Microsoft’s 
appearance at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show will be its last.
The tech giant has announced, via its corporate blog, that it will no longer host a booth or deliver the show’s annual keynote speech after 2012.
Tag Archives: variety
CES 2012 will be the last for Microsoft
Microsoft 
is breaking up with the Consumer Electronics Show.
The tech giant has announced via a company blog that this year’s keynote and exhibit booth will be its last at the show – a notable departure, since the company’s keynote has long been the unofficial kickoff to CES.
EA launches Star Wars: The Old Republic
When the 
clocks strike midnight, the rush will be on into EA’s newest massively multiplayer online game – and the only title around that has any chance of giving “World of Warcraft” any sort of competition.
“Star Wars: The Old Republic,” made by the company’s Bioware Studios in conjunction with LucasArts lets players explore the rich universe 3,500 years before the Star Wars films occur in the timeline.
Zynga hits Wall Street – then stumbles
Social game maker 
Zynga’s much anticipated debut on Wall St. didn’t go quite as well as planned Friday.
The company finished the trading day at 9.50, 5 percent below its offering price – as investors, fearful of a new tech bubble, steered clear and analysts ripped the company on growth concerns.
Zynga prices its IPO
As expected, 
social game maker Zynga will begin trading shares on Wall Street Friday, marking one of the video game industry’s biggest public offerings in years.
The company has priced shares at $10 each, the high end of its expected range and will offer 100 million shares to investors. That puts the company valuation at about $7 billion.
First web television award nominees announced
Add Web 
television to awards season.
The International Academy of Web Television has announced nominees for the inaugural IAWTV awards, with Felicia Day’s “The Guild” and drama series “RCVR” topping the list.
Xbox adds iHeartRadio, Verizon FiOS
Microsoft 
continues to roll out new entertainment offerings for the Xbox 360.
The second wave of content providers for the recent user interface revamp of Xbox Live has hit the console, bringing some familiar names. Starting today, U.S. users will be able to access content from ClearChannel’s streaming radio service iHeartRadio and Verizon FiOS customers will be able to access a limited selection of live channels.
‘Modern Warfare 3’ tops $1 bil in 16 days
Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″ has joined the billion dollar club — after just 16 days on store shelves, setting yet another entertainment industry record.
James Cameron’s “Avatar” was the previous record holder for a property to hit the $1 billion sales mark. It took a day longer than the action/shooter video game to achieve that, however. (“Black Ops,” the previous game in the “Call of Duty” series, took six weeks to hit the number.)
Recapping the VGA winners
Spike TV’s annual 
Video Game Awards program always tends to divide the gamer audience, which grumbles about the flashy nature of the programming, but the event is still very much a can’t miss event among those players.
With several announcements of new game franchises, including Epic Games’ “Fortnight” and Sony/Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us” making bows this year, it’s a second E3 of sorts. But the real focus is on the awards.
November game sales surge, hardware sales dip
Led by “Modern 
Warfare 3″ and a surprisingly strong “The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim,” video game software sales soared past analyst expectations in November.
Retail sales of console and portable software were up 15 percent to $1.67 billion. Analysts had expected a climb of just 3 percent.
Chris Morris: Journalist 