Sales of video game hardware and software in the United States plummeted last month according to new data from market research firm The NPD Group. The firm’s January figures suggest that sales of video game hardware fell 38% to $199.5 million, down from $324 million in January 2011. Video game software sales slid 38% as well in January, falling to $355.9 million, and sales of accessories in the U.S. dropped 18% year-on-year to $195.2 million. Total industry sales were down 34% to $750.6 million. “...

The Xbox 720, which BGR exclusively reported will likely be unveiled during E3 this summer, could be six times more powerful than the current generation Xbox 360. IGN broke the news earlier this week and said that the production of the Xbox 720′s graphics processing unit (GPU) is scheduled to begin by the end of this year. IGN said the GPU will be based on ATI’s Radeon HD 6670 GPU and should offer support for 3D technology, 1080p HD output, multiple displays and DirectX 11. Microsoft has also fi...

Capcom announced recently that Resident Evil 6 will launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20th, and that a PC version will follow soon after. The company said the game will take place in a world where bioterrorist attacks are occurring around the globe, inciting fear everywhere and turning everyone into zombies. The President of the United States decides to address the U.S. until he, too, is attacked and becomes a zombie. Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield will work together to save the world along...

Microsoft had a massive booth at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. It was home to brand new laptops, a huge array of Windows Phone devices, demo stations for Xbox 360 and SkyDrive, and plenty more. Sadly, however, there were no Windows 8 devices on display to give show-goers a closer look at Microsoft’s next-generation operating system. We love Windows Phone in its current state and it seems like we aren’t alone; there were tons of people gathered around the phones playing with them and it ...

New data from Nielsen suggests that console owners are using their Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game consoles to stream video content more than ever before. “Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time,” Nielsen said Wednesday. The market research firm explained that the growth in time spent streaming was driven by services such as ESPN 3, Netflix, MLB Network and Hulu, but that time spent using consoles also increased overall. Consol...

Sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console trounced the competition in November, nearly doubling PlayStation 3 sales and sales of Nintendo’s Wii console. According to November sales data from leading market research firm The NPD Group, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in November. While Sony managed unit sales growth of about 70% year-over-year, the company only sold about 900,000 PlayStation 3 consoles last month. Nintendo sold 860,000 Wii consoles, 795,000 portable Nintendo 3...

“A revolution is happening in the living room,” Microsoft proclaimed late Sunday as it unveiled a new update to its Xbox 360 software that enables Kinect-based voice controls for a variety of multimedia content. Repeatedly emphasizing voice controls as rumors of a Siri-enabled HDTV product from Apple that may launch this summer heat up, Microsoft announced a new wave of content set to hit its Xbox platform on Tuesday. A variety of on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, and EPIX arrive on X...

Microsoft just sold nearly one million Xbox 360 consoles last week alone, but we’re nearing the end of the road for video game consoles according to one industry visionary. Richard Garriott, known for having created the fantasy role-playing franchise Ultima and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Tabula Rasa, says converged devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets will soon render dedicated game consoles obsolete. Read on for more. (more…)

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...

Microsoft is poised to deploy its latest Xbox 360 dashboard update on December 6th, The Verge reported recently. The update will give the dashboard an entire overhaul and will use Microsoft’s Metro-based UI, currently found in Windows Phone and Windows 8. Reportedly, the software will also include new Kinect voice controls, the ability to save games using cloud-based storage and integrated Facebook sharing. The update may include live TV support as well, but that will largely depend on where you live,...

The wait is finally over and late Tuesday evening we’ll be making our way over to our local game store to pick up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The latest title in Activision’s hit series achieved record pre-order figures, surpassing even the staggering pre-orders totals racked by by Call of Duty: Black Ops. The single-player campaign will pick up right where we were left off at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 but, let’s be honest, we’re all in it for the multiplayer matche...

Microsoft released its Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2 on Friday that adds support for Windows 8, among other changes. According to ZDNET, Microsoft has two Kinect development kits. One software development kit for commercial usage will be available early next year. The second kit, released on Friday, is targeted at enthusiasts running Windows 7 or the developer build of Windows 8. “Developing Kinect enabled applications is essentially the same as developing other Windows applications, except that this SD...

Microsoft on Wednesday announced a number of new content partners that will deliver movies, television shows and other content to its popular Xbox 360 video game and home entertainment console. New partners include Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS, BBC and Syfy, and the content will be available in the U.S. and a number of additional countries. ”Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, ma...

Following a premature 21-gun salute on Monday afternoon when Microsoft accidentally erased the Zune player from its Zune webpage a bit early, the Redmond-based company has now confirmed that the Zune player has been laid to rest. First released just ahead of the holidays in 2006, Microsoft’s Zune player was a clear attempt to divert dollars from Apple’s iPod line and in that respect, it failed somewhat epically. The Zune player is survived by Zune software, however — a multimedia experience tha...