Though it's vacation time for many, we're still here to bring you the news. We hope you all enjoyed your holidays and whatever days you were able to take off. We took the day off yesterday as well, as did most of the rest of the industry. Our press release reception totaled to zero yesterday, so what were we to do but enjoy the day off and play video games? However, days pass and time moves on, and the next day arrives, and while we expect that, up until a little after new years, the news will be slow, we'll still be bringing it to you. So here's today's News Pop!, let's call it the “unofficial Boxing Day edition”.

Well, maybe “celebrates” isn't the word to use, but many Canadian shoppers get their wallets ready for one final go before the end of the year on what we call Boxing Day. Since there are so many different reasons that one can give for the existence of Boxing Day, we're giving you a link to the Wikipedia explanation. You can pick out your favourite. Essentially though, it's Canada's biggest shopping day, excluding pre-Christmas shopping. Some stores had amazing deals on gaming this year, Best Buy and its Canadian subsidiary, Future Shop, in particular. They were selling the Xbox 360 holiday bundle (the premium system bundled with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warrior and Live Arcade Unplugged) for $399.99 in store. Future Shop was even including a copy of The Outfit along with it. The stores opened their doors at 6 am, and as it is every year, some people had lined up for at least two hours to get in on the best deals. Store stock can go quickly, but the lucky few were able to get their hands on the systems at a really good price. We say congratulations to those who did.

Publishers are always looking for the best way to advertise their games. Sometimes though, they go a little bit over the top and say too much. Though what they say may be true, the fact that they are saying it themselves doesn't necessarily make it sound that way. Today's case of EA claiming that Madden 07 is the best game of 2006 may be one of those cases. You see, the game has sold over five million copies. EA believes, based on a calculation of sales, its own internal data and other industry sources, that across all game platforms, Madden 07 will officially be called North America's most popular game of 2006. The fact that the game sold more than two million copies in its first week on the shelves may help the companies claim, but it's the game's high rank in the top ten lists for every console that truly push the thought to being conceivable. Anything's possible, and there are still five more days until the new year. Anything can happen.

News Pop! Archives:
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