4.5 Million PS3 worldwide

Sony has reported that they have sold 4.5 million of their big black box worldwide. To make the number a bit of creditable, it is the actual number sold, as compared to the number shipped. During the first 5 months, Sony has sold 665,000 PS3 in the US. As a comparison, Nintendo has sold 1.73 million and Microsoft 1 million. Still lacking far behind the rest, but with no good games being released during that period, you would expect the number to be like that.

Sony, as a whole, has reported their first quarter profit more than tripled. Their digital camera and the weaker yen is helping the profit. For the first quarter, net profit more than doubled to 66.5 billion yen, while operating profits rose three-fold from 27 billion yen last year to 99.3 billion yen. Sales were up 13.3 per cent to 1,977 billion.

The film division made a 3.25 billion yen profit against a 1.17 billion loss last time, largely thanks to the success of the third Spider-Man film.

So Sony as a whole is still very healthy, but it's PS3 that's killing them. And that's probably all we care about at the moment.

Source: PS3fanboy, International Business Times

More of the same law suit against Microsoft

As I've told you before, MS is now facing 2 more lawsuits from gamers who claimed the Xbox 360 caused them grieve. One was filed in Seattle, the Microsoft heartland, and another one is filed in California.

Long story short. Both filing are for the same thing. Microsoft sold a shitty console that killed the game disc. The replacement program only covers Microsoft published games plus a $20 charge per disc. No wonder they are all suing MS. I would have too.

Source: Information Week

Sales Chart JPN: Baseball hitting home runs

Week 16 July - 22 July 2007

What is with the baseball and the Japanese? There is not one, but two baseball games on the top 10 this week. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14 on the PS2 and the same game on the Wii has hit home run at 1st and 3rd place. Sales were 153,266 and 47,995 respectively.

Right between them is Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (53,097).
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass continues to swing that stylus sword around in 4th place (46,762), while Wii Sports yet again made up the top 5.

Other new titles in the top 10 includes Mushi King Super Collection (some bug catching game) and Naruto Shippuuden: Strongest Ninjas Unite 5: Decisive Battle at Dawn (what a long title).

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14
Wii - Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 33
Wii - 8
PS2 - 7
PSP - 1
PS3 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

More of the same, nothing really changed. DSL still selling more than everything else combined, and the PS2 is still selling more than PS3. Anything going to change next week? Don't bet on it.

DSL - 154,459
Wii - 86,786
PSP - 32,894
PS2 - 14,059
PS3 - 12,187
Xbox360 - 2,664

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
82.44% vs 17.56%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
85.39% vs 11.99% vs 2.62%

Source: Media Create

Nintendo now 5th biggest Japanese Company

Things doesn't get better than this. Nintendo is now the fifth biggest Japanese company by market value after their stock rose the the maximum allowable daily rise of 5,000 yen. Its market value now stands at 8.76 trillion yen, outstripping Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, NTT and Honda Motor Co, which had placed higher in the rankings only a day before.

That is after reports of its first quarter profit. The first quarter saw a net profit of 80.25 billion yen to June compared to the previous year's 15.55 billion yen. Operating income in the fiscal first quarter more than tripled to 90.63 billion yen from 28.80 billion previously, while revenue expanded 160 percent to 340.44 billion yen from 130.9 billion the year before.

Nintendo raised the forecast for both of their hardware. It now expects to sell 26 million DS and 16.5 million Wii consoles this fiscal year, up from 22 million and 14 million.

In case you don't know how to count in a million, that's a shitload of Nintendo power.

Source: Forbes, Reuters

Sales Chart US: Nintendo taking charge... again.

June Sales Figure

Another month, another sets of US figures from NPD. After some delay, NPD finally released the numbers for the US.

First up, software. Nintendo continued to destroy all opponents with the new Mario Party 8, which was released just a few days before the start of the reporting period. So far, it has shipped a total of close to 800,000 just in the US alone. If anything, this game will go on to sell well over a couple of million worldwide. Guess no one can stop the Mario attack.

In 2nd place is Wii Play, the game that comes with a controller, or as I like to put it, the controller that comes with a game. This could be a direct reason of Mario Party 8 given MP8 is a party game and Wii owners needing new controllers to play with friends.

In 3rd and 4th place is yet another month of Catch 'em all. Combined total of the two Pokemon version is another half a million. Just goes to show Nintendo hasn't caught all the kids yet.

Xbox 360 featured 3 games on the top 10, but only one is exclusive - Forza Motorsports 2, the game that crash. The other 2 - Guitar Hero 2 & The Darkness - can be found on other platforms.

With Nintendo taking over 6 of the top 10 and MS 3 spots, only 1 spot remained for Sony. And it wasn't a PS3 game. A lone Guitar Hero 2 on PS2 filled the remaining spot at 6th. What does it say about PS3? Well, Sony's hardware has yet again failed to make the 100,000 this month since March. That's at a time when Nintendo is pulling further ahead of everyone else.

Top 10 games in US for June

1. Mario Party 8 - Wii (Nintendo) - 426,200 units
2. Wii Play - Wii (Nintendo) - 293,200 units
3. Pokemon Diamond - DS (Nintendo) - 288,400 units
4. Pokemon Pearl - DS (Nintendo) - 214,700 units
5. Forza Motorsport 2 - Xbox 360 (Microsoft) - 197,400 units
6. Guitar Hero II - PS2 (Activision) - 197,350 units
7. Guitar Hero II - Xbox 360 (Activision) - 177,600 units
8. Pokemon Battle Revolution - Wii (Nintendo) - 157,900 units
9. Resident Evil 4 - Wii (Capcom)
10. The Darkness - Xbox 360 (Take Two)

Console War VII: Battle for America

If you were expecting something different this month, well, don't. Nintendo continues to let everyone else bite their dust, both in the handheld and console front. The DS averaged 112,500 per week during the 5 week reporting period. That's edging closer towards the weekly Japanese numbers.

Wii done 381.8K, roughly 76.4K per week, on par with the Japanese. PSP in 3rd place moved 290.1K during June (58K per week). It's actually selling more than their Japanese counterpart, which only managed about 30-odd thousand a week. Xbox averaged 39.7K per week while PS3 only managed 19.7K, both higher than the weekly figures in Japan.

Wii outsold Xbox 360 by almost 2 to 1 and the PS3 almost 4 to 1, while the DS outsold PSP by almost 2 to 1.

DS - 562,000
Wii - 381,800
PSP - 290,100
Xbox 360 - 198,700
PS3 - 98,500

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
65.95% vs 34.05%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
56.23% vs 29.26% vs 14.51%

Source: Gamasutra

Phoenix Wright sings

Okay, not quite. But close to it. Capcom is releasing not one, but two Original Sound Track (OST).

Rob Pereyda, from Capcom posted on the company's BBS announcing the release of the two OST, titled "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra" and "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Jazz".

I'm only guessing here, one soundtrack will feature orchestra and the other one jazz. But you know, I could be wrong.

So for all you Phoenix Wright fans, now you can listen to it. I doubt there will be any Objections here.

Check out the announcement after the jump.

Hi Guys and Gals,

I promised I would have news on something that "sounds" good, and I'm coming through! We have just signed a licensing deal to have a partner release both "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra" and "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Jazz" as "Ace Attorney Meets Orchestra" and "Ace Attoreny Meets Jazz" in North America! So that's right, Ace Attorney fans, official swag you can go to a store and buy is finally on the way! There will be a press release shortly with all the details!

Best, Rob

Source: Capcom

Xbox Sales fell 60%

With not one, but two lawsuits against Microsoft for scratched discs and the cost of extending warranty, the Entertainment arm of MS is bleeding pretty bad right now. In the last fiscal quater, MS only shipped 700,000 Xbox 360, as compared to 1.8M same time last year.

Of course, that 1.8M was without challenge. Now with both PS3 and Wii on the market, we're now seeing the truth nature of competition. Clearly the Wii is winning the war at the moment, and PS3 is losing.

MS is obviously unlikely to chop off the Entertainment arm, but with a loss of $1.9 billion loss, it's certainly making MS bleed. Meanwhile, MS's overall profit rose 7% to $3 billion in the forth quarter. $1.9 billion? that's small change.

Source: Information Week, Game Industry.biz

Microsoft getting sued, again and again.

Here comes the avalanche. No long after gamers in Florida filed a lawsuit against MS for scratched Xbox discs, gamers in the pretty state of California are doing the same. The suit alleged that "Microsoft improperly and/or negligently manufactured the Xbox 360 console in a manner that causes the expensive game discs ... to be scratched, rendering the games unusable."

This time, it's for $5 million. Of course, MS denied all allegation.

Guess MS has more than the red ring of death to worry about. Now it's the scratch ring of death that's bothering them.

I still can't believe after a year, you would have thought MS would fix a 'significant' problem. Yet, they sat on their big fat asses and did nothing. A year later, it cost them $1 billion to extend warranty. Mind you, that's not fixing the root of the problem. That's just replacing your dead Xbox, which means, the new Xbox that replaced your dead one is still prone to the same problem. Great going.

Source: Information Week

Sales Chart JPN: More sword swinging as Dragon Quest made it to the top

Week 9 July - 15 July 2007

Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors made number one this week as it shipped 305,254 units in its first week. The Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warriors in the US) brand name rivals that of Final Fantasy in Japan, and it's no surprise that it went straight to ichicban.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass still swing that stylus sword around in 2nd place (69,896).

For whatever reason, DS has turned into a PDA for keeping track of your expense. My Housekeeping Diary makes it into 3rd places with 46,947. Actually, it's not at all surprising. In Japanese household, the wife is the boss, and so everything to do with household expense are controlled the the female species. And given Nintendo openly targets the female population for its hardware, one would expect something like My Housekeeping Diary to appear sooner or later. Damn, should have thought of that idea first.

This week's top 10 has been dominated by Nintendo. Some it hasn't done for a while now, with 7 DS games and 3 Wii games.

Tom Clancy made it to the chart again for Xbox 360 at 26th. No doubt it will drop off by next week.

The touchy touchy witch game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan has dropped from 11th to 39th. I guess no every moe loving person is getting it.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

Wii - Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Super Robot Wars: Original Generations
Xbox 360 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 35
Wii - 7
PS2 - 4
PSP - 2
PS3 - 1
XB360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

More of the same, except everyone selling more of everything. With the Xbox almost made it to 3,000. But PS3 is still lacking behind the PS2. When was the last time PS3 surpass the PS2 sales? Come back next week for more of the same.

DSL - 141,967
Wii - 109,854
PSP - 37,578
PS2 - 15,777
PS3 - 13,493
Xbox360 - 2,942

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
79.07% vs 20.93

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
86.98% vs 10.68% vs 2.33%

Source: Media Create

Buy a PS2, but got cash instead

What would you do if you pay £95 for a Sony PS2, but got €65,400 instead? Well, a teenager in Britain did exactly that. He bought a PS2 on eBay for £95, but when the package arrived, neatly stacked €65,400 appeared in the package instead.

No doubt the intended recipient of the money is very pissed at the moment, and if you don't hear anything about a dead body found somewhere in the marsh land, that's because it's hidden in a concrete slab somewhere.

The article cited that if no-one claims the money by September 22, the family can apply to have the cash back. Now that it has all gone public and all, I wouldn't be touching that money if I were the boy. You never know who's going to turn up at your door on Sept 23.

This raised 3 questions:

1) Which mafia boss did the money belong to?
2) Why did the boy tell the police?
3) Why did he pay £95 for a PS2?

Read the comment, it's pure comedy.

Source: Gizmodo

PS3 final hitting a million in Japan

Yep, good news (depends if you're Phil Harrison a Sony employee or not) for Sony. The PS3 has hit 1 million unit in Japan. Famitsu reported that the PS3 as at 15 July 2007, the number of PS3 sold mount up to 1,010,492 units.

Took them long enough (8 months). Not entirely unexpected, given the Media Create numbers indicating that the PS2 has continuously outsold the PS3 week in week out.

Gundam Muso sold 280,000, while Ridge Racing 7 and Gundam: Target in Sight sold a respectable 140,000 and 138,000 respectively.

No doubt someone at Sony will make a big fuss about the milestone, how it is out-selling than the Xbox 360 in Japan, yadda, yadda, yadda. Because, you know, it's the only home console that it is outselling at the moment.

Source: Famitsu [via Kotaku]

New Final Fantasy Potion

Still on Final Fantasy. Some of you might remember Square Enix joined forces with Suntory to produce Final Fantasy XII potion drink back in 2006. Not sure how many actually drank the thing. But that's besides the point.

Now, Square Enix is at it again. "Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Potion" will get a September 13th release, to coincide with the release of Crisis Core on the PSP on the same day, no doubt. The drink will set you around ¥3,980 each.

Not sure how many of us would drink that stuff... again. But if you do, that's what you'll be getting inside you: dolomite (to represent "the earth crust’s energy"), royal jelly and vitamin B1.

The question here is not whether to drink it or not, but how in the hell are you going to put it on display? As you might have noticed, there is not flat bottom.

Source: Japan News Review

Square Enix on yet another special edition. This time, it's the PSP.

After the nth million special edition on the DS, Square Enix has finally run the other direction. Still a Final Fantasy Special Edition, but this time on the PSP. It comes in Ice Silver with only 77,777 made. I guess the number just so happens to be the number 7 for FF VII. Just a guess.

Coming out on 13 Sept 2007, it will set you 25,890 yen for one, plus the game Crisis Core. Better start saving, not for the PSP, but for the trip to Japan. Yep, it's Japan only.

For those who can't afford the trip, you can of course get it from PlayAsia. But expect to pay premium price for it.

So now us DS owners can't put our FF DS Lite SE in your face any more. But what the hell, you know we'll do it anyway.

Source: GameWatch

Interview with Toriyama and Yokoyama of FFXII: Revenant Wings

IGN had a chance to catch up with Toriyama and Yokoyama, both involved in the Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings game. While the game didn't quite ignite a FF rush on the DS, it is still a success in Japan.

Read on to find out how the Western version of the game has more dungeon, more enemy and the possibility of FFF (Final Fantasy Fit).

Source: IGN

Lawsuit filed against Microsoft... again.

This time, it's the unhappy Xbox 360 owners that are suing Microsoft for scratched disc. The lawsuit claims that Xbox 360s scratch game discs, making them unusable. Thousands of people have been affected by and have complained to Microsoft about the problem.

Microsoft offers a worldwide disc replacement program for games that it authors. A user can send a damaged disc back to Microsoft plus $20 and receive a replacement. Microsoft also will examine and repair consoles that consumers believe may have scratched discs, the company said.

So what they are basically saying is that I need to pay $50 for a game, and on top of that, another $20 if it's scratched due to no fault of my own.

No wonder they are suing Microsoft.

Well done, Microsoft. Your fucked up hardware scratch disc, die while playing, 1 in 3 doesn't even bloody work and has a fault that is so general that no-one knows what it is. How the hell did you sell 11 million of these $500 paperweight?

Source: Washington Post

PSP slim colour hitting Japan.

So the DS Phat has colours, the DS lite has colours, the PSP Phat has colours, and now the PSP Slim has colours (wow, didn't see that coming there). The PSP Slim will hit Japan September 20th for ¥19,800 (US $162) and will come in six colours: Piano Black, Ceramic White, Ice Silver, Rose Pink, Lavender Purple and Felicia Blue. All six colours coming at once.

In all seriousness, PSP Slim looks no difference than the PSP Phat, except for being 33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer, has sped up game load times and improved battery life. The only real "new" features is a video output capability to allow you to play your PSP games on a big screen TV. At least the DS Lite has some major design change. I don't know, it just doesn't feel all that fresh for me. I was expecting something flashier.

Source: Kotaku, Engadget

60GB PS3 no more.

Kaz, the new head of SECI, has confirmed that the 60GB PS3 is no more. In an interview with a Norwegian site VGTV, US will not see any more 60GB after the current stock runs out. Instead, they will see a upped 80GB with the game MotoStorm, at a SRP of $599, same price as before.

Sometimes you just knew a price cut is too good to be true.

Source: Kotaku

The Idol Master dance

Okay, so The iDOL M@ster dance might not be as popular as the Suzumiya dance, but that never stops people (mostly Japanese chicks, actually, make that professional chick group SKD48) from doing the dance. First the original opening.



Next, the dance. They are pretty darn close, if I may say so myself.



Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's on the Xbox 360.

WiiFit. Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.

We all know that the Wii is the alternative gym with Wii Sports. But Nintendo has announced at E3 something bigger and fitter is coming to a Wii near you. It has come up with the idea of putting aerobic and TV 'game' together. It's not the first one to do so. Konami is introducing Groove Motion DDR. Nintendo seems to be the first one to cater for 'home users'. What you need is a TV, a Wii and a what I'll call WiiPad.

All you need to do is stand on it and do some balancing, kicking, and... aerobatic things, things that you never thought you could do at home. Looks like Nintendo is going to have another winner here.

It's cheaper than going to the gym. But of course, if you going to the gym is all about looking at other people's muscle, then I don't think you'll fit in with WiiFit.

Watch out, Fitness First, here Wii come.

More pictures after the jump.

Can't wait for Duke Nukem Forever?

Duke Nuken Forever is certainly one game that takes on its title too literally. But fear not, what the developers can't do, the pirates have done it for them. I present you, Duke Nukem Forever.


Yep, China Town material. Save yourself a few buck and head over to MyGen. It's not quite the Duke Nukem as we know it, but it's still pretty funny.

Source: MyGen

Pikachu, I choose you.... on second thought, maybe not.

As if Pikachu has entered the Hall of Mirrors, this Pikachu has turned into Evangelion Unit 04 or something. This is one Pokemon I don't want to catch. Are they trying to scare little kids away?



Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Zelda swung back

Week 2 July - 8 July 2007

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is back on top this week, shipping 74,937 copies after being relegated to second spot last week. It has muscled its way back to form. Another mecha (the non-violent variant), Chibi Robo! Park Patrol, fought off the super robots to 2nd place, while Super Robot Wars: Original Generations takes the reign in 3rd. Eye Training is still there (42,279). It's not going to get off the chart. Ever. Just like Wii Sports.

The touchy touchy witch game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan only managed to debut at 11th. It's quite anti-climax, really. I thought it would do better than that.

Anyhow, PS3 has yet another game on the chart. My Summer Vacation 3 actually made it on the top 10 at 7th, while another débutante, Blazing Angels, made it at 47th! The biggest drop is also on the PS3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas dropped from 19th to 46rd.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Super Robot Wars: Original Generations
Wii - Wii Sports
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 37
Wii - 7
PS3 - 3
PSP - 2
PS2 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Despite only having 1 game in the top 50, PS2 still outsold PS3 this week. It comes at a time where Nintendo pretty much dominate the charts with 44 games in the top 50. There's no much to say really. DS continued its march towards world domination Xbox360 went back into hibernation.

DSL - 139,271
Wii - 75,279
PSP - 32,946
PS2 - 14,120
PS3 - 12,691
Xbox360 - 2,370

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
80.87% vs 19.13

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
83.33% vs 14.05% vs 2.62%

Source: Media Create

English Professor Layton coming out in December

Just as I finished Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village, out came the news from E3 that Nintendo is released the English version. The official title is now called Professor Layton and the Curious Village, heading to stores on 3 December, just ready for the Christmas rush.

As I've said in my previous post, if you love puzzle games, you'll love this. It's the best puzzle game. Ever. But looking at the Brain Age sales in America, I won't be surprised if this game doesn't sell as much as it deserves.

Fear not, Europe should embrace this. They are smarter, right?

Poor design, cheap component, lack of testing contributes to Xbox failures

With recent 'figures' suggesting that 1 in 3 Xbox 360 become a heavy paperweight, it's a wonder where it went wrong.

An article over at SmartHouse suggested that Microsoft, in a bid to beat everyone else to release a console, did so cheaply by rushing everything through. Poor design, cheap component and lack of testing are all blamed for the high failure rate. Microsoft has recently announced that it will take over $1 billion charge to extend warranty coverage on repairs and replacements.

While Xbox 360 owners are not 'out-of-pocket', so to speak, there is no doubt Microsoft's reputation will take a beating. One can't discount the fact that it will inconvenience gamers who need to get their consoles repaired, thus ruining the whole gaming experience. That's something money can't buy.

Even though Sony has an expensive brick, it at least works over 99% of the time. Less of 1% of the PS3 sold are returned as faulty. According to one source, no Wii sold was ever returned.

Source: SmartHouse

Touch me merchandise

The inappropriately witch touching game from SNK Playmore, Doki Doki Majo Shinpan, now has merchandise for you to wear and touch. T-shirt, CDs, cups, Mousepads, Art books, Phone hangers, Phone cards, the lot.

Just look at the size of the boobs mousepad. All features the prime candidate, Akai Maho. What on earth is she on? Growth hormone?

I still want this game, but I think I'll give the T-shirt a miss.

Source: Official Website

And so the price war begins

As the title suggested, the price war cut beings for Sony PS3. After months in denial, Sony has finally confirmed that NA is getting a PS3 price cut, from $599 down to $499 for the 60 GB model.

A higher version, the 80 GB model bundled with MotorStorm will hit American shores in August for $599. Still expensive, but at least you're getting more for less, in a sense. So either hold on to your money until the 80 GB comes, or buy the 60 GB for $100 less.

It took me about 3 price cuts before I was remotely interested in getting the PS2, so this news really means nothing to me. If I were ever getting one, I might wait till the slim PS3. Of course, that is assuming the PS3 is still alive by then.

Source: Kotaku

Professor Layton: The best puzzle game on DS

After 15 hours, 120 puzzles, and lots of brain power later, I have finally finished Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. It is the best puzzle game out there on the DS. The puzzles are great, and the story is even better.

For those who don't know what this game is about. The story revolves around a 19th century looking town/village where Professor Layton and his assistant, Luke, were invited to solve a great mystery known as the "Golden Seed". The professor and sidekick need to solve puzzles from villagers before solving that big great mystery.

It's a bit like Sherlock Holmes and "my dear Watson".

The puzzles are not too hard, but enough to make use of that tiny brain of yours. A lot of them are trick questions, so you need to read the question very carefully.

Unfortunately it's only in Japanese, and if you don't know the language, or don't know someone who does, it could be problematic. However, help is on hand. I'm writing a FAQ that will detail all the questions (and answers, just in case you're too lazy to figure it out). It should be at GameFAQs soonish.

Read my review at GameFAQs.

If you want to import it, PlayAsia is having 20% until next Thursday, so you better be quick. If you love puzzle game, get this game. You won't regret it.

Sales Chart JPN: Robot taking over the top

Week 24 June - 1 July 2007

Robots have taken over the number one this week in the chart. Super Robot Wars: Original Generations has taken over with 345,600 sold. Last week's ichiban, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass cleared out another 136,586 while Square Enix's Mario X Dragon Quest board game, Itadaki Street DS, took out 3rd place (60,256). Everyone is still trying to fix their eyes. Seriously, I don't see Eye Training to drop out the top 10 any time soon.

An interesting week for the new games. Fifteen new games graced the top 50, with 6 out of the top 10 are new games, with PS2's Super Robot Wars taking the charge, and (yet another) English Training bringing up the rear in 10th. Seriously, how many Japanese need English training? I mean, this game is the 925th English training game I've seen. They must really need them, like "I need air" need them.

Anyway, that relegated a lot of the old game down, but I expect them to bound back up in the top 10 next week. Games like Wii Play and Brain Training will surely go back up.

Biggest drop has to be FolkSoul on the PS3, falling hard from 11th last week to 45th, way behind the Ninja. All the Xbox games (Trusty Bell & Saints Row) have disappeared.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

PS2 - Super Robot Wars: Original Generations
DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Wii - Wii Sports
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 28
PS2 - 10
WII - 7
PS3 - 3
PSP - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Anyone going to stop the DS? I don't think so. Another 150K+ week for the DS, outselling everything else combined (again!). This week has the DS outselling PSP 4 to 1, and the Wii 6 to 1 against the PS3. PS2's figure is boosted by the fact that new games are still popping out of the PS2's butt faster than the PS3. Xbox 360, as usual, lacks far far far behind.

DSL - 157,435
Wii - 73,919
PSP - 38,305
PS2 - 16,316
PS3 - 11,914
Xbox360 - 3,154


Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
80.43% vs 19.57

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
83.07% vs 13.39% vs 3.54%

Source: Media Create

PlayAsia 20% off

Right, so PlayAsia is having another 20% off all in-stock items. Damn you, people. You're making me spending more money!

Offer ends July 12 2007. Only for in-stock items. And this time there's a counter that tell you how long to go till the end of sales. So makes the best of it, especially when everything they sell are so expensive in the first place.

If only this is on sales.

1 in 3 Xbox 360 die. Yeah, one in three!

An article over at DialyTech suggested that Xbox 360 failure rate is close to 1 in 3. Figures were collected from retailers, either willingly or by an insider. While Microsoft unsurprisingly maintains their claims that only 3-5% of units are faulty (within the industry standards), they admitted that the initial batch of Xboxes are 'faultier' than the later ones.

However figures seemed to suggest otherwise. It is suggested at one retailer that 33% failure rate is closer to the reality. Other sources also suggest figures between a quarter to a third. Most of the units are covered by warranty, but seriously, why can't Microsoft do something right the first time round?

Peter Moore had said that it's not the number that counts, but the service the customer gets. But with customer service like this, you would be one very dissatisfied customer. Let me tell you something, Peter, no customers like their stuff broken. No-one. Doesn't matter how good your customer service is, the fact that it is broken is already one fault too many. Get it right the first time, so you don't have to fix the problem later. Is it really that hard?

My Japanese NES (aka Famicom) still works after 20 years. My Saturn still works after more than 10 years. That's reliability. The worst I have had was a PSX memory card failure that cost me 50 hours of Final Fantasy VIII. Never have I had a console dying on me. Never did I need to call up Nintendo or Sega to have my console fixed.

No-one ever expects things to work 100% of the time. That's just unrealistic. But by any industry standards, 33% failure rate would result in somewhere between "cutting your finger off" and "killing your whole family" if Xbox were in the mafia. It is that bad. If I was an Xbox owner, I would ask myself "Is this thing going to die on me?" every time I turn it on.

If this figure is anything close to being accurate, that would mean on a worldwide scale, about 3.3 million (out of the total 10 million) Xbox 360 has died at some stage during its lifetime.

If the console is made by anyone else other than Microsoft, it would have gone bankrupted. The only reason why people put up with it is because of the Microsoft name.

The same article also cited a source claiming that the failure rate of PS3 is less than 1%, and none of the Wii they sold was returned due to defects. Come on, Microsoft. You have a year head start to get it right. And you still can't. You fail in life.

Source: DialyTech

Forza Motorsport 2 crashing, Microsoft killed thread.

In a bid to keep the cover up its problem, Microsoft has deleted a thread on its Forza Motorsport 2 official website with over 900 replies that gamers have experienced Xbox death after playing Forza 2.

In the thread, hundreds of gamers posted their stories on what happened to the 360 when playing Forza 2, and expressed frustration, anger, and disappointment. Microsoft obviously didn't want you to know, and so they quietly removed the thread.

Gamers obviously noticed, and so they made up new threads.... and make a hell of a noise about it too.

Never have I seem a game killing a gaming console, ever. Microsoft just makes shit products. Period. Doesn't matter if it's an OS or a gaming console, they are just shit. Surely, they must have QA teams going through it to make sure the exact thing doesn't happen.

I mean, I can understand OS crashes, not every computer has the same specs, etc, etc. But crashing on an Xbox? Helloooo, every Xbox is made to the same specs from Microsoft! How the fuck can you crash a Microsoft-made machine with a Microsoft-approved software? Did they even test their software before releasing it? What were the QA team on when they were testing the game? Crack?

For those who have problem with their Forza, just fill in the form and ahh... I don't know, go buy a Wii or something.

Source: GameRush