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Madden NFL 13, Borderlands 2 lead all September bestsellers
Boom! The annual juggernaut that is the Madden NFL Football has once again taken the top spot for September sales as Madden NFL 13 reigned supreme last month.
Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 followed close behind with strong sales of its own. In fact, they were so strong that the sequel managed to top the first month sales of the original Borderlands by 234%. That is just an insane number.
New releases controlled much of the top ten with FIFA Soccer 13 (#3), Guild Wars 2 (#5), NHL 13 (#6), and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (#7) also performing well.
The full top ten for September 2012 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, FIFA Soccer 13, Guild Wars 2, Lego Batman 2, Madden NFL 13, NCAA Football 13, New Super Mario Bros. 2, NHL 13, NPD, World of Warcraft
Bridgestone claims that “Kevin Butler” never appeared in their commercial
The “Kevin Butler” lawsuit saga just gets stranger and stranger. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, a representative from Bridgestone has pointed out that actor Jerry Lambert didn’t have any lines in the commercial he appeared in, so he couldn’t have been portraying “Kevin Butler.”
“Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer. Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”
Sony is suing Bridgestone and Lambert’s company, Wildcat Creek, for trademark infringement over their use of the “Kevin Butler” character in a commercial for a “Buy Four Tires, Receive a Wii” promotion. Bridgestone counters with the assertion that Sony never actually registered a trademark for the “Kevin Butler” character and that viewers understand that the people in commercials are actors.
Bridgestone makes a compelling case, but I’ll bet that someone, somewhere, believes “Kevin Butler” is a real person.
Nintendo Download: Lego Lord of the Rings demo, Mario Golf GBC, More
My precious has shrunk down to handheld size as a 3DS demo of Lego Lord of the Rings is now available on the 3DS eShop as part of today’s Nintendo Download. If you’re looking for a more full game experience, five titles also made their way to Nintendo’s three download services today:
Mario Golf (3DS eShop) – The stakes are high in the race to become the Grand Champion of golf. Four Club Champs stand in your way, and you’ll have to defeat them all to get a shot at playing the most famous golfer in the land.
Crazy Kangaroo (3DS eShop) – A groundbreaking, super-addictive and unbelievably cute platform game from Gamelion that delivers pure awesomeness!
Nurikabe by Nikoli (3DS eShop) – In this super popular puzzle, black spaces and white spaces slowly come together to show their true form. “Nurikabe” is a puzzle in which you refer to the arranged numbers to fill in all of the spaces.
Robot Rescue 2 (DSiWare) – Your mission is to navigate a cadre of codependent robots through an evil computer labyrinth that’s brimming with deadly traps. At certain points you’ll need to repaint your robots by stepping on a special tile in order to change their color.
The Last Blade 2 (Wii Virtual Console) – The Last Blade 2, originally released in 1998, is the sequel to the fighting game, The Last Blade, which was released a year before. It picks up where the previous title left off and takes the story of battling at the gates of hell to its climax. This time around, there are 16 unique swordsmen from which to choose.
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii
Tagged Lego Lord of the Rings
More on Sony’s “Kevin Butler” lawsuit
Speaking to Kotaku, Sony has revealed a few more details about their lawsuit against Bridgestone and Jerry Lambert, the actor who plays Kevin Butler in a series of very popular PlayStation commercials.
Expanding on their earlier charge of trademark infringement, Sony believes that Bridgestone and Lambert are guilty of “misappropriation, breach of contract and tortious interference with a contractual relationship.” Their lawsuit hinges on their belief that Bridgestone “[used] the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation.”
Sony might have a case as the Bridgestone ads (which feature Mario Kart Wii) began a few days before the announcement of a Kevin Butler DLC Pack for this November’s LittleBigPlanet Karting. However, nowhere in the Bridgestone (which appears online now only in edited form) ad was Lambert’s character referred to as “Kevin Butler.”
Sony’s full statement can be found after the break. (more…)
New Releases: Dishonored, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Just Dance 4, More
This week’s new releases will sneak up on us like a ghostly assassin in a steampunk setting. If that analogy seems oddly specific to you, might I point you towards Dishonored (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), a stealth game that has more than a few gamers giddy with anticipation.
Speaking of stealth, this week also sees the release of 2K’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) reboot. Developed by Firaxis, sneaking up on some aliens and giving them the “Welcome to Earth” treatment should be a hoot.
Also available this week is the dancefloor shenanigans of Just Dance 4 (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360) and a trio of Kinect adventures for the Xbox 360: Harry Potter For Kinect, Dragon Ball Z For Kinect, and Fable: The Journey. Maybe I’m just not seeing the big picture, but why would publishers release four of the biggest Kinect games of the Fall on the same day?
Finally, for those looking for a little handheld excitement, Atlus is bringing the action RPG Code of Princess to the 3DS.
Hit the jump for more of this week’s new releases. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Code of Princess, Dishonored, Fable: The Journey, Harry Potter For Kinect, Just Dance 4, XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Actor who plays Kevin Butler is being sued by Sony
If you watched TV last month, you likely saw Sony’s fictional spokesman, Kevin Butler (AKA actor Jerry Lambert), in a commercial for Bridgestone’s “Buy Four Tires, Get a Wii” promotion. While “Kevin Butler” was never a real person, he’s become the closest thing to a mascot Sony’s had this generation. So it was rather chuckle-worthy to see him, even indirectly, shilling for Nintendo.
But Sony doesn’t think it’s a laughing matter. The consolemaker has decided to sue Lambert, through his company Wildcat Creek, and Bridgestone for trademark infringement. And they’ve likely got a pretty good case too as Lambert’s portrayal of a Bridgestone pitchman (which began on August 27) overlaps with the most recent updates on the “Kevin Butler” Twitter feed (the last one was on August 31).
As of this writing, GameStop is still offering the “Kevin Butler DLC Pack” as a pre-order bonus for gamers who purchase LittleBigPlanet Karting.
[Source: Kotaku]
Nintendo Download: Art Academy, Crosswords Plus, Cave Story, more
Nintendo is going big with this week’s Nintendo Download with seven titles are newly available to download today, and an eighth scheduled for release this Sunday, October 7.
This week’s two biggest additions are Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! and Crosswords Plus. The art tutor and the crossword puzzles collection are now available on the 3DS eShop… and in the same week the retail versions became available in stores. Not bad, Nintendo.
Purchasing either title through the 3DS eShop will also net you a downloadable copy of Donkey Kong: Original Edition, which features the never-before-seen-on-a-home-platform Cement Factory level.
There’s plenty of other new releases this week as well. So hit the jump for a full rundown of this week’s new Nintendo Downloads. (more…)
Justin Bieber is playable in NBA 2K13, god help us all
Having celebrities mix it up with NBA players is nothing new in the world of video games. Way back in 1993 Bill Clinton, the Beastie Boys, and George Clinton schooled Scottie Pippen nightly in NBA Jam. But I think 2K Sports might have gone too far with the Celebrity All-Stars team included in NBA 2K13… because they put Justin Bieber on the team. Observe:
shoutout to @ronnie2k for putting #TeamBieber in #NBA2K13 . Im running the pt. #SWAGGY twitter.com/justinbieber/s…
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 28, 2012
Pauly D and Vinny from Jersey Shore, Mac Miller, Bow Wow, JB Smoove, Wale, Sean Kingston, Meek Mill, and Brian Baumgartner make up the rest of the Celebrity All-Stars team. If you so desire to see Bieber dunk on Team USA (to his hit song “Baby,” no less), you’re in luck, it’s already on YouTube.