For those wanting a quick snapshot of what’s what from the latest NPD July 2011 numbers, here’s a quick breakdown with some easily digestible commentary.

Assuredly, the buggest console exclusives in what remains of 2011 will be Gears of Wars 3 and Uncharted 3.

Video Games Sales Look Pretty Low

• 26% = Decline of U.S. Retail Sales of Video Game Systems and Software From Last Year
• 30% = Decline of New Video Game Sales and Software From Last Year

While the numbers may look bad at a glance, every console on the board is entering the late stages of their lifecycle. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is in its sixth year, the PS3 is five years old, and so is the Nintendo Wii. Declining console sales should be expected. And since we’re still in a pretty crummy recession, game sales should be expected to take a dive.

Console Sales in July 2011, Xbox 360 on “Top” (Not Counting the DS)

• 277,000 = Number of Xbox 360 Units Sold in July 2011.
• 443,500 = Number of Xbox 360 Units Sold in July 2010.
• 1.7 million = Number of Xbox 360 Units Sold in Q1 2011.
• $250 million = Retail Sales for the Xbox 360 Platform (Hardware, Software, and Accessories)
• 190,000 = Number of Nintendo Wii Units Sold in July 2011.
• 148,000 = Number of PlayStation 3 Units Sold in July 2011.
• 290,000 = Number of Nintendo DS Units Sold in July 2011

Microsoft is likely banking on Gears of War 3 to sell some more Xbox 360 consoles late into the year, while Sony has Uncharted 3 coming up. Nintendo, as usual, plays to the beat of their own drum, but with the PlayStation Vita looming in the distance, it’s going to be interesting to see how the price drop affects sales of the Nintendo 3DS. Retailers are certainly doing their damnedest to capitalize on impulse buyers before the holidays.

Top 10 Games of July 2011 (Catherine Didn’t Make the Cut)

• 1. NCAA Football 12 (X360, PS3)
• 2. Cars 2 (Multi)
• 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Multi)
• 4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Multi)
• 5. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
• 6. Major League Baseball 2K11 (Multi)
• 7. Zumba Fitness (X360, PS3, Wii)
• 8. Fallout: New Vegas (X360, PS3, PC)
• 9. New Super Mario Bros DS (DS)
• 10. Mortal Kombat (X360, PS3)

Hey, I can’t that Cars 2 did so well either — but keep in mind, that’s counting console and handheld sales, which also explains “Johnny Depp the Game”. NCAA Football 12′s dominance is a nice surprise, although that’s largely because Madden still isn’t out. What didn’t make the top 10? Catherine and Shadows of the Damned. Bummer.

On another note, how about that New Super Mario Bros DS? Maybe all those 3DS owners are buying it up because there aren’t many 3DS games out. And technically, the DS was the biggest seller of the season.

[Sources: Eurogamer, Market Watch, NeoGAF, Punch Jump, Shack News]

While the Xbox 360 is on track to lead 2011 as the year’s best selling console, actual video game sales are looking at an all-time low over the last five years.

[Republished from PC World's Game On. For more gaming news from a PC World perspective, interact with Game On via Twitter and Facebook.]

It’s good news for digital but somber news for new physical retail sales in NPD’s July 2011 video game market report. Even NPD analyst Anita Frazier was somewhat downbeat, launching with: “There is no getting around the fact that video game [dollar] sales in the new physical retail channel suffered [their] lowest month since October 2006.”

Total U.S. game sales in new physical retail for July were $707.7 million, down from $961.3 million year-on-year, a 26 percent decline.

On the upside, says Frazier, new physical retail sales were only down 4 percent year-to-date, adding that the upcoming holiday season should either zero the year out, or decrease the year-on-year differential to a more modest negative 2 percent.

Curiously, the biggest single contributor to the dollar decline was console hardware, and not because of selling price, which NPD calls “flat” compared to last year—unit sales of console hardware were simply down overall.

As usual, Microsoft’s press statement included Xbox 360 units sales (277,000, in first place), while Sony’s note skirted the PS3′s lower unit sales number and instead highlighted PlayStation peripheral sales (up 18 percent year-on-year). Microsoft says the Xbox 360 was first for the fifth month in a row, “selling more units in the U.S. than any other console for 13 of the past 14 months,” and claims the Xbox 360 is “on track to have the biggest year in Xbox history.”

It looks like the Xbox 360 and PS3 contributed most to hardware, software, and accessory sales, while all the other platforms (read: everything Nintendo, plus Sony’s PSP) declined, and that’s both year-on-year and year-to-date.

NPD tips its hat to digital sales, calling their growth “remarkable” and noting growth in this area “combined with a flat to modest decline in new physical sales should result in 2011 showing growth over 2010.”

Top of the chart in software sales: NCAA Football 12 (Xbox 360, PS3).

So U.S. retail headed for a down or flat (which is really down, too) annual finish, digital sales stepping in to fill the gap and then some. Is anyone surprised?

Nintendo is attempting to claim a patent for the curious concept of a “massively single player online game.”

Nintendo’s odd-sounding proposals would make a lot of sense in the context of its Animal Crossing franchise.

Gamespot reports that back in 2010, Nintendo filed for a patent on the concept of a “Massively Single Player Online Game.” The patent was published last week.

The patent describes a number of potential applications for the concept, including single player games in which players’ actions could affect the game worlds of others who happened to be online at the same time, though without direct face to face interaction. The idea would allow single player games to take place in dynamic, emergent game worlds but provide privacy from unwanted contact and griefing.

Nintendo also cited the example of player-driven economies, with prices being driven by supply and demand.

Despite Nintendo’s apparent assertion that this is a new idea, it’s been done several times before across several different games. Will Wright’s Spore first described itself as a massively single player game. The concept was implemented by downloading other players’ custom creatures, buildings and vehicles into the single player adventure, changing and adapting as other people played online, while remaining a steadfastly solo experience. Demon’s Souls offered an innovative approach to online play, with other gamers’ deaths occasionally flashing before players’ eyes as ghostly visions, mysterious messages scrawled on the floor and the ability to cooperate and compete with players as white or black phantoms. And social games on platforms such as Facebook and iOS offer solitaire experiences occasionally influenced by the actions of members of players’ friends lists — some even incorporate dynamic global economies.

The patent makes reference to the concept being implemented on “a home video game system such as the Nintendo Wii 3D video game system, a Nintendo DS or other 3D capable interactive computer graphics display systems.” Before you get too excited about the possibility of a 3DTV-compatible Wii, bear in mind that the use of the term “3D” in this situation more likely refers to polygonal graphics than “true” 3D — though it’s possible that back in 2010 the company was considering the implementation of 3DTV compatibility in the as-yet unannounced Wii U.

The name “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” has popped up a number of times over the past few days. Could a new entry in the successful multiplayer franchise be on the way? The answer, it turns out, is “yes.”

ORIGINAL STORY: The Counter-Strike series are some of the most successful multiplayer first person shooter games of all time on their native home of the PC. Starting life as a mod for the original Half-Life, the game enjoyed widespread popularity and spawned a series of variants which remain popular on Steam today.

It looks like a new title could be on the way, though, as a number of sources have been teasing the game’s existence for a few days. E-Sports Entertainment simply posted “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive… More info in the morning.” earlier today on their Facebook page. There’s an entire thread on the Steam forums discussing the game. Valve employee and Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe popped his head in to this thread to correct the community members calling it “Global Operation,” then disappeared again like a ninja. And Electronic Sports League product manager Bastian Veiser tweeted yesterday that he’d spent all day playing “the new Counterstrike Global Offensive at Valve HQ.”

Few further details are forthcoming right now, but reports suggest that Valve has been flying out a number of top Counter-Strike community members to their headquarters in Seattle to discuss the future of the game. Those that have been able to dribble out some information without being hunted down by PR agencies have suggested that the new game will offer 5v5 play and be largely aimed at competitive e-sports players. (Source)

If E-Sports Entertainment post is to be believed, we can expect more information today or tomorrow, and perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of the new game — if indeed it is a new game — at Gamescom next week.

Thanks, PC Gamer.

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long. Valve has officially confirmed the existence of the new game. It’ll be available via PSN, Xbox Live Arcade, Steam (for both PC and Mac) in early 2012. It will reportedly feature new maps, characters and weapons as well as updated versions of classic Counter-Strike content such as the famous “de_dust” map and the like. There will also be new gameplay modes, matchmaking and leaderboards incorporated. It’ll be playable at PAX Prime later this month, and the Eurogamer Expo next month. Find out more here.

One of the directors of the Grand Theft Auto series is working on a hard-hitting new game that explores Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranian soldiers demonstrating during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Grand Theft Auto series may have a big ESRB “M” plastered on the packaging for each of its games, but they’re not what you’d call serious, mature titles. Instead, they take a wry, sidelong glance at the American Dream and criminal counterculture, providing some ludicrous, over the top thrills in the process.

The next project of Navid Khonsari, a director on Rockstar’s titles between 2001 and 2005 and more recently cinematic director on Kaos’ Homefront, is somewhat less light-hearted. Simply known as “1979″ and featuring the tagline “there are no good guys,” the game explores the year of the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran during Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

The game combines the open world gameplay of Rockstar’s games with a “baton-pass” narrative, offering several characters’ perspectives on the unfolding events. These characters include an American/Iranian translator and a student demonstrator, and each shift in narrative perspective will bring with it a shift in gameplay mechanics, ranging from straightforward combat to stealth, bartering and linguistic puzzles.

Khonsari, who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, hopes that the game will spawn a series of titles allowing players to explore historical events in an interactive manner.

“[This is] the first installment of a franchise where the games will be named after years in which there were CIA operations within certain countries,” Khonsari told CNN. “1979 is the first one because it’s closest to my heart and I know the story the best. After that, we want to explore what took place in Panama with Noriega, and Libya back in the 70s and 80s with Gadhafi.”

The game is at least a year and a half away from release at this time, but it will hopefully set a trend for developers and publishers showing that games set in the Middle East don’t have to be first person shooters using what Khonsari dubs a “checkers mentality — red against black, good against evil.”

Nintendo has revealed some details regarding the 20 free games available through the 3DS Ambassador program.

Ice Climber is one of the NES titles 3DS early adopters will be able to download on Sept 1.

3DS early adopters who remembered to log into the eShop before August 11 are now officially “3DS Ambassadors,” and from September 1 will be able to download the first batch of games from the 20 freebies Nintendo have offered. According to the UK Official Nintendo Magazine, the NES games initially available will be basic ports of the original console titles that come with a simple control guide and the facility to suspend play. Titles that support alternating multiplayer will also work, but there’s no simultaneous play to begin with.

Later in the year, these games will get updated versions that support wireless simultaneous multiplayer between multiple 3DS devices, and come with a full manual. Ambassadors will be able to download these updated versions for free, and those who purchased a 3DS since will then be able to buy the titles through the eShop.

The Game Boy Advance titles, which are supposedly exclusive to 3DS Ambassadors, won’t support the facility to suspend play. This means that players will have to use the standard save systems built into the games, just as if they were playing on a real GBA. They will, however, come with a full electronic version of the manual. Nintendo hasn’t specifically said if these games will support wireless multiplayer — the original GBA required the use of a link cable for multiplayer, though a wireless adapter was later bundled with Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen late in the system’s life. This adapter required games to be specifically programmed to work with it, however, and did not see widespread popularity.

When the Ambassador program was first announced, Nintendo revealed the NES titles on offer would include Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda, while the GBA titles would include Yoshi’s Island, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. We’re yet to discover what the remaining titles are.

For those of you yet to pick up a 3DS, the $80 price drop is live from today.

Thanks, Shacknews.

DICE has confirmed that even retail copies of Battlefield 3 will require the installation of EA’s download manager and online store Origin.

EA’s certainly trying hard to push this Origin thing on us. Back in June, the publisher revealed that it was planning to make a number of titles exclusive to the service, with arguably the most high profile of these being BioWare’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. EA’s also had a number of spats with Valve over Steam’s licensing agreements, leading to several of EA’s titles no longer being available for purchase or auto-update via Valve’s platform.

With Battlefield 3, though, EA’s taking a new tack again — forcing players to install the Origin client software, even with new retail copies of the game. DICE community manager Daniel “@zh1nt0” Matros confirmed this via Twitter.

This isn’t a new practice — Valve has been requiring users to install Steam with retail versions of their products ever since Half-Life 2. There was upset over this at the time of Half-Life 2′s original release, but since then most PC gamers have accepted Steam as the de facto standard for digital distribution and community features. Origin, conversely, is still an unknown quantity at this time, currently focused solely on EA games (though the publisher hopes this will change) and seen by many as a service that is gutting Steam of EA’s best titles one at a time. Some users have also claimed Origin itself is a resource hog, causing performance issues with the recent Battlefield 3 alpha trial on lower-spec machines.

Battlefield 3 will not be available via Steam, with EA giving the usual non-specific excuse about Valve’s supposedly restrictive business terms as the reason. It’s the latest casualty in the growing rift between EA and Valve, following Crysis 2 and Dragon Age II’s removal from the Steam store.

Thanks, BF3Blog.

The name “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” has popped up a number of times over the past few days. Could a new entry in the successful multiplayer franchise be on the way?

The Counter-Strike series are some of the most successful multiplayer first person shooter games of all time on their native home of the PC. Starting life as a mod for the original Half-Life, the game enjoyed widespread popularity and spawned a series of variants which remain popular on Steam today.

It looks like a new title could be on the way, though, as a number of sources have been teasing the game’s existence for a few days. E-Sports Entertainment simply posted “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive… More info in the morning.” earlier today on their Facebook page. There’s an entire thread on the Steam forums discussing the game. Valve employee and Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe popped his head in to this thread to correct the community members calling it “Global Operation,” then disappeared again like a ninja. And Electronic Sports League product manager Bastian Veiser tweeted yesterday that he’d spent all day playing “the new Counterstrike Global Offensive at Valve HQ.”

Few further details are forthcoming right now, but reports suggest that Valve has been flying out a number of top Counter-Strike community members to their headquarters in Seattle to discuss the future of the game. Those that have been able to dribble out some information without being hunted down by PR agencies have suggested that the new game will offer 5v5 play and be largely aimed at competitive e-sports players. (Source)

If E-Sports Entertainment post is to be believed, we can expect more information today or tomorrow, and perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of the new game — if indeed it is a new game — at Gamescom next week.

Thanks, PC Gamer.

EA’s Facebook-based The Sims variant is up and running, though it’s a little bit flaky for the moment due to its beta status.

Art imitating life: this is what I’m actually doing RIGHT NOW.

When EA announced The Sims Social at E3, the reaction was one of bewilderment — largely because the short snippet of gameplay they showed really didn’t explain very much about how the game would work.

Now the game is up and running on Facebook, though it’s a little temperamental as to whether or not it’ll let you in right now — sometimes it confronts you with a “BETA: COMING SOON” banner, and others it’ll let you play without incident. Try it for yourself here. If you’re having trouble getting in, ask a Facebook friend who is playing to send you an invite.

Gameplay is actually more similar to traditional The Sims games than was originally implied. Players create a Sim, which doesn’t have to share their name or even gender, and is then tasked with both taking care of their Needs and fulfilling objectives. Like most social games, the game holds the player’s hand very firmly throughout its opening hours with a series of slightly patronizing “quests” to introduce you to the main concepts, but the player is free to ignore these completely if they so desire and pursue whatever feature they like for their Sim — is it to romance as many players from their Facebook friends list as possible? To be the most loathsome, objectionable bastard the virtual neighborhood has ever seen? To get really good at writing? Or simply to have a massive house?

Mechanically, the game is pretty similar to most social games, with monetary, XP and abstract item rewards (“You gained 5 Fury!”) flowing thick and fast for even the most mundane actions. Given the fact that The Sims series is based almost entirely around mundane actions, though, these mechanics don’t feel nearly as incongruous as they do in games that attempt to forge an uncomfortable alliance between, say, war and socialization. There’s the usual “get your friends to help you” type objectives for certain aspects of the game, but the game does have the added twist of allowing you to go and visit your friends’ Sims and try to kiss them or slap them about a bit if you’re in a bad mood. Relationship values are persistent, so if your friend visits your Sim while you’re not playing, any changes to how much your two Sims like each other (or not) will show up when you next log in.

While the game’s hardly revolutionary — particularly in the crowded, derivative Facebook games marketplace — the social concept fits well with the Sims franchise, so those who enjoy commanding little people to go to the toilet and cut the grass will probably find something to like, even if it’s just the unlockable skill that gives you chronic flatulence.

Codemasters, current holder of the Formula One license, is developing a free to play racing and management game to release next year.

Codemasters’ F1 games have been pretty good — their focus on the complete life of a racing driver rather than just the on-track action has made them popular with fans of the sport and racing fans alike.

Next year, the company is entering the lucrative free to play space with a browser-based title that combines online top-down multiplayer races with a substantial management aspect. The game will feature all the official driver names and teams, social network integration and online leaderboards for a bit of friendly competition.

And don’t think because the game’s browser-based that it will feature the usual McDonald’s-style family-friendly soulless cartoony artwork typically found in social games — the game will be making use of the Unity engine, which powers heavy-duty browser-based titles such as King’s Bounty Legions and Battlestar Galactica Online.

“Building on the commercial and critical success of our high definition Formula One games, this is an exciting opportunity to bring our passion for the sport and our expertise in racing to a new audience,” said Codemasters Online VP, David Solari. “With a bespoke design for accessible browser play, F1 Online: The Game is a perfect complementary experience to the HD series and will appeal to a broad spectrum of Formula One’s millions of fans worldwide.”

The game doesn’t launch until early next year, but you can sign up now here.