Blizzard announced today that World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sold a paltry 2.8 million units in its first 24 hours. That's only 400,000 more units than Burning Crusade did on its launch day. We're guessing Activision is completely regretting that whole merger now, huh?
With 11 million players currently in Azeroth, that means about 25% of the base couldn't live without their precious expansion for more than 24 hours, saying nothing of the millions who bought it later. In other news, there are rumors that the Drug Enforcement Administration is looking to bring electronic software under its purview. Not really, but we really are waiting for WoW to be classified as a controlled substance.
Oh, Google, whatever would we do without you? Well, for one, we wouldn't have the exhaustively annotated map that Planet Fallout has created for the Capital Wasteland from Fallout 3. Or, more aptly, the site's users have created.
A constant work-in-progress, the fully interactive map displays major locations, quest objectives, and plenty of other spoiler-rific goodies - so be warned. We're especially fond of the potential for players to contribute interesting miscellany and Easter Eggs. Plus, if you do, you get credit for it. As a Vault-Tec recording might say, "That's just swell!"
Just to be clear, this is magic we're talking about people. Magician's magic! The sorcerers at Konami announced that this February they will wave their styli through the air, casting a spell on the Nintendo DS with Little Magician's Magic Adventure.
The upcoming title is described as a mix of adventure and simulation-style role-playing, where players attend a magic school, learn to cast spells, go on adventures and, yes, build relationships with other students. Little Magician's something or other also promises scads of customizable avatars and some 52 different adventures, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity for cooperative play and chatting using the game's "global magic alphabet." We imagine it's just like the regular alphabet, except it can't wear armor or use two-handed weapons.
Although most bets on real-world Wrath of the Lich King drama had good odds on it involving a dead gamer in Asia, we're sure the media will be more than happy to take its pound of flesh from an exhausted Swedish boy as the latest victim of "game addiction." The 15-year-old went into convulsions following a marathon World of Warcraft session in which he hardly ate or slept.
Doctors say the boy will make a full recovery and the child's father expressed he'll limit the amount of time his son plays from now on. That must be awful for the dad; now he has to make sure his son is eating properly and pay attention to how the boy is spending his time. Parental responsibility is, like, totally not fun.
We've received a number of tips from jilted purchasers of the Fable 2 Limited Collector's Edition over the past day -- it seems Microsoft has finally e-mailed out the DLC voucher codes which were supposed to have been included in the $69.99 bundle. Though the code, which will allow players to download the blatantly anachronistic "Hal's Armor", is a few weeks tardy, owners of the limited edition will be glad to know that their extra $10 investment has finally paid off, netting them some neat exclusive content. Well, them, and everyone else who ordered a replacement code without dropping the additional Hamilton.
While the prospect of ever seeing an official, localized release of Persona 2: Innocent Sin remains bleak, those who missed the second chapter, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, when it was first released on PlayStation (yes, PS1) eight years ago, now have a second, albeit seriously limited chance to score a copy of the reprint. Bet you never thought you'd be buying a brand new (and full-priced!) PS1 game again, did you?
To commemorate the December 9th release of Persona 4, Atlus has announced an "ultra limited" reprint of Persona 2, including a bonus disc featuring the trailer and a video interview with the developers, to be sold exclusively through Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
GameTrailers continues its Warcraft Retrospective by delving deep into the World of Warcraft, where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. The episode covers how Blizzard employees conspired in the small town of Lake Wobegon to make a designer drug that would go on to hook 11 million people in its clutches. Clearly, Illidan was right: we were not prepared.
Wow, people interested in this piece actually made it this far? Seriously, don't y'all have a new continent to pillage and level cap to reach? For those who can't explore Northrend because they're stuck in a cubicle farm for the rest of the day, the video -- a cheap WoW fix -- can be found after the break.
How certain are we that Square Enix's current, cryptic countdown will lead to the unveiling of a new RPG? Oh, positive. The latest issue of Japanese mag Shonen Jump (via Gamekyo) has the scoop on Blood of Bahamut, a new DS game that tasks up to four local players with defending their architecturally weird city from attack. Note to prospective city planners: Erecting buildings on the back of a gigantic creature, while aesthetically impressive, generally gives rise to more serious problems. You definitely don't want to be around when your foundation decides to get an aggressive massage.
