Pushing Play

Microsoft PR tactics are simple. What better way to distract people away from the fact that you’re getting your ass kicked by Nintendo than by telling everyone how you’re kicking Sony’s ass? It make perfect sense! Before, they let us know how they tooled on Sony on Black Friday, now they’re saying the 360 dominated the PS3 in Europe as well. According to Microsoft, Christmas 2008 was their best Christmas in Europe, ever.

“2008 saw us grow faster than any of our competitors and we over-achieved in sales during the crucial Christmas selling period,” offered Chris Lewis, regional VP of Microsoft’s Xbox business in Europe. “With eight million consoles sold since we launched, and consistently out-selling PlayStation 3 in EMEA, we’re poised to build on this success in 2009.”

Gameindustry.biz also adds that the “Xbox 360 was the fastest-growing console in 2008, with sales in the last three months of the year over double the same period in 2007 in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.” Impressive, Microsoft. Most impressive. Although year-to-year 360 sales didn’t increase by that much over here in North America, you still have to tip your hat to MS considering how strong the Sony brand is in Europe.

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The war of opinions concerning DRM has been a daily battle for the denizens of the internet. We here in the trenches have seen many games die because of badly-implemented DRM. Now, the American government might be stepping in to set some ground rules for DRM use. The FTC will be holding a meeting on March 25th in Seattle on the topic of DRM, and they mean business. Tentatively, they will have:

Demonstrations of DRM-related technology

Panel discussions regarding burdens on, and benefits for, consumers, and other market and legal issues involving DRM

Review of industry best practices

Consideration of the need for government involvement to better protect consumers.

You can read more about the FTC meeting at GamePolitics.

With the New Year in full swing and no good games being released, games bloggers are finding themselves looking back on the past year and most find themselves compiling their favourite games from 2008 into simple numerated lists. The problem is that everyone’s done top 10s, and everyone’s played the best games already. So, Tracey John at the MTV Multiplayer Blog has put together collections of the best and worst box art from 2008. In the same spirit, GamesRadar have compiled their own Worst Box Art of 2008 list. While you’re checking out the best and worst of 2008, why not check out the PushingPlay Not Really Game of the Year Awards! We promise there won’t be any lists!

John Davison, former employee of Ziff Davis, is reporting on his website whattheyplay.com that media business website paidcontent.org posted a story indicating that Ziff Davis sold the 1up network to Hearst which planned to shut down production of video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. The story was later pulled from the website.

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These are the winners of our first end of the year awards! It was definitely a learning experience and we’ve already started brainstorming even better categories for next year. There were definitely some surprises in the winner’s circle this year. Hit the jump and check out who won!

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I’m surprised it took this long. 360 taking over the show with “Xbox Originals” and the lack of complete backwards compatibility makes buying old Xbox games even less appealing. As the picture above shows, Gamestop will stop taking in any original Xbox software and hardware. We all know Gamestop is not known to be the best place for “trade in points” or “direct cash”, but if you have anything to get rid of from the last gen Xbox, and you’re afraid of craigslist, now’s the time to start throwing it at them.

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RetailPlay is a weekly look at upcoming video game retail releases. Check back every Tuesday to see what to expect in the following week, and keep an eye out for DownloadPlay on Fridays, which looks at downloadable game releases.

The gaming industry’s butt still hurts after it took that massive dump of releases during the last quarter of 2008. This week Saint’s Row 2 gets released for the PC, in case any of mouse n’ keyboarders wanted to know. The rest…ugh, see for yourself.

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Have you been holding out on buying the fancy Street Fighter Tournament Edition because of it’s $150 pricetag? Looks like Barnes&Noble might be the solution to your problems! They have the item up for 110 dollars less than any other retailers. I’m guessing this is a listing error, but that didn’t stop me from putting in an order for a couple of them!

Get in there and order it while it’s still up, so that you can gripe at them when they cancel your orders!

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I’m going to blame the whole “not being white” thing for having no idea who Roy Orbison was before writing this post. Now, I realize he’s the guy originally wrote that “Oh, Pretty Woman” song from Pretty Woman. Regardless of ethnicity, your parents are probably more excited about this track pack than you are. Big ups to Harmonix for their genre-busting DLC antics.

Track list and prices after the break.

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This would bring a smile to any over-the-hill hedgehog’s face. A Kansas boy by the name of Judson King loved Sonic so much that he wanted to have a hedgehog of his very own. Unfortunately for him, Judson’s hometown of Lawrence had a ban on hedgehogs. In a bout of OCD, and unnecessary persistance, Judson spent every night in the past three years researching hedgehogs and getting the evidence to revoke the law.  More story and a video after the break. Read More..