Today's news round-up includes a look at the NPD's top ten best selling PC games for the week of February 26, the newest collaboration between Electronic Arts and arcade game manufacturer Global VR, and the latest controversy from Rockstar's upcoming
Bully, along with the latest GameSetWatch updates, product news and Gamasutra job postings.
- The NPD Group has released the 10 best-selling PC games for the week of February 26th.
Sims 2 expansion pack
Open For Business is #1, followed by a pair of licensed real-time strategy games:
Star Wars: Empire at War is #2 and
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II at #3. After that, MMORPGs
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach and
World of Warcraft take the #4 and #5 spots, respectively, with the
LotR: Battle for Middle Earth II collector's edition grabbing sixth place.
The Sims 2 comes in at #7, with Microsoft taking #8 and #9 with
Age of Empires III and
Zoo Tycoon 2. Lastly,
Civilization IV is in tenth, finishing out the list.
- Global VR, a developer of arcade games, has announced another partnership with Electronic Arts to produce an arcade version of EA's
NASCAR series. The two companies have previously collaborated on arcade versions of
PGA Tour Golf and
Need for Speed. "As a multi-platinum hit on the home consoles, this franchise has tremendous significance for EA and now for Global VR," said Global VR chairman and CEO Jim DeRose. "We have assembled a team of developers who are avid gamers as well as NASCAR fanatics and we plan to deliver a ground breaking racing experience for fans of racing and driving games."
- The Miami-Dade County School Board has approved a resolution to oppose the release of Rockstar's
Bully, in which players take the role of a juvenile delinquent on a typical school day. The resolution seems to have been introduced at the instigation of anti-game crusader Jack Thompson, who told the Miami Herald that "The goal is to make it such a negative thing that the retailers won't carry it. This thing hasn't really reached critical mass as a [public relations] problem yet; that's what I'm trying to do." Regardless of the outcome of the school board's full vote on Wednesday, the resolution would not be a legally binding injunction against sales of the game, and would serve rather as an advisement to parents and retailers in the area.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog
GameSetWatch include the
latest available games on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap service, weekly column Parallax Memories' nostalgia for Hudson Soft's
Lords of Thunder, and some
further information on Schadenfreude Interactive's Accordion Hero.
- Also updated today: product news on
Realviz's Stitcher v5.1, as well as the
latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Sony Computer Entertainment America, Vivendi Universal, Disney Buena Vista GAmes/Propaganda Games, Electronic Arts, and BreakAway Games.
