Filed under: News

We’re not strong followers of VG Chartz (mostly because we don’t really care), but it came to our attention that they are reporting that Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune has now sold over one million copies. Great news! Uncharted is arguably the greatest PS3 exclusive available and deserves to be played by as many people as possible.

Of course, this also means that PS3 owners have actually been buying games. Keep it up! The PS3 can only become more attractive as a development opportunity in the future. Especially with people rewarding excellent gameplay experiences with decent sales, as seems to have been the case with Uncharted.

[Via N4G]

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Filed under: Gaming

In a bit of shocking news today, two members of the Rock Band instruments set (drums, guitar) have declared that come February 12th, they’re going solo. Citing “creative differences,” and the original bundled guitar’s inability to “clean up its act,” the two solo pieces will be on their own and available for $79.99 and $59.99, respectively. This should come as good tidings for players who’ve had trouble getting a bass into the mix (PlayStation 3 gamers), or those who’ve wanted to rock the drum vs. drum match-ups. No word on whether the microphone will join the fray and walk out on the trio, though rumor has it a number of labels are ready with offers.

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Filed under: Community

Downloadable content for games released a few months ago is cool. Folklore has taken this idea and sprinted through a marathon — it’s had so much extra stuff available since the game launched! This is something much cooler though. Imagine designing your own monster and having it featured in the game as a free download. Yep, it’s like the old Mega Man days where you designed the bosses and the developers mostly ignored you, except the opposite. The PlayStation Blog interviewed the person who created Folklore’s newest folk named Quasarilli — here’s what “Uridicy” said about the situation.

“Art and games have always been a hobby of mine and as an aspiring game artist it is very exciting for me to see a professional 3D model of my creature Quasarilli.” Uridicy goes on to express gratitude about and how the design was originally thought up. “I tried to incorporate some tribal elements with the mask like face, feathers, and horns.” As for the skill set, Uridicy decided that stealing items would prove a useful skill for the game. This is true, since the game does require you to get a ton of items to level your other critters. We’re glad stuff like this exists. It really brings gaming to a different level and will welcome with open arms any other similar contests in the future.

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Filed under: Gaming

Well, what do you know. After years of watching Microsoft chase billions of dollars into the bottomless pit that has been its Xbox Entertainment and Devices Division, the company is finally, as predicted, returning with some loot — $524 million in income over the past six months, compared to $423 million in losses over the same period last year. Microsoft says the achievement was primarily due to 360 successes, even though Zune and PC sales are factored in there somewhere. Sounds like decreasing production costs, decreased marketing and a little thing called Halo 3 all worked together to help rake in the cash, and Microsoft has high hopes for the rest of fiscal ‘08, since they “expect revenue to increase due to increased sales of Xbox 360 consoles and related games, accessories, and services.” Apparently Nintendo isn’t the only manufacturer this generation that’s figured out how to make some money… how’s it looking on your end, Sony?

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Videos and Screenshots

Who doesn’t love Lost? Well, after season 2, a lot of people turned away from the show. Season 3, after about the midway point, really picked up some steam and began to draw back some of the love felt in the first season of the show. Why does that matter? The Lost video game, Lost: Via Domus, takes place across the first three seasons of the show. This trailer shows basically what you’ve seen time and again in the show, reproduced in rather unfortunate quality. We’re not hating — for fans of the show this will probably prove a worthwhile rent, but for those expecting to get floored, you should look elsewhere. This is a TV show game, after all.

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Filed under: News

When it comes to Metal Gear Solid 4, there are two rumors that will just not die. First up, of course, is the zombie-rumor that the game is going over to the Xbox 360. Second only to that though, is the often denied rumor that there will be a MGS4 demo coming out prior to the game’s release. Now, Konami has gone on the record a number of times to say that it is not happening, but yet still fans hold out hope.

Unfortunately, PSX Extreme reports that once again Ryan Payton has denied the reports of an upcoming PSN demo in his regular Kojima Production Report podcast. While it’s annoying we won’t be able to get a taste of MGS4 until this Summer, it’s important to remember that demos aren’t always a good way to really sample a game (think about Heavenly Sword‘s demo). Instead take solace in the fact that all the development cycles that are involved in making a demo are instead focused towards making MGS4 one of the top exclusive PS3 games of 2008.

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Filed under: Gaming

According to a leaked internal Best Buy memo picked up by the fine folks at PS3 Fanboy, the 80GB SKU is going the way of… well, of every PS3 model that came before it. If the report is true, this means Best Buy will only have the 40GB PS3 on offer, and zero PS3s with any sort of PS2 backwards compatibility — just like all of Japan. There’s obviously no indication at this point if this has anything to do with the upcoming white PS3, or the vague — and Sony discounted — rumors of a $299 PS3 model, but we’ll be keeping our eyes open.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Red Hat Inc (RHT), salesforce.com inc (CRM)

Last week Forbes released its annual list of the fastest growing tech stocks, and it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) topped the list, with nearly $15 billion in sales, representing five-year sales growth of 155%, and 30% EPS growth. To make the list, companies had to have significant sales growth over the past year and five years, as well as a good earnings forecast for the next three to five years. Companies with significant legal problems or corporate governance issues were excluded.

Rounding out the top five were Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN), Euronet Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), and FalconStor Software Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC). Some other familiar names that made the list this year include Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL), Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), and Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH). Cognizant has been on Forbes list since its inauguration six years ago. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

Also of interest was the Forbes Fast 15, companies that didn’t make the list mentioned above, but which Forbes thought were worth keeping an eye on for their potential. Engineering software maker Ansys Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), semiconductor maker Atheros Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), Brubaker BioSciences Corp. (NASDAQ: BRKR), and scoreboard maker Daktronics Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT) top that list. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

So if, like Aaron Katsman, Georges Yared, and Jim Cramer, you are bullish on tech stocks, then there’s plenty on the Forbes lists worth taking a look at.