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While many were betting Sony would use its pre-Gamescom press conference as the launch pad for a new round of PlayStation 3 price cuts -- or even yet another redesigned model of the home console -- the electronics giant opted to leave well enough alone for the time being.

That's not to say the company didn't have a couple new offers up its sleeve for fans. Though hardware prices weren't reduced, Sony did unveil a new program dubbed Cross-Buy that will allow purchasers of select PS3 games to receive the Vita version as a free bonus.

It's hard not to be impressed with the Ouya so far.

First unveiled in July, it's a full-fledged home console system powered by the Android OS. Every Ouya is a developer's kit, turning every owner into a potential developer for the system. It costs $99, hooks up to your TV, comes with a gamepad, and is the size of a Rubik's Cube. Pretty compelling stuff.

And in large part, gamers have agreed. The little console that could popped up on Kickstarter a month ago with the lofty goal of raising $900,000 -- a figure that would have put it in the crowd-funding site's top 15 earners of all time.

It passed that goal within a day. And by the time all was said and done, backers had donated more than $8.5 million, making it the second biggest earner in Kickstarter history.

As we march towards the launch of Skylanders Giants, Activision is slowly doling out new character info for their upcoming assault on your kid's action figure stash (and, in turn, your poor wallet).

The latest reveal? Meet Chill, a water-based Skylander with a variety of icy powers -- including what appears to be some sort of awesome narwhal toss. Yes, a narwhal toss.

One of the priciest consoles in video game history is getting a reboot...and it's still kinda pricy.

Releasing December 6, the Neo Geo X Gold Entertainment System is a handheld that plays classic Neo Geo arcade games. In addition to the handheld itself (which boasts a 4.3-inch LCD screen),  it comes packaged with a standard-sized joystick controller, a dock that connects the handheld to your TV, and 20 pre-loaded Neo Geo games.

And it can be yours for only $200.

Where would we be without robots? Our shiny metal pals have been making our cars, answering our telephones, and providing good bad guys in our science fiction for years. But there's still no substitute for the intelligence, precision, and...well, humanity of a good old-fashioned human being, right?

Wrong. Our robotic overlords are already here, and outperforming humanity in a worryingly large number of fields. Humanity's on its way out -- and here's just a few of the 'bots that are taking over:

(Credit: Nintendo)Nintendo faces a tough task with each new Mario game release: they've got to recapture the familiar platforming comfort food that fans have been craving for over a quarter-century, yet add something fresh to reassure us that the formula hasn't gotten stale.  The most acclaimed Mario titles -- from Super Mario 64, with its triumphant entry into the third dimension, to Super Mario Galaxy, with its ingenious miniature planets -- have found a way to strike that delicate balance between old and new.

Releasing Sunday for the 3DS, New Super Mario Bros. 2 aims to do exactly that by focusing squarely on gold. Yes, you still hop on Goombas, smash blocks, and munch mushrooms, but now it's less about saving the princess and more about saving as many gold coins as you can. A curious tweak, but is it enough to make this particular Mario another must-have?

Is this a Durango dev kit?Despite plenty of leaks, Microsoft has yet to officially confirm that it's working on the next Xbox. But the first one may already have been sold.

An eBay auction over the weekend found a buyer for a purported Xbox 'Durango' Development Kit — a system game developers use to create games for the upcoming console. The buyer, who remained anonymous, shelled out $20,100 for the kit, which apparently looks like a black computer tower.

The sale comes with a load of questions, the foremost being: Is this thing real?

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Credit: EA)Just a few short years ago, massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs) were considered the future of gaming.

Virtually every publisher was running one, building one, or contemplating one. A lot of those failed. A few struggled along with small but loyal audiences. And all of them acknowledged that they lived under the shadow of perennial champ World of Warcraft.

These days, though, massively-multiplayer online worlds are beset by bad news. World of Warcraft lost 1.1 million customers in the last three months. It's lost 2 million in the past year. Meanwhile, EA's highly anticipated entry in the field -- Star Wars: The Old Republic -- failed to take off, with subscriptions dropping to under 1 million last quarter. It was an incredibly rapid drop from the 2 million subscriber peak of earlier this year.

With these two behemoths having serious issues, is the entire genre on the outs? Not necessarily, but it's definitely changing -- and that could be great news for consumers who have grown sick and tired of forking over monthly fees for online games.