Ticker
Staff -- Playthings, 9/1/2001
Dollar sales for video games in June 2001 were up almost 70 percent compared to June 2000, said NPD. The year-to-date numbers are up 29 percent. Jupiter Media Metrix Analyst Billy Pidgeon attributed this to the maturation of Sony's PlayStation 2 and launch of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. There has been more media coverage, too, he added, which has translated to more consumer interest…A Ziff Davis-commissioned independent survey found 42 percent of all videogamers plan to buy a 128-bit system for the holidays. Sixty-two percent of those had their eye on a PS2. Separately, the media company will launch GameNow, a magazine aimed at 10- to 16-year-old gamers, in November…InterAct Accessories will offer a core lineup of controllers, memory cards and cables for both Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox for their early November launches…In a move that reflects Sega's transition to third-party publisher, the company has lowered the retail price of the Dreamcast to $79.95. A $99.95 sports bundle which includes NFL 2K1, NBA 2K1 and World Series Baseball 2K1 is also available…Cyber-athletes took home X Games gold playing Konami's ESPN X Games Skateboarding…Barbie trades in her compact for spy gear in Secret Agent Barbie for the PC this fall, courtesy Vivendi Universal. Her mission? Stop the making of an invisibility suit…Snow White gets the DVD treatment this October. Among the bonuses Disney has added is a guided tour through Snow White's animated world…Universal Interactive's popular marsupial will appear on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance in Crash Bandicoot X/S, scheduled for early 2002.
