MY sales are better than YOUR sales!

If you’re into entertainment, the United States is a great place to be. Finding it is simple enough: drive into a city, walk into any media emporium, and find movies and music from all over the world. If that’s not enough, there are thousands of games to choose from too, created by developers from numerous countries and released across a bevy of platforms. These booming industries are a shining example of our materialistic, consumer-oriented world, which means a lot of money is involved, and no one will make peaceful concessions about who’s making the most.

Take the recently released annual report from the EMA group, which states that the total sales of games, consoles, and accessories were higher than the sales for DVD movies. If you take away the hardware portion of things, DVDs take the top spot with a lead of around $7 billion. However, these numbers don’t include used game sales. 49% of GameStop’s first quarter profits came from pre-owned titles, derived from a $415 million gross. That’s only one quarter’s sales, and it doesn’t include what people picked up on eBay or at their local Blockbuster.

The industry tends to ignore used sales because that doesn’t put any money in the pockets of developers and publishers. Nonetheless, millions of consumers buy pre-owned product, both in game and movie form, although GameStop is forever broadening its used sales scope while retail movie chains are narrowing theirs. To compensate for this cutthroat competition, more new games are being released at bargain prices, and both markets are pushing to increase digital distribution sales. Despite their best efforts, a meager $5 savings is enough to persuade people into purchasing used.

We’ve all heard people say that games would have already won this war if they cost $19.99 when first released. That doesn’t account for movie theater ticket sales, but DVDs have been outselling those for years anyway. It’s taking the biggest share of the market — the home spender — into consideration, and it’s easy to believe games would’ve sold to the tune of billions more if they were that cheap. To get them there, however, developers and publishers would have to function with smaller budgets and less manpower, and their costs are only rising. They work hard only to be stabbed in the back by dipping retail prices and rising pre-owned sales.

Undoubtedly, more developers will collapse under the pressure. Budgeting challenges won’t go away, and the cheaper and unstoppable “casual industry” could overwhelm the entire market to become the true rival for DVDs. The fight for the biggest numbers overall could prove exciting for price-conscious consumers, and may be rougher on the creators of their beloved products. No one can predict what will result, and everyone hopes it isn’t going to be an endless stream of EA-branded clone games, but surely, this battle between the two entertainment industries will rage on for a long, long while.

Take Two announces a film based on last year’s trippy masterpiece.

The Internet has been abuzz with news that a BioShock film is very much in the works. Further adding to the gaming community’s collective hard-on is speculation by a Take Two exec that the movie could conceivably “be released along BioShock 3.” So for the dozen of you that didn’t get the memo, we have a newborn franchise in our midst.

Word on the street is that the project is in very capable hands, with Gore Verbinski, of Pirates of the Caribbean fame, taking charge. No, the stench of Uwe Boll will not taint our beloved baby.

Be that as it may, I am not without my reservations.

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Rock is BACK.

Ok, actually it never left, but let's roll with the theme here. GotNext is pleased to announce a new exciting cross promotion with The Rockvine: The Loudest Buzz Online. This is an all new destination site dedicated to giving you breaking news and cutting edge content from today's hottest artists. The site will also be loaded with exclusive videos, opinions, band features and much more! Anyone who's looking to get up-to-minute details of the rock lifestyle will wanna bookmark this site.

Today marks the official launch of The Rockvine which will be the ONLY online resource offering exclusive media and news for Crue Fest, the most anticipated festival in rock! The keyword here being "exclusive" content with the Crue Fest bands (featuring Motely Crue, Trapt, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, and SIXX A.M.), updates of the nationwide tour and everything in between. Did I mention you won't find it anywhere else? K, good.

Visitors can also look forward to select content, courtesy of GotNext on the latest gaming releases that appeal to the rock community including but not limited to Harmonix's Rock Band and subsequent DLC releases, first-person shooter games, and other relevant genres. (Those just happen to be the biggest).

Be sure to check out the press conference which took place earlier this evening at 7PMEST / 4PM PST to hear the special announcement from Motley Crue ESPECIALLY if you want tickets to attend Crue Fest. I repeat - if you want tickets - the only way to secure some is to visit therockvine.com! Stay tuned for more details!

The popular game artist takes a crack at comics.

Here at GotNext, we don't normally talk much about manga and comics, but when a game industry great like Yasushi Suzuki takes a stab at his own book, you take notice. Purgatory Kabuki is the first full-length manga for the prolific artist and he assumes the role of both author and illustrator, allowing us our some insight into Suzuki as a storyteller.

In an interesting turn for an artist that usually departs from Japanese artistic convention, Suzuki seems to revel in his heritage for this Western-market original. Perhaps because he knows he is creating for the American audience, Purgatory Kabuki revels in Japanese culture and tradition, with influences of ukiyoe painting, Japanese mythology, and, of course, kabuki theater.

Using Yomi, the Japanese underworld, as a backdrop, Purgatory Kabuki tells the story of a nameless swordsman, fighting without reason, and collecting the swords of his slain opponents. When he meets his match in the form of a young demon spawn named Enishi, he accepts her as his better, and swears his allegiance. In exchange for a powerful new body, he will assume the name of Imanotsurugi and help Enishi to collect a thousand swords, needed to escape the underworld and ascend to heaven.

Suffice it to say that the grim storyline and hellish setting mean the pages are packed with action. The bloody and intense sword fights are a perfect match for Suzuki's distinctive art style. In a departure from the digital paintings he's known for, the panels of Purgatory Kabuki feature a more minimalist pen and ink approach, with bold, kinetic strokes of the pen that wonderfully convey the energy of each stroke of the sword.

Dialog is quite minimal at times. The plot is at turns a thin vehicle for the action, and at others quite surprising. Suzuki's video game industry roots seem to show here, with a series of "boss" fights against an eclectic cast of foes. But just when you think you've gotten used to the rhythm of the story, some unusual turns save the story from repetition.

Lamentably, there are a few areas where Suzuki's inexperience becomes apparent. While the art is all quite lovely, the continuity is not always easy to figure out. The lack of dialog, stark backgrounds, and very few establishing shots for each scene make it somewhat difficult to follow the action at times. These more subtle aspects of communicating important information to the reader are the things Suzuki most needs to learn.

Despite this, Purgatory Kabuki is an impressive first effort, and there is little doubt that Yasushi Suzuki has the talent and creativity to make a wonderful manga-ka. His art is absolutely one-of-a-kind, and his unique interpretation of Yomi will not soon be forgotten. Fans will not be disappointed, and those just looking for something different in the world of action comics would do well to pay attention.

The old school MST3K crew return to ripping bad movies a new one.

Being a longtime fan of the geek humor of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and having seen every episode except their UHF trial run, I never thought these talented people could be lured back to the world of making fun of bad movies.  Yet in recent years, Mike J. Nelson started up Rifftrax, often joined by the newer voices of Tom and Crow, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, where they fill a downloadable track full of strange quips to be synced up with well known movies, both good and terrible (the movies, not the jokes).  They've also done a series of DVD releases under the Film Crew, that returns mostly to the MST3K format with host segments and truly terrible movies to poke fun of.

Now the original crew of the Satellite of Love have gotten back into the action under the optimistic label of Cinematic Titanic.  You've got your Joel "Robinson" Hodgson, "TV's" Frank Conniff, Trace "Crow with a dash of Forrester" Beaulieu, and the original smarmy voice of Tom Servo, Josh Weinstien.  Joining these originators is the always radiant Mary Jo Pehl.  Their first release has hit my mailbox in the form of the Oozing Skull, which is neither oozing nor particularly keen on skulls, aside from a few obviously fake skeletons in the closet.  It's the sort of movie that Ed Wood Jr. would have been embarrassed being associated with, even when decked out in a matching dress.  Seeing as this is a videogame related site, I wasn't going to comment on it, at least until the silhouette of Stephen Hawking rolled out during a typical mad scientist body switching scene, and delivered the following line:

"If this brain transplant works, I've got next."

If that doesn't rate a mention, I don't know what does.  So what's it like?  Well, imagine if you will one of the rock super groups like the Police or Led Zeppelin suddenly reunited long after their breakup and just started jamming together again.  None have lost their talent for off hand remarks and crazy quips, but the timing and the delivery has gotten a bit rusty, especially for those that hadn't done much of this sort of thing before.  There are no host segments.  No puppets on strings.  Instead, after a jazzy theme song they launch right into the movie, but there are occasional breaks where they pause the film for a few bizarre segments, taking advantage of their silhouette setup to throw in a few sight gags.  I still find myself wanting some bits at the beginning and the end to make it a little more than shadows razzing a bad movie, but it still brought a truckload of laughs.

So if you're curious, give a peek at their site, read a few blogs, watch the trailer, and even comment in their forum.  I hope their next release oozes along soon enough.