The full list is below.

1. Nintendo Wii: 2,056,866 related items sold
2. Microsoft Xbox360: 1,297,903 related items sold
3. Sony PSP: 350,591 related items sold
4. iPod Touch: 281,361 related items sold
5. Nintendo Wii Fit: 266,584 related items sold
6. Apple iPhone 3G: 212,837 related items sold
7. BlackBerry Pearl: 207,688 related items sold
8. BlackBerry Curve: 193,788 related items sold
9. Sony Playstation 3: 103,333 related items sold
10. Guitar Hero III: 98,159 related items sold
11. Halo 3: 91,067 related items sold
12. Grand Theft Auto IV: 43,005 related items sold
13. MacBook Air: 12,423 related items sold
14. Guitar Hero Aerosmith: 3,749 related items sold
15. Rock Band 2’s: 1,650 related items sold

Original URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/08/wii-reigns-supreme-on-ebay-2008-top-gadget-list/

For the record: subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access.

The milestone for the popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) represents a 10% growth in 10 months and shows signs of slowing. If you consider the fact that the online game debuted in November 2004 and took only six months to go from 9 million to 10 million subscribers, you can conclude that it took Blizzard much longer to add this last million subscribers to its user base than in the past (the company announced it reached the 10 million mark in January 2008, up from 9 million in July, 2007).

On the other hand, WoW was estimated to hold an impressive 62% of the massively multiplayer online game market back in April.

On 13 November, the second expansion of WoW, dubbed “Wrath of the Lich King”, will launch in several regions around the world. Maybe that will help reignite growth, or at least help it hold onto its massive lead in market share.

Original URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/29/world-of-warcraft-hits-11-million-subscribers-mark-shows-signs-of-slowing/

World Golf Tour is looking to fill this gap. The site has launched a free, full-featured Flash game that offers 3D graphics, an advanced physics engine, and user-customizable characters – it’s not as good as EA’s Tiger Woods series, but it’s going to be close enough for most people. The site launched a beta version last year, and is now introducing a new course, expanded customization options, and multiplayer support.

CEO YuChiang Cheng says that his team recognized early on that it wouldn’t be able to compete with EA’s massive development team and art department, so it took a few innovative shortcuts. To create the game’s graphics, the WGT team went to the famed Kiawah Island Golf Resort, where it took geo-tagged photographs spanning the entire course. The team then went through and mapped the photos to a 3D model, which makes the world seem three dimensional while telling the physics engine how each part of the photograph should affect the ball. Using technology similar to Google Earth, WGT allows users to move through the course by seamlessly displaying photographs that are adjacent to each other. The result isn’t as immersive as the 3D worlds crafted by EA’s huge dev team, but it’s very impressive.

While users will be able to play games on their own, the game allows for multiplayer sessions, and tracks stats across all games to produce a network-wide leaderboard. Along with the game itself, the WGT homepage allows users to create profiles, befriend and challenge other golfers, and participate in massively multiplayer tournaments. Tournaments will include cash prizes as well as virtual goods prizes, like new clubs and clothing that can be used to customize an in-game avatar. WGT will generate revenue through microtransactions for these virtual goods, as well as sponsorships for their virtual tournaments.

World Golf Tour will likely do very well – it’s polished, free, and will appeal to millions of golf fans. It may not stand up side-by-side to a console game but its target audience won’t care, especially given the fact that WGT can be played from nearly any browser with no download.

Original URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/06/world-golf-tour-hits-hole-in-one-with-rich-multiplayer-flash-game/

A big part of the game is “stealing” cards from friends, and so a lot of users add other users as friends so that their cards can be obtained. The application’s popularity has also led some users to create Facebook accounts for the sole purpose of playing the game.

Some of those accounts are now being disabled by Facebook, according to this discussion forum on the application site.

What’s curious is the email sent from Facebook to one deleted user, which states that Facebook isn’t a social network (it’s a “social utility”) and isn’t meant to build large groups of new friends. Instead, Facebook is meant to reinforce “pre-existing” social connections:

Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site.

Accounts that are used solely for the purpose of applications are in violation of our Terms of Use. Unfortunately, I will not be able to reactivate your account. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Lauren
User Operations
Facebook

It’s true that Facebook has stated clearly that their intention is to be a sort of mirror to the real world social graph. But it’s unavoidably true that new friendships are made on the site, too. Even friendships forged for the sole purpose of playing a game made by a third party developer.

Even former Facebook President Sean Parker (and current stockholder) said recently at TechCrunch50 that he had far more Facebook friends than real world friends.

Facebook’s real message here may be “please don’t make fake accounts just to play this game,” but that isn’t what they’re saying. Techcrunch emailed them for clarification.

Original URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/15/facebook-isnt-a-social-network-and-dont-try-to-make-new-friends-there/

Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata is humble enough to admit that even he had been surprised by the epidemic-like success of the Wii console.

He told BBC News: “It was so fast. We knew the Wii was the right direction for the company. But the question was always how many years it would take to find success.”

The answer was two years. In that brief time Nintendo has dramatically altered its fortunes in the home console business, while at the same time maintaining, and even improving, its dominance in the handheld gaming space with the DS.

Play time
The change of fortunes began when Mr Iwata took over as president of Nintendo in 2002, only the fourth man to hold the position since the company was founded 109 years ago.

Speaking to BBC News at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) In Los Angeles, he said: “Five years ago when I was appointed I thought that if we didn’t do anything but took the same route there would be no bright future for the entire industry.

“So we decided we needed to increase the number of people gaming.

“We started thinking about people who weren’t playing games and asked ourselves why they were not interested. And why had some people stopped playing despite playing in their youth?”

The solution was not a rush towards a high definition games platform targeted at the hard core gamer but remembering the simple pleasures of playing with family and friends.

The Wii console introduced a mass market of gamers to motion-sensitive play, replacing the button-laden controller with a wand that could direct action with the flick of a wrist.

Within weeks of the Wii’s launch people were taking their new console around to the homes of friends and family, and word of mouth quickly spread.

“It was so fast because those who appreciated the new attractions of Wii must have been those who used to play video games. And these people were telling friends and family about the console.

“People who first started playing with the Wii were so excited that they had to spread the news.”

History lesson
The success came after the perceived disappointment of the GameCube, which finished its lifespan behind the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in terms of global sales, selling 22 million units over seven years.

Nintendo had tried to compete directly with Microsoft and Sony and failed.
Its resulting and ultimately successful move was to realise that the market of people who could play games but were not was much bigger than the market of those already playing games on a regular basis.

“It was somewhat out of the boundaries of common sense for the time,” said Mr Iwata.

“From the perspective of people from outside the industry it might have looked like a gamble. But I do not think it was a gamble at all.”

One of the original criticisms of the Wii at launch was that the underpowered machine would increasingly suffer in comparison to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as the machines went through their lifecycle.

But Mr Iwata dismissed talk of a console lifespan as nonsense and somewhat irrelevant.

“After all, the primary concern is not to let consumers purchase hardware but to enjoy software,” he said.

Future fun
But that did not mean Nintendo was not already thinking about life beyond the Wii.

“However hard our software developers try to create new and unprecedented titles with great ideas eventually there will be a day when devs will say they have no more means with that hardware.

“That’s exactly the time we need to introduce people to new hardware. We do want to be flexible about this,” he said.

“We just don’t want to decide upon a fixed lifecycle of any platform.”

Addressing another criticism of the Wii, Mr Iwata said it was a “misunderstanding and misconception” to say that the console was struggling to attract support from developers outside of Nintendo.

“The number of third-party titles for Wii is actually more than what is available for other platforms.

“And in the initial launch platform period for any platform, the third-party software titles for Wii are outselling any of the third-party titles for other platforms.”

Nintendo remains the home for some of gaming’s most enduring franchises and icons, from Mario to Zelda and the success of the Wii has ensured they will remain part of the landscape for some time to come.

But there were no details of any new Mario or Zelda titles given at the recent press conference held by Nintendo to highlight its plans for the months ahead.

“At this E3 we had to focus on software for the mass audience and software that will be sold in this year or next.

“This one of the rare opportunities to reach out to mass audiences around the world.

“In order for us to create a new Super Mario game or Legend of Zelda game that can cater to the strong demands of core gamers around the world it takes two to three years.”

While its competitors battle to become the multimedia hub for the digital living room Nintendo is determined to continue on its course of “putting smiles on people’s faces”.

He said: “All we have got to do is carry on. People are going to get tired of new proposals. We have to offer them new proposals before they do.

“We really want to keep surprising people,” he said, then added: “It’s not easy at all.”

Original URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7511215.stm

But Apple is now exploring another hardware technology that has the potential to realign a multibillion dollar industry.

Apple has once again got an itch for gaming.

This isn’t necessarily a new frontier. Fans of the Cupertino-based company may recall how a Steve Jobs-less Apple entered the console gaming fray in 1996 with the troubled Pippin. At best, the Pippin ended up being a costly lesson. At worst, it served as a stinging footnote to the company’s strained relationship with gamers.

Fast forward to the present — the company has enjoyed a string of hardware and software hits and has disrupted the music and mobile phone industries soon after entering them. Today’s Apple certainly has the means to release another console, but let’s face it — a rehashed Pippin would be a huge gamble, considering the established relationships and competition represented by Sony’s PlayStation3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii.

This doesn’t mean that Apple has abandoned ways to break into the gaming market with its desktop hardware. A beefed-up iMac offers an interesting possibility. Adding horsepower to the iMac line isn’t exactly new for Cupertino, but with an overclocked Intel CPU and an nVIDIA 8800M GTS under the hood, the new iMac could easily pass for a leading gaming rig — at least, if there were more developers creating games designed to run on it and OS X.

It seems much more likely that Jobs and Co. may be following a different path to gaming success — domination of the mobile gaming market.

A trademark extension filed last February with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is one of the strategy’s biggest tells. The filing extends Apple’s trademark in regards to:

“Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games.”

Skeptics could easily dismiss this as Apple casting a wide net for future expansion, but a swift call to action seems more likely. Not only are executives well aware of the strong interest in gaming among Mac users (and vendors), but also new conditions exist for gaming to be pushed to the forefront in the Apple hardware and software ecosystem. The faltering company behind the Pippin now dominates several hardware segments, which makes a huge difference in launching a new (and potentially related) product. The problems that the Pippin faced – such as the development and marketing costs associated with an unproven device – would be negated by a gaming platform tied into Apple’s market-dominating and innovative mobile devices.

And here’s the really sneaky part – the iPod Touch and the iPhone are already fully capable of playing games. Apple highlighted this home-court advantage with the recent release of the SDK for the iPhone/iPod Touch. By doing so, Apple let a community of eager third-party developers tackle designing games like “Spore” as well as casual games for its devices that utilize innovative features such as the multitouch screen and motion-sensing accelerometer. Along with all of the development tools necessary for building applications, developers will have the ability to upload and sell their creations through the iPhone App store (naturally, Apple will take a cut).

Consumers are already ga-ga over Apple’s mobile devices to begin with, so whether they should be re-imagined as gaming gadgets is more of a marketing issue. But with the developer community in a tizzy to create the next great Apple-friendly game, it’s only a matter of time before Cupertino announces that it’s ready to connect the dots. Don’t be too surprised if it ends up being Steve’s “one more thing” at next year’s Macworld.

Original URL: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/…/imac

The virtual world would be aimed at students and would “simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions”.

The agency has published a “request for information” (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform.

Nasa believe the game would help find the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to fulfil its “vision for space exploration”.

“A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of Nasa’s educational cyberstructure,” the RFI reads.

“The MMO will foster career exploration opportunities in a much deeper way than reading alone would permit and at a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program.”

Space mission
Nasa already has a presence in the 3D virtual universe.

The agency owns an island in Second Life where individuals and groups with an interest in the space programme can meet, share ideas and conduct experiments.

CoLab, as it is called, is the brainchild of scientists at the Nasa Ames Research Center in San Francisco.

The agency hopes that the environment could one day be used to allow the public to take part in virtual missions.

“We at Nasa are working hard to create opportunities for what I might call participatory exploration,” the director of the project, Simon Worden, has said.

“We are looking at how this island can be a portal for all to fly along on space missions,” he told delegates at the National Space Society’s (NSS) conference last year.

“When the next people step onto the surface of the Moon in a little over a decade, your avatar could be with them,” he said.

The latest proposal was published by Nasa’s Learning Technologies Project Office which supports and develops education projects to promote science and technology.

Job seeker
The document says that games are becoming increasingly important in education and could be useful for teaching a range of skills.

“Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity,” it says.

The document calls for a game engine that includes “powerful physics capabilities” that can “support accurate in-game experimentation and research”.

“A Nasa-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to investigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths while participating in engaging game-play.”

Other organisations such as the US armed forces already use online gaming as a recruitment tool.

America’s Army for example introduces players to the “seven Army Core Values” and now claims to be one of “the most popular computer games in the world”.

Nasa has asked for interested organisations to respond to the request by the 15 February.

Original URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7195718.stm

This game sets the standard for presentation values on Wii. After playing Galaxy, it will quickly become apparent how little effort many developers have put into tapping the power of the console. This is a game that simply could not be pulled off on GameCube; any excuses that the Wii can’t handle ‘next-gen graphics’ should be disregarded entirely. At the same time, Galaxy proves that graphics alone cannot make a beautiful game; only through the seamless mixture of visuals, music and interactivity can a game become truly memorable. Mario’s latest adventure succeeds in all of these ways, and thereby earns The Wiire’s Eye Candy and Audio awards.

This game sets the standard for platformers and game variety. Exploring the game’s 30 galaxies is just as magical, if not more so, than traversing Princess Peach’s castle for the first time in Super Mario 64. Transforming a whole universe into one’s virtual playground is a significant step forward for the genre, one that Mario pulls off elegantly. Just when you think the game couldn’t output more awe-inducing moments, it proves you terribly mistaken. Running, jumping, swinging, collecting, surfing, balancing, spinning, flying, floating – if you can think it, chances are this game has it. Even more impressive is how the developers combined these elements so sensibly; all of the actions feel perfectly integrated with the world. For this, the game earns The Wiire’s Innovative Design award.

This game sets the standard for family interaction. Allowing a second player to control the star pointer as a means of easing them into the gameplay, or just to allow another person to share in the experience, works brilliantly. It would have been nice if players could switch back and forth in their roles without having to physically exchange controllers, but it’s still a fun mechanic that brings people together. For this, the game earns The Wiire’s Family Fun award.

The most dedicated players will still see nearly 20-30 hours of their lives lost if they pursue every star and secret. Other gamers may take weeks, playing in small bursts and cherishing every moment. The game easily accommodates any schedule and play style. When it’s done, many find themselves starting over – the game is that alluring. For this, Super Mario Galaxy earns The Wiire’s Infinite Replay award.

Super Mario Galaxy earns The Wiire’s Editor’s Choice award because it is why you bought a Wii; if you don’t own the console, this game is one of the best reasons to board the bandwagon. Do service to yourself, and to the extremely talented developers at Nintendo’s Tokyo studio, by letting Mario take you on a trip you won’t soon forget.

Original URL: http://www.thewiire.com/review/3/3/Super_Mario_Galaxy

The Orange Box
Valve’s The Orange Box, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, is crammed to the gills with value. There’s so much content that I couldn’t devote more than a few hours to each of the three games in the box.

Storytelling is the strength of Half-Life 2, a critically acclaimed shooter originally released in 2004 and making its debut on Xbox and PS3 in this collection.

From the opening moments, when you step off a train into the grip of a prison city controlled by an Orwellian dictator, Half-Life 2 builds its world and characters in a realistic, subtle fashion that makes most other game narratives seem ham-fisted. It doesn’t hurt that the shooting action is also excellent, or that the package is completed with physics-based puzzles (stacking up bricks on a seesaw so the other half supports your weight, for example).

I sank even more time into Portal, a brilliant experiment in game design included in The Orange Box. In this first-person puzzle game, you get from place to place by creating portals that warp the fabric of space and time.

Retraining your brain to think outside the boundaries of physical space is a fascinating and often challenging concept, supported by a hilarious comedic story line.

If it’s multiplayer action you’re after, Team Fortress 2 is where you’ll spend the most time. Like most squad-based online games, your team has to take over the enemy’s base or capture their flag. But here, you can choose from nine totally different character types every time you respawn.

Do you want to lug around a massive gun and blow away the opposition? Fine. But you can also be a battlefield medic, healing your friends. Or (my personal favorite) become a spy, don the enemy’s colors and infiltrate their base without them even knowing.

Original URL: http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2007/10/gamereviews_1012

The US firms are using a Virtual Worlds Expo and Conference in San Jose, California, to promote enabling people’s animated online personae, referred to as “avatars,” to freely roam from one virtual world to another.

Currently, avatars are trapped in the virtual worlds in which they are created.

Since people routinely spend hours customizing online proxies with hairstyles, tattoos, wardrobes, skin tone and more, they are averse to repeating the processes in multiple virtual worlds.

This fact is thwarting the virtual life universe from reaching its potential as a place to socialize, advertise, do business and make money, according to San Francisco based Linden Lab, which created Second Life.

“You spend an enormous amount of time on your avatar’s appearances and the things it uses to interact and you want to take those with you,” Linden vice president of business affairs Ginsu Yoon told AFP.

“We don’t think the future of virtual worlds is going to involve a lot of siloed experiences competing against each other. The future is going to involve going from one world to another.”

Pioneering virtual world Second Life has approximately 10 million registered users, with nearly ten percent of those “residents” having logged into the virtual world in the past 30 days.

Other flourishing online worlds include Gaia, which is inhabited with avatars inspired by Japanese anime cartoon characters, and Entropia Universe founded in Sweden more than a decade ago.

IBM and Linden are crafting interoperability standards and protocols based on open-source software in the hopes they will result in open borders between virtual worlds.

IBM’s vision of the future of “three-dimensional Internet” includes companies using virtual worlds for tasks such as recruiting, meetings, and employee training.

“As the 3-D Internet becomes more integrated with the web, we see users demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business,” said IBM digital convergence vice president Colin Parris.

Businesses have already followed people into virtual worlds; opening shops to promote brands and even sell items that are delivered to avatars’ counterparts in the real world.

Investors channeled more than a billion dollars (US) into “in-world” companies during the past year, according to virtual world conference organizers.

Virtual worlds will duplicate the explosive expansion of Internet websites that occurred in the 1990s if, as is the case browsing online, users are free to go whether they choose, Yoon predicts.

Gartner research firm predicts that by 2011, 80 percent of the people using the internet will have alter egos in virtual worlds.

“What we are really trying to do is lead an effort that others will want to join,” Yoon said. “None of this stuff is going to be enforced by the will of unreasoned dictate. I’m sure there will be the usual amounts of interest and skepticism mixed together.”

Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071010/…/lindenibm