The most significant video game news of 2007 (2/2)

PS2 stays relevant
Since first launching in 2000, Sony has sold more than 120 million PS2s worldwide, making it the best-selling system of all time. The six-generation console celebrated its seventh birthday in October, and shows no signs of slowing. Amazingly, this last-gen platform outsold the Xbox 360 in seven of the last 12 months according to NPD figures (20/25 when considering life-to-date 360 sales); the PS3 has never outsold the PS2. So even though it no longer has that new car smell, the PS2 still gets the job done.

DS finishes as top-selling system overall
Portable or not, the DS is the most popular video game system in the world. It may not be the most glamorous news item of the year, but never before has a handheld dominated video games (including consoles) like the DS. It's home to a ton of great games (traditional, quirky, and innovative), and it appeals to both gamers and non-gamers alike. Given its current sales rate, Market researcher DFC Intelligence even predicts that the DS will end up being the most widely purchased platform ever.

Wii catapults Nintendo into the spotlight
As of this year, Sony no longer leads the video game industry -- that honor currently belongs to Nintendo for a second time. Here's why: the Wii outsold both the Xbox 360 and PS3 every month this year save only the Halo 3 release in September, it uses a radically new controller, it's still hard to find more than a year after its launch, it has the most exclusive games in development, it has the largest selection of downloadable titles, it overtook total Xbox 360 sales in less than a year, it helped Nintendo displace Sony as the largest software maker, it sorta helps fat people lose weight, it's inexpensive, and even your mom likes it. Never mind who's buying the thing, Wii is exciting people. Welcome back, Nintendo.

Video games go pop culture (and the rise of casual games)
Casual games became something of a movement, not to mention a dull buzzword this year. EA formally joined the party at E3, as did Ubisoft, Midway, Activision, THQ, and a slew of others when endorsing the initiative. Even Microsoft showed Wii-envy before releasing a casual-friendly controller and a trio of games this fall. But not only did casual awareness help make games more mainstream this year, Halo 3 created a pop culture riot by selling millions, and the industry recorded its biggest year ever since Atari first started selling games (read: more people play games today than ever before). And don't be fooled; the courtship of non-gamers doesn't come at the expense of fewer conventional games, so long as you and I keep buying them.


MOST OVERRATED NEWS

Activision merges with Blizzard
Nothing to see here (for now) as each brand will independently run as usual -- the move was merely a stock name change that hardly affects gamers, only people who wear suits to work. The bigger news (though still of little relevance to gamers) is that Activision overtook EA as the largest game publisher in 2007 before the merger, fueled largely by the success of Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty 4 across multiple platforms.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment