Games Industry Wire

Tony Smith of Reg Hardware is reporting that Sony is planning on cutting up to 25% off the price of the new Playstation 3 within 12 months of its March 23rd European launch. The forecast is for Sony to cut up to or more than 150 Euros off of the 599 Euro starting price for the console.
Although the news is from Europe a similar price cut can probably be expected here. The PS3’s large price tag and stiff competitors have dampened Sony’s sales outlook for the console. Playing a large part in the poor sales of the PS3 has been …read more

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VGCharts has a graph up of next gen console sales and it shows that the Wii has surpassed the 4 million unit sales mark and currently sits a 4.02 million sold worldwide. Breaking the figures down even further 1.53 million have been sold in the Americas, 1.45 million in Japan, and 1.04 to “others”.
Comparing the sales of the Wii to that of the Xboc 360 and PS3 can provide some insight into the overall sales of the console as well. TheXbox 360 has been out for a year more than the Wii and has sold 8.66 million worldwide. The PS3 on the other …read more

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Although the next gen console has already made its debut in the US as well as Japan and other regions the highly advertised system will be released March 23 overseas. Areas for release include Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and biggest of all Europe. Sony is battling for market share with competitors Nintondo and Microsoft who each have next gen systems on the market as well.
Company officials announced the decision Friday after news had surfaced that the console would cost substantially more in Europe than in the United States. Only the 60 gig model will be released on this date. …read more

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Technology blog is reporting that Sony will debut the PlayStation 3 in Britain with a euro-equivalent price of $835 dollars. The price is more than $200 over what the system costs in the U.S. but it is actually no surprise. Sony could charge nearly any price they wanted to for the system on its debut weekend because there will always be people who will pay more for the system than it is truly worth.
Although I think some of these pricing maneuvers border on price gouging in my opinion I find it hard to believe this price will last for too …read more

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Electronic Arts is developing its newest DS game looking to capitalize on the handhelds adult and casual gamer market that Nintendo has moved to capitalize on. The new game, entitled Pogo Island, follows other adult-geared games such as Big BRain Academy that looks to take advantage of the DS’ ease of use.
The game features five of Pogo.com’s most popular games adapted into a handheld format. The games include a color matching game entitled Phlinx, a game focused on balloon popping, solitaire,  and a word-based game called Word Whomp. The fifth game will be themed after the game’s title although very …read more

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Here are some current top 10s from Amazon.com:
Top 10 Wii Games

Warioware: Smooth Moves
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Wii Play
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Super Money Ball Banana Blitz
Madden NFL 07
Mario Party 8
Call of Duty 3
Excite Truck

Top 10 DS Games

Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Kirby Squeak Squad
Brain Age
Mario Kart
New Super Mario Bros.
Big Brain Academy
Final Fantasy III
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Nintendogs Labrador Retriever & Friends
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All

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Both GameSpot and GoNintendo are reporting that a third variant of th einfamous breaking wrist straps has been release. Now the reports are only unconfirmed rumors right now but if they hold up this would be the third variant of wrist straps that Nintendo has released.
If you remember the Wii release then you likely remember all of the hoopla over the Wii straps breaking. This story was not just a gaming industry story either. It made major headlines in the U.S. media with reports of people being injured and TVs being broken. To quell this problem Nintendo offered a new …read more

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Google, an industry leader in everything advertising, has been expanding its offering in recent months including the long awaited debut of Google’s Audio Ads program. Now it appears Google will be venturing into game advertising.
In-game advertising involves advertising being directly inserted into web-connection games.  This is the next logical step for Google and for the web-based  gaming industry since this is largely a smaller based company operation right now. To get a head start in the new media Google is looking at acquiring AdScape Media which is an already established company in the industry.
This series of moves follows Microsoft’s purchase …read more

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Gears of War, the hit Xbox 360 game from Epic Games has gone triple platinum. The game was already the fastest selling Xbox 360 game selling 2 million compies in just over 6 weeks after its early November release.
The game overtook Halo 2 as the most popular game on Xbox Live, a spot Halo had help since Xbox Live began service in 2004. Not long after the release of Gears of War Xbox live service nearly doubled.
In a release of the sales mark Microsoft commented that it was the third highest selling game of 2006 despite only being on the …read more

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Well let me take this time to make it official that I am the new blogger here at Games Industry Wire. My name is Kris Karkoski and I am a 19-year-old college student in northwest Pennsylvania. I mean who really knows more about video games than a college student who is stuck inside all winter right. Well I am an MIS/MBA major and I look forward to getting started here.
I will getting back to the basics of what this blog is about, the video gaming industry. I will take unique looks at the business aspects of the video game indsutry, …read more

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