‘Modern Warfare 2′ breaks day-one entertainment sales record
Nov/09BC
Source: Yahoo! Games
According to internal figures released by Activision, opening day sales for its heavily-anticipated game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 smashed records, generating $310 million in 24 hours in North America and the U.K. to become the “the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment.”
The game shipped worldwide on Tuesday, although Activision has not released sales data from regions other than the U.S. and U.K. The company estimates that roughly 4.7 million copies of the game were sold in the first day of availability in just those two territories.
The previous record-holder, Grand Theft Auto IV, sold 3.6 million copies and generated $310 million worldwide in its first day. If Activision’s numbers are correct, Modern Warfare managed to eclipse those figures in only two regions, meaning the game’s final worldwide tally is likely to be significantly higher.
And that’s simply staggering, as the U.S. and U.K. figures alone dwarf both the record-setting $150 million opening weekend of last year’s “The Dark Knight” and the $300 million earned by fellow first-person shooter, Halo 3, in its first week.
Mike Griffith, CEO of Activision Publishing, celebrated.
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Wave of bans hits Xbox Live
Nov/09BC
Source: Yahoo!
As many as 600,000 Xbox 360s were banned from the Xbox Live service this week in the latest in a series of crackdowns by Microsoft on illegally modified consoles.
The banned machines — a “small percentage” of the millions of Xbox 360s around the world — are alleged to have been modified in ways that violate Xbox Live’s terms of service, but Microsoft won’t say exactly how they can tell, nor exactly how many users were affected. Banned consoles can still play games, but can’t connect to the Xbox Live service for multiplayer gaming, content downloads or software updates.
“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement today.
The bans were apparently timed to coincide with yesterday’s release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, expected to be by far the biggest gaming event of the year. One affected Call of Duty fan, a self-confessed software pirate called “Raz,” told the BBC about his disappointment.
“It was a big day yesterday, the latest game we’ve been waiting months and months for. We’ve played the whole series and this one’s come out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2…I sign in online and next thing I see, ‘Your console has been banned from Xbox’…now I don’t know what to do,” he told the BBC’s Newsbeat.
Most law-abiding gamers will have little sympathy for Raz — but at least one banned Xbox owner claims to have been targeted by accident, and that Microsoft won’t listen to his excuses.
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Celebrity Video Game Counterparts
Oct/09BC
Mario: Gene Shalit
Link (Legend of Zelda): Orlando Bloom
Nathan Drake (Uncharted): Nathan Fillion
Princess Peach: Reese Witherspoon
Sean Devlin (Saboteur): Brandon Ellison
Kratos (God of War): Goldberg
Duke Nukem: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bayonetta: Tina Fey
Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid): Kurt Russell
Little Sister (Bioshock): Dakota Fanning
Source: Yahoo.com