Capcom has been talking about new intellectual property, explaining that nothing is more difficult in this industry than getting a brand new game series started.

"There is nothing more difficult in this business than launching new IP," explains Christian Svensson. "Capcom is fortunate, and I think has a better track record than most - we do very few licensed properties. Look across our history, and our portfolio of products, and they are all things that we own and control. Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Okami, Megaman: these are all iconic brands.

"And I would look at Okami, Dead Rising and Lost Planet as three of this generation's(ish) successful new launches. We brought back Street Fighter to be relevant again, after a nine or ten-year hiatus of re-releases and rehashes. These are really hard things to do."

It's a shame that new IP struggles these days, but publishers could perhaps stand to break the vicious cycle. Consumers don't know about a new game, so the publisher doesn't feel like marketing it properly, so consumers keep not knowing, and publishers keep not marketing. If you gave Okami the same marketing budget Capcom gives Resident Evil, I bet it would have sold quite well. Often, all it takes is simply telling customers a game is huge in order to make it huge.

Just look at Halo.

The "biggest launch in the history across all forms of entertainment", Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, made Activision's CEO much richer this week.

Bobby Kotick sold two million Activision stock options he's held since 2000. At that time, they were worth about $1.03. Today, Activision stock is worth just under $12 a share. Minus the $2 million strike price, Bobby Kotick made over $20 million in just three days. 

GameSpot goes on to point out that the CEO still owns over 3 million shares, which, as of right now, are worth over $35 million. Plus, let's not forget the $14.95 million compensation package Kotick earned on top of his regular figure in 2008. 

Needless to say, Bobby Kotick is a very rich man. Well, richer man now. Loads richer. 

Sales for videogames were down 19% from the month for September. Plus the release of the biggest PS3 exclusive of the year wasn't enough to keep the PS3 at the top. It's not all bad news though!

Hardware: The Wii retook the top spot in sales this week kicking the PlayStation 3 down to the third spot followed by the Xbox 360. No surprise there as the Wii dropped to $199. 

Software: No surprise here either as Uncharted 2 was the number one selling game of October. Of note is that Take-Two had three of the top ten selling games last month, Borderlands for the Xbox 360 and NBA 2K10 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sadly, Brutal Legend didn't even make the top ten sellers.

Prediction: Modern Warfare 2 will be the number one selling game for November. That's a big "no duh", I know. Also, the DS/DSi will be the number one seller for hardware once again for the Holiday season.

Hit the jump to get the full breakdown of hardware and software sales.

If you’re one of those “I must have a disc” kind of persons, its time to let out a deep, satisfying exhale. Take-Two’s CEO Ben Feder isn’t buying the speculation that corporeal videogames will be a thing of the past in the near future. He finds DLC interesting and admits that its growing in popularity, but doesn’t believe it will replace discs for a while at least.

Feder shared his thoughts at the BMO Capital Markets presentation this afternoon in New York, saying (according to Kotaku), “I think reports on the death of package goods have been greatly exaggerated. Downloadable content is interesting and will continue to be interesting, not because it’s eclipsing retail but because of the instant feedback.”

The CEO continued, mentioning his bullishness in regards to DLC before adding, “I think package goods are here with us for a long time. I am pretty confident we will be seeing package goods and stores for a long time.”

GameStop is probably a good indicator of the way the videogame market will swing in the future. And while they are prepping to sell digital content, they’re not exactly having a fire sale on discs and emptying shelves. Physical is going to stick around for a bit.

Guys, I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, but Tony Hawk: RIDE is making its way to store shelves on November 17. That's next week.

For a game launching so soon, we sure don't know anything really worthwhile about it. As a refresher, here's what we do know about the game: it has a soundtrack, the Wii version has playable Miis, and pro skaters are down with the product. Encouraging, to say the least.

I don't know what the deal is with Tony Hawk: RIDE, but we've been given yet another tidbit that has nothing to do with how good or bad the game might or might not be: a Wal-Mart-exclusive skateboard peripheral.

It's like the normal one, but it's red. And you have to fight your way through Wal-Mart patrons to obtain it.

It seems that Sony isn't keen on letting Microsoft have all the fun in pretending that its new "me too" motion-sensing peripheral is a brand new platform. PS3 studio boss Michael Denny has joined in on the motion hype, claiming that Sony's new Wiimote is also like a fresh system.

"The motion control system we’re putting in place going forward is we’re treating as more of a platform," he says. "You’re right that here in Europe we have a lot of experience helping develop the peripherals for our social games but we see the motion control solution and experience as being broader than that. We do believe it can come into a core experience as well. The development of motion control software and games is a worldwide venture for us."

Denny also said that the PS3 lineup was "healthy again," rattling off a number of titles: "Yes, along with Heavy Rain and new SingStar and White Knight Chronicles. I think the line-up for PlayStation 3 is looking very healthy again. Exclusive titles like that do show off the platform to great effect. When people get their hands on these experiences, each of which are pushing things along, it does make the experience and what people hope to get from the PlayStation 3 really come to life."

This is such a slow news day ...

I believe the word I'm trying to come up with here is "expensive." Needlessly expensive.

Jim recently gave us a preview of a single premium Modern Warfare 2 Avatar outfit and already we have the full set of them to glance over. Or, if you're really itching to burn Microsoft Points, buy them.

Now admittedly, the miniature UAV is kind of cool. But you know what would have made it even cooler yet? If the silly virtual thing was a free Avatar Award obtainable by playing Modern Warfare 2 rather than a $3.00 download.

Has anyone here broken down and bought Avatar stuff before? It's alright -- we won't judge.

Ever wondered why some videogames have an underdeveloped and clearly rushed multiplayer element shoehorned into it, even though it was neither required nor destined to be successful? According to former Midway producer John Vignocchi, it's certainly not the fault of the developers.

"We were having this battle all the time, talking about, '... is a totally amazing single-player experience the most important thing or should it be an 80% single-player experience and then a pretty cool multiplayer?,'" he divulges. "Stranglehold went through that exact same problem. I think if you ask every single person that worked on Stranglehold whether or not multiplayer was a necessity for that product, they would all say, 'I wish we never did it.'

"It was the worst part of the game, and it was something that executive management had said, 'This has to be in the game.' And no one wanted it, and it turned out the way it turned out. That’s something every game developer goes through."

I'm sure we've all suspected that management forces these inane and arbitrary design decisions, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing. It's somewhat worrying that people who don't have the first clue about videogames are the ones deciding what is and isn't in them. That seems true of all industries, and I wish I understood how things got to be that way.

Famed designer Warren Spector wasn’t done with Deus Ex after he and his studio finished the follow-up Invisible War. In a recent interview with Variety, Spector said that he tried to acquire the rights to the IP from Eidos, but before that, he had plans for a game in the vein of Deus Ex ready to go and needing a publisher.

“There were and still are Deus Ex stories I would like to tell,” said Spector. “That story is not done for me. [For the sci-fi game] I sort of filed the serial numbers off.

“Deus Ex was very much a game of the millennium,” he continued.

It makes you feel fuzzy, right? Alas, it doesn’t seem likely that Spector will snatch Deus Ex 3 from Eidos, We’re also willing to guess -- just to throw it out there -- that Spector is too busy now to mess with whatever he had cooking at Junction Point a few years prior. Epic Mickey is happening.

[via The Escapist]

I love these stories. I know full well that this is exactly what Microsoft executives are supposed to say, but it's still hilarious whenever they do say it, as if that's their impartial and genuine opinion. The latest Microsoft executive to say that the Xbox 360 has the best games is Xbox LIVE Europe general manager Jerry Johnson.

"I'll come back and say that Xbox has the best games out there. It's got the best first-person shooter games out there," explains Jerry. "The exclusives we've had over the past years and what we had going into this holiday prove the point that this is still very much at its heart a gaming console.

"There's nothing we're going to change with that. You will start to see us, though, do things that are broader marketing and start to expose some of the things that are broader than just first-person shooters."

Johnson denied that Microsoft would go the way of Nintendo and cast the so-called "core" gamers out into the barren fields: "My wife doesn't like the fact I game sometimes. I'm still going to go game sometimes. There's nothing we're going to change that's going to not focus on those customers more. In fact, not just this year but in the next year, we'll continue to do features that are targeted at that hardcore gamer. At the same time we are going to start to do things that appeal to both the hardcore gamer and the broader user, and continue to do things and start to do more targeted at the broader user specifically."

I'd say that, in the past, Microsoft's "best games out there" comment would have held true. At the time of writing, however, I'm going to have to back the PS3's corner and say that, really, the Xbox 360 hasn't had a lot of hot exclusive action lately. This year, Sony has had Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Critter Crunch, inFAMOUS, Demon's Souls, all sorts of exclusives that people have loved. I can really only think of Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST for the 360 this year.

Oh, and let's not forget next year: Heavy Rain, God of War III and MAG all look pretty amazing to me.

So, the PlayStation 3 will be getting Netflix, and what's more, it'll be providing the service without Xbox Live's obligatory entry price. Sony will have the edge, since customers will only need to pay the $8.99 Netflix fee as opposed to $8.99 plus a Gold membership to Xbox Live. That said, Microsoft doesn't seem to care, believing that Xbox Live is still a "generation ahead" of the competition.

"The Netflix experience on Xbox LIVE is unique and reflects our commitment for social entertainment. We believe we offer an experience today that is a generation ahead of what others are offering," said an MS spokesman, in response to the PS3's new coup. "For a little over $4 a month Xbox LIVE Gold membership is hands-down the best value in home entertainment, and gives you exclusive access multi-player gaming and early demos as well as Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm, 1 vs 100 and more."

Of course, a lot of that is BS -- you don't need Xbox Live to access Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and Last.fm. You also don't get "early" access to demos, since all Microsoft does is delay demos for Silver members rather than put them up early for Gold ones. Also, the last I checked, online multiplayer wasn't exclusive to the 360. Oh, and 1 vs. 100 will only ever be a selling point to idiots. 

What this response seems to say more than anything is, "We're not dropping the Xbox Live subscription free, nyah nyah nyah." Fair enough, I suppose.

Chances are you've already heard how the forthcoming Xbox 360 update isn't going to play nicely with "unauthorized storage devices" aka all memory units that aren't licensed by Microsoft. It's a bummer considering how expensive the company's storage devices are, no doubt about it.

Patrick Klepek at G4TV got a spokesperson from Microsoft to explain why the decision was made, in addition to what would happen to those who didn't obey the new rules. According to the rep, Microsoft is looking to "protect the Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE service from cheating, which is the primary purpose and use of these unauthorized MUs."

I understand that cheating and/or piracy can be a concern, especially when it comes to the name Datel specifically, but really? Is it worth pissing off customers who are simply looking for affordable, fair pricing?

Apparently so, since now people will have no choice but to purchase the $29.99 512 MB memory unit from Microsoft. Those who refuse to comply by not recovering their profiles from the unauthorized MUs "will not be able to recover their profiles following the software update."

Discussion about Infinity Ward's upcoming kill-brown-people simulator Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been, well ... less than positive recently. Old World and PC gamers are feeling slighted by a series of price hikes—a £5 bump for British console gamers and an extra $10 for the PC version—and the recent news that Infinity Ward will be ditching dedicated servers in favor of peer-to-peer matchmaking has met with vocal resistance and a thriving online petition.

Yesterday, Infinity Ward's Creative Specialist and former community manager Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling made it clear that the petition "will not be ignored." Today, he posted the first details on IWNET—the peer-to-peer matchmaking system that will replace dedicated servers—on his personal blog, calling Modern Warfare 2 "the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games" and "the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made."

Describing the matchmaking process, Bowling explains that IWNET will automatically find the server with the lowest ping that matches your gameplay specifications and connect you with other players with the same skill level as your own, putting "you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping." He promises that "it doesn’t mean you’ll just be thrown into a random game!"

For those of you who want to play with a clan, Bowling says that friendlists and private matches, coupled with the new Party system, will let you hang on to the community vibe provided by dedicated servers:

A Party allows you to move from game to game as a group. It’s great for clan matches, because you can party [up] with your clan and move from public game to public game together. Or if you’re doing a scrim, party up and invite the other clan (who is in a party) and they’ll all join at once. Set up a private match together and play. It makes setting up scrims or games with friends easier and hassle free.

Well, there you go. Bowling certainly seems to have addressed the most common complaints I've been seeing, but, judging by the f*ckstorm of comments on the post (2000 and counting), I'm sure not all of you are mollified. The only glaring omission I see is that a lack of custom maps will certainly be a kick in the junk for some of you.

So, finally, we have some solid details on IWNET and how it's going to work. If you're a PC gamer, are you ok with this, or are you still going to be boycotting what will surely be the most popular game of the year? Sound off in the comments.

[Via The Escapist]

In today's edition of "How is This News?," we have got a special report about a collaboration between NASCAR, Target, and DJ Hero. As seen above, Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 1 Chevrolet will have a game-themed paint scheme during Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

If you happen to be in the Charlotte, North Carolina area (why am I even asking?), the race will be happening at Lowe's Motor Speedway. But more importantly, you can check out DJ Hero -- it'll be playable -- at The Fan Midway which is within walking distance.

From 3:30 to 4:00 PM EDT, Truex Jr. will be attempting to keep the party alive with his DJ Hero skills at the very same place. Knowing how this sort of thing usually goes down, hilarity will almost certainly ensue.

This news is surely a chilling vision of things to come.