2008 in video gaming/January

**2008**
January • February • March • April • May • June • July
August • September • October • November • December

See 2008 for other events during the year.

##### Sony Game division makes $

Sony reports that their profits for Q3 of last quarter is up due to games and digital cameras. The sales for the PSP are also up from 10 million to 13 million. But PS3 sales were down from 11 million to 9.5. Read more

#### January 30, 2008 (Wednesday)

##### More SSBB leaks

The japanese Super Smash Bros. Brawl has made its way on to the internet. More returning characters were leaked out today including Marth, Mr. Game & Watch, Luigi, Wolf, Flaco, Ganon, Jigglypuff, Young Link, Ness, and Luracio. Read more

#### January 29, 2008 (Tuesday)

##### SSBB intro preview

The japanese Super Smash Bros. Brawl has made its way on to the internet. Click on the URL below to start viewing if you like spoilers. It reveals that Yoshi is returning. Read more

#### January 28, 2008 (Monday)

##### Sessler calls Fox's debate Mass stupidity

Adam Sessler host of G4's X-Play, Gives his opinion of the Fox news debate with the psychology expert Cooper Lawrence. Sessler explains the biases of the debate and was hijacked by the media who locks out legitimate claims. Sessler imitated Lawrence's comments in which she debunks the game to promote her book by telling women not to buy her book. Although she apologized, the comments mentions were not corrected. Read more

#### January 26, 2008 (Saturday)

##### Cooper Lawrence apologizes for her role in Mass Effect "debate"

Following the Fox "News" coverage regarding the "sex scenes" in Mass Effect, irate gamers retaliated by placing similar uninformed comments on her Amazon book listings. In an interview with the NY Times on Friday, she was quoted as saying "I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke." and "I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit". Read more

#### January 25, 2008 (Friday)

##### Videogame stock recession proof?

As the stock market falls this year groups such as Nintendo and Microsoft are at good status. Nintendo nearly doubled in the last 9 months and Microsoft has also increased to 18.5 million from 17.5 million. Read more

#### January 24, 2008 (Thursday)

##### Grand Theft Auto IV dated

Take-Two recently announced April 29th as the release date for the latest installment of the GTA series. This comes as a welcome relief to some, due to last year's announced delay. Read more

##### New Mexico taxes Games

The Sierra Club has decided to tax Video games and TV sets with a 1% sales tax in New Mexico. The club estimates that the tax would generate $4 million a year which would be used for funding outdoor education programs. Read more

#### January 23, 2008 (Wednesday)

##### Assassin's Creed PC requirements out

Assassin's Creed has released its PC requirements. Some of the requirements exceed those of Crysis such as recommending Direct X 10 and requiring a Dual Core processor. Read more

#### January 22, 2008 (Tuesday)

##### Fox New debates Mass Effect porn

Fox News noobs who have never played Mass Effect. Fox claims that statistics show that games are played by young boys and that it has live porn. The discussion is generally very biased as it is one sided and does not elaborate data from research. Read more

#### January 21, 2008 (Monday)

##### Guitar Hero

The NPD Group Calendar Year North American Retail Sales for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has surpassed $1 Billion in North America in 26 months. In addition, since the launch of Guitar Hero III, users have downloaded five million songs Read more

#### January 18, 2008 (Friday)

##### Microsoft apologizes for Xbox Live issues with free Undertow download

Due to previous Xbox Live outages, Microsoft has issued an apology and will also offer Undertow as a free download from next Wednesday (at 2AM PST) until the following Sunday. Read more

##### Rock Band: 2.5 Million Songs Sold

Only after several months of release, Rock Band has sold 2.5 million songs. The most popular song was the Metallica pack. Harmonix also state that the game's promised full-album downloads are coming "very shortly". Read more

#### January 17, 2008 (Thursday)

##### Stranglehold Ad gets banned in UK

An advertisement for Midway's Stranglehold has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority today. The ad was banned for being super violent. Opponents of the ad argue that it should not be aired before 9 pm and that glorified violence and guns. Watch the ad here Read more

#### January 16, 2008 (Wednesday)

##### Play Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney! at Kotaku

Kotaku has been provided a flash based demo of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney! by Capcom. The game is set for its US release on February 19, 2008. Read more

#### January 15, 2008 (Tuesday)

##### Super Smash Bros. Brawl Delayed AGAIN!

Nintendo announced that both the Japan and North American version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be delayed again. Instead of February 10, the game is set to be released on March 9. So there will be an extra month of waiting. Read more

#### January 14, 2008 (Monday)

##### *Rock Band* gets lights & smoke

A new peripheral, the Rock Band Stage Kit by Performance Design Products, is now available for preorder at GameStop. It is slated to be released on June 26 and goes for US$99.99. Read more

#### January 11, 2008 (Friday)

##### SCi Entertainment financial troubles

SCi Entertainment, publishers of *Tomb Raider*, said it would not make profit this quarter. Their stock is at an 18-year low and the company, while actively pursuing talks to be purchased, does not believe that it will receive "full value". Read more

#### January 10, 2008 (Thursday)

##### Sony pulls 20GB & 60GB PS3 in Japan

Sony has decided to pull the 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3 models from Japan. According to the company, the last shipments of both models will arrive in stores later in the month. This leaves Japan with the only the 40GB PS3. Read more

##### Star War characters in *SoulCalibur IV*

SoulCalibur IV saw a new trailer released today. It features some of the characters and describes the goal of the game. Furthermore, the trailer shows that Namco Bandai has gotten Lucas Arts' permission to use characters from Star Wars — Darth Vader and Yoda were featured in the trailer. Read more

#### January 9, 2008 (Wednesday)

##### Pikmin and Captain Olimar join *SSBB*

The Super Smash Bros. Dojo has announced that Captain Olimar from *Pikmin* will be playable in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, which is being released on February 20th. He uses five colors of Pikmin for his smash attacks. Read more

#### January 8, 2008 (Tuesday)

##### PSP is getting a keyboard

Sony has announced that in the middle of 2009 the PlayStation Portable will be getting a first-party keyboard. The company also confirmed that Blu-Ray movie transfers will be available for the PSP from the PS3. Read more

#### January 7, 2008 (Monday)

##### Xbox Live nabs MGM & ABC

Bill Gates announced at CES that later this month, films from MGM and television shows from ABC and Disney will be added to the Xbox Live Video Store. Read more

#### January 4, 2008 (Friday)

##### Microsoft apologizes for XBL outage, gives free game

Over the recent Christmas holiday, Xbox Live had extended periods of trouble where users were unable to connect, play online, or download from the Marketplace. Blaming record numbers of concurrent users, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten today apologized to the community and said that Microsoft will be giving every Live user, gold and silver alike, a free Xbox Live Arcade game. Read more

#### January 3, 2008 (Thursday)

##### GDC 2008 gets floor plan

The floor layout for GDC 2008 was released today. The event is being held February 18 to 22 in San Fransisco's Moscone Convention Center. Read more

##### Gears of War: The Pendulum Wars

*Gears of War* is getting the novel treatment, as Del Ray Books today announced a prequel to the popular video game. Gears of War - The Pendulum Wars: The Battle of Aspho Fields will explore what happened to Marcus Fenix prior to the events of the Xbox 360 game. The book, the first in a planned trilogy, is being penned by Steven L. Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Games. Read more

#### January 1, 2008 (Tuesday)

##### *MGS4* dated by GameStop

Retailer GameStop today started accepting pre-orders on *Metal Gear Solid 4*, listing a release date of June 17, 2008. Konami and Kojima Productions have not yet announced a firm date, but previously stated they are targeting Q2 of 2008. Read more

## Game releases

January 28

* Bomberman Land Wii

January 23

* Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)

January 22

* Burnout Paradise

January 21

* Endless Ocean (Wii)

January 15

* Haze (PS3)