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Xbox 360 Sales

Unfortunately for Microsoft and many consumers, there weren’t enough Xbox 360s on store shelves over the holiday season. Apparently, Microsoft originally hoped to get more consoles to retail, but just couldn’t get the job done for one reason or another. Remember how the company promised to sell 3 million 360s within 3 months of the console’s launch? Well, CES has brought a new projection that simply doesn’t match the old one. Now, according to the new forecast, the Xbox 360 is expected to sell between 4 and 5.5 million units by June.


Read More | Next Generation


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Game Sales RiseWhile video game sales were down in December, Best Buy and Circuit City still showed growth. Both retailers reported big numbers and largely attributed increased sales to product such as HDTVs and MP3 Players. And while video game sales weren’t up this last holiday season, they’ll be on the rise once again before we know it.


PokePark DS

Calling all Pokemon fanatics! Walmart.com has an exclusive Nintendo DS for all collectors and Pokemon fans out there. The PokePark DS has a silhouette of Pikachu in the upper left hand corner when opened and a PokePark Logo on the back of the front cover. Get yours today for the same price of the regular Nintendo DS of $129.99.

Order Now | Walmart.com


Blu-Ray HD-DVD Release With CES this week, the next generation DVD format war has certainly heated up. It’d been announced that Blu-Ray players will be coming out sometime after winter but before summer (that’s spring). Shortly thereafter, Panasonic announced that HD-DVD players will be released in March - making it out before any Blu-Ray drives. The format war is about to get ugly and we wouldn’t be surprised if some movie studios and electronics company loses a lot of money from backing a losing format. Of course we can’t firmly say which (if either) format will lose the war, but we’re betting one will come out the victor.


Read More | Game Daily


Game Daily AwardsIn the linked story, Game Daily presents an interesting twist on all those ‘end of the year award’ features. This one covers notable stand-outs in video game magazines from 2005. From best cover of the year (GI’s King Kong) to most confusing chart of the year (you have to see it to believe it), there’s something here for everyone.

However, it’s somewhat unfortunate that only video game magazines were covered - and not websites - since we all get most of our information on the industry from the internet.


Read More | Game Daily


Description Get onto your Xbox 360 right now to download the Fight Night 3 demo. EA just put the demo up and it’s incredible. Even though I’m only playing it on a standard definition television, I’m floored by how great it looks. I wish I could see it on an HDTV though! But in the meantime, whether or not you’ve played the previous games in the series, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.


Read More | TeamXbox


EntertaibleAs one of the coolest CES announcements this week, Phillips has displayed a blend of traditional and digital tabletop gameplay. In short, a new device features and LCD screen that can display different game boards. Furthermore, the board will react to finger-pressing. While no official product, price, or game has been announced for the device yet, the concept looks very cool and we feel it has a lot of potential. After all, what could be wrong with a device that blends the best of both worlds?


Read More | Next Generation


Blu-Ray Movies Four studios, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Fox Home Entertainment and Paramount, have just announced an initial wave of movies that will hit Sony’s Blu-Ray format this year. The titles announced include Hitch, Black Hawk Down, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Italian Job. We can’t wait to see how crisp these Blu-Ray titles look on an HDTV.

In summary, six movie studios are supporting the Blu-Ray format while three are backing Toshiba’s HD-DVD format. Sony, Lionsgate, and Fox are only supporting Blu-Ray. Additionally, the PS3 will have a Blu-Ray drive while an external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 is scheduled to go on sale sometime this year.


Read More | Next Generation


Description Near the end of 2005, Electronic Arts announced it would purchase Jamdat, a huge cell phone game publisher, for the grand sum of $680 million. The U.S. government’s FTC recently approved the deal, so full steam ahead! There wasn’t really any doubt that the deal wouldn’t go through but now we’re one step closer to the deal being completed. We’re looking forward to seeing if EA strikes it big with Jamdat under its wings.


Read More | Next Generation


DescriptionNext Generation has posted a nice (although somewhat short) article on some games scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles. In fact, 5 of the games are 360 titles while one is an original Xbox title that’s also coming for PS2. The list follows.

Xbox

Lost Odyssey
Full Auto
Halo 3
Gears of War
Elder Scrolls: Oblivions

Xbox

Black

While it’s unfortunate that the list isn’t any longer, each of those titles are expected to be big. Still, a lot more games are scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles - especially the 360 - so do you think anything’s missing from the list?


Read More | Next Generation


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