Crispy Gamer News

Nielson released some interesting numbers for consoles played in 2008 (Jan. to Oct.) that reveal the PlayStation 2 as the most popular. Based on the percentage of of all console-gaming minutes played, the PS2 scored 30.2 percent, beating out the Xbox 360 (18.3 percent) and Wii (13.5 percent). Meanwhile, the last generation Xbox (9.1 percent) beat out the PS3 (7.7 percent) and GameCube (4.4 percent). “Other” (we assume mobile phones, PSP, DS and other devices) managed 16.9 percent.

Another report from Nielson also showed that World of Wacraft was the most popular PC game, raking in an impressive 671 minutes per week. Other popular games included Warcraft III (328 minutes), Half-Life 2 (288 minutes), Spore (268 minutes), and PopCap Games’ (133 minutes).

(Contributors:  Victor Lucas - Electric Playground, Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

On the eve of 2009, Crispy Gamer is proud to present to you the Top 21 News Stories of 2008. We have chosen what we believe are the top news stories of year, though deciding on which were the very best proved to be an exercise in compromise, because there were so many interesting and powerful choices this year.

We watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion. To quote that Dickens’ classic: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

2008 was not without its fair share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.

We begin at the very bottom of the pile until we climb to the glorious #1 news story of the year. So it opens with Top News Story #21.

(Contributors: Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

Crispy Gamer wraps up its Top 21 News Stories of 2008 with our top 7 news stories. See what stories were the most interesting and had the most impact on the game industry and gamers in 2008. We start with #7 right now.  Also be sure to check out #8 - 14 and #15 - 21, if you haven’t already.

Next: #7 –>

(Contributors: Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

We continue our countdown of the Top 21 News Stories of 2008, with #14 - #7, starting now. If you missed the first part of our countdown featuring David Chapman, James Fudge and ECA President Hal Halpin, you can check it out right here.

Next: #14 –>

(contributors: Hal Halpin, President, ECA; James Fudge, David Chapman)

We count down the top twenty-one news stories of 2008, though picking which were the very best proved to be a painful, gut-wrenching exercise. There were so many interesting stories this year; we watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion.

Yeah, 2008 was a good year, but not without its share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.

We begin with #21 - #15, starting now.
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Sony may be forced to make further difficult restructuring decisions beyond what it has already announced. This could include cutting more jobs than the 8,000 fulltime and 8, 000 temporary that it already announced last week. According to a Kyodo news service interview with the Sony president Ryoji Chubachi published Thursday, Sony’s top executive said more steps including further lay-offs may be needed to keep the company from sinking further into the abyss.

“With only these measures, we cannot fully survive the current economic situation,” he said.

Chubachi pointed out that global business conditions are getting worse and demand for its consumer electronics products have been falling since late November. He believes this trend is one that isn’t going away anytime soon, so the company needs to do whatever it can to keep its head above water.
He also said that Sony would have to reassess the planned expansion of its personal computer, Blu-ray Disc and semiconductor operations into “trillion yen businesses” by March 2011.

While the awful state of the global economy can be attributed to a portion of Sony’s current problems — including consumer demand for some of its electronic products — the company’s PS3 can only be competitive with the Xbox 360 and Wii by cutting the price of the system. Cheaper Blu-Ray disc players are not helping matters any, considering that the PS3 was being billed as an excellent cost effective means of playing Sony’s high definition disc format.

It is a tough position to be in — and one that will mean some hard decisions and difficult times for workers who may become a target to reduce cost.