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Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:05:30 GMT

It's getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11.

Media Create hardware sales (12/14 - 12/20)

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:11:50 GMT

Media Create has published the latest hardware sales figures from Japan. Find out how Final Fantasy XIII has impacted hardware sales.

Famitsu hardware sales (12/14 - 12/20)

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:03:49 GMT

Famitsu's latest hardware numbers have been released a bit later than usual this week. See how Famitsu's figures compare to Media Create data.

Famitsu software sales (12/14 - 12/20)

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:34:04 GMT

The latest software top ten sales estimates in Japan from Famitsu have been released. Final Fantasy XIII makes its first appearance on the charts.

Mininova loses two thirds of its traffic after going legal

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:38:39 GMT

Traffic is down 66% in the week since Mininova deleted more than a million torrents and went legal.

Mininova, once the most popular torrent site on the web, has seen a monumental drop in traffic since it went legal last week. Without the lure of pirated movies, albums and software, folks are turning elsewhere for their torrent fix.

I Don't Think You Understand How Cheap Blu-ray Really Is

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:31:48 GMT

Gizmodo - "The downward trajectory of Blu-ray player prices matches DVD almost to the dollar-actually, Blu-ray's cheaper. And that's not considering inflation, or that the best players do a whole lot more than Blu-ray."

Ubisoft want to crack Japanese Market with major RPG

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:52:08 GMT

CC: Ubisoft are planning to break into the Japanese games market according to executive director Alain Corre.

Media Create software sales (12/14 – 12/20) - Top 50

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:26:46 GMT

Media Create has published an expanded listing of the latest best-selling Japanese games (top 50).

Top 9 best-selling games of 2009 in Japan

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:33:44 GMT

Find out what the top 9 best-selling games in Japan were this year, along with how each system did in terms of the top 30.

SCEA CEO Jack Tretton on Sales

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:34:32 GMT

Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Jack Tretton weighs in on company sales and the outlook for company growth in 2010. " Amazing show it's difficult to exceed expectations beyond the high hopes that we had that we sold. Over 440000. Units in the Black Friday week alone up 90% from November of last year so we couldn't be -- were selling every unit we can manufacture."

10 things Microsoft did wrong in 2009

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:45:43 GMT

Betanews writes: "Earlier today, I posted "10 things Microsoft did right in 2009." I originally planned to post the did-wrong list tomorrow. But in view of today's news about Microsoft's out-going chief financial officer, Chris Liddell, I changed the timetable. Liddell's departure is one of the things Microsoft did wrong in 2009 (He will become CFO at GM)."

Americas Preorder Charts - 19th Dec 09

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:42:33 GMT

VGChartz writes: "God of War III continues to lead the latest preorder chart with around 160,000 preorders. We still expect total preorders to top out at over 450,000 units and for God of War III to perform similarly to it's immediate predecessor. All of the games in the top 7 have a number of weeks to go until release and should see strong increases in preorders in the new year once the holiday season has finished and gamers start to look towards their next purchases."

2009 Year on Year Sales and Market Share Update to Dec 19th.

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:13:42 GMT

How are the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 performing against themselves and each other when compared to previous years?

Free wi-fi coming to a McDonald's near you... again

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:37:27 GMT

McDonald's is going to slash their usage charges for wi-fi access to the low, low price of absolutely free. McDonald's restaurants currently charge $2.95 for two hours of wireless Internet access, fries, and a coke (fries and coke not included).

What's interesting about this news is that McDonald's had offered free wi-fi in the past, back in 2008 to be more specific. It was only after they saw how much people "abused" it by hanging out and not buying anything that they decided to start charging for access.

2 Futuremark Employees Leave, Possibly Due to Poor Sales

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:57:50 GMT

What an awesome Christmas season this is turning out to be. Two Futuremark employees, Petri Jarvinen (Level Designer) and Nick Renqvist (Audio Designer) have posted on the official Futuremark forums that they are no longer working for the company. As you might know, Futuremark recently released Shattered Horizon, a multiplayer-only FPS-Z for just $20 on the PC(digital download only). While it's unclear why they're no longer with the company, one did mention that the game didn't sell too well and "that has it's effects."

Modern Warfare 2 Is UK's Christmas Number One

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:10:22 GMT

Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has taken the coveted Christmas number one spot in the UK all format chart.

P2P Case Ends in $16m Settlement

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:22:51 GMT

GN writes, "Cable company Comcast was slammed with a class-action lawsuit in 2007 for "restricting access to file-sharing protocols." Of the protocols restricted, the widely known BitTorrent and Gnutella were two of them. According to Ars Technica, Comcast is "on the verge of settling with irate customers."

Comcast proposed a $16 million settlement for users who experienced the restricted access, likely to avoid an arduous legal campaign..."

The Japan Preview: 12/20 Edition (FFXIII Attaches to 1/3 of PS3s)

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:56:33 GMT

It was a big week, as FFXIII sold 1.35m units (1.25m standalone, ~100k bundles), hardware rose across the board, and alot of big older Wii & DS titles saw big rises. Wii, PS3, & DS are near 200k.

Sony London studio working on PS3 game?

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:36:59 GMT

Datascope(Job listing description):"PS3 Animator / Senior Animator
Sony are looking for a talented animator with vast games industry experience.
You must be self motivated and enthusiastic, possess good character and objects animation skills.
Work effectively to the highest quality under tight deadlines.

Your showreel needs to demonstrate versatility and depth in a variety of animation styles. Experience in hand animation for a non realistic game would be an advantage.

Creativity plus strong technical and artistic skills are vital. A good working knowledge of Maya, Photoshop data export to game engine is also essential.

Requirements:
Animate characters and objects for a stylised unrealistic game.
Ensure all animation is delivered on time and is of the required style.
Manage a small animation group."

Nvidia's Fermi GPU gets cut back

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:16:10 GMT

Nvidia has had to cut back its Fermi GPU because of the chip's low wafer yields and its high heat output, if the latest reports are to believed.

Fermi has long been thought to be too hot to handle and Nvidia has now cut down the number of stream processors to 448 instead of the previous 512, and it has admitted that the GPU chip will be a 225 Watt part. Nvidia's own Fermi information pages still show it as having 512 SPs, but according to a recent PDF this is no longer the case.