Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

The Numbers Are In And… Nothing To See Here!
The NPD Group, the bearers of good/bad news for game console manufacturers around the world, have released the figures for the last month of 2008 and it looks a lot like what most people would have expected. Nintendo has come out on top, two-fold, with the DS selling over 3 million units (a new monthly record for any console ever) and the Wii moving 2.15 million units. That’s a lot of units, though a little less than expected with analysts putting the Wii taking in the 3 million plus that the DS managed to rake in. The Xbox 360 enjoyed a strong month on the heels of their recent price drop across all of their bundles, which saw their sales just under 1.5 million consoles during the holidays. Sony’s three platforms, the PSP, PS3 and PS2, rounded up the bottom of the charts with 1.02 million, 726 thousand and 410 thousand units respectively. It’s a bit of a sad state of affairs to see the PS3 take in only 300,000 units more than a console that was released over 8 years ago, but demonstrates how the market is still favouring lower price points.

Software also didn’t wrangle up any major surprises, but a few appearances that could turn a few heads. While most of the standard Wii software lineup lead the charts, alongside Call of Duty: World At War, but we also saw Left 4 Dead appear on the charts for the 360, and even Mario Kart DS as the only representative for the portable platforms. Wii Play was noted as the top selling game of the entire year, although protests still ring out as to whether that item should even be considered software at all (it isn’t), and although the top four were all Wii titles, Call of Duty and Gears of War 2 managed to make it into the top 10 though they only had a month or two to build up their numbers.

Although doomsayers will now put the PS3 and Sony in the ground, they are still boasting an increase in sales from November, and without a line-up that screamed major exclusive to a big audience, it seems as if Sony is still posturing for 2009 to be a big turnaround year for their platform. Microsoft have enjoyed a big push with a lot of major titles, but without any major exclusives coming out in the near future, it will be tougher for them to keep up the momentum of their price drop, and make it all the more sensible for Sony to seriously think about lowering their own price.

LittleBigPlanet‘s Killzone and Final Fantasy DLC Coming Last Week of February
With a little bit of speculation on our part, it seems as if Media Molecule (creators of LittleBigPlanet) have announced a rough date for their promised DLC for their game in the form of Killzone and Final Fantasy content. They’ve stated on their official game website that they will be working on the DLC at the end of this month, and posed the question as to when Killzone 2 would be hitting stores as a hint to when the pack will be arriving. Since the game launches the last week of February, expect the DLC to follow and fans to go a little bit crazy.

Since the holidays the guys at Mm have taken a bit of a break with the DLC, which seems like it is losing a little steam right now. Consistency is very important to online content delivery, and it is good for the image of the game to have a better plan instead of now spreading the content out over months instead of the week-by-week updates that occurred before the holiday season break. Hopefully they can get back on their game, as even the simplest updates kept the game in the news, and it’s important for people to experience LittleBigPlanet if for nothing else to understand what can be done for social gaming.

HMV Has Profitable Christmas, Buys Troubled Zavvi Stores – Should Thank Gamers
The British music/film and now game shop HMV has stated that they have had their most successful Christmas season ever last year, and as a result have also started to buy up stores that aren’t having such luck during the tough economic times in the UK. They did note that pre-played games were fairly successful during their launch, but based on numbers that were released earlier in the year I think they owe gamers a lot more than a minor success. Since HMV has moved into the gaming world they have been pushing record sales across the board, and the fact that they are able to remain competitive with a shrinking retail music market and still have an increase in business with the weakening economy in the UK and Ireland. They’ve also announced that they will be purchasing a number of the Zavvi retail stores previously owned by Virgin that announced it would be going out of business after losing their major supplier in Woolworth’s.

Amid big loses announced in the fall of this year, HMV has noted significant strength in gaming, with a 23% year-on-year increase, and that diversity in their retail has certainly lent itself to reasonable success in a chaotic market. It has been a noticeable change within their Canadian stores, as well, with games taking up a large part of their retail space and offer reasonably competitive prices and selection compared to the other major retailers. With the year-on-year figures for music sales dropping as online distribution becomes the main market, expect HMV and other retailers to move into games as they turn out to be an increasingly viable product to push onto shelves.