PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

Mario Party is at the top spot, while a new PS3 multiplayer title takes fourth; PS Vita slides down to four-digit sales numbers.   After the Golden Week period, sales in Japan were expected to take a slow turn. This was evident with this week's recent Media Create update for the week of May 7 to May 13. Regardless, Mario Party 9 was still the top-selling game for the week. The Wii title's numbers went down from 152,883 to 37,353. Starhawk's Emmet Graves isn't too happy about partying plumbers raining on his debut. The PS3 version of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City also went down in sales. The third-person shooter's sales numbers went from 252,525 to 14,553 units, and it was at third place. Speaking of Sony's console, the multiplayer action game Starhawk was the only new title that made its debut in Japan. Sony's PS3 title was at fourth place, with 12,873 units sold. The game was praised for its diverse combat, visuals, and cooperative play; check out GameSpot's review for more information on the title. Other than that, portable games ruled the top 10 roost for the week. Fire Emblem: Kakusei stood strong at second place, with 16,530 units sold, while Super Mario 3D Land was holding the middle ground, with 11,260 units sold. Capping off the list was the sole PSP entry Conception: Please Have My Children! The game sold 4600 copies. On the hardware side of things, the 3DS numbers went down from 91,868 to 46,425 units, while the Wii went from 15,789 to 6073 units. The PS Vita went down from 10,583 to a staggering 6340 units. Top Japan game sales May 7 to May 13 Software Rank/Title/Publisher/Platform/Unit sales 1. Mario Party 9/Nintendo/Wii/37,353 2. Fire Emblem: Kakusei/Nintendo/3DS/16,530 3. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City/Capcom/PS3/14,553 4. Starhawk/Sony/PS3/12,873 5. Super Mario 3D Land/Nintendo/3DS/11,260 6. Monster Hunter 3G/Capcom/3DS/9,105 7. Mario Kart 7/Nintendo/3DS/9,045 8. Kid Icarus: Uprising/Nintendo/3DS/7,636 9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games/Nintendo/3DS/4,933 10. Conception: Please Have My Children!/Spike Chunsoft/PSP/4,600 Hardware 3DS- 46,425 PS3 – 12,996 PSP – 12,247 PS Vita – 6340 Wii – 6073 PS2 – 1212 Xbox 360 – 1023 DSi XL – 819 DSi - 387 Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot "Big in Japan May 7-13: Mario Party 9, Starhawk" was posted by Jonathan Toyad on Wed, 16 May 2012 22:57:48 -0700

Blizzard has apologised to Diablo III users who encountered server issues on the game's launch; it says it will continue to monitor and improve services; real-money auction house launch will be delayed as a result.   Blizzard has issued an apology to Diablo III players affected by the game's technical issues, including the discovery of a game-breaking bug. Posting on the Diablo III forums, Blizzard said that their preparations for the launch of the game "did not go far enough". Evil has returned–it's just a little slow. "As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game's launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough. "To that end, we'd also like to say that we've been humbled by your enthusiasm--and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure." Blizzard announced that it has been monitoring the game around the clock, and said it has applied several optimisations to help the servers deal with the global rush. According to the publisher, all systems are now back online, and "running relatively smoothly". The company said that it is also investigating a fix for a service issue linked to the achievement system, which saw achievements not being earned properly or not being saved between multiple log-ins. As a result of the technical difficulties, Blizzard has decided to push back the target launch for Diablo III's real-money auction house, originally estimated for May 22. The company said it will post further information about this in the near future. The publisher stated that it would continue to monitor global performance of the servers, and will be taking further measures as needed, including maintenance to improve each region. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot "Blizzard apologises for Diablo III errors, delays launch of real-money auction house" was posted by Laura Parker on Wed, 16 May 2012 21:54:49 -0700

Testimony from the upcoming Activision trial against Jason West and Vince Zampella alleges the publisher launched a secret internal investigation against the developers prior to the launch of Modern Warfare 2; Activision and EA settle out of court.   A number of unsealed documents from the upcoming trial between Activision and a group of ex-Infinity Ward developers have revealed a testimony that alleges the publisher launched an internal investigation against lead plaintiffs Jason West and Vince Zampella. A new testimony alleges Activision tried to spy on ex-Infinity Ward developers. The documents--made public this week by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle--contain the testimony of Activision's former senior director of information technology, Thomas Fenady. As reported by Giant Bomb and The Los Angeles Times, Fenady's testimony alleges that Activision's in-house lawyer, George Rose, asked him to spy on West and Zampella by accessing their work emails, voice mails, and computer files. According to Fenady, who left Activision in 2009, Rose told him the decision to investigate West and Zampella came from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. The testimony also alleges the objective--known as "Project Icebreaker"--was begun with the aim of building evidence against West and Zampella, but that efforts to monitor the personal correspondence of the developers, which included using outside parties, were unsuccessful. Other documents unsealed by Judge Elihu Berle in the case include a plan documenting bonuses from West and Zampella's initial agreement in 2003, as well as a memorandum of understanding from 2008, explaining the extension of the developers' initial contract. According to the LA Times report, the documents form part of the contract that Activision had with West and Zampella and the 40 other game developers involved in the lawsuit, laying out the money that Activision owes the developers in royalties and bonuses. Activision claims that it fired West and Zampella because they were secretly planning to start their new studio with the help of Electronic Arts, while still employed by the Call of Duty publisher. West and Zampella claim that the real reason they were fired was so Activision wouldn't have to pay them millions of dollars in royalties associated with Modern Warfare 2. Beyond the performance-based payout and any other court-awarded monetary damages, West and Zampella are seeking to gain co-ownership of the Modern Warfare brand. If successful in court, West and Zampella would have the right to create and release both old and new instalments in the Modern Warfare franchise. According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Activision has dropped the $400 million claim against EA, which originally made up part of its lawsuit against West and Zampella. Although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Bloomberg reported that EA will now be removed from the upcoming trial, set to take place on May 29. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot "Unsealed testimony alleges Activision tried to spy on ex-Infinity Ward heads " was posted by Laura Parker on Wed, 16 May 2012 19:05:48 -0700