Things to keep in mind as Halo: Reach hits shelves

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Chris Morris

The holiday season kicks off tonight for gamers. At 12:01am, “Halo Reach,” the first blockbuster of the fall/winter goes on sale. It will lead the charge of a densely packed 3.5-month period of major game releases that will determine how 2010 turns out for the video game industry.

Now, normally, you wait for sales numbers before calling a release a blockbuster – but when you’re dealing with a new action-based “Halo” game, you can skip the formality. The franchise has sold over 34 million copies and consumed 3.3 billion hours of gameplay (that’s over 376,000 years, if you’re keeping score at home) since its launch with the original Xbox.

Microsoft Braces for a Blockbuster With Halo Reach

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Chris Morris

When “Halo: Reach” goes on sale at 12:01 am Tuesday morning, it won’t just be the biggest gaming event of the year to date. It will likely be the entertainment industry’s biggest moment of the year.

Microsoft is betting big on the latest installment of its flagship franchise, and it has every reason to do so. Life to date, the company has sold more than 34 million ‘Halo’ games – and each major new release has shattered any Day One sales records set by the film, music or gaming industries.

For Video Game Makers, Bad News Could Mean Changes

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Chris Morris

Video game publishers aren’t fooling themselves. They know August is going to be the latest in a string of awful months for the industry.

Sales numbers will be released roughly two hours after the market closes Thursday – and they’re expected to be grim. Michael Pachter, managing director of Wedbush Securities, predicts software sales will drop 6 percent compared to 2009 to $445 million. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets is expecting things to be even worse – forecasting a 10-15 percent decline.

Game for a fee hike

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Chris Morris

The cost of playing “Modern Warfare 2” with friends on the Xbox 360 is about to go up. Microsoft announced Monday it would raise annual subscription rates for its Xbox Live service from $50 to $60 starting Nov. 1.

That’s the first price increase in Xbox Live’s eight-year history — and it’s a move that will affect more than just gamers in households. Microsoft has steadily added adding non-gaming functionality to the service in a bid to lure consumers who are looking for other entertainment options, including streaming of films and music.

Making Movie Game Tie-Ins Work

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Chris Morris

Video games and Hollywood have always been the Woody Allen and Soon-Yi of the entertainment world. They’re together forever, but the fit has always been an odd one – and a little creepy at times.

The amount of ink wasted bemoaning the sheer volume of crappy movie-based games is copious – and I promise this isn’t more of the same. In fact, for the first time games and movies may have found a good way to co-exist.

Is Kinect the future of Xbox?

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Chris Morris

So now we know the name of Project Natal. Andnow we know the games. Kinect is on a collision course with retailers, and with it, Microsoft is making a big gamble on the future of Xbox.

Personally, I’m a little scared.

The 360’s big show

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Chris Morris

From the Cirque du Soleil-infused unveiling of Kinect to a solid game lineup for 2010-2011 to the unexpected announcement of a redesigned Xbox, Microsoft had no shortage of surprises at June’s E3 convention. It was, in fact, something of a challenge to keep up with it all. On a macro level, though, their new Xbox 360 offerings can be broken down into four easy-to-digest categories, each with its own level of appeal and promise.

Can motion controllers save the game industry?

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Chris Morris

2010 hasn’t exactly been a good year for the video game industry. In fact, it’s been pretty lousy so far.

While the quality of major titles has been top-notch – with Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and God of War 3 leading the way – consumers, on the whole, just aren’t buying games.

Microsoft reintroduces the world to Milo

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Chris Morris

When Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 motion sensor controller that’s now known as Kinect, the demo that had everyone talking was Peter Molyneux’s “Milo”. Shown in a video (and, later, via a select number of live demonstrations), the onscreen 11-year old boy interacted and chatted with a human player and showed remarkable artificial intelligence.

Milo’s been silent since then, but Molyneux brought him back out recently at the TED conference. A video of his presentation at that event has just been released and it’s worth 10 minutes of your time.

Video Game Sales in July: Better, but Still Struggling

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Chris Morris

Video game sales weren’t quite as bad as some analysts were expecting in July, but the industry once again failed to match its performance of last year.

Software sales fell 8 percent last month to $403.3 million, according to the NPD Group. Hardware sales, as expected, proved the bright spot and were higher for the second month in a row, surging 12 percent, but it wasn’t enough to save the overall industry from another month of negative year-over-year growth. On the whole, the games industry was 1 percent lower than last year.

Chris Morris: Journalist

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