Posts Tagged ‘VIDEO GAMES’
Video game sales fall 10 percent in August
It must have been too sunny in August to stay indoors and play video games. Overall U.S. console game sales fell 10 percent in August, continuing the trend of weakness for the industry once described as “recession proof.”
The sales for the month amounted to the worst August on record since 2006, said Anita Frazier, analyst at market researcher . The blame falls squarely on portable hardware, software and accessories — which were collectively down 25 percent, compared to a 6 percent drop for console games.
You might think that the game industry is dying from these lackluster reports. But the weakness is more with the physical retail sale of brand new games. NPD will soon count the growing parts of the industry, which include online game subscriptions, rentals, mobile games, social games and other categories.
The core console retail weakness also was due in part to the dearth of new titles introduced during the month. Take-Two Interactive’s Mafia II sold a disappointing 121,000 units. And sales of Electronic Arts’ staple Madden NFL Football game were also relatively weak compared to past seasons — despite taking the No. 1 and No. 2 slots in top 10 game sales, according to market researcher. Square Enix’s new release, Kane & Lynch 2, didn’t even show up in the top 10 chart.
In July, console game sales fell 1 percent, but PC game sales soared 103 percent because of strong sales of StarCraft II. Blizzard Entertainment said that StarCraft II sold 3 million units in its first month. Game industry sales once defied the economic downturn in late 2008 and early 2009. But for more than a year, sales have been disappointing. Part of the reason may the explosive growth of free games on the iPhone and Facebook. Thanks to StarCraft II, PC game sales were up 35 percent compared to a year ago.
Year to date, overall console game sales are down 8 percent to $8.37 billion. Console game hardware, software and accessory sales were $818.9 million in August, down 10 percent from $910.3 million a year ago. Game hardware sales were $282.9 million, down 5 percent from $297.6 million a year ago. Console game sales plummeted to $403.5 million, down 8 percent from $471.2 million a year ago. Accessories for consoles sold $132.4 million, down 6 percent from $141.6 million a year ago.
For the third month in a row, the Xbox 360 was the top-selling console at 356,700 units sold. The Nintendo Wii sold 244,300 units, while the PlayStation 3 sold 226,000 units. The Nintendo DS sold 342,700 units, and the PlayStation Portable sold 79,400 units. The Wii had its lowest month ever in hardware sales in the U.S.
Electronic Arts had the top two positions in the top games of the month on consoles, with Madden NFL Football 11 on the Xbox 360 at No. 1 and on the PS 3 at No. 2. Combined, Madden sold a respectable 1.8 million units.
Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii ranked third, selling 124,600 units, while Mafia II was fourth at 121,600. New Super Mario Bros. for the DS was fifth at 110,400 units sold. In September, Microsoft could rescue the market as it launches Halo: Reach, the latest in a blockbuster sci-fi shooting series that has sold more than 30 million units.
Companies: , , , , ,
People:
PopSci’s Guide To The 30 Coolest College Classes in the Country
Here's where you can learn to blow stuff up, scale 150-foot trees, make toys and catch lightning--all for college credit
Over the years, PopSci has pulled together annual lists of the coolest, funnest college labs, the places where we would like to have spent our youth tinkering, exploring, and learning. , we've collected the ultimate list of all the great labs we've ever covered.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/educational/A_Guide_to_the_30_Coolest_College_Labs';
for our full illustrated list of the coolest college labs in the country.
Distributed Humans Smarter Than Distributed Computers In Solving Complex Biology Problem
The researchers, based at the University of Washington in Seattle, are incorporating the best Foldit players' strategies into their own algorithms. Forget distributed computing -- this is distributed thinking.
In what might be a video-game first, gamers will see their work translated into actual protein structures designed in the lab, according to the . Last year, a Texas player who goes by the name "BootsMcGraw" was the first Foldit player to have his new protein design synthesized in the lab. Though it didn't work, the researchers plan to try again and are optimistic about the possibilities, according to a press release from UW.
The program stems from Rosetta@home, which works like in that it uses a network of idle home computers to crunch data. Biologists were using Rosetta to figure out how proteins develop their final three-dimensional shapes. They know which amino acid chains make up proteins, but the way they're structured is not well understood, and that knowledge has huge potential, because proteins act as gatekeepers in the body.
Rosetta@home included a screensaver that showed users what the computer was doing. Sometimes the computer would get stuck on a tricky folding problem, but gamers thought it looked easy. "People started writing in saying, 'I can see where it would fit better this way'," says David Baker, a biochemist at UW in Seattle who developed Foldit, in Nature News.
Baker's team figured they would let them try it out, and the result was Foldit, wherein players can compete, collaborate, develop strategies, gather points and move to different levels.
It turns out that humans' highly evolved spatial manipulation talents were a boon for this type of problem-solving. Even a small protein can have hundreds of amino acids, meaning thousands of connections are possible -- and that means plenty of work for a computer. But humans can often see the solution intuitively, Nature News reports.
Even has turned to video games to make science more appealing, but as points out, this might be the first time gamers have helped solve an actual scientific question.
The paper's author list acknowledges more than 57,000 Foldit players, which may be unprecedented on a scientific publication, UW News says. Hey, it's got to be more satisfying than racking up ADAM.
[ ,
,
A Video Game Controller that Stimulates with Hot and Cold Sensations
An experimental new video game controller just revealed at this week’s SIGGRAPH conference includes a pair of thermoelectric panels on each side of a controller. Those surfaces heat or cool rapidly in reflection of what’s happening in the game, offering players a new sensory connection to what’s happening on the screen.
The controller temperature doesn’t swing wildly – less than 10 degrees in either direction in just five seconds – but apparently a small sensation is all that’s needed to add a rich layer of sensory experience to a virtual reality environment. No word on whether any major console makers are eyeballing such technology, but the idea is pretty cool. After all, remember how thrilling it was when our gaming peripherals started vibrating?
[]
NASA Introducing “Moonbase Alpha”, a 3-D Game Set on the Moon
A meteor strikes, damaging solar arrays and life support systems, and as you watch the billowing dust cloud move ominously toward your lunar camp, you have to restore critical systems and oxygen flow. Starting July 6, a new NASA video game will let you save the day, in 3-D.
NASA is releasing a multi-player game called , wherein players assume the role of a moon exploration team member living in a lunar settlement.
Gamers will have to get used to running with a moon-bounce loping gait while wearing a bulky moon suit -- atypical for first-person video game missions. You can play alone or with a team.
The game includes VOIP chat, text chat, and pretty cool 3-D graphics. It's only supposed to take about 20 minutes.
NASA's Learning Technologies division built the game to prove the space agency can make cool video games that will inspire kids. Ultimately, the game could be used in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education programs.
And if Congress decides to end NASA's moon-return program, this might be the only way to have a lunar adventure.
IBM’s City Simulation Trains Planners to Tackle Future Problems for Growing Urban Centers
OK, mayor, 40 percent of your water supply is leaking out ... what do you do?
The company unveiled its "serious game" this week at the IMPACT 2010 conference in Las Vegas, as a training tool for city leaders and planners. The free game would require players to guide their city through sector-specific missions focused on energy, water, banking, and retail.
One mission involves the water usage increasing at twice the population growth. The city is also losing as much as 40 percent of its water supply through leaky infrastructure, and energy costs are rising. Players would need to put a water management system in place that draws on "accurate real-time data" to make their decisions.
IBM pointed to expert predictions that the world's urban populations will double by 2050, with an estimated one million people moving into cities each week. Today's cities already consume 75 percent of the world's energy, emit more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases, and lose as much as 20 percent of their precious water because of infrastructure leaks.
Simulations are already used as tools for real-world planning among financial analysts and the . But games such as CityOne could represent a stepping stone to the far more ambitious projects such as Europe's proposed which would incorporate reams of real-time data about the world.
Either way, we're just waiting for the Hollywood story where the young genius with knack for urban planning suddenly realizes that he's been "playing" not just a game, but real life all along.
Video: Dutch Marine’s Helmetcam Delivers Thrilling First-Person-Shooter View of Raid on Pirate-Seized Ship
Does this herald a future where commanders get real-time intel from their warfighters' helmets?
Video gamers and warfighters alike will appreciate this stunning first-person-shooter view of a Dutch marine boarding team taking back a German merchant ship from Somali pirates. It's not hard to imagine many more soldiers of the future equipped with cameras so that commanders can have multiple on-the-ground views of rapid response operations carried out in real-time.
The marines were tasked with liberating 15 crewmen aboard the German merchant ship Taipan, which had been hijacked by 10 Somali pirates. The crew locked themselves securely within a safe room and called for assistance, according to a reader translation provided by the blog .
Action kicks off fast and furious as the marines fast-rope down from their helicopter under covering fire and begin securing the ravaged ship.
This goes beyond the surface parallels between the real-life footage and a first-person shooter such as Modern Warfare 2, or even the and video games meant to . That's because this ain't no game for the Dutch marines or the -- rather, the military-style lifecasting footage gives commanders new situational awareness in either real-time or for post-mission briefings.
In any case, we're certainly tickled to see how first-person-shooter camera angles have much more use than simply giving young moviegoers a thrill in a certain Kick-Ass scene.
[ via ]