Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

Game sales in Canada drop – first time in 7 years

Getting the obligatory Canadian news out of the way, it turns out that games aren’t an invincible commodity during a time of “economic uncertainty” with games sales in the country falling compared to last year. It is the first time that games have taken this swing since the NPD Group, gurus of entertainment medium sales, started taking statistics and counts of the money made in the industry north of 45. The drop, around 8.5 percent, isn’t a huge downtown signifying the end of days for gaming in the country, but it is the first sign of weakness in the industry since the major world markets started feeling the effects of recession symptoms. The drop is mostly in the hardware, where home consoles saw a drop of nearly 15 percent and portables at just over 20. Software sales were down, but to a lesser extent with home consoles game sales declining by 7.5 percent and portable game sales barely declining at 1.5.

It is not the sky is falling moment that it may seem to some, it is a sign of two things: a change in consumer spending habits and a change in the way that gaming companies have handled their early year releases. After the holiday push there has been a significant lull in major titles. Though we haven’t had a complete absence of quality or blockbuster titles rolling out early this year, the first few months of 2008 which brought us Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock aren’t reflected in the first quarter of 2009 which didn’t see any explosive carry over from holiday titles or new releases. Things have picked up during the second quarter in a way that may actually drive game sales in that time span significantly higher compared to last year, but that change combined with consumers taking more time to think about spending habits created a harsher environment for games. It’s also worth noting that the currency rate dropped significantly since last year and game prices have been driven up as a result of this, with many game publishers opting for a 70 dollar price tag on major releases versus the popular 60 dollar tag of years past. It’s not a huge difference, but enough of one to make you think twice before giving up your extra cash.

The Duke is dead – Love live the Duke

Headlines like “Duke Nukem Forever – DNF” and other terrible things swimming through my head right now, it is my solemn duty to inform the readers here that 3D Realms, the developers of DNF have shaken loose the mortal coil and been shut down. No, the developers are not dead, but it seems that one of the longest running jokes in gaming, the release of Duke Nukem Forever is now more of a joke than ever with the game seemingly been flushed away into obscurity altogether. While most of the world had given up hope years ago, it was an idea that I had held onto since days of yore, about a dozen years ago, when the game was first announced and the first trailer trickled out into a primitive internet world.

Like I mentioned, this is not a big surprise considering it’s hard to remember the last game that was developed and published by 3D Realms, and a game that has a dozen years of constant toil associated with it that had a brand that was almost lost to the ages wasn’t exactly set up for major success. The shock of the initial announcement certainly resonated with a lot of people, and for years 3D Realms trickled out bits of information, job postings, forum postings and suggestions that they would be taking into account for the game. There was even some show time for the product, with the online program The Jace Hall Show’s eponymous host having spent some time with the game and even giving it some air time. The future is still unknown for Duke, but there is still a glimmer of hope burning somewhere in my brain that the game will be picked up, dusted off and shoved onto shelves sometime between now and the rapture. It will be awful, and I will love it.

Dead Space not such a lame duck for EA

When EA announced that they were focusing on new IPs instead of the normal strong push towards annual exploitation of existing franchises, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding how they would handle that challenge. The first big call to arms was Dead Space, a game that I have mentioned quite a few times as one that surprised me with its quality and had been giving off the impression to the gaming media that it hadn’t performed quite as well as EA had hoped. Along with Mirror’s Edge it seemed that the new strategy was not giving birth to runaway successes to lift EA out of their era of profit loss. Word from the head of Visceral Studios’ Glen Schofield seems to be, however, that Dead Space sold around 1.4 million copies, which is nothing to shake a stick at and certainly a solid foundation for a new series.

Breakaway games are hard to come by these days. Many of the biggest games announced and anticipated through the major publishers come from existing franchises, and while that isn’t always the case it does seem to be the strong message for 3rd parties that sequels is where the true money lies. EA has been notorious in the past for basically ignoring new franchises and focusing on pushing out sequels, and now that they’ve moved onto a new direction they were under the microscope to see if any of their titles hit it big. Dead Space ended being a top ten game for a time, but has been a slow burn ever since and gained significant notoriety and critical acclaim since being released alongside a wave of other quality titles. Even Mirror’s Edge managed a million copies, something that undercut the multiple millions that EA had initially projected but nothing to be genuinely upset about. The foundations that EA has set has allowed these brands to enter into the lexicon of most gamers, and having good ideas and good running starts have allowed the studios behind the titles to prosper in a big way. It’s a great win for the companies involved, and hopefully for gamers wishing for more quality titles in the Dead Space universe.