Every year, CES sets aside a little bit of its show floor for the Gaming Showcase, where game publishers and peripheral manufacturers can show off their latest wares, and the 2010 Gaming Showcase will be the biggest in CES history. 13,000 square feet of space has been set aside this year, with Microsoft and Sony making an appearance, along with DDR, Guillemot, Iron Will Creations, and the PC Gaming Alliance.

"We are thrilled to add the PC Gaming Alliance and Lego Universe to the 2010 Gaming Showcase, allowing 2010 CES attendees to experience cutting-edge products changing the gaming market," said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. "CES is the global hub for the latest gaming trends."

The 2010 International CES takes place January 7th through the 10th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Vocab Minute podcast author sang this song about the game three times a day during the show. Kinda catchy. Now do Iron Man, ala quartet.

(Click on the pic to play)

While Greenberg was appropriately coy about the Xbox 360's upcoming line-up beyond what has been announced — yes, there are more games coming for the thing — he didn't shy away from talking about the numbers war between Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, specifically Sony's claims that it too has 17 million accounts.

Read on for a taste of what Greenberg had to say about Microsoft's plans for the Xbox.

What are you getting out of CES, Xbox-wise this year?

Greenberg: CES this year was, I think, the main focus was about Windows 7. We definitely took a back seat from a Microsoft corporate standpoint.

It's not a show where you get a lot of big game news. But it is interesting to see what's happening in technology, what innovative things are going on. For us, we usually talk a lot about how things are going to work and integrate across the company and I thought Windows 7 looked pretty good... even though I know Kotaku is a Mac house.

Well, Crecente is a die hard Windows guy. He's has a deep Apple hatred.

Greenberg: But does he even turn on his computer? I mean, that guy's gotta be laying in a bed, being fed grapes...

No, he's on his computer all the time.

Greenberg: Yeah, so I thought the stuff we showed with Kodu was neat. Having the 12-year old girl [on stage] was fun.

An actual 12-year old girl.

Greenberg: Yeah. We were going to go with a 12-year old Avatar, but we thought if we could get a real person, that would be more entertaining.

Obviously at CES there aren't a lot of four year old pieces of technology being shown, but clearly you're keeping it fresh with software updates like the New Xbox Experience. Do you ever see yourselves doing something on this level again with the 360? Do you see another NXE style revamp like that in the console's future?

Greenberg: It's an interesting question. When we approached the NXE, we really thought about it as if we were launching an entirely new console. When we started thinking about all the changes and possibilities, at first we thought 'Well, we'll update this, change that.'

Then we thought, well, 'What if we just completely wiped the slate clean and completely reinvent the console from the ground up?' It was a pretty massive undertaking, a massive amount of work and we've been very happy with the results.

But it's kind of hard to think about if we would do something on that level again. It's hard to say what this will feel like, two, three, four years from now, but right now it feels like we're definitely on the cutting edge. We've designed it so we can continuously update it with new features, so I think we'll be able to keep up and fine tune based on feedback from the community.

When did you start the NXE project?

Greenberg: The Live team, as soon as we launched the console, were always working on new tech and new updates, but this project has been in development for years. There wasn't a specific day where we just said "Let's go."

When are we going to hear more about the 2009 line-up?

Greenberg: We take a different kind of approach to how we unveil news throughout the year than other platform publishers. We tend to talk about products a little closer to when they're ready. Last year at CES we didn't talk a lot about our holiday line-up, we waited until July.

We absolutely have a lot of innovation, we have new first and third-party games coming out this holiday that we have not announced yet. We'll probably wait until later in the year to talk about those.

The team that built the NXE is a massive team that's working on things like Xbox Live Primetime in the Spring, but new stuff, new partnerships, new content and things that we'll be announcing throughout the year. So stay tuned. There's a lot coming, for sure.

In the past couple years, there seem to have been some noticeable endeavors to secure specific game content, like role-playing game content tailored for the Japanese market and last year, more non-core products like Lips, Scene It and You're In the Movies. What's the philosophy in 2009 to expand the Xbox 360 market?

Greenberg: I think what we'll see is, as a result of how 2008 shaped up — the fact that we had our biggest year in history and we're now expanding our lead over the PS3 in a global basis — we went into 2008 with a solid lead over PS3 in North America, but Europe was a much closer race. Now, we're really expanding our lead there. We've become, by far, the lead global platform for third parties. I think you'll see us getting some benefits from that.

Historically, third parties would give us great support and lead developed on our platform, but they would say "In Europe, we have to still support the PS3" but now that that has switched, I think you'll see us get some benefits from that.

I also think we'll have our first full year at mass market price points. We saw a lot of success this holiday as a result of that. I think this is a year where the masses really come into the industry. We know that the PlayStation 2 sold 75% of their systems below $200. The vast majority of those consumers still have not upgraded yet. So I think it's the year where those consumers go into the store and start making purchases. We think that will benefit us tremendously in 2009. Us having the largest community of core gamers is going to drive blockbuster and core games as well.

You talked earlier about the economy, what concession is Microsoft going to make. I know you're comfortable with the price point at $199, but are you going to do something on the games front to lure in that more price conscious consumer?

Greenberg: Well, we've invested pretty heavily in our Platinum Hits program and we'll grow that, absolutely. We want consumers to have a great library of value titles, particularly new consumers that are more price sensitive. We've expanded that to Xbox Live Arcade and we've started discounting and promoting Marketplace content as well. I think we've gotten more aggressive about offering value. We're also going to add a lot more value into the console by adding new content, new partners, new functionality, just like what we did with Netflix, the New Xbox Experience, and Live Party.

Microsoft recently claimed 17 million Live users and 28 million Xbox 360s sold...

Greenberg: Active users.

Active. So what's the total of Live members that you've accumulated?

Greenberg: Uh... A significantly larger number than 17 million. To be clear, we are pretty conservative on how we report our members. It is active members — you have to own an Xbox 360 and if you're not active in the last six months, we recycle the gamertag and we remove your account. It is a true number of the people we have on the service.

I think it's important to note, if you compare those to PSN, those numbers you can have just a PSP, you can create an account on the Web. We don't count Web accounts.

You're an active member on PSN until you cancel an account. So, essentially forever. It's definitely apples to oranges when you compare those numbers.

Wii imitators, each of which is loaded with minimal effort games, aren't hard to come by at the Consumer Electronics Show. Typically, the method for making a Wii-like is ordering enough white plastic for your casing and designing a little boot for your plug-and-play games console to rest in vertically.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to go hands on with iSports and its suite of games — including Badmintoon, Sword of Warrior01, Beach Vollyball and Soccer 11 — but it looked like a blast. Maybe next year, when Sword of Warrior02 ships.

While the lil' device has been available commercially for a few months now, it has been so at some of the more, let's say, unproven retailers. But we got a chance to go claw-hand on with it at CES this weekend. It works, but only with the open source Frets On Fire for Windows and Linux.

And it really only works as a fun little novelty, the kind of thing that someone might while away their time with between CES appointments. It's certainly more accurate than I had expected — my Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" score was respectable, if not perfect — but limited in its usefulness.

At $19.95 though, this is either an expensive prank or a very frugal, very space conservative option.

While it, like much of the wares at the Consumer Electronics Show, answers a technology question that very few asked, the Falcon feels great, after becoming acclimated to its unusual control scheme, based on our quick hands on time with Valve's latest. That pistol grip similarly feels like a natural fit after a few minutes.

The Falcon's realistic kickback, however, is going to seriously limit how often you'd use this thing in a game like Left 4 Dead. The intense force feedback you'll feel when squeezing off a shotgun round or dropping from a ledge can be disorienting. Fortunately, these effects can be scaled back or turned off altogether.

If you think mice and trackballs just aren't giving you enough trigger squeezing feel, the Novint Falcon may make your zombie apocalypse feel that much more authentic.

Frankly, neither option is as quite as magical as the Street Fighter IV-branded Tournament Edition Arcade FightStick controller, but for those with shallower pockets, they'll get the job done.

The standard Arcade FightStick controller, seen above, inherits nearly all of the smart design decisions featured on the Tournament Edition version — buttons on the back, turbo functions, an Xbox 360 guide button lock switch — minus the cord cozy that lets the player store the USB cord within.

It's not easy stepping down from the Tournament Edition stick, which just radiates quality, but the standard version — much cheaper at $69.99 USD — isn't too shabby. It has a much smaller footprint than its big brother, weighing considerably less but still feeling sturdy.

The standard edition doesn't carry over the same Sanwa parts that make the Tournament Edition feel so arcade accurate. The joystick itself feels chunkier, less elegant, but still serviceable. Same for the eight face buttons. All in all, not a bad stick for the money.

If you'd like to go even cheaper, the Mad Catz FightPad might be what you're looking for. It too features a programmable turbo function as seen in the arcade sticks, but, as you can see for yourself, keeps the button layout to a pad-sensible six.

The FightPad's d-pad is sort of a hybrid between an analog stick and digital pad, with the cross floating in a circular space. That makes it much easier to pull of fireball or dragon punch motions than it would be on a DualShock or Xbox 360 controller d-pad. It feels mostly accurate, much easier on the thumb, even if jumping diagonally with the pad felt more difficult because of its positioning. That may just require some getting used to, but the trade-off of upgrading from a standard pad makes it worth it.

It's worth noting that the Xbox 360 version of the FightPad controller will be wired, with the PlayStation 3 version wireless.

Overall, we were pretty pleased with the Mad Catz offerings at CES and look forward to spending more time with them for proper hardware reviews.

Not only does this stick have authentic Sanwa arcade parts, sturdy construction and an arcade-perfect button layout, it comes loaded with smart design decisions. There's a panel on the back side that pops open, letting you tuck away the USB cord for storage or transport. Right next to that panel are the start and select buttons, relocated to prevent errant pausing during frantic button mashing.

And to the upper left on the top panel, just above the joystick is the unit's control panel. It's neat!

Mad Catz have included a Turbo switch, letting the player assign two-speeds of rapid-fire functionality to any button. Perfect for pulling off Blanka's electro-shock attack or Chun Li's hurricane kick, the Turbo button option is easy to turn on and off — and a row of LEDs shows which buttons are currently taking advantage of the cheat.

They've also added a switch that chooses which function the joystick will replicate, a controller's left analog stick, its D-pad or its right analog stick. This thing isn't just intended to be used for Street Fighter IV, despite its decoration.

Finally, that little lock and unlock switch turns the Xbox 360's guide button — and, we assume, PlayStation 3's PS button — on or off, preventing any unintended game interruptions.

Yes, but how does it feel? Solid as a rock. The highest compliment we can pay to it is that it just feels right, like we were playing Street Fighter IV on a Vewlix arcade cabinet.

And while the Tournament Edition Arcade FightStick feels hefty, it's not obese. If you're going to be really violent with the stick, it will move, for better or worse. Thankfully, if you're going to be playing fighting games seriously, you may want to take advantage of the bolting screws on the bottom of the controller. And if you're going to take it further than that, you may want to swap out the Sanwa manufactured buttons for a different color scheme — it's moddable, should you be non-plussed about invalidating your warranty.

What else can we say, other than "Sold." The Tournament Edition stick, although a bit pricey at $150 USD, oozes value and attention to detail. We definitely look forward to spending more time with the Mad Catz stick for, you know, review purposes when it ships in February.

"First, I would say we absolutely would not want to trade places with Sony," said Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360. "We feel like being half the price of the PS3 served us quite well this holiday."

"The fact that we're doing this at half the price of their platform, we feel confident that we're delivering great value," he added. "I believe that we deliver more value for games and entertainment than any other platform on the market."

Speaking to Greenberg at CES this morning, he expressed Microsoft's anticipation that the sub-$200 price point will give the Xbox 360 the majority of its sales. Greenberg namechecked Sony's success with the PlayStation 2 at the more mass market price, hoping to emulate its last-gen success.

"At the end of the day, consumers vote with their dollar," Greenberg said, adding that he expects to see Microsoft's console sales in December show growth over its 2007 performance, in anticipation of NPD sales data. "I don't think people take comparison grids into retail stores."

"I would rather talk about why you should buy our console than why you shouldn't buy the competitor's system."

We'll have more from our interview with Aaron Greenberg at CES later.

Chip maker Nvidia is attempting to lure in the mid-level manager still wowed by 3D displays, showing off Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with convincing three-dimensional depth. Nvidia's take requires powered glasses — pretty much like everyone else's solution — and works just as well.

The businessmen ate it up. It's definitely impressive, seeing the Guitar Hero note highways popped out beyond the on-stage antics. Well, it's definitely impressive to look at. It doesn't add anything new to the actual playing experience, as you're so focused on the highways during play that everything else requires tuning out. Still, neat-o, at least according to the glasses-sporting passerby.

Nvidia has more than just Guitar Hero on display in 3D, so we're off to hunt down the company's other 3D offerings.

What's worth seeing? Previews of Resistance Retribution for the PSP, as well as inFamous and Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3 with brand-new video, first previewed at CES — some of it you may have seen leak on to the internet in previous posts.

There's also video coverage of the Resistance 2 and Resistance Retribution connectivity that Sony revealed at the most recent Tokyo Game Show, if you haven't had the opportunity to be wowed by that technology.

Killzone 2, for example, is playable in Sony's big booth, as is Resistance: Retribution. Microsoft brought pre-release builds of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Halo Wars. While much of what Sony has in its booth shows off fancier tech — like PSP and PS3 connectivity and a massive stereo system — Microsoft seems more content to just give Lips and Banjo Kazooie floor presence.

The full list of games brought to CES by the big boys — there are plenty of booths with Rock Band and Guitar Hero set ups scattered about — is after this. We're off to go play some of this stuff!

Microsoft

• Gears of War 2
• Fable II
• Lips
• Fallout 3
• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
• Halo Wars
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
• Scene It?
• Xbox Live Community Games

Sony

• Killzone 2
• LittleBigPlanet
• Resistance 2
• Resistance Retribution
• Home
• Super Stardust Portable
• Guitar Hero III
• PlayStation Network Games (The Last Guy, Pixeljunk Eden, etc.)

Looking just as good as it did during my time with the title at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig, the new trailer wastes no time in getting electrified protagonist Cole into the thick of things, clinging to the sides of buses and leaping about as he serves up dish after dish of delicious electrified doom.

How many superpowers can you possibly create using electricity from the source? Check out the CES powers trailer below and see just how much Sucker Punch has managed to mix things up.

Obviously, Prototype sounded pretty darn good in the THX stage room. It had better, if Activision's going to borrow demo room time from THX.

But we were more impressed with what was happening on-screen in Prototype, which follows the violent, sandbox-style adventures of superhuman amnesiac Alex Mercer. If you don't know the premise, Mercer wakes up, super-powered and pissed, determined to find out how he became blessed with the ability to turn his arms into blades and climb the walls of New York City's skyscrapers.

If you're looking for easy comparisons, Prototype looks to play like the hyper-violent bastard child of Crackdown, Spider-man and *gulp* State of Emergency. We were reminded of that last one because of the metropolitan beat 'em up chaos that permeates Prototype's version of the Big Apple — half populated by Infected humans and occupying Army forces.

What we saw at CES was a quick example of some of the game's missions, which can be accessed by GTA-style light columns. The mission, "Rolling Thunder," tasks Alex with killing as many enemies — infected or otherwise — with a tank under a time limit. Seeing Alex wreak havoc with tank shells on the zombie-like infected was exhilarating and packed with over the top violence.

We also saw Prototype's protagonist go on more free-form killing sprees, slicing up Infected with his razor sharp arms, crushing them with his "hammerfist" ability and blazing through them with an organic spiked shield.

Mercer also sprinted to the top of a New York skyscraper, switching quickly to a military disguise to avoid being spotted, then pulling down helicopters with a stretchy "whipfist" ability.

We got a peek at some of Prototype's other abilities, some in name only. These include muscle mass, armor, disguise, thermal vision, and infected vision skills.

While there's plenty of exciting action to be had in Prototype, Radical's Kelly Zmak told us a bit about the game's story telling tactics. Portions of the conspiracy-laden adventure will be told through traditional in-game cut scenes, with others pieced together bit by bit via absorbed memories — Alex can assume the identities and knowledge of the people he kills throughout the game.

Prototype looks far more promising — and frenetic — than I had personally anticipated. While it may not have blown me away graphically, the sheer amount of stuff packed on-screen impresses. It's slated for a Summer release and we look forward to going hands-on with the game as soon as possible.

Not anymore, as Girl Gear — which may or may not be an actual manufacturer or just an aftermarket pink supplier — is displaying a broad range of peripherals for the Wii that will appeal to the "pink ocean" market. Wii racing wheels, Wii tennis racket remote jackets, a Nintendo DSi starter kit, and even an innuendo filled pink sword.

We'll be delving deeper into the third-party video game accessory bowels of CES later this week, so if rosy, injection molded things are up your alley, don't miss our coverage!

Yes, playable not just walk around-able, as we tried out the RC car racer EA Sports Racing, one of three mini-games planned to be available in the EA Sports Complex at launch. The other two, a tournament poker game and a driving range weren't open to us yet, with the former not exactly the type of game you'd want to play solo.

EA Sports Racing, while a rather simplistic third-person driving game does have a dash of depth. Home users will be able to upgrade their cars via the in-Home "Pro Boost Shop," using in-game currency — no, it's not something you'll be paying real dollars for — to add on turbo and acceleration boosts. Better car performance leads to better lap times lead to higher leaderboard placement lead to unlockable achievements. Or trophies, if you will.

As with other Home games, you'll be able to unlock items for your avatar — a carbon fiber racing helmet, for example.

Robert Burnett, senior producer at EA, says that EA's plans for the EA Sports Complex have been in the works for almost a decade, but that PlayStation Home provided the digital distribution system necessary to make it a reality. The publisher's plans for the EA Sports Complex area include interactivity with EA's Sports World, letting Madden players upload play videos via the web, then show them off in Home. Beyond that, it's also looking at opportunities to re-skin the Home room for timed events — the NBA play-offs or an upcoming game release.

The EA Sports Complex is officially planned to launch in "Spring" which translates to an "end of March" period according to Burnett.

The electronics giant is dazzling CES attendees with a trio of 3D Bravia displays, purely for tech demo purposes. While the tech requires a dedicated monitor capable of displaying a 3D signal and forces the viewer to wear special, but still very hip-looking glasses, they're of the polarized variety, not the red and blue lens style as seen on Mr. Ken Kutaragi up there. (Sorry, actual photos don't do the technology any favors.)

How is it?

Amazing, really. Seeing PlayStation 3 games like MotorStorm, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and Wipeout HD in simulated 3D is surprisingly convincing. And, according to Sony reps on the show floor, it also helps give a better sense of depth perception in the above mentioned racing games. It certainly impressed more than the video content Sony was showing off, but we're clearly biased (toward video games, that is).

The only downside noticeable while standing near the space-age display was that screen-tearing is much more annoying in 3D.

We've been promised a chance to go hands-on with the PS3 games in 3D later today (shhh... don't tell) so, hopefully, we'll be able to give you the verdict on not just how it looks, but how it plays.

The PSP basically acts as a cheaper software remote for your Sony brand AV receiver. It would give users the option of browsing and controlling audio on a laptop steaming to the receiver, all via the PSP. The receiver unit on the show floor was, I believe, the STR-DA6400ES — one of the pricier home theater options Sony offers.

Currently, the interface follows the Xross Media Bar standard used in recent Sony products and, while it could use some massaging, it works.

No word on when or if Sony plans to release this little software perk to the public, but we'd guess expressing your interest in getting your hands on something like this wouldn't hurt.

The plan will bring a Sony HD broadcast control room, more than 550 flat-panel BRAVIA and LCD HD television sets in the luxury suits, lounges, concourses, restaurants and administrative offices.

"We are proud to continue our long-term relationship with Sony Electronics," said Yankees COO Lonn Trost. "Integrating Sony products into Yankee Stadium is very important to us as we near completion of what will certainly be among the most modern and technologically advanced sports venues in the world."

The deal also brings with it plenty of new Sony advertisements, all of which will be in place for the stadium's April 16 opening.

"The new home of the world's most renowned sports franchise — with its storied history of leadership and excellence — is the perfect place to showcase all that is Sony," said Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Corporation. "It is thrilling for Sony to be playing a part in this new chapter in Yankee history."

Yanks strike corporate deal with Sony