The Cut Scene - Video Game Blog by Variety

Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii have a huge month, "Lost: Via Domus" doesn't

Still have to sort through this all, but here's the raw data that NPD just provided for March video game sales in the U.S. First take: "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" had a HUGE month and Wii sales benefitted as well. PS3 finally got back ahead of the 360, but just barely. And both "Rainbow Six Vegas 2" and "Army of Two" had decent debuts.

Missing from the top 10 chart? Meaning they didn't debut too well: "Lost: Via Domus," "Condemned 2: Bloodshot," "Dark Sector."

                                               March 2007                  March 2008             Change

Total Video Games                    $1.1 B                          $1.7 B                     57%

Hardware                                  $377.9M                      $551.3M                  46%

Software                                   $579.1M                      $945.6M                  63%

Accessories                               $139.5M                      $220M                     58%

Hardware                       Units sold in March 2008            Units sold lifetime-to-date

PlayStation 3                          257,000                                    4.1M

PlayStation Portable                297,000                                   11.2M

Xbox 360                                262,000                                    9.9M

DS                                          697,000                                   19.2M

Wii                                         721,000                                   8.8M

PlayStation 2                          216,000                                     n/a

Top 10 video games                    Platform          Publisher                  Units sold in March

Super Smash Bros. Brawl              Wii                 Nintendo                    2.7M

Rainbow Six Vegas 2                    360                 Ubisoft                      752.3K

Army of Two                               360                 Electronic Arts            606.1K

Wii Play w/Remote                      Wii                 Nintendo                   409.8K

God of War: Chains of Olympus   PSP                 Sony                          340.5K

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII       PSP                 Square Enix                301.6K

Guitar Hero III                           Wii                  Activision                   264.1K

MLB 2K8                                     360                 Take 2                       237.1K

Call of Duty 4                             360                  Activision                   237K

Army of Two                              PS3                 Electronic Arts             224.9K

(Note: all figures are U.S. only. The lifetime-to-date figures are calculated by me with a bunch of annoying addition, since NPD doesn't provide it anymore.)

Sacred Road: the first TV show produced in a videogame engine

My story today about the opening of GDC also contains some details about a new TV show, called "Sacred Road," that will be unveiled at a panel at GDC on Thursday. It's the first ever animated series created using a game engine, in this came, "Brothers in Arms." The show is about Allied soldiers in WWII who run into zombies that the Nazis created from WWI corpses.

It will air on GamePlayHD, one of the Voom hi-def networks owned by Cablevision that are available on its cable system and also Dish Network. It's the first scripted series for the network, which has thus far focused on making-of documentary programming, competitions like "Madden Challenge," etc.

The show is being made by Blockade, a new production company focused on using game engines to bring down the cost and speed up the time of CG animation. Blockade is co-owned by Gearbox Software, convenient for getting your hands on the "Brothers in Arms" engine, and f/x house Rhythm & Hues convenient for getting your hands on animation talent like Bill Kroyer, writer/director of "Sacred Road."

Blockade's excited president is Brad Foxhoven, who used to run Top Cow Comics and John Woo's videogame production company Tiger Hill. He promises more animated shows made with game engines are on the way, possibly in partnership with publishers and including characters we already know (and possibly love).

Here are details on Sacred Road from the Variety story:

Blockade and GamePlay HD are using the event to spotlight their new show "Sacred Road." It's the first scripted series for GamePlay, one of Cablevision's high-def Voom networks.

Blockade, which is headed by Brad Foxhoven , former head of John Woo's vidgame company, and partially owned by f/x house Rhythm & Hues and vidgame developer Gearbox Software, is using videogame technology to produce CG animation at low cost.

"Sacred Road" utilizes the engine from Gearbox's WWII action game "Brothers in Arms" to produce many of its settings and movements, along with some motion capture and original animation.

"By reusing game engines and assets, we think we can substantially lower production time while keeping the quality high," said Foxhoven.

Series is about a group of Allied soldiers during WWII who face zombies created by the Nazis from WWI corpses. GamePlay HD has ordered six episodes, which are expected to air in the fall. "Sacred Road" is created by Rhythm & Hues vet Bill Kroyer.

"Since we started (in 2006), I've been trying to find a way to make a dramatic series with the same technology in games," said Mark DeAngelis, VP of programming and development for Gameplay HD. "There's no way we could have afforded an animated series of this quality with traditional methods."

Both Gameplay and Blockade are hoping "Sacred Road" will be the first of several series they'll produce using vidgame technology.