News Highlights: 2007 Timeline
January Jan. 8: Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that it has been recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system's SIXAXIS wireless controller. Jan. 9: id Software had the honor of winning two Technology Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2007. Jan. 11: Xbox 360 was the best-selling next-generation console of the 2006 holiday season in the United States, outselling the PlayStation 3 and Wii combined in December and outselling all next-generation consoles in November and December. The Xbox 360 garnered a 51% market share in the United States for December 2006. Jan. 12: The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded Nintendo an Emmy® Award for its invention of the plus-shaped D-pad, one in a long string of Nintendo's controller innovations. Jan. 23: Blizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has broken the day-one sales record to become the fastest-selling PC game ever in North America and Europe, with a worldwide total of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of availability. Jan. 26: As the fastest-selling video game system in the world, Nintendo DS now is in the hands of more than 10 million consumers in the Americas. Since launching in November 2004, nearly nine Nintendo DS or DS Lite portable game systems have sold every 60 seconds. March March 6: Microsoft is proud to announce today that more than 6 million gamers worldwide are connected to Xbox LIVE, a milestone that was reached 4 months ahead of schedule. March 7: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade sold through approximately 3.5 million copies within one month following its mid-January launch in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. World of Warcraft's worldwide subscriber base now numbers more than 8.5 million and is continuing to grow as new and returning players join existing players in the game. April April 3: Effective today, PSP Core Pack will be available in North America for $169.99 (MSRP), delivering a significant $30 savings to consumers. April 11: Ubisoft announced that it has concluded an agreement to acquire SunFlowers, owner of the Anno brand, one of the most successful strategy games with five million units sold worldwide and one of the best-selling games in the German market. May May 23: Valve today announced that Steam, the Bellevue, WA based company's pioneering PC platform for digital content, has surpassed 13 million active accounts. With over 150 games in a broad selection of genres and dozens of other PC applications, movies, and demos available, Steam has become a leading destination for millions of gamers around the world. June June 25: Insomniac Games, creators of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Resistance: Fall of Man for PlayStation 3, is proud to announce that for the third-straight year it has been recognized as being the first and only videogames company named to the "50 Best Small & Medium Sized Companies to Work for in America" list. July July 11: NCsoft Corporation the world's leading developer and publisher of online games today announced an exclusive game development deal with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. that provides for NCsoft to create several online games for SCEI's PlayStation® platforms, including PlayStation 3 and PSP, accessible through PlayStation Network. July 23: Sony Computer Entertainment America announced retail growth for PlayStation 3 in July. Based on preliminary internal data, PS3 sales have increased by more than 135% at the company's top five retailers since the new $499 price was announced two weeks ago on July 9th. During this same two-week period, total PlayStation hardware sales have increased by 161%, software by 15% and peripherals by 60%. July 24: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has reached a new milestone, with a player base now totaling more than 9 million subscribers worldwide. August Aug. 21: The Guild Wars franchise of online role-playing games has broken the four million units sold mark in just over two years. September Sept. 19: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced that PlayStation 3 computer entertainment systems, part of Stanford University's Folding@home program, have enabled the distributed computing project to reach a petaflop, a milestone never before reached on a distributed computing network. A petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS). In other words, if every person on the planet were to perform a simple mathematical calculation, such as calculating a percentage, each person would have to perform 75,000 calculations every second for the world's population to achieve a petaflop. By achieving a petaflop, scientists with the Folding@home program are now able to conduct research that typically would not be possible for 10 years down the line. Sept. 19: Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it had acquired leading game developer Evolution Studios Ltd and its subsidiary Bigbig Studios Ltd to further expand its game development capability as part of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios. October Oct. 4: Microsoft Corp. today announced that "Halo 3" has officially become a global phenomenon, garnering more than $300 million in sales in the first week alone. The critically acclaimed Xbox 360 exclusive, which was released worldwide on Tuesday, Sept. 25, is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. Oct. 11: Electronic Arts Inc. today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. -- the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry. BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. November Nov. 26: 1C Company, the leading Eastern and Central European publisher, is pleased to announce that it has acquired Akella's "Sea Dog" in-house development studio. December Dec. 3: Activision, Inc. and Vivendi announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business - which includes Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the world's #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise - with Activision, creating the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video-game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.
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