According to the latest survey by the NPD, gaming has attracted a larger female audience in 2009 than in 2008, more significantly in consoles. The number of lady gamers out there increased by up to 4% both in "heavy portable" and "extreme games" as compared to last year. More after the jump.

Analyst Michael Pachter expects that by 2015, 7th-gen console sales will end up like this: Wii on top, the PS3 in second, and the Xbox 360 in third place. The Wii's first-place position seems like a foregone conclusion, but what about the other two? More after the jump.

Wedbush Morgan's exhaustive report on the effects of ancillary revenues on the console cycle contains a little nugget that suggests a Wii HD could convince consumers that it's "the last console they will ever need" and that it could seriously derail any chances of a PS3 comeback.

This is a much, much better line-up for our On Shelves section this week. As in MUCH. One, the Transformers are finally rolling out (unfortch, Megan Fox won't be included in your game purchase). Two, Fight Night Round 4 is also stepping into the ring to knock you out with. Three, The Conduit is also set to make waves on your Wii, and so is the Resident Evil Archives. And of course, the ever-present DS games for the kids. Yes, it doesn't just stop at three. Go ahead, check out what else is there this week.

Despite fears that the on-going trend of digital distribution may be bad for retailers, analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee believes that retailers and walk-in stores have nothing to worry about. At least not yet. Meeting with four key GameStop execs, the analyst shares his thoughts and predictions regarding digital downloads.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata may not like hardware price cuts, but analysts are expecting Nintendo to drop the Wii's price even lower before the holiday season. More after the jump.

Missed our favorite analyst, Michael Pachter much? Don't worry, he's back, and he's got more than two cents in opinion on the event that he predicted dead last year, E3 Expo. This time around, he zooms in on the highlights of the Expo, the new motion controllers of the big three. His verdict: No Natal nor PS3 MC will topple down the great, big Wii.

Turning their attention to the coming games expo, market researchers and analysts in Macquarie Research expect that Nintendo may be announcing a new Zelda or a Mario Wii game for E3. Citing the need for the publisher to come up with more "gamer-centric" announcements at the event, the market analysts eye two of Nintendo's finest franchises as keys to a successful E3.

We've already taken a look back at what transpired on the hardware side of things in our previous special edition QuickPeeks, so this time let's review the game announcements from E3 2008 that graced these pages. We'll see if the words of the big three as well as the third-party developers and publishers at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo came to pass.

Last year, Square Enix dropped a lot of jaws when it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII would also be coming to the Xbox 360. This year they're planning to make another big splash.