Few 
stars have burned as brightly — and burned out as quickly — as Sega’s Dreamcast console.
Adored by players from the moment it was announced in 1998, the system was truly ahead of its time. Even today, on the 15th anniversary of its debut, the Dreamcast has a fan base more loyal than many modern systems.
There 
are two stories to follow this holiday season in the gaming world: Hardware and software.
With the high-profile launch of two new gaming systems and a slew of new games still to come, the video-game industry is hoping Santa brings it a turnaround this year. U.S. consumer spending on video games at brick-and-mortar retail stores has fallen nearly 30 percent in the past three years. In 2010, the industry took in $18.6 billion on sales of hardware, software and accessories, according to the NPD Group. In 2012, that number had slipped to $13.26 billion.
Three 
months ago, Sony made a big splash at E3 touting the PlayStation 4 to the world. At the same time, though, it was already laying the groundwork for another notable consumer technology venture.
As media and buyers got hands on time with the upcoming console and debated the WWE-like theatrics of the Sony and Microsoft press conferences, the company was holding top secret meetings with developers and publishers, showing off a virtual reality headset for the PS4 and drumming up support for it.
Want 
a PlayStation 4? Get ready to take a Friday off this November.
Sony has announced that its next-generation system will go on sale November 15 in North America and in Europe on November 29 — and it’s going to have a lot of retail support.
Forget 
about reading facial expressions – the Next Big Thing in console gaming is…sweat?
Almost, according to Mark Cerny, lead system architect for Sony’s next-generation console. Cerny says one of the early designs of the DualShock 4 controller measured ‘skin conductivty’ — or, in more colloquial terms, sweat — to detect a player’s emotions.
After 
riding so high last week at E3, Sony was bound to stumble eventually.
That happened Tuesday night, when some gamers who installed the latest firmware update (version 4.45) for their PlayStation 3s got a nasty surprise — a bricked system.
Julian 
Knight is one of the most notorious criminals in Australia. And he might be about to become the country’s most dangerous gamer.
In documents filed with Australia’s Supreme Court (via Kotaku), Knight is suing the prison system because no one will let him have a PlayStation. Knight says he is being treated unfairly by prison officials with no rational justification.
On 
Wednesday, Microsoft confirmed the worst-kept secret in the video game world: It plans to unveil its next generation console on May 21.
Like Sony’s PlayStation 4, the new console is expected to hit stores this holiday season and many analysts and investors are hanging their hopes on the new machines to kickstart the video game industry back into growth mode.
Video 
game consoles, typically, spend about five or six years in the spotlight, before stepping aside for the next generation. The current cycle, though, is now entering its seventh year — a longevity that many analysts and publishers blame for the malaise that has affected the shares of game makers.
Sony, on Feb. 20, is expected to unveil the PlayStation 4, its entry in the next generation battle. The system is more than the start of a new cycle, though; it’s an essential step in rebuilding Sony as a corporation.
Video 
game violence is starting to take on a whole new meaning.
Syrian rebels have reportedly built a tank to aid them in their fight to overthrow the Assad regime, and it uses a PlayStation controller to aim and fire the vehicle’s machine gun.
Chris Morris: Journalist 