Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

Apparently, there were not enough word-spreading mouths to begin with, as it only sold 60k copies in its debut month (which includes almost all of May, since it launched May 6^th). Despite what EA's CEO said, this was probably not what EA had hoped for with a game it had collaborated on with the most profitable director in the world. So, what happened?

While we thought sales of Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox was less than stellar (in all fairness, it did sell about twice that of Zack and Wiki in its first month), Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello said the game has met internal expectations. Speaking at a William Blair Investor Conference today, he said "It's continued to sell well. It did break into the top 10 for the Wii, and the advertising is doing exactly what [our] team expected to: drive sales."

MTV Multiplayer spoke with a few analysts who were decidedly less impressed with the sales so far. Pacific Crest Securities, who initially predicted 250,000 in unit sales, said, "It appears that success on the Wii will remain difficult to achieve." Michael Pachter, who wasn't too hopeful in the first place, wondered if it was a marketing problem on EA's part.

Joystiq's official in-house analysts all agree that the game would have sold a minimum 3 bajillion more copies had it kept head tracking. Maybe it's going multi-platform, after all. Riccitello also said the game could sell several hundred thousands, and given Zack and Wiki's continued sales, he may have a point.

While the myth of third-party Wii software languishing on store shelves has been handily disproven by repeat NPD all-stars like Guitar Hero III (#8 this month), Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and even Carnival Games, the ugly truth is that those are the only third-party Wii games to break the 1 million unit milestone, according to NPD.

Why do we share such harsh statistics with you, dear reader? Because NPD just confirmed with our buddies at GameDaily that the well-received Boom Blox, an EA title with Steven Spielberg's name prominently places on the box, and the sixth highest-rated third-party Wii title on Metacritic, managed to sell only 60K units in its first month of sales. The title ranked 25 in the list of top sellers in May, and only managed to come in at number 9 in the list of top Wii sellers for the month. GameDaily did the math and determined that, using a North American install base of 10.2 million Wii units, Boom Blox's tie ratio was a barely noticeable 0.6%.

After the Zak and Wiki calamity of ought-seven, we're again afraid there's just no room for good third-party titles (even family friendly and marketable ones like Boom Blox) on Nintendo's console. In this case, where did EA go wrong (besides taking out head tracking)?

They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little looney, and in this video game they're exploding your TV. Steven Spielberg's first foray into video games brings us Boom Blox for the Wii. Reviews have been pretty glowing or just good. Don't expect some Spielberg epic here, it's definitely a casual title designed for the Wii, which apparently uses the Wiimote quite competently.

• 1Up (100/100): "Boom Blox is simply a laundry list of great features and options wrapped around an incredibly fun, expertly designed, and well-tuned puzzle game. Sure, its cute veneer won't do it any favors with the more intense console crowd, but I found it charming and refreshingly cheery. It's a casual game made for a casual crowd, but it's far and away the best one I've ever played. Buy this game."
• IGN (81/100): " If you're looking for a game you can play with friends and family - - one that everybody will be able to pick up and enjoy in a matter of minutes -- look no further than EA Boom Blox. It's a fun puzzler and also a game that really puts Nintendo's controller to great use."
• GameTap (80/100): "In Boom Blox, however, you might complete one level that is pretty challenging only to unlock a new level that's strangely simple, which is particularly odd in a game that requires you to finish one level in order to move on to the next. ... Nevertheless, Boom Blox is still a worthy purchase for Wii owners. It's one of those rare family games that doesn't fall into the genres of minigame collection or rhythm title, and your seven-year-old kid will have as much fun as you do."

After the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, this week's release of Boom Blox completes a hat-trick of really solid recent Wii releases (or, as we like to call it, the "Sorry You Can't Play GTA IV 3-Pack"). Perhaps even more so than the previous two, Boom Blox seems to be an experience perfectly suited to the console, despite the opportunities for it to go elsewhere.

The other big two are (by far) getting the shorter end of the stick this week, with nothing on the Xbox 360 and just the Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year edition on PS3. Check out the full list after the break.

We know that, if you haven't played it, the charms of Boom Blox don't immediately reveal themselves. But trust us when we say that to play this "tangible actualization of what Wii games are supposed to be" is to love it. So it should come as good news that Amir Rahimi, senior producer on the game, recently told VideoGamer that "there's definitely the possibility of going to other consoles."

Though it might be passable with the SixAxis/DualShock 3, we're concerned with how the package would translate to the 360. Unless of course, you work for EA and you know that Microsoft is developing a motion control device ... Not that Amir Rahimi knows that, of course. We're just saying.

In our previous coverage of Boom Blox, we highlighted the basic way you toss baseballs, bowling balls, and other objects at the blocks. But this casual game has even more game modes that have gotten less coverage. I sampled some of the lesser-know variants at the Nintendo Media Summit.

The game's adventure mode introduces other mechanics. Players move through successive levels, trying to initially knock down structures with as few throws as possible. But following levels give gamers unlimited baseballs to toss at a pack of bears, for example; these cranky creatures try to amble off with your gem blocks, and you have to knock them down. Another change on later levels forces you to protect an advancing group of sheep. Monkeys throw items from their own block-built castle, and you need to knock them all down before the sheep are wiped out.

At the Nintendo Media Summit, Boom Blox senior producer Amir Rahimi confirmed that the final version of the game will lack the head-tracking mode. We understand that it was always an Easter egg, requiring gamers to set up Wii Remotes as cameras, and hacking together their own IR LED glasses. But you didn't have to go to TED to see the promise, and we're disappointed to see it removed.

EA wouldn't go on-record to say exactly why the mode was cut, only just confirming it again through public-relations channels. An email statement noted, "Head-tracking was something we considered including as an Easter egg in BOOM BLOX however, we did not end up including it in the final version of the game. ..."

Perhaps EA feared that we'd hack together a candelabra helmet as an IR emitter. They should have; we totally would.

We've all witnessed the incredible ways that technomancer Johnny Lee can put a Wiimote to good use, but apparently, attendees of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference were unaware of the handheld peripheral's vast potential. You can actually hear their minds crackle, then implode as Lee shows off two of his cost-efficient tech demos -- the multi-touch whiteboard, and 3-D head tracking (which was further confirmed to be in EA/Speilburg's Boom Blox as an easter egg). Like all Johnny Lee videos, we can guarantee this to be the coolest thing you've seen today -- unless, of course, you've just watched the entire "American Ninja" quintology.

EA previously had the entire month of May blocked off for the release of its Steven Spielberg collaboration Boom Blox. They put a finer point on things during a presentation at Nintendo's Media Summit in San Francisco today, knocking 30 blocks off their May calendar, leaving a proud May 6th standing tall. We'll be checking out the game in, what we can only assume is, a near final state and have our impressions up as soon as we can, okay?

Electronic Arts has released the final box art for Stephen Spielberg's upcoming very first-party title Boom Blox. Take note at Spielberg's full name, more prominent than the behemoth publisher's abbreviated title. We're pretty sure the famous director is more recognizable to the mainstream crowd and wonder if the order will be swapped for the as-of-yet unknown Xbox 360 / PS3 Spielberg games. Boom Blox, with head tracking, is due out this May.

"It's feels like a Miyamoto game," someone observes. "Yeah, it's very first-party," agrees another. Flying sheep-blocks and all, Boom Blox is destined to earn Spielberg some street cred (or whatever form of kudos it is that gamers bestow). Just what is Spielberg's involvement? It's his idea, EA insists.

An idea so simple, it's really only plausible for Wii. You just pitch a baseball at blocks -- that's it (well, sometimes it's a bowling ball, bomb, or shotty blast ... you get the idea). But where so many mindless motion farts dissipate into the foul heap of Wii "mini-game" crap, Boom Blox stands tall, as a tangible actualization of what Wii games should, no, are supposed to be!

Electronic Arts has announced the initial details surrounding Boom Blox, the first collaboration between movie mogul Steven Spielberg and EA Los Angeles. Revealed last December, and expected to be featured during a panel at this month's annual Game Developer's Conference, the "high-energy" family-friendly puzzler is scheduled to debut this May for the Wii, with a version for mobile phones expected to drop sometime in the spring.

While details are light, EA notes that Boom Blox will boast more than 300 levels, a cast of more than 30 "wacky" characters, "full real-time physics model," and an in-game level editor that promises to let players "remix any level," which include Tiki, Haunted, Medieval, and Frontier, themed backdrops. EA also promises that once created, players will be able to share their masterpieces with their friends over the Wii's online service. While we may all have grown weary of the Wii's casual focus, it's hard not to get at least a little excited for this game given Spielberg's involvement. Then again, he did make A.I.

[Update: GameDaily has an interview up with the game's creator at EA, Louis Castle – along with the exclusive trailer embedded just after the break.]

The official site for the 2008 Game Developers Conference has revealed that Steven Spielberg's first collaboration with EA Los Angeles with be the focus of a GDC session, revealing the creative process that turned a simple puzzle concept into a full-on Nintendo Wii title. The announcement also reveals the official name of Spielberg's Wii game: BOOM BLOX (that's right, with the caps-lock and everything).

The game will be discussed during "Creating Spielberg's BOOM BLOX", a session led by EALA's VP of Creative Development, Louis Castle. Sadly, it doesn't seem like Spielberg himself will be on-hand to discuss the physics-based puzzle game.

Check out some early footage of BOOM BLOX from E3 2007 after the break.