NPD has announced their sales figures for the busy holiday season and the results were a very pleasant surprise for the industry. Hardware was king this holiday season, though, surprisingly, it was the two recently launched consoles (the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3) which carry the biggest disappointments.

Nintendo, as expected, destroyed their competition, but it wasn’t thanks to the Wii, which sold a respectable (but still disappointing) 604.2K units bringing it’s LTD up to 1.1 million in the US. It appears to me that shortages hurt here, though nowhere near as much as the shortages and lackluster interest in the PS3 has hurt Sony. The DS hand held however, cleaned house, selling a breathtaking 1.6 million units for December, solidifying Nintendo’s hold in the hand held race and giving thrifty parents a perfectly priced stocking stuffer for their kids.

Microsoft fared quite well, with the Xbox 360 clocking in with 1.1 million units, with Gears of War becoming a new “Halo-like” franchise for the strongest running next-generation console so far.

Sony are clocking in with surprising results. PS2 post major numbers, selling a whopping 1.4 million consoles. Whether this is actually a good thing remains to be seen. It appears the PS2 is still running quite strong, which may point to a lack of interest or lack of affordability to the PS3. I don’t know how proud Sony could be of having their last generation machine tearing into the customer base which should be purchasing their new console, but, income is income and right now they certainly aren’t making anything off of the PS3. More good news for Sony followed with the PSP, which showed a stronger than expected sell through, posting 953K units, surprising those who can’t figure out a reason to even turn their PSP on anymore. On to the PS3, which posted better than expected numbers, but still pointed to a worrying start for the more than half a grand machine. With 490.7K units (687.3K LTD) the PS3 showed that it’s supply problems were holding it back, but those are rumored to be clearing up.

Overall, total hardware sales rang up to $4.6 billion USD (up 42.8%) and software amounted to $6.5 billion USD (up 6.4%).

Read more: NPD analysis by GameDaily Biz

Our favorite Xbox Live Arcade blog covers the sales of some of our most favorite games and it seems to have been quite a great year for Live Arcade titles, a great sign, especially if the rumors of Microsoft’s owning this holiday season’s console sales are any indication. On the list, we can see that quite a lot of people played the free copy of Hexic HD included with every XBox 360 purchased and it’s refreshing to see UNO, one of the most un-Xbox style games you could imagine, being at the top of the 360’s game sales stats!

2006 Top Xbox 360 Titles (UU’s)
2 Hexic HD
9 UNO
12 Geometry Wars Evolved
14 Texas Hold ‘em

2006 Top Arcade Titles (Purchased)
1 UNO
2 Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting
3 Geometry Wars Evolved
4 Marble Blast Ultra
5 PAC-MAN
6 DOOM
7 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
8 GALAGA
9 Gauntlet
10 Frogger
11 Bankshot Billiards 2
12 SmashTV
13 Contra
14 Zuma
15 Texas Hold ‘em
16 Bejeweled 2
17 Feeding Frenzy
18 Small Arms
19 Cloning Clyde
20 LUMINES LIVE!

Every Xbox 360 owner is anticipating the next version of Halo, coming soon(ish) from Bungie and Microsoft. Lately, MS and Bungie have been releasing teaser documentaries and behind the scenes looks into the ongoing development of the title, including it’s upcoming changes and storylines. This video shows the first ever gameplay footage of a pre-alpha build, in between interviews with artists and animators who are discussing the changes to the Brutes which will be coming to Halo 3. Cute, grumpy, fuzzy monsters no more, the Brutes are becoming full on, agile war machines!

Sit back and watch after the jump..

Read more of “Documentary on Halo 3 Brute changes and pre-alpha gameplay footage“

Lost in the press bucket thanks to all the hype from Microsoft’s simultaneous release of Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express, Garage Games announced the beta release of their complimenting TorqueX games engine for the Xbox 360. Though an early beta, TorqueX does not support source or 3D yet, but it’s one of the most powerful 2D games engines on the market and hey, you can create small games (or prototypes) for the Xbox 360 making use of sprites, scrolling backgrounds, 3D objects, lighting, physics, and collision detection. I must admit, this is a great move on the part of Microsoft (and great for Garage Games), which I rarely give props to.

Read more: TorqeX product page | TorqueX beta goes live

Attention Xbox Live demo fanatics, the ultra competitive shooter from Capcom, Lost Planet, is launching their demo today via Live Arcade and it’s most definitely worth a look! I have high hopes for Lost Planet since I’m a sci-fi nerd and any style of mech-battle scenarios grab my interest.

Read more: Lost Planet | Lost Planet official blog

Microsoft announced their quarterly results recently, with some very good news for their Interactive Gaming division (Xbox, Xbox 360). Their gaming division were happy to see their results more than double thanks to the Xbox 360 momentum, inferring that Microsoft’s head start this generation is helping them create a solid customer base in anticipation of the PS3.

Some finer of the finer points from Microsoft’s Gamerscore blog after the jump..

· Xbox 360 will be available in 36 countries for the holiday and our installed base through September is 6 million consoles worldwide (3.6 million in North America, 1.7 million in Europe and approximately 700,000 in the rest of the world.)

· As such, Xbox 360 is in an excellent position for the second quarter. By holiday 2006, we expect to have sold more than 10 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide and have a catalog of 160 high-definition games. Our yearly guidance still implies that by the end of the fiscal year we expect to have sold 13 to 15 million Xbox 360 consoles since launch.

· Key profit drivers for the platform include Xbox 360 software and accessory attach rates, which remain very strong relative to previous console launches. The Xbox 360 accessory attach rate remains the highest ever for the first ten months after a console launch in the US, holding at 2.9 accessory units sold per console (Source: NPD). Software attach rates rose to a record 5.1 units per console (Source: NPD).

· With the impending releases of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, and the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing wheel accessory attach rates are expected to continue their momentum into the second quarter and beyond.

· Xbox Live now boasts a community of more than 4 million members worldwide, with more than 6 million expected by June 2007. Xbox Live Marketplace, the one-stop digital download center, has seen more than 70 million downloads since launch including Xbox Live Arcade games, content packs, demos, and other media. To date, there have been a staggering 12 million Xbox Live Arcade downloads. All told, more than 2 billion Microsoft points have been sold to date.

Read more: Microsoft results at Gamerscore blog

Several weeks ago, Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 console in India and though the price is outrageous in relation to India’s GDP, their marketing campaign is accessible to everyone, even me! Featuring Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh, everything about this commercial is great. The cinematography is beautiful, with exaggerated colors to match the exaggerated people running, jumping and er, stretching around the “homeland”. It sure beats the Austrian and German ads, which have to be the dryest, most boring ads I’ve seen.

Watch the Indian Xbox 360 commercial after the jump..
Read more of “I love the Indian Xbox 360 commercial“

I’m totally looking forward to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and you can be sure I’ll be getting this for the Nintendo Wii and loving every muscle-tearing moment of it. First, the game features just about EVERY important character in the Marvel Universe (get it?), with 20 playable characters available straight from the start and 120 more unlock-able throughout the game. Second, not only are all of these amazing characters playable, but you can actually custom create your team of heroes, creating the ultimate, dynamically switchable team (Wolverine, The Punisher, Spider Man and Thor on one team, oh man). The gameplay takes you through missions, huge melee brawls and even recreations of legendary Marvel battles throughout the history of Marvel. The game looks brilliant and will be released for every major next-gen platform, which will fit right at home with my Wii60 collection.

Watch gameplay videos for Spider Man, Thor and Mr. Fantastic after the jump..

Read more of “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance gameplay videos“

Alan Wake, the follow-up from Remedy after their hit releases of Max Payne, is beginning to look like the tech demo / postergame for Microsoft’s next-generation gaming platforms. With more information starting to surface about the game (well, minus any real gameplay information), the screenshots being released are starting to look more and more amazing with every new shot released. This time, we have a few new environment shots, though, no official word on whether they are for the Xbox 360 (we’d be REALLY amazed if they were for the 360) or Vista PC. Showing some of the greatest environmental lighting I’ve ever seen, I’m getting more excited about this title every time I see it. Let’s just hope Remedy does a little bit more with their character animation this time around, cause, come no, no next-gen title can be feature a main character as stiff as Max Payne.

Screenshots after the jump..

Read more of “New Alan Wake screenshots are absolutely breathtaking“

After many rumours, RedOctane finally announced that Guitar Hero II will see a release on the Xbox 360, with the game and the “X-Plorer” controller currently being shown at Microsoft’s X06, currently underway. The controller is designed specifically for the Xbox 360 and players will be able to download new content, such as rock rhythm, lead and bass guitar tracks (awesome). With the Xbox Live Arcade being as great as it is, I imagine the possibilities are endless for downloadable content.

Read more: Red Octane announces Guitar Hero 360