Joystiq

Tekken Card Tournament crests 1 million downloads, celebrates with discounts

Jordan Mallory — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:30:00 EST

Tekken Card Tournament was downloaded over a million times (in aggregate) within the first four days of its availability on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon's Appstore for Android, Namco Bandai has announced. That's not counting however many people played the game directly in their browser, either.

To signify the occasion, Namco Bandai has enacted a 48 hour, 30 percent off sale for all in-game booster packs, as of 11 a.m. Eastern this morning. Do note: this discount applies to the packs of cards themselves, which must be purchased using in-game currency. The purchase price of the in-game currency itself, however, has not been discounted, though you'll still get more for your credits while the sale is in effect.

You can always earn credits by winning matches and stuff too, but who has time for that in this modern age?

Continue reading Tekken Card Tournament crests 1 million downloads, celebrates with discounts

Tekken Card Tournament crests 1 million downloads, celebrates with discounts originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix dishes some Tomb Raider stats

Mike Suszek — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:30:00 EST

Square Enix recently shared some interesting stats it gathered on the way gamers are playing Tomb Raider. As of the developer's posting, players have killed 5,294,879 deer and 1,417,750 crabs.

Lara Croft has narrowly avoided death 13,742,891 times and has dodged the attacks of 11,067,764 enemies, killing 147,675,058 enemies with a bow. Roughly 13.95 percent of those kills were with fire arrows (20,601,083 to be exact). Keeping with the game's namesake, Croft has also raided 3,570,956 tombs in total. That's a lot of tombs.

Square Enix dishes some Tomb Raider stats originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One million players have completed Halo 4's campaign

Mike Schramm — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 04:00:00 EST

The official Halo Waypoint blog has shared a number of stats and figures from Halo 4's first week, revealing that over a million people have already completed the new game's campaign since launch; six percent of which have finished the game on its "Legendary" difficulty setting.

All of that campaign playing took up 13.5 million hours of gameplay; however, War Games was actually the most popular game mode, with four million users clocking 16 million hours of competitive multiplayer within the first five days of launching. 1.9 million hours were spent playing Spartan Ops, Halo 4's ongoing episodic co-op mode.

And if you're wondering just how much overall death Halo 4 has caused, 343 says that 4,590,416,285 kills took place in all of the game modes within the tracked five-day period. That's over 4.5 billion kills, between fellow players, the Covenant, and the new Prometheans. With all of that killing, it's no wonder the planet is called Requiem.

One million players have completed Halo 4's campaign originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Telltale breaks down player choices in The Walking Dead's second episode (Or, you're not entirely heartless)

David Hinkle — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:30:00 EST

According to these stats from the second episode of The Walking Dead, not all of you are cold, calculative survivors - the majority remained calm and made moral decisions. Well, as moral as possible in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, anyway.

Telltale breaks down player choices in The Walking Dead's second episode (Or, you're not entirely heartless) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steam Workshop's Skyrim mods top over 13.6 million downloads, Macho Man is pleased

Ben Gilbert — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:15:00 EST

Between Valentine's Day and now, 11.6 million Skyrim mods were downloaded from Steam, totaling 13.6 million. That's a lot of hanging out with space cores and dragons modeled after Randy Savage.

The top mods represented on Steam's Workshop as of this writing aren't adding or subtracting major things from the original game. Many extend the experience in minor ways - bolstered sound offerings, more robust map markers, new spells - while a few add whole new quests. Thankfully, Skyrim's mod community moved away from its obsession with clean faces. At least for today.

Steam Workshop's Skyrim mods top over 13.6 million downloads, Macho Man is pleased originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 May 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saints Row: The Third site adds interactive stats and leaderboards

Mike Schramm — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:00:00 EST

SaintsRow.com has added a whole slew of new metagame features for chaos simulator Saints Row: The Third, available now by logging in to the website.

In addition to standard stats like playtime and the number and type of kills, you can also check out leaderboards on various categories to see how you rate either among your friends or around the world. There's also an interactive map of the city, which will routinely add in player achievements, screenshots, and even custom hints from other players in the game, all displayed right on the spot where it happened.

All of the updates are free to use, but of course you've got to create a THQ account and sign in to it with the game itself. And Volition is promising even more features in the future -- trust us, no purple dildos will hit a single head in Steelport without you knowing about it by the time they're done.

Saints Row: The Third site adds interactive stats and leaderboards originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War 3 stats show shotgun domination; sawed-off weakened

Alexander Sliwinski — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:50:00 EST

This isn't going to make the rollin' shotties crowd happy. Effective today, the sawed-off shotgun in Gears of War 3 no longer results in "gibs" at a range further than the gnasher. Epic shared that little detail along with weapon stat slides that showed, among other things, that shotguns comprised 72 percent of quick match kills.

"Pretty much, 45 percent of the kills are caused by gnasher [in quick match]," Epic's Senior Gameplay Programmer Pete Knepley explains in the video. "Gnasher domination is still continuing, but it's not as bad as Gears 2, where it was pretty much 10 to 1 against the lancer."

If you're looking to avoid the Gears shotgun frustration fest(R), head into a "ranked match" instead of "quick match" to reduce the odds of being shredded.

Gears of War 3 stats show shotgun domination; sawed-off weakened originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Battlefield 3's 'Battlelog' will battlefeed you stats about your battlefriends

Ben Gilbert — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:00:00 EST

We'd love to tell you that EA DICE explained the Battlelog functionality coming to Battlefield 3, but the Swedish devs only cursorily discussed it in a recent blog post. Most of what is shown off here was already gleaned from accidentally posted German screens earlier this month. DICE does point out one crucial aspect, however: "It's absolutely free."

It's still unclear whether the Battelog will be available in-game or solely accessed via PCs, but given Autolog's implementation in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, we imagine at least some form of the service will be available via consoles. Thankfully it seems that we won't be waiting long to hear more, as the post notes plans to reveal the "full suite of features" in Battlelog "at a later date." The multiplayer beta kicks off in just two months, so that "later date" will likely be "sooner" than ... erm .. well, you know.

Gallery: Battlefield 3 (Battlelog)

Battlefield 3's 'Battlelog' will battlefeed you stats about your battlefriends originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War 3 beta attracted 1.29 million testers

James Ransom-Wiley — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:30:00 EST

The cogs did their part, as 1.29 million fans enlisted in the recent Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta and pre-ordered the game in hordes. In all, Epic gathered 249 years worth of match-time data from players spanning 145 countries during the four-week public testing phase, which wrapped up this past Sunday. And it was all up and running, for the first time, on dedicated servers. (Oorah!)

While neither Microsoft nor Epic specified how many beta testers got in early through their "Epic Edition" copies of Bulletstorm, the pair was quite pleased to announce that Gears of War 3 has surpassed one million pre-orders (the other ticket into the beta) -- and we're still four months away from the game's September 20 launch. That's got to be some kind of record, right?

Uh-huh. Gears 3 now holds the distinguished honor of being "the fastest pre-ordered Xbox exclusive title to reach this milestone in the history of the platform." (*Golf clap*)

Pore over some more beta stats after the break.

Continue reading Gears of War 3 beta attracted 1.29 million testers

Gears of War 3 beta attracted 1.29 million testers originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 18 May 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Conduit 2: by the numbers

Andrew Yoon — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:18:00 EST

Sequels aren't always guaranteed to be better than their predecessors, but they'll always be bigger. David Pellas, designer director of High Voltage's Conduit 2, broke down many of the new features included in the Wii-exclusive shooter. Some of the additions rectify surprising omissions from the first game: the ability to sprint, alternate fire for weapons, and a proper sniper rifle. Embarassingly, the first game missed any female NPC skins for multiplayer -- an issue that has been rectified in Conduit 2.

Some of the added features are far more significant: the addition of split-screen multiplayer (with a brand new Horde-inspired co-op mode!), for example. The experience is fleshed out with an in-game store system that allows you to purchase new weapons and don new perks with a persistent character across both single and multiplayer. Finally, the campaign adds a feature most FPS games are missing today: boss battles.

Does all this newness amount to a better game? That's up to debate, of course. But no one can argue that Conduit 2 -- when broken down into numbers -- is a far more significant game than its predecessor.

Continue reading Conduit 2: by the numbers

Conduit 2: by the numbers originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Day's worth of Black Ops carnage makes for grim infographic

James Ransom-Wiley — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:20:00 EST

The graphic designers of Spijkermat figured that reducing 8 days' worth of Black Ops multiplayer stats to a pretty picture of daily averages would make the carnage counts comprehensible (as opposed to the unfathomable figures that scroll across the counter in the game's lobbies). They were wrong.

Continue reading Day's worth of Black Ops carnage makes for grim infographic

Day's worth of Black Ops carnage makes for grim infographic originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Halo: Reach infographic spills stats for first three months

Ben Gilbert — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:50:00 EST

The Grunt genocide continues, a fact highlighted in Bungie's latest and very thorough infographic for Halo: Reach. 11 billion grunts have met their demise at the hands of a Spartan, representing a full third of all Covenant kills across all gametypes. Between September 14 and December 10, players have logged "just over 1.3 billion games," taking up a collective 24,000 years of actual human time and earning 900 trillion credits.

A stunning 1,500 people have managed to hang on to enough of those creds to nab the "Pestilence" armor effect, while only 1,000 have earned "Inclement Weather." More unbelievable? 320,000 people have won the "Unf-believable" medal, earned by completing 40 kills without dying. We totally would've gotten that one too, had that kamikaze Grunt not popped around the corner at the last minute. Never again!

The infographic can be seen in full just below the break.

Continue reading Halo: Reach infographic spills stats for first three months

Halo: Reach infographic spills stats for first three months originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Halo Wars stat tracking gets a reprieve from 343 Industries

Mike Schramm — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:45:00 EST

Good news for Halo Wars fans -- the planned shutdown of stat tracking for the game has been canceled by 343 Industries, who have decided not to kill the game's community just yet. Originally, Microsoft planned to shut down the feature on the Halo Waypoint website on December 15, but the outcry from the community (which we found completely reasonable) means they've "decided that the current plan of action was not in line with how we have always intended to support Halo games and the Halo franchise in general."

So rest assured, Halo Wars players, your stats are safe. The community itself will still be switching from game-specific forums to the Waypoint forums, but stats will still be available on HaloWars.com for the foreseeable future. And though Title Update 5 of the game will still be installed (to fix some unrelated Theater issues) your stats won't change, so go right ahead getting your Halo RTS on.

Halo Wars stat tracking gets a reprieve from 343 Industries originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony serves up more Move stats, with spin

James Ransom-Wiley — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:30:00 EST

Microsoft is waging the Great Motion Gaming Wars of Holiday 2010 with a half-billion-dollar war chest -- we're talking Jimmy, Ellen and Oprah money right there. Sony, on the other hand, has taken a more subtle approach: Enter the good ol' fashioned "stats" sheet.

Continue reading Sony serves up more Move stats, with spin

Sony serves up more Move stats, with spin originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD at GDC: PC retail to grow, physical and digital purchase gap closing

Mike Schramm — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

PC gaming is set to grow in 2010, according to NPD's Michael Klotz. Klotz hosted a panel here at GDC Online 2010 this afternoon, and said that expected growth can be attributed to two things: StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. PC revenue has reached $303 million as of August this year, and Klotz expects the WoW expansion to put the total over the top of last year's $538 million.

Klotz also talked about the ongoing transition of customers simply buying physical copies of games to buying both physical discs and digital downloads. In terms of revenue, physical sales still outweigh the digital side, but digital purchases (including both full game purchases and DLC) have overtaken bought discs in terms of numbers. That means, said Klotz, that physical purchases are still selling at full price, while customers are paying much less for digital games, either because of sales or because they're buying casual or just cheaper titles online. Klotz credited Rock Band for pioneering the digital move -- lots of players weren't sure about digital purchases until they saw how seamlessly the Rock Band Marketplace worked, and then they were OK with downloading games and game content.

Finally, Klotz shared an interesting stat: Physical point cards (like those for Microsoft points on Xbox Live) have overtaken gamepads as the largest accessory category for game retail in just the past six months. As long as he could remember, Klotz said, game controllers have always been the best selling game accessory, with power cables next on the list. But cards for DLC are now on top of the charts after a 37 percent increase in the past year, showing just how important it is for game retailers to try and get a piece of that pie.

NPD at GDC: PC retail to grow, physical and digital purchase gap closing originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dragon Age 'TidBits' drop stats like a Fluffy punch

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:32:00 EST

Game Informer's latest "TidBits" column features a a glorious list of "inside baseball" stats from Dragon Age: Origins. Some of the numbers are simply cute, while others are positively frightening: "QA analyst Bruce Venne played 1,957.55 hours of Dragon Age PC in 5,352 games." Consequently, "The Bruce" was awarded to staff that played more than Venne in any given month -- the honor was bestowed only once.

While the list is mostly packed with numbers, there are some notable non-numerical did-you-knows, like the staff's affectionate nickname for the Ogre, "Fluffy," and, unsurprisingly, the revelation that one of the BioWare crew makes chain mail "from scratch."

Check out the full list of Dragon Age tidbits on Game Informer.

Dragon Age 'TidBits' drop stats like a Fluffy punch originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You've spent 17 billion hours on Xbox Live

David Hinkle — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST

It seems impossible, right? Well, this Xbox Live thing is apparently pretty popular. Trixie revealed via her Twitter account that in the seven years since the service launched on the original Xbox, gamers have racked up 17 billion hours on Xbox Live, equal to 2 hours of play time for every person on the planet. And with 20 million subscribers on the service, you're looking at an average of 850 hours for every member.

Another one of her Tweets states that there have been "more than 1.2 billion downloads of gaming and entertainment content," which averages out to about 100 downloads per second. And according to our completely scientific analysis of these figures, we conclude around 750 million of those 1.2 billion-plus downloads were free gamer pics and themes, Rambo stuff specifically.

[Via G4]

You've spent 17 billion hours on Xbox Live originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan's Xbox Live stats indicate proneness to Japanese-developed games

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:31:00 EST

It'd be impossible to discuss Japan's Xbox Live usage stats, recently released by Microsoft (and posted after the break), without pointing to the overwhelmingly Japanese-developed composition of them. Taking first place among the top XBLA purchases of 2009 was last year's Virtual On port -- a game so popular in Japan that it currently holds second place in the region's all-time bestsellers list. Games like Ikaruga and Trigger Heart Exelica populate the rest of the XBLA stats, though Western-developed Castle Crashers notably takes the number one position in all-time popularity.

The sheer Japanosity of these stats is even more apparent in the download numbers for all that other stuff. From demos (75 percent Japanese-developed) to Games on Demand (90 percent) to DLC (also 90 percent), Japanese players clearly have a hankering for homemade games -- even on their Western-developed consoles.

[Via Andriasang]

Continue reading Japan's Xbox Live stats indicate proneness to Japanese-developed games

Japan's Xbox Live stats indicate proneness to Japanese-developed games originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncharted 2 gets big multiplayer site update

Xav de Matos — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:45:00 EST

Just before the clock struck midnight to round out the last decade, Naughty Dog unveiled (and released) a major overhaul to its online stat tracking for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The game's new stat display digs let us get down and dirty into the tiniest little details. Need to know your kill/death ratio, and your lifetime loot stockpile, and see how you compare to the entire global average on a specific map? Done. Looking for detailed breakdowns of previous multiplayer showdowns? Covered.

This stat update is a monster and according to Naughty Dog, the team may still expand the system further. We're willing to let them sit on it for a while, but only because we're still a little busy swooning over our top pick of 2009.

Uncharted 2 gets big multiplayer site update originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen and EEDAR join forces to provide 'unprecedented' game tracking data

Alexander Sliwinski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST

Stat-tracking firms The Nielsen Company and Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) are teaming up to deliver "unprecedented insight into the video games industry." Nielsen's data, which has brought plenty of controversy on its own, will be integrated into EEDAR's GamePulse subscription service. Nielsen gathers its data from 1,200 "active gamers" through a weekly survey, while EEDAR data mines and organizes using various categories.

The data will be combined beginning in March of 2010 and be available to both Nielsen Video Game Tracking and EEDAR subscribers. This may not mean much to the average gamer, but to stat-obsessed executives and folks in marketing departments, this is like licking triple-chocolate ice cream covered in bacon and honey.

Nielsen and EEDAR join forces to provide 'unprecedented' game tracking data originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamasutra breaks down console sales in light of price cuts

Griffin McElroy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST

Source: NPD Group; via Gamasutra

If you're like us -- and, we figure after all these years we've been secretly brainwashing you, you are -- then the recent console price cuts were met with your curiosity over how these discounts would affect the vast gaming sales landscape. Fortunately, Gamasutra has posted a chart (using NPD figures) that measures how the price cuts altered two factors: each console's average sale price during the month of September and its year-to-date sales (through September).

This first figure proves the most telling about how the market reacted to the slashed prices. For instance, the average price at which PS3s were purchased in September was a flat $300; meaning an overwhelming majority of buyers responded favorably to the discount. Though the price of the Wii didn't get cut until the last week of September, the console's average price dropped to $218 -- also indicative of a reactionary market surge. The average Xbox 360 purchased price, however, actually increased by a buck to $261. By Gamasutra's calculations, folks purchased three Elites ($300) for every Arcade model ($200) sold during the month.

The PS3 was the top-selling console in September, which is the first time it's ever managed a first-place sales finish. It's still in last place in the 2009 year-to-date totals, though, and Sony's system would need to outsell Xbox 360 by about 35,000 units every week until the end of the year to break even with its competitor. Passing up the Wii, however, would require an act of divine intervention -- Nintendo's console is currently sitting on YTD sales of 4 million, which is more than twice the total of PS3 sales.

Gamasutra breaks down console sales in light of price cuts originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncharted 2 demo stats suggest plundering is addictive

Alexander Sliwinski — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

The Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer demo has only been out for a week, but it's already attracted a large following of money-hungry murderers. Evan Wells of developer Naughty Dog has posted up some compelling (non-beta) stats:

Total Number of games played: 1,217,424
Total Number of Kills: 92,110,787
Total Number of Treasures Captured: 1,860,645
Total Amount of Money Earned: $38,841,367,350
Total Time Played: 9,905 days (or 27+ years!)

It'll be interesting to see these figures compared to those numbers produced by the retail game -- launching next week -- after its first seven days in service. Uncharted 2 has already become a critical favorite, and soon we'll see if Naughty Dog's game can convert all that in-game "money earned" into real-world doubloons ... Although, $38 billion in sales does seem a bit unrealistic.

Uncharted 2 demo stats suggest plundering is addictive originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen corrects console usage chart: Wii beats 360 in January

JC Fletcher — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST

The Nielsen report on American console usage percentages contains some mislabeled data, according to a correction sent to Fast Company by Nielsen's Gavin McMillan. In the original PDF's Figure 4, "January 2008 to January 2009 Video Console Usage Percents," the Wii and Xbox 360's positions are transposed for January 2009. The correct chart appears above, showing that Wii usage, at 20.7% of the total recorded usage minutes, exceeded 360 usage (18.2%) in January.

The average percentage of active use for each console for December 2008, the metric on which we reported yesterday, remains accurate. That refers to the percent of use each console got against the total possible time users could have been using them.

Nielsen corrects console usage chart: Wii beats 360 in January originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen report reveals average game console usage

David Hinkle — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:55:00 EST

The Nielsen group has released a new report on usage of the three major consoles. Coming as little surprise, Nielsen's study has placed Wii in dead last, with the average player using the console 6.8 percent of the time during Nielsen's study in December, 2008. During that same period, those involved in the study played Xbox 360 10.2 percent and PS3 10.6 percent -- nearly double the Wii average. Clearly, the average gamer doesn't have the endurance necessary for long-term waggling.

Wii also ranked the lowest in average days used over the course of the study, with users only partaking an average of 5 days (so much for that Wii Fit vow). The PS3 ranked second place, with users spending an average of 6.8 days days, which leaves us with Xbox 360 -- the top dog in this category -- with an average of 7.1 days.

Lastly, Nielsen tracked the daily average number of sessions, and, again, Wii was last with 1.78 sessions, whereas the Xbox 360 and PS3 had much higher averages of 2.15 and 2.74 sessions, respectively. So, how would you rank your console usage?

Source - Nielsen report (PDF) [via Edge]

Nielsen report reveals average game console usage originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Left 4 Dead stats show strong anti-Smoker bias

Ludwig Kietzmann — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

Valve has collected and released the Achievement statistics for its cooperative, zombie extermination-fest, Left 4 Dead. The most frequently unlocked award amongst Steam users is "Drag and Drop," with 72.6% of players having earned it after splattering a spluttering Smoker zombie before it managed to inflict damage on a fellow survivor. That's sticking to the spirit of the game!

Unsurprisingly, nobody's managed to kill 53,595 Infected (yet!) and only 0.2% of players have survived every single campaign on Expert difficulty. That's the one where the AI Director puts a paperweight on the "Spawn Tank" button.

Left 4 Dead stats show strong anti-Smoker bias originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New game industry facts, straight from the ESA

Kyle Orland — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Business

Today's "State of the Industry" E3 keynote by ESA CEO Mike Gallagher also marked the release of the organization's new annual set of "Essential Facts" about the game industry. Among the interesting findings from the ESA-commissioned survey of the American public:

65 percent of American households play computer and video games;
38 percent of American homes have a video game console;
The average game player is 35 years old;
One out of four gamers are over age 50;
Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent);
41 percent of Americans expect to purchase one or more games this year;
94 percent of parents are present when games are purchased or rented;
88 percent of parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play;
63 percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children's lives.

New game industry facts, straight from the ESA originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nintendo Channel becomes The Stat Channel

Candace Savino — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: News

Have you ever recommended a game on the Nintendo Channel? If so, you'll know that you have to answer a series of inquiries about the title. Whether the game is more "casual" or "hardcore," for example, is one of the burning questions your Wii will ask you regarding the software you wish to rate.

While such arbitrary categorizing is useless for the most part, Nintendo has compiled the data into some nifty pie charts. This way, you'll know exactly how hardcore and manly the game you're playing is. You can also find some interesting usage data about each game. For example, did you know that Wii Sports has been played for over twenty-four million hours? Now that's a lot of Wii Sports.

As far as we know, this accounts for only North American data, and even lessening that scope, only people who've agreed to share their information (remember that disclaimer you said "yes" or "no" to after downloading the channel?). With that said, such usage statistics can't be considered accurate.

Now that we've given you a caveat, go ahead and check out the stats to your little heart's content. To view them, just click on the information for the game you're curious about and scroll down until you find the pertinent information.

The Nintendo Channel becomes The Stat Channel originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GTA IV statsplosion! Xbox Live and US 360 sales detailed

Christopher Grant — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:58:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Rockstar continues its statistical assault, putting down its scientific calculator and giant sacks of money just long enough to share some Grand Theft Auto IV data with us, by way of Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog. First, Microsoft wanted to share some GTA-related Xbox sales data (Europe can't have all the fun, right?): Xbox 360 console sales "went up 54% week-over-week"; retailers say that the Xbox 360 release accounted for more than 60% of all GTA IV sales in the first week; sticking those two together, retailers say that "roughly 40% of new 360 console sales" went out the door with a copy of GTA IV.

Now for the really interesting stuff: Xbox Live stats. We already knew GTA IV took the top spot on Xbox Live (and apparently helped the service break the "1 million concurrent users" milestone), but know we know how: more than 2.3 million people played on Xbox Live, unlocking more than 12 million achievements, and setting "a new record for time played," with your average gamer investing more than four hours in the game's first week.

Without decent info to compare and contrast these numbers with, they're little more than trivia. Regardless, here's our best apples and oranges comparison: in the first nine days after the release of the Call of Duty 4 map pack, that game logged some 30 million hours of play so, if GTA IV had 2.3 million users spending an average of four hours with it in the first week, we're clumsily calculating something like 9.2 million hours versus something like 23.3 prorated hours for CoD4 ... or something. We warned you it was apples and oranges. Now you tell us: how much time did you spend with GTA IV?

GTA IV statsplosion! Xbox Live and US 360 sales detailed originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 May 2008 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virtually Overlooked: Virtually Overloaded with year-end stats

JC Fletcher — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Virtually Overlooked

For the last Virtually Overlooked column of 2007, we thought that we would take a momentary break from our normal routine of extolling our favorite old games. Instead, we're taking a look back on the year of speculative game-wanting. After the break, you'll find the last year of Virtually Overlooked, including the five special Virtually Overlooked Week features (but not the polls or other ancillary posts) boiled down into a pile of numbers.

To be honest, this survey was inspired by personal curiosity. I wondered just how many games we had covered, and how they broke down. Did I really talk about as many Konami games as it felt like I did? Am I really as obsessed with the Turbografx-16 as I seem? Were the VO columns written by others a lot more popular than mine? (Thankfully, no.) Head past the break for ... you know, numbers and stuff!

Continue reading Virtually Overlooked: Virtually Overloaded with year-end stats

Virtually Overlooked: Virtually Overloaded with year-end stats originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft releases new statistics, expects 10m Live users by June 2008

Scott Jon Siegel — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:20:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360

Amidst the hub-bub of the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft has released some new statistics and numbers regarding the Xbox 360, which will have its second birthday this November. Worth noting are the stats on Xbox Live, which Microsoft reports has over 7 million subscribers so far, with 10 million anticipated by June of 2008.

According to the stats, the original Xbox's Halo 2 is still the most-played title on Xbox Live, followed by Epic's Gears of War. On Xbox Live Arcade, Aegis Wing is the most widely downloaded title, with family card classic Uno coming in second. It's clear that Microsoft considers Live to be the 360's killer app, boasting that 70% of connected console users download and play XBLA games. In terms of social networking, Microsoft is proud to have 2.6 million text and voice messages sent over their service every day, and claims that the average Live Gold user has 23 friends listed. It's no MySpace, but maybe that's a good thing...

Microsoft releases new statistics, expects 10m Live users by June 2008 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox 360 Facts 'n Stats are statilicious

Dustin Burg — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:15:00 EST

Filed under: News, Xbox Live, E3

Breaking news! This just in! The Xbox 360 is a success! As part of their press release blitzkrieg, Microsoft decided to supply us with some Facts 'n Stats ammunition to prove how awesome the Xbox 360 and its community really is. So, we're passing along the news.

Supplied in their Facts 'n Stats are little statistical gems post-marketing spun for easy digestion. Little gems like 18 million Xbox 360 games have been sold worldwide, which is twice as many sold as both competitors combined. And another stating that Xbox Live has garnered 7 million members and that in the last year a new member has joined Xbox Live every 8 seconds. Or how about one of our favorites that since November, sixteen third party Xbox 360 titles have broken into the top ten best selling games (NPD figures) while third party titles on the PS3 or Wii have yet to achieve any top ten status. Fun, isn't it? More Facts 'n Stats enjoyment can be had after the break.

Continue reading Xbox 360 Facts 'n Stats are statilicious

Xbox 360 Facts 'n Stats are statilicious originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forget the field, watch the soccer match on your PSP

Kyle Orland — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:45:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PSP, Wireless, Sports, Mobile

Back in my day, everyone brought their fancy new transistor radios to the ball game to listen to the play-by-play. And the players people didn't wear their ball caps backwards, like you young'ns today! And Cracker Jack cost only a nickel! And certain folk weren't allowed on the field, dagnabbit!

Well, the times are a-changin', because soon people attending London Arsenal soccer matches will be able to get streaming stats and replays on their PSPs via a program called S.PORT (Back in my day, dots went at the end of sentences, consarnit). The program even allows live streaming of the game, for when you have to go to use the facilities (Back in my day, they weren't called the "facilities." It was called an outhouse, and it smelled awful. But did we complain? Noooooo.)

At this rate, soon you won't even have to go to your local sports stadium to see the game. With all the technology and such these days, I bet someone'll come up with a way to beam images of the game directly into your home, so you can watch from the comfort of your couch. Boy, won't that be something.

Forget the field, watch the soccer match on your PSP originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LiveEye keeps track of your gaming habits

Dustin Burg — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Fan stuff

Ever wanted to see what games you played, when, for how long, and what you achieved? The fellas over at 360FriendSpot whipped up a website that does just that called LiveEye. You'll have to sign up for the service, but once you do you'll be able to see all your stats in bar graph form and even other LiveEye users. Now you have an accurate representation of how many days you've spent (or wasted ...) on your favorite 360 game. Enjoy.

[Via Digg]

LiveEye keeps track of your gaming habits originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Medal of Honor hype on IGN

Andrew Yoon — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, Medal of Honor, Video

IGN has a huge blow-out on the upcoming PSP Medal of Honor Heroes. They have one written-by-a-marketing-team write-up that features profiles of the in-game characters: ~~Generic McAmerican,~~ Jimmy Paterson, William Holt and John Baker. Snore... The other is an interview with the game's producer, Peter Choi. It very similar to a previous interview, but it's great to know that he understands some of the things PSP fans are looking for from a game:

32 player online (Infrastructure) multiplayer. I can't stress enough how awesome that sounds.
"The game is also optimized to have very short load times, which is hugely important for gamers on-the-go." (Yes!)
"User Hosted Server feature along with official EA Nation Server games, are both fully customizable and have very detailed leaderboards and stat tracking." (Yes!)

If all that hype wasn't enough for you, then you might want to check out the newest trailer for the game. It looks a lot like the previous videos, but with even sharper, prettier graphics.

Medal of Honor hype on IGN originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 07 Oct 2006 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smash Bros. most popular game on Game Stats

David Hinkle — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fan stuff

That's right Halo 3, go take a walk!

Over at Game Stats, today's (and yesterday's) most popular game is next year's Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Besides the previously-mentioned, alien-exterminating cyborg, the game has some seriously stiff competition, a majority of which are on the Wii. The console, and obviously its games, are getting major buzz, and for good reason. Face it, we all, Nintendo fanboys or not, want to take Snake into the Smash Bros. arena (namely Hyrule) and kick some ass. Link vs. Snake, or Samus vs. Snake...oh we cannot wait.

See also:

Smash Bros. most popular game on Game Stats originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Jul 2006 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox Live is "Bringing It Home" in numbers

Adams Briscoe — Thu, 18 May 2006 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: Xbox Live

In case you didn't know, Xbox Live is kind of a big thing.

As a matter of fact, it has officially been christened "the world's largest platform for high-definition on-demand content," having topped 24 million downloads. That's a huge growth spurt from its humble beginnings in November last year. During the "E3: Bringing It Home" event, over 1.5 million people logged on to download 5 million nuggets of content. That's 600 terabytes of data in only 7 days, for those of you interested.

Here were the top downloads during E3: Bringing It Home:
1. Halo 3 Game Trailer
2. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Playable Demo
3. Test Drive Unlimited Playable Demo
4. MotoGP '06 Playable Demo
5. X-Men: The Last Stand Pack
6. Gears of War Game Trailer
7. Call of Duty 2: Skirmish Map Pack
8. Spiderman 3 Game Trailer
9. Fable 2 Trailer
10. Uno Xbox Live Arcade Game

Did you participate in the Xbox Live frenzy during E3?

Xbox Live is "Bringing It Home" in numbers originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 May 2006 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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