Microsoft, which tried 
unsuccessfully to acquire Yahoo in 2008, is thinking about making another run at the company. This time, though, a merger of the two companies could impact the entertainment landscape.
To be clear: There’s no offer at this point and there’s apparently a lot of internal debate about whether to make one at Microsoft headquarters these days. And, technically, Yahoo hasn’t announced it’s for sale – though it has been talking quietly with potential bidders.
Microsoft’s plans to 
add television content to the Xbox 360 just took a major step forward.
The company unveiled an extensive partner list Wednesday, announcing that nearly 40 global content providers will stream programming through the game console starting this year. Included in the list are heavy cable hitters Comcast, HBO and Verizon FiOS.
Gamers descended 
on retailers like locusts to grab their copies of Gears of War 3.
Microsoft says the latest installment in the series sold 3 million copies in its first week, making it the biggest game of the year (so far).
As Sony cuts the price 
of the PlayStation 3 for the first time in two years, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at the ramifications the move might have on Xbox 360 and Wii.
So the PlayStation 3 price cut we all suspected was coming at some point this year has finally been announced, and immediately implemented to boot. Now things are going to get interesting.
Sony’s $50 reduction, positioned as the exclamation point to their Gamescom press conference, will have reverberations throughout the industry over the next couple of months. Let’s take a look at some of the ripple effects.
For the most part, 2011 
has been a pretty crummy year for video game sales.
Other than April, every month has shown declines. For the year, the industry is 10 percent behind 2010’s pace. That puts video games retail on track for its third consecutive year of negative growth — the first time that has ever happened in the gaming world.
As retail sputters, more and more publishers are looking to downloadable games to help fill the gaps.
This is the droid you’re looking 
for if you’re a “Star Wars”-loving gamer.
Microsoft has unveiled a new “Star Wars”-branded Xbox 360 – with a console body that looks like R2-D2 and a C-3PO gold colored controller – that will go on sale this holiday season.
Ubisoft’s chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot 
talks to Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris about his company’s early adoption of the upcoming Nintendo Wii U, and about how the new transition means that Sony and Microsoft need “new machines soon.”
When it comes to early adoption, gamers don’t have anything on Yves Guillemot.
The chairman and CEO of Ubisoft has long taken the approach that as a new gaming system approaches, his company wants to be one of the flag bearers for the launch lineup. It did it with the Xbox 360. It did it with the 3DS. And it’s planning to do it once again when Nintendo’s Wii U hits store shelves next year.
[Dennis Durkin, COO of Microsoft’s IEB, 
tells Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris, “Not only has gaming usage gone up [on Xbox 360], but non-gaming has as well,” as the company evolves the console into a do-it-all entertainment box.]
When Elijah Wood first showed the world the Xbox 360 on MTV in 2005, the system was laser focused on games. But as the industry has evolved since then, so has the 360.
These days, while games are still at the core of the system, other entertainment options have elbowed their way into the spotlight – and, with the addition of live television to the offerings planned by the end of this year, games will have even more competition for people’s attentions.
An Irish teen has learned the 
hard way that breaking the law can be a losing game. Literally.
A judge in Belfast ordered a boy accused of a series of robberies — including a shopping center and high school — to surrender his Xbox 360 as part of the conditions for him to receive bail late last month.
We certainly have no problem getting caught up in the fun
of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
At this point, we’ve all heard a lot of talk about who and what “won the show” at E3 Expo 2011 earlier this month. It is, in fact, one of the most common questions attendees ask each other. But in the big picture, it’s a question that’s a little shortsighted.
The video game industry is undergoing such a seismic shift these days (in terms of its fundamental business model), that focusing on a single company or title doesn’t give anyone an adequate look into the future. A hit game is nice, but long-term, publishers need to have a broader plan — and they need to have that on display.
Chris Morris: Journalist 