Courtesy of Kotaku.com

The video game industry, once declared recession-proof by analysts and tech editors alike has been forced to eat a prodigious helping of crow as of late. With the financial climate still in a state of flux, many people are feeling the pain from long periods of unemployment. As a result, unless the expense has been deemed absolutely necessary, folks are pinching every penny until Lincoln hollers bloody murder.  Since video games are not a basic necessity, there are a lot of copies of great games gathering dust on video game retailers’ shelves. And if the six straight months of sales decline are any indicator, the video game industry needs a shot in the arm — stat.

The popular thinking used to be that in difficult financial times, people would still buy video games because it was

Courtesy of Walletpop.com

a form of replayable entertainment as well as a form of escapism. According to Boy Genius Report, even though console sales are up thanks to companies lowering their prices, game sales are looking abysmal at best. At $60 a pop before taxes for the latest Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game, consumers have gotten stingy with their dollars.

Another thorn in the video game industry’s side is the increasing popularity of mobile gaming and downloadable content. While gaming on the iPhone may not be the mind-blowing blockbuster event that hardcore gamers are accustomed to, at an average price of approximately $2.50 per game, mobile gaming is getting the job done. And then’s there’s the question of downloadable games.

While Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have accepted that they must have viable downloadable content to compete, that doesn’t address the ever-growing elephant in the room — how will content be delivered in future gaming systems. Being able to provide content to consumers via the internet is definitely cheaper, but if the industry goes totally digital, what happens to the tried-and-true method of console gaming? And with the possibility of using cloud computing and streaming to give gamers their daily fix, the industry is at a crossroads. PlayStation has made the first furtive steps into going totally digital with the new PSP Go, but with only a week on the stands,  it’s still too early to gauge its impact on the industry if any at all.

With the holiday season around the corner, the console wars are at a fevered pitch with everyone doing their best Kratos impersonation, hacking and slashing their prices. While it’s anyone’s guess whether Q4 will give the industry that holiday miracle they’re hoping for, one thing is for sure, the gaming industry is quickly finding themselves in a predicament similar to the music industry. Hopefully, they can learn from the music biz mistakes and adapt accordingly.

Recently we posted an article dispelling the myths the blacks aren’t represented in the gaming industry. At the end of the article we listed notable blacks such as Brian Jackson of Nerjyzed Game Studios that make up some of the 3% of blacks in the gaming industry. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Nerjyzed Game Studios is an African-American owned video game development company most known for developing the Black College Football (BCF) video game that hits stores September 29, 2009. Think of BCF as the black version of EASPORTS NCAA Football 10! This video goes behind the scenes at Nerjyzed Game Studios as they develop BCF. Check out the video below:

(via Black Digerati @BlackDigerati)

Sony wants you nice and fat. That way you won’t have the strength to get off the couch and do something besides playing video games. No, I’m not a conspiracy theorist (well, maybe a little). Sony just made the announcement that a genius, yet diabolical partnership with popular pizza franchise Papa John’s has been forged. Instead of pausing the game and have pesky verbal contact with another person, gamers can simply, order the itis-inducing food staple via their PlayStation 3. There’s even a special button that takes you to special pizza website on the PS3’s web browser.

The special Papa John’s site includes ads for popular games like LittleBigPlanet and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. So order up kiddies and keep playing, because nothing goes together like gaming and indigestion. Why does this remind me of that scene in “The Matrix” when the machines liquidated the dead only to feed them to the live humans through those freaky tubes?  You might want to go a few rounds with Dance Dance Revolution or jump on Wii Fit after all that sedentary non-activity. In the words of Portal, the cinnapie is a lie! You’ve been warned.

As the holiday season nears, Microsoft has decided to drop the price of the XBOX 360 Elite by $100. The console has been reduced from $399.99 to $299.99 and Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp says, “If you’re looking for deep experiences that don’t require deep pockets, now is the time to purchase an Xbox 360.” In addition to the Elite, Microsoft will drop the price of its XBOX 360 Pro model by $50 to $249.99 while the XBOX 360 Arcade edition will remain at $199.99. Microsoft is also assuring that consumers that consoles purchased now will be compatible with the release of “Project Natal,” their controller free gaming add-on, which is scheduled to be released soon.

As you know the video game industry continues to evolve, and with that evolution decisions have to be made about how this industry should be covered by technology journalist. This video from the D.I.C.E. Summit 2009 in Las Vegas, NV features commentary from prominent African-American technology journalist (who write extensively about the gaming industry) N’Gai Croal of Newsweek and Seth Schiesel of the New York Times. Check out the video below:

(via The Digerati Tube @BlackDigerati)

“There are a lot of great [video games] out there, but my favorite is Halo 3. I’m great at it. I don’t think anyone can beat me.” These are the words of Atlanta Falcons fullback Ovie Mughelli, and he’s challenging all comers for some FPS action over at his blog on Yardbarker, a social networking site for sports fans where they can interact directly with their favorite professional athletes.

Celebrities and athletes ardent interest in video games is no passing trend; Soulja Boy’s recent Xbox challenge with MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo, as well as Barack Obama’s pre-election foray into gaming advertisements, shows as much. Other athletes and celebrities, such as Bow Wow and Gilbert Arenas (perhaps more famous for cheating at Halo than pwning n00bs) have also issued similar gaming challenges in the past.

So do you think you’ve got what it takes to beat Ovie? Also, what do you think about the intersection of celebrity and gaming in terms of shaping their media presence?

I have to keep up with the countless announcements of new cellphones, in previous years this wasn’t so hard, nowadays forget it. Yesterday, Palm announced their newest model a windows based version called the Palm Treo Pro. I have personally recommend 3 different phones for people who need to get business done via phone. They are the iPhone, Blackberry, and the Treo. So what does the new Palm Treo Pro bring to the table? Well outside of the $550.00 (ouch) price tag, it offers a slimmer design (Palm claims it’s the slimmest of all Treo phones offered), built-in GPS capabilities, a 2-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 1-touch Wi-Fi button, a 320 by 320 pixel resolution touch screen and a new voicemail indicator that  lights up the middle button if you have a voicemail waiting (sounds like a nice touch, no pun intended Some of what I love about the Treo line is staying, like the SD expansion slots, the new Palm Treo Pro has a microSDHC memory slot supporting up to 32GB cards-YES 32gig cards! I’m a QWERTY keyboard type of dude, so I’m happy to hear they are keeping that functionality, QWERTY keyboards are great and in my opinion for women with fingernails QWERTY keyboards are much easier to type on than on-screen keyboards like the iPhone.

The phone is not due in stores until September. They have not listed carrier partners yet, which means the phone won’t have any subsidized pricing which is probably one of the reasons the price so high. There is no CDMA version (sorry Verizon or Sprint loyalists) the phone will be unlocked and available on GSM. This release will be interesting to watch not for Palm but more for Microsoft who has notoriously struggled with gaining mobile OS share over Blackberry. I’ll keep ya posted on any updates.