Hottest Stories

Old-school Tamagotchi (Credit: Getty Images)First G.I. Joe. Then the Furby. Then the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Retro toys are big business, and another childhood favorite -- one you probably thought had curled up and died -- is about to make a comeback.

Grand Theft Auto V (Credit: Rockstar Games)They’re at the center of an increasingly heated debate these days, but when you look at the hard numbers, games carrying a ‘Mature’ rating aren’t quite as big a part of the video game industry as they seem.

The ESRB -- the board that assigns ratings to games released in the U.S. and Canada -- says only 9 percent of the 1,218 games released last year received an ‘M’ rating. Such games are intended for those 17 and up and "may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language."

Chris P. Bacon (Credit: https://www.facebook.com/CPBaconWheels)We’ve finally stopped squealing enough to crank out some words about what is undoubtedly the cutest use of K’Nex ever.

Meet the heroic Chris P. Bacon, a four-pound piglet who was born without the use of his hind legs. Chris was brought to the attention of Dr. Len Lucero, a veterinarian at Eastside Veterinary Hospital in Clermont, Fla., by an anonymous young woman who figured the poor pig should be put down.

Dr. Lucero instead decided to take him home, where the good doctor dove into his son’s toybox and crafted a makeshift piglet wheelchair out of some spare K’Nex parts. The rest is pig history (and so cute it might hurt):

A new report on Microsoft’s next Xbox is making the rounds today, and it’s not leaving many smiling faces in its wake.

Citing "sources with first-hand experience of Microsoft's next generation console," Edge Online reports that the successor to the Xbox 360 (Xbox 720? Xbox 8? Durango?) will require online connectivity to function, though games will be available in both downloadable and disc form. Specifically, Edge’s sources claim the new system will adopt Sony’s Blu-Ray format and that games will ship with one-time activation codes, effectively rendering used games unplayable.

I can has Boardwalk? (Credit: Hasbro)The Scottie dog is about to have a new friend to chase around the Monopoly board.

Following a month-long nationwide vote from fans, Hasbro took to the Today show to announce that it will retire the iron from the game’s iconic pieces, replacing it with a cat.

The sad truth of the modern video game industry is that regardless of how talented (or lucky) a game maker is, nobody has unlimited lives.

January was certainly proof of that. A one-time powerhouse publisher was ripped to shreds. A legendary developer was handed a pink slip. If things don't radically reverse course, the next month or two could see another studio and another game god meet the same fate.

And as bad as it is to be a game maker right now, gamers could find themselves in for a rough period as the effects of this wave of closures hit shore.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (Credit: Associated Press/Paul Sakuma)By Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Online game maker Zynga is reporting a smaller net loss and nearly unchanged revenue for the fourth quarter of 2012, a year in which its stock price shrank 75 percent.

The results flew past Wall Street's muted expectations. Zynga's battered shares added nearly 6 percent in after-hours trading as a result.

Skylanders Swap Force (Credit: Activision)Given how phenomenally successful the Skylanders franchise has been for Activision, it was just a matter of time before the company accelerated its expansion.

Last year’s Skylanders Giants supersized the "toys meet video games" figurines. This year, you’ll be able to mix and match their components.

Skylanders Swap Force will be the series third installment, and it’s definitely a big shift for the brand. Kids (and adults who might not so readily admit to enjoying the game) will be able to mix and match the figurines’ pieces, creating new characters with new abilities.