The video game industry capped off a rough year in the United States with a horrible holiday month that saw sales plummet year-over-year across all categories. Market research firm The NPD Group recently released its sales estimates for December 2011 and the full year, and neither set of figures paints a pretty picture. Last month, total industry sales plummeted to $3.99 billion, down 21% from $5.07 billion in December 2010. Hardware sales dropped 28% to $1.32 billion in December, and software sales were down...

When it comes to mobile gaming, no one does it better than Gameloft. The French company is known for its visually stunning and in-depth game-play, having repeatedly raised the bar for mobile gaming throughout the years. Gameloft’s paid games range from $0.99 to $6.99, however, from December 29th through January 5th all of the company’s paid games can be had for $0.99. There is no catch and no gimmick; all games means all games, including the newly released first-person shooter Modern Combat 3:...

Sony recently published a list of the games that will be available when its brand new PlayStation Vita portable gaming console finally makes its debut on February 22nd in the United States. The $250 console, which we enjoyed during our initial hands-on during E3 2011, will launch alongside exciting titles such as Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Dungeon Hunter Alliance, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 and more. Sony will also offer a 4GB memory card for just $19.99, or users can opt to spe...

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that last week marked the Xbox 360′s best ever week of sales. The company sold more than 960,000 Xbox 360 consoles and more than 750,000 Kinect controllers last week. Microsoft also confirmed that more than 800,000 of the consoles it sold last week were purchased on Black Friday alone. ”We have seen tremendous excitement from customers for our hot holiday gaming offers,” said Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of Home Entertainment at B...

If you’re unfortunate enough to be sitting at your in-laws wearing that itchy sweater you hate so much, at least we have you covered with a few games to get you through the night. EA and Gameloft have a huge sale going on and both are offering most titles for just $0.99. Gameloft has Starfront: Collision, Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden, Shrek Kart and dozens more up for grabs, each for just a dollar. In addition, EA has Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 for iPad, The Sims: Medieval ...

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has become the fastest-selling video game in history, crushing previous records set by earlier titles in the Call of Duty franchise. The game lab on Tuesday announced that week-one sales of Modern Warfare 3 totaled 12.3 million units, making it the biggest launch of all time and pulling in an estimated $738 million in revenue. The Xbox 360 version of the game lead sales with more than 7 million copies, a record for game sales on a single console that was previ...

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata recently reiterated that Nintendo will not develop games for Apple’s iPad, iPod and iPhone, despite recent pressure from investors to jump on the iOS bandwagon. “This is absolutely not under consideration,” Iwata told the Japanese news outlet Nikkei following the company’s recent 3DS press conference. “If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of...

During the Nintendo 3DS Conference in Japan on Tuesday, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata discussed the company’s plans to boost interest in its 3D portable gaming console. Nintendo will add the ability to record 3D video on the device, which is currently only capable of snapping 3D photos, and will sell a new joystick add-on. Nintendo will also launch a pink 3DS in October in an effort to attract female gamers. But those new options as well as 43 new games, including Super Mario 3D Land, will not...

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile is now home to more than 30,000 applications according to app tracking website WindowsPhoneAppList. On July 2nd, the Windows Marketplace for Microsoft’s Windows Phones passed the 25,000 milestone. By comparison, Apple’s iTunes App Store is populated with more than 500,000 applications and Google confirmed in May that the Android Market has more than 200,000 apps. The Windows Marketplace’s paid app list is loaded with games — as it should be considering th...

Google announced on Thursday that it is following in Facebook’s footsteps yet again by adding games to its Google+ social network. “We want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web,” the company said in a blog post. “That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences.” Thankfully we won’t be bombarded with Farmville requests and updates on Mafia Wars: “games in Google+ are there whe...

Redbox on Thursday announced that it will add video game rentals to an additional 5,000 kiosks beginning August 1st. The company announced last month that game titles for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii would be added to 16,000 more redbox kiosks by the end of June, and the total after this coming round of additions will approach 27,000. Redbox owns and operated approximately 33,000 rental kiosks around the country, and the company did not indicate if or when video games might be add...

Microsoft is being sued for patent infringement over motion-sensing technology used in its blockbuster gaming accessory, the Microsoft Kinect. Ohio-based Impulse Technology has filed a complaint alleging that Microsoft’s Kinect controller infringes on seven of its technology patents. One patent referenced in the lawsuit covers “wide variety of games where the movement of a player is tracked in three dimensions…and certain exercise games where the motion of the player is tracked to effect movement of...

Research In Motion on Tuesday announced a major milestone for its on-device software portal BlackBerry App World: 1 billion downloads served. ”The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps,” RIM’s Alex Kinsella wrote on the company’s blog. “BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads...

A staggering $1.85 billion was spent on video game content outside of physical video and PC game hardware and software in the U.S. during the first quarter. The number represents just over 31% of total spending on video games in the U.S., which came in at $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2011. The impressive stat is noted by The NPD Group in its latest Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report, which includes used game purchases, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network...