Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company internationally

According to Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Nintendo (NTDOY) 3DS sold 333,000 units in the week ending December 16, while Sony’s (SNE) PS Vita limped along at 13,000 units, the new Wii U did an okay 130,000 units and the PlayStation 3 managed to sell 46,000 units.  The utter hardware domination of the 3DS is reshaping the Japanese software market. Franchises that were thought to be fading have been revitalized in their portable versions. The 3DS version of the ancient Animal Crossing series, famed for being the game where nothing happens, hit a staggering 1.7 million units last week in Japan. Inazuma Eleven sold 170,000 units in its launch week, up from 140,000 units its DS version managed in 2011.

[More from BGR: RIM, HTC and Nokia could all be headed the way of Palm]

Nintendo’s portable console 3DS had a muted start in its home market in the spring of 2011. Many thought that Sony would have a fair shot at competing with Nintendo once Playstation Vita launched at the end of 2011. But once Nintendo executed an aggressive price cut for 3DS in the summer of 2011 and then launched a large-screen version of the console in mid-2012, the gadget has grown into a Godzilla in Japan, demolishing both Sony Vita and aging tabletop console competition.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

3DS is doing well also in America, where its lifetime sales are moving close to the 6 million unit mark this holiday season. According to NPD, the 3DS sales in the United States topped 500,000 units in November. That’s a decent number, though far from the torrid volume the portable is racking up in its home market. The U.S. November video game software chart was dominated by massive home console juggernauts: new installments of Call of Duty, Halo and Assassin’s Creed franchises shifted more than 13 million units in retail. At the same time, the Japanese software chart remains in a ’90s time warp, dominated by Nintendo’s musty masterpieces: Super Mario Brothers, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, etc.

Japanese and American tastes have always been different. But what we are witnessing now is a particularly fascinating divergence. American consumers are spending more of their time and money on smartphone and tablet games, while console game spending is increasingly focusing on massive, graphically stunning blockbuster titles on Xbox360 and PS3. The casual gamers are shifting to mobile games, while hardcore gamers remain attracted to sprawling epics on home consoles. The overall video game spending in America keeps declining month after month, as casual titles and mid-list games slide. But the Triple A whales like the Call of Duty series are doing better than ever.

In Japan, Nintendo has been able to battle back iPhone and Android game invasion with a nostalgic series of portable games that basically recycle the biggest hits of ’80s and early ’90s. Mario, Pokemons and other portable heroes are slowly losing their grip on U.S. and European consumers. But in Japan, some form of national nostalgia is keeping Nintendo on track.

The problem here is that the Japanese success of the 3DS may now be convincing Nintendo that it does not have to reconsider its business strategy. The smartphone and tablet game spending continues growing explosively across the world. Unlike console games, mobile game sales in China are legal. The global gaming spending is shifting towards new hardware platforms even as console mammoths like Halo still reign in America. At this critical juncture, Nintendo has managed to cocoon its home market in a web of nostalgia, turning the 3DS console and its Eighties left-over franchises into epic bestsellers yet again.

This means that there is no sense of urgency to push Nintendo into rethinking its long-term plans. The company may continue simply ignoring the smartphone and tablet challenge, designing new portable consoles and the 28th Mario game to support it. Twenty years ago, Japan’s insularity doomed its chances to succeed in the mobile phone business. And now the idiosyncratic nature of Japan may be leading its biggest entertainment industry success astray.

This article was originally published by BGR

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company internationally
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Britney Spears: The 3 Most 'Amazing' Things About My Year

By Marisa Laudadio

12/20/2012 at 01:45 PM EST

It was a very big year for Britney Spears, who's been named one of PEOPLE's 25 Most Intriguing People of 2012.

For starters, Forbes put the pop star at the top of its list of the top-earning female musicians (with $58 million), and her new single with will.i.am, "Scream & Shout," went to No. 1 in 17 countries.

She even took on Simon Cowell, along with the contestants – and any critics – as a judge on The X Factor.

After settling into the Fox reality show – whose two-hour finale airs Thursday night – she developed her own signature sound bite: "Amazing."

Now, Spears, 31, tells PEOPLE the top three things that made her 2012 "amazing."

1. Her career
"It's no secret I'm a shy person," Spears tells PEOPLE. "I feel doing this show over the past year has allowed me to come out of my shell a lot more. Everyone on the show has been amazing and made me feel really comfortable."

2. Her sons Preston, 7 and Jayden, 6
"It's really amazing to see how quickly my boys are growing up," she says. "It seems like yesterday I was reading books to them at night. Now I sit and listen to them read me books!"

3. Her fiancé Jason Trawick, 41
"It amazes me that no matter what situation I'm in," says Spears, "Jason has the ability to always make me feel protected and loved."

Read More..

Wall Street flat amid stalemate in fiscal talks

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors fretted that a deal on the U.S. budget wouldn't come as soon as they had hoped after President Barack Obama threatened to veto a controversial Republican plan.

NYSE Euronext was the star of the day, surging more than 30 percent as the S&P 500's top percentage gainer, after IntercontinentalExchange Inc said it would buy the operator of the New York Stock Exchange for $8.2 billion.

NYSE was up 32.8 percent at $31.95, while ICE shares vacillated between gains and losses. The stock was last down 0.8 percent at $127.22.

The market barely reacted to a round of strong data, including an upward revision of gross domestic product growth and stronger-than-expected home sales, suggesting talks to avert the "fiscal cliff," steep tax hikes and spending cuts due in 2013, remain the primary focus for markets.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives pushed ahead with their own fiscal plan in a move that muddles negotiations with the White House. Obama has vowed to veto the plan.

While investors have hoped for an agreement to come soon between policy makers, this seems unlikely as wrangling continues over the details.

"At least in the posturing it looks as if there are ultimatums put on the table, which tends to box either side in," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

Still, the absence of a significant sell-off shows "the market still believes that there will be an announcement of some sort. But as the clock is ticking, the most you're going to get is a stop-gap measure," said Krosby.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> edged down 3.77 points, or 0.03 percent, at 13,248.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 1.12 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,436.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> slipped 3.58 points, or 0.12 percent, to 3,040.78.

Stocks rallied earlier in the week on signs of progress in the negotiations, led by banking and energy shares, which tend to outperform in times of economic expansion. On signs of complications, however, many have turned to hedging their bets through options and exchange-traded funds.

Herbalife fell 5.3 percent to $35.35 in the wake of news that hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was betting against the company as part of his big end-of-the-year short.

The U.S. economy grew 3.1 percent in the third quarter, faster than previously estimated, while the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected in the latest week.

"It is great to see this kind of growth, but investors know it could all disappear if there's no deal on the cliff," said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital in New York. "Macro data may be on the back burner for a while."

Existing home sales jumped 5.9 percent in November, more than expected, and by the fastest monthly place in three years. Housing shares <.hgx> gained 0.4 percent.

But KB Home slid 5.5 percent to $15.75 as the company reported higher homebuilding costs and expenses in the fourth quarter.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)

Read More..

State Department Rebukes Israel Over Settlement Activity

The State Department accused Israel on Tuesday of engaging in a “pattern of provocative action” over the country’s plans to proceed with new settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Victoria Nuland, a department spokeswoman, said settlement activity only put the goal of peace “further at risk” and urged both Israel and the Palestinians to halt all provocations and take steps to revive long-stalled peace talks.

Her remarks were a rare rebuke of a close ally, but the United States has grown increasingly frustrated with the Israelis, who continue to announce new settlement construction and take other measures seen as retaliation over a recent United Nations vote to upgrade Palestine’s status.

Separately on Tuesday, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, called all Israeli settlements “illegal under international law.”

He warned that the East Jerusalem project “would make a negotiated two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, very difficult to achieve.”

The European Union, Israel’s biggest trading partner, has been increasingly vocal in its criticism of new settlements.

A string of European governments summoned their Israeli ambassadors to lodge protests after the Israeli settlement announcements.

Read More..

Shooting renews argument over video-game violence

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the days since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a shell-shocked nation has looked for reasons. The list of culprits include easy access to guns, a strained mental-health system and the “culture of violence” — the entertainment industry’s embrace of violence in movies, TV shows and, especially, video games.

“The violence in the entertainment culture — particularly, with the extraordinary realism to video games, movies now, et cetera — does cause vulnerable young men to be more violent,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said.

“There might well be some direct connection between people who have some mental instability and when they go over the edge — they transport themselves, they become part of one of those video games,” said Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, where 12 people were killed in a movie theater shooting in July.

White House adviser David Axelrod tweeted, “But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?”

And Donald Trump weighed in, tweeting, “Video game violence & glorification must be stopped — it is creating monsters!”

There have been unconfirmed media reports that 20-year-old Newtown shooter Adam Lanza enjoyed a range of video games, from the bloody “Call of Duty” series to the innocuous “Dance Dance Revolution.” But the same could be said for about 80 percent of Americans in Lanza’s age group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Law enforcement officials haven’t made any connection between Lanza’s possible motives and his interest in games.

The video game industry has been mostly silent since Friday’s attack, in which 20 children and six adults were killed. The Entertainment Software Association, which represents game publishers in Washington, has yet to respond to politicians’ criticisms. Hal Halpin, president of the nonprofit Entertainment Consumers Association, said, “I’d simply and respectfully point to the lack of evidence to support any causal link.”

It’s unlikely that lawmakers will pursue legislation to regulate the sales of video games; such efforts were rejected again and again in a series of court cases over the last decade. Indeed, the industry seemed to have moved beyond the entire issue last year, when the Supreme Court revoked a California law criminalizing the sale of violent games to minors.

The Supreme Court decision focused on First Amendment concerns; in the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that games “are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature.” Scalia also agreed with the ESA’s argument that researchers haven’t established a link between media violence and real-life violence. “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively,” Scalia wrote.

Still, that doesn’t make games impervious to criticism, or even some soul-searching within the gaming community. At this year’s E3 — the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the industry’s largest U.S. gathering — some attendees were stunned by the intensity of violence on display. A demo for Sony’s “The Last of Us” ended with a villain taking a shotgun blast to the face. A scene from Ubisoft’s “Splinter Cell: Blacklist” showed the hero torturing an enemy. A trailer for Square Enix’s “Hitman: Absolution” showed the protagonist slaughtering a team of lingerie-clad assassins disguised as nuns.

“The ultraviolence has to stop,” designer Warren Spector told the GamesIndustry website after E3. “I do believe that we are fetishizing violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it’s in bad taste. Ultimately I think it will cause us trouble.”

“The violence of these games can be off-putting,” Brian Crecente, news editor for the gaming website Polygon, said Monday. “The video-game industry is wrestling with the same issues as movies and TV. There’s this tension between violent games that sell really well and games like ‘Journey,’ a beautiful, artistic creation that was well received by critics but didn’t sell much.”

During November, typically the peak month for pre-holiday game releases, the two best sellers were the military shooters “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” from Activision, and “Halo 4,” from Microsoft. But even with the dominance of the genre, Crecente said, “There has been a feeling that some of the sameness of war games is grating on people.”

Critic John Peter Grant said, “I’ve also sensed a growing degree of fatigue with ultra-violent games, but not necessarily because of the violence per se.”

The problem, Grant said, “is that violence as a mechanic gets old really fast. Games are amazing possibility spaces! And if the chief way I can interact with them is by destroying and killing? That seems like such a waste of potential.”

There are some hints of a sneaking self-awareness creeping into the gaming community. One gamer — Antwand Pearman, editor of the website GamerFitNation — has called for other players to join in a “Day of Cease-Fire for Online Shooters” this Friday, one week after the massacre.

“We are simply making a statement,” Pearman said, “that we as gamers are not going to sit back and ignore the lives that were lost.”

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Shooting renews argument over video-game violence
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

It's a Boy for James Marsden

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

12/19/2012 at 01:30 PM ET

Christopher Polk/Getty; Courtesy Rose Costa

James Marsden is a father for the third time.

Brazilian model Rose Costa delivered a son, William Luca Costa-Marsden, on Friday, Dec. 14 in Los Angeles, PEOPLE has learned.

The 30 Rock star, who briefly dated Costa after his split from wife Lisa Linde in 2011, picked the name and is being very supportive, a source tells PEOPLE.

Marsden, 39, is already dad to daughter Mary James, 7, and son Jack Holden, 11, with Linde.

A rep for the actor could not be reached for comment.

– Sarah Michaud with reporting by Lesley Messer

Read More..

Experts: Kids are resilient in coping with trauma

WASHINGTON (AP) — They might not want to talk about the gunshots or the screams. But their toys might start getting into imaginary shootouts.

Last week's school shooting in Connecticut raises the question: What will be the psychological fallout for the children who survived?

For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They're at risk for lingering anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder.

But after the grief and fear fades, psychiatrists say most of Newtown's young survivors probably will cope without long-term emotional problems.

"Kids do tend to be highly resilient," said Dr. Matthew Biel, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

And one way that younger children try to make sense of trauma is through play. Youngsters may pull out action figures or stuffed animals and re-enact what they witnessed, perhaps multiple times.

"That's the way they gain mastery over a situation that's overwhelming," Biel explained, saying it becomes a concern only if the child is clearly distressed while playing.

Nor is it unusual for children to chase each other playing cops-and-robbers, but now parents might see some also pretending they're dead, added Dr. Melissa Brymer of the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.

Among the challenges will be spotting which children are struggling enough that they may need professional help.

Newtown's tragedy is particularly heart-wrenching because of what such young children grappled with — like the six first-graders who apparently had to run past their teacher's body to escape to safety.

There's little scientific research specifically on PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, in children exposed to a burst of violence, and even less to tell if a younger child will have a harder time healing than an older one.

Overall, scientists say studies of natural disasters and wars suggest most children eventually recover from traumatic experiences while a smaller proportion develop long-term disorders such as PTSD. Brymer says in her studies of school shootings, that fraction can range from 10 percent to a quarter of survivors, depending on what they actually experienced. A broader 2007 study found 13 percent of U.S. children exposed to different types of trauma reported some symptoms of PTSD, although less than 1 percent had enough for an official diagnosis.

Violence isn't all that rare in childhood. In many parts of the world — and in inner-city neighborhoods in the U.S., too — children witness it repeatedly. They don't become inured to it, Biel said, and more exposure means a greater chance of lasting psychological harm.

In Newtown, most at risk for longer-term problems are those who saw someone killed, said Dr. Carol North of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who has researched survivors of mass shootings.

Friday's shootings were mostly in two classrooms of Sandy Hook Elementary School, which has about 450 students through fourth-grade.

But those who weren't as close to the danger may be at extra risk, too, if this wasn't their first trauma or they already had problems such as anxiety disorders that increase their vulnerability, she said.

Right after a traumatic event, it's normal to have nightmares or trouble sleeping, to stick close to loved ones, and to be nervous or moody, Biel said.

To help, parents will have to follow their child's lead. Grilling a child about a traumatic experience isn't good, he stressed. Some children will ask a lot of questions, seeking reassurance, he said. Others will be quiet, thinking about the experience and maybe drawing or writing about it, or acting it out at playtime. Younger children may regress, becoming clingy or having tantrums.

Before second grade, their brains also are at a developmental stage some refer to as magical thinking, when it's difficult to distinguish reality and fantasy. Parents may have to help them understand that a friend who died isn't in pain or lonely but also isn't coming back, Brymer said.

When problem behaviors or signs of distress continue for several weeks, Brymer says it's time for an evaluation by a counselor or pediatrician.

Besides a supportive family, what helps? North advises getting children back into routines, together with their friends, and easing them back into a school setting. Studies of survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks found "the power of the support of the people who went through it with you is huge," she said.

Children as young as first-graders can benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, Georgetown's Biel said. They can calm themselves with breathing techniques. They also can learn to identify and label their feelings — anger, frustration, worry — and how to balance, say, a worried thought with a brave one.

Finally, avoid watching TV coverage of the shooting, as children may think it's happening all over again, Biel added. He found that children who watched the 9/11 clips of planes hitting the World Trade Center thought they were seeing dozens of separate attacks.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Read More..

Wall Street trades flat after two-day rally, GM jumps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks barely budged on Wednesday as stalled "fiscal cliff" negotiations gave investors little reason to keep buying following the best two-day rally for the S&P 500 in a month.

General Motors bucked the overall weakness to surge 8 percent after the company said it will buy back 200 million of its shares from the U.S. Treasury, which plans to sell the rest of its GM stake over the next 15 months. GM shot up 8 percent to $27.52.

Talks on avoiding the tax hikes and spending cuts that are set to come into effect in the new year are at a standstill amid a Republican plan to vote on extending tax cuts for all but those making $1 million or more, senior administration officials said.

President Barack Obama said he is still optimistic a deal is possible and that he would like to get it done before Christmas.

Investors are concerned that the fiscal cliff could send the U.S. economy back into recession, though most expect an agreement will be reached eventually.

Investors are positioning for a possible retreat once a deal is announced as market participants may choose to sell on the news after the recent run-up, said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, in Toledo, Ohio.

If expectations of a deal start to buoy the market, "we'd be more inclined to take profits than chase these valuations now," Lancz said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 14.45 points, or 0.11 percent, to 13,336.51. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> shed 3.06 points, or 0.21 percent, to 1,443.73. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 1.75 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,056.28.

Markets have been lifted in recent weeks by any signs that an agreement between policymakers over the budget may be reached, with banks and energy shares - groups that outperform during periods of economic expansion - leading gains.

The S&P 500 added 2.3 percent over the past two sessions, the first time it has marked two straight days of 1 percent gains since late July. Still, trading has been light ahead of the holidays, and with investors' focus on the budget talks.

Defensive sectors led the downside on Wednesday, with the S&P utilities sector index <.gspu> slipping 0.5 percent.

Gains in technology shares boosted the Nasdaq after Oracle reported earnings that beat expectations on strong software sales growth. Oracle jumped 4 percent to $34.19, while the S&P tech sector index <.gspt> was up 0.1 percent.

Knight Capital Group Inc climbed 5.7 percent to $3.52 after it agreed to be bought by Getco Holdings in a deal valued at $1.4 billion. The stock, which nearly collapsed after a trading error in August, remains down about 70 percent so far this year.

An index of housing stocks gained 0.2 percent after data showed homebuilding permits touched their highest level in nearly 4-1/2 years in November. The PHLX housing index <.hgx> has surged nearly 70 percent this year as the housing market has turned the corner.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Read More..

World Briefing | Mideast: Chief Public Prosecutor in Egypt Quits After One Month

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt fought outside a courthouse in Cairo on Monday.

The chief public prosecutor appointed last month by President Mohamed Morsi stepped down Monday after a demonstration by district prosecutors accusing him of political bias. The district prosecutors accused the new chief, Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah, of pressing one of their peers to file charges against a group of opposition protesters accused of receiving money to use violence. Mr. Morsi had said that appointing Mr. Abdullah as chief prosecutor was one of the main goals of the Nov. 22 presidential decree granting himself temporary power above the courts, which set off weeks of protests here.

Read More..

Survivor Winner Denise Stapley: 'I'm in a Daze'

TV Watch

By Steve Helling

12/18/2012 at 01:10 PM EST

Denise Stapley

Nate Beckett/Splash News Online

Denise Stapley shattered Survivor records by being the only player in the show's 25-season history to go to every tribal council – including the final one, where six of the eight jury members voted to award her the million dollar prize.

Moments after exiting the stage at the Survivor reunion, the 41-year-old sex therapist from Iowa told PEOPLE what she'll do with her money – and how she got her incredible arms.

Before we talk Survivor, you are shorter than I expected!
I'm 5'2". Everyone says, "You're so little." I'm one of those people who look bigger on TV.

It's probably because you're so buff. How did you get those arms?
I love to swim. It's my recreation and my exercise. I am most comfortable in the water. I loved the water challenges in the Philippines.

But there weren't many at all!
I know! What's up with that? There were weather issues so we couldn't be in the water as much as I would have liked. But you adapt.

You were on a tribe that lost repeatedly. How did you adapt to that?
Just every day, you assess where you are and what you need to do. I was never in real danger because I was aligned with Malcolm. But yes, losing all those challenges was so demoralizing. We lost the first one, and the momentum just want away. On paper, our tribe was as strong as the others, but it just didn't work out that way in actuality.

You mentioned your alliance with Malcolm, but he was very angry at you when you voted him off.
I made a move. You have to make moves in this game, and I made one to get rid of my biggest threat. Malcolm is great and we are friends, but if you don't make moves in Survivor, you go home.

How are things between you and Malcolm now?
Just fine, they really are. We will always be friends.

(Malcolm later told PEOPLE, "She's my jungle mama. If I couldn't win, I wanted her to win. I love her and we will always be close. Always.")

So you recognized Lisa Whelchel right away, correct?
Yes, I did. They didn't show it but I was the one who told Jonathan Penner who she was.

And what was it like competing against her?
You know, she was wonderful – just a nice, great woman. It's easy to say this because I won, but I really appreciated everyone out there.

Even Abi?
Even Abi. I meant what I said in tribal council. I stand behind the things that I said. But sure, I could have phrased things better.

So what were your strengths in the game?
I can listen to people very well. Pay attention to what they're saying, and react to them. I'm physically fit, and I was able to work hard around the camp. I also tried to adapt to each situation.

How sure were you that you were going to win?
I had a good idea that I might, but you don't want to assume. So I just felt cautiously optimistic.

What will you do with the $1 million prize?
I will relax a little bit, take a deep breath and go from there. I'm in a daze right now. My daughter is nine, so I'll set up college funds and all that. And I will always be thankful for Survivor for this incredible gift of the adventure ... and, of course, the million dollars!

Read More..