Sales for Microsoft Corp.'s
edged up in the latest retail data from Japan.
Media Create Co. on Fri. reported that the Xbox 360 sold 9,833 between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8.
By comparison, the 360 sold 8,311 units the week prior.
The Xbox 360 ranked one title in the top 10 games, Capcom Co.'s
at No. 5.
Microsoft in Jan. said that Xbox 360 sales have reached 28 million units worldwide.
Also, the
online service now holds 17 million members globally.
NPD Group Inc. in Feb. reported that the
sold 309,000 units in the same period.

A new trailer has emerged for upcoming Xbox 360 DLC package, ‘The Lost and Damned’ which is due out on the 17th February.
gives us just over a minute of teaser footage showing off some of the graphics and characters that you will be encountering, including a brief cameo for GTA IV hero Niko.
The game will follow the story of character Johnny Klebitz, a member of the biker’s gang ‘The Lost’ which featured in the original game. With tie-ins with the original game and it’s main character Niko, it’s sure to be a great addition to the game, not forgetting that this is just the first episode of two planned packs for the Xbox 360.
Let us know what you think of the trailer, you can view it below.
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While it's clear that nothing is truly recession-proof, video games are doing a heck of a job trying to buck the trend.
that software and hardware combined reached $1.33 billion in revenue for the month, a 13 percent jump over $1.18 billion in January 2008. Nintendo continues to dominate with Xbox 360 making a very impressive showing.
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 777K
2. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 415K
3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 292K
4. Left 4 Dead (Valve/EA, Xbox 360) - 243K
5. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch/Activision, Xbox 360) - 235K
6. Skate 2 (EA Black Box/EA, Xbox 360) - 199K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Neversoft/Activision, Wii) - 155K
8. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NDS) - 135K
9. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo, NDS) - 132K
10. Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Pandemic/EA, Xbox 360) - 113K
Wii - 679.2K
Nintendo DS - 510.8K
Xbox 360 - 309.0K
PlayStation 3 - 203.2K
PSP - 172.3K
PlayStation 2 - 101.2K
I would argue that this trend can continue for a while--none of the consoles have full market penetration and games remain a (relatively) cheap form of entertainment.

In an administrative blunder making the kind of headlines Microsoft definitely wants to avoid,
.
got its hands on a letter from the company to one laid-off employee asking for repayment and offering a sincere apology. Microsoft has confirmed the authenticity of the letter, acknowledged more than one individual was impacted and declined to comment further, calling it a "private matter."
last February, according to documents reviewed by
. Buyers of the console are given a free Silver subscription; the Gold -- which is required to play multi-player games online and participate in the new Netflix on-demand service -- costs $4.15 to $7.99, depending on how many months are purchased at once. The figure is interesting because it appears to be the first time Microsoft 's paid-subscription rate has been quantified. But, as Tartakoff notes, the figures are a bit stale. What would be more interesting is to see the change in paid subscriptions since Microsoft added the Netflix service last fall as part of its
. Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft 's Entertainment and Devices Division,
that the Netflix deal drives Gold subscriptions. Earlier this month, the
that more than 1 million people were using Netflix to stream movies and television shows on-demand via their Xbox 360s.

We can’t encourage our reader to download Xbox 360 torrents, but I don’t see anything wrong with pointing out where they are located. The NTSC version of Fallout 3 DLC known as Operation Anchorage has been located on the Pirate Bay. I haven’t checked out the file myself, so can’t vouch for it.
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Midway's got a mountain of debt to overcome if it wants to fight its way out of bankruptcy, but one way it won't be raising capital is the just-announced Unreal Tournament 3 downloadable content for PCs and the PlayStation 3. Billed as "the most content ever added" to a first-person shooter, the UT3 Titan Pack will be completely free.
So what, exactly, does the so-called biggest
content update for an FPS entail? Well, a lot actually. The Titan Pack will update the PS3 and PC editions of UT3 with 11 new multiplayer maps for the Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Vehicle CTF, and Warfare modes, as well as eight maps previously released as part of the Xbox 360 edition of the game. The DLC also introduces two new game modes: Greed, which is a "tug of war" style battle mode; and Betrayal, where teams can change over the course of a match.
But wait, there's more! The Titan Pack also packs in 57 achievement awards, which are doled out as Steam Achievements for PC users and trophies for PS3 gamers. New items, weapons, vehicles, and playable characters are also party to the download, as is the titular Titan mutator, which, when obtained, turns a player into a 15-foot-tall monstrosity that has the effects of every single power-up in the game.
Unfortunately, Xbox 360 gamers will not be given a crack at the Titan Pack. "Unreal Tournament 3 for Xbox 360 shipped with enhancements, new features, and content the PC and PS3 versions did not have," a Midway representative told GameSpot. "The Titan Pack brings these features and content, in addition to many enhancements, to the PC and PS3 versions. Given the file size requirements for updates on the Xbox 360 platform, we have no plans to release the Titan Pack for Xbox 360."
The Titan Pack will be available for download beginning March 5. For more information, check out
.

Last year,
developer Ready at Dawn announced they'd be abandoning PSP development and moving on to bigger and better things. We all assumed this meant a next-gen project of some kind, and now it appears that project is in full swing.
According to PlayStation LifeStyle, Ready at Dawn is indeed hard at work on a new IP for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We don't have any details at this time, but apparently, the game will be "something along the lines of
,
." ...that's kind of a big range, but it wouldn't be any surprise to learn that Ready at Dawn was creating a title similar to
. After all, they've proved they can do it once; why not do it again? We're hoping to hear more about this one at some point, and there's the possibility it will pop up at this year's E3. But remember that this team talked about possibly returning to the PSP when Sony released some promising numbers for their handheld; more than a few devs who had jumped ship considered coming back at the time. But it appears that Ready at Dawn really has decided to move past portable game development and try to compete with the big boys in the PS3/360 realm. So would you rather this title be similar to GoW or a platformer like
? Or maybe something more original and artistic like
?
Personally, I wouldn't mind another slam-bang action title like GoW. After all, when you produce something
good, it's usually a good idea to stick with a winning formula. And besides, this
supposed to be an IP...

The visceral, rated-M combat-horror game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin has shipped to retailers for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Warner Bros. and Monolith Productions have announced that
has shipped to North American retailers for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. FEAR 2 is the followup to the 2006 game F.E.A.R., a combat-based first-person shooter with a supernatural horror twist.
FEAR 2 picks up on the story at a point just before the ending of the original game, and follows a special forces squad as the fictional city of Auburn is laid waste by Alma, a girl with immense supernatural powers and a serious point to pick with…well, pretty much anybody. Players must search through the city for Alma and ways to stop her—along the way using everything at their disposal to defend themselves from supernatural hordes and grotesque "remnants."
FEAR 2 features all-new armor and weapons and new abilities, and support for multiplayer matchups of up to 16 people. The multiplayer game includes four modes, nine maps, and a wide range of weapons and armor.
FEAR 2 is rated M for "Mature" by the ESRB and is available now for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $59.99; it is also available for Games for Windows at retailers, and via outlets like Steam and Direct2Drive for $49.99.

Best Buy Co. Inc. this week price cut select titles for Sony Corp.'s
and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 in a new game sale.
This week,
for the PS3 and Xbox 360 holds a sale price of $49.99, $10 off the MSRP.
Additionally,
was discounted to $39.99, $20 off the MSRP.
Sony in Nov. released the 160GB PS3 SKU. The bundle includes a new 160GB PS3, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PAIN downloadable game voucher, and a Dualshock 3 controller for
.
Additionally, it sells an 80GB model for
.
Microsoft in Jan. said that Xbox 360 sales have reached 28 million units worldwide.
Also, the
online service now holds 17 million members globally.
NPD Group Inc. this month said that the
sold 309,000 units in Jan. U.S. sales. The
sold 203,000 units in Jan. U.S. sales.

isn’t enough on a big screen LCD HDTV, then perhaps it needs to be on a 29-inch screen with a set of two joysticks and mashable arcade buttons. If this is your ideal
dream, then Dream Arcades' new cabinet might be your ticket to a neo-nostalgia
experience.
“With the release of so many great arcade fighting games we wanted to give fighter fans an opportunity to experience these games the way they were intended on a real authentic arcade machine,"
says Michael Ware, owner of Dream Arcades.
“Plastic game pads make it difficult to execute complex moves in the heat of battle and handheld arcade control panels can be bulky sitting on your lap, but nothing can beat the experience of rubbing shoulders while you go head-to-head on your own arcade machine.”
All right, now it’s time to talk functionality and price. The good news is that all you have to do is hook up your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 to the DreamCade Impact to start enjoying
and other games on an authentic cabinet.
The bad news is that the cabinet costs $2499. Oh zing.
There’s more good news, though. The cabinet comes prepackaged with the following:
Hyper Street Fighter II - Anniversary Edition,
If this remotely interests you, there’s more to be learned about this Dream Arcade cabinet by visiting the
For more gaming news and info, be sure to stay tuned in with
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, we're re-envisioning what
was," Rockstar VP of Development Jeronimo Barrera tells me. He goes on to explain that while Liberty City returns in all its impressive glory in this first Grand Theft Auto 4 downloadable episode for Xbox 360 -- from its skyscraper-lined corridors to the scores of virtual people going about their virtual lives -- the story takes on a new direction. Rather than following the tale of an immigrant and having the player discover this grand city alongside him, The Lost and Damned tells the tale of Johnny Klebitz, the vice president of The Lost motorcycle gang (which you may remember from a mission in GTA4) and someone who knows the city well. So whereas Niko had to make friends and connections and unlock safe houses, Johnny is already an established member of the metropolis.
The dichotomy between the game proper and its offshoot is immediately apparent upon setting up a game. When you choose the New Game option, you can select either Grand Theft Auto 4 or The Lost and Damned from the menu. The games are separate entities, and saves from your GTA4 game don't have any impact on your Lost and Damned experience (you can have a save in each). The only requirement is that you own GTA4 before purchasing this $20 episode. And while hopping around these menu options, you may notice some slight differences, like the menus' gold highlighted font appearing red in The Lost and Damned. More notably, the game will feature new music, weapons, characters, television programming, Internet, and minigames -- not to mention new multiplayer modes and "superpeds" (those pedestrians with one-off or multiple-mission ministories who appeared as blue people icons on the radar) that Barrera was still hush-hush about. But enough of the small details -- let's get to the goods.
The setup has second-in-command Johnny taking The Lost, in the absence of rehabbing president Billy, from a gang steeped in violence and drugs to one more focused on profit. But when Billy returns, he immediately goes back to his old habits. The first mission I played involved retaliation against a rival gang, the Angels of Death, and it introduced the powerful grenade launcher. Sending grenades over the Angels' cover, hearing the tink-tink-tink of the settling ordnance, and then watching the resulting explosion and rag-dolling enemies proved satisfying. Also in this mission -- as will be the case with most others -- you'll be doing it with multiple members of The Lost. While you don't have any sort of squad controls, your brethren will fight alongside you, giving you the sense that you are indeed part of a larger gang. This even translates to the road. When driving your custom bikes (which have tighter controls and are harder to fall off of compared to GTA4's bikes), you're encouraged to ride in formation, with an icon appearing on the ground for you to line up in if you fall behind. The Lost's safe houses, meanwhile, are filled with gang members and minigames, including arm wrestling and a high/low card game. When I compared it to the bustling home base of the Warriors gang in Rockstar's game of the same name, Barrera said that was pretty accurate.
The next mission hammered home the idea that while, yes, this is a separate story from GTA4's, it takes place in the same time and world. Remember that rollicking house party put on by Elizabeta, with Niko and Playboy X talking drug deals? Well, now you see it from Johnny's perspective, but this time, when that twitchy, overanxious undercover cop sours the deal at the buyers' place, you tackle the cops head-on while Niko and Playboy head up to the roof. The gunplay retains the same cover-based action as before, but with the addition of some new weapons. I already talked about the grenade launcher, but you'll also come across a punchy automatic pistol, pipe bombs, and sawed-off and assault shotguns, which can be used while on the two-wheelers.
The final mission I played also seemed familiar, but not because of the characters involved: It was a typical "turret" mission in which you ride shotgun -- in this case on the back of a motorcycle -- as the A.I. handles the driving duties. Appropriately enough, Johnny uses an unlimited-ammo automatic shotgun for the dirty work here, which packs an incredible punch as he takes out police cruisers and choppers. So yeah, this part felt like more of the same, but it was still fun in that "on-rails, light-gun" way, peppered with some cinematic yet still-interactive set-piece moments, including an exploding gas station that sees you popping through all Michael Bay-style.
It's encouraging that Rockstar had planned this content while creating GTA4. Johnny is present in some of those GTA4 cut-scenes (which fans with copious time on their hands will likely pore over now), and The Lost and Damned has been in development ever since that game finished. Still, that amounts to roughly a year, certainly a lot less time than it took to create GTA4. When I asked if they got everything they had hoped to in this first episode, Barrera says: "We never get everything we want in.... But are we happy? Absolutely...We delivered the best that we could for DLC."

Age of Booty receiving PS3 Trophies, Avatar support on Xbox 360
Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, CasualCapcom is preparing to enhance the Age of Booty by adding console specific features in an upcoming patch. Speaking with IGN, the publisher states it'll bring Avatar support for Xbox Live and Trophies to PS3. The eye patch will be free and unearthed near the end of February.Although Age of Booty has received unexceptional reviews, the pirate-themed RTS boardgame certainly deserves the respect of a demo try for those who haven't...
CBSNews.com
FOXNews.com

Best Buy Co. Inc. stores this month began offering a free month of Xbox Live with the pre-purchase of
for Microsoft Corp.'s in a members-only promotion.
In the offer, customers in the Reward Zone Gamer's Club can print an in-store coupon at 'myrewardzone.bestbuy.com' for a free 1-Month Xbox Live Gold Card with advanced purchase of
.
The Xbox Live 1-Month Gold Card typically sells for $7.99.
is a strategy spinoff of the Halo franchise due in stores on Mar. 3rd.
Microsoft in Jan. said that Xbox 360 sales have reached 28 million units worldwide.
Also, the
online service now holds 17 million members globally.
NPD Group Inc. this month reported that the
sold 1.44 million units in the same period.
Retailer Amazon.com this month began offering a
with the purchase of the Xbox 360 Elite in a new game hardware promotion.
Additionally, it is selling the Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Card subscription at
, down from the $49.99 MSRP.

TAMPA, Florida -- EA Sports' Madden NFL 09 has been a mainstay in Tampa throughout Super Bowl week. Madden Bowl XV, one of the biggest parties of the week, took place in Ybor City at The Honey Pot on Thursday night.
The annual videogame tournament pitted eight NFL pros, including a representative from the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals, in a single-elimination battle on Xbox 360 for the Madden Bowl trophy. Local Buccaneer wide receiver Antonio Bryant was the last man standing at the packed event. He took out New York Giant Justin Tuck in a spirited 28-7 match-up using the Dallas Cowboys instead of his own Buccaneers. For the record, the Cowboys are the best team in Madden NFL 09.
The party was packed with NFL pros who braved the horrible weather -- it rained all day -- to play Madden with teammates and friends. EA Sports had Xbox 360 kiosks set up throughout the three-story bar. While the main action took place downstairs on stage, spectators took part in their own games upstairs. Evander Holyfield was in the crowd, along with NFL players like Donovan McNabb, Santana Moss and Steven Jackson, and Sports Illustrated swimsuit models Brooklyn Decker, Jarah Mariano and Jessica Gomes.
Baltimore Ravens' star Ray Lewis was on hand at the Madden Bowl to take on gamers at home through the Xbox Live Game with Fame. He spent an hour playing against gamers on Xbox 360. And having interviewed Lewis many times, he takes his Madden very seriously and is a great gamer.
Although this party was closed to most fans, the NFL Experience just outside Raymond James Stadium offered Madden NFL 09 action. EA Sports had kiosks with the game available for attendees. They also held the first-ever Madden NFL 09 Mini-Tournament which gave two tickets to Super Bowl XLIII away to the champion.
Those fans who didn't make the trek to Tampa this year -- and judging by the hotel vacancies during this recession there were a lot of them -- could watch "Madden Nation." ESPN2 is running the one-hour Madden special all week after debuting it Super Bowl Sunday. The show chronicles the Madden Challenge Finals that took place last month in Turks and Caicos at Beaches Resort in Providenciales. The winner of that Challenge took home $50,000 in cash and prizes -- all for playing Madden.
With the NFL season over, Madden NFL 09 offers football fans the chance to experience the sport throughout the long offseason. It even lets fans take their team to a virtual Super Bowl. And for some, that's better than nothing.