Regular Friday News Blips writer Jeff Grubb is indisposed due to having the time of his life at PAX East, so you're stuck with me again. (By the way, intrepid reporter Mike Minotti still needs more PAX East coverage requests to distract him from stalking the Protomen. Send him your needs!)
News Blips:
February sales figures by the NPD Group reveal that Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the best-selling game in history. As part of an ongoing positive rebound by the industry, Black Ops trounced Wii Play in all-time sales (13.7 million units sold in the US so far, according to IndustryGamers) and nabbed the top spot for February, followed by Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Just Dance 2. NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier had a favorable prognosis for the software market at large, saying, "Retail sales of console games were up 2 percent in units while the portable segment declined. The top 10 games for the month outsold the top 10 from last February by 6 percent in units." The biggest surprise? Michael Jackson: The Experience sold more than Mario Sports Mix. That's just a little unsettling.
The Xbox 360 is on track to outsell the Wii from March 2010 to March 2011. Microsoft posted its biggest non-holiday sales figures ever for its console yesterday, bringing the total number of Xbox 360 units sold during February to 535,000. Research firm Cowan & Company claimed the fluctuating hardware sales numbers represents a "significant shift that has gone on over the last year in the console space," including the possibility of the Xbox 360 outstripping the Wii for the first time since its launch. Industry analyst Doug Creutz believed that the increasing trend towards HD consoles "is a positive ongoing development for the U.S. publishers, who earn the majority of their sales on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3." [GamesIndustry.biz]
Those wily folks over at EA sneaked the dastardly SecuROM DRM system into the PC version of Dragon Age 2. Destructoid reports that consumer rights group Reclaim Your Game found EA had ensconced the hated piece of software within the game's data files without informing buyers whatsoever. To further add confusion, BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly had previously alleviated everyone's worries by saying that Dragon Age 2 doesn't use SecuROM or any disc check protocol. This development echoes EA's 2008 litigative troubles with SecuROM causing gamers grief in Spore and The Sims 2. I hope EA makes some sort of headway in solving this befuddling situation before SecuROM sets everyone's house on fire.
Indie rock band The National is creating an original song for Portal 2. The National's songs have seen widespread use among popular television shows such as Chuck, House, and One Tree Hill. "The inclusion of the original song, 'Still Alive,' in the first Portal game was part of what made the game special," said Valve writer Chet Faliszek. "For Portal 2, we wanted to extend the use of music. When Bug Music mentioned to us that The National might be interested, we jumped at the opportunity to work with them." Bug Music Manager Julia Betley explained that The National's music style "fit beautifully" in the rundown halls of Aperture Science. "The National's raw and emotive music evokes the same visceral reactions from its listeners that Portal does from its players," she said. "It was exciting and a privilege to bring together two exceedingly talented creative teams to create something special for Portal 2." I'm fine with this, so long as the lyrics don't passive-aggressively berate Chell for dumping her ex or something.
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