GTA Chinatown Wars now on the iOS App Store

GTA Chinatown Wars was originally released as an exclusive for the Nintendo DS. It is now on iOS App Store.
I am not sure how recent this news is but I only just noticed it.

App Store Notice:

The current top 2 apps on the iOS App Store are Both also AAA Titles, Fifa and Need For Speed, two large franchises. Both of them are also owned/published by EA.
There are also 4 other AAA titles in the top 15 on the entirety of iOS Apps. Including:
GTA Vice City & GTA 3.

Essay- Targeting Local Audiences

It is important to target local or national audiences when marketing games because certain elements of a marketing piece, may not be appropriate for certain cultures or offend certain groups of ethnic minorities. There is also of the obvious problem of a language barrier, trailers will need to be translated into the native language of the trailers they're being released in, (English in UK, USA, AUS, CA ect. French in FR, BELG', CA SWZ ect). If market pieces weren't adapted to avoid predicaments like this, the marketing would be wasted if a consumer cannot understand or is offended by it, they will not be interested in the product and will deter other potential consumers away through the product through word-of-mouth.
This is why localisation is useful. Localisation is the alteration of a products so that they meet the standards of the area they are targeting. For example, in Germany the Zombies mini  game portion of the Treyarc branded  Call of Duty games is blocked from the consumer because the enemy zombies are Nazis. Localisation is also the  translation of products from language to another. Localisation isn't always changing the game itself, it could be a change of marketing tactics to attract different audiences. For example, the Just Dance 4 trailer for the US market features a well known american celebrity, and for the UK market, aswell known British celebrity.
Sometimes the developers/producers will not alter a product themselves, they make it the obligation of the local areas themselves to make products suitable for their customs. For example, in china consoles are banned because they believe that they waste people's time, (ironic that they have the highest proportion of MMORPG PC players then) however, consoles that have built in games e.g. the power joy. Do not meet the countries definition of a console. So consoles are being altered to not play exterior software, disks ect.
Localisation is not an issue for large publishers/developers because they have specific departments for translation (vertical integration) . However, smaller manufacturers will struggle because they donnot have the money to distribute internationally and localize the product and marketing for each location it wold be necessary for.
In conclusion I believe that the important issue for developers/publishers to worry about when localizing a game for global release is avoiding offending other countries by removing content that they deem inappropriate. This is because the backlash if they did not would be far more serious and damaging than the other issues.
I also believing that in the current climate, localisation is important because the world is becoming more and tolerant of other cultures and best way to avoid that ending is to not cause offence. Especi

Vice City on the iOS App Store

The popular sequel to the smash hit GTA 3, has been made available on the App Store. It is currently the 2nd most popular app but will no doubt be at No.1 soon. Other Rockstar games featured on the App Store are Max Payne and GTA 3. Both the GTA titles cost £2.99 and Max Payne costs £1.99 this is probably because it is much older game.
Vice City has no doubt been released to keep Discussions about GTA going whilst all the other AAA titles ,Black Ops 2, AC3 Halo 4 ect. Are being released this Christmas season.

Game Distribution Task 2 UNFINISHED!!!!!!

List of Game Distributers:
Sony DADC
The Producers----> The Masteronic Group (Digital)
Get Games (PC Digital)
Koch Media
Creative Distribution

Games Distribution Task 1

GTAV is distributed byTake-Two Inetractive (Vertically intergration)
Skylanders Giants is Distributed by X-Pec
The Original Angry Birds game for iOS was distributed.Elewctronic Arts through a partner company, Chilingo.
TASKS 2 &3 UNFINISHED!!!!!!

GTA Vs CoD

Strauss Zelnick, Boss of Take-Two-Interactive explained differences between the GTA franchise and the Call of Duty franchise.
He said that if you want an IP to be permanent, then you run the risk of consumers losing interest, e.g. CoD Black Ops II,  projected figures where less then that of the original Black Ops. He then proceeded to point out that the sales of GTA increase  with every new release "Ours do better each time".
He stated that it is difficult to make any IP permanent, if annualized with the exception of sports titles: FIFA etc  Which do better every year.
"IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall"
In other words, the GTA IP would never be annualized because the Consumers would lose interest quickly and the franchise would die out.

UGC

UGC stands for "User Generated Content".
It is literally what it says it is. Content that is created by the consumers of the product.
For example:
Minecraft, Custom Maps/Mods
Little Big Planet.
Portal 2 Custom Maps (PC Only)
Skyrim Mods (PC Only)

Benefits:
Free and easy to get.
Increases amount content by a practically limitless amount
Some content if popular can increase sales of certain titles. E.G. the DAY-Z Mod for AMMA 2, increased sales of the game dramatically.

Cons:
Developers may stop making DLC because they wont make money.
Some content will be incredibly low quality.
Not all games would be suitable for UGC. Games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed are heavily story based and therefore it would not be appropriate to add content.
Some UGC may cause controversy E.G. The Hot Coffee Mod

The Best Place to find examples of UGC is the Steam Workshop on the PC, or the Minecraft Forums for Minecraft Mods.

UGC is most likely here to stay as we have seen these market grow over the years and it will no doubt keep growing.

.

Games Console Design.

Slide Share has made some of the text glitch, it's still readable but annoying. 

I Noticed Something Else....

I walked round the corner just after publishing the previous post. And what do I see?
SKYLANDERS!!! Lots and lots and lots of Skylander: Giants stuff.

I Noticed Something.....

I am currently in ASDA, using the Blogger app, so I apologise in advance for any typing errors.
I just noticed that since the latest GTA V news hit the Internet. The Sales of other games in the GTA franchise have increased.
GTA IV is the No.2 best selling game and GTA: Liberty City Stories (GTA IV, DLC)) was 3rd.
This shows how Effective Viral marketing can be.A game that is nearly 5 years old is all of sudden at the top 10 best sellers list again..

Pegi

What is Pegi?:
Pegi is "Pan European Gaming Information
It is the group that gives video games their rating and informs potential purchasers of the content they can expect.
Why is it being introduced?
It has been brought into effect to prevent underage people purchasing ga\mes containing content that is unsuitable for them.
How did games previously recieve ratings?
Prior to Pegi ratings becoming law, Games here either rated by Pegi optionally, or by the BBFC.
British, Board of Film Classification.
What changes for publishers, retailers and developers?
Publishers and Developers now only focus on meeting the standards of 1 ratings agency instead of two. It is also easier for Developers to predict the rating the games will receive prior to it's review.
What issues are there with this system being implemented?
PEGI have to work a lot harder and follow more procausions than they have previously.

MMO:RPG, Case Study: World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a fantasy style MMORPG based in a world of gnomes, dwarves and other mythical creatures. This is a common genre for MMORPGs.
It costs roughly £14 a month. This means that the game makes large amount of profit, because unlike other games like Skyrim, which can be bought for a one off price of £40 (considering that you don't buy DLC) and then enjoyed for roughly 100 hours without boredom.. You must pay monthly to continue playing and get the mot out of the game. There is a free trial that is unlimited and continues as normal up until the user (unintentional tron reference)  reaches level 30.

It is different from other console games because although there is a main story, There is no Single-player. You follow the story by completing quests with other people. Unlike Console games where, there is a single-player story line, and a separate multi-player section.
The game is developed by Blizzard  who are owned by Activision/Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi. (SEE VIVENDI HIERARCHY CHART). They also own CoD and Skylanders Giants.
The game is available world wide. There are roughly 200,000.WoW players online at any one time.
There are over 10 million subscribers currently. This means that WoW makes an approximate profit of £140million every month, + the money made from people buying in game currency and items. $_$

GTA V So Far UNFINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GTA V has shown the potential to be the highest selling game in history. Th is is a prediction based on the massive viral uproar from the most obscure advertising, such as screen shots. But what do we actually know about GTA V so far?  Well, not much is certain but we can make some safe assumptions based on the history of the GTA IP.
We know that GTA games take place in 3 main cities, Vice City, San Andreas and LibertyCity, All of which are based on Genuine locations, with an added humorous twist. For example in Liberty City, (a new york spoof) there is a Lady Liberty Statue, holding a coffee cup instead of a flaming torch.
We can safely assume that GTA V will be a large open world offering the freedom to what you please, as Sandbox gaming has been a staple feature of GTA games since the very beginning. We can also safely predict that Rockstar North will be the developers of this game because the development of GTA games is the main reason Rockstar bought out DMA and created Rockstar North.
It's also a pretty safe bet that GTA V will contain Rockstar's Signature Humor. However, this humor may be slightly toned-down  like it was in GTA IV. This is not doubt a result of the controversy caused by the Hot Coffee Modding Incident.

LINK TO GTA V BLOG POST FOR EXTENDED TASK

Mr Howard's AS Media Studies Blog: Monday Lesson 2: GTA V: This past week the internet has been awash with GTA V news. We need to keep on top of this so we can use it for our case study. I want you ...

Halo 4 + Mountain Dew [Symbiosis]

The long awaited sequel to one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world, Halo 4 was released earlier this week.
In an unusal marketting bid. 3Foot3 industries and Mountain Dew, have collabrated to increase sales of both products.
This a great example of Symbiosis.
They most likely chosew to colaborate, because of Mountain Dew's new space age look.
The drinks are bright Neon colours and are very well suited to the Halo Universe and still contain enough sugar to make you diabetic just by sniffing it.

GTA: What We Know So Far (NOTES)

Talk about, who owns t.
who develops? who did they used to be?

How it has changed over time (Graphics gameplay voice acting) [gta, gta2, gta london, gta 3, gta vc, gta sa, gta 4]
What do we know about GTAV so far?

Top 20 List Analysis

All the games in the blist are large franchises, apart from Dishonnored which is a new IP, however it is published by Bathesda, creators of Skyrim,, The game is likely to have had high sales numbers because the comsumers trust games that have been published by Bathesda. This chart also showes us that established IPs are more likely to make money because the comsumer knows the type of game they're getting. For example, despite Assassin's Creed 3 having a whole new gaming Engine and protagonist, people know that they will play as a hooded figure, hunting for Templar Knights, for the majority of the game. So it is harder for New IPs to get regonisition but when they do, they tend to be quite successful.
It is highly likely that the reason for Skyrim climbing back up the charts because they recently released new DLC, Dawngaurd.
It is clear that EA is a very popular Publishing company as they have 3 games in the top 10.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Fifa 13 and Medal of Honner: Warfighter. are all published by EA and aree currently in 4th 5th and 6th possitions. This shows that EA is highly established publisher.
It is clear that Games with exclusivity are lower down the charts because they are only available on one platform. Both, Assassin's Creed: Liberation, and Porofessor Layton: Miracle Mask are both exclusive to one platform. Professor Layton is exclusive to 3DS and AC: Liberation is exclusive to PS Vita.
It is clear that First Party games are still popular since there asre 2 in the top 20. Pokemon Black and White 2 (They ran out of ideas clearly -_-') and Forza: Horizon are both made by the platform holder, for the platform holder. Forza is made by Microsoft and Pokemon has also been made and re-hashed, by Nintendo.
It is clear that Sony do not focus on 1st Party games. There are Nintendo and Microsoft games but none from Sony.  They only seem focus on games that will get large amount of attention, for example Uncharted and The Last of Us has been getting some attention from various conventions . Both these franchises are owned by Naughty-Dog.  So Naughty-Dog is clearly a well love developer.

Reality is Broken Facts/Stats

US Troops spend several hours a week playing games like Halo, while stationed over seas, in order to pass time.

Young Adults in China spent so much money on in-game objects that the banks had to intervene to prevent the devaluation of their currency.

On average, people under the age of 21 have spent 10,000 hours each, on video games

183 million active gamers in the US, 100 Million EU and 200 Million in China.

US$68Billion annual projection by the end of 2012.

Further GTA/Rockstar Notes

GTA Vice City sold an unexpected 15 million copies on the PS2.
GTA San Andreas sold 14.2 million
GTA 3 sold 11.6 million copies
This string of success makes GTA the most successful game series to ever be released on the PS2 platform.
GTA 3 Was the most successful video game in 2001. It went on to win "Game of the Year 2002" and "Excellence in Game Design" awards at the GDCA

GTA Vice City was the biggest selling game in 2002. GTA 3 came 2nd.

GTA has consitently been the most controversial series in gaming history. Jack Thomson has tried, unsuccessfully, to link the games to Real-Life murders and in Sep06 filed a lawsuit of "wrongful death" against Take-Two, Rockstars parent company, Following a Shooting spree by a 16 year-old.

San Andreas was the fastest selling game ever in the UK, selling 1 million copies in 9 days. $_$

GTA  was the first game to be recognised by ELSPA after selling 1million copies in the UK

GTA holds the record for the largest in game soundtrack. 11 stations, each with a DJ and 156 licensed tracks. The soundtrack was made available for purchase in 2004 as an 8 CD box-set. The songs are also available for digital online via amazon, itunes, etc
(Merchandising/Convergence)

Tyrone McMillan was sentenced to 7 years inprisonment after a 55 minute car chase through New York, inspired by GTA

Vice City was heavily influenced by Scarface and other Gangster movies

In May 2007 Rockstar announced a limited number of permitted Pre-orders on the GTA 4 Special Edition, which was only £70 and included a safe deposit box made of metal, which contained:
A key ring
Duffle bag
Artwork
Sound track
and ps3/360 copy of the game.
(Merchandising, Synergy) 

San Andreas has 339 voice actors, more than any other game. Fifty of these, are important to the story. One of these actors was Samuel L Jackson (Die Hard with a vengeance, star wars prequels etc)
Axl Rose (Guns 'n' Roses) and Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) have also played parts.

San  Andreas is the largest game in the series, covering 17 miles[2], 3 cities 12 towns and a lot of countryside.

GTA 4 was the first game to include a virtual version of a real comedian, Ricky Gervais (The Office, Cemetery Junction/).
GTA 4 has 18 radio stations and 214 tracks
GTA 4 has 861 voice actors, 174 of which play named characters. Most of the 687 where fans who volunteered to do small parts of NPCS around the city.

Over 4000 news stories about GTA have been released since 2008 accusing it of "glamorizing violence"

GTA 4 is rumored to have cost 100 million USDollars to make $_$

World-Wide Sales of GTA:
San Andreas = 21.5 Mil
Vice City = 17.5 Mil
GTA 3 = 14.5 Mil
GTA 4 = 10.5 Mil
Libeety City Stories = 8.25 Mil
$_$

GTA IV Hierarchy

Vivendi Hierarchy

   

Zynga's Business Model:

Zynga has a free-to-play business model, this means the consumers do not pay any money. So they use 2 different methods to make their money:
One way is micro-transaction. This means that players can purchase extra in-game items ahead of time, instead of playing the game for longer to earn them. For example:  You can play 50 rounds on draw something to earn 150 coins (at maximum), or you can buy 200 coins for 69p in about 20 seconds.
Zynga also sells advertising sponsorships within some games such as movie tie-ins and other brands.They will get a percentage of revenue broought in from the advertisements, a small percentage also goes to facebook.

Skylanders Giants Info

Skylanders Giants is projected to be the most profitable game for the <10 market, despite taking one the 90's most popular gaming characters and murdering him. [R.I.P Spyro :( ] 
 It was released on October 17, 2012 in Australia, on October


19, 2012 in Europe, and was released on October 21, 2012 in

 North America,  and will be released on November 22, 2012 in South America, by Neoplay.. Square-Enix is also planning to release a Japanese version of this game, sometime in 2013. It will also be released on the Wii U as a launch title in North America, Europe and Australia, and will utilize the Nintendo Network service. 

The idea is that you have small statues like trading cards and

 they connect to your console and then appear in the game. 

These statues are also a universal product meaning that once

 you have it you can use it on any console.

Each figure costs roughly £5.00. 
They have also added new rare silver statues which are worth a lot more (but do pretty much nothing different, they're just silver -_-') 
The game is developed by a company called "Toys for Bob" 
The publisher is Activision 

Independent Games + Case Study

Independent games are more commonly known as “Indie Games”. They are created by individuals or small groups, without the financial support of a publisher. This means that they often rely on Digital Distribution to sell their product, e.g. XBLA, PS:Store and Steam. Indie gaming has become more popular recently because much larger corporations are using digital distribution as well. Meaning that while people are buying a AAA game on XBLA they may notice an indie game and purchase that also.

Indie Games also tend to be considerably cheaper because they do no need to pay publishers and they market on a smaller scale than a AAA game.

Some of the most popular indie games include:

Braid, World of Goo, Minecraft, Angry Birds and Super Meat Boy.

Case Study: Minecraft

Minecraft was developed by Mojang (pronounced, Mo-Hyang). It was the first Indie game ever to make over US$1 Million. Minecraft is ,a Sand-Box game, based in a world similar to lego, where everything is made of blocks, these blocks can be altered re-arranged, joined together and smelted. In the newest update, you can also fight dragons, brew potions and enchant weapons, (because they wanted to cash in on TES:V:Skyrim’s release).

Minecraft gained a lot attention through viral marketing. Upon its release, a large amount of YouTube account holders, “You-Tubers”, made videos about the game which quickly spread word of the game and it’s notoriety increased.

Just as its popularity began to spike a small group of You-Tubers began a Machinima series about the game. This small group then became the Famous “Yogscast”, one of the most popular channels on all of YouTube. This resulted in the game’s profits dramatically rising.

The game’s popularity was so grand that the lead developer at Mojang, Notch, became the first developer to become a millionaire from selling a Beta for a game.

Other small time developers have tried to take advantage of Minecrafts popularity. If you look on the XBLA now, and go to the indie games section, there is high probability that you will see at least 5 games that are similar to Minecraft.

Minecraft currently costs £17.95 on PC, 1600 MSP on XBL:A, ad £4.99 on IOS and Android devices.

Synergy and Symbiosis

Definitions:

Synergy:
Two parts of trhe same company create different murchandise all to reach the same goal.
For example:
Disney created High School Musical the movie. They also made a Soundtrack and a DVD. All of which were made to make a profit fromn the franchise.

Symbiosis
Two Different companies work together to create products that will benefit both companies.
For example:
The Angry Birds Plush Toys are made by seperate company to Rovio.

Rockstar Studios

Rockstar Games bought out the developer DMA after the success of  the original GTA and GTA II. DMA then became Rockstar North after the Housers realised that only DMA could be trusted to make the games as gopod as they wanted them to be.
Rockstar Japan was the Japanese localisation headquarters of Rockstar Games,. They worked in conjunction with Capcom. Rockstar Japan made games specifically for the Asian market.
Rockstar London was created in November 2005 and took over the developement of Manhunt 2 after Rockstar Vienna closed. They also developed the hand-held adaptation of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Midnight Club LA Remix.

GTA San Andreas, Hot Coffee Mod (UNFINISHED!!!!)

Hot Coffee is a normally unaccessable minigame in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The minigame involved sex between the main protagonist, CJ, and his in-game girlfriend. Upon the game's release, the developer, Rockstar North, decided it was contrabersial and closed off the piece of coding that allowed access to the minigame, just before the release. Then 1 year after release, a dutch moder found this piece of code and released as a mod for the PC version of the game.
The discovery of this minigame created a large amount of controversy around GTA, with some politicians firing harsh words at both the developer and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the group that decide what the ratings for video games in North America. It has also revived the debate over the influence of video games in general with new protests against several other games such as Killer7, The Sims 2, and Bully.
Jack Thompson was one of the first to criticize the game for its hidden content, believing violent media is one of the main causes of violent crime in America. Thompson filed lawsuit against Rockstar Games on several occasions for previous games they have developed.
U.S. Senator Hillary suggesting new regulations be put on video games sales. The ESRB conducted an investigation that changed the game's rating from Mature to Adults Only 18+. Also, Congress passed a resolution to have the Federal Trade Commission investigate whether Rockstar intentionally decieved the ESRB by having the content in the game.
In New York, a class action lawsuit was filed by Florence Cohen, an 85-year-old grandmother who purchased the game for her 14-year-old grandson (according to the old rating of M, the game is typically considered inappropriate for this age). Cohen's lawsuit claimed that Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the game, are guilty of deception, false advertising, fraud and abuse. The accusation of deception is based on the change from M-rated to AO, meaning according to the lawsuit that the original rating was a deceptive practice.
A protest group organized a protest on August 4, 2005 at Rockstar's headquarters. The group demonstrated against San Andreas as well as the upcoming game Bully, due to fears that the content could inspire children to become bullies themselves.

 

Are Single-Player Games Dying Out?

Many people believe that very soon there will be no single-player games. This is mainly due to the popularity of games like the Call of Duty series, Battlefield 3 and even some casual games like Draw Something. These games heavily rely on having entertaining multiplayer aspects to keep people interested.

These games are very popular with the majority of people because they allow them to interact with their friends and have fun, without leaving their own homes. There is also an extra sense of competitiveness in multi-player games. Anyone can be good at a single-player game, because they are playing against an A.I. but multiplayer games require more skill to be good at. This is because you are playing against other people who think the same way as you. This results in competition amongst friends, all curious to see who the best player is.

It is clear that Multiplayer games are popular from the amount of money they make. Call of Duty was constantly the biggest entertainment release of the year between 2007, when Modern Warfare was released, and 2011 when Modern Warfare 3. It is also likely that Black Ops will follow suit. However it has heavy competition from the feature film “Marvel Avenger Assemble” which had the largest opening profit in cinema history. Even if it does not become most profitable of 2012, it will no doubt come second. This shows that these games are incredibly popular, as people constantly buy them, year after year. Another heavy hitter in the multiplayer market is World of Warcraft (WOW). WOW is one of the most popular games in the world. It is a massively multiplayer online, role playing game (MMORPG) and is played by more people every day than any other game in history. So clearly there is a high demand for multiplayer games.

This evidence most certainly suggests that single-player games are dying, but they will not go down without a fight. 2011 saw some of the biggest and most popular single-player game releases in history. Games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Some of the most loved games on this generation of console.

One developer that definitely doesn’t want single-player to die and fights to keep it alive, is Rockstar Games. Rockstar have made some of the most popular Single-player games in history and continue to do so. Games like, Read dead redemption, one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made. Grand Theft Auto IV, which made $400million upon its release. If a single-player game can still make that much on release, it is clear that single-player games are still as loved as ever.

Another company that constantly creates popular single-player games is Valve. Their list of Single-Player games includes; Portal 1-2, half-Life 1-2 and Left 4 Dead 1-2. Games that are very highly rated in the gaming community

This gaming season (Aug 12/Aug 13) is also shaping up to be a great season for Single-Player games, with the release of Assassin’s Creed 3, Dishonoured, Metal Gear Solid 5, Splinter Cell: Black List. There are also rumours of Half-Life being a release title for Valve’s new console whenever it’s released. There is also the platform transfer of popular single-playing games to the WiiU this season. Games like Mass Effect 3 and Batman Arkham City are being released on Nintendo’s newest console. Then of course, we have one of the most anticipated games of all time, Grand Theft Auto V. There is strong evidence to suggest Grand Theft Auto V Will be the most money making game in history. In July 2012, they released screen shots of the game. Within 20 minutes the images had gone viral and they were trending on twitter within 30, under 3 different hash tags; #Grandtheftauto5screenshots, #GTAVscreenshots and #GTA5Preview. This level of attention from just a few simple screen shots shows just how anticipated this game is. Furthermore, people aren’t interested in this for the simple multiplayer aspect. They have been heavily investigating the main protagonist of the single-player story, examining every miniature detail to discover everything possible about him and the story. Just this game alone is proof that people still care about single-player games and that they will never lose their allure.

So to conclude, there is a definite increase in the popularity of multiplayer games. This however, does not mean a decrease in the popularity of single-player games like GTA and Assassin’s Creed which people constantly go back to. Multiplayer games may give the players a chance to make new friends and have fun times with existing ones, but they will never provide what a single-player game does; Great characters and a fully immersive story. 

Wii-U Marketing

The Wii-U is the latest console to be release from Nintendo. The system was announced during Nintendo's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 (E3 2011) on June 7, 2011, and is scheduled for released on November 18, 2012 in North America, November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia, and December 8, 2012 in Japan. It will be the first entry in the eighth generation of video game consoles.
There are several release titles for the Wii-U, including classic IP's like Mario's latest release, "New Super Mario Brothers U" and some unexpected ports, such as: Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City. They are also schedualed to release Call of Duty: Black Ops II (COD9/BLOPS2) and a first party game called Zombie-U.

Releases like these suggest that Nintendo is either trying to reach a new target market, of more hardcore gamers, rather than their usual casual market. Or they are trying to get the more Casual gamers interested in a variety of games. However considering that the Wii was aimed at younger children and the elderly, I highly doubt it's the second reason.

The Wii-U will cost around £249.00 for a basic 8GB console, or if you want one 32GB it will around £90 more. There are also bundles available for £40 extra.

There is also a new controller for this console.

The Wii U GamePad is the main controller for the Wii U. It features a built-in touchscreen, which can either add to or replicate the gameplay shown on the main display, and can function as a standalone screen without the use of a television screen.(which does the beg the question, why not buy a handheld? -_-')
 The controler has analog sticks, a built-in microphone, and supports near field communication (which can be used for, among other uses, figurines that can interact with the console and wireless credit card payments with compatible cards). The console will also be compatible with the Wii Remote Plus, Wii Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board, as well as a Wii U Pro Controller for more traditional controls.Two GamePads are supported per console.
Shigeru Miyamoto promoted the idea of the GamePad, stating that he supports being able to use a secondary screen while someone else is watching the television. Wii U is said to offer asymmetric competition, where the player using the GamePad has one experience and wins in a certain way, while competing players have different ways to play and win.

The History of GTA: IV

Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA:IV)  was developed and published by Rockstar Games for $100Million. \
It is Available on X-Box 360, PS3 as a physical copy (disk). and on the Steam Store, as a digital download for PC.  However, certain DLC is not available on PS3 or PC, after X-Box bought exclusive rights to DLC for $50Million
The game cost £42 (/$60) on release day. It currently costs £19.99 (/$37) on the Steam Store.
The X-Box 360 exclusive DLC, "The Lost and the Dammed" cost 1600MSP (/$19.99/£12) and sold a lot less than was actually expected. Despite this,  the game made $400Million.
It was released for PS3 and X-Box worldwide on April 29th 2008, and for PC it was available for download on November 18th in North America and November 21st in Europe.

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 1991 as the release title for sega's latest console (the genisis/ mega drive).

It was developed by the division of sega known vas "sonic team" and then published by sega themselves. Making Sega a 1st party delevoper (at the timne)

Originally it was avaliable exclusively on the sega genesis, then latewr when sega stopped maki9ng their own consoles, sonic the hedgehog was a featrure on many ps2 sonic games e.g. sopnic mega collection.

It is now avaliable on all online stores as a downloadable game. e.g. XBL arcade, PSN and Steam.
It was reasonably cheap to make, because before Sonic was a game character he was the mascot of Sega.
As a result it made $150,000,000 minus the cost of production In it's first year. Mainly because it was the release title for the Sega Genesis (/mega-drive). If you wanted to buy the Cartridge individually it cost $40.
The game was distributed by all major electronics stores in Japan, and then in the USA. After the huge success in both countries, it was distributed through out Europe 

Introduction

Video games have change who i am as a person. As an only child living in an apartment with no other friends in the area, I had to find something else to entertain myself with during my spare time. 
Then my cousin gave me my first console, the SEGA Mega Drive (/Genesis), The first game I ever played on it was Sonic the Hedgehog, which is still one of my favorite gaming franchises (minus sonic the hedgehog2006 -_-'). So from then on I used Video Games to entertain myself.

About a year after I was given the Mega Drive, I bought myself a Play Station (PS1). I also bought my favorite game of all time, Spyro the Dragon 3: Year of the Dragon, the first game i ever 100% completed (or 127% completed in that game's case).
So I spent my spare time for the next few years playing and completing various games on the PlayStation and Mega Drive. Then i discovered the world of PC gaming. 
PC Gaming opened up an entirely new world to me, a world of much more beautiful games, games than run faster; games like Portal and Half-Life.

Then I was introduced to online multiplayer gaming. Multiplayer games have changed my life more than any other advancement in gaming, I have met so many wonderful people and so many new friends by playing games like, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Counter Strike: Source. Thanks to games like them I now have; 3 friends in Canada, 3 friends in Ireland, 1 friend in Germany, 1 friend in Ukraine, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Plymouth, 2 in Australia, 5 in USA, and many more from all corners of the world.
I have also had the pleasure of meeting a large number of these people in person at gaming conventions, such as; Games-Con, E3 and  PAX East. Thanks to the popularity of video games, conventions like these now exist and have given me the opportunity to meet friends, who i had I only known through a PC monitor in my bedroom, in person.

In short, Video Games entertained me when i didn't have many friends, Helped me make new ones from all over the world, enhanced the experience we all had together and gave us the opportunity to meet in person. 
Thank you Video Games :)