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Xbox 360 and Kinect (Credit: Microsoft)Enjoy that time as the only next-generation console on the market, Wii U. The competition is coming sooner than you might think.

Bloomberg reports Microsoft will release its next generation Xbox in time for the 2013 holidays. While the date has been widely expected, the news service says unnamed company insiders have now confirmed the time period.

There are still plenty of questions about the reveal, though. One of the biggest is whether Microsoft will wait until the E3 trade show in June to debut the Xbox 720 (or Xbox 8, or Durango, or whatever they decide to call it), though the company is said to be considering a separate event dedicated solely to the system's reveal.

LEGO Friends Butterfly Beauty Shop (Credit: LEGO)Amid much pomp and circumstance, each year the toy industry picks one deserving plaything to receive the Toy of the Year award. Among this year's hotly tipped frontrunners are the newly revamped Furby, Activision's collectible Skylanders: Giants, and the staggeringly popular Monster High dolls.

But for every friendly toy, there are a handful of hateful ones.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), a group that aims to suppress marketing that targets children, has come up with its own take on the whole shebang. Their award is dubbed the TOADY Award, which rather dubiously stands for "Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children." It's bestowed upon the year's most exploitative (and downright worst) toy as determined by public vote.

Nintendo's global president is apologizing to gamers for the hefty, mandatory system update they're forced to endure upon setting up their Wii U.

In a wide-ranging interview with IGN, Satoru Iwata said he regretted the need for the update, which enables the online functionality of the system.

"Personally I think that users should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box," he said. "So I feel very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware's launch."

"Insert quarter. Avoid missing ball for high score."

That was the extent of the instructions for Pong, the first video game blockbuster.

Pong wasn't the very first video game, by any means (that honor arguably goes to 1947's "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device"), but it was absolutely the first commercially successful one and remains of one the industry's most iconic titles. Released on November 29th, 1972, it turns The Big Four-Oh today.

One brick to rule them all (Credit: BrickEnvy)

This ultra-rare Lego brick is actually worth more than its weight in gold.

By Christopher MacManus, CNET

These days, Lego sets seem bigger and more expensive than ever, but the most expensive Lego of them all never actually hit store shelves.

From around 1979 to 1981, select business partners and Lego employees (supposedly two per year) who worked 25 years at the brick-building factory in Hohenwestedt, Germany, received one heck of an anniversary gift: a 14-carat gold Lego brick that weighs 0.8246 troy ounces.

The holidays are a wonderful time to snuggle up with the family and entertain guests with lavish meals. What's good for your emotional well-being, however, isn't always good for your waistline. Between Thanksgiving leftovers and Christmas hams, packing on a few is pretty easy this time of year.

But if trudging off to the gym isn't in the cards right now, you can always try shedding some of that holiday weight by playing a game or two. A new batch of exergames let you sweat off the pounds without leaving the house. Try these on for size:

Yahoo! editors have selected this article as a favorite of 2012. It first ran in November, and was one of the most popular Yahoo! Games stories of the year. Users were entertained by this optical illusion, as can be seen by reactions in the comments section: "That is just too cool," "Witchcraft!," and "the rubicks cube finds new ways to make me feel stupid."

Several nondescript objects sit on a desk.  Couldn't be simpler, right?  Well, as the below video — the latest opus by Youtube illusion extraordinaire Brusspup — demonstrates, looks can be deceiving:

Nintendo was rightfully proud of the 400,000 Wii U consoles it sold in the system's first week, which included Black Friday. But Microsoft has reason to be even prouder.

The Redmond-based company says some 750,000 Xbox 360s were sold over the same six-day time period, surpassing its own expectations and showing that there's still life left in the console, which has now been available for eight Black Friday shopping frenzies.

The good news didn't end there for Microsoft. Sales of Halo 4 also exceeded expectations, the company said, and Xbox Live Subscription cards saw a 50 percent sales bump over last Black Friday.