Today's Gamasutra round-up includes news of the the top selling PC games for the week of August 6, final details on this weekend's 3rd annual Penny Arcade Expo, and the cover athletes for
NBA Live 07, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, and Gamasutra job postings.
- The NPD Group has released the list of the best-selling retail PC games for the week of August 6 in North America, with Vivendi Universal and Blizzard's
World Of Warcraft ranking as the most popular title on the chart. EA's
The Sims 2 was the second most selling PC title for the week, followed by Her Interactive's
Nancy Drew: Danger By Design and 2K Games'
Civ expansion,
Civilization IV: Warlords. THQ's
Cars Radiator Springs Adventures ranked as the sixth most purchased PC title for the period, sandwiched between
Sims 2 expansions
Open For Business and
Family Fun Stuff, which ranked fifth and seventh respectively.
Civilization IV itself ranked eighth on the chart, followed by THQ's Valusoft-branded
Paws & Claws Pet Vet. Microsoft's
Age Of Empires III rounded out the chart as the tenth most purchased PC title for the week.
- Organizers of the 3rd annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), scheduled to take place Friday, August 25th through Sunday, August 27th, announced final details for the event, taking place at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. PAX will feature game exhibits from Microsoft, Nintendo, EA Mythic, and other developers and publishers, as well as music concerts, game tournaments, and lectures. The event is hosted by Penny Arcade, developers of the infamous game industry-focused comic strip of the same name. Event highlights will include a keynote address titled 'Prehistory of the Xbox' by Alex St. John, a panel on how to get your game ideas submitted, and a
Guitar Hero tournament, and more than 17,000 attendees are expected, including Gamasutra representatives.
- Electronic Arts announced during the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany that the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki, Memphis Grizzlies' Pau Gasol, San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker and Phoenix Suns' Boris Diaw will be featured alongside the Houston Rockets' Tracy McGrady on the
NBA LIVE 07 All-Star team as worldwide cover athletes and spokespersons. The game will feature Nowitzki on all packaging in his native Germany, Gasol in Spain and Parker and Diaw sharing the cover spotlight in France. McGrady will be the cover athlete of
NBA LIVE 07 in North America and all other countries. The game is scheduled to ship September 25 for the Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, and mobile phones. In addition, the game will ship for the PlayStation 3 in November.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog
GameSetWatch include
an interview with
Carrier Command remake author Martin Bell, indie game
Fleafall going from pay-to-play to being free, and Uwe Boll
fighting naysayers with the sponsorship help of GoldenPalace.com.
- Also updated today: product news concerning
Massive Entertainment using modo In
World in Conflict, plus the
latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Aspyr Media, Blockdot, Concrete Games, Cryptic Studios, Gas Powered Games, LucasArts, Midway Games, Offset Software.
