Retail sales of video games tallied just over $9.9 billion in 2004, according to figures released today by industry research firm the NPD Group. That figure, which includes all portable and console hardware, software, and accessories, represents a decline of less than 1 percent when compared with $10 billion in 2003. While dollar sales were down, overall, unit sales were up 4 percent, said the research group “Sales remained strong, thanks in large part to the console software, portable game software, and portable game hardware categories, which saw dollar sales percentage increases of 7 percent,...

In a recent interview with CNET, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates offered some insight into Xbox 2. As expected, Xbox 2 is going to expand its reach: great video gaming but videogaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity. This extends to music, media, and greater integration with MSN Messenger: “Instant Messaging will go from just being a text thing to also being voice and video and music, so instant messaging, particularly for young people but in general, is very, very explosive. And Xbox Live is really talking to your friends, doing things with your...

So what do I care if some french company named Titus goes bankrupt you may ask youreself Well, if you must know, Titus Interactive is the parent company for Interplay, wich we all of course know for the superb Fallout games (if you do not know fallout you do not deserve to call yourselve a gamer (< -- just a joke that) too bad they sold the game to someone else :( Although Interplay still has a number of licenses it could sell, including Kingpin, the Baldur’s Gate-free Dark Alliance, and the rights to a Fallout massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the question remains as to...

I just got X-box live and man does it rock!!! Even if you can’t actually PLAY a game online you can download new things like weapons or cars and stuff like that. About the actual gameplay itself: You almost never experience ANY lag and thats good. You can chat with other players in-game via your headset. And of course you have an entire screen instead of split-screen and thats a very good thing So overall if I had to rate it i would give it 9/10 You can find out more about xbox live here.