2007 in video gaming/January

**2007**
January • February • March • April • May • June • July
August • September • October • November • December

See 2007 for other events during the year.

Ubisoft today has released the first demo for its upcoming military shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 over Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo shows the Single player portion of the game. Ubisoft revealed that there will also be a PS3 version comming out next year. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is rated T for Teen and will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, PlayStation Portable, and PC
[1]
* ***Vivendi Games profits from WOW***

Vivendi Games owner of Blizzard Entertainment, have released details of the company’s fourth quarter sales, showing only a 1.2% overall rise in revenues. The success was due to the release of World of Warcraft, giving a 33.1% boost in the gaming division. Its Burning Crusade expansion pack was released on January 16, selling 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours. The World of Warcraft has announced that it has 8 million active subscribers.
[2]
* ***Atari creates Another Godzilla game***

Godzilla: Unleashed is the title of Atari's newest Godzilla game. Unlike the other godzilla games the player will be fighting to become king of all monster and the storyline will be based on choices made by the player. The game will be released for the Wii, DS, and PlayStation Portable this fall
[3]
#### January 30 2007 (Tuesday)

* ***Burger king gains wopper load of money through Xbox***

On December 31, 2006 Burger King reports a rise in pofits of 40% due to the success of the King games: Sneak King, Pocketbike Racer, and Big Bumpin'. The games were $3.99 each with the purchase of a BK Value Meal. Burger King reports that 3.2 million copies of these games were sold.
[4]

* ***Lost Planet tops UK charts***

Capcom's Lost Planet is the number one seller in the UK. Lost Planet has outsold Blizzard's The Burning Crusade expansion to World of Warcraft. It has also outsold Capcom’s previous number one selling Xbox 360 exclusive, Dead Rising by twenty percent. Comming in as the number two seller is FIFA 07 and for number three, Pro Evolution Soccer 6.
[5]

* ***GDC 2007 Announces Early Registration Deadline***

Tommorrow will be the last day for early registration for GDC 2007. GDC 2007 will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center from March 5th to the 9th. The conference this year includes speeches from the mobile gaming industy, Sony's Phil Harrison, and Shigeru Miyamoto.
[6]
#### January 29 2007 (Monday)

* ***God of War II finished***

The sequal to God of War, God of War II is finished in developement. While being released in early March. Developers claim that a demo will likely be out early February.
[7]

* ***Virtual Console downloads***

Mario Kart 64 and Contra 3 is available for download for the Wii Virtual Console. Mario Kart requires 1000 points while Contra require 800. Sega also released Genesis games Comix Zone and Bonanza Bros. on new system's online store.
[8]
* ***360 Stock Cuts effect Publishers***

On Friday, Microsoft announced that was cutting its Xbox 360 shipping target for the fiscal year ending June 30th. Its target to sale target of 13 to 15 million units was reduced to 12 million units. This caused publishers such as Electronic Arts, THQ, Take-Two and Activision's shares to fall ranging from one to four percent.
[9]
#### January 27 2007 (Saturday)

* ***Wyatt's Anti-violent Game Bill Fails***

Rep. Scott Wyatt’s anti-violent videogame fails by a vote of 7-2 at the Utah house of representatives. Rep. Kay McIff proposed a solution without creating legal restrictions by lending Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to support other states with similar cases.
[10]
#### January 26 2007 (Friday)

* ***UT2007 is now UT3 and coming for Xbox 360***

Yesterday at the Hard Rock Casino in 2007 Midway Gamers' Day, Epic vice president Mark Rein announced that Unreal Tournament 2007 will be renamed Unreal Tournament III based on the Unreal Engine 3. He also announced that UT3 will be coming out also for the xbox 360 due to the high sales of Gears of War.

[11]
* ***PAX 2007: Duke Nukem Forever resurfaces***

At the Penny-Arcade Expo of 2007 3D Realms has revealed that development for Duke Nukem Forever has continued. Since 1997 Duke Nukem Forever was under development. A thumbnail in game screen shot has been revealed to gamers.
[12]

* ***Wii News Channel launches***

Wii News Channel was launched today by Nintendo. It offers non traditional features such as checking of the weather and browsing for news. There are three channels: major online channels, following the Forecast channel and Opera-based Internet channel. There are currently 8 news sections: National News, Regional News, International News, Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Business, Science/Health, and Technology.
[13]
#### January 25 2007 (Thursday)

* ***Nintendo DS hits 10 million in North America***

Since their launch in 2004, Nintendo has announced that they had sold 10 million DS and DS Lite hardware units. This data was backed up by Nintendo's financial results, which were released earlier today. Its competitor the PlayStation Portable has sold 6.7 million units in North America.
[14]
* ***Research Concludes Games Can Be Psychologically Fulfilling***

Dr. Scott Rigby's study on why people play games concluded that games satisfy deep psychological needs and improve personal well-being in the short term. Studies publish in the journal of Motivation and Emotion shows that games give players positive real-world experiences like independence, competence, or in the case of multi-player games, connection to other players. Player who enjoy gameing had an increase in well-being, self-esteem, and vitality.
[15]
* ***Square Enix licenses Unreal Engine***

Today Square Enix announced that they had signed up for Epic Games Unreal engine 3.0. Usually square would use their own technology for game engines, but they announce that the Unreal engine will be more efficient in HD graphics, allowing them to spend more time on game mechanics and development. Square has not yet announce which games will be developed with this engine
[16]
#### January 24 2007 (Wednesday)

* ***Don't Miss Halo 3 Beta Testing***

The Halo 3 website announces that phase one of the registration will be closed January 22–26, 2007, but if you don't make it buy Crackdown. Microsoft confirms that **every copy** of Crackdown will contain an invite to the Halo 3 beta testing. Crackdown will be released on February 20, 2007. IGN claims beta testing will still be available on purchases of Crackdown on February 21 or even March 15. To approve for the beta testing you must have a Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive, a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and the Halo 2 game.
ign
Halo 3 site

* ***Sony Fixes PS3 Backward Compatibility***

Sony released firmware update 1.5 for the PS3. This patch will automatically save the password when logging in, keytone in sound settings, and add a backup-data delete option. Due to complaints on forums and by gamers, Sony fixed the "jaggy" graphics problem on the PS3 by making it able to lower its resolution for PS2 games
[17]
* ***Pope Benedict XVI condems Violent Video Games***

Pope Benedict XVI in his message for World Communications Day, with the theme of Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education, his message specified that video games contain violence and anti-social behavior. Furthermore, he said these views were directed at children and adolescents.
Gamespot
* ***Sony And Namco Bandai forms Cellius Inc***

Today Namco Bandai and Sony announced that they are partners in forming Cellius Inc., a company which will create games for the PS3, mobile phones, and PC. Cellius Inc. is named after the PlayStation 3 cell processor CPU, which are planned to be used on Toshiba TV sets. Cellius will open on March 6, 2007 with Sony owining 49% of the company and Namco Bandai owning 51%.
Gamasutra
Gamespot

#### January 23 2007 (Tuesday)

* ***Burning Crusades Breaks Records***

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has reported to have sold 2.4 million copies world wide in 24 hours. The game has broken sales records to become the fastest selling PC game in North America and Europe. By one day 1.7 million players has upgraded to the expansion
Gamasutra

* ***Jack Thompson tries to Impeach Utah Attorney General***

Jack Thompson has targeted Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff for playing an ad to use the ESRB rating system. Shurtleff has a past critic of violent video games. Thompsons recents was due to the fact that the Attorney General called the bill authored by Thompson to be unconstitutional. The bill was proposed by Rep. Scott Wyatt recently got to an committee hearing today at 9am. Thompson had this to say to Game Politics "Secondly, morons like Shurtleff need to be called out as morons. The bill has no chance of surviving as a law if Shurtleff scuttles it. Finally, if you weren’t such a coward and would allow me access to your site, you’d know even more of what is going on. You are absurd."
Game Politics
#### January 22 2007 (Monday)

* ***Tougher third Wii strap?***

With reports of the Wii remote strap slipping and snaping. The Nintendo blog rumors the release of another new wii strap. Pictures on the blog shows an sturdier and thicker strap. Furthermore reports indicate that Nintendo offers to replace any broken straps.
Gamespot

* ***Interactive Achievement Awards Finalist Announced***

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced their finalist for the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards. Finalist includes Gears of War which has 10 nominations, Twilight Princess, Guitar Hero II, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and much more.
gamasutra
Gamespot

#### January 19, 2007 (Friday)

 File:Gears-of-war box.jpg
* ***Gears of War hits 3 Million in sales***

Microsoft announces that Epic Games' Gears of War has sold 3 million units. They also reveal that there was 750,000 downloads on the multiplayer maps available January 10.
[18]

#### January 18, 2007 (Thursday)

* ***Bill Gates Xbox 360 plan Worked Perfectly***

In an interview with the Mercury News reveals Gates thoughts on the Seventh-generation console wars. Gates stated that the marketing of the Xbox 360 worked perfectly and that he is focusing on having the most games, the cheapest price, and the best online capabilities. Furthermore, he said that " we wanted to swap positions with Sony".
Gamasutra

* ***EA announces Battlefield 2142 Expansion***

EA announces that they will release an booster pack for Battlefield 2142 called Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike. The expansion will provide both teams with new vehicles and infantry. The war will be expanded deep into europe and there will be new maps
Battlefield 2142 Site

* ***China Online Gaming Grows***

According to Sina, China's Online gaming industry revenue grows by 73.5% since 2005 making an total of $839 million US dollars since 2006. $20 million US dollars in revenues was recorded for games exported over seas. China currently houses 90 online gaming companies
Gamasutra
#### January 17 2007 (Wednesday)

* ***Rockstar Vienna former staff forms Games That Matter***

After Take-Two Interactive closed down Rockstar Vienna studio, the former staff creates an Development company called Games That Matter. Games That Matter is the collaboration of Rockstar Vienna's Hannes Seifert, Niki Laber, and Jürgen Goeldner. The Games That Matter site says it uses "a visionary game production business model."
gamespot

* ***Canada gaming market up eh?***

Industry-tracking NPD released information that shows Canada's gaming market has increased 22% in 2006. Combining the NPD data with Canada's population projects that the average Canadians spent CAN$28.27 ($24.10) on gaming in 2006, while the average American spent $41.50 on gaming.
gamespot
gamasutra
#### January 15 2007 (Monday)

* ***EA Remains UK’s Number One Publisher***

ELSPA and Chart-Track has shown that Electronic Arts was yet again the best performing video game publisher in the UK during 2006, in terms of both revenues and units sold. Some popular game from EA include FIFA, The Sims, and Need for Speed. Here are the top five publishers in Europe.

1 Electronic Arts: 19.8%

2 THQ: 7.9%

3 Ubisoft: 6.9%

4 Nintendo: 6.8%

5 Microsoft: 6.5%

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news\_index.php?story=12395

#### January 15 2007 (Monday)

* ***Cofounder of Rockstar games leaves industry***

Take-Two confirms that cofounder, managing director of label, Terry Donovan has moved on from the company. Donovan was incharge of many of the marketing operations of rockstar. His replacement will be Capcom's European managing director Gary Dale had been appointed as Rockstar's COO.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164173.html

#### January 10, 2007

 File:SsbMario.jpg
* ***Tops Best Selling Game of all time***

A British newspaper, The Independent has published an list of the worlds best selling games of all times. Here is the list of the top 20 game series.
1. Mario (Nintendo): 193 million

2. Pokemon (Nintendo): 155 million

3. Final Fantasy (Square Enix): 68 million

4. Madden NFL (Electronic Arts): 56 million

5. The Sims (Maxis/Electronic Arts): 54 million

6. Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar): 50 million

7. Donkey Kong (Nintendo): 48 million

8. The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo): 47 million

9. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega): 44 million

10. Gran Turismo (Sony): 44 million

11. Lineage (NCsoft): 43 million

12. Dragon Quest (Square Enix): 41 million

13. Crash Bandicoot (Sony/Vivendi): 34 million

14. Resident Evil (Capcom): 31 million

15. James Bond (Various): 30 million

16. Tomb Raider (Eidos Interactive): 30 million

17. Mega Man (Capcom): 26 million

18. Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts): 25 million

19. Street Fighter (Capcom): 25 million

20. Mortal Kombat (Midway): 20 million

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news\_index.php?story=12349
#### January 9, 2007

* ***Wii outsells PS3 in Japan***

In the Seventh-generation console wars the Wii beats the PS3 in Japan. According to a Japanese magazine Enterbrain, 989,118 Wiis were sold since the launch date till the end of 2006. Sony has sold 466,716 PS3s since the launch Date.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163964.html

* ***Massachusetts Considers New Game Legislation***

Jack Thompson the #1 enemy of gamers is at it again! This time Thompson has drafted a bill to categorize violent video games as obscene in an effort to keep them out of the hands of minors. This bill will be proposed to the Massachusetts Legislators soon. If passed this bill will keep "violent" video games out of the hands of minors
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news\_index.php?story=12341
## Games Released

January 30

* Battlestations: Midway (Xbox 360)
* Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
* Vanguard: Saga of Heros (PC)
* Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3)
* Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer (PS2)

January 29

* Blitzkrieg 2: Fall of the Reich (PC)

January 23

* The Legend of Heroes III (PSP)
* InuYasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel (DS)

January 22

* Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)

January 17

* NCAA March Madness 07 (Xbox 360)

January 16

* World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
* Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (DS)
* Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship (DS)

January 15

* WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii)
* Hardcore Pool (DS)

January 14

* Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses (DS)

January 12

* Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360)