Activision claims Infinity Ward’s latest shooter breaks host of 24, 120-hour entertainment records spanning games, movies, books.

Taking into consideration just North America and the UK, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s launch could be considered a resounding success. Two days after Infinity Ward’s modern military shooter November 10 launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Activision said that the game had sold 4.7 million units in the two aforementioned territories in 24 hours, generating revenue in the neighborhood of $310 million.

Modern Warfare 2 brought in more than half a billion dollars within a week.

Today, Activision returned to provide more blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 sales statistics. According to the publisher’s internal estimates, Modern Warfare 2 generated $550 million during its first five days on the market, a figure that sets a new entertainment record for the period. Activision did not provide a unit-sales update, however, and had not responded to requests for clarification as of press time.

The publisher did make claim to a variety of first-and five-day entertainment records spanning movies, books, and games. Beginning with the most direct comparison, Activision claims Modern Warfare 2 bested Grand Theft Auto IV’s first-day worldwide game sales records of 3.6 million units and $310 million. The game also apparently busted GTAIV’s five-day global haul of 6 million units on $500 million of gross revenue.

As for other media, Activision said that Modern Warfare 2 broke Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s five-day global box office record of $394 million. The game also eclipsed The Dark Knights’s first- and five-day domestic theatrical opening, which stood at $66.4 million and $203.8 million, respectively. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows‘ first-day book sales record of $220 million was also surpassed.

In terms of usage, Activision said that more than 5.2 million hours of multiplayer matches were played through Xbox Live on November 10. The publisher also noted Xbox Live’s new concurrent user record of 2.2 million following Modern Warfare 2’s launch, before saying that some 11 million achievements were earned within 24 hours.

Check out GameSpot’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launch center for more on the top-selling shooter.

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Credit Due: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240625.html

Dave Rudden, GamePro

After giving many of its users an early look at the new Xbox 360 feature, Microsoft has announced (via Major Nelson) that it will be officially rolling out its latest Dashboard update, which includes Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm.

You can check out my in-depth impressions of the update here.

Meanwhile, Eurogamer has received confirmation from Sony that recently leaked images of a customized PlayStation 3 version of Facebook (found by Scrawl) are indeed legitimate. While the PS3 is already capable of viewing Facebook through its web browser, this will hopefully allow for quicker and more user-friendly access to the popular social networking site.

Tens of thousands of people have been cut off from playing their Xbox games online. Microsoft says they’ve banned certain gamers from their Xbox Live service because they may have been modifying or “chipping” their consoles to play pirated games. One Radio 1 listener Raz says he was gutted to be cut off just as he was about to play the new Call of Duty game.

“My name’s Raz, I’m 25 years old, I’m a massive Xbox gamer. I play every day after work and all day on the weekends.

The Xbox for me is just about playing online, that’s why I love it – well did!

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.

All loading up, everything’s going well, I was happy. It came on to the start screen of Call of Duty and I thought, ‘Do you know what, let me quickly sign in online’. I sign in online and next thing I see, ‘Your console has been banned from Xbox’.

I was pretty distraught at the time, I can’t remember exactly what it said but I saw the words ‘banned’ and I was gutted, completely gutted.

At first I was in shock, I mean it’s always at the back of your head using pirate games you know there’s that possibility but you haven’t heard about it, there’s been no warnings and you haven’t heard it happen to anyone in the last two years.

I wasn’t expecting it. I was just like, ‘OK, what do I do now? Is this just a joke?’ So I thought, ‘Let me restart the Xbox’. I restarted, signed in again, same message. I did that three times, same message. I was pulling my hair out thinking, ‘No, why me?’

It’s like telling someone their dog’s just died. It was pretty much like that for me. I love it, I love playing Xbox live. I play with my mates all the time. It’s just a good laugh, we all sit there chatting, playing games. Now I don’t know what to do.

Microsoft’s banned a “small number” of 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide

I still think they should lower the prices. There are 16-year-old kids out there, they don’t earn money so they go screaming to their parents saying, ‘Can you buy me this game?’

Fair enough, one game once in a while but the amount of games coming out, good games, everyone wants to play them all. And for them to pay £50 a game?

I took it into a shop [the Xbox], there was a guy back there and I asked him and he did it for me [chipped it]. He charged £75 to get it chipped but at the end of the day I said to myself I’ll pay £75 to get it chipped, after two games I’ve paid the money back.

I’ve probably saved about £600 and I’ve copied roughly 30 or 40 games. A lot of them I’ve downloaded or I’ve taken off friends that have downloaded themselves.

To be honest, I’ve contemplated whether to move to Playstation 3 or buy another Xbox. I wouldn’t do it again but I really don’t know if I’m going to get the Xbox again now.”

As what one might call mainstream consumers of interactive entertainment, we’re quick to snicker at anything too concerned with elves and dragons, or any kind of stat-juggling role-playing game. That said, we’ve always had a soft spot for epic, story driven games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3, which use the trapping of the RPG format to build a fully realized virtual world.

This year’s entry in the epic RPG/adventure game category is Dragon Age: Origins, released Tuesday, November 3. After getting an early preview during this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, we were surprisingly hooked and eager to see more. Having now played a preview build of the game for the past six weeks, we can safely say it’s one of the year’s best, alongside Batman: Arkham Asylum and The Beatles: Rock Band.

More surprisingly, it’s a rare example of a game that calls out for a high-powered PC rig. While Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are available, this is one of the few high-profile games in 2009 designed and built for PC gamers and then ported to home consoles, rather than the other way around. While it keeps the same storyline, characters, and locations — along with a redesigned menu system for gamepads and lower-resolution TV screens — we judged the PC version to be superior, with better graphics, a more flexible camera, and the ability to easily pause the action for some strategic planning.

In our initial preview back in March, we felt the heart of the game — a sprawling big-budget action/adventure in the style of the Lord of the Rings movies — was buried under tired ideas about how to best sell a game of the sword-and-sorcery genre. There was plenty of talk about party management, the history of various fictional kingdoms, and most frightening, a “prequel novel” explaining the game’s backstory.

Fortunately, EA has gone into the home stretch emphasizing the massive battle scenes, PG-13 love triangles, and — of course — the occasional fight with a giant dragon.

While the major beats of the game remain the same, we were impressed that the choice of race (human, elf, or dwarf), profession (fighter, mage, or rogue), and even social status (noble or commoner) determines which of six opening chapters you play through — potentially making the first two-to-three hours of the game different each time, depending on the character you design.

To be sure, entering the world of Dragon Age is no small commitment for casual gamers. There’s a ton of dialog, pages and pages of on-screen text to read (a throwback to early computer RPGs that feels in need of an update), and a fair amount hacky scriptwriting involving every cliche in the fantasy genre. The voice actors generally do a fine job, but too often are stuck delivering lines from a Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movie.

Still, even non-RPG types like ourselves were able to get the hand of it quickly, and thanks to expert pacing, interspacing exploration and interaction with plenty of combat, the hours seemed to fly by. We suggest putting any lingering anti-RPG bias aside and taking the very impressive Dragon Age: Origins for a spin; and for PC gamers, it’s practically a must-play.

Scott Stein offers a concurring opinion:

Games like Dragon Age: Origins are instantly unappealing to me. There’s a seemingly generic fantasy setting and the sense that this is some pre-existing game in a franchise that I’m unaware of and will therefore feel confused by.

Thankfully, Bioware seems well aware of my apprehensions, and held my hand from the very get-go. Picking a character and backstory developed into an unfolding of the story that felt organic, and explained everything as if setting up exposition for a good movie. So few games do this, and I appreciated that you could also pick your starting point for the story, changing many elements by doing so.

Did it win me over? In a way, yes. It’s still a huge tip of the hat to classic swords-and-sorcery gaming (I prefer RPGs closer to Phantasy Star in setting), but it’s made with the care of a Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. Pretend you’ve never played one of these games before, then give it a try.

Speaking at the London Games Festival, Jerry Johnson told an audience at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts that cloud gaming, such as the on-demand OnLive platform announced at GDC 2009, isn’t a mass market likelihood “for the foreseeable future.”

“Streaming technology is something that the industry is betting on longer term,” Johnson said, according to TechRadar. “Right now I don’t believe that technology can scale out against the experience we can offer on a local machine.”

“The technology will continue to improve,” Johnson said. “As an industry we’ll have to accept that and move with it – but I don’t think it’s on an accelerated timeline for the foreseeable future.”

Johnson’s remarks came during a panel discussion of “Digital Distribution and the Future of the European Games Market” at the London Games Conference. As trendy topics go, this one set out to answer when digital downloads might overtake retail sales of boxed games.

Analyst Nick Parker said that might happen around 2014. He also said, speculatively of course – because that is what analysts do – that it wouldn’t surprise him to see “one new entrant” to the console game – namely, Apple, Inc. – produce a dedicated console. Apple gamers such as myself shrugged and/or snorted.

Microsoft Dismisses ‘Cloud Gaming’, Analyst Predicts Apple Console [TechRadar]

Send an email to the author of this post at owen@kotaku.com.

Shares of video-game makers fell Tuesday after the release of disappointing September sales data that sparked worries about the rest of the year.

Late Monday, the NPD Group reported that sales of video-game software grew 5% in September to $649.3 million. That gain came after six consecutive months of declines as the industry grappled with the slowing economy and difficult comparisons.

Still, analysts were looking for growth of 15% on average, according to reports compiled by MarketWatch.

“While stronger-than-expected hardware sales bode well for future software sales, there is no denying that software sales were disappointing,” Todd Mitchell of Kaufman Bros. wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.

Video-game stocks have been underperforming the market since early summer, as concerns have grown that sales for the year will be unable to surpass last year’s record results, despite strong releases planned for the holiday season, such as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”

The stocks have made gains over the past month, as analysts have widely predicted a turnaround in sales. Mitchell noted that the latest sales data may cool enthusiasm.

“After being cast into the wilderness for a year, we believe sentiment for the group had been swinging in a positive direction and with it stock prices,” Mitchell wrote. “We believe September’s NPD data is likely to put both on hold.”

Electronic Arts (ERTS) saw its shares fall 5% to $19.80 by midday Tuesday, while THQ Inc. (THQI) was down 2% and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) was down 2.6%. Activision Blizzard (ATVI) was down 1%.

Game retailer GameStop (GME) was down 7.5% at $26.05.

Music games weak

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan said a big part of the weakness came from the music-game genre.

The month saw the release of two highly anticipated titles. “The Beatles: Rock Band” was released by MTV Games and Harmonix and was published by EA. Activision also released “Guitar Hero 5,” the latest installment of its popular franchise.

Pachter said the two titles racked up total sales of $115 million for the month, which fell well short of his $220 million projection.

“Notwithstanding our view that the shortfall is entirely due to lower-than-expected music genre games, a shortfall is a shortfall, and a return to modest year-over-year sales declines is likely in October,” Pachter wrote in a report.

He predicted that October would be another month of modest sales declines, due to difficult comparisons, but sales will stage a strong rebound in November.

“However, it is likely that investor confidence will continue to be weak until a solid growth pattern emerges,” he said.

Console sales surge

Console makers had a strong month for unit sales, following a round of price reductions on their devices.

Sony Corp. (SNE) cut back the price on its PlayStation 3 to $299. That helped boost sales of the PS3 to 491,800 units for the month — up 134% from the previous month.

It was also the first time the PS3 outsold the other next-generation consoles since its launch in late 2006.

Nintendo (NTDOY) lowered the price of its popular Wii console by $50 to bring its price tag to $199. The Wii sold 462,800 units during September — up 67% from the 277,400 units sold in the previous month. The Wii had carried the same price tag since its initial launch in late 2006.

The Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) sold 352,600 units in September compared to 215,400 units the month before.

Justin Post of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said the strong hardware sales bode well for the sector and provide “a more promising sign for potential holiday demand.”

“We feel June/July marked the bottom for the industry and we expect data to improve over the next nine months due to a strong release slate (including ‘Assassin’s Creed’ and ‘Call of Duty’ in 2009 and many more titles in 2010), easier music comps, and the benefit of hardware price cuts on the 360/PS3/Wii” game consoles.

-Dan Gallagher; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

Just a few months after launching its first desktop gaming PC, the Phobos, BFG is entering the gaming notebook market.

The Deimos X-10 SLI isn’t an ultraportable – it’s a desktop-class gamig machine that happens to be built into a notebook form factor.

The notebook uses the Intel platform, and can be configured with either a Core 2 Duo, Quad, or Extreme processor. Graphics, however, is the centerpiece, and the Deimos was designed with the option to run two GeForce GTX 280M 1GB cards in SLI mode, duplicating the performance of a desktop gaming rig. The Deimos display 1920-by-1080 true HD LCD screen.

“The Deimos X-10 SLI notebook is perfect for gamers and media enthusiasts who demand desktop performance but prefer the portability of a notebook,” said John Malley, senior director of marketing for BFG Technologies, in a statement. “Deimos X-10 comes fully locked and loaded to deliver the ultimate HD mobile gaming and multimedia experience.”

The rest of the notebook’s specs are more conventional: up to 4 Gbytes of DDR3 memory, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and DVI and HDMI output. Still, the Deimos also includes three drive bays and built-in Dolby surround sound, including a subwoofer, and a Super Multi Blu-ray reader.

The Deimos costs $1,859, and can be preordered from BFG’s Web site. BFG is offering a 10 percent discount from now until Oct. 10, and a free service visit is included.

The 250GB PlayStation 3.

Sony

Starting November 3, consumers will be able to purchase a PlayStation 3 with a 250GB hard drive, Sony announced on the official PlayStation blog.

The console, which will sport the same slim look as the 120GB device, will sell for $350.

Sony says the PS3 has sold 1 million units worldwide in the first three weeks following the launch of the lighter console, which also experienced a significant price drop from $399 to $299.

Industry analysts have predicted the moves by Sony will propel the PS3 to the top of hardware sales for the month of September. Official sales figures will be released Monday by market research firm NPD Group.

Readers, has the lower price spurred you to buy or consider buying a PS3?

By Brett Molina

On Wednesday, a start-up called OnLive that’s generating a lot of buzz–and skepticism–in the videogame world raised a new round of financing from AT&T, Warner Bros. and others. We spoke to OnLive founder Steve Perlman, a well-known serial entrepreneur, about the investment (which wasn’t quantified) and some of the implications if OnLive or start-ups like it are successful.

OnLive has developed technology that it says will allow consumers to play graphically rich videogames without owning high-end PCs or consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that are normally required for such titles. Instead OnLive plans to run games on powerful remote servers in data centers and pipe high-definition game graphics over the Internet to consumers, who can play them on low-end PCs and Macs or through an inexpensive OnLive device connected to their televisions.

If OnLive can get consumers to switch to playing high-end games in the cloud, the potential losers include makers of game consoles like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. There are still a lot of questions about whether Perlman can pull off such a feat, in large part because of doubts OnLive can deliver games that aren’t marred by “lag”–interruptions in game performance caused, in this case, by the chore of pushing loads of high-definition game graphics over sometimes flaky Internet connections. Perlman says he’s confident he has designed the technology in such a way that players won’t notice any delays when they’re roaming around killing zombies and rappelling off buildings.

Game publishers could see a number of benefits from a move to cloud gaming, but one of the less obvious ones is the potential taming of used games, which critics believe steal sales of new titles. All games from OnLive will be delivered to consumers on demand so there’s no disc for them to resell.

The specialty retailer GameStop pioneered the used games business, and others like Wal-Mart have begun experimenting with similar offerings. Retailers say used games are good for the industry because they give consumers trade-in credits that help them buy new games. Perlman says publishers have privately told him a different story.

“We hear about games released for the Christmas season – by the time the holidays are over, publishers have had five player registrations for the same disc,” he says, adding used games “are just killing them.”

OnLive hasn’t said what partners, if any, will help it bring its game service to consumers, but AT&T’s investment in the company suggests the possibility that it could eventually be bundled with broadband service. OnLive’s service, Perlman said, could become part of a “quad-play” offering by such providers, to complement the triple-play bundle of voice, television and Internet service most cable and telcos are marketing to customers already.

Perlman declined to say whether any such agreement exists with AT&T. “I’m quite limited in what I’m allowed to disclose,” he says.

Eve Online is about the struggle between giant corporations

Space trading game Eve Online has suffered a virtual version of the credit crunch.

One of the game’s biggest financial institutions lost a significant chunk of its deposits as a huge theft started a run on the bank.

One of the bank’s controllers stole about 200bn kredits and swapped them for real world cash of £3,115.

As news of the theft spread, many of the bank’s customers rushed to remove their virtual cash.

Space scandal

The theft from EBank took place in early June but only now have details emerged about the amount of money stolen and why it was taken.

The theft was carried out by EBank’s chief executive, a player known as Ricdic, now known to be a 27-year-old Australian who works in the technology industry. His full identity has not been revealed save that his first name is Richard.

The stolen kredits amounted to 8% of the 2.6tn that Ebank had in its virtual vaults.

“Basically this character was one of the people who had been running EBank for a while. He took a bunch of (virtual) money out of the bank, and traded it away for real money,” Ned Coker, of Icelandic company CCP which runs Eve, told the Reuters news agency.

Eve Online has about 300,000 players all of whom inhabit the same online universe. The game revolves around trade, mining asteroids and the efforts of different player-controlled corporations to take control of swathes of virtual space.

It has now emerged that Ricdic used the cash to put down a deposit on a house and to pay medical bills.

“I’m not proud of it at all, that’s why I didn’t brag about it,” Ricdic told Reuters. “But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would’ve chosen the same path based on the same situation.”

Ricdic has now been thrown out of the game as trading in-game cash for real money is against Eve Online’s terms and conditions.

The rules governing play within Eve would not have sanctioned Ricdic if he had simply stolen the cash and used it in the game, nor if he had bought kredits with real dollars.

The scandal is not the first to play out in Eve Online. In early 2009 one of the game’s biggest corporations, called Band of Brothers, was brought down by industrial espionage.

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Credit Due: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8132547.stm