Amidst the controversy that addles the gaming community, here's a ray of light shining on the industry. Choices UK, an entertainment retailer in Britain, announced that games sales helped them boost their sales figures by up to almost 10.4 percent. To further illustrate, because of games in their inventory, Choices UK revenues increased from the equivalent of US$ 154.85 M to US$ 170.9 M.

Losses were also cut down from US$ 5.7 M to US$ 526,091. These stats are for the period of 28 weeks ending in February 10. It helped that the retailer closed down 31 loss making and non-trading stores during the period. There were 162 healthy stores left for the chain, and says the company, it looks like their up looking income condition is set to continue. They just found the answer for this trend: games.

Why couldn't just other media and entertainment retailers follow suit? In a company statement, Choices UK declared that:

As part of the strategy for our stores we have rationalised the product range, discontinuing mobile phones, portable electronic goods and a range of impulse lines. This has enabled a renewed focus on our core ranges where we have substantially increased our offering of games hardware and software, as well as revamping our DVD and sell-thru sections to ensure strong value messages throughout the stores.

Choices UK also believes that the recent Playstation 3 launch would up their market share by 6.5 percent.

Okay, here's the latest stats on the Japanese gaming market. For the week ending 1 April 2007, the stats didn't really show significant changes. Nintendo still leads the hardware sales with a total of 16,073,997 units sold and dominating 38.4 percent of the console market. The Wii, still from Nintendo, comes next at a sales figure of 2,052,397 units while composing 24.2 percent of the market.

Next in the console sales count are PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, GBA and Gamecube composing 19 percent, 8.1 percent, 8 percent, 1.5 percent, 0.6 and 0.1 percent respectively.

When it comes to software sales, meanwhile, DS software sold the most, representing 51.7 percent software sales. The rest of the software sales stats are as follows:

• PS2: 33 percent
• Wii: 8.8 percent
• PSP: 3.3 percent
• PS3: 2.8 percent
• Xbox 360: 0.4 percent

We might say that the changes occurred in the game title sales count. The top 10 games sold in Japan for the week ending April 1 are as follows:

1. Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix by Square Enix (PS2)
2. Musou Orochi by Koei (PS2)
3. Digimon Story Sunburst / Moonlight by Bandai (DS)
4. More English Training for Adults by Nintendo (DS)
5. World Puzzle Mojipittan DS by Namco (DS)
6. Pro Baseball Spirits 4 by Konami (PS2)
   
7. Yoshi Island DS by Nintendo (DS)
   
8. Prof. Layton and the Mysterious Village by Level 5 (DS)
   
9. Tamagotchi Splendid Rainbow Venture by Bandai (DS)
   
10. Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd by Capcom (PSP)
    

It comes out as no surprise sometimes when two great firms partner with each other. MCV is a respected trade magazine in the UK that focuses on the video gaming industry. Famitsu is the most widely respected video game news magazine in Japan. Recently, the two establishments announced that they will continue corresponding with each other in securing video games data.

MCV managing editor Lisa Foster said that they are delighted to able able to continue their mutually beneficial association with Famitsu. Famitsu will continue to provide MCV with authoritative marketing data as well as industry leading analysis and news. MCV in return will supply Famitsu with the latest trends, data and stories from the European market.

Ricky Tanimoto of Famitsu says that they are honored to be able to use MCV's content in their publications and online product. He further elaborates that their knowledge of games marketing in Europe has been enriched in the last two years, as attention towards the emerging European game market, especially in the UK, has continued to increase in Japan.

We're glad for this announcement. Both publications, like we said, are quite known in their fields and it's always nice to have a collaboration.

A game reviewer from Ars Technica decides to do a bit of activism and wrote and open letter to developers to have them stop making minigames. The weary writer shares,

Frankly, I think it's time for developers to ease up on these types of games (minigame compilations). I've focused on Nintendo, but all the platforms are guilty of the criminal overuse of this genre. Unless the collection is going to give us a completely diverse set of revolutionary new minigames, please don't bother.

Frank Caron relates that on his Wii alone, he's already plowed through Rayman Raving Rabbids, Super Monkey Ball, Warioware  and Sonic, with Mario Party. He laments the presence of some mini-game compilation of just about every other game he owns on the DS. According to him, although there are some interesting approaches to the genre as well as some enjoyable lighthearted plays, minigames has become a fad meant to cash in on brand and character loyalty.

So we try to decipher why there are minigames in the first place. Could it be that there are some of us who actually like 'em? Maybe somebody should just stop forcing this guy to play tons of minigame compilations in the first place and start making him play some real games, those that he like. Otherwise, well it's a free country. Developers are free to develop their sort of games the way gamers are free to buy theirs.

Indie developers will be happy to hear that Simply Gaming PR is back. Founder Joseph Helm says that there are just tons of kick-ass indie games out there and they'd like to do their part to help these indie developers to get the word out about them. They just put up a website and any indie games maker could gain exposure from Simply Gaming for free.

Joseph Helm elaborates that he's had great opportunity to work with Jay Moore and Benjamin Bradley at GarageGames. Helping out at the 2005 Garage Games">Garage Games booth also helped Joseph gain new insight. Indie developers are welcome to contact Simply Gaming PR and Joseph Helm.  Here are some of the services that Simply Gaming can offer to independent developers:

• PR and marketing - including regular press releases and media sent out to gaming journalists, banner on front page of Simply Gaming PR, arranging previews / reviews in magazines and websites, adding the game vid to download sites
• Banner Exchange Program - in return for showing other banners on your site, earn the right to show banners on another site in exchange
• Web hosting - provides free website hosting on Simply Gaming's US based CPanel server; just provide your domain name
  

Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360 is already available on some areas, and so Ars Technica caught up with Harmonix producer Daniel Sussman to ask his views of this hit game. Although Harmonix and Red Octane has been bought by MTV and Activision respectively, Daniel says that he honestly feels excited about what other developers could bring to the table of the music game genre. We are, too...

There may be some gamers who think that while the gameplay updates are great in GH II, the songlist is not quite as varied as the first game. Daniel thinks, however, that with 10 more songs on the Guitar Hero II song list, there is actually more variety in there than in the first title. Releasing GH song downloads is also a new and exciting opportunity for record companies, bands and developers.

Daniel also wonders about the possibility of Sony releasing one of their titles on Live Arcade. The idea came from bringing the Sony-owned Frequency/Amplitude brand to the Live Arcade or as a PS3 download. Daniel's team is also considering trying to incorporate custom soundtracks in Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360.

Daniel says that he's living his dream, making a game like Guitar Hero. His last words may be up to the reader to digest well; when asked about his fave platform for GH, Daniel replies Guitar Hero can be a great experience for all platforms, albeit you don't really need much CPU mojo to run a great rhythm game...

There's been talk of the upcoming E3 being downsized by the just-held Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007. Reasons vary: this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo will be an invitation-only event, and the GDC saw a 32 percent rise of attendance.

We've all witnessed so much hype for this year's GDC, all with good reason. The GDC people worked hard to bring out a good show; GDC boss Jamil Moledina and his crew brought a good load of dealmaking, press conferences and industry parties to go around in the event.  It also helped that they were able to secure the interesting hands-on hardware workshops with Microsoft and Intel, as well as hotshot keynote speakers such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Phil Harrison and Cliff Bleszinkski.

Said GDC boss Moledina:

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our alumni attendees uniformly felt it was the best GDC they've attended in recent years, citing the high quality and relevance of sessions, while newcomers were saying it was the best event in the game industry where they made connections and deals with all the key people they now had access to.

More than 16,300 people and 260 exhibitors attended this year's GDC, seeing a rise of 30 and 32 percent, respectively. Everybody's expecting an even bigger attendance at next year's GDC, but as Moledina cites, it's not the size of the event, but the quality that matters. This may exactly be why the usual E3 people are moving to the GDC.

When you go home from a long, bad day at work or school all you want to do is to plunk down on a comfy couch and beat the hell out of people, man to man, skin against skin, all sweaty and raw in video game wrestling. THQ and JAKKS Pacific, Inc. understand your need and only yesterday announced that they'll be bringing WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for multiple gaming platforms.

Yes, sirree, the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw franchise will be debuting on the Wii, the DS and the PS2 consoles, as well as being developed for the Xbox 360, PS3, and the PSP. This marks the WWE franchise's largest cross-platform market launch. Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 comes out fall.

What to expect from this 2008 version of the market-leading wrestling franchise? There's a debut of Superstar Fighting Styles, featuring eight unique styles, each having its own strategy and exclusive attributes. There's a new Struggle Submission System that will make use of the game's analog controls. You may now control the amount of pressure you apply to your opponents.

In addition to the above-mentioned gameplay details, the game also features a significant Extreme Championship Wrestling presences, with a variety of Superstars, arenas and weapons. There are new rosters, more environmental hotspots, a combined Season and General Manager mode, improved out-of-ring action, enhanced online community support - what more could you ask for?

Odds are, you wrestling fans can't wait to get your hands on this game, so we're bringing you some screenshots in the meantime.

See more screenshots after the jump!

March 19th to 25th of 2007 still faced dominant sales of the Nintendo consoles in Japan. The Nintendo DS lite reports 130,549 units sold, followed by motion-sensing console Wii with 75,571 units. The Sony consoles follow next to the Ninty products. Sony's portable reports 41,546 PSPs bought by our Nihongo buddies, Playstation 3 comes next with 20,459 units sold and lastly, the PS2 still selling at 16,961.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 reports a sales figure 0f 3,492 units sold for the week of March 19 to 15. Game Boy Micro reports 765 units sold and the Game Boy Advanced SP, with 607 units. We think: is the world turning into 3 major regions, Japan the Ninty country, Europe the PS3 grounds and the US as the official Xbox area?

More than two weeks would still have to pass before the Market for Home Computing & Video Games Industry Excellence Awards (MCV Awards) happens, but the event has already sold out. To be attended by over 600 industry executives from all aspects of the gaming industry, the prestigious awards honors excellence across 15 categories.

The event will be held at the London's Brewery venue in Chiswell Street on Thursday April 19th. It will start with pre-event drinks at The King's Head, Chiswell Street from 5 pm, care of Sennheiser and Gem Distribution. At 6pm, a champagne reception sponsored by IGA Worlwide will follow, and then the awards proper happens.

Sounds like a lot of boozing, huh? Well, the event is a celebration, as the industry itself chooses the winners of the awards. MCV Awards recognizes effort, innovation and commercial success. Every major company will be attending the event. Pub landlord at the London's Brewery Al Murray will even be performing, so you can expect more to be there because of them.

There are 17 coveted awards to be competed for by the finalists. The categories include awards for Star Store, Games Publisher, Marketing Team, Sales Team and Game Campaign. The event is sponsored by Xbox 360, Nintendo, Nvidia, Kiss FM, System 3, Mice Domino and GamerTV.