Spore, The Sims Dominate PC Charts

Despite all the Internet drama about DRM, Spore managed to eke out a decent second place showing in North America, right behind the latest The Sims 2 expansion, The Sims 2 Apartment Life. I This is according to NPD Groups retails sales data for the week ending September 6, 2008.

It is interesting to note that the PC charts are being dominated by only two companies this week: Electronic Arts and Activision Publishing. For EA’s part three key franchises have managed to take up 6 slots in the top ten: Spore, The Sims 2 and Crysis. Activision Publishing’s World of Warcraft and Warcraft III Battle Chest filled out the remaining four slots. It’s tough to call Spore a disappointment, though many expected it to be at the top of the heap as soon at was released. I expect that it will have a number one showing in next week’s charts. Full top ten after the break:

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World of Warcraft Recruitment Drive

Realizing that World of Warcraft just doesn’t have enough subscribers, Blizzard has launched a special Recruit-A-Friend program that gives current subscribers the ability to earn an exclusive mount, among other bonuses.

The basics of the program are pretty simple: You send out an invite to try out a 14 day trial of the game. That person must then buy a game code, subscribe to the game and purchase a minimum of two moths worth of subscription time. For your efforts you get a special in-game Zhevra mount. This unique mount can be claimed through the website, is only available to Recruit-A-Friend participants, and can only be applied to a single character.

Naturally there are other benefits to the program, but i’ll let the Blizzard Recruit-A-Friend FAQ do the rest of the talking.

I suspect that some current subscribers will go out of their way to get this exclusive mount by creating new subscriptions and subscribing to the game. While this is a pricey way to secure the mount, it may be less of a headache than convincing friends and family members to join the game for two months.

Top Selling PC Games - Week Ending July 26

Retail research firm, NPD Group has released its list of the top selling PC games for the week ending July 26, 2008, revealing that Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice took the top spot for the week. While the teen sleuth game taking the top spot is interesting, the rest of the list is a combination of hype driven sales, hold-outs and extensions of ultra popular brands.

The Sims franchise continues to rake in cash for EA with add-ons The Sims 2 Double Deluxe and The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff; meanwhile Blizzard enjoys much success with continued sales of the World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest compilation pack, The Burning Crusade expansion and the original game. Several games on the charts are due to a large amount of buzz for upcoming games: Blizzard’s Diablo III announcement has helped drive sales of the Diablo Battle Chest compilation pack and hype for Will Wright’s Spore is driving consumers to pick up the Spore Creature Creator.

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AIAS Award Winners Announced

The recipients of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences” 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were announced this week, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box picking up four awards each. The annual awards for developers by developers also inducted Blizzard’’s Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi.

Mike Morhaime, president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, was inducted as the 11th member of the prestigious AIAS Hall of Fame for helping to create some of the world’s most popular franchises, including Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Ken Kutaragi, former president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., received the Lifetime Achievement Award for this year.

As for the games, Call of Duty 4 won Overall Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play; BioShock won Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Story Development; and The Orange Box won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Computer Game of the Year, Outstanding Character Performance, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. The big list of all of this year’’s winners can be found below:

Overall Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Console Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Computer Game of the Year: The Orange Box
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Rock Band
Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Game of the Year: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Cellular Game of the Year: skate
Role-Playing Game of the Year: Mass Effect
Racing Game of the Year: MotorStorm
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: The Orange Box: Portal
Adventure Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy
Sports Game of the Year: skate
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year:Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Family Game of the Year: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’’s Creed
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Crysis
Outstanding Character Performance: The Orange Box: Portal (Ellen McLaw’’s voice work as GLADos)
Outstanding Achievement in Story Development: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: The Orange Box: Portal
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play:Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Downloadable Game of the Year: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: BioShock

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners.

Interactive Achievement Awards Nominees Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.