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1. Nintendo Wii and DS Sales

Without a doubt the biggest news development in the games industry in 2007 is the massive success of Nintendo's two hardware consoles; the set-top box Wii and the portable DS. Indeed, sales of the Wii, which reached nearly 1 million units in the US in November, could have been even higher had Nintendo made more consoles available to meet the seemingly higher demand. Over a year after the Wii launch, the console remains a hard-to-find device. The DS console is even more successful in terms of unit sales; the twin screen device with WiFi support had well over 1 million units sold in November in the US.

So what has Nintendo tapped into that the Xbox 360 and especially the PS3 haven't been able to do? One is low cost; the Wii and the DS are the lowest priced consoles in their categories. Another aspect is appealing to the masses with easy to play games via the motion sensing capabilities of the WiiMote controller. The DS has a niche for puzzle games and of course the still popular Pokemon turn-based action game franchise.

While both the Wii and the DS each have their faults, the truth is that their issues are overcome by the ease of use of the hardware and a line-up of games that, with only a few exceptions, are tailored to a more family-oriented theme. In 2008 you can expect Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl to be a major best seller and the Wii and DS will continue to fly off the shelves.

Honorable mentions

Several news events caught our eye as being important in 2007 but didn't make our top 10 list:

Halo 3 Launch: With nearly 3 million copies sold in just the first 24 hours, Halo 3's sales success was actually cited as a reason behind bad movie box office numbers that same week.

New publishers formed: With lots of financial backing behind them, Brash Entertainment (licensed properties) and Gamecock Media (original games) entered the game publishing ring in 2007 but look for 2008 to see if either one or both will be able to sustain itself.

Rock Band Announced: After breaking away from RedOctane and Activision, developer Harmonix announced in March their plans for Rock Band, an ambitious multi-controller music game for publisher EA. Despite its large $170 price tag, the game still managed to sell over 300,000 copies on its November launch date.

Gamespot Editor Firing: The Internet went through a frenzy when gaming web site Gamespot fired its executive editor Jeff Gerstmann late this year. Claims that Gerstmann was fired due to a low review score he gave for Kane and Lynch Dead Men have been denied by Gamespot.

Rage Announced: After over a decade of working on sequels to previous game franchises, id Software finally announced at QuakeCon an all new game called Rage. The action game with some driving elements is powered by the latest engine tech from id co-founder John Carmack but the release date is still "when it's done"

PS3 sales: After the launch excitement died down 2007 was a slow year for the high priced Sony game console; a price cut in November helped sales some, but it's still well behind the Wii and Xbox 360 in sales.

Duke Nukem Forever trailer: Can the wait for this 10 plus years-in-development game finally be ending? This week 3D Realms released a brief in-game engine teaser trailer for Duke Nukem Forever; hell hasn't frozen over but it did get a bit chilly.