The Kindle Fire 
is on the way to customers – and with it, Amazon’s hoping to revolutionize the tablet business.
The $199 entertainment-focused device is actually shipping a day earlier than planned, as Amazon looks to build on the substantial buzz the Kindle Fire has generated since it was first announced. The company also plans to ship the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eReaders tomorrow – six days ahead of schedule.
The news that 
Nintendo will lose money this fiscal year for the first time in its history as a publicly traded company wasn’t entirely unexpected, but that didn’t make it any less shocking.
It was a rapid fall from the top of the gaming hill for the company, hastened by weak sales of the Wii and DS and the tepid reception to the 3DS. Investors weren’t happy, raising some questions about whether president Satoru Iwata’s job might be at risk.
For a detective 
whose star is rising at a phenomenal rate, Cole Phelps sure is angry.
There’s no crime in L.A. Noire he can’t solve, but his people skills are a bit lacking. Even when a witness is cooperating with his investigation, he’ll inevitably start shouting at them, a behavior that always mystified players.
It’s a three-peat.
Modern Warfare 3, the latest installment in Activision’s juggernaut shooter franchise, has set a new entertainment industry record for the biggest product launch of all time, selling 6.5 million copies in the U.S. and U.K. in its first 24 hours and earning $400 million in the process.
Blizzard’s cash cow 
is starting to produce less milk.
Subscriptions for World of Warcraft fell to 10.3 million at the end of September, the company announced in its quarterly earnings call Tuesday. That’s a drop of 800,000 subscribers — or more than 7 percent of its customers — in just three months.
While Microsoft 
hasn’t uttered a peep about the next iteration of the Xbox, it’s one of the industry’s worst kept secrets that development is well underway. Now, a new rumor from a blog that has a decent track record when it comes to Microsoft information has a few new theories about what we can expect.
If MS Nerd is correct, the Xbox 720 (or Xbox Next, or whatever Microsoft decides to call it) is currently being developed under the codename “Loop” — and the machine may run on a modified version of Windows 9.
By blending the 
strategy and action genres (and tossing in a dash of role playing), Squids is a unique creature in the App Store. Though it presents itself as a mix of Final Fantasy and Angry Birds, there’s really nothing like it. That’s commendable — and the game is a technical marvel, with jaunty music and nice graphics. It also has an ideal difficulty ramp — not too tough, but sufficient to still leave you with a sense of achievement.
But with every new genre, there’s a learning curve — on the behalf of both players and developers. Squids feels like a game that, while fun for a while, doesn’t entirely live up to its potential. Moving around the levels doesn’t feel natural, and it’s hard to connect with the characters onscreen (and not just because they’re squids). You certainly won’t regret this purchase — and many may love the game — but others will wonder why the smiles on their faces aren’t as wide as they should be.
It’s rare that 
a company is this candid about one of its products.
Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca, in an earnings conference call with investors this week, dubbed the company’s Google TV set top box – officially called the Logitech Revue – “a big mistake” and said the company had no plans to build future versions of the product.
For the third 
year in a row, the “Call of Duty” video game franchise has set entertainment industry records, once again claiming the crown for the biggest product launch of all time.
Activision reports “Modern Warfare 3” sold 6.5 million copies in the U.S. and U.K. in its first 24 hours on shelves, earning $400 million. That tops last year’s $360 million haul from the series’ “Black Ops” installment and the $310 million earned by 2009’s “Modern Warfare 2.”
The growth of 
the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as gaming devices has done plenty to worry executives at Nintendo and Sony for a while now, but new numbers from Flurry Research may cause even more agita.
The mobile analytics firm says revenues from the iOS and Android gaming markets are now higher than that generated from traditional portable systems from the two gaming giants. And in a $3.3 billion market, that’s noteworthy.
Chris Morris: Journalist 