With the 2011 Independent Games Festival main competition awards winners due to be announced on Thursday, Steam has discounted a number of the finalists, several of which are new to Steam. There are also a few other indie savings to be had because hey, why not?

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Although some companies achieved sales milestones in 2010, including Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops and Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, sales throughout the industry were down "as much as 1 percent when compared to 2009," the NPD Group estimates.

Data is still preliminary for "total consumer spend on gaming content via all monetization methods, including new physical video and PC games, used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile game apps," however, the market research company puts complete spending between $15.4 and $15.6 billion. Read more »

As part of its celebrations for the 25th anniversary of Mario Mario's debut appearance in Super Mario Bros., Nintendo has announced special red editions of the Wii and DSi XL.

The limited edition red Wii will come in a $199.99 bundle with New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well as Wii Sports and a red Wii Remote Plus--the fancy new controller with the sensitivity-increasing MotionPlus peripheral built in. Wii Sports Resort, which has been bundled with new Wiis Read more »

Last month, the Xbox 360 sold more hardware than any other system for the first time since 2007. Microsoft managed to pull it off again posting a second straight month of topping the hardware sales, though overall sales were down month to month. The PlayStation 3 was the only console to show gains versus the prior month, but has still not returned to its June sales of 304.8K units. The Wii posted its lowest hardware sales since launch.

U.S. Hardware Sales - reporting August 1 to August 28, 2010 Read more »

It's time for a little corporate shilling, but it's the good kind of self-promotion that helps you find some good games on the cheap.

Bioshock 2

Ever keen to present itself as the video games choice that won't give you diabetes, Nintendo has unveiled a twenty-four-stop tour of the USA combining a showcase of its jumpy-waggly motion-controlled games combined with a national games tournament.

The Wii Games: Summer 2010 tour will invite visitors to rack up a high score across four games--Wii Sports Resort's basketball and bowling plus the hula hoop challenge of Wii Fit Plus, with action coming from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Mario Kart Wii. Read more »

"A price reduction on Wii hardware, fewer strong Wii software titles in the first half and appreciation

of the yen" lead to a negative impact on Nintendo's "business performance" across the past fiscal year,

the Japanese gaming giant announced today. Read more »

Blendo Games' brilliant turn-based tactical adventure Flotilla has made the hyper-jump to Valve's Steam platform, discounted by 10% for the first week to a bargain $8.99.

With seven months left to live, a valiant space captain sets off on one final adventure of exploration and action. The randomly-filled galaxy creates a new adventure each time, filled with unusual encounters and delightful turn-based combat in full 3D space. Read more »

Blendo Games' charming turn-based space strategy game Flotilla has made the hyper-jump from PC onto Xbox Live Indie Games.

Flotilla sees a dying space captain choosing to spend their last seven months alive exploring the cosmos, encountering weird and wonderful lifeforms such as militant deer and fugitive rasta cats whilst engaging in turn-based battles set in full 3D space. It's quite lovely. Read more »

Indie developer and Gravity Bone creator Blendo Games has released its latest title 'Flotilla,' a space-faring turn-based strategy with a 57MB demo available from FileShack.

Set in fully-3D space with 360 degrees of movement, Flotilla is an enjoyable game of crafty positioning to take advantage of enemies' weak spots, as Blendo maestro Brendon Chung explains in the trailer below. Read more »

Continuing today's smorgasbord of announcements and revelations, market research firm The NPD Group has pulled back the curtain on its monthly report, revealing January 2010's top-selling console games and hardware figures for the United States.

In all, the overall U.S. video game market was down 13%, pulling in $1.17 billion compared to January 2009's $1.34B. Across the various segments, hardware saw the biggest drop, coming in at $353.7M--down 32% over January 2009's $446.8M. Read more »

Marking the recent end of its third fiscal quarter, Nintendo today released sales figures on its hardware and notable software releases, and the results are impressive.

To celebrate the seventh birthday of HomestarRunner's one-armed fire-breather "Trogdor the Burninator," Telltale is today offering the final installment in its episodic adventure Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People as a free PC download.

But that's not the only deal going around, as Nimblebit is celebrating the release of its multiplayer kart racer Zero Gear (PC) by allowing everyone to play it for free until Sunday January 17, with a 25% discount bringing the price down to $14.99. Read more »

Kicking off new year with self-congratulatory press release, Nintendo began today by listing off some of its accomplishments in 2009, such as its estimate that the Nintendo DS "set a new all-time calendar-year U.S. sales record for any console or hand-held."

The company further boasted that the Nintendo DS represents the "best selling videogame console" in European history with over 40 million sold across five years, with the Wii having sold just over 20 million in the territory across three years. Read more »

Indie developer NimbleBit has announced its "dyn-o-mite!!!" PC kart racer Zero Gear will arrive on January 12, with pre-orders granting a 25% discount and instant beta access.

Zero Gear can pre-ordered for $14.99 through Steam or direct from NimbleBit--who give a key to activate on Steam--or in a $30 four-pack available only from NimbleBit. Read more »