Take Two, despite its strong position on the market, seems to have some problems. What kind of problems, that's probably something we'll never find out, because in such situations, details usually remain hidden. Why am I saying "such situations" now? Well, Take Two, interactive or not... will remain without a COO!

The most interesting part of the story is that everything seems to be just fine, at least from the outside, so I have no idea why Gary Dale would leave the company. If you heard something, and you can tell us about it without risking your life (yeah, right), please go ahead and drop a comment, but until we'll see Mr. Dale commenting here to tell the truth...
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...let's recall the recent past - promoted as COO last year, Gary Dale was in charge of Take-Two's publishing labels, sales, expansion and business development. Going another step behind, we find him as a COO of GTA's house Rockstar Games.

On the 15th of April, Dale's employment with the company will be officially terminated, and that's it. Good bye, Mr. Dale, you have done a great job with Take-Two, may your future be as bright as your past!

One YouTube console, another YouTube console... that's two YouTube consoles, right? No, I am not trying to remember basic math, but I find it amazing that YouTube will finally start streaming content to game consoles! Is this awesome, or what?

Just think about being able to enjoy YouTube videos right on your PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii home console - how does that sound? To be more specific, we're talking about a service through the YouTube TV site, currently in beta, which will turn all the content and navigation tools into being best suited for TV screens.
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According to YouTube's blog, "The TV Website offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control."

"Have you ever wanted to just sit on your couch and watch YouTube on your TV? Well, now that's possible via YouTube for Television, initially available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles. With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible," says the same post on the official YouTube blog.

Finally, TV will slowly start dying! After all, who needs commercial breaks, when you can get all that you want via YouTube, and also for free? Sound good to mee! ;)

I hope you're not tired with those video game statistics we talked about lately. Just one more, just one more, all right? Anyway, today's topic is video game sales of the last year, and we wouldn't be talking so much about it if 2008 wouldn't have been a record breaker for the gaming industry, despite the layoffs and closing studios announced in the last months.

Just think about the final numbers released by NPD Group, showing that US retailers got $21.33 billion in sales of gaming hardware, software, and accessories during last year, and this is NOT including the PC market! To compare this with 2007, it means 19 percent up, from the almost $18 billion brought in during that year. Impressive, huh?

While hardware sales were up 11 percent, software sales got up no less than 26 percent, which would be pretty impressive, but there's one fact I must point out - according to what I managed to figure out by taking a good look around during the entire year, prices for new games got up during 2008, and I think this is the main reason for such a solid rise.

Anyway, it is also funny to notice that the best seller of the year 2008 for the Wii was released way back in February 2007, and we're talking about Wii Play, with no less than 5.28 million copies, followed by Mario Kart Wii (5 million), Wii Fit (4.53 million), and Wii fighter Super Smash Bros. Brawl (4.17 million).

The entire video game sales charts from NPD Group are showing the following data(be patient, this is something you only see once in a year)...

Category / Total / Change
Video Games: $21.33 billion +19%
Video Games Hardware: $7.81 billion +11%
Video Games Software: $10.96 billion +26%
Video Game Accessories: $2.57 billion +14%

Game Software (in units sold)
1) Wii Play with Wii Remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 5.28 million
2) Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo) - 5 million
3) Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo) - 4.53 million
4) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo) - 4.17 million
5) Grand Theft Auto IV (360, Take-Two) - 3.29 million
6) Call of Duty: World at War (360, Activision) - 2.75 million
7) Gears of War 2 (360, Microsoft) - 2.31 million
8) Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Take-Two) - 1.89 million
9) Madden NFL 09 (360, Electronic Arts) - 1.87 million
10) Mario Kart DS (DS, Nintendo) - 1.65 million

THE NPD GROUP'S DECEMBER 2008 US GAME INDUSTRY SALES

Category / Total / Change
Video Games: $5.29 billion +9%
Video Games Hardware: $1.88 billion +2%
Video Games Software: $2.75 billion +15%
Video Game Accessories: $662 million +8%
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Hardware Sales (in units sold)
Nintendo DS: 3.04 million
Wii: 2.15 million
Xbox 360: 1.44 million
PlayStation 2: 410,000
PlayStation Portable: 1.02 million
PlayStation 3: 726,000

Game Software (in units sold)
1) Wii Play with Wii Remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 1.46 million
2) Call of Duty: World at War (360, Activision) - 1.33 million
3) Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo) - 999,000
4) Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo) - 979,000
5) Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii, Activision) - 850,000
6) Gears of War 2 (360, Microsoft) - 745,000
7) Left 4 Dead (360, Electronic Arts) - 629,000
8) Mario Kart DS (DS, Nintendo) - 540,000
9) Call of Duty: World at War (PS3, Activision) - 533,000
10) Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii, Nintendo) - 497,000