XBox 360 Rally

In a year when just about everything didn’t sell as well as last year, sales of the Xbox 360 increased by 8 percent this lame holiday season over 2007’s sales figures for December. The 360’s final yearly sales showed an increase of 19 percent over 2007 sales.

Not bad, but the bigger news is that the Nintendo Wii won the Holiday sales war with over 3 million units sold. The PS3 didn’t come close to a million at a bit over 700,000 sold. The PSP topped over a million units sold, and for some reason, about 400,000 Playstation 2’s were sold. Do people really still buy those and why?

The Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 nearly 2 to 1. Prices may have something to do with that. The Wii package runs about $250 base and you have to spend another $40 to $50 on a second controller. The Xbox 360 runs about $300 for the mid-level model and another $40 for an additional controller. The PS3 runs about $400 for the base model.

More news this week…Xbox 360 games topped the rankings for video game rentals. Xbox 360-platform games took all the top five spots in the list, and took another two spots among the top ten. Three Wii games placed in the remaining tops spots. And missing from the top ten were any PS3 games.

The Top Ten (as compiled by Rentrak)

PC World Mag also published a listing of anticipated Xbox games for 2009. You can click here to see the article. Notables on the list include Halo Wars, I am Alive and Alpha Protocol.

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Yes, I know that the Tomb Raider chronicles have moved beyond Legend with the latest installment, Underworld, but I’ve mentioned before that I’d rather play older, used games sometimes over the latest games debuting. I may change that, but not today. Also, I haven’t really picked up a Tomb Raider game since the first movie came out.

So I finished Tomb Raider: Legend and frankly, I was disappointed in the ending. I also noticed that the Tomb Raider parent company has been disappointed by the latest game’s sales. Could there be a connection?

Careful. You may have a preciptious drop, Lara...

I bought Legend last year, and yes, it took me a year to finish it. Not because it is hard — it isn’t. I just never put it in my Xbox 360. It sat there, abandoned for months, looking sad and wondering what it did wrong. It just was rarely the game I wanted to play. The puzzle rooms were kind of fun at first, and then they seemed to be endless variations of each other.

I had tried exploring Croft Manor, but got bored quickly. Sure, maybe I missed something cool, but I really don’t care, because nothing else in that game was cool (except driving the motorcycles and the forklift through the wall, so why would something in Croft Manor finally be cool. The whole background of Lara and the Croft Family Saga never really did all that much for me.

It’s sad, too, because I remember staying up all night playing TR when I had my old Playstation. Did I have more of a video game constitution back then…no, quite the contrary, my proclivity to play video games all night has increased with age and quality. I didn’t have a hard time getting through Half-Life (at right) two months ago.

So, anyway, Tomb Raider: Legend was low on my list, until my friend, Nathan, told me he got it. And then after a weekend, he told me he finished it. A weekend? He had a lot of time on his hands, but still, it made me feel like a slacker. So I finished it just to say I finished it, but other than the fear of being called out as weak, I may never have finished the stupid game.

Rumor has it that Eidos is thinking about a major redevelopment for the series. I really hope this rumor is true.

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Whether you bought a Wii, Xbox 360 or even a PlayStation 3, you can’t argue that this was an amazing year for console gamers. The industry certainly can’t argue this fact either, as gaming as a whole made over $40 billion in 2007, with much of the success coming between August and November. Microsoft in particular did well for themselves over the year, or so they tell you.

According to Microsoft, thanks to a strong holiday showing which included hits like Mass Effect and Halo 3, the Xbox 360 surpassed the 17.5 million unit mark. In fact, Halo 3 alone has topped 8 million units, with Mass Effect selling another 1.6 million units in just six weeks.

“Microsoft is proud of the contributions Xbox 360 is making to the gaming industry, and looks forward to an even more successful 2008,” Microsoft said.

I would be kind of interested to see if we could find out how many of those 17.7 million consoles Microsoft brags about selling were purchased by people who just didn’t feel like sending their Ringed One in for repair.

[GameDaily BIZ]

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I own it. You own it. Odds are your friends own it. There is simply no denying that Halo 3 is an absolute beast of a game. In its first day in the US, Halo 3 made nearly $200 million, and helped Microsoft by being a definite system seller, pushing 527K consoles out the door in September. But just how impressive are the numbers?

Well, according to the NPD numbers through November, 4.1 million copies of Halo 3 have been purchased in the US. Meanwhile, there have been 7.9 million Xbox 360 consoles sold in the US since its launch just over two years ago. Doing the math, a whopping 52% of all Xbox 360 owners own Halo 3.

That’s more than half, people. And with Christmas looming but a week away, you can expect both Halo 3 and the Xbox 360’s numbers to increase.

[GameDaily]

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Hi, boys and girls. It’s just me, your friendly neighborhood JW, here to remind you all that we’re currently looking for people to replace us here at Xbox 360 Rally. All you have to do is go HERE, fill out the form, and wait to hear back. It’s really not that hard.

So, get to it already — so Paco and I can get to the NEW site!

Enterbrain, a research company from Japan, has reported on this beautiful Friday morning that Halo 3, which was released in Japan yesterday, sold 45,000 copies.

When you consider that Blue Dragon, the highest selling Xbox 360 title in the land of the rising sun, sold 83,000 it’s first week, I’d say Halo 3 may become a moderate success over there.

In an effort to differentiate my two articles, here’s a little added something: I never could understand why the Japanese hate the Xbox so much. I know that our vastly differing cultures make it difficult to sell one product in the other’s home territory, but come on. Japan is the only market where the PS3 is beating the 360, and that just tells me something is wrong here… or there. Whichever.

[Xbox360Only.nl]

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We knew it was going to happen, and true to the hype, Halo 3 has indeed set a single-day entertainment record, gmabbing itself a cool $170 Million in the US alone!

Inside the first 20 hours, over a million users signed onto Xbox LIVE to play Halo 3, which makes September 25th the most active single day ever.

Now, it’s going to take a little bit to find out what Halo 3 made worldwide, but if the US sales chart is any indication… everyone who even touched Halo 3 during production is rolling in money.

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Ok, people, here’s the deal — Paco and I are on our way out. We’re taking over at 1PStart.com in an effort to restore it to it’s former glory. …that, and I just plain want to write about another game every once in a while, is that so wrong?!

Anyways, here is what we’re looking for: A competent, capable writer with a love for all things Xbox. Now, by competent writer, we mean someone who spells “you” correctly, and knows when to capitalize. If you can do that, you’re a shoe-in. So, CLICK THIS DAMN LINK, do the required stuff, then get paid to play video games and write about stuff.

…hell, Mike and I did the hard stuff already, and YES, the GTA4 Banner contest will continue, and I will still give you a copy of GTA IV… or something. So, hop to it.

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Michael Pachter, or who I consider the Mel Kiper of the gaming industry, has come out and stated that he expects to see Halo 3 sell [three] MILLION copies in the first twelve days. Pachter also says that we can expect to see Halo 3 drive console sales, possibly pushing as many as 400,000 Xbox 360s out the door, in what would (obviously?) be the highest figures of any non-holiday month since it’s launch in November, 2005.

Now, it goes without saying that Halo 3 is going to be a system seller. Halo 3 was the quickest to one million pre-orders, and the hype machine surrounding the game’s launch is on par with most presidential campaigns. Everyone knows it’s coming, most if not all Xbox 360 owners are psyched for it, and when that fateful Monday night gets here, sidewalks will be crowded with dozens of Halo 3 fanatics.

Which reminds me — I’ll be doing Halo 3 launch coverage. It’s going to be awesome.

[Gamasutra]

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The newest NPD numbers are out, and it’s lookin’ good for the Xbox 360. In the month of August, the 360 sold 276,700 units, coming in second out of the three consoles (and third overall, DS being #2) behind the Wii.

Also, two Xbox 360 titles were in the Top 20 SKUs for August: Madden NFL 08 at 896,600 units, and BioShock at 490,900 units. Two Workds, Guitar Hero II and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for the Xbox 360 were also in the top 20, as well as Madden NFL 08 for the Xbox.

You can see a full list of consoles AND games after the break.

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Variety is reporting (Variety? We’ve resorted to VARIETY?!) that Microsoft is shooting for Spider-Man 3’s opening weekend record of $151 Million.

Chris Di Cesare told Variety “We did $125 million last time… We’re confident we can do better.”

You’re confident? Give me a break, you have three different versions of the game! Even if you sold the same number of games for Halo 3 as you did Halo 2, you’ll surpass the previous high of $125 Million simply based on the $10 price jump. When you throw in the $69.99 Limited Edition, plus the $129.99 Legendary Edition of Halo 3 with that awesome helmet, and it almost seems certain that Halo 3 will surpass it’s predessor.

…freaking Variety…

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Who says no one likes the Core? Circuit City’s online distributor (also known as “CircuitCity.com“) sold out of the newly discounted Xbox 360 Core. While it’s far too early to tell if this will be a trend, the price drop of the Xbox 360 Core puts it in the same general price range as the Nintendo Wii, giving consumers who may not have much pocket change a choice.

I ask you, the reader: Does this price drop finally give the Wii a true contender in it’s price bracket, or is this sell out a temporary anomaly?

[Circuit City]

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I hear this Halo 3 thing may be pretty popular with the cool kids. Between three separate versions of the game to choose from, to the Xbox 360 with the Halo 3 theme, to it’s own damn soft drink, it seems like you can’t escape Master Chief’s watchful (and judgmental) eye.

Well, it turns out that I’m not the only one who pre-ordered Halo 3… not by a long shot. Microsoft announced via Press Release today that Halo 3 has officially become the fastest game to ever sell 1 million pre-orders.

The scary thing? Halo 3 isn’t due out for another month. Read the press release after the break:

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The servers are melting. Paco spilled his cola on the keyboard. JW’s out back trying to wrangle the horses. In short, we’re all kinds of FUBAR, so we may not be able to update as much as we’d like today.

Sorry, peeps. We’ll be back soon.

There has been a lot of controversy regarding a recently posted rumor regarding SEGA’s possible Tokyo Game Show line-up. Now, I was originally very defensive of this piece because of who sent it in. He, a long-time go-to guy named Rob, has sent me exclusive tips for four years, and until this most recent one, they were ALL accurate.

Regardless, after the link had been posted by reader “Cedge”, I immediately contacted Rob via GoogleIM.

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