Blog

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is a big hit. The console version of Mojang’s indie sandbox game reached 5 million in sales on Monday, according to Mojang business developer Daniel Kaplan.

By comparison, the PC and Mac versions of Minecraft has sold 8.7 million copies as of this writing. The entire franchise–PC/Mac, mobile, and Xbox 360 versions–has accounted for more than 17.5 million in sales to date. More than 453,000 copies of Minecraft franchise games were sold on Christmas Day alone.

Upon launch on May 9, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition became profitable in just one hour, selling more than 400,000 copies during its first 24 hours on sale, and breaking all previous Xbox Live arcade digital sales records. The game reached 1 million in sales in just five days, and dethroned Call of Duty from the top of the Xbox Live activity chart for one week in October.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition was developed by 4J Studios, the Scotland-based shop that built the Xbox Live Arcade titles Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, and Banjo-Tooie. It retails for $20. For more on the game, check out GameSpot’s review.

The first information concerning Tomb Raider’s newly announced multiplayer mode has come to light. Details were published in this month’s issue of Official Xbox Magazine and were summarized by a Tomb Raider forum user.

First, Tomb Raider will feature the standard Team Deathmatch gametype. This mode pits a squad of Lara Croft’s allies against a group of natives referred to as “scavengers.” Gamers will alternate between sides throughout the course of a best-of-three match.

Maps will feature lever-based traps that shoot spikes out of walls, climable surfaces, destroyable environments, and a weapon arsenal that includes Lara’s iconic bow and arrow.

A second gametype is called “Rescue” and has one side (Survivors) collecting med-packs and delivering them to rotating destinations, while the opposite side (Scavengers) attempts to reach a requisite kill count to end the match.

A third gametype–“Cry for Help”–was teased. This mode will reportedly place emphasis on “discovery and collection,” though no other information is available.

Overall, players will be able to select from a “deep roster” of characters for Tomb Raider’s multiplayer component. Gamers will be equipped with a primary weapon, a sidearm, grenade-style projectiles, and a climbing axe that doubles as a melee weapon.

Tomb Raider is due out March 5, 2013 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For more, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.

Beginning tomorrow, Electronic Arts will shut down online services for a dozen more games, including FIFA 11 and NBA Jam. In a statement to the company’s Services Updates page, EA explained that the decision to retire aging titles is “never easy,” but said doing so allows IT staff to focus on keeping online experiences for newer titles at a level that gamers expect.

In addition to FIFA 11 and NBA Jam, EA will turn off online services for The Sims 2, NCAA Football 11, and NHL 11 during January.

The full shutdown schedule is posted below.

January 3: FIFA Manager 11 (PC)

January 11: FIFA Soccer 11 (PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), FIFA Soccer 11 Ultimate Team (PS3, Xbox 360), Madden NFL 11 (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), Madden NFL 11 Ultimate Team (Xbox 360, PS3), NBA Jam (Xbox 360, PS3), NBA Live 10 (PS3, Xbox 360), NCAA Football 11 (Xbox 360, PS3), NHL 11 (PS3, Xbox 360), NHL Ultimate Team (PS3, Xbox 360)

January 14: The Sims 2 (PC, Mac, TheSims2.com)

January 19: Trenches II (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

The AbleGamers Foundation today announced that EA Sports’ soccer simulator FIFA 13 is the recipient of the charity’s Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award. The foundation praised FIFA 13 for how it allows players to control the entire game with only a mouse, among other features.

AbleGamers editor-in-chief Steve Spohn specifically praised FIFA 13’s remappable keys, customizable color options, high-contrast and “intuitive” menus, visual cues, and “high socializing replayability,” which all helped the soccer sim take home the award.

“For disabled gamers with Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, and even one-handed gamers, the ability to play such a sophisticated sports game with simple controls that can be handled by a trackball or mouse mean gamers who may not have been able to enjoy iconic sporting activities like baseball, football, hockey or soccer can now take part in the fun,” Spohn said.

The top reason FIFA 13 was awarded the Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year accolade, however, was the game’s AI and PC settings, which allow disabled players to tweak to the game to their needs. Spohn pointed out that FIFA 13 can be slowed down. This, he said, allows gamers with cognitive disorders and motor impairments to set an appropriate rate of speed.

2K Games’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown was called out as an honorable mention for the top award based on its remappable keys, the ability to play with the keyboard or only the mouse, its subtitles, and colorblind mode. Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Dishonored were also called out as games making strides toward accessibility in 2012.

Overall, Spohn said 2012 was a “very encouraging year” for game accessibility, with some of the most disability-friendly titles to date releasing during the year. Though the year was generally positive, some games moved backwards, Spohn said, including Forza Horizon. This entry, released in October, removed “many of the most crucial accessibility features” that were present in 2010 award-winner Forza MotorSport 3, Spohn said.

Last year’s Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award was given to Star Wars: The Old Republic for incorporating accessibility features like colorblind options, full subtitles, and control options.

The AbleGamers Foundation is a public charity with a stated mission of promoting accessibility in games with a goal to “ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, can use gaming as a tool to have enriched social experiences with friends, family, and the world at large.” More information is available at the group’s official website.

The first expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be titled “Revolution.” That’s according to leaked promotional material for the content, posted at All Games Beta.

According to the poster, the Revolution downloadable content will include four multiplayer maps (Hydro, Grind, Downhill, and Mirage), as well as a Zombie map called Rise.

In addition to the new killing spaces, the Revolution DLC will also reportedly add a new weapon called the Peacekeeper sub-machine gun.

Activision has not announced the Revolution DLC, and a representative was not immediately available to comment.

If the Revolution DLC is in fact Black Ops II’s first expansion, it will be the first of four planned add-ons for the game. These are included with the $50 Black Ops II DLC season pass. All DLC for Black Ops II will arrive first on Xbox 360, with subsequent releases on other platforms.

California senator Leland Yee, whose high-profile violent game law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2011, has spoken out against the National Rifle Association’s recent response to the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In a statement to his website, Yee said when his violent game law was brought before the Supreme Court last year, the NRA was nowhere to be seen.

“I find it mind-boggling that the NRA suddenly cares about the harmful effects of ultra-violent video games. When our law was before the Supreme Court–while several states, medical organizations, and child advocates submitted briefs in support of California’s efforts–the NRA was completely silent.”

Yee further claimed that the NRA, instead of facing the reality and becoming part of the solution to gun proliferation, is attempting to “pass the buck.”

“More guns are not the answer to protecting our children, as evident by the fact that armed guards weren’t enough to stop the tragedy at Columbine High School,” Yee said. “The NRA’s response is pathetic and completely unacceptable.”

NRA vice president Wayne LaPierre said at a press conference Friday violent video games like Bulletstorm and Mortal Kombat were partially to blame for December 14’s deadly shooting in Connecticut.

Earlier in the week, West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill to Congress that would direct the National Academy of Sciences to investigate how violent games and other such programming affect children.