No new games are to blame for the lame sales figures.
The NPD group announced that its January sales figures and consumer spending on video games fell 34% to $750.6 million in the US. Hardware sales totaled $324 million, down 38% year over year. According to G4, these are the worst sales figures since January 2004.
Modern Warfare 3 dominates online play while The Simpsons topped the XBLA list.
Major Nelson released via on Twitter the Xbox Live activity statistics for the week of January 30, 2012. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 continues to be the most played game online while the late release of The Simpsons Arcade Game topped the XBLA sales chart.
PS3 players should also get the update later today.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch that PC players got last week is now available to Xbox 360 players. Update 1.4 has the following fixes and changes:
The Limited Edition Xbox 360 bundle will be released the same day.
Kinect Star Wars was delayed from its release date last holiday, as was the limited edition Star Wars Xbox 360 bundle. No word on when gamers will see the title was announced but now a new release date has been confirmed.
Spring has sprung a Rayman redone!
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD was announced a little over two months ago. The series has seen a slight revival with the release of Rayman Origins in November and Ubisoft is going to capitalize on that release with this HD remake. Rayman 3 HD now has a release date and it's March 21, 2012.
The creator of Scribblenauts has a new XBLA title on the way.
5th Cell announced in a press release today some new details for the upcoming game Hybrid, their Xbox Live Arcade title set to be released this summer. The title is a cover-based third person shooter.
Bioware reveals a closer look at Mass Effect 3's multiplayer features.
King killing console style.
Good news for Xbox 360 console owners out there. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, one of the most acclaimed PC games of 2011, is being made available for the Microsoft console. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and CD Projekt RED announced that the game will be made available for the Xbox 360 console on April 17th.
You know you want to hear “Sonic Boom” again.
I love Sonic the Hedgehog. That is probably the understatement of the year, as I’ve made my love of the blue hedgehog well known and I know all of the Sonic games front to back. Well, most of them anyway. I didn’t own a Sega CD back in the day so one of the exceptions is Sonic CD. Since its initial release in 1993, diehard fans have sworn by the game’s quality, going so far as to call it the greatest Sonic game ever. Two ports have been released on the PC and as part of the Sonic Gems Collection on the GameCube, but this latest port is the most attractive release of the title. Does it still hold up 18 years later?
Sonic CD and Joe Danger succeeded financially and critically.
December is typically a slow month for video games. After the onslaught of releases during October and November, the last month of the year is usually reserved for buyers to purchase what's available. But some quality titles do continue to be released, and they're usually downloadable titles.
