The stories for this week:
- NPD Numbers Delayed Until Monday
- AMD Powering Next Xbox GPU/nVidia Next DS CPU?
- Mass Effect 2 Dated for January 26, 2010
- 250GB PS3 SKU Coming November 3rd for $349
- Borderlands Highlights Releases This Week
NPD Numbers Delayed Until Monday
Last week I talked about how the September NPD numbers would be out this past week, but NPD has delayed the results until Monday. So, late Monday we’ll know if the PS3 really did win the sales contest. We’ll also know how many copies of Halo 3: ODST was sold and whether Guitar Hero 5 or Beatles: Rock Band ruled the roost in music games. Activision has said that Guitar Hero 5 has the best launch of any game in the series. If that is true Beatles: Rock Band will have to have sold far better than the other Rock Band games. We’ll see on Monday.
Source: me
AMD Powering Next Xbox GPU/nVidia Next DS CPU?
Two rumors popped up this week in relation to new iterations of a console and a handheld. The first rumor is that AMD will be the GPU provider for the next Xbox system. This isn’t a huge surprise since they are the current GPU provider on the 360 (through their acquisition of ATI). Also rumor is that 2012 is being bandied about as the year the next Xbox will release.
The other rumor is that Nintendo’s successor to the DS will have nVidia’s Tegra processor as its brains much like the recently released Microsoft Zune HD. This would be a change for Nintendo since they have been using IBM and AMD for years now. Rumors are also pointing to a late 2010 release for this new handheld from Nintendo.
The story linked below has links to the original stories on each. Adding in all the links below seemed a bit overkill.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Mass Effect 2 Dated for January 26, 2010
Mass Effect 2 has been given a release date of January 26, 2010 in America and January 29 in Europe on both 360 and PC. The biggest surprise here is that BioWare will have shipped two massive games within just over two months. The first one is Dragon Age: Origins which is due on November 3rd.
This game of course joins the convoluted early 2010 release calendar. I personally don’t remember a time in recent gaming history where the first few months of the new year has bigger releases than the last three months of the previous year. This is crazy!
Source: Colony of Gamers
250GB PS3 SKU Coming November 3rd for $349
It didn’t take long for Sony to introduce a second PS3 SKU into the mix after dropping the current 120GB PS3 Slim to $299. This SKU of course increases the size of the disk drive by 130GB over the current SKU and will be Available on November 3rd. Hopefully there will be some bundles like other territories are getting with their 250GB SKUs
Source: Joystiq
Borderlands Highlights Releases This Week
After last week’s thermonuclear bomb (check out my review of mostly the single-player aspects of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves over at Colony of Gamers) this week is quiet with the release of Gearbox’s long awaited Borderlands and its bazillion guns. It’s a co-op happy week with this 4-player co-op game.
Other games releasing include: FIFA 10, Way of the Samurai 3, WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010 and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on PSP.
Source: me