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Posts Tagged ‘New Super Mario Bros’

Will good come from the huge piracy of Modern Warfare 2?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has broken records for game sales. So it’s only natural that it is also the most-pirated game of 2009, according to downloads measured by TorrentFreak.

Modern Warfare 2 was the most pirated game on the PC and the Xbox 360 this year. And Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. was the most pirated on the Wii. Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million units in the U.S. and the United Kingdom in its first 24 hours. But the pirates managed to get their hands on copies of the game before it went on sale and distributed it on the torrent networks, as we noted in our popular story on how private investigators tracked down a Modern Warfare 2 pirate.

There were 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version and 970,000 for the Xbox 360. That was more than double the number of pirated copies of Spore, which was last year’s winner of the dubious honor of most-pirated game. But it’s interesting that Modern Warfare 2 went on to break all records, selling $550 million worth in its first five days.

Pirates are downloading PC games the most at a rate of three times the number of downloads of Xbox 360 and Wii releases. The data is collected by TorrentFreak from all public BitTorrent tracking systems.

No game publishers will say that game piracy is a good thing. But in places such as China, there are interesting things happening. Some games have been pirated for years in those markets. That establishes the brand name for those games among the game pirates. But when the markets mature and people are more willing to pay for games, particularly online versions of those games, then the brand name recognition achieved through the piracy starts to generate a financial return. Game executives such as Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello have recognized this phenomenon and hope that it will lead to a long-term gain.

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B.O.S.S. Wiimote shell fills giant people with sense of SNES nostalgia

It might be hard to tell from the picture, but that B.O.S.S. controller, built by Performance Designed Products, is no controller at all. Instead it’s a SNES controller-shaped, super-sized shell that slides over a regular Wiimote and turns it into a monstrosity of memories and oversized buttons. Kudos for ingenuity, but unfortunately the playability suffers and the bulk is just too much to handle, according to Ars Technica. For $10 you can’t fault it too much (and it least it isn’t reliant on its own batteries, a sore subject for the manufacturer), but we think we might save that cash for some international postage to write Nintendo about its unconscionable neglect of the Wii Classic Controller with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

B.O.S.S. Wiimote shell fills giant people with sense of SNES nostalgia originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Week in gaming: New Super Mario Bros. and DJ Hero death

This week has been filled with games that are worth your time and money. Classically trained gamers will enjoy the newly multiplayer-enhanced New Super Mario Bros. Wii, while Left 4 Dead 2 is a great entry into the co-operative gaming space, and the God of War Collection is a great look back at games that feel current and fresh.

We also talk with the CEO of Square Enix about bridging the gaps between the East and West, and give up some thoughts about why DJ Hero didn’t find a large audience in the United States. Welcome to the week in gaming.

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Week in gaming: PS3 Slim official, Shadow Complex reviewed

This week there was one bit of news that dominated everything else… a trailer for New Super Mario Bros. WiI! Crazily, readers were more interested in the Mario trailer than they were in the new PlayStation 3. That’s not to say stories about the PS3 Slim didn’t do great, it just means there is an insatiable lust for all things Mario. Let’s take a look at what gamers were talking about this week.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii trailer shows off new suits: Nintendo released a trailer for New Super Mario Bros. Wii at Gamescom, and we have it. Take a look at the new game that either milks the franchise, or gives fans more of what they love… depending on who you ask.

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