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Halo 2 was top Originals titleMore facts and figures in from Larry 'Major Nelson' Hyrb this week, with the Microsoft Live boss confirming which downloadable releases were the best-sellers in 2008, both on the Arcade and the Originals store.Castle Crashers was the Arcade's best-selling title of last year, with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 coming in second. Third was the superb Braid, while the Avatar-embracing Kingdom for Keflings made it fourth.UNO was fifth in the 2008 chart, with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix coming sixth, followed by the big-hitting Fable II Pub games.Duke Nukem 3D was a deserving eighth, with Bionic Commando: Rearmed a solid ninth, Worms making it in at tenth.In the 'Xbox Originals' sales stakes no one can begrudge Halo 2 first place, with Fable also deserving in second place. Battlefront 2 was third with Counter-Strike fourth. Fable's Lost Chapters impressively made it in at five.Doom 3 was sixth, Conker seventh, with Splinter Cell Chaos eight

Will look to Japanese market, tooWe've been hearing for nearly 12 months how Japanese game developers are increasingly lagging behind their Western counterparts, and now one Capcom developer has revealed that local publishers fear a Western onslaught on the Japanese games market itself.Jun Takeuchi, producer of Resident Evil 5, has told Famitsu (via Joystiq) that Capcom are keeping a close eye on the 'movements' of Western giants, with the Japanese games market expected to strengthen in 2009.Early 2009 will of course see Takeuchi and co release Resident Evil 5 worldwide, but he is concerned that Japanese developers are preoccupied with Western releases, and are ignoring local tastes.According to the game maker's hints, Capcom may in fact announce a few surprises this year, aimed squarely at their home-turf by the sound of things.

How far would you go for your favorite video game character? This kid went all the way to court.11-year-old Judson King was such a Sonic the Hedgehog fan that he decided he wanted the real thing - only to find out that hedgehogs were illegal in his city of Lawrence, in Kansas.What's a boy to do but convince the court that hedgehogs are fudgy-wudgy creatures and not a danger to civilization as we know it? After three years of work, he finally built up his case enough that when he finally got his day in court, it was 'no contest.'The court found no real reason to maintain the ban, and the woodland critter was legalized. Judson finally got his first hedgehog last Christmas. Now let's hope he won't paint his new pet blue and throw it through rings.Related Articles:Sega prez: Sonic to go MIA for make-over treatment

Sufferin' succotash, not another Lego rumor! (Yes, I mutter Looney Tunes curses when I hear facepalm rumors.)One of videogaming247's sources is claiming that another Lego game is in development. And not just any Lego game. A Rock Band Lego game! I hope we won't see any exploding Lego artists on stage now.VG247's source claims that the information is '100 percent correct.,' though he didn't mention any other details. I would prefer Lego Halo though, too bad that was bunk.The leading Lego rumor making the rounds right now is Harry Potter, which is a more likely candidate. More chances for exploding Lego pieces to go flying everywhere.

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Call of Duty settles for secondXbox Live stalwart Larry 'Major Nelson' Hyrb has revealed a final raft of statistics based on 2008's xbox live; the exec confirming which games were most played, and which arcade games were the best-selling.Unsurprisingly, Halo 3 was the most played title on the 360's multiplayer service, followed by Call of Duty 4 and then GTA IV. Gears of War 2 made a late surge to finish fourth, while the original Gears of War was fifth.Call of Duty: World at War was sixth, Guitar Hero III seventh, and the Battlefield: Bad Company demo was a surprising eight. Ninth was the Force Unleashed demo, while Rock Band sneaks in at ten.Impressively, UNO and Castle Crashers also make it into the most-played top 20, despite being Arcade downloadable release.