Update: The NPD Group has chimed in, attributing the low percentage of PC software sales to the growing shift towards digital distribution, which the firm does not track.

Original Story: Of the $18.85 billion the video game industry generated at North American retailers throughout 2007, only $910.7 million of that, roughly 14%, was attributed to PC games.

Data from the sales-tracking firm NPD reveals that retailers sold 267.8 million games in 2007, 36.4 million of which were PC titles. Console games brought in $6.6 billion, selling 153.9 million units total, while portable software hauled a record $2 billion in revenue with 77.5 million units sold.

Figures were also released highlighting the top ten best-selling PC games of this year, accompanying last week's list of 2007's top ten console games. The numbers, which do not take digital downloads into account, have Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft and EA Maxis' Sims franchises occupying six of the top ten spots. A complete run-down of the top PC games of 2007 follows:... Read more

Publisher THQ has announced its plans to acquire Big Huge Games, the developer behind the Xbox Live Arcade board game Catan (X360), the Rise of Nations PC RTS series, and The Asian Dynasties expansion for Ensemble's RTS Age of Empires III (PC).

The acquisition, which THQ hopes to complete soon, will cement Big Huge Games as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. The studio will remain at its present Timonium, Maryland location, and will also retain its management and employees.

Big Huge was already working closely with THQ for its upcoming RPG, which is being designed by The Elder Scrolls series veteran Ken Rolston and will arrive on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2009. It is also known to be working on a "quirky" Wii title.

"THQ provides an ideal environment to help us develop new, innovative games for both core gamers and mass market," said Big Huge president Tim Train. "We believe their passion for games, developer support, and understanding of the creative process is without parallel in the industry."

A new interview with Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan in UK-based industry publication Develop states that the newly re-independent company is currently working on a new game property, and reveals that employees were aware of the unusual deal further in advance than some may have suspected. Bungie, formerly a Chicago-based independent studio, was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, but brokered a deal to divest from the publisher this October.

During the development of Halo and Halo 2, said Ryan, Bungie was testing new, non-Halo game concepts, but ultimately ended up axing the ideas before the respective Halo games shipped--not so during the development of Halo 3.

"With Halo 3, that was the first time we know that we couldn't let that happen," he explained. "It's not an acceptable way out to add 20 people to the project by killing that prototype. We kept that prototype running throughout the development of Halo 3 and now we have a creative team which feels like they own that."

Also in the works at the studio is downloadable content for Halo 3, as well... Read more

Partially confirming persistent rumors originating this week, Microsoft has announced that Bungie Studios, once the independent developer of the Marathon and Myth franchises and currently a wholly-owned Halo-developing first-party Microsoft subsidiary, will make moves towards corporate independence. The company was founded as a heavily Mac-oriented developer in 1991 and acquired by Microsoft in 2000.

Both parties are said to be "focused on the continued success of the 'Halo' franchise." Microsoft stated it will retain both a minority equity interest in the studio as well as its control of the Halo franchise and its publishing rights to further Bungie products. Unlike when the company was acquired and moved from its Chicago home to Kirkland, Washington, this shift will not result in another change of location.

Though Microsoft will continue publishing Bungie's titles, the studio will retain ownership of any new intellectual properties it creates. Both IP ownership and the ability to develop non-Halo titles were rumored to be major factors behind the split.

The situation is reminiscent of Sony Computer Entertainment's relationship with Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games. Though the studio is ... Read more

Now available at FileShack is the Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties demo. The 612mb download includes the Japanese and British civilizations, the random map Honshu and the King of the Hill game type.

Developed by Big Huge Games, the second expansion pack for Ensemble Studios' 2005 real-time strategy game is due out October 23.

If nothing else, Propaganda Games' reimagining of the Turok franchise will have a dinosauric load of Hollywood talent when it comes out next year, including acting/voice acting vets Ron Perlman--the "Hellboy" star who will be narrating Bethesda's upcoming Fallout 3--and Powers Boothe of HBO's "Deadwood" and "Sin City" fame. These two talents will be joined by 12 others announced by Touchstone today in voicing the game's coterie of characters.

The title role of Turok goes to Native American TV actor Gregory Norman Cruz, most recently in TNT's new fall series "Saving Grace." Joining Cruz as the rest of Whiskey Company--the dino hunter's squadmates--are Timothy Olyphant of the upcoming film adaptation of Io Interactive's Hitman franchise (as Cowboy), the aforementioned Perlman as Slade, Donnie Wahlberg as Shepard, William Fichtner as Logan, Mark Rolston as Cole, Chris Judge as Jericho, Lombardo Boyar as Gonzales, Gideon Emery as Reese, Josh Gomez as Parker, Jon Curry as Foster, Jason Harris as Carter, and Steve Van Wormer as Henderson.

On the villainy side of things, Boothe will voice war criminal Roland Kane, who was Turok's ex-mentor, with Sean Donnellan voicing henchman Grimes. Here's hoping the final product is able to match the quality of the voice casting when Turok ships to retail for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 5 next year.

The second expansion pack for Ensemble Studios' 2005 PC RTS Age of Empires III has gone gold and will hit North American stores October 23.

Announced this past May and co-developed by Rise of Nations creator Big Huge Games, The Asian Dynasties adds playable Asian civilizations, random map styles, 15 Asian "Wonders," and new gameplay elements, including additional ways of winning and trading. It will retail for $29.99 and requires the original Age of Empires III.

Also on GameSpy (since yesterday, thanks to Blues News for noticing it) is this Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties Q&A. Big Huge Games' Brian Reynolds is asked why his team is working on this instead of Ensemble, collaboration between the two companies, new campaigns and civilizations, gameplay additions and new home cities.

Microsoft Game Studios today announced the development of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, a second expansion pack for Ensemble Studios' 2005 hit strategy game.

Developed by Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations), Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties will add playable Asian civilizations, new gameplay elements including additional ways of winning and trading, random map styles, as well ... Read more

2K Games sends along a second interview related to the Civilization Chronicles release, this time asking Bruce Shelley (now with Ensemble Studios) about his work on the original Civilization. Part of the interview was used for the 96 page book included with Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles, now available for $69.99.

Microsoft's annual gaming press event, X06, kicked off Barcelona, Spain today and the company had quite a few things to announce, mostly relating to the Xbox 360. The full press release can be found here, and includes the following

- Ensemble Studios is working on the Xbox 360 RTS Halo Wars.
- The Splinter Cell game after Double Agent will be console exclusive to the Xbox 360.
- Following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the Xbox 360 will receive two exclusive downloadable episodes.
- Project Gotham Racing 4 is in the works.
- The HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 will be released in North America, the U.K, France and Germany this November for $199/e199.
- Rare is working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game.
- DOOM is coming to Xbox Live Arcade today, with co-op support.

At GameSpy there's an article format Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs interview. Ensemble's Bruce Shelley talks about the addition of Native American tribes to the game.

The Age of Empires 3 site notes that a v1.08 patch is currently being tested at Ensemble Studios, offering more balancing changes. The site also mentions that GameSpy Arcade will host a developer chat today at 6PM CST. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

FiringSquad has gotten around to posted this pre-E3 Bruce Shelley Q&A. The Ensemble Studios co-founder is asked about the company's focus on real-time strategy games, being part of Microsoft, console plans, and thoughts on digital downloads and the future of the videogame industry.

New at GameSpot this evening is a Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs Q&A. Ensemble Studios lead designer Sandy Petersen is asked about the new content and features found in the expansion pack.

Ensemble Talks MMO Plans is the latest article as part of Next Generation's Dallas developer tour, this time talking to Ensemble Studios CEO Tony Goodman. He talks about the start of the company and Microsoft not believing in a historical strategy game, the company's business strategy and the 2000 acquisition by Microsoft. The conversation then shifts to plans for a console strategy game ("When they got it to the point where we had Age of Empires up and running, and our people with gamepads could beat the people with mice, then we knew we really had totally reconstructed the control systems.") and the possibility of an MMO game by Ensemble

"Maybe it's not crazy to go spend thirty or forty million bucks to actually make one of these things." [Executive producer Patrick] Hudson points out, "At some point, they'll get tired of WoW and want to play something else."

"We haven't settled on anything," Hudson cautions. "It's safe to say we won't be chasing the fantasy genre. It seems like there are so many coming out. [We're] still pretty far out from even thinking of taking that prototype to a greenlight phase."

As for monthly subscription fees: "Yeah, I think that's the business model we mostly believe in," Hudson says. "There could be things that come along and change our mind, but there's a lot of people trying different things... If anything, WoW is charging too little, not too much."

VGM Daily has posted a new podcast, offering an interview with Wally Wachi of Ensemble Studios. The interview focuses on the upcoming WarChiefs expansion pack for Age of Empires 3. Thanks Blues News.

Game Politics is reporting on a story from the Amarillo Globe News (free reg. req.) regarding a Republication gubernatorial candidate for the state of Texas who doesn't seem to be a big fan of video games. Star Locke, a rancher from Corpus Christi, pledges to abolish Texas' property tax laws and replace them with steep taxes on certain products and services whose consumption he wishes to discourage. It comes as no real surprise given the current political obsession with our hobby that one of those products is violent video games.

Locke said he favors instituting a $10,000 per-abortion tax on abortion service providers, a 50-percent tax on violent video games and a 10-percent tax on soft drinks with added sugar to fund state government.

"I take the position that the Founding Fathers took: that the power to tax is the power to destroy," he said. "So our concept is that we need to tax things we don't want and you want to not tax things that you want to encourage."

It's certainly a different approach than other politicians have taken in their attempts to discourage or control the sale of violent games. Locke seems to hope to make game development and sale in Texas costly enough that it will disappear. In addition to the excessive 50% video game tax, Locke also proposes unspecified taxes against video game manufacturers themselves. It is unclear whether this refers to just publisher or both developers and publishers. Texas is home to a multitude of game developers, including id Software, 3DRealms, Ritual Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Ensemble Studios, and others. In the state primaries in March, Locke will go up against three opponents, including current governor Rick Perry.

A new Age of Empires 3 patch is now available updating Ensemble Studios' strategy game sequel to v1.03. The update fixes an issue where people got a "Failed to join" message when two routers that could not communicate joined the same game.