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In a Japanese press release, Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIII has shipped 5 million copies worldwide. Surprisingly, 3 million of those copies were shipped outside of Japan. Of course, Square Enix isn’t saying how many of those copies have been sold, so bear that in mind when marveling over these impressive numbers.

These 5 million XIIIs, according to the release, bring the total number of shipped games in the Final Fantasy series up to 96 million. How many of those were ports or remakes of the first Final Fantasy, we wonder?

Final Fantasy XIII ships 5 million copies originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After you heard what we had to say about Final Fantasy XIII, you may very well now be itching to finally get your own hands all over the thirteenth entry in the FF series from Square Enix. Lucky for you, dearest reader, we’ve got news of a couple ways to save some dough on your purchase this week.

Target is offering a $10 gift card with purchase of either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version, while Amazon is offering a $10 pre-order incentive credit towards future video game purchases for both versions as well (oh, and also, the game costs $56.99 instead of $59.99, which is kinda nice). Sure, neither offers a free rideable chocobo or anything wonderful like that, but that $10 at Target could potentially buy pizza bagels. And did you know that when pizza’s on a bagel, you can apparently eat pizza at any time? Madness!

Source 1 – CAG
Source 2 – Target

Final Fantasy XIII deals to pounce on at Target and Amazon originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA Sports Active for the Wii, the third-party publisher’s sweatier response to Nintendo’s best-seller Wii Fit, has earned the company $125 million. Gamasutra reports that at the conclusion of Electronic Arts’ fiscal year (which is at the end of this month), the company believes the product will be one of the “top 20-selling … Wii titles of all time.” Of course, with Nintendo’s dominance on its own platform, EA Sports Active is likely closer to the 20th position than the first.

Despite some hiccups, EA Sports head Peter Moore says that he and the EA brass are still “great believers in the Wii.” He notes that the publisher has seen the most success on the platform with “specific experiences that are built around that consumer.” He then announced EA Sports Mall Walker … kidding!

EA Sports Active earned publisher $125 million originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps in celebration of Civilization V’s recent reveal, Direct2Drive is offering Civilization IV — as well as the standalone Civilization IV: Colonization — for 33% off. Other deals on the direct download service this weekend include Supreme Commander: Gold Edition, Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim: Gold Edition, and more.

If you’re one of the few who doesn’t “get” the Civilization addiction epidemic, which has swept the world over the last two decades leaving workplace productivity in shambles, consider yourself luckier than the folks in the video after the break. Yes, Civilization Revolution was solid, but CivIV has the uncanny ability to turn the sweetest old lady into a crazed destroyer of all mankind. Basically, It’s fun for the whole family.

Shortcut: See all weekend deals on Direct2Drive

Continue reading Direct2Drive discounts Civilization IV, Supreme Commander this weekend

Direct2Drive discounts Civilization IV, Supreme Commander this weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’re sure Leslie Nielsen knows his fair share about gaming, we’re talking about Nielsen Media Research — it’s a firm most known for documenting who watches what on television in the United States. Nielsen Games has conducted a study into the buying habits of Americans, postulating that video games account for about five percent of the total entertainment budget for the average household.

The information comes from a survey of over 3,000 U.S. consumers and uses the “share of wallet” idea for calculating monthly entertainment allowance. Basically, Nielsen took the percentage of money spent in a month on all possible entertainment options by a household and pulled this five percent figure from that — however, households that were deemed to be “active buyers” of video games had a figure that was around double: nine percent. So, it’s around five percent for those casual fans of gaming and about nine percent of monthly budget for active gaming households.

It’s also important to understand exactly what Nielsen considers video game content: new and used games; downloadable content; rentals; and peripheral sales. And, unfortunately, there’s really no way to quantify these figures into dollars and cents — different households have different budgets, which could inflate or deflate the figures.

Nielsen promises a more comprehensive report on the subject this March with the inaugural Nielsen 360° Gaming Report: United States Market.

Via Game Politics]

Nielsen study: Most households spend five percent of entertainment budget on games originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what, Uncharted 2? We get it — okay? We get it. You’re awesome. Not only did you win all the awards, now, according to Scott Rohde, VP of product development for SCEA, you’ve sold 3.5 million units, enough to become the fastest-selling first-party game on the PlayStation 3 to date.

Frankly, Mr. “Among Thieves,” we’ve all been talking about it and … well, it’s starting to come off as a little desperate. And, to be honest, we’re a little upset that Joystiq GOTY honors wasn’t good enough for you. There — we said it.

Uncharted 2 sells 3.5 million worldwide with the quickness originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s unsurprising that most game retailers who dabble in the pre-owned market feel jilted by an initiative EA CEO John Riccitiello calls “Project Ten Dollar” — after all, it was designed to reclaim some of the revenues earned by secondhand sellers. A number of representatives from used game retailers recently spoke to GamesIndustry (login required) about the perils EA faces by bundling DLC redemption codes with new copies of the publisher’s games.

Chipsworld exec Don McCabe said consumers won’t prosper under this new system, as copies of the game will lose their resale value, but retailers will “just readjust [the price] bearing in mind you have to buy the voucher.” Marc Day, CEO of SwapGame, says diminished resale value will do more harm than good to the publisher’s bottom line, as “customers who trade in for cash or credit do so to acquire new games they could otherwise not afford.”

Check out GamesIndustry’s full article for more retailer opinions on EA’s new DLC strategy. It’s an interesting read on what might turn out to be a pretty vicious cycle.

Used game retailers respond to ‘Project Ten Dollar’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gearbox head Randy Pitchford delivered some claptrap at DICE today, saying that Borderlands has sold 3 million units globally. A good sign for 2009’s fastest-selling original IP, which may not have generated the most revenue, but it’s apparently starting off 2010 with good momentum. And with a third DLC pack on the way, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, it appears Borderlands may welcome even more travelers.

As DICE is a business conference, Pitchford was also quite open about what’s important to Gearbox as a studio — he also shared his Gamertag (”DuvalMagic”). He shared components of what he thinks are important to the company’s employees, like aggressive profit sharing, milestone bonuses and discretionary merit based rewards. He also mentioned a crass, but wise, tenet of the studio’s hiring process: “No drama, no dicks, no douchebags.”

Borderlands sells 3 million units; Pitchford discusses Gearbox hiring policy, Gamertag originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EEDAR vice president and analyst Jesse Divnich has sent out some surprising facts about game sales during the month of January. Well, okay — it isn’t exactly chart shattering that a crapton (that’s 572,000) of Mass Effect 2 units were sold last month, but, according to EEDAR’s calculations, the game managed to become the best-selling January release of all time in just six days of retail availability. Even with such a small window to achieve the record, Mass Effect 2 completely destroyed the previous record-holder: Poor, poor NFL Street for PS2 (with 325,000 units in sales, for the old record).

Though Mass Effect 2 certainly set a high bar for the quarter, Divnich’s report suggests that game sales aren’t likely to decline with blockbusters like Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III just around the corner. His firm also promises to closely watch sales of Dante’s Inferno — if the game can can beat its expected sales target of 500,000 units over the next three months, it means that those outlandish PR stunts were effective and we can look forward to more cake arms and $200 checks once Purgatorio is inevitably announced. Awesome.

EEDAR: Mass Effect 2 best-selling January release ever originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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