Traditionally, console and video game sales have a tendency to spike during the Thanksgiving week. The same can be said about this year as seen by the numbers released by both Nintendo and Microsoft. Unfortunately, company policy prevented Sony from doing the same but they did say they will be releasing the figures when the NPD numbers are released this December.

Want to know the exact numbers? Click on the "read more" link below.

eGames Australia has a lot in store for its gamers this year. Keynote speakers from 2K Games, Insomniac Games, and Nintendo of America are all in the roster along with many treats. Musical performances, game demos, and panel discussions addressing the latest issues are all in store for those who'll be there. Find out more as the people behind BioShock and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction give straightforward answers to game-related questions.

Speaking before Nintendo's investors, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimes states that their rivals, Sony and Nintendo, made a grave mistake in developing expensive consoles. "They've gone down the path with building expensive machines that they lose money on. They've gone down the path with games that are hard to develop," said Fils-Aime. Pretty believable from someone who said that the "Wii isn't a fad, it is the future"? We'll see.

Read more in the full article!

The holiday season is almost here, and we'll most likely see lots of console units and gaming software end up underneath the Christmas tree and in the Christmas socks of all good children. However, too much demand that outweighs the actual supply is always a bad thing.

Analyst Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets said that there will indeed be a general hardware shortage, not only for the Wii (as mentioned by Reggie Fils-Aime in his statement that there will be a Wii console shortage this holiday season). Explained Sebastian,

Holiday hardware demand may outstrip supplies. We believe one of the themes from the upcoming holiday period could be hardware supply constraints, driven by ongoing strong demand for Nintendo’s Wii and a shift in Xbox 360 unit sales from 4Q into the September quarter, while Sony’s PS3 and PSP may benefit from lower price points.

So aside from the almost-inevitable Wii shortage, we may also witness shopping brawls over who gets the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3? Certainly not an impossible scenario, what with the release of the more affordable PlayStation 40GB SKUs, and quite possibly the newly launched Xbox 360 arcade SKU, which is aimed at the casual market.

 

The E3 Trade Show has been the gaming industry's most revered gathering since it started way back in 1995. The traditional format was a series of larger than life events for everyone to drool over. For most people, this setup was one that worked well, but industry insiders may have been thinking otherwise all along.

In July 31, 2006, E3 organizers announced that the marquee event would be reconstructed and a new format was revealed in October 13 of the same year. What we witnessed in E3 2007 was a sleeker, harder to access, less hectic, and more professional E3 Business and Media Summit.That's not to say that there was anything wrong with the new model. It may not be as flamboyant as it was before, but all the big announcements along with spectacular sights and sounds were there, and that's good enough for most of us.

Taking a look back now at everything that transpired in the few days of gaming heaven, we saw some amazing stuff coming from the three big players of this generation's console cycle. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo Company Ltd. all had their chance to deliver their pieces, and what we got was a nice mix of corporate and strategic mindsets reflected in the content and manner that the three dished out.

Let's take them one at a time. Just click on the Full Article and read on.

According to a report by The New York Times, Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime sees the Wii as not just another option to the more powerful Xbox 360 from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 from Sony. In fact, it appears the Japan-based gaming giant is actually not settling for thwarting hardcore gaming alone.

 

"We don't consider just Sony and Microsoft our main competitors," said Fils-Aime. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime are planning on taking on the mainstream entertainment market, using an affordable, family-friendly gaming console.

"If people decide to stay home on a Saturday night playing Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win. If people spend 22 minutes making their perfect Mii instead of watching a sitcom, we win," Fils-Aime continued.

One of the more common sentiments online (in forums, boards, etc.) holds that Sony's PlayStation 3 was designed from the start as an all-in-one multimedia entertainment package, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 serves "core" gamers who rely on bleeding edge graphics and visually stunning games. The Wii doesn't deliver on either of those fronts, focusing on what is more important than the latest in pixel-shader technology. Fils-Aime explained:

Both of our competitors have focused on an old paradigm. They focused on more technological horsepower as the path to success. They fell into a trap of just listening to their core user base rather than focusing on attracting new customers.

According to him, every household has a geek or techie that can set up their console or PC to an LCD TV or monitor. But when the geek isn't there, what the people eventually want is to simply attach the console to an average TV, switch it on and see it work instantly. Nintendo of America's president concluded:

That's what Apple got so right with the iPod. There were plenty of MP3 players out there, but Apple came along with a product you could just pick up and play. And that's what we think we got right with the Wii. I think the consumer electronics industry needs to recognize that.

 

IGN reports that according to the latest edition of The Industry Record, interest in the next-gen consoles of the big three has slightly decreased over the past weeks. The dip, allegedly, may be attributed to the fact there aren't much new games coming out for the game consoles. While the drop is slight - only 2 percent - this is noteworthy as it shows how the element of game releases seriously affect the sales of the console.

Despite the slight drop, there are good things in store for Microsoft's Xbox 360 as data shows that there is already strong interest for games to be released in the later half of 2007. The titles include the likes of Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Mass Effect (if ever they decide to commit to a release date).

As for the PS3, while Spider-Man 3 helped prevent further decline in console interest, there still isn't enough title to buoy up, or even just to sustain the level of consumer interest at present. Good thing there's also Lair and Heavenly Sword to look forward to.

As for the Wii, what helped maintain interest was Super Paper Mario, and the continued appreciation for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Will Metroid Prime 3 see a 2007 release, though? Well, we hope Nintendo of America makes good on their promise, but you know how perfectionist those folks in Nintendo are. They'll probably take their time polishing that game up.

With all this focus on the later half of the 2007, it seems that mid-summer all the way to the holidays will be a crucial time for each console.

Optional/extra/hidden/secret videogame bosses are the guys that either get a lot of love - because they eventually serve as points of comparison to see how big your gaming wang is - or they don't get noticed at all, because well, they're optional. You could very well finish the game and not get pestered by them.

Their existence is an amusing one really, because much like the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus, they're not out to ruin your day. They don't suddenly show up at the end of a stage and challenge your honor or force you into a duel to the death or whatever. You're the one who wandered into them. You're the one who crashes into their world and asks them to duke it out with you because you rock oh so much.

What follows is a list of videogame bosses we loved to hate - which is a good thing since it's their job for us to hate them - and we'll gladly hunt them down again and again, even if they're minding their own business.

Get the optional hate list after the jump.

To Deutsche Bank securities analyst Jeetil Patel, the sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 are just flat out disappointing, and that in Sony's case a price cut is "critical" in order to stimulate the market. The analyst put all three consoles on the block in a recent interview and had surprising things to say about the "next-gen" consoles.

Jeetil Patel talked about the Xbox 360 and PS3 and their problem with lack of demand:

Next-gen hardware sell-through of 700K units in Feb-07 brought its total HW installed base to 8.0mn in the US, still 30% less than the prior cycle at 11.2mn units at equivalent stages. Xbox 360 (230K) and PS3 (130K) unit sales were below expectations of 250K-300K and 200K respectively. Retail checks reveal that ample supply exists, suggesting a demand problem for next-gen consoles.

Patel also spoke about the PS3: "PS3 consoles are available at retail but sales are lackluster. Its 130K units sold in February was less than Xbox 360 sales last year (160K) and even less than the original Xbox sales of 140K in Feb-2002."

Deutsche Bank was equally unimpressed with the Xbox 360, with Patel stating: "Particularly disappointing is Xbox 360 HW sales of 230K in February, which puts its installed base at 5mn or in-line to the original Xbox which was an unproven console and faced substantial competition from the PS2."

The Wii however, has a different problem. It seems that Nintendo is having a problem keeping up with demand: "With Wii shortages likely in the next 1-2 quarters (and potential PS3 re-allocations to Europe), we are concerned that next-gen sales could further disappoint."

Nintendo has taken the lion's share of the market recently. In fact, combining the sales of the DS with the sales of the Wii shows that Nintendo grabbed 54% of the market in February. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has reiterated that Nintendo is doing the best it can to alleviate shortages; "... there are hundreds of thousands of consumers still waiting to get their hands on the system so we continue to both ship more units to retail every week and work non-stop to build capacity," he said.

All told, it seems that the Wii could be dominating the market now, but a market leader has yet to emerge for this generation of consoles.

After the recently-concluded GDC, the freshly-announced PlayStation Home has caught the attention of many, turning heads and raising eyebrows of even the gaming community's bigwigs.

Sony has drawn attention because of the similarity of its Home to Nintendo's Mii concept, where players can build avatars and interact with people online for social or competitive reasons. Nintendo of America PR director Beth Llewelyn commented "I think Home is very interesting, it looks like Sony is trying to figure out where their niche is.

"I saw things in there that reminded me of products that we've done and things we've done. It didn't seem something wholly revolutionary," she added.

The PR chief went on to say that on a deeper analysis, Home is pretty different from what Nintendo has been working on. "It would be something I would never do" she says.

So is Home a Mii rip-off or not? A closer look at forum posts from last year suggest that Sony might have been working on the concept a lot earlier than we all thought. You can find the link to the post in the Read link below.