(Dates subject to change)

27 Apr 2008
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

29 Apr 2008
Baseball Mogul 2009 (PC)
Brain Voyage (DS)
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, X360)
Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition (PS3, X360)
SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 (PS2, PSP)
Toy Shop (DS)

30 Apr 2008
Band Mashups (Wii)

1 May 2008
Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (PC)
Alone in the Dark (PC, PS2, X360)
ATV Offroad Fury Pro
Great War Nations: The Spartans (PC)

2 May 2008
Iron Man (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)

5 May 2008
Crosswords DS (DS)

6 May 2008
Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy (Wii)
Boom Blox (Wii)
Dog Island, The (Wii)
Kawasaki Snow Mobiles (Wii)
Mass Effect (PC)
R-Type Command (PSP)
Speed Racer (Wii)

12 May 2008
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Wii)
Indianapolis 500 Evolution (X360)
Major League Eating (WiiWare) (Wii)
Theatre of War (PC)
Toki Tori (WiiWare) (Wii)

13 May 2008
DECA Sports (Wii)
Dracula: Origin (PC)
Drone Tactics (DS)
Myst (DS)
Supreme Commander (X360)
Wii Ski (Wii)

15 May 2008
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The (DS, Wii)

19 May 2008
Wii Fit (Wii)

20 May 2008
Backyard Baseball 2009 (Wii)
Haze (PS3)
Summon Night: Twin Age (DS)
UEFA Euro 2008 (PS2, PS3, PSP, X360)

26 May 2008
Ford Off Road Racing (PC, PS2, PSP)

27 May 2008
Emergency Heroes (Wii)
Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor (DS)
Lost Planet: Colonies Edition (PC, X360)
Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold (PC)

Xbox 360: 527,800 (+251,100)
Wii: 501,000 (+97,400)
Nintendo DS: 495,800 (+112,500)
PSP: 284,500 (+133,000)
PlayStation 2: 215,000 (+13,000)
PlayStation 3: 119,400 (-11,200)
GameBoy Advance: 75,000 (+5,500)

1. Halo 3 (Microsoft, Xbox 360) - 3.3 million
2. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 282,000
3. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo, DS) - 224,000
4. Madden NFL 08 (EA, PS2) - 205,000
5. Skate (EA, Xbox 360) - 175,000
6. Madden NFL 08 (EA, Xbox 360) - 173,000
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo, Wii) - 167,000
8. Bioshock (Take 2, Xbox 360) - 150,000
9. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, DS) - 141,000
10. Heavenly Sword (Sony, PS3) - 139,000

With a price cut and the ridiculously massive Halo 3, Microsoft took the top spot for only the second time ever. Both of Nintendo’s systems performed strongly. PSP saw a big jump, and the PS2 went up as well. But as for the PS3, let’s just say today’s price cut was desperately needed.

Halo 3 more than doubled the entire rest of the top 10. Wii Play continues to be strong for Nintendo, and Madden’s enjoying some continued success on PS2 and 360.

Microsoft announced its first day sales of Halo 3 at $170 million. This tops Halo 2’s launch of $125 million and the Spiderman 3 weekend movie launch at $151 million. With a retail pricepoint of $60, this works out to 2.83 million units sold.

“Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Not only is Halo 3 setting sales records, it’s also redefining entertainment. Within the first 20 hours alone, we’ve seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play Halo 3 – that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history.”

Nintendo announced that they have shutdown their official forums, indefinitely. Looking for a new place to discuss Nintendo? Try our main Nintendo Forum for general discussion or our Nintendo Forums category for something more specific (Pokemon, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, retro Nintendo). Below is Nintendo’s description of the reasoning behind the move.

“Nintendo is working on a major overhaul to Nintendo.com to support the continued success of Nintendo DS and Wii. As we prepare for this huge site update, Nintendo must unfortunately close the Nintendo NSider Forums message boards indefinitely beginning Sept. 17, 2007.

For more than four years, these NSider Forums have fostered engaging, robust debates, a strong community and friendships. While their future remains uncertain, in the interim we invite our fans to build on the spirit of community by starting their own Nintendo discussion sites. Remember also that the unique features available with Nintendo DS and Wii give Nintendo the opportunity to communicate directly with fans, while also enabling fans and friends around the world to communicate with each other.

Nintendo has the greatest fans in the world, and it is because of their support and passion that Nintendo DS and Wii have become so hugely successful around the world. We hope that the faithful Nintendo community members will look forward to the future games and website updates that will enhance Nintendo’s global community of Wii and Nintendo DS owners.

Starting Sept. 17, existing NSider Forums will be available in Read Only format for one week. Private Messages will be disabled. On Monday, Sept. 24, the forums will be removed from public view.

To visit the Read Only version of the NSider Forums, click here.
Thanks for your understanding and continued support. We’ll see you soon elsewhere on the Web.

NOA_Andy”

Nintendo Wii: 403,600 (-21,400)
Nintendo DS: 383,300 (-21,700)
Xbox 360: 276,700 (+106,700)
PlayStation 2: 202,000 (-20,000)
PSP: 151,200 (-62,000)
PlayStation 3: 130,600 (-28,400)
GameBoy Advance: 69,500 (-17,500)

1. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, Xbox 360) - 896,000
2. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, PS2) - 643,600
3. Bioshock (Take Two, Xbox 360) - 490,900
4. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, PS3) - 336,200
5. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 256,800
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo, Wii) - 218,100
7. Mario Strikers: Charged (Nintendo, Wii) - 147,400
8. Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (Activision, PS2) - 145,400
9. Mario Party 8 (Nintendoo, Wii) - 138,300
10. Guitar Hero Encore (Activision, PS2) - 127,100
11. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, Xbox)
12. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, Wii)
13. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, DS)
14. Two Worlds (Southpeak Interactive, Xbox 360)
15. Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo, DS)
16. High School Musical: Making the Cut (Disney, DS)
17. Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (Activision, Xbox 360)
18. Madden NFL ‘08 (EA, PSP)
19. Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo, DS)
20. Tiger Woods PGA Tourr ‘08 (EA, Xbox 360)

Nintendo continues to dominate the hardware charts. Microsoft finally�dropped the price on the Xbox 360, which pushed the system to levels not seen since January. PS3 retained some price drop momentum but lost steam. PS2 continues to go strong for a 7 year old system that’s been replaced. GBA continues to fall going into what will probably be its final holiday season.

On the software side, Madden grabbed 3 of the top 4 spots. Noticeably missing from the top 10 is the Wii version, which finished at #12, one below the version for the original Xbox. Bioshock launched strongly, and between that and Madden, we’ve probably gotten a good glimpse at what the holiday charts will look like. Nintendo’s first party efforts continue to perform well. Their two newest games didn’t get off to the best starts, but they no doubt have the legs to go for a while. Activision has a couple Guitar Hero games in the mix as usual.

As part of its restructuring efforts, Take Two has sold Joytech to Mad Catz for $3.7 million. A mere drop in the bucket for the company worth over $1 billion, but I guess it’s a start. The only really solidly performing asset continues to be Rockstar, and even with Visual Concepts once again taking advantage of the NFL, that does not appear to be changing.

“The sale of the Joytech assets is consistent with one of the key goals we established in our 100 Day Plan: to develop strategic alternatives for any operations that we determined to be outside our core publishing business,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder.

 ”This transaction is consistent with our strategy to continue to grow profitably, in part by diversifying our product line-up and geographic reach. Joytech’s strong presence in Europe and growing presence in North America are expected to complement our current operations and further enhance our worldwide distribution network enabling Mad Catz to more efficiently deliver a larger portfolio of innovative gaming accessories to our customers worldwide,” said Darren Richardson, Mad Catz President and CEO.

Terminator/Total Recall/Conan star Arnold Schwarzenegger (and he’s also the governor of California or something) has appealed the decision of a federal judge in an attempt to make it illegal to sell violent games to minors in the state of California, Reuters reports.

US District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled last month that the law was unconstitutional, adding that it was unsupported by evidence that violent games are any worse than violent shows or movies.

In a survey conducted by PopCap Games, 1 in 4 gamers (24%) responded that they play casual games at work. Tsk tsk. And where do you people work? Additional results of the survey include:

14% has played during a business meeting/conference call.
61% play during lunch or break periods.
52% play during the work day
79% play several times a week or more
53% play at least once a day

91% claim to play for stress relief and relaxation
69% call them mental workouts
54% cite memory strengthening

Of those respondents who were supervisors, 79% encourage staff to take brief mental breaks, while 29% say more than half of those they’re responsible for play casual games.

“It’s not surprising that today’s white-collar workers are casual video game users,” said Carly Drum, Managing Director of Drum Associates in New York, a leading executive recruitment firm. “The face of today’s executive workforce is definitely changing: we’re seeing younger employees who are much more technologically savvy and familiar with all forms of new media from social networking to blogging and beyond. So, it’s natural that some white collar workers would also look to casual videogames that they can play on their PC, mobile phone or BlackBerry during a work break, as a way to quickly relax and recharge their batteries, so to speak.”

Senior execs have even more fun:

35% play casual games at work
70% play during work
61% play at least once a day

18 Grateful Dead songs will be available for download for Rock Band, including: Truckin’, Uncle John’s Band, Touch of Grey, Sugar Magnolia, and Casey Jones.

“Grateful Dead’s unique fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, and jazz challenged traditional musical boundaries and pushed the limits of creativity to produce a signature sound that is undeniably their own,” said MTV’s Paul DeGooyer. “With an enormous legion of fans all over the world, ‘Rock Band’ will give players a chance to interact with the music of these beloved rock pioneers and experience what Grateful Dead did best - jam from the depths of their souls.”

Rock Band is slated for a November release for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Double Fusion will announce a new game advertising model tomorrow, according to a report in Adweek.

Unlike the typical gaming ads, which are permanently inserted into games, Double Fusion’s platform fusion.runtime will be similar to television and the Internet, allowing non-permanent dynamic ads that can be changed and rotated in real time. These ads can be added long after the game has already shipped, and this process would allow all the coding typically needed to be skipped.

Double Fusion has already lined up partnerships with Ubisoft and Oberon. Ubisoft will use the ads in free online versions of older games, while Oberon will use the ads in its casual games.