Console Sales

Larry Hryb - Google+: "Halfway through 2011, Xbox 360 maintains its lead in the U.S. console market, selling more units in the U.S. than any other console for 12 of the past 13 months. Even while console and software sales across the industry have slowed, as often happens in the summer, Xbox 360 continues growing, staying on track to have the biggest year in Xbox history in the sixth year of its lifecycle.

June 2011 NPD highlights include:
• Holding 48% share of the overall current-generation console market share, Xbox 360 sold 507,000 units in June, selling nearly twice as many units as other current-generation platforms and maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. for 2011. Additionally, Xbox 360 was the only console in the U.S. to show year-over-year growth in the month of June. (Source: NPD Group, June 2011)
• Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in June (hardware, software and accessories) reached $350 million, the most for any console in the U.S. (Source: NPD Group, June 2011)
• During the month of June, three of the top ten console game titles were for Xbox 360 including: “L.A. Noire,” “Duke Nukem Forever,” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops.” (Source: NPD Group, June 2011)"

World of Minecraft

I have never found myself attracted to the idea of paying monthly to play a game such as Warcraft.  Fundamentally I just cannot justify the total expenditure these kinds of games entail; both in time and in cold hard cash.  The quests and story lines always seemed too paper thin to bridge the gap between my love of gaming, and my love of role-playing. I played Dungeons and Dragon's 2nd and 3rd editions every weekend for 10 years, I also had the privileged of playing with some of the best while under the best Dungeon Master's one could hope to play. The stories were imaginative, well thought out and considered, the characters were unique, and the adventures were in a word; Epic.  So the "thinness" of Wow has always kind of disgusted me, and made me wonder; What on earth is making them so profitable, what is it that brings people paying hard earned cash monthly?

Minecraft seems to be the latest craze in games that offer no story, and manages to entertain with sheer busy work.  Digging, crafting, defending from creepers.  While customization, and creating things is most definitely an enjoyable part of a games I just cannot find myself entertained by that alone, they are great features to add to  a game, but in themselves. I'd rather not try to be entertained by droll busy work of what is to be a game. The obsession among it's fans borders on rabid fandom. It has become nearly impossible to view any kind of gaming news online without seeing 15 articles about Minecraft.


Humor image boards as well as Twitter, and Facebook, all abound with conversation of Minecraft. A Game I have Zero interest in. Perhaps it's time I find a game no one else is interested in and talk about it non stop in as much detail as I possibly can muster. Topspin perhaps?  Or maybe I could go into  great detail of a game of Mahjong, or there was that time I was surrounded by Ghosts in Pacman, and barely managed to escape their evil clutches.

Some games just seem to have an "it" factor, some ineffable quality that makes them popular beyond reason.  Perhaps their success lies within their vast communities and the kinship therein; or maybe the players of these games use a lot of imagination to see them as far more than they are, but rather what they wish them to be.

Sony, Hackers, and Fail Oh MY!

My gaming history with Sony has always been a rocky one. The original PS1
constantly overheated and needed to be turned upside down to play after only
a few hours. Within 3 months of owning the PS2 it was scratching game discs
to unreadability. Calling Sony's support line yielded nothing but frustration as
they wanted me to pay 150 dollars to repair my 300 dollar console. I gave up on
Sony then; I had always been a supporter of their electronics, but a problem
that was clearly theirs wasn't addressed to my(the customer's) satisfaction and
I turned away from them.

So when the news of Sony being attacked by hacker groups hit, it didn't really
phase me. From my experience with the giant corporation I can understand how
you put enough people with bad experience with them together, something bad
was bound to happen. God knows that Laws these days favor corporations far
more than they do the user, or consumer/individual.  Unfortunately I don't think
hacking the Playstation Network is going to cause Sony Corp to be repentant of
their business practices. It was irresponsible of them to host credit card data
and passwords unsecured, and I really can't see the Gaming Division of Sony
having a long and fruitful life.

The hard drive on my Xbox 360 died last month.  In stark contrast to Sony,
Microsoft has always handled my console issues right, until now. Offering
repairs well beyond warranty dates free of charge. Unfortunately, there has
been a series of mistakes on their part, which has kept me from receiving my
replacement hard drive. The customer service person I first spoke to selected
on the computer to send me a "Hard Drive DOOR" instead of the 250 GB
hard drive. I am now told that I cannot receive a hard drive until they locate
the broken one I sent them, I taped the reference number to the hard drive
and wrote it on both sides of the package I sent it in, and tracking the package
it has been listed as received at their service center.

Every time I have called I am told that an escalation specialist will call me in
24-48 hours. I have yet to receive a single call from them regarding this issue.
For the first 3 weeks I called them every 50 hours (giving them a fair chance
to call me as promised). At one point a supervisor jumped on the line and made
promises to give me free Microsoft Points and a Year of Xbox Live to make
up for the constant blundering on their part during this issue. I am now currently
waiting as patiently as I can, it has been over a week since I called about the
hard drive as it's been costing me a lot in pre-paid minutes on my phone.
In the end, I do believe Microsoft will make good, a faith I never had with
Sony.