Xbox 360 outsells Wii for first time since 2007, analysts blame supply constraints; PS3 sales up 30%; Dante’s Inferno PS3 outsells 360; New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Modern Warfare 2, Wii Sports Resort, Mass Effect 2, make chart This afternoon, the NPD Group released game-industry sales figures for its February reporting period (January 31 through February 27). The month saw yet another double-digit... 

Valve Software and Epic Games have inked an agreement to include Valve’s Steamworks suite of tools and services to all licensees of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 middleware, free of charge. “Epic’s technology is one of the most widely used engines in the industry and has powered many of the best games created in the past 10 years, on multiple platforms,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder... 

Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Digital Britain, has offered renewed hope to the UK games sector, revealing the argument for tax breaks is “getting stronger”, with an “update” likely in this month’s Budget. The Minister argued, in an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz, that “things have changed over the past couple of years”, with the industry now viewed... 

Khronos Group, the industry consortium behind the OpenGL 2D and 3D graphics standards, released its OpenGL 4.0 specification, an update promising to bring the “latest in cross-platform graphics acceleration and functionality” to PCs and workstations. Khronos’s OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) working group defined the OpenGL 4.0 specification, which now includes the GLSL 4.00... 

GDC 2010: Ray Muzyka and Joseph Staten talk about 10-year franchise plans, switching development teams between sequels, and Police Academy films. Who Was There: Two of the leading figures behind gaming’s biggest hits joined together to talk about their keys to success. On hand was Ray Muzyka, CEO, general manager, and co-founder of BioWare Corp, and Bungie creative director Joseph Staten. BioWare,... 

GDC 2010: Developers behind Super Meat Boy, Critter Crunch, Flower, and more line up to lay down their gripes with the gaming industry. Who was there: It might be quicker to go over who wasn’t there, as GDC boasted plenty of panelists for the session, including Adam Saltsman (Semi Secret Software), Jonatan Soderstrom (Cactus Software), Anna Anthropy (Auntie Pixelante), Jarrad Woods (Farbs),... 

GDC 2010: EA’s Kristian Segerstrale’s Social & Online Games Summit presentation advocates the unparalleled growth potential in creating connected experiences for players. Who was there: EA augmented its casual portfolio in late 2009 by acquiring social games maker Playfish in a deal valued in excess of $275 million. As part of the Social & Online Games Summit at the 2010 Game... 

Study finds worldwide retail, downloadable, and advertising revenues for computer games up 3 percent; retail now less than 20% of PC market. Last year was a rough one for the gaming industry as a whole, with market research firm The NPD Group finding that the US retail sector’s total gaming revenues for 2009 slipped 8 percent year-over-year . Despite that, the PC Gaming Alliance today is saying... 

GDC 2010: COO John Schappert says digital revenue will still be tied to shiny discs for years to come, expresses regret that Modern Warfare 2 developers will be spending time making court cases instead of games. Who was there: John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, took part in a half-hour “Mythbusting Fireside Chat” with Los Angeles Times writer Alex Pham. The executive... 

343 Industries is forging the future of Halo, expanding and building upon one of the most important and successful franchises in gaming history. Halo is a rich and exciting universe that encompasses AAA video games, New York Times best-selling novels, world-class animation and much, much more. Just you wait. 343 is set to revolutionize gaming and entertainment by putting the industry’s fiercest... 

In Japan, the equivalent of the ESRB is the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), the industry outfit responsible for giving content ratings to every console game released in the country. CERO rates based on a scale of five letters: A (all ages), B (ages 12 and up), C (ages 15 and up), D (ages 17 and up), and Z (ages 18 and up only ). That “only” attached to the Z rating has... 

Wedbush’s Michael Pachter predicts 10% software slump to $665 million for last month, March’s “phenomenal” lineup will break industry’s down streak. The good news is that analysts believe the US gaming industry is getting close to emerging from its prolonged slump at retail Original post: Xbox 360 | Industry to rebound after February decline – Analyst Bookmark... 

Contract prices for Blu-Ray machines are falling as the industry misses the point about what is putting on the brakes for the technology. Digitimes reports that Contract-manufacturing quotes for PC-use Blu-ray Disk drives have dropped to $70-80 See the original post: Blu-ray prices fall Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →

The review scores are in and God Of War 3 has performed incredible but there’s one problem, not everyone acknowledges the level of work Sony Santa Monica has put in to move this industry forward. Go here to read the rest: God Of War 3 Deserves A 10 Not Bias Journalism Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →

Wedbush’s Michael Pachter predicts 10% software slump to $665 million for last month, March’s “phenomenal” lineup will break industry’s down streak. The good news is that analysts believe the US gaming industry is getting close to emerging from its prolonged slump at retail. The bad news is that it doesn’t look like the gaming industry entered the light of day during... 

What are the ESRB’s responsibilities when it comes to game trailers? Go here to read the rest: M-rated Video: The ESRB and Video Game Trailers Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →