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NPD Group numbers are in for January 2009, and while the overall narrative remains the same -- Nintendo leading the charge, with "Wii Fit" selling 777,000 copies -- there were signs of growth for everyone, as the industry saw 1.33 billion in sales, up from 1.18 billion in 2008. Read more...

The spotlight wasn't on video games this week as Barack Obama became President, but MTV Multiplayer was still bringing you new topics of discussion every day (except our day off!), and as we sit back and enjoy the weekend, here are the five stories you talked about the most this week on the blog. Read more...

Last week we reported that it could not yet be determined whether "Wii Play" or "Grand Theft Auto IV" was the best-selling game of 2008 in the U.S. But today we finally got the definitive Top 5 2008 list -- and it knocks "GTA" to third place. Read more...

Newly released sales figures listing the top 10 games sold in 2008 remind us of the 2000 U.S. presidential election: the initial results reveal no clear winner. It's "Grand Theft Auto IV" OR "Wii Play." Explanation for the non-verdict follows. Read more...

First month sales of Nintendo's newest Wii-branded game, the ambitious and unusual "Wii Music," released last month fell far short of the mark set by May's "Wii Fit" in its first month.

But Nintendo is not expressing concern yet.

"You'll see in [the NPD sales] that it did about somewhere [like] 65 or 66,000 based on our internal numbers for the two weeks that was reported," Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing, told Multiplayer in an interview at the New York Grand Hyatt yesterday.

By comparison, NPD reported that "Wii Fit" sold more than 687,000 copies in its first month of sale.

These aren't blockbuster numbers, but Dunaway offered an explanation for the game's performance: Read more...

Since the last entry, I...

*Played a ridiculous amount of games.

*At Friday's PlayStation event alone I played "Resistance 2," "Killzone 2," "Little Big Planet," "SOCOM: Confrontation," "Linger In Shadows," "PixelJunk Eden," "MotorStorm: Pacific Rim," "Siren: Blood Curse," and "Buzz" for PS3 and PSP. I'll write blog posts about many of those games throughout the week, but I should record here that two games brought me back for a second-helping: "Linger" and "Eden." The first one because I wanted to understand it more. The second because it's the most fun I had with a co-op game this year.

*Also played some "Secret Agent Clank" on the flight home.

Then, over the weekend, I binged. Scary details follow...

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Since the last entry, I…

*Finished "Grand Theft Auto IV." Very good last mission that I finished on my first try (thank goodness). I'll have more to say about my end-of-game thoughts in another post. But I am wondering why no mission took me to Liberty City's version of the Empire State Building. Bummer. Still, the game was quite good: the best-made "GTA," in my opinion, but only my second favorite. I'm still a "San Andreas" man.

*Worked out to "Wii Fit" and wondered if a program like this can really do much for a fit guy like me. Still, I'm a big fan of Wii games adding channels to the system. It lets me access parts of the games without having the disc in the system. It's a splendid way to keep a shelf of software relevant.

*Thought I finished "The World Ends With You" only to discover that the game is structured a little like "Odin Sphere," if you know what I mean. I'm into the second play-through and not finding one of the new main characters that fun.

*Finally inserted "Wii Play" into my machine and played the first game: target shooting. I hear that the tank mode is the best, so I will play more.

*Used the Wii Balance Board to play "We Ski," but there's an embargo on impressions until later this week. I do need to say that skiing indoors, on the Board, with remote and nunchuk in hands, is something I would think I'm too old for. Then again, a few years ago I would have said the same about standing in front of the TV playing a plastic toy guitar. The last couple of years of video games have made children of many of us.

Next: I am flying to San Francisco for a week of gaming showcases. My travel games are: "TWEWY," "R-Type Command," and "Secret Agent Clank." "Crisis Core" is not in the stack. I don't think I'm going back to that one.