Who would think that with a sluggish economy, video game sales would still be rising? I guess they are somewhat cheaper than constant nights on the town?

Despite the economic down-turn, the gaming sector has come out with strong sales numbers in October, continuing its trend for the year. In fact, with a monthly total of $1.31 billion, even during these tough times, the sector has seen an 18 percent increase from last year at this time.

And guess who’s in the lead? If you follow console trends closely (or at all) it should come as no surprise to you that the Nintendo Wii continues to lead the pack in sales. Nintendo Wii outsold both PS3s and Xbox 360s, even after a strong price cut on Xbox.

Personally, I’m not surprised. But then again, I just bought a Wii last month, and own neither of the others.

Sony has spent the last three years restructuring the company and today releases its big plans for growth. Apparently, the next big thing is electronics products that connect to each other and the Internet and stuff. You know, downloading movies onto a game console or syncing your music with a music player. Wow, I can’t wait for all that kind of technology to come out.

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An Amazon promotion good through June 9 has over 100 Blu-ray movies in the $14 to $20 range (with many around $14-$15). I thought this would be a good time to revisit getting into Blu-ray. The last time I checked out Blu-ray pricing on Amazon (my quick and dirty benchmark), the Playstation 3 was still the best deal.

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Sony CEO Ryoji Chubachi knows something we don’t. At a press conference a few days ago, he pointed out Sony’s plan to increase Blu-ray market share to 50% by the end of the year. How is this possible you might ask? Well, apparently new Blu-ray devices to be offered by Sony will include a model integrated into an HD LCD TV with Blu-ray recording functionality.

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When Sony announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue would be available for $40 in April, I couldn’t help but have a knee-jerk reaction. How could Sony get away with charging $40 for GT5 Reduced Lite Junior Prologue when the full version would sell for only $20 more? Here’s how, the word is out today that the full blown version of Gran Turismo won’t be out for another year! Is this a new business model for delayed games or just Sony trying to satiate the rabid Gran Turismo fans?

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Paul’s Soapbox is going to be a new regular feature of TechConsumer where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects? Two of my favorite companies to hate: Apple and Sony.

What the hell is up with Apple and their fetish for making products that don’t have user-replaceable batteries? It was bad enough with the iPod, (even if it isn’t quite the only MP3 player in that category) but then they added the iPhone to the list, and now the MacBook Air (my vote for the worst product name since Microsoft Bob). I really can’t understand how it is acceptable to have to send in your cell phone or laptop every year or two (according to Apple) just to have a battery replaced. Did I mention that they’ll rent an iPhone to you while yours is in the shop?

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div>Recently there was some “big”, but expected, news that Nintendo’s Wii took the #1 seat in the “next-gen” console console race away from Microsoft’s Xbox 360. One thing that oddly no one mentioned was that the only country or region the Wii actually has the #1 spot in is Japan.

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If you’ve noticed the extra-frenzied chatter coming from the IT department lately, or the recent overactive salivary disorder affecting the geeky, it’s no coincidence. It’s a yearly symptom brought on by the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and it means big news for the gaming world, as the big three in console games announce their upcoming projects. Here’s a summary of the festivities:

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