Via Next-Gen comes the reports that the video game industry is still seeing drops for this year’s first fiscal quarter on all fronts.

On one front you have Sony’s PlayStation Division actually improving their situation from previous years with smaller losses than before thanks to the PS3 hardware selling more and being cheaper to produce now.

Capcom managed to post a profit for Q1, but income came at a massive dive of 90.4% due to the massive underperformances of Lost Planet 2 and Monster Hunter Tri. If I remember correctly Capcom had expected Lost Planet 2 to sell in the millions in the long run which doesn’t look like it’ll be happening now.

Lastly Nintendo who had Wii hardware sales actually increase 3 million in one quarter compared to last year’s 2 million posted a rare quarterly loss of $288 million for Q1. They had a positive operating, but the slowing sales of a system in it’s sixth year on the market, smaller software sales on both platforms and the gamble they took with a hedge fund that they lost due to the exchange rates not being favorable to them hurt them.

Luckily, this drop may in fact push them to release the 3DS by the end of this year instead of “Around March 2011″ now. It took more than half a decade, but seeing that the handheld is now at 132 million units sold and DS HW are slowing down yes, finally everyone now does have a DS. – The Ben

This week the guys are back and its time to talk about Alien Swarm, the new free title on steam. Then it’s onto the news with discussion on the new Kinect pricing, A new hitman title, and a chance for the PC gamers to rag on consolites as they discuss trying to connect pc and console players.

Life Inside The Box – 104 – Live for the Swarm [ 53:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Due to technical difficulties, the podcast was delayed today but at last we return, and this week the guys get together to talk about the engineer update in TF2, Alpha Protocol, The News, and More!

Life Inside The Box - 103 - Podcast, going up! [ 50:49 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Via Neo Gaf the NPD numbers for this past June are finally in:

PlayStation 3 304.8K
PSP 121.0K
Xbox 360 451.7K
Wii 422.5K
Nintendo DS 510.7K

Top 10 VG Console/Portable SKU’s June 2010
Title Platform Publisher Release Date Units
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 582.9K
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WII NINTENDO May-10 548.4K
RED DEAD REDEMPTION PS3 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 380.3K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO Nov-09 200.9K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 174.8K
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO Oct-09
TOY STORY 3 NDS DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS Jun-10
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED 360 THQ May-10
LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 WII WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE Jun-10
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED PS3 THQ May-10

The thread the numbers were posted in from the above link was originally about Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg’s afternoon tweet in which he let this little sales tidbit out:

@aarongreenberg
Look out hare, here comes the tortoise…post E3 bump & new console drives Xbox 360 sales up 88% as top selling console in June

It sure was the top selling console for June, although from the way he was describing things you’d think the 360 would be more than just slightly ahead thanks to the 360 Slim but everybody seems to have had a good month.

Except the PSP, hell even the PS3 had a pretty outstanding June all things considered. The NPD doesn’t count PS2 sales anymore remember so that’s probably comforting to Sony. Comforting because can you imagine how things would look if the PS2 outsold the PSP at this point?

Like last month it’s not that there’s no new games for the PSP because hell, there are new games for it! And that just brings up an even more depressing fact looking at the sales numbers again; Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker didn’t even manage to crack the top ten. It didn’t even sell more than 150,000 from the looks of things going by the software numbers. Now that’s a damn shame. – The Ben

This week they guys get together to take a good hard look at Blizzards Plans to implement RealID to their forumites, as well as what they’ve been playing and more.

Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded prior to Blizzards decision to discontinue their plans to implement RealId.

Life Inside The Box - 102 - Real Names online! [ 1:11:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Via the Wall Street Journal comes a juicy tidbit of info that Sony may be working on a handheld device meant to not only combat Nintendo in the portable gaming market but every mobile device you currently carry around in your pocket as well.

One particular part of the WSJ article seems to boil the situation down nicely:

Meanwhile, Sony is developing a portable device that shares characteristics of hand-held game machines, e-book readers and netbook computers, according to people familiar with the matter. Some Sony e-book readers already come with 3G connections but it isn’t clear if a new wireless gadget will use carrier networks.

So if this is to be believed, Sony is tired of not being the champion in the portable game space as it envisioned itself to be by this time back in 2005 and now is setting their sights on taking on another portable market already in a heated battle. At least they aren’t trying to go all the way and make it a phone as well. Just declaring war in all markets to have their bases covered now that’d be crazy – The Ben

This week Brian and Grey do a quick what you been playing segment, then Brian plays an interview with David Abzug of Volition about Red Faction: Armageddon.

Life Inside The Box – 101 – A Holiday Weekend Show [ 24:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Via GAF we finally have the NPD numbers for this past May:

PlayStation 3 154.5K
PSP 59.4K
Xbox 360 194.6K
Wii 334.8K
Nintendo DS 383.7K

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 945.9K 1
RED DEAD REDEMPTION PS3 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 567.1K 2
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-10 563.9K 3
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED 360 THQ May-10 221.1K 4
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED PS3 THQ May-10 192.3K 5
WII FIT PLUS W/BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 6
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 7
ALAN WAKE * 360 MICROSOFT May-10 8
POKEMON SOULSILVER VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 9
SKATE 3 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS May-10 10

Now as these are the new and improved NPD reports take note that we only get the exact numbers for the top five games for the month instead of the usual Top Ten/Twenty figures.

Also note that when a game is launched on more than one platform and both SKUs make it into the top they each count as a seperate figure to report on so in truth we only really get numbers for the top three titles this month. Meaning that we don’t know exactly how much Alan Wake ended up selling in the first month of sales, only that it was below two hundred-thousand units. But at least it made the Top 10!

Hardware sales are same as they always are with Wii/DS looking a bit healthier than before while 360/PS3 sell at their usual paces and PSP…

Well at least PSP has Marcus. – The Ben