While overall video game sales were down last year just under a billion dollars ($18.6 in 2010 vs. $17.02 in 2011) Microsoft manages to come out on top. Xbox sales, including consoles and games, came in at $6.7 billion dollars. This puts MS in the enviable position of taking in 40% of all the 2011 sales. Not bad for a 6+ year old gaming console! To date there have been over 57.6 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide.

While the downward push on sales is most likely caused by a sluggish economy, there is no denying that part of the slow down is being caused by a saturation of consoles in the market. Several analysts are saying that both MS and Sony will be revealing their next-Gen consoles at E3 this year and while they say that every year (really, they do) I think it might actually happen this year. A 10 year life-cycle is something nice to tell investors but the gaming public is looking for some new tech to push the envelop more with better graphics, loading times, stability and perhaps a quieter machine. Nintendo has already announced their next console so the first shot has already been taken. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

The not-inFamous game Prototype 2 is getting closer to release (April 24th) now so we're starting to get more info and images out of Activision. I say not-inFamous because when both of the games first versions were out they were so closely related in location, character abilities and feel it was like they were related. This time around the launch dates of the second iteration of each game (franchise?) is spaced out a lot more so it's not as evident that they are still very similar in tone.

Anyway, I'm getting off track; here are the new artsy-fartsy images released today.

Read more: New Swanky Prototype 2 Art

While it seems that quite a few gaming publishers and developers are in-line with the ESA's position on the possible SOPA legislation, at least one big player is speaking out against the bill.

Here's what Dana Cowley, the Senior PR Manager for Epic Games (you know, the Gears of War guys) has to say on the subject:

Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that's compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law. Thus, we do not support the current version of SOPA."