Updated console sales numbers

Not too long ago, I posted some sales numbers for the new generation consoles. Since there was some concern as to the validity of those numbers, I’ve held off a few weeks commenting more while looking for other numbers. Recently, Gamasutra has posted their own numbers for December sales along with end of year totals. The VGCharts site I linked to last time shows higher numbers than Gamasutra, so I’m not sure who is correct. I just want to take a peek at the Gamasutra numbers, though, and read through them a bit as if those were the correct numbers.

According to the official hardware statistics released this afternoon, the PlayStation 2 continued to be a popular platform at retail, selling 1.4 million units for the month (37.1 million to date in the U.S.). The Xbox 360 also impressed, selling 1.1 million in December (with 4.5 million lifetime to date), while the Wii sold 604,200 units for the month, putting its total North American number sold at 1.1 million units.

Elsewhere, the severely supply-constricted PlayStation 3 was found to have sold through 490,700 units for the period, with 687,300 units sold since its launch in November – no doubt somewhat of a disappointment for console creator Sony.

I still want Sony to do well with the PlayStation 3. More competition means better value and better games and hardware for us gamers. I know based on my comments in the past, it might seem like I don’t want Sony to do well. The reality is, I don’t think Sony is doing well, but I keep hoping things will go better for the console and that the company will start performing better in handling this round of the console wars. That said, I want to think about those PS3 numbers. According to other reports, Sony was able to meet their projected end-of-year target of 1 million consoles available in North America. That means Sony failed to sell nearly one-third of their consoles available for sale in the launch period.

I haven’t spent a lot of time looking for “experts” to give their analysis, but I suspect that price might be a big factor there. I’d love to get a PS3. I’d be saving my pennies to grab one for $300. Even at $400, I’d see if I could save enough to get one maybe this summer. I just can’t see paying $600, even if I get a Blu-Ray player (which I, like many others, don’t even care about). I suspect I’m not the only consumer who feels this way.

My quest for end-of-year products shipped numbers for the Wii has been fruitless thus far, so I can’t comment on how many remain in the channel. I do know, however, that people are still reporting troubles finding the Nintendo console, and that the number sold is near the projected end-of-year numbers Nintendo had around launch. Still, it will be interesting to find and compare the numbers to what Sony is going through.

[tags]End of year North American console sales, How the new generation of consoles are selling[/tags]

Model and toy trains – Lionel starts it all

I’ve been catching up on my non-geek reading lately, and the particular focus of my magazine time has been American Heritage magazine and American History magazine. While there are a number of really cool articles in the latest American Heritage, the one that most made me want to write is something of a history of how Lionel trains came to be (and here’s a shorter link if that one is broken).


AmHeritage-Lionel_train.jpgAround 1900, when electrified toy trains were in their infancy, a battery-powered railroad car appeared in the show window of Robert Ingersoll’s novelty store on Cortlandt Street in downtown Manhattan. It wasn’t intended as a toy. Rather, the little car that tirelessly circled its loop of track was meant to draw attention to the other items on display.

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Contender: Mother of the year

This is one of those sweet stories you have to not pass along to friends.  After arranging a slumber party for her 15 year old daughter, Sherry Herzner told the guests to bring $5 for the party.  Seems she had special plans for the evening.

The Kentucky woman, 31, is facing criminal charges for allegedly arranging an alcohol-soaked slumber party for her 15-year-old daughter and six of the girl’s friends. According to police, underage attendees were told to bring $5 to the party, which occurred last Friday at Herzner’s Newport home. According to a police report, a copy of which you can find here, Herzner used the money to purchase vodka, which she served to her minor guests. Investigators learned of the boozing when one of the guests called her mother in tears and asked to be picked up from Herzner’s apartment. When the woman realized that her daughter, 14, had been drinking, she called cops.

Really, it was an honest mistake, right?  Could have happened to anyone.  Not really. (via Neatorama)

[tags]Contender for mother of the year, Host slumber party for teen girls – get them drunk.  Way to go mom[/tags]

Samurai saves the day, disappears

masioka.jpgPolice in the UK are trying to find the mystery samurai who protected the men responding to a call for help.

A samurai sword wielding vigilante has come to the rescue of two Police officers when they were attacked by an armed gang in South Shields, England.

A group of men had forced their way into a house and were ransacking the place when passing plain-clothes officers were alerted by a woman inside screaming.

The criminals outnumbered them and were armed with a hammer, knives and chains and attacked the Police officers.

As one of them stabbed at a Policeman with his knife, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked him with a samurai sword.

One of the burglars began running away but was stopped by the stranger who struck him on the arm with the sword.

Two of the criminals were arrested, but in true hero style the samurai disappeared before police could speak to him.

Now I don’t know who the mystery man is, but I have a suspicion who it isn’t.


[tags]Mystery samurai saves UK police, Heroes hero not hero – who is?[/tags]

The challenge of selecting a jury for the “Scooter” Libby trial

With the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby a few days underway now, lawyers for the defense are having a problem I hadn’t even considered – finding a jury with which they have a chance of getting Libby a not-guilty verdict or a hung jury. What little I’ve even considered the trial, I was focusing on the stories in the press over the initial leak, how Libby is perceived by potential jurors, and how much potential jurors knew about the story. A real problem for the defense comes down to finding jurors who are likely to believe Vice President Cheney if he is called as a witness.

“I am completely without objectivity. There is nothing you can say that would make me feel positively about President Bush.”*

Thus spake the eighth of nine prospective jurors reviewed by Judge Reggie Walton, Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and defense attorneys Ted Wells and William Jeffress today. She had indicated on her juror form she had some strong opinions about the Bush administration, and, queried in her turn by Judge Walton, she cast her eye over all assembled in the courtroom and declared herself.

“So, you are saying you do not believe you could render a fair and impartial verdict in this case, based on the evidence and according to my instructions to the jury prior to deliberations?,” Judge Walton followed.

“That’s right,” she responded, whereupon she was immediately excused from jury duty.

I hadn’t even thought about how the Bush/Cheney approval numbers would play into that. I know that’s mighty naïve of me, but I hadn’t given it much thought.

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After lung cancer treatment, over 1/3 smokers go back to smoking

With a headline like that, there really isn’t much mystery to what the story is going to say, is there?

More than a third of smokers who had surgery to remove early stage lung cancer were smoking again within a year, a new study finds.

The study involved patients who were forced to quit smoking for surgery. Many were puffing away within two months of the surgery, and nearly half eventually resumed the habit.

[tags]Many smokers get lung cancer treatment – go back to smoking, Smoke/get treatment/start smoking again?[/tags]

Typos to make t3h funnies for the world

One of my wife’s friends sent her this list of actual typographical errors from church bulletins and newsletters. It seemed too good for me to pass up.

They’re Back! Thank God for churches with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

  • The Fasting &Prayer Conference includes meals.
  • Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
  • Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say “Hell” to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
  • This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
  • Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

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Next-gen Hi-Def disc formats cracked?

We’ll let the torrent freaks give us the scoop on this:

The HD-DVD has been cracked, and high definition content is now being distributed freely over BitTorrent. We all knew this would happen sooner or later, looks it was “sooner”. The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent is Serenity, the Firefly movie.

One of the functions of these new formats is the ability to lock out players with known cracked keys.  I wonder if somehow this (mighty damn early) break of the “security” of the formats will lead to some players not working with future discs.  The crack occurred because those distributing the movies were able to find decryption keys for the movies, and I’m just wondering if this somehow will cause changes to keying in future movies that will break compatibility with current players.

[tags]Next-gen Hi-Def “security” cracked, Hi-Def movie rips being distributed on via torrents[/tags]

The greatest threat you face when you fly is the federal government

Thankfully, I am not the only person who thinks airport security is getting worse instead of better.

Are you more afraid of airport security procedures than of terrorism? Do you think the Department of Homeland Security is out of their minds? If so, you aren’t alone. Here are three reports from recent air travelers of the lunacy they encountered at the airport security checkpoint.

Stories of loss of a Disney doll, confiscation of two nearly-empty tubes of toiletries, and noticing the disposal of threatening moisture in trash bags a few feet from the screeners.

[tags]More stories of airport travel stupidity[/tags]

What a brilliant idea

Dear {$diety}, the more I post, the more I realize I need to add a “Stupid” category for entries here. The latest news article which would make the category is I had it is this bit of insight into the 2nd amendment (and a shorter link if that one is broken) from the Detroit-based think tank Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Let’s see what ISPU tells us about our 2nd amendment.

The idea of terrorist cells operating clandestinely in the United States, quietly amassing handguns and assault rifles, and planning suicide shooting rampages in our malls, is right out of Tom Clancy’s most recent novel. If not for the fact that the 9/11 attacks were also foreshadowed in a Clancy novel, I would have given the idea no further thought.

However, rather than facing this potential threat publicly, the Bush administration is only focused on terrorist attacks involving missiles, nuclear devices and biological weapons. Stopping terrorists with WMDs is a good thing, but what about the more immediate threat posed by terrorists with guns? The potential threat of terrorist attacks using guns is far more likely than any of these other scenarios.

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