27.6.07

DiRT Sales Top 500,000 in First Week

Codemasters announced today that DiRT sold 500,000 copies on its first week. The publisher also revealed that the playable demos for the Xbox 360 and the PC have been downloaded over 500K times worldwide.

CODEMASTERS' DIRT SALES TOP 500K IN FIRST WEEK - TITLE EARNS TOP-SELLING SPOT ON XBOX 360

DiRT Sales, Downloads Top One Million


Burbank, CA - Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - With week one sales out the door, Codemasters is proud to announce that DiRT™, the company's critically acclaimed new racing title, has exceeded expectations across the board. If DiRT's early review score of 9/10 from Official Xbox Magazine (U.S.) wasn't any indication, Codemasters is now reporting that week one sales of the game have surpassed 500K copies globally, and the playable demos for the Xbox 360™ video game entertainment system from Microsoft and the PC have been downloaded over 500K times worldwide.

According to www.VGChartz.com, the title's early sales performance has landed DiRT in the number one spot on the Xbox 360 charts in North America, and additionally has placed it in the top five games of the week globally across all platforms.

"This success with DiRT is a text-book case of our product development, marketing and distribution efforts all working together to ignite consumer interest and drive sales," said Rod Cousens, CEO, Codemasters. "Nearly half of our first week's sales are from the U.S. alone, which means momentum behind this series is taking hold in new territories."

DiRT is currently available at retail outlets nationwide for the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PC. The PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system edition will be available later this year. Additionally, the playable demos of DiRT are readily available for download - the Xbox 360 version from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace, and the PC version from www.codemasters.com/dirt. DiRT is rated "E" (Everyone - Mild Language, Mild Violence, Alcohol Reference) by the ESRB. For more information on DiRT, be sure to visit the official website at: www.codemasters.com/dirt.

DiRT Sales Top 500,000 in First Week - Xbox

R6 Vegas Black Edition pulled from Marketplace

Xbox 360 Fanboy: "For unknown reasons, the Rainbow Six Vegas Player's Pack Black Edition downloadable content that released yesterday has been pulled from the XBLM. Major Nelson updated his post stating that new content was pulled, but didn't give a reason for it not being available. Some people who have downloaded the content are stating that the new maps seem to load slower than others, but other than that they didn't find a problem with the Black Edition pack. Stay tuned as we'll be sure to let you know when the content gets placed back onto the Marketplace or when we learn more about what went wrong."

Loads of new game trailers on XBLM


If you haven't powered on your Xbox 360 today, you're missing out on a boatload of new trailers. In all, we've got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (girlish squeal!), Overlord (which we can't download for some reason), and a trailer for Conan. Conan, perhaps, deserves the most attention. Unfortunately, that's not because it's the best of the three (far from it, in fact). Not to be confused with the Age of Conan MMO from Funcom, Conan, quite frankly, just looks awful. The gameplay looks decent enough, but the graphics lack anything even resembling polish. Seriously, it's like they decided to release a trailer of an alpha build (which may be exactly what it is). The character models themselves look alright, but they seem completely separate from the environment, like they're really in front of a green screen. Joystiq seemed to be impressed by the game back in March, so we remain hopeful that the final product will be a solid experience.

Loads of new game trailers on XBLM - Xbox 360 Fanboy

Microsoft discusses Xbox Live pricing

The oft debated issue of Xbox Live pricing has arisen once again, only this time it’s being tackled by Microsoft employees in the form of Microsoft’s Gamerscore Blog. Will the age old question “Sony’s is free, how come Xbox Live isn’t?” be answered once and for all?

Not really

“There are bandwidth costs, there are things that go above and beyond”, said Chris Paladino of the Xbox Community Team. “I think it goes back to this unified system. We have to have voice communication, text and voice communication, now we’re doing cross-platform. There’s Marketplace, there are demos, and all these things don’t just mystically hover around that you can pull them out of the ether.”

Microsoft PR manager Michael Wolf chimed in to add that “you get what you pay for” and that satisfaction levels with Xbox Live have been very high. He also made a comparison between Live and Cable television, noting that he pays 100 bucks a month for cable and spends more time on Live which only costs 50$ a year. Even so, their reasoning seems a little suspect. Bandwidth costs are understandable, but it’s hard to see how text communication is driving the price of Xbox Live. The fact remains that there is no significant counterpoint to Xbox Live. The Playstation Network is free, but doesn’t deliver a fraction of what you get with Live. Until there is a free counterpoint to Live, cost arguments are more or less moot. It’s up to the consumer to decide if his 50$ a year is justified or not. Is your’s?



Xboxic » Microsoft discusses Xbox Live pricing

First Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition images!

Rockstar has revealed the first images of the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition that includes a duffel bag, deposit box, art book, and more.

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