Gaming news: Modern Warfare 2 hits $1 billion; Nintendo jumps on Netflix bandwagon

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Activision today said its latest game in the Call of Duty franchise, Modern Warfare 2, surpassed the $1- billion sales mark. The Santa Monica game publisher raked in more than half that amount in the first week of release (in November) alone. You can read more here in a post by Ben Fritz.

The announcement was a sliver of good news in what’s likely to be a grim week for the console game industry. French video game company Ubisoft Entertainment today warned investors that revenue for the holiday quarter would be 8% less than previously projected, and that it would likely swing from a projected profit to a loss.

On Thursday, the NPD Group is releasing 2009 U.S. sales figures for console games, which are widely expected to show a decline from 2008.

Meanwhile, Nintendo today jumped the shark and announced it will add Netflix streaming service to its Wii console. Details of the announcement are here in the Times’ Company Town blog, along with comments from wary analysts.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.