LOS ANGELES (AP) — The princess-rescuing adventurer Link is coming to the Nintendo 3DS.

The Wii U has been one of the least successful product launches in Nintendo’s history so far and Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes that there’s very little hope sales of the console will pick up anytime soon. Per Benzinga, Pachter says that “only 55,000 Wii U consoles were sold domestically in March,” which is down from the 66,000 consoles Nintendo sold in February and the 57,000 consoles it sold in January. What’s more, Pachter doesn’t think there’s much Nintendo can do to boost sales in the future as the Wii U’s “fortunes appear unlikely to improve for several months, even if Nintendo decides to drop [the] price, as there are an insufficient number of core titles that are generating interest in the console.” In

Regarding the Commentary spread in the March 4 issue, "Do video games trigger violence?": In her dueling essay on the connection between video games and gun violence, Kristin M.S. Bezio claims that "playing a video game depicting violence does not necessarily increase the likelihood that a child will engage in violence at that age or later." Ms. Bezio does admit that video games can influence ideology, but that isn't what gives them the kick that makes them so popular.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Earth is recovering from an apocalyptic event, alien races cooperate warily, a wise-cracking outsider suddenly finds himself shouldering new responsibilities.

The Microsoft (MSFT) executive who sparked controversy after making public statements regarding unannounced Microsoft products is no longer with the company. Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth made news last week when he publicly responded to concerns that the next-generation Xbox might require an always-on Internet connection to operate. Orth said he was confused by the concern and then told customers to “deal with it.” Now, according to unnamed sources speaking with video game industry blog GameInformer, Orth has voluntarily resigned. Microsoft has not confirmed Orth’s departure, however GameInformer states that a call to the company’s headquarters confirmed that he is no longer with the company.

The stunning decline in PC shipments reported by IDC this week shows that Microsoft (MSFT) is really on the ropes in the consumer electronics market. What makes IDC’s report particularly cringe-worthy for Microsoft is that it pins some of the blame for poor PC sales on the drastic changes that Microsoft made to its Windows operating system with Windows 8. While Windows 8 may not be as universally hated as Vista was, it has still proven polarizing at a time when Microsoft faces stiff competition from mobile devices based on the hugely popular iOS and Android operating systems. However, there is still one area where Microsoft reigns supreme over its competitors: Gaming. Both Windows-based PCs and the Xbox console remain

What if you could take up swords against the Lannister family on "Game of Thrones"? Or solve mysteries with the "NCIS" crew? Or pitch an ad campaign to Don Draper on "Mad Men"?

It’s not only financial analysts who are bearish on the prospects of new gaming consoles from Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SNE) — gaming industry pioneers aren’t too optimistic either. In an interview with Gamespot, Bioware cofounder Dr. Greg Zeschuk said that neither the next Xbox nor the PlayStation 4 are likely to fix the “sick market for old-school gaming” that the industry has found itself trapped in recently. Zeschuk, who cofounded the company responsible for the popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, went onto say “that unless Microsoft or Sony pull something magically out of a hat, it’s pretty much the same old, same old repackaged,” and that the new consoles will have a minimal impact on the retail market for high-end

It’s becoming clear that Microsoft (MSFT) doesn’t want its next-generation Xbox to be just a gaming console. Unnamed sources have told The Verge that Microsoft will “introduce a feature that lets its next-generation console take over a TV and set-top box in a similar way to Google TV” that “will work by taking a cable box signal and passing it through to the Xbox via HDMI, allowing Microsoft’s console to overlay a UI and features on top of an existing TV channel.” Since Google’s (GOOG) Google TV platform has largely been a dud so far, it will be interesting to see what Microsoft plans to make the Xbox appeal more to consumers who are primarily interested in enhancing their TV

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - A British computer hacker pleaded guilty on Tuesday to cyber attacks on targets including Sony, Nintendo, Rupert Murdoch's News International and the Arizona State Police. Ryan Ackroyd's plea meant his planned jury trial did not go ahead and, as a result, the court did not hear any evidence on the motivation behind the attacks he made using the persona of a 16-year-old girl named Kayla as part of hacking group LulzSec. ...

When the next-generation Xbox arrives later this year, it will likely come with the same eight-core AMD chips being used by Sony’s (SNE) rival PlayStation 4. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that Microsoft (MSFT) will be making the switch from IBM (IBM) chips to AMD chips because it wants to “cut the cost of building machines and get developers to create more titles.” Bloomberg says that game developers will benefit from having common specifications for next-generation consoles since it should become easier to develop across multiple platforms. The next-generation Xbox is rumored to feature an 8-core 1.6GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, an 800MHz graphics processor, a 50GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive, and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Science-fiction drama "Defiance" wants to go where no television series has gone before, weaving a show with an online video game to achieve the elusive goal of parlaying success on one entertainment platform to another. The new series, which premieres on U.S. cable channel Syfy on April 15, tells the story of frontier town Defiance, formerly St. Louis, in the near future following a 30-year war between humans and seven alien races. ...

Microsoft (MSFT) reportedly has plans to unveil its next-generation Xbox video game console during a press conference in May. The new console was previously expected to be revealed during a special event in April but Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott now reports that the press conference has been pushed back to May 21st. The Verge then claimed to have independently confirmed the date in a follow-up report. Preliminary details are expected at the May 21st event and then a full unveiling will reportedly follow just a few weeks later at the E3 gaming conference in June. Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is expected to launch ahead of the holidays this year.

"I don't get the drama around having an 'always online' console," Microsoft Studios creative directorAdam Orth wrote yesterday on Twitter. "Every device now is 'always on'. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit" In doing so, Orth dismissed what he saw as "drama" about the rumor that the next-generation Microsoft Xbox console would not be able to play games at all unless it were connected to the Internet, and also insulted the people concerned about it.

While we still don’t know for certain if Microsoft (MSFT) will really require an always-on Internet connection for its next-generation Xbox, one Microsoft executive doesn’t see why anyone should be upset about the prospect of being online as a prerequisite to playing games. Kotaku has spotted some tweets sent out by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth on Thursday that hit back at people who were critical of the idea that the Xbox must be online to work properly. “Sorry, I don’t get the drama over having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth wrote before leaving a hashtag that told people to “#dealwithit.” “Every device now is ‘always on.’ That’s the world we live in.” Kotaku notes that while Orth’s “opinions here are

While we still don’t know for certain if Microsoft (MSFT) will really require an always-on Internet connection for its next-generation Xbox, one Microsoft executive doesn’t see why anyone should be upset about the prospect of being online as a prerequisite to playing games. Kotaku has spotted some tweets sent out by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth on Thursday that hit back at people who were critical of the idea that the Xbox must be online to work properly. “Sorry, I don’t get the drama over having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth wrote before leaving a hashtag that told people to “#dealwithit.” “Every device now is ‘always on.’ That’s the world we live in.” Kotaku notes that while Orth’s “opinions here are

This is a crucial period for the PlayStation Vita: several weeks after a price cut that revived the console in Japan, Vita is demonstrating fairly astonishing tenacity. According to Famitsu, Vita remained the No. 2 console in Japan during the week of March 31st with 33,000 units sold, down moderately from 38,000 units in the previous week. The reason this week was particularly important was the debut of a major new title for Nintendo’s (NTDOY) struggling home console Wii U. Alarm bells at Nintendo’s headquarters must be on full blast, because Dragon Quest X sold just 36,000 units and failed to lift weekly Wii U sales higher than 21,000 units from the previous week’s dismal 10,000 unit level. During the

Online game developer Zynga Inc. said Friday it appointed John Doerr to its board of directors. Doerr is a general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that ...

Given Electronic Arts’ (EA) recent misadventures with requiring always-on Internet connectivity to play SimCity, you might think that Microsoft (MSFT) would be more cautious about implementing such a scheme for its next-generation Xbox. But unnamed sources have told Kotaku that Microsoft’s new Xbox “must have an active Internet connection to be used” and will only let users continue to play games on their consoles if their connection is disrupted for less than three minutes. To make matters worse, one source tells Kotaku that “no games or apps can be started” without an Internet connection, meaning that console will essentially be useless unless it’s hooked up to the web. We’d previously heard rumors that Microsoft would require an Internet connection when

HELSINKI (AP) — Mobile game developer Rovio Entertainment Ltd. says the popular Angry Birds franchise helped it double revenue in 2012, with net profit surging more than 55 percent to 55.5 million euros ($71.2 million).