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By most accounts, the release of Grand Theft Auto IV helped move quite a few game consoles--both Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s--in the past few weeks. But there's another four--Metal Gear Solid 4--that's eagerly anticipated by many gamers as well. No, MGS4 isn't going to shatter sales records like GTA did, but it's safe to say that Konami's PS3 exclusive is the reason that many forward-looking gamers chose Sony's console over that of archrival Microsoft. And with the game's June 12 release date fast approaching--after a hype buildup that stretches back to at least 2005--the waiting for those faithful PlayStation fans is almost over.

But what about those gamers who still haven't taken the next-generation plunge?… Read more

Update at 3:30 p.m. PDT: This post has been modified to reflect the public release by NPD of its April video game industry sales figures.

Nintendo's Wii was the best-selling next-generation video game console in April, research firm NPD Group said Thursday afternoon.

Nintendo had earlier put out its own release citing NPD's numbers.

According to NPD, the Wii outsold Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 in April. The Wii sold 714,000 Wiis during the month, bringing its total sales in the United States since the Wii's launch in late 2006 … Read more

Microsoft said on Wednesday that its Xbox 360 has become the first next-generation video game console to hit 10 million units sold in the United States.

Further, said Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, that milestone has historically been reached by the eventual best-seller of each previous console generation, a fact that Microsoft will certainly be using to bolster suggestions that the Xbox 360 will eventually prevail sales-wise over Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.

Of course, Sony has been the winner of the two previous generations, with the original PlayStation and … Read more

OK, before the angry fanboy comments roll in, let's get this out of the way: the PlayStation 3 is the best Blu-ray player on the market right now. It sits at the top of our best Blu-ray players list, we consistently use it as the reference that we judge other Blu-ray players against, and it's the only player on the market right now that supports Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. And it will always be the only Blu-ray player that streams media, has a browser, and plays PS3 … Read more

Nintendo on Monday put its latest shot across the bow of Microsoft and Sony when it officially launched WiiWare, its new online repository of downloadable games.

Ostensibly a service where Wii gamers will be able to shop for new, independent games, WiiWare seems to be Nintendo's answer to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and its XNA Studio and to Sony's PlayStation Store.

WiiWare is launching with six games: Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Frontier Development's LostWinds, XGen Studios' Defend your Castle, Nnooo's Pop, High Voltage Software's V.I.… Read more

Sony's PlayStation 3 is a multimedia powerhouse, juggling the playback demands of Blu-ray, DVD, and DivX with ease. But while on-demand content is growing in popularity, there remain a vast number of people who watch regularly scheduled, over-the-air broadcasts. So it's not surprising to see Sony enter the market with PlayTV, a new device that will let you watch and record digital TV on your PlayStation 3. It was announced for the European market last year and will sell for 80 pounds, or about $156.

Using a USB tuner, plus the included software, PlayTV will allow users to … Read more

A quick recap of Neil Young's recent announcement at the Sun JavaOne conference, as reported by CNET's Dan Farber. The long-awaited (by fans) Neil Young Archive project is coming out this year. It'll be on Blu-ray, which is the first digital format to satisfy Mr. Young's needs (with a regular DVD, you couldn't watch high-resolution video and listen to music at the same time). He recommends buying a Sony PS3 as a Blu-ray player because the PS3 has an Internet connection and a fat hard drive, and he wants to update the content over time. … Read more

Considering how unfortunately popular karaoke remains here, it's surprising that it has taken so long for this music game to arrive on U.S. shores. But Singstar is finally getting a stateside launch for the PlayStation 3 on May 20, according to I4U News.

The game, which is already on the European market, comes with 30 songs loaded on its disc but also allows hundreds more to be purchased and downloaded from the "SingStore," which will be expanded by 25-30 songs each month. Each tune, which goes for $1.49, comes with a video of the artist.… Read more

Not long ago the idea of adding 500GB of storage space to a home media system was unthinkable to the average consumer, unless one was willing to pay ungodly sums of money. What a difference a couple of years make.

Iomega is releasing its "ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive" at that half-terabyte mark, a considerable leap from the 60GB capacity of its last generation. As storage technologies continue to drop in price--the new ScreenPlay is selling for around $200--it's positioned to compete with a growing number of products such as LaCie's "LaCinema Premier," which was … Read more