According to PC World, similar plans are also underway in the UK. North America is the only major game territory still selling more than one model (here we have a 40GB version at $399 and an 80GB at $499). So its likely the U.S. market will similarly narrow to one overpriced system instead of two.

Their venture, Dream Arcades, builds classic full-cabinet arcade games such as Pac-Man, Asteroids and Tempest (“Avoid Spikes” – always good advice).

Dream Arcades caters to aging Gen Xers with disposable incomes who want to spend up to $1,799 recreating a space hogging, graphics challenged, nostalgia-tweaking, hernia inducing fiberboard crate whose games you can now get for $19.

The article says actual game system hidden inside the arcade cabinet is typically a contemporary console like the Nintendo Wii – which is sort of like sticking a 1080p Panasonic plasma monitor inside the wood cabinet of a 1981 Zenith and using it to watch old episodes of “The A-Team.”

Nothing wrong with the classics mind you, we’re just bitterly jealous we don’t likewise have $2k to blow.

Not only did Microsoft not unveil the rumored HD DVD-bundled Xbox system at CES this week, but the company announced they would begin offering TV shows and movies from ABC and MGM - two companies currently aligned with Sony’s Blu-ray.

Somewhere, a Toshiba executive is sitting in a park, watching the ducks and reassessing his life.

The ABC/MGM deal adds more than 500 hour of standard and HD content from ABC Television Network, ABC Family, ABC News, Disney Channel, Toon Disney and the MGM film library. ABC hits like Lost and Grey’s Anatomy are included in the deal.

The ABC offerings should finally appease Assassins Creed players who’ve been clamoring for the latest episodes of Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, truly an underserved demographic.

The Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker reduces the monster hit game�s axe controller to a gawdy belt buckle. Players can frantically flick and fiddle with it, all the while looking vaguely like they�re � well � you know.

Sony announced its North American sales figures for Black Friday through the end of the year, trumpeting 1.2 million in PS3 sales.

Buried in the news: The PS2s, the most popular video game console of all time, sold 1.3 million.

Comparative numbers for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 were not available, but last week the company announced the console had sold 17.7 million units worldwide since launching last year and is presumably still outselling its higher-priced rival. Sony has stated previously that its sold 5.6 million globally up until the end of September.

With Warner Bros. announcing last week that they will back Sony’s Blu-ray high-definition home video format, the sluggish PS3 sales arguably don’t even matter. The game system’s success at helping Sony deliver an apparent death blow to Toshiba’s HD DVD format is reason enough for the company to celebrate. And with Blu-ray production prices reportedly decreasing rapidly, Sony is well poised to rocket in sales should they be able to drop prices on their standalone Blu-ray players and Blu-ray embedded PS3s.

image: feelium81

This is about the same amount of time I gave Halo and Halo 2. Sitting there, playing solo or co-op, fighting away, trying so hard to feel it � the excitement, the passion, the compulsion to keep going deeper into a game; a feeling so familiar from playing truly compelling first-person shooters.

But Halo, a game that has broken so many industry records, is missing something. Trying to fall for Halo 3 is like being on a date with a perfect-looking girl with vacant eyes. You may really want find a connection, but there�s just nothing there. Trying to get passionate about Halo is like trying to fall in love with Windows Vista or Word or any other Microsoft product. Maybe you can admire the function, or teamwork that produced the title, but its always just a utility.

There�s something so generic about the Halo franchise that it feels like watching a vague and cautious mixture of elements stolen from more memorable pop culture sources, then watered down to keep the lawyers away. One week later, I�m trying to remember what the personality-free enemies look like. Some sound effects are reminiscent of �Predator.� Some of the gun design was clearly ripped off from �Aliens.� Dialog was lifted from a dozen random action movies. Landscapes look like countless other games.

Halo�s popularity for multiplayer gaming is the most understandable part of its fame. In mulitplayer mode, the game wakes up because you�re helping Halo by populating its universe with other real people. In multiplayer, Halo is what it really is: an inoffensive arena, a playing field, open and empty and needing to be filled with life.