Despite a Holiday slump, 2005 game sales hit all-time highs. Gamasutra reports: "The growth was largely driven through an expanding market for handheld systems. Previously dominated by Nintendo's Game Boy series, 2005 saw the market expand to comfortably support three handhelds: the existing Game Boy Advance, Nintendo's 'third pillar' in the Nintendo DS, and Sony's PlayStation Portable. Portable software sales rose to $1.4 billion, a rise of 42 percent over 2004. The Game Boy Advance, due to its longer lifespan and greater install base, still took the majority of the handheld game market, claiming 52 percent of portable game sales."

Christopher Allen writes "Competitive ranking is used in sports, chess, and other games, and by online services, such as the new TrueSkill system used on Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live service. Rankings establish who is best, create fair competitive matches between players, and handicap players with differing skill levels. An article at 'Life with Alacrity' discusses a number of approaches to competitive ranking on the internet, each with different issues and advantages."

Doomstalk writes "With all the negative press that gaming addiction has received as of late, it's interesting to see things from a different perspective. The Escapist has an article posing gaming addiction as a symptom of a larger problem: 'Are you doing it for the pleasure of the game, or the distaste of something else?'" From the article: "Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament - games that are, usually at their core, just like their predecessors? Why do we continue to spend upwards of $300 on the newest 'next generation' console? Why is it that, like kids who shovel out the basketball court in the middle of the winter, we line up outside retailers hours, if not days, ahead of time for worldwide console releases?"

RemovableBait writes "Microsoft's Xbox 360 has sold over 600,000 units so far and is on track to sell over 4.5 million consoles by the end of the business year. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft could have sold many more as 'video game publishers and retailers have said shipments during the key holiday season fell short of expectations'. If Microsoft's predictions are correct, this could pose a major threat to Sony's well-established PlayStation line of consoles." Relatedly, Saige writes "The Live Arcade on the original Xbox was ignored by just about everyone who owned that console. However, the updated version on the Xbox 360 is getting a totally different reception, spearheaded by the popular Geometry Wars, an old-school style 2-D shooter in the vein of Robotron: 2084 that has eye candy deserving of a next-gen title - all for $5. The demo has been downloaded 200,000 times."

Rouslan Solomakhin writes "Forbes has recently posted an article on IBM's new revolutionary Cell processor. Cell is going to enable PS3 developers to create movie-quality games with blazing-speed graphics. Applications in other areas are also considered." From the article: "Some techies say PlayStation 3, which may debut by midyear and could end up in 100 million homes in five years, will usher in the next microchip revolution. The Sony system owes its prowess to a microprocessor called Cell, which was cooked up by chip wizards at IBM (with help from Sony and Toshiba) at a cost of $400 million over five years."

RealDSmooth writes "Codemonkey over at 2old2play.com just posted an article on the evolution of gaming, and how new technology like the XBox 360 and the PS3 stack up against the classics that got us where we are today. It's a nice look at what has changed over the years, and what has (thankfully) stayed the same." From the article: "It is expected with any new game that hits the market that a patch may exist for that game before you ever put it into your PC or console. Why? Has the market degraded to such buggy software that we have to download a few megabytes of game fixes before it's even usable? How many patches did we have to get with Super Mario Brothers or Zelda? How many crashes did these games have besides your typical game lock up due to dust on your cartridge? Were games more solid 'back in the day'?"

1up has an interesting look at the curious place where religious beliefs and gaming habits intersect. From the article: "'We view games as just games,' says Kendrick Kenerly, founder of +CGO+, Christian Gamers Online. 'They all boil down to a few things: They have a goal, they have a reward for the goal, and they have a set of rules that need to be followed to reach the goal. The violence in most games isn't something we get worked up about. It's merely presentation, simply a way to convey an experience to players so they can follow the rules to reach the goal.' Abstract games like checkers, chess, and Monopoly operate in the same fashion, Kenerly argues-they merely employ different presentation methods."

Gamasutra is running an interesting piece entitled The Battle for Console Earth. Louis Castle of EA describes the process of making an RTS title for the Xbox 360 console. From the article: "Castle's approach to the Xbox 360 version of The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II was to approach the RTS genre as if it were never on the personal computer. Let's go back to the beginning. Let's look at these strategy games, as if they were new. How would we approach it now? Let's pretend that there never was a mouse, and all we had were consoles. How would we bring this about?"

TotalVideoGames reports that Nintendogs has passed the millions-sold mark, making it the third game for the DS to do so. From the article: "Additional titles set to break through the milestone shortly include Mario Kart DS, Yawaraka Atamajuku (Gentle Brain Exercises) and Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Prof. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? 2), whilst Bandai's hugely popular Tamagotchi no Puchi Puchi Omisetchi (yes Tamagotchi) has also passed the mark making it the first 3rd party title to do so." We've previously reported on the DS's domination of sales charts in Japan.

Gamepocalypse writes "I noticed over on GamePro that Valve is considering legal action over the Subway ads that Engage In-Game Advertising was pumping into Counter-Strike matches. Valve's Doug Lombardi: 'Advertising or any other commercial use of our games requires our written permission.'" I'm unclear on this: Were the ads actually in the game already, or was the company just saying they were going to put the ads in? If the ads were displayed in-game, how was that done without Valve's knowledge? If the ads weren't in the game ... why would you make a public claim like this without clearing it with Valve first? Odd all around.

1up has a piece on cheating for profit in Massively Multiplayer games. From the article, entitled MMOsploitation: "A universe is a great big tricky thing to make. Designers usually have more than seven days to put one together, but there are still a lot of cracks left in the world that they don't even know about until some player stumbles across them. When you have millions of people romping through your creation they're going to do all kinds of crazy, unanticipated things, many of which can allow them to become tiny gods if left unchecked."

Next Generation reports that another piece of anti-gaming legislation is moving forward in Floria. From the article: "Despite the failure of similar bills, Diaz de la Portilla believes SB492 provides the means to protect children. 'Left to their own devices, children often do not realize the harm they are causing themselves through the exposure to graphic sexual and violent content found in many of today's video games'" The bill has passed its first Senate hearing with a vote of 7 to 1. We've previously mentioned this legislation.

Kotaku reports that Brain Training, *the* hit DS title in Japan, will be coming to Europe after some tweaking for Western audiences. From the article: "The software was developed with Japan's Tokuhoku University and uses touch and voice control to complete various tasks that aim to improve your gray matter. Nintendo has yet to announce the US release. Should be interesting to see how well this localized version will be received in the Western world." A big here's hoping on that U.S. release.

Gamasutra reports on a recent study done by the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications finding that there are more than 26 million Chinese gamers online, with something like $470 million in income. From the article: "The GAPP report also theorizes that the future of the online games industry may lie in online casual games and mobile games, both of which saw increases in 2005. Casual games accounted for 30% of the 2005 total online game revenue, and the number of online mobile games increased to 18, a number expected to expand more rapidly once 3G service is introduced to the country. Online game revenue is expected to reach 17.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion USD) by the year 2010." Scott Jennings has commentary on this at Broken Toys.

eToyChest reports on a study indicating that over 50% of UK teachers would consider using educational games in the classroom. From the article: "The Poll findings also highlight some barriers to the use of games in schools, noting a lack of access to equipment capable of running the games as well as a lack of strong evidence of the educational value of games, an issue of focus for the Teaching with Games project. The appropriate choice and suitability of computer games to be used was also noted by respondents. Despite over one quarter playing computer games themselves, around two-thirds still felt, for example, that computer games may present stereotypical views of others and lead to anti-social behaviour."

1up reports that (at the moment) there are no further plans for any Battlefield 2 expansions. Instead, EA and DICE will be releasing 'Booster Packs' with smaller amounts of additional content. Each pack will retail for $9.99 and be downloadable from EA's site. From the article: "Due to the expansion pack cancellation, though, DICE has told investors of slightly lower project revenues for fourth quarter 2005, but they plan on recovering through higher royalty rates through the first half of this year. The packs themselves are fairly substantial; Euro Force contains a new primary weapon, four vehicles (including the Eurofighter) and the Operation Smoke Screen, The Great Wall of China and Taraba Quarry maps. "

Rich Powers writes "Gamespy interviews NCSoft's Jeff Strain about the new meta game players can expect when Guild Wars: Factions arrives in Q2 2006. Like other MMORPGs (notably World of Warcraft), the new expansion will allow players to fight over territories and even conquer them. But now they can form alliances with other guilds and, as Strain indicates, even take over the world. The article also mentions the advent of a FPS-like player-vs-player mode where opposing teams attack the enemy's supply lines. Hopefully the trend of player-driven content will continue across the genre."

Pluvius writes "For the past few weeks, gaming website Netjak has corresponded with infamous anti-video-game lawyer Jack Thompson in reference to his well-publicized proposal to donate money to a charity if someone created a violent game in which a grieving father murdered members of the video-game industry. This has culminated in an interview in which the unusually cordial attorney gives surprisingly viable reasons for not following through on his donation after such a game was created. Unfortunately, Thompson doesn't quite make it to the end of the interview without taking at least one cheap shot towards gamers: '[P]ut down the controller and get a life. Video gaming is an escapist activity and you're being exploited by these companies. It's not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It's a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside.'"

Joel from Sydney writes "Wired News' Lore Sjöberg has written a tongue-in-cheek look at what the world of gaming will look like in 2010. From the article: 'Nintendo and LucasArts are still locked in competition to bring their aging iconic characters to every genre ever invented. The year 2010 saw the release of Darth Maul's Star Wars Tennis, Mario MMORPG, Clone Trooper Golf, Mario's Dating Sim, Jar-Jar's Dating Sim and Mario Storms the Beach at Normandy. Plus, handheld versions of all those.'"

Rumours have been working their way through the Star Wars Galaxies boards about the possibility that the timelines of events will be moved forward past the current "post-New Hope, pre-Empire" point. Darniaq writes on this possibility, and links to a post on the boards where the Community Manager confirms this development. Unfortunately, the posts have already been removed. Fortunately, an individual at Sony Online Entertainment was able to confirm with LucasArts that there are plans to make this change to the game. Here's hoping the timeline change will be a breath of fresh air for the beleaguered game.