offer, and shot a few questions off to Dan Isett , PTC Director of Public Policy about Grand Theft Auto IV.We are all familiar with the level of hate the PTC has been spouting off regarding GTA IV of late, and some of it is just plain nonsense. Especially regarding getting “points” fro drunk driving. Thus, Villarreal, has shown just how ignorant of the game’s contents the PTC is, and follows is a transcript pulled directly from the interview.

When it comes to “Grand Theft Auto IV,” however, Isett is clueless. Here’s a transcript of part of our conversation.

Have you played the game?

“I’ve actually played ‘Grand Theft Auto IV,’ and it’s right in keeping with previous versions. The series continues to lower the bar and this is the first game that has an alcohol content warning. You get points for driving drunk in this game.”

You know that’s not true, right? The game doesn’t have points.

“If nothing else, it’s a rewarded activity. Necessary for advancement.”

I don’t think so.

“But there’s an alcohol content warning and a scene of drunk driving, correct?”

Yes. Did you play that part?

“No, no. I didn’t get that far.”

Are you a gamer at all? Do you play any games these days?

“I enjoy video games.”

What do you play?

“I have a lot of fun. I play all sorts of games. I actually have a Wii.”

What were the circumstances that you played “GTA IV?”

“I rented it at a friend’s house. I think that what’s important is it’s a horrifically violent game and if you want to quibble about extra points being granted, fine. It rewards every antisocial behavior.”

Isett said among the worst of such antisocial behavior is murder, and he played the game for a couple hours and was led by the game to kill other characters. When pressed for the circumstances in which he did the killing, because my and most other gamers’ first couple hours with the game were murder-free (although you do kill in self defense in some early missions), he refused to give any details.

I pressed him about why his organization is going after M-rated games rather than R-rated movies, and he kept repeating “the focus on this today is on video games, not movies.”

The comparison between movies and games isn’t valid, he said.

“I reject the argument that an M-rated game is comparable to an R-rated movie. One, it doesn’t require 30 hours of continuous game play to make your way through an R-rated movie.” Isett said scientific research proves games are more immersive than movies and should be treated differently.

As awkward as Isett sounds in those quotes, I was just as nonsensical when I accused Isett’s organization of wrongly declaring “Grand Theft Auto IV” was AO-rated in the press release.

Great job Phil! It is nice to see journalists with integrity and intelligence still exist the media.

Via: Game Politics and AZNightBuzz

“Pirates of the Caribbean” director Gore Verbinski is slated to direct the film adaptation of BioShock. According to Variety, the film will be developed by Universal Studios, which subsequently handed over a multimillion-dollar advance to Take-Two for the film rights.

Screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) will be the scriptwriter and while Universal has not announced a release window, Verbinski said that pre-production will begin as when the script is finished and approved.

Strauss Zelnick, chairman for Take-Two and former President of Fox said the deal was structured to prevent any pre-production hang ups:

“The reason I structured it the way I did is to make sure it gets made. One of the things we decided early on is that we didn’t want to go through a producer. It’s terribly important to us to have a meaningful influence on how this project is produced.”

The Variety piece also mentions that BioShock creative director Ken Levine has been “regularly consulted” but having a formal role in the film’s process remains to be seen.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that it does not suck. Verbinski is a decent director, and even though the last Pirates film was awful in my opinion, you can’t totally blame him. He did the best he could with a shoddy script.

Via: Variety

Both Microsoft and Game|Life have each compiled interesting lists focused on numbers surrounding the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. So if either numbers or GTA isn’t your thing, you should probably just move on.

According to Microsoft’s US team:

• Actual MS sales data from last week shows Xbox 360 console sales at retail went up 54% week-over-week as a result of GTA’s success
• According to retailers more than 60% of all GTA games sold in the first week were the Xbox 360 version
• Retailers are telling us that the game is attaching strongly to new console sales, with roughly 40% of new consoles selling with a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV

As for Xbox Live:

• In the first week, more than 2.3 million people played Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox Live
• GTA IV is now the number one played game on Xbox Live
• Over the weekend, we saw the Xbox Live service reach 1 million concurrent users
• Gamers have unlocked more than 12 million achievements worth over 100 million gamerscore points in GTA
• Grand Theft Auto IV set a new record for time played, with the average gamer spending more than four hours playing the game on Live in the first week alone

And some of the random facts Game|Life has compiled:

• Damages sought by Take-Two after GTA IV ads were pulled from Chicago buses: $300,000
• Steps included in official fix for PlayStation 3 issues: 12
• Current Metacritic rating: 99
• Restraining orders filed against the game: 1

The numbers don’t really lie, so it’s fun to take a look at them and try to crunch some of these numbers. And to think, the game’s only been out for a little over a week.

David Reeves, the big bossman over at SCEE, recently told VideoGamer.com that owners of the PS3 version of GTA IV “probably will see” DLC in the future. If this is to be taken seriously, it would take the “exclusive” wind out of the Xbox 360’s sales and leave them just floating aimlessly upon the water.

This comes on the heels of Microsoft sending out press releases and sound bites regarding their exclusive deal to bring hours of additional gameplay to the 360 version of GTA IV - something that the PS3 was lacking. However, when Videogaming.com caught up with Reeves after his SCEE PlayStation Day presentation in London yesterday evening, they asked him if the Xbox 360 exclusive content was “damaging to the PS3″ and he had this to say:

“Well I think you probably will see it, it’s just that a deal obviously was struck between Microsoft and Take-Two to do that, and if that’s what they want to do, I think that’s the last shot they have.”

Videogamer.com went on to ask Reeves if he had anything to say to PS3 owners who were curious about being left-out of the DLC, he replied:

“I would say to them then, you know, email Rockstar (laughs), and ask them what’s coming. I think they already are, probably! I’m honestly not going to make any comment on that because it’s too big a thing to… we can make an announcement when we make an announcement.”

Baited words from Sony, and no comment from Rockstar. Nothing unusual there.

If you would like, you can read the rest of Videogamer.com’s interview with David Reeves by clicking through the link below.

Thanks: Videogamer.com

Take-Two said today that Grand Theft Auto IV has surpassed all-time entertainment records for day one and week one sales by dollar value. Released just a week and one day ago, GTA IV has sold approximately 6 million units globally with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million in the first week. The game sold approximately 3.6 million units on its opening day with a retail value of approximately $310 million globally.Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick sounds practically beaming when he states the following:

“We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level.”

Ben Feder, Take-Two’s Executive Officer went on to say:

“Rockstar’s goal is to make each new title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise even better than those that preceded it, and Grand Theft Auto IV is a smashing success on that score. Grand Theft Auto IV makes full use of the power of next generation technology, and offers players an experience unique in the interactive entertainment medium. This game sets a new standard in the industry, with critics hailing it as both an artistic and technological masterpiece.”

We all knew it would sell well, so this news just basically stated the obvious, but $500 million dollars is pretty darn awesome nonetheless. Plus, thanks to this wonderful bit of cash, stock in Take-Two was up $0.29 (cents) to $26.35 as of Tuesday.

Via: Press Release

We know that Electronic Arts was likely trying to take advantage of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV with the timing of its acquisition attempts. We know that Take-Two was holding off so that they could take advantage of the higher stock values that would undoubtedly come when GTA IV launched. Now that Take-Two’s stock has risen to $26.63, which is slightly higher than the $26 offer EA had made, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement that the increase “vindicates our strategy of waiting until the launch with regard to EA’s offer.”

On the other hand, EA’s Jeff Brown doesn’t believe the change is unexpected and doesn’t really make a difference in his company’s offer to acquire Take-Two. He explained, “We’ve seen a share price above and below our offer and it doesn’t change anything. All of that was factored into our offer of $2 billion.”

A New York Times story infers the two different effects that the increase could have on negotiations between the two companies. Both of them seem quite realistic, so it’s difficult to make an accurate prediction about which way things will turn out.

On one hand, the relatively modest increase in Take-Two’s shares could prompt Electronic Arts and Take-Two to act quickly. Take-Two would theoretically do so because it’s not sure how much more it can expect shares to rise in the short term, and would do so because Electronic Arts can justify to its own shareholders a price increase, given that its current offer is below market.

On the other hand, the increase in Take-Two’s stock could serve to greatly prolong talk of an acquisition. Take-Two might feel the market is just beginning to validate its business and that the stock is only just starting to rise. But Electronic Arts could be intent on sticking with its price and feel that the longer it waits, the more the enthusiasm spawned by GTA IV’s introduction will wear off.

I remain hopeful that Take-Two withstands EA’s attempts, if only to save the NBA 2K series. EA murdered my favorite football franchise, and I’m not going to be pleased if they do the same to my favorite basketball franchise.

via Game|Life

Remember how the Chicago Transit Authority decided to pull ads for GTA IV from buses and other forms of public transportation in the Windy City following a Fox News report that accused them of promoting violence? Well, naturally, Take Two wasn’t too happy about that, and now they’re suing the CTA. The publisher has filed a lawsuit in the Manhattan federal court claiming that the transit authority violated their free speech and contractual rights. Take Two is accusing them of breaking a $300,000 ad campaign agreement that was set to run for six weeks and is seeking an order for the ads to be put back up plus monetary damages of at least $300,000.

Wait, you mean you can’t just take a company’s money, blatantly break an agreement with them, and then expect to get away scot free? Well, there goes every get-rich-quick-scheme I had in the works.

Via Reuters

GameCritics has a piece up on Grand Theft Auto IV commenting on the role of parenting in enforcing Mature rated Videogames. The article doesn’t spare any feelings or give a political correct treatment to the subject, which is why I feel it’s worth reading.

To all the ignorant adults, pandering politicians and neglectful parents who rail against the ‘evil’ games industry for turning America’s naïve offspring into Columbine clones and sexual deviants, the answer is simple—

Don’t let your kids play this game.

As a parent of a miniature clone army myself and an owner of GTA4, I agree whole heartedly. It’s every parent’s right to choose what their kids can and can’t consume; whether your talking food, drugs, books, tv, movies or videogames. I personally keep the game away from my kids and will not play it while they’re in the room. Is it convenient? No. But it’s conscientious parenting.

Adults have the right to adult entertainment. Those parents too lazy, busy or what ever their excuse is to pay enough attention to their kids to guide them as they mature have no one to blame, especially not the gaming industry, if their little darlings turn into criminals.

Unfortunately I fear this article will only be read by the educated, like minded individuals and miss the ignorant masses it’s aimed at.

via GameCritics.com 

We’ve all been watching the hoopla surrounding Grand Theft Auto IV this week. Heck, you can’t avoid watching it. It’s everywhere.

Like most of you, I made my way over to a local retailer Tuesday and picked up my copy. I brought it home, sat through the 4GB install on my PS3, and then leapt in. Judging from the perfect scores that have been thrown at this game like panties at a Wayne Newton concert, I expected to be completely blown away.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t. In fact, I was amazed how much like the previous editions of GTA it was. Now, I’m not one for messing up a good thing. The truth is that I like GTA IV, just as I’ve enjoyed previous iterations of the series. The problem is that it’s receiving perfect scores for a less than perfect game.

Grand Theft Auto IV is basically GTA III with a new character, a lot more voice acting, and an admittedly stunning graphics makeover. It really does little to nothing new, and leaves me wondering if perhaps the preview copies came with some sort of awesome swag we should know about.

This is why I distrust rating systems for games. Games like GTA IV (and Halo 3, etc…) are hyped into the stratosphere, given perfect scores, and then at release are found to be good, but not the shining gem of perfection we were all led to expect. Why can’t people just be content to say something like, “Wow, this game is pretty good, and it’s fun, but it’s really just the same old GTA again. I’d give it a nine.”

No, they have to spout off about how glorious it is, and wax eloquent about its majesty, only to leave us who didn’t play it prior to release feeling somehow slighted by the actual game we receive. Therein lies the tragedy: A good game leaves the gamer feeling somehow cheated because he isn’t experiencing the rapture the previewer obviously did.

Let me reassure you that GTA IV is a good game, even an excellent one. It’s just not perfect, and therefore, not a ten.

GTA IV is pounding the news today, just like we expected that it would. However, one grateful and proud GTA IV owner has decided to share his wonderful bounty with the rest of us peons who have yet to run down and pick up our pre-ordered copy because we have mean old bosses cracking the whip across our necks. Yes, I am talking about our News Manager Ron. He is nothing if not an ogre - but a big cuddly ogre to be sure (brownies points).

Our illustrious PR Manager Daniel is the proud recipient of the GTA IV package I have posted. I do not know what to call this, maybe it is the “Show How Special You Are” edition, or the “Make Your Colleagues Hate You” edition - either way it is effective.

This really cool edition contains nine GTA IV stickers and an 8″ Statue of Liberty Happiness in all of her green glory with a hint of bronze to make her look more authentic. Of course, she is smiling as well. You can check out more pictures of the contents by clicking here.

So let’s all give Daniel a nice, collective “cheers” for receiving such a cool package from Rockstar. Try not to hate him too much, he really is a good guy.

By the time this is posted, most of us will already have a copy of GTA IV in our hands. Ah, don’t ya just love that new game smell? I know I do, and nothing is more delicious to the senses than unwrapping a video game that you just KNOW is going to be worth the wait and the cost. All the hype aside, the GTA series has never disappointed us, because we always get what is advertised - the same heaping helping of vicarious, antisocial behavior that we would never be caught dead doing in public. Every time a new GTA game is released, we know what is inside the packaging only the storyline and graphics get better every year.Another thing we have come to expect with a new GTA game, is the controversy surrounding it – and this year, GTA IV was no exception. Between the back and forth from both the EA camp and the Take-Two camp, the irrelevant lawyers sending hateful letters to corporate Mothers, and the rating debacle in Australia – this year was basically just like any other year. Full of GTA drama.

This past Friday night, I had a few of my female friends over for a little pow-wow, and while we were enjoying our many pitchers of Sangria, our topic of conversation turned to gaming. You see, I have only a handful of female friends, the rest are all male, and each section of my peer world is drastically different. My male friends are all hardcore gamers; the majority of my female pals cannot really be considered gamers, save for one. Yeah, sure, they play video games – but not on a daily basis like I do, and they most definitely do not live and breathe this form of entertainment quite the way I do.

Anyway, back to the subject here, our slightly drunken conversation turned to gaming, which eventually led us to the topic of GTA IV coming out. In my half-lit stupor, I decided to record the conversation for posterity and transcribe it the best I could for you, dear readers. However, before I get to the strange tête-à-tête between drunken women, let me give you a bit of background on each one of them.

Read the full article

Mature ratings be damned, they won’t be able to stop the dedicated efforts of underage kids across the country from getting Grand Theft Auto IV. What They Play ran an interesting story recently, which had various anonymous teenagers sharing their plans for picking up the hottest release of the year.

Answers were all over the board. The one that most reminded me of my recent youth was one kid who said, “I am mature and my parents know that I know this is just a video game. I know not to follow any of the actions in teh game. They’ll buy it for me.” Perfectly reasonable, and that certainly is the prerogative of his or her parents.

Then we get into the slightly more devious kids, who said things like, “The doorman in our building will buy a stack of them, and then we’ll buy it from him,” or “My mom has 1-click ordering enabled on Amazon, so I’ll use that.” Then, there was what I think is the worst answer, “Since my mom and dad got divorced, it’s pretty easy to convince one of them to buy whatever we want.” Divorce is tough on kids, but taking advantage of it doesn’t sit well with me.

Of course, the answers that say certain stores don’t check age are bound to give Jack Thompson more than enough ammunition to continue his assault on the game, Rockstar, Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, and his mommy. (Not that he needs any with the nonsense he makes up, like being able to fillet prostitutes in the game.)

But people like Wacky Jacky won’t point to the obvious solution to this problem. Kids are going to get their hands on the game if they want to. But it’s the responsibility of parents to monitor what their kids are watching, reading, or playing. If they keep a watchful eye for something they don’t want their child exposed to, they should be able to take the game away; it’s as simple as that.

via Game|Life

Electronic Arts has been criticized in the past for its handling of development studio acquisitions, and rightly so. More recently, particularly since John Riccitiello came to the helm, things seem to be much better, but that didn’t stop Activision CEO Bobby Kotick from taking a shot at its main rival in a recent interview.

When asked about what the key has been to the growth of Activision, Kotick said, “It’s about really being considerate of the culture in the game studios that Activision buys. That’s the biggest difference between us and any of our competitors. We built a model that celebrates entrepreneurial, opportunistic, independent values.”

But, presented with the opportunity to bash EA, he added, “It’s almost the opposite of Electronic Arts, which has commoditized development. It did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired.”

Kotick wasn’t able to comment on EA’s attempt to purchase Take-Two, but I can easily imagine what he would have liked to been able to say. Can you say “Monopoly”?
via GamesIndustry.biz

Boy, just when you think you’ve heard the last of Jack Thompson, he resurfaces in his most ridiculous stunt yet. Did he bomb a truckload of of Grand Theft Auto IV game discs and blame violent games? Nope, it’s even better than that. He decided the best way to chastise Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was to……………….TELL HIS MOMMY ON HIM.

That’s right folks. In his quest to somehow make his viewpoint on violent games relevant, Wacky Jacky has finally regressed to the third grade. In a letter that he himself posted in a comment thread on Kotaku, Wacky Jacky implied that Zelnick’s mother might not realize that her son was the CEO of Take Two, quoted scripture at her as a way to impune her efforts at raising young Strauss, and stated openly that Zelnick should be awarded a “Ted Bundy merit badge” (this last is a reference to a statement Mr. Zelnick made recently, where he stated that he was “a Boy Scout”).

Now, it’s not that we shouldn’t expect these type of shenanigans from Wacky Jacky. He’s proven time and time again that he’ll go to great lengths to try and bring the general public down to his level of idiocy. What’s surprising is the myriad number of ways in which he manages to do so. Just when you think he can’t possibly get any worse, he goes and does it just to spite you.

He continues to cling to the notion that Take Two selling GTA IV through their website is somehow “targeting minors” with the sale of the game. However, federal law has long held that a credit card may be used as a standard for age verification, and a quick visit to Rockstar Warehouse shows that a credit card is indeed required to purchase there. So where’s the issue?

It’s the same old, same old. I suppose we should all be used to it by now. As long as there’s a venue for his sermonizing, Wacky Jacky will be a fixture on the fringes of the gaming industry. Gamers don’t take him seriously, and neither should anyone else. Especially Strauss Zelnick’s mother.

If you’d like to read the entire letter, it’s available right after the break.

Read the full article

A couple of weeks ago, the UK retailer Shopto confirmed that a PS3 GTA IV Bundle will be released in Europe on April 29. Today, Sony has confirmed this bit of news via a press release.

The GTA IV bundle will consist of a PS3 40GB model, a SIXAXIS wireless controller for €439 ($697 for those of you here in the States who just wish to compare).

GTA IV lands on Tuesday folks. Go ahead and start practicing your excuses for school and work now.

Via: Press Release