Two years ago, Nintendo could do no 
wrong. The Wii was at the height of its retail domination and competitors were scrambling for second place.
Today it’s a much different story and the looming holiday season could be a crucial one that determines the strength – and perhaps the future – of the company’s core console business.
Even “Halo: Reach” couldn’t bring 
the video game industry out of its slump in September.
Software sales at retail stores were down a shocking 6 percent last month to $614 million, according to The NPD Group. That’s vastly worse than analysts were expecting and could scare investors, who were holding out hope that September would be a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for game sales.
The consensus among 
analysts and industry observers was that strong sales of “Halo: Reach” would be enough to bring video game sales into positive territory in September.
The consensus was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Up until now, PlayStation 3 owners who 
wanted to stream a film through Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature had to manually insert a disc into their devices. As of Oct. 18, they won’t have to bother anymore.
Next week, a system update will make instant Netflix streaming a native application on the game console – putting it in parity with the Xbox 360, which had exclusivity on dashboard streaming until now.
[Following Microsoft’s new details on Windows Phone 7, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to the company and analysts to examine how Xbox Live 
may help the smartphone OS thrive.]
Microsoft’s gamble with Windows Phone 7 is anything but a sure bet – but the inclusion of Xbox Live as a prominent part of the operating system could be the ace up the company’s sleeve.
Mobile gaming has been evolving rapidly over the past three years – and tying it to a service that has been so phenomenally successful for Microsoft could position the company to regain market share.
For the past four years, Nintendo has the market to itself 
when it comes to motion control gaming. That’s finally coming to an end – and it has some people wondering about how the company will fare moving forward.
In mid-September, Sony launched PlayStation Move, a motion sensor that mimics – and, in some ways, improves upon – the Wii remote. Come November, Microsoft will join the fight with Kinect, a camera-based system that eliminates the need for controllers altogether.
While Nintendo kicked off the motion control revolution 
four years ago and quickly dominated the field, Microsoft and Sony are betting there’s a lot of life — and money — left in the category.
Last Sunday, Sony’s new PlayStation Move controller went on sale and in November Microsoft will launch Kinect, it’s motion-tracking camera that essentially transforms players’ bodies into the controller. Both products are gambles — and, to some degree, risks — for the companies, who are hoping to keep the current generation of video game systems relevant for several years.
So now it’s official: Microsoft’s first-person behemoth Halo: 
Reach is the year’s biggest entertainment event,generating $200 million in sales in just 24 hours in the United States alone.
That’s two-thirds of what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took in from the North American and U.K. markets in its first day last year, but it’s still a number that’s nothing to sneeze at. The one-day take already eclipses the three-day opening weekends of “Iron Man 2,” “Toy Story 3” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
Prequels rarely resonate with audiences – regardless 
of the medium. So when Bungie Studios decided to make its last “Halo” game a prequel, there was some cause for concern.
Thankfully, those fears were misplaced. While the final chapter of “Halo: Reach” is something well known to any fan of the franchise, the game itself is perhaps the best in “Halo’s” nine-year history. And it’s a fitting sendoff for the developer, who is responsible for creating and growing one of the biggest series in the video game industry.
Chris Morris: Journalist 