NPD Numbers for December Released into the Wild

Every month, the numbers crunchers from all the console and games companies huddle in their dark offices, analyzing the numbers released from NPD. And every month, we send out our take on what they all mean, and why they make us our platform victorious. (If you're curious about NPD, and why you should care, listen to a podcast interview we did a few weeks ago with our own analyst, Mike Sabine. You might find it informative.)

Here are some interesting stats we just released.

Consumers spent more dollars on Xbox 360 in 2007, with more than $13.7 billion in total consumer spending. Xbox 360 had $4.8 billion in total consumer spend (45 percent of total industry figures) compared to Wii with $3.5 billion and PlayStation 3 with $2.2 billion.

Xbox 360 games portfolio has the largest collection of “Everyone” and “Teen” rated games.

Of the top 20 best-selling titles in 2007 for this generation, 11 were on Xbox 360; while only seven were sold on the Wii and two sold on the PS3.

NPD reported that this holiday’s leading multiplatform blockbusters continue to sell better on Xbox 360:

• “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for Xbox 360 was the leading game last month with 1.5 million copies sold, outselling the PS3 version nearly 3:1.
• “Assassin’s Creed” for Xbox 360 was the fourth best selling title, having sold 894,000 units. It outsold the PS3 version more than 2:1.
• “Guitar Hero III” outsold the PS3 nearly 2:1, having sold 625,000 copies.
• “Rockband” continues to rock the charts, selling 463,000 units for the Xbox 360 platform, compared to 174,000 units for the PS3

To date, 33 third party games on Xbox 360 hit the top 10 list across all consoles compared to five third party games on PS3, and four on Wii.

In its fourth month on the market, Halo 3 continued its strong performance and was the sixth best selling title in December, selling another 742,000 units. In 2007, NPD projects that Halo 3 has sold 4.8 million units in the U.S. since its launch in September.

Xbox 360 continues to lead in number of games sold per console, setting another record with an attach rate of 7.0 games per console.

from Gamerscore Blog

Paramount Announces HD DVD Slate for First Quarter

Press release:
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2008--Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) today announced its upcoming slate of releases on HD DVD for the first quarter of 2008. A compelling array of action-adventure, drama and family fare, PHE's lineup of HD DVDs provides something for everyone, further expanding the format's offerings for a broad consumer audience.

Released on January 8, PHE's first HD DVD title of the year is David Fincher's director's cut of the mesmerizing drama Zodiac, which has been cited on over 200 critics' lists as one of the top 10 films of 2007. The HD DVD includes over three hours of in-depth bonus materials including a multi-part exploration of the making of the film, the facts of the real-life attacks and more. Following on February 26, PHE will debut the director's cut of Robert Zemeckis' visually stunning cinematic experience, Beowulf, which conjures a world the likes of which has never been seen before with state-of-the-art technology and exhilarating storytelling. The HD DVD will include a feature-length picture-in-picture track, web enabled Beowulf Profiler, A Hero's Journey: The Making of Beowulf with optional pop-up trivia and much more.

Director and screenwriter Sean Penn's widely praised adaptation of the inspirational true story Into The Wild arrives March 4 with behind-the-scenes material that takes viewers deeper inside the enthralling, real-life story, characters and experience, along with the compelling drama Things We Lost In The Fire, which features phenomenal performances by Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, as well as a discussion of the film and deleted scenes.

DreamWorks Animation's funniest new animated hit Bee Movie buzzes onto HD DVD on March 11 loaded with exclusive content, including web-enabled downloadable features such as The World of Bees and a Build-A Bee Avatar, a picture-in-picture storyboard reel, customizable menus, Barry's trivia track and much more.

"The Jack Ryan Collection" will arrive on HD DVD featuring four explosive thrillers including The Hunt for Red October starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford as well as The Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman. In addition, the highly-anticipated film The Kite Runner, based on the international best-selling novel, also will debut on HD DVD in the first quarter.

Select Blu-ray titles offering $10 back if you own DVD version

Another day, another random promotion in the format war. Granted, this particular one isn't exactly a jab against HD DVD, but it could sway some fencesitters to pick up a few Blu-ray titles they wouldn't otherwise add to their collection. Reportedly, the BD versions of The Rock, Crimson Tide and Con Air are all coming with $10 mail-in rebates that are valid if you can prove that you purchased the BD version and standard DVD version of the film. Interestingly, the promotion is good for this entire year, which leads us to believe this trio may just be the beginning of a much larger effort to entice consumers to bite on Blu. If any of you out there spot this offer on a title not listed above, be sure to let us know in comments.

HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on January 15th, 2008

Here we are the first week after CES and there isn't much on the release schedule for either camp. Blu-ray does have six titles this week, but nothing really to get excited about. Comedies do pretty good, -- even though some think HD doesn't make them any more pleasurable -- so Blu-ray fans can look forward to Dane's latest comedy Good Luck Chuck. Looking forward, this is a slow time of year for movie releases, but horror fans can look for SAW IV. And to those who think Universal and Paramount are going to be HD DVD's savior, you might want to look at the upcoming release schedule where there are a combined five titles between both studios for 2008 currently on the schedule. To be fair we saw the same thing last year, before Universal released the torrents of their catalog.

HD DVD 376 vs Blu-ray 418*

Blu-ray

• Breaker Morant (Image)
• Girls Gone Wild: Baby Bash - Live And Uncensored (Mantra)
• Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate)
• Mr. Woodcock (New Line)
• Suburban Girl (Image)
• Went To Coney Island On A Mission From God... Be Back By Five (Starz)

HD DVD

• The Ten (City Lights)

* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously available.

from Engadget HD

Think Blu-ray has it easy in 2008? NPD says not so fast

The Blu-ray Disc Association could be on cruise control right now. This time last year, they were already declaring victory, and while the opposition deals with key defections -- and rumors of more to come -- they're predicting 1 billion in software sales this year. Video Business reports that the NPD Group's session immediately following last night's BDA press conference confirmed many of the BDA's positive numbers from last year, but also identified possible resistance it will face in 2008 due to still high prices, confused and indifferent customers and competition from HD DVD / VOD / IPTV. Coincidentally, a suggestion for the BDA to get past this was offering a concierge service to educate customers, but we'll see what marketing initiatives they dream up to move people to Blu in '08.

from Engadget HD

HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on January 8th, 2008

Although we are running non-stop 24 hours a day with CES coverage, the new titles roll on. While some think the format war is over, the fat lady hasn't sung just yet and this week we have a slew of titles for both camps. Blu-ray has the day and date 3:10 to Yuma as well as some catalog titles like Con Air and Man on Fire. Universal is pulling the weight in the red camp -- we have a feeling this will be the trend from now on -- with four catalog titles and Paramount brings us Zodiac: Director's Cut. Overall January is a slow month for release and with so few titles released at CES this year, we are left wondering what titles are coming down the pipe to help each camp reach their 2008 goals..

HD DVD 375 vs Blu-ray 412*

Blu-ray

• 3:10 to Yuma (2007) (Lionsgate)
• Con Air (Buena Vista)
• Dragon Wars (Sony)
• Killing Machine/Shogun's Ninja (BCI)
• Man on Fire (Fox)
• Night of the Werewolf/Vengeance of the Zombies (BCI)
• The Rock (Buena Vista)
• Sister Street Fighter/Sister Street Fighter 2 (BCI)
• Sunshine (Fox)

HD DVD

• Mobsters (Universal)
• The Pianist (Universal)
• White Noise (Universal)
• White Noise 2: The Light (Universal)
• Zodiac: Director's Cut (Paramount)

* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously available.

from Engadget HD

Toshiba is not going down without a fight!!

Providing our best peek yet at HD DVD's post-Warner strategy, Toshiba today announced lower prices for its third-generation HD DVD players and plans for a shift in marketing focus for the format.

Calling price "the most critical determinant" in reaching mainstream consumers, Toshiba announced an immediate drop in the MSRP for its complete line of third-gen HD DVD players, pricing its 1080i entry-model HD-A3 player at $149.99, the HD-A30 at $199.99, and the high-end HD-A35 at $299.99.

The manufacturer also unveiled plans to roll out a "stepped up" marketing campaign with its studio partners that would put renewed emphasis on the benefits HD DVD brings to a consumer's current DVD library by upconverting standard DVDs.

"Our HD DVD players not only play back approximately 800 HD DVD titles available worldwide and deliver an entirely new level of entertainment but also enhance the picture quality to near high definition on legacy DVD titles by all studios," explained Toshiba VP Jodi Sally.

Details on the new advertising campaign were still sketchy at press time, but the company's press release promises it will span television, print and online media.

Rumor: GoldenEye, more Rare games coming to XBLA

Since the early days of Xbox Live Arcade, gamers everywhere have been dreaming of the games they'd love to see on the service. While some wishes have come to pass, other remain rumors. This one comes to us from Xbox Evolved and it concerns none other than the Nintendo 64 darling from Rare, GoldenEye. Heralded by many as one of the best FPS games to grace a console -- and certainly one of the first games to prove an FPS could be done well on a console -- GoldenEye could be on its merry way to Xbox Live Arcade sometime soon. Apparently a deal has been reached between Rare, Activision, who owns the game rights to James Bond, and MGM Studios, who owns the film rights to James Bond. Supposedly the game should release shortly before the upcoming Activision published James Bond title rumored to be under development at Bizarre.

But wait, there's more! Xbox Evolved is also reporting that Rare is planning on releasing more of its back catalog on XBLA including the original Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie. And before you ask, no, Killer Instinct isn't mentioned.

Pioneer announces A/V receivers, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD support

Pioneer is expanding its CES lineup with four new audio-video receivers, one of which supports the new high-definition audio codecs found in Blu-ray and HD DVD. The VSX-518-K, VSX-818V-K, VSX-918V-K, and VSX-1018TXH-K A/V receivers all feature Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration with an included microphone for tweaking acoustics in the room, three 1080p-capable component inputs, and Auto Level Control for equalizing volume between sources. The VSX-518-K, 818V, and 918V all feature P.H.A.T (Pioneer Hybrid Amplifier Technology) power sources and support for WMA9 Pro over 5.1 channels, with the 518 dropping support for XM and Sirius satellite, iPod, and HDMI inputs. The big news is the VSX-1018TXH-K, with its support for 130 watts over 7.1 channels using a Direct Energy power supply, HDMI upscaling to 1080p, six digital inputs, and support for the lossy Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution, and lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs. The VSX-518-K is priced at $199, the VSX-818V-K at $249, the VSX-918V-K at $349, all releasing in April, and the VSX-1018TXH-K will come to market in June for $599.

CES 2008: Gates delivers his last keynote

Microsoft Corporation co-founder and chairman Bill Gates keynoted Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada with a variety of announcements. He announced that this will be his final CES appearance as a keynote speaker and described what he envisions the second digital decade to be.

A lengthy and comedic video presentation was shown to the eager crowd describing what life will be like for Gates after he steps down from regular Microsoft employee responsibilities. There were spoofs of pursuing a musical career, a movie career, and even a newscasting career.

Proceeding to more serious matters, Gates said that there are three essential elements for the next ten years of information technology. First, he stressed the importance of proliferating high-definition video everywhere. Second, Gates emphasized that HD video will go hand in hand with easier, faster, and more accessible connectivity over the Internet. Finally, he drew a picture of technology adopting a more natural interface for ease of use.

On the third point, Gates pointed to touch screen and voice recognition technology as tools in the revolution at hand. He described a world wherein users will be able to use technology with friendlier controls than ever.

Gates said that at the center of all this will be Windows Vista and Windows Mobile technologies. Microsoft believes that mobile phones and PCs will be important pillars in the next generation of electronics.

Gates was then followed by top Microsoft exec Robbie Bach who announced a partnership between the Microsoft Xbox Live online service and top media entities. The Xbox 360 game console is touted as the next big thing in the entertainment scene with its ability to download high-definition videos.It will also be host for IPTV programming.

There are many more details on the Bill Gates keynote address for CES 2008. You can browse through raw notes by following the link below. Stay with us for more on CES 2008.