It's another confusing day in the rollercoaster world of videogame hardware. According to Reuters, US sales of videogames and hardware were up 46 percent in August, compared to the same month last year. Xbox 360 performed particularly well, with Madden 08 shifting 897,000 units on the system, while the hardware sales were up 63 percent on July.
Shockingly, Wii sales fell by 5 percent, but don't worry - Nintendo still shifted 404,000 units, "almost as much as the Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 combined," added Reuters just in case any Sony or Microsoft execs were getting too excited. And just to add insult to injury, the report points out that PS3 sales were down 16 percent in August to 131,000 units.
So when I wrote 'confusing day' I actually meant, 'absolutely in line with industry trends'. Apart from the Wii hardware sales dip, which is bound to reverse now that Nintendo has actually released some new games for the system.
In other industry-esque news, Intel has bought physics middleware company Havok and some news sources are questioning the motives. Plus, Sony is selling its advanced semiconductor manufacturing facilities to Toshiba, a move that effectively represents, 'a retreat from high-end semiconductor fabrication' according to the Financial Times:
The move would be in line with Sony's strategy of slimming down its non-core assets. Sir Howard Stringer, Sony chief executive, indicated this year that Sony, which has invested more than Y200bn in developing the "Cell" chip, would cut back on chip spending.
There are few high-profile plans to extend the Cell technology beyond PS3 - Toshiba has talked about using the technology in hi-def TV sets and IBM will be implementing it into MMORPG servers, but that's about it. The Y100bn Toshiba is expected to pay for the facility will certainly come in useful - if only to fund the next two years of development on Gran Turismo 5...
