Fox News recently asked a surprisingly valid question in a surprisingly balanced way, at least in comparison to the other work that they’ve done regarding video games as of late. The question was whether or not the digital distribution craze that’s been building in strength and popularity since the rise of Steam would kill off consoles. They presented the question in this way: “Will Nintendo’s next follow up to the Wii game console be the last of its kind due to the rise of digital distribution and cloud gaming?”

Don’t get me wrong: Digital distribution is great and can be very convenient. That alone would be able to topple the traditional gaming market and probably should have already. However, there are a couple of reasons why that hasn’t happened yet.

Razer is known for having some really unique PC products. It’s currently working on a portable gaming handheld that is as compact as it is powerful. The Razer Switchblade isn’t being labeled as a PC, but Razer hopes it will help translate everything that makes PC gaming what it is, into a smaller package.

A recent study by consumer research company NPD Group revealed that hardcore gamers (labeled “Extreme Gamers” in their study) play an average of 48.5 hours in a week.

While this information has officially entered WTF Land, on the bright side, overall US gamers ages two and up play an average of 13 hours, a slight bump from 12.3 hours back in 2009.

In Fall 2008, Natsume and Marvelous Entertainment will welcome us back to the charming setting of the Kingdom of Norad in Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon to the DS.

Similar to its Harvest Moon namesake franchise, the Rune Factory series separates itself by incorporating role-playing type elements into its gameplay. The main character’s actions are bound to meters which increase as he gains more experience through combat and farming. Players must battle with monsters in order to progress the storyline and improve their statistics for…

Apogee Software Ltd has woken up from its deep slumber and announced Duke Nukem Trilogy for PSP and DS handhelds. But it hasn’t bothered with any worthwhile details of Duke Nukem Trilogy, and there is no word on Duke Nukem Forever that has been in development for the past 11 years. All we know is that Apogee will start releasing new Duke Nukem chapters beginning Summer 2009 for the two handhelds. The three chapters are named Critical Mass, Chain Reaction and Proving Ground.

Apogee frugally revealed the following details about the upcoming chapters

Two sleeper hits from Konami and Atlus are coming to grace the US market this year with confirmed dates. Konami’s Time Hollow is slated for a late Summer 2008 release while Atlus’s Persona 4 is scheduled to appear on store shelves early December 2008.

Click through for an in-depth look at both releases…

The Nokia N-Gage, the dedicated gaming mobile phone, is lost to history and most see it as a failed wedding of a phone and a gaming device. Meanwhile, Nokia has moved on and is set to launch a new mobile gaming platform with the same name, N-Gage. Before this came about, there were rumors of more »

Last Day of Work (LDW), an independent game studio, announced Plant Tycoon for PC and Mac earlier this week (July 9, 2007). LDW, which developed Fish Tycoon and Virtual Villagers, are known for real-time “Virtual Life” games and happily taking on the challenge of Plant Tycoon.

Originally a successful handheld game for Windows Pocket PS and Palm OS, Plant Tycoon places gamers in the shoes of a fledgling gardener as they breed and cross breed their way to the top of a botanical empire all while searching for 4 magical, mysterious plants. One feature has the developers at LDW particularly excited, the fact that the game will be…

I recently contacted one of Microsoft’s PR reps (from PR company Edelman) about the Zune to find out if there will be any gaming available on Microsoft’s portable music device. Here was the the response:

“At this time, gaming is not available on Zune. It makes sense that Zune could be a part of a gaming experience, but there has been no determination of how that will be executed or when it will happen.”

This may seem to contradict an earlier indication reported by …

Konami announced today that it plans to release Contra 4 (CONTRA FRIGGIN’ 4!) for the Nintendo DS later in 2007.

The game, currently being developed by WayForward Technologies, will be set two years after the events in Contra III: The Alien Wars.

C4 is being released to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Contra franchise. It will be another 2D sidescroller that utilizes …