EDGE online, formely Next-gen.biz.

Something hinky lately. The guys at EDGE magazine (seperate from the website) were always pretty pro-Sony and anti-Nintendo as the two companies sit on either side, Sony had the mature high tech approach EDGE mag loves. Nintendo, the casual family friendly games they dont like so much.

But the website (seperate from the website) has started to do things which make me think that they have a distinctive anti-nintendo stance.

The first rumblings were 6 months ago at NPD time. Their headline and picture painted some massive success story for PS3, despite the fact that based on figures, it was Wii that was kicking everyones ass and they barely mentioned it. The picture and tone of the article was that Sony has delivered some sort of knock out blow for the month and was the victor. Hail PS3!

Then there is their revelling in weekly japanese hardware sales, a certain vigour in their reporting. But recentely it's a little strange. They just declared Madworld a flop in the UK. here

Let me break this down. At the time of their article, it is Monday. The game came out on Friday..... (3 days before) and here in the UK Sunday is a Christian day of worship with restricted Sunday trading hours i.e the shops aint even open most of the day. A bit TOO eager to declare the game a flop.

Then they single out HOTD Overkill NPD sales with glee here, 45'000 copies sold. I dont recall them really making whole news stories about the sales of a single game, so early. Which doesn't put much in perspective. For instance Boom Blox sold 65'000 in its first month and is now close to a million sold. HOTD 2 and 3 return on Wii has sold 990'000 despite not topping charts anywhere.

They are pointing out with glee when these "mature" games dont succeed, only they are calling out the games within a miniscule initial time period, when we know that Wii games are slow burners, like Endless Ocean, again a game closing in on a million sold.

But this article is one of the worst, here. A headline front page topping article called: Has the Wii bubble burst? Their basis is pretty lame. Nintendo is increasing the price it sells Wii to retailers in the UK. Because the UK pound has dropped by 40% against the yen. And the article cites waning japanese sales, not factoring in that once again in the recent NPD, it was still outselling all (combined.)

I'm getting the impression that these guys will hit the buzzer whenever they can to point out when Wii fails.  I still love the site and check it everyday and I love the magazine. But when it comes to their sales reporting, it's getting a little annoying.