You have to give it to Sony. When 
they made the decision to join the 3D battlefield, they jumped in with both feet.
Starting Tuesday, Sept. 21, every PlayStation 3 on the market will begin supporting 3D playback. (The move will come via a free software update.) That instantly puts 3D hardware into 38 million homes worldwide.
No one had real high expectations for last month’s 
video game sales. And that’s probably a good thing, since it turned out to be the worst August in three years.
Software sales fell 14 percent last month to $403.5 million, according to The NPD Group – more than twice as much as some Wall St. analysts were expecting. Hardware sales, meanwhile, were 5 percent below 2009’s level, at $282.9 million – and the Wii had its worst sales month since the system’s launch.
Video game publishers aren’t fooling themselves. They
know August is going to be the latest in a string of awful months for the industry.
Sales numbers will be released roughly two hours after the market closes Thursday – and they’re expected to be grim. Michael Pachter, managing director of Wedbush Securities, predicts software sales will drop 6 percent compared to 2009 to $445 million. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets is expecting things to be even worse – forecasting a 10-15 percent decline.
The cost of playing “Modern Warfare 2” with friends on the 
Xbox 360 is about to go up. Microsoft announced Monday it would raise annual subscription rates for its Xbox Live service from $50 to $60 starting Nov. 1.
That’s the first price increase in Xbox Live’s eight-year history — and it’s a move that will affect more than just gamers in households. Microsoft has steadily added adding non-gaming functionality to the service in a bid to lure consumers who are looking for other entertainment options, including streaming of films and music.
2010 hasn’t exactly been a good year for the video 
game industry. In fact, it’s been pretty lousy so far.
While the quality of major titles has been top-notch – with Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and God of War 3 leading the way – consumers, on the whole, just aren’t buying games.
With over 50,000 games available on the iPhone, it’s hard
to pinpoint a single one as the iconic title of the platform. If you were going to do so, though, “Angry Birds” would make a strong case for the crown.
The title is addictive in its gameplay and is a regular presence in the Top selling app lists. Now, it’s expanding its reach to other platforms. Chillingo founder Joe Wee tells The Sun that the company is making versions of the game for the “Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and PS3.”
Microsoft has known for a while that the trick to getting the 
Xbox 360 integrated into people’s living rooms is to load it with non-gaming features.
It’s a strategy that was worked well for the company. Family members that don’t like video games can still find plenty of other entertainment options on the console. Now, though, Sony is quickly following suit – and expanding on those features – which could give it an advantage as the industry prepares for a crucial holiday season.
Digital distribution has been a hot topic in the video game industry for 
years – with developers, publishers and retailers trying to forecast when it will become a real threat to traditional brick and mortar stores.
New data, however, shows that time might be closer than many were expecting.
Given the success Nintendo has had with the
revolutionary controller for the Wii, it was really only a matter of time before Microsoft and Sony followed the same path.
Both companies have spent millions of dollars developing their own motion control systems—and both have high hopes and expectations for their success.
For years, Hulu has been the great white whale for content 
streaming devices. Virtually everyone has tried to lure the service beyond its PC roots, with no success.
That changes today, with the introduction of Hulu Plus, a new premium subscription service from the site. For $9.99 per month, subscribers will be able to access a full season’s worth of their favorite TV shows, rather than a select handful. As part of the rollout, Hulu has also announced it will begin streaming Hulu Plus on a variety of Internet-enabled TVs, Blu-Ray devices and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 over the coming months.
Chris Morris: Journalist 