Video Game Price Charts has posted an article detailing how older entries in game franchises tend to go up in price as a new sequel nears release. For example, the average resale price of the original Resident Evil for Playstation saw a marked increase in the months leading up to the release of Resident Evil 5. The same holds true for other series, though the article notes it isn't always the case.
Respected industry news site Gamasutra gives their monthly detailed analysis of NPD numbers.
They cover some essential features of the retail landscape in March 2009. Read on for details about first-night sales of the Nintendo DSi, price drops for PlayStation hardware, Capcom's strong software sales, and the fate of third-party software on the Wii.
@afsplat, From the article : What he does find worrisome, however, is declining Wii software sales after a year of strong console sales, reportedly doubling the system's installed-base. "Given that the installed base of Wii consoles has doubled in the past year, we find it remarkable (and somewhat disconcerting) that Wii software sales were actually down year-over-year in March, dropping by $72 million, or 26 percent."
Did Pachter really forget that March 08 have SSBB, a very big NEW Wii game, while March 09 doesn't have any new Wii game ? This is just like comparing Sept 08 X360 S/W sales, which contain Halo 3 sales, with other September month that didn't have any big X360 game release.
Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Morgan, isn't freaking out, and he wants you to know that you shouldn't be either. He notes, while speaking on the subject of March NPD numbers, that even though the month saw hardware sales numbers drop across the board, that really has more to do with extraordinary sales for all comparable months
This does smack of a political ruling. I am not a supporter of copyright theft but I do think that a custodial sentence and large fine are a little extreme.
The obvious intent is to send out a message but I feel they are sending out the wrong message. I strongly doubt that this will have any impact other than force the activities further underground.
What I find bizarre is that fact these guys have been jointly provided with a custodial sentence for providing what is in effect infrastructure support coupled with a huge fine, very bizarre.
@KultofCows, I think it is because culture and law in Sweden are probably much more lenient toward this kind of things (anti copyright). Witness this text from article : "There is a lot of anger in Sweden right now. File-sharing is an institution here and while I can't encourage people to break copyright law, I'm not following it and I don't agree with it."
"here it sounds like he was on some kind of crusade against the music and movie companies from the start." Not surprising if you read this text from the article : The Pirate Bay is the world's most high profile file-sharing website and was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright organisation Piratbyran, but for the last five years it has been run by individuals.
"Speaking at an online press conference, he described the verdict as "bizarre".
"It's serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It's really serious. And that's a bit weird," Sunde said."
I'm surprised that after all the cases in the US in which producers of file sharing software had been ruled as aiding in copyright infringement that these 4 guys are as surprised as they sound in the article that they were being tried in court and found guilty. It's not that they thought they wouldn't get caught, it sounds like they are completely oblivious they did something wrong.
"We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."
But then here it sounds like he was on some kind of crusade against the music and movie companies from the start.
A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail.
They were also ordered to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.
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