The Sandbox

DFC predicts that game sales worldwide will hit a record $57 billion in 2009, up from around $40 billion last year. But here's what's really interesting:

Guess what the leading machine for games was in 2007. Xbox? No. Wii, nope. PS3, un unh. The PC. That's right, while consoles get much of the press and attention, the home computer topped them. The top platform for games last year was the PC with over $7 billion - a number expected to hit $19 billion by 2013. Why the boom? Credit online games like World of Warcraft with sucking wallets into the ether.

So my hand is sort of cramped up from playing Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS, and it just got me thinking about the world of input devices, and how this is really a new golden age of interesting ways of interacting with games.

The other day, I blogged about EA veteran Neil Young, who now has a publishing company devoted largely to iPhone games. He's not the only interested in the ubiquitous platform. NextGen reports that BioWare, creator of Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights, is also eyeing the iPhone.

"Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at,” BioWare's co-CEO tells NextGen.

[via Wired Game | Life] Someone I know went down to Texas to work on DC Universe, and finally there is some public sign of art on the game, by way of their MySpace page. Unfortunately, it's concept art by Jim Lee, nothing from the game itself. Despite the "it's still early" line you will read in press coverage, there has been at least a year of solid game asset development, you can be sure, so I'd love to see some screenshots soon, thanks.

With the annual E3 gaming convention next week in LA, rumors are already flying about what big announcements await. And the biggest so far: a new game, maybe, from Bungie, the makers of Halo.

Here's the dish from Gamespot.

[via GamePolitics.com] Newsweek has an article about The Anatomy of Violence, where video games barely rate a mention behind things, like, you know, depression, social isolation, paranoia, individual experiences and their relation to the larger society. "No single cause is sufficient, none is deterministic."

Imagine, a well-researched mainstream article on violence, and it doesn't blame first-person shooters and XBoxes for the rampant violence of our historically violent society.

It's a Soulcalibur kind of month, it is. Soulcalibur is, for my money, the best fighting game series ever, and Soulcalibur IV is coming out at the end of this month. They're prepping us with a cute little manga about how to play, and they've brought the retro with a release of the Dreamcast Soulcalibur on XBLA.

Today begins the E3 - Electronic Entertainment Expo - in Los Angeles. This is the videogame industry's annual soiree. Here's a few things to watch for:

Bungie's new game: a new iteration of the Halo universe, rumored to be team-based.

WiiMotionPlus: an add-on for Nintendo's motion sensing controller that will improve precision.

QuakeLive: id Software's seminal multiplayer shooter, Quake III Arena, goes online in a free Web-based shooter.

Rock Band 2: The next chapter in the hit music game packs cymbals.

Stay tuned for more.

Well, finally back down to earth after last year's E3 convention. The highlights:

LittleBigPlanet: once again, this quirky do-it-yourself side-scrolling game for the Sony Playstation 3 is the underdog to beat. Coming in October, the game lets you build, play, and share an infinitely varied crop of platform-jumping experiences. It could do for Generation Net what Donkey Kong did for the arcade crowd.

Spore: Still awesome, still unreleased, Will Wright's upcoming simulation is finally landing in paws this September.

Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero: Music games were everywhere (see Microsoft's karaoke title Lips) but the two champs are going head to head with new versions this fall. Even better, the Rock Band party featured a performance by the Who - and it was hilarious to hear Pete Townshend gripe about not liking the candy-colored buttons on the neck of the Rock Band guitars (though I think he was thinking of Guitar Hero, actually).

It ain't what it used to be. There's a lot of buzz online and off about the sorry state of the annual videogame convention. And I have to say I agree. Going to E3 used to feel like stepping into a giant videogame, like your cameo role in Tron. Yeah, it was too loud, too crowd, too manic - but it worked. Dave Perry of Acclaim talks about how he used to take outsiders to E3 to wow them - and that wow factor is gone.

The Penny Arcade guys in Seattle have picked up a bunch of slack with their annual expo, but I'd still like to think that E3 - ostensibly, the industry's show - can still make one last stab at coming back. My two cents: bring back the bombast. Games are set to make more money than ever - $22 billion - and need a show that reflects that white hot power.