Joystiq

Steam clocks in 6 million concurrent users, breaks its own record

Jessica Conditt — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:00:00 EST

Steam captured 6,046,207 people signed in at one time yesterday, setting a record for the service. Looks like those Steam sales are working for someone.

In January, Steam reported a concurrent-user high of 5 million during the 2011 Holiday Sale, along with more than 40 million accounts. Today, Steam has an excess of 50 million registered users and more than 2,000 games for them to play.

And, at least for now, some of those games are super cheap. Don't think of the Steam sales as blatant, bold ploys for your user numbers; just think of them as win-win situations.

Steam clocks in 6 million concurrent users, breaks its own record originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga reports record quarterly revenue, profits still down year-over-year

Jordan Mallory — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:30:00 EST

Never underestimate the addictive power of microtransaction infused farms, apparently, as Zynga has disclosed a record quarter for the period between July 1 and September 30: Over $306 million, an 80 percent increase in revenue over that same period in 2010. The social megalith attributes the increase in revenue to the successful launches of Adventure World and the Facebook version of Words with Friends, which took place during this quarter.

Revenue is a very different beast than profit, however, where Zynga continues to decline. Following a 95 percent year-over-year profit decrease in Q2, the SEC filing shows a 54 percent decrease year-over-year in Q3 after a total of $12.5 million in net profits.

Hey Zynga, want a tip? It's on the house: Monetize letter tiles in Words with Friends. We'll pay you fifteen dollars to get rid of "MXLCZDL."

Zynga reports record quarterly revenue, profits still down year-over-year originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Record for lowest-scoring Super Mario Bros. run broken

Jordan Mallory — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:30:00 EST

You guys are still doing speed-runs? Psh, speed-runs are so 2005. These days, it's all about low-score runs; baffling attempts at calculated badness, wherein highly-skilled gamers do everything they can to do as little as possible.

No one does better at doing poorly than YouTube power-gamer NotEntirelySure, who recently completed the lowest-scoring no-death game of Super Mario Bros. ever, finishing the entire game with a trifling 600 points. As a spectator sport, we think the low-score run has potential, although we're still not sure why our "average-score" runs never took off with the precision gaming community.

[Thanks Gishman!]

Record for lowest-scoring Super Mario Bros. run broken originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Portal finished in under 10 minutes sets a world record

David Hinkle — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:00:00 EST

You may not agree with YouTube user DemonStrate's methods, but you certainly can't argue with the results: the world record for fastest Portal playthrough. What took you hours only took him minutes -- specifically, less than ten of them. It's kinda the thing of note here.

Continue reading Portal finished in under 10 minutes sets a world record

Portal finished in under 10 minutes sets a world record originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XIII's soundtrack, now on vinyl

JC Fletcher — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST

Square Enix hasn't announced a release for the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack outside of Japan. Instead, it has announced a second FFXIII music release in Japan that is going to make you even more jealous. On February 26, the publisher will release a collection of eight songs from Masashi Hamauzu's Final Fantasy XIII score on a 12-inch record, including an exclusive version of "Ragnarok."

The limited-edition vinyl record, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII, is exclusive to Square Enix's E-store. Importer NCSX secured a shipment of the record through one of its vendors, but that has already sold out. Maybe we'll have better luck when Square releases the eight tracks on 8-track.

[Via VG247]

Final Fantasy XIII's soundtrack, now on vinyl originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man leaps past George Costanza's fictional Frogger score

David Hinkle — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST

Seinfeld isn't just the greatest sitcom ever (don't try to argue with us, you're wrong), it's actually relevant in the games landscape. See, the classic coin-op Frogger was featured prominently in one of the last episodes of the show. In said episode, George Costanza scored a whopping 860,630 points -- a score many believed to be laughably high. Sure, it's a comedy show, so why not make the high score ridiculous?

Well, through a perfect combination of Mountain Dew and mozzarella -- and just the right amount of grease on the stick -- young Pat Laffaye bested that high score on January 1, 2010, getting his name on the Twin Galaxies high score board with an impressive 896,980 points using an original Frogger arcade cabinet.

We take our hat off to Laffaye ... and offer our condolences to the weeping ghost of George Costanza.

[Via Eurogamer and Examiner]

Continue reading Man leaps past George Costanza's fictional Frogger score

Man leaps past George Costanza's fictional Frogger score originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XIII limit breaks Japanese PS3 software sales record

Griffin McElroy — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST

Are you shocked? Probably not, considering we all knew Final Fantasy XIII would make a killing during the initial week of its release. However, the magnitude of the game's success was still a little alarming. Within its first day on the market, it broke one million units, becoming the best-selling PS3 game in Japan. According to Media Create, the game had reached 1,501,964 units by the end of the week, which more than doubled the life-to-date totals of the platform's previous bestseller, Metal Gear Solid 4. It did so in just four days. Great googly moogly!

As you also might have expected, these unprecedented sales also boosted PS3 sales in the region for the week. The platform's sales leaped, much like a gazelle would leap, from 75,086 units sold to 237,086 units (an increase of 215.75 percent). That's an impressive upshot -- but we're not sure it deserves any gibberish exclamations.

Final Fantasy XIII limit breaks Japanese PS3 software sales record originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fuel sets Guinness record as biggest console game ever

Jason Dobson — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:30:00 EST

Codemasters' Fuel is big, and while some may argue that size doesn't matter, they're probably just jealous of the open-world racer's immense girth. In fact, the upcoming off-road racing game was recently crowned by Guinness World Records for having the largest playable environment in a console game ever with 5,560 square miles of accessible in-game terrain.

To help us wrap our heads around how big that is, the Codies say that's larger than Hong Kong, Singapore, St Lucia and the Isle of Man put together. Let's just hope developer Asobo (pictured) remembers to fill all that space with enough to do, else it's going to be a very long and boring ride. Are we there yet?

Gallery: FUEL

Fuel sets Guinness record as biggest console game ever originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 May 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Wiebe sets Donkey Kong Jr. world record

Griffin McElroy — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:15:00 EST

Steve Wiebe, the lovable protagonist from the documentary The King of Kong, recently became too impatient to wait until E3 to crush a classic gaming high score. Twin Galaxies, the unofficial scorekeepers of global gaming records recently announced that Wiebe had set a new high score of 1,139,800 for Donkey Kong Jr., surpassing the previous record of 1,033,000 set by Ike Hall. Meanwhile, our high score on Donkey Kong Jr. Math goes untouched, as it has remained for nearly two decades. Bring it on, teacher man.

Steve Wiebe sets Donkey Kong Jr. world record originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One million Wiis sold in Australia, Club Nintendo faring less well

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:20:00 EST

Filed under: News

According to market research bods at GfK, the number of Wii owners in Australia just reached the big one-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, 111 weeks after the platform's launch.

That's a new record for fastest-selling hardware in Oz -- previously, the DS shifted a million units over its opening 152 weeks. The handheld was never going to compete with its bigger brother, however: the sale of 685,000 Wiis during 2008 made sure of that.

Oh, and hey, while we're at Nintendo of Australia's site, let's check out the progress on the local Club Nintendo! Oh, look at that: it's still not functional. Color us not amazed in the slightest.

[Via PALGN]

One million Wiis sold in Australia, Club Nintendo faring less well originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Fit quick out of the blocks in Britain

Chris Greenhough — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EST

Filed under: News, Sales

Of course, we always expected as much. Preorders for Nintendo's fitness title were sky-high in Blighty, with the game pretty much selling out before it even appeared on store shelves. Even so, the record-breaking success of Wii Fit may have surprised the most optimistic of Nintendo executives.

Over the weekend, Wii Fit became the sixth fastest-selling UK videogame of all time. That's an impressive achievement for any title -- until you remember that the Wii Fit bundle costs almost as much as two games (£70). Then, the achievement stops being merely impressive, and becomes jaw-dropping. It also set a new record as Nintendo's fastest-selling game ever in the UK, beating out poor old Mario Kart Wii, which held that particular title for ... two weeks. Ouch.

Wii Fit quick out of the blocks in Britain originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday Video: Guitar Hero world record-setter

David Hinkle — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Friday Video

It may not be the Wii version of the game, but anyone that can throw down in Guitar Hero as good as this kid can is certainly deserving of all the fame and fortune that comes from being featured on Wii Fanboy. The fame of being recognized by avatar-less commenters and the fortune of having 14 people see your video are just some of the small things Wii Fanboy can bring to the table.

All kidding aside, this guy is good. In fact, we wonder what would happen if him and that little kid got together in the same room. It'd like totally cause a rift in the space/time continuum or something.

[Via Joystiq]

Friday Video: Guitar Hero world record-setter originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Question: What do this lady and the DS have in common?

Chris Greenhough — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: News

Answer: they're both record breakers!

Obviously, that's pretty much where the similarities end. See, rather than spend 27 years growing its fingernails, Nintendo's handheld has just shattered an entirely different record: the record for most hardware sales in a 7-day period in the UK. Last week, it sold just over 200,000 units, leaving thousands of would-be customers disappointed (reader, I was one such customer).

Incidentally, if you're feeling an uneasy sense of déjà vu, we understand -- after all, it was only last month that the DS broke the exact same record, notching up 191,000 sales in a single week.

Question: What do this lady and the DS have in common? originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Folding@home and PS3 reach Guinness Records

Andrew Yoon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:45:00 EST

Filed under: News

Folding@home continues to get the attention of the mainstream media. PS3's large network of Cell-enabled PS3 systems has significantly boosted the abilities of Stanford University's research program. So much so, in fact, that the program recently was recognized by the Guinness Records. Over 670,000 unique PS3 users have registered to the Folding@home network, and combined they have achieved the petaflop mark on September 23, 2007. This has placed the program as the most powerful distributed computing network ever.

"To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Without them we would not be able to make the advancements we have made in our studies of several different diseases. But it is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds."

"To have PS3 play such a large role in allowing Folding@home to be honored by Guinness World Records is truly incredible," said Masayuki Chatani, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Technology Platform, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "This record is clear evidence of the power of PS3 and the contributions that it is making to the Folding@home network, and more importantly, scientific research."

Folding@home and PS3 reach Guinness Records originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bored? Try playing 4,000 games.

John Bardinelli — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Arcade, Culture, Competitive Gaming

Twin Galaxies, the as-official-as-it-gets record keepers of the videogame realm, recently printed a revised edition of its Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. The tome details 4,000 arcade games with current high scores for each one. Gamer Rocky Howard is convinced many of those records are there simply because no one can be bothered to find the arcade machine to play (emulated game scores are not allowed). As a result, Rocky's new life goal is to play every game listed to see how "feasible the scores listed are", then seek out the arcade machines to have his name plastered throughout the book.

The experiment began just over a month ago and Rocky is currently on his 14th game. At this rate it will take him over 25 years to work through everything, at which point finding the original machines will be about as easy as unearthing a t-rex femur with a spork in your backyard. But hey, gotta have a hobby, right?

Bored? Try playing 4,000 games. originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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