Microsoft's Xbox 360 console went through a lot recently, and right now it appears as if it's losing favor among gamers and retailers in Australia. A survey taken from the country's top retail stores revealed that the Xbox 360 doesn't perform as well compared to its rivals, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. Is there any hope for Microsoft's white horse to catch up again? Check out the full article to read more.

Nothing is infallible, but it definitely makes good business to make your product's failure rate to be as low as possible. Now check out what a warranty-providing company has found out about the failure rates of today's three next-gen consoles (them being the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii) and how the company came up with it. The info at the full article.

It's common knowledge that the Christmas holidays are very important for boosting market sales. This also applies to the gaming industry, as Paul Hochman of Today notes. He writes that the big three console makers will be having some problems this holiday season, facing their "biggest shakeup in years," due to some deficiencies on each console maker's part.

For the Xbox 360, Hochman cites its persistent problem of product malfunctions - the now-infamous Red Ring of Death - something that Microsoft is scrambling to fix with an allocated US$ 1 billion budget and an extended 3-year-warranty. Microsoft also advised customers to wait at least one week while their console is being repaired.

In Nintendo Wii's case, all seems peachy for the console. However, there's one spot that Nintendo hasn't managed to fully fix, and that's undersupply.

With an almost chronic case of undersupply, the quest for a Nintendo Wii usually involves the following inconveniences: queuing up in long lines in Best Buy once a fresh stock becomes available, getting overpriced Wiis on eBay, and limiting the allowance of sales to one console per buying group. This problem has prompted an apology from Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata, who promised to use Nintendo's Mario video game factory for Wii production.

Finally, Hochman cited the PS3's current underperformance, saying that Sony's PS3 trailed behind and sold only about 90,000 units in June, compared to Xbox 360's 198,000 and the Wii's strong 435,000. He also mentioned that Sony loses about US$ 300 every time a PS3 console is sold, with the total estimated loss of US$ 2 billion for the fiscal year that ended in March.

For those wondering why Sony is willing to take such losses, there is a reason behind that: According to Hochman, when Sony's Blu-ray wins the format wars and becomes the sought-after format for home viewing - partly with the help of the PS3 - then the PS3 losses will be more than worth it.

Check out Hochman's take on each of the console's good points in the Full Article!

With all the ruckus that the video game industry manages to get itself into, it really isn't hard coming up with a video game that can be attached to the word "scandalous". With this in mind, GamePolitics managed to come up with a list of games and gaming-related events that stirred up the headlines with scandals that could rival Hollywood's daily dose of intrigue.

GamePolitics didn't fail to include the Xbox 360's undeniable trend of console failures - which Microsoft still denies at this point. Indeed, with so many replacement consoles being sent to disgruntled Xbox 360 owners, its hard not to believe that the trademark Red Ring of Death has already become a nationwide symbol of doom and gloom.

Of course, who couldn't forget Manhunt 2 and Resistance: Fall of Man? Who couldn't forget Jack Thompson's smile on his face when he said that the Adult Only rating received by Manhunt 2 in the US was "delicious", or the way Nintendo and Sony quickly dropped the game as soon as Manhunt 2 was deemed essentially unplayable?

There's also the recent problems with using semi-fictitious religious backdrops as settings in video games, specifically in response to the portrayal of a fictitious cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man. With the religious controversy Resistance: Fall of Man has stirred up, many gamers and religious groups have debated whether copyrighted works of art (even if the copyright is about hundreds of years old) can be featured in in games, and even whether the game's inclusion of the religious sanctuary is an act of sacrilege. Even Tony Blair and the Parliament have gotten themselves caught in the mix, so its clearly a shoo-in to the list.

These and other seemingly 'atrocious' games are featured in GamePolitics' list, with titles such as Columbine, and Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Quite a nice read? It sure is, especially if you're a fan of video game history, scandals, or both. Enjoy!

(Welcome to the first issue of QJ.NET's weekly feature, QuickJump QuickPeek! This weekly-updated spot will run the top news of the past week, think of it as your own directory of sorts to the week's news breakers in our second home we like to call video gaming industry. This page could contain something as trivial as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft bigwigs gathering together for an afternoon teaparty or as groundbreaking as that teaparty turning into a free for all, take-out-as-many-gaming-execs-as-you-can brawl. With that, we take you to this week's mover and shakers...)

We weren't treated to news of filthy rich gaming execs going at each others' throats this week, but we did have an equally gory debacle with the Manhunt 2 and Red Ring of Death bad rap. There's also the groundbreaking release of PSP homebrew hero Fanjita's Illuminati exploit (via Lumines UMD) that later on brought us the highly anticipated 3.50 downgrader. Throw in the talks about Nintendo's WiiWare and the PS3 firmware update and we have a really interesting week. Now for the QuickJump quick peek to the week's top stories...

The QuickJump QuickPeek awaits after the jump!