Nothing in the 2009 summary stuff came as any surprise. Overall retail saw an 8% decline but its $19.66 billion in revenue is hardly anything to scoff at, particularly in a recession. Consoles saw the biggest decline at 13% which given the combination of the economy and being in the middle of the lifecycle makes sense. On the software side, Modern Warfare 2 clearly asserted itself as the superstar title beating out everything Nintendo could throw at it. It also made a pretty strong statement by topping the list well above the 9th place finish of Halo 3: ODST.

I'll bang out some quick analysis of the December figures and have those up shortly. In the meantime, here are the rest of today's happenings:

• PC version of Modern Warfare 2 patched
• TF2 starts "contribute" intiative
• Nintendo announced European DSi XL launch date
• Developer opinions mixed on Natal
• Five nominated for 2009 Writers Guild videogame writing awards

The late night fiasco at NBC took a bad turn with head honcho Jeff Zuckerman allegedly threatening to ice Conan

Pretty amazing to see the devastation in Haiti revealed by updated Google Earth

This will go well, now they're doing coke at NASA