Games

'WoW: Wrath of Lich King' sets sales record

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to the mega-popular online game, sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours last week, setting what its publisher said is an all-time record for PC games.

According to Blizzard Entertainment, Wrath of the Lich King, broke the one-day PC game sales record of 2.4 million copies, which was set 22 months earlier by The Burning Crusade, the first WoW expansion.

The new expansion was launched simultaneously in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia.

And at $40 a copy, the game would have brought in $… Read more

Google shutting down virtual world 'Lively'

Once thought to be its answer to virtual worlds like Second Life, Google's Lively launched this summer to much fanfare.

Lively was Web-based and allowed anyone to set up virtual spaces, such as rooms, that could be embedded onto blogs or Facebook pages.

But the project never picked up much steam.

Now, Google has decided to shut the project down.

"Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year," Google said on its … Read more

Boing Boing launches game blog Offworld

Boing Boing, famous for its sassy, culture-centric approach to tech blogging, has launched a game site called Offworld.

For years, Boing Boing was one of the most popular blogs around, and with the rare exception of a guest writer or two, it was written entirely by a group of four accomplished co-editors.

If you were interested in the culture of technology, there was a pretty good chance that Cory Doctorow, Xeni Jardin, David Pescovitz, and Mark Frauenfelder were your heroes. Even as other blog networks, such as Gawker Media and Weblogs, sprouted up, Boing Boing stuck to its original, successful … Read more

Video game sales soar in October

Despite a slowing economy, sales of U.S. video games and hardware soared 18 percent from the same month a year ago, according to data released Thursday by market researcher NPD Group.

Hardware sales were up 5 percent to $494.7 million, led by Nintendo's Wii game console. Wii held onto the top spot by selling 803,000 units in October, up from 687,000 in September. The Wii, which has been plagued by shortages, has sold more than 13 million units since its release in November 2006.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 held onto the No. 2 spot by … Read more

'WoW' players prepping for 'Wrath of the Lich King'

For World of Warcraft players who over the years have grown accustomed to seeing busy in-world auction houses, the last few weeks may have seemed odd.

Normally bustling with players eager to buy or sell weapons, clothing, armor, or other goods, business at the auction houses has recently slowed to a crawl. But it's not because of the global economic crisis.

Rather, say WoW aficionados, players have been hoarding their gold in anticipation of the release Thursday of the game's latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and holding off on buying items that would soon be obsolete.

This is just one example of players of the hugely popular massively multiplayer online game behaving differently as Lich King's release approaches.

The game will go on sale nationwide after midnight (12 a.m.) Thursday, and retail stores expect lines across the country. … Read more

Video game ratings board adds 'summaries'

Parents trying to figure out what video games are appropriate for their kids have a new tool at their disposal.

Already, they've been able to look at games' ratings--"E" for everyone, "T" for teen, "M" for ages 17 and up, and "AO" for adults only. But now, the agency that decides which games are right for which age groups, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, will be offering what it calls "summaries" of each game's rating.

The idea, the ESRB said in a release Wednesday morning, is to … Read more

Three Rings officially launches 'Whirled'

For years, one of the biggest success stories in the casual game space has been San Francisco-based Three Rings and its hit, Puzzle Pirates, which has earned more than $14 million.

Now, the company has officially launched its Whirled platform, a system designed around user-created Flash-based massively multiplayer games that gives developers a way to make money with their creations.

Whirled has been in a closed beta for months, and it is still technically in beta, explained Three Rings CEO Daniel James. But the platform is now open to the general public and its money-making structure is available to any … Read more

Missing teen hooked on Xbox found dead

We have a sad ending to the story of Brandon Crisp, the Ontario, Canada, boy who ran away from home after his dad took away his Xbox console.

The body of the 15-year-old, who had been missing since October 13, was found on Wednesday by deer hunters in a heavily wooded area about a mile or so away from where his bicycle was found two weeks earlier, according to police and press accounts.

An autopsy is scheduled for Friday, but based on preliminary evidence, police do not suspect foul play, according to news reports.

Crisp, according to his father and … Read more

Machinima.com raises $3.85 million in funding

Machinima.com announced Thursday it raised $3.85 million in funding from MK Capital and other investors, which will be applied toward its business expansion. This is the first round of venture funding the company has raised.

The company also noted it recently named five new board members: Yair Landau, former Sony Pictures Digital chief; Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons; Matt Coffin, LowerMyBills.com founder; Mark Terbeek, MK Capital partner; and Allen DeBevoise, CEO of Machinima.com.

The company provides tools to allow users to incorporate images from video games and apply them to movies, as well as generates … Read more