Other sites have already picked up the news, I’m sure, but never the less it’s an interesting one to cover: the Xbox 360 outsold the Playstation 3 on Black Friday. This according to an article on InformationWeek. After all three companies have resolved all supply chain issues, the console market is expected to boom this holiday season. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I found several stores with the Nintendo Wii in stock. eBay said that the Wii was it’s number one seller on Black Friday, though I hope people were getting deals instead of getting robbed, as these things seem to be available everywhere right now.

TechFlash wrote quite an interesting article about how the video game industry (particularly “casual games”) is not yet feeling the pinch of our current economic recession. Mainly slamming teens and young adults for not putting away savings and preparing for their future, the article suggests that this coming holiday season, when parents are forced to shell out $60 a copy for games, that might be the first time that the industry feels the effects of the closed wallets of the populous.

Still, the article received some positive feedback from developers in the casual games market. The people who make free web-browser based games or those inexpensive games you find on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, like Popcap Games and Big Fish Games, are reporting that business is booming!

I’ll be the first to admit that WinBreak.com is still a small site – and sometimes adding forums to small sites only forces you to see how nobody wants to register for your puny blog. But the service will be in place, just in case you ever change your mind!

Yes, WinBreak.com is launching our very own Forum. A link to the forums will be located on the right side of the blog, under the Users Panel at all times. Located conveniently over at http://winbreak.com/forums, you can register and start posting away in your favorite current-gen console’s forum, or just post in the general area. If we see a demand for additional forums, subforums, or just overall clarification and cleaning up of the current interface, it’s just a few clicks away.

They are still a great deal under construction, with more features to come, and a little bit more visual continuity ahead, but they are fully functioning and I encourage you to participate!

Update 1: It appears as though PHPBB isn’t quite playing nice with FireFox browsers. If you want, please leave some feedback (in the forum, or as a comment here) and let us know if the forums are working for you!

Update 2: Registration problems have been resolved. Thank you to PimpMethod for bringing them to my attention. You will no longer be required to enter “CAPTCHA” data upon registration (at least until the forums become spam heavy or I can resolve the issue with CAPTCHA pictures not showing up).

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See that picture? It’s a little resized, so let me tell you. It’s MSNBC.com‘s main page. And what you can navigate to through the “Tech & Science” menu? That’s right, Games! In a time when Video Games are the new Rock’n'Roll, and everyone else is condemning us for watching Lesbian Alien Porn (to quote DeaconBlade 360), MSNBC is finally embracing gamers and gaming.

CNN & FoxNews (the two other “24 hour news networks” here in the United States) aren’t featuring “Games” on either of their front pages – but we wouldn’t expect them to, as they spend their time bashing games. Perhaps it was more of a push from the “MS” half of the joint venture, but it feels good to know that someone out there is taking us more seriously, and looking for some postive stories, some good in it all.

It’s a multi billion dollar a year industry which is being studied more and more. Here’s to the concept of gamers not having to close the blinds and turn off the lights to indulge in a hobby!