gamingeek said:

Did you guys hear what Gamestop said?

Wii is out of stock 50% of the time and PS3 is out of stock 80% of the time.

The crap?

 It's been like that for months.  That is what Gamestop said 2 months ago as well.

It's over.  THQ adopts online penalities as well:

Agnates said:

Sony's already done it with Modnation Racers as well. I saw it on the PSP PSN, they sell an "online unlock" DLC for 10 euros, meant for people whose online code "is no longer valid" whatever that is, probably for used purchases. How the fuck did it get adopted so fast, it's like EA was just talking of it yesterday and now everyone's doing it?

They were all waiting for EA to make the annoucement so that EA gets trashed for it. Now they can all say EA came up with the idea.

aspro said:

EA last week, Ubisoft a few days ago and now THQ and Sony.

These policies don't impact me personally, but all this nickel and dimeing bullshit is tiresome.  But we all keep putting up with it. And let me put on my old-timer hat and say it all started with the $60 CE edition of Doom3 on the XB.  I bought it, so I'm partly to blame.

They saw how many suckers paid an extra $10 for a tin case and so then MS did it with Halo 2, and it's been a slow erosion of our bank accounts since then.

All in all, online has been bad for the gaming hobby (when you include the removal of backward compatibility, so they can instead re-sell digital versions).

Archangel3371 said:

 

I don't think these are two comparable situations at all. There's no reason for people to complain about CE, LE, or whatever kind of editions of games. The regular editions are always still available so no one is forcing consumers to pay extra for a different edition. I don't consider myself a "sucker" for purchasing these kinds of versions, if it's worth it for me then I consider it money well spent.

 I only meant it in terms of the publishers figuring out we had more than $50 in our wallets for a single game.

gamingeek said:

Nintendo Power talks Jett Rocket - special awards, compression techniques and availability

"Shin'en claims the custom tools they developed when making DS cartridge games have allowed them to compress over 400 megabytes of content into the easily downloadable package. Wii owners should be able to unwrap that package - Power Plant Posse and all - very soon; it could even be available by the time you read this." - Nintendo Power

400 into 30? ?

Namco Bandai - Industry needs to come together via summit to discuss the future of the industry

“I feel all the big video game companies need to join together in a worldwide summit to discuss the future of the industry. I think we have to pull our thoughts together. If you compare [games] to music, music has two ways to make money – sales of disc, which is decreasing, and concert tickets, which are increasing so there’s another source of revenue for the artist. Film has a similar situation; there is the disc and the cinema. Games just have one model; the sale of the product either as a box or a digital download. So we need to think about how we can develop a secondary business model. A good price of a game should be around £20 – but for this price we can’t make a ten to 15-hour adventure. So for £20 we should offer consumers four to five hours of gameplay, then after that we can make additional money with DLC. We need to discuss with first parties about the huge difficulties behind the current retail system. It is impossible for a publisher to make money on a DS game, for example, that goes on sale for £15. We have to sell that game to retail for lower than that, we have to pay all the marketing, production and distribution costs. This just isn’t a viable business model.” - Olivier Comte, Partners VP at Namco Bandai

Uh... I usually wait around and pick up games when the price drops to £20. And I don't get DLC for various reasons, wi fi, storage, reception, speed etc. So this would not be good.

 This passes as a new model?  Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this what they did with Doom decades ago, only they actually gave away the first part completely for free and asked people to pay if they wanted the rest of it?

Have any of you ever picked up the Guinness World Records of Gaming book in the store?  It's pretty lame.  Here is a sample from the 2010 edition.

1. Most prolific video game character: (Mario) The character who has appeared in the largest number of video games is Mario, created by Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, in Kyoto, Japan, in 1982. Mario has appeared in 207 distinct titles including remakes and re-releases.

2. Longest-running computer game character: (Mario) Nintendo’s Mario character, a plumber by trade, first appeared in the arcade version of Donkey Kong in 1981. Mario has since made an appearance in over 70 games, although he is a “playable” character in only around 30 of these.

3. Most successful videogame hero: (Mario) Mario, a computer-generated carpenter created by Shigeru Miyamoto (Japan), first made an appearance under that name in Nintendo’s ‘Game & Watch’ version of Donkey Kong in 1982 (He was otherwise known as “Jumpman” in the original 1981 arcade version of the game). To date, Mario has featured in at least 125 video games that, combined, have sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide.

4. Most critically acclaimed 3D platformer: (Super Mario Galaxy) The record for best critical reception for a 3D platformer is held by Super Mario Galaxy, with an outstanding 97.26% and 97% from GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively. The game was praised for its gravity-bending level design and for staying true to the series’ nostalgic roots.

5. Best-selling videogame series of all time: (Super Mario) With over 201 million copies sold, the Super Mario series is the best-selling gaming franchise in history – across all genres. While the last 28 years have seen the intrepid Mario engaging in a wide variety of activities – including role-playing, medicine and several sports – the series remains firmly rooted in the 2D platforming that first brought it success with the original Donkey Kong in 1981.

6. Most prolific party games series: (Mario Party) The most prolific party video game series is Mario Party (Nintendo, 199, which has seen 11 entries across six formats as of May 2007.

7. Best selling non-bundled sports video game: (Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games) It took Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games 12 weeks to notch up worldwide sales of 5.5 million making it the bestselling non-bundled sports game of all time.

8. Best-selling gaming character cross-over: (Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games) Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has sold over 7.09 million copies on Wii and 4.22 million on DS since its launch in 2007, making it the most popular game to feature characters that originally starred in their own games. It was the first videogame to feature both iconic characters, who had been rivals for many years as mascots.

9. Best-selling racing game: (Mario Kart Wii) In May 2009, Nintendo revealed lifetime sales figures for a number of its Wii and DS games, including Mario Kart Wii. The game’s 15.4 million copies sold beats the previous record held by Sony’s Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, which has sold 14.89 million copies. Mario Kart DS is the best-selling racer on a handheld, with 14.61 million copies sold.

10. Earliest Nintendo game to feature competitive online play: (Mario Kart DS) The first Nintendo-published game to feature competitive online play was Mario Kart DS in 2005. While earlier online titles included Animal Crossing and Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II, none allowed players to battle each other.

gamingeek said:

We've all had the dots. Is this is bad as the RROD?

This is going to be the videogame equivalent of Godwin's Law.  No, it's not as bad as the RROD, because

1. This was just the launch Wiis.  RROD affected every Xbox 360 for the first two or more years of its life.
2. This only affect some Wiis, even if an abnormally high amount.  Every single Xbox 360 made within that time span will red ring.