OnLive, the cloud gaming service set for a June launch in the U.S., will notably allow for a la carte rentals, says GI.biz, with CEO Steve Perlman confirming that subscription packages will not be required.

Basic OnLive packages cost $15 a month for "full OnLive services," but the rental "Portal" will not require a package.

Says Perlman of the individual rentals: "The OnLive Game Portal is for gamers looking for direct access to OnLive games without being required to subscribe to the features of the full OnLive Game Service. Through the OnLive Game Portal, gamers will be able to play select games directly on a rental basis as well as game demos for free; subject to available OnLive service capacity and whatever usage limits are associated with each given demo. Rentals will be priced on a per-game basis."

The a la carte rental "Portal" will launch a bit later than the the service, adds Perlman.

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CVG has an interview with Microsoft Xbox and Entertainment's Stephen McGill, who has made it clear that digital media is the future, and not Blu-ray discs.

Says McGill: "We have no plans to adopt [a] Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360. In fact, the future of home entertainment started last autumn when Xbox 360 became the first and only console to offer instant-on 1080p streaming HD movies."

Microsoft has seen some pressure of late over the low capacity of DVD discs in comparison to Blu-ray, especially after Capcom said it had to cut content from the upcoming Lost Planet 2 on the 360, because of the lack of space.

The developers of God of War III recently said the game could most likely not be made for the 360, as it used a good amount of the 50GB multi-layer BD.

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ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the overseeing body of the Internet, has decided to postpone the ruling on the proposed .xxx porn domain until the summer.

The .xxx domain was originally approved in 2005, but government bodies, including the American government, have been critics of the domain and ICANN has since rejected the proposal on various occasions.

An independent panel of judges has recently ruled that ICANN's latest rejection, in 2007, "was not consistent with the application of neutral, objective, and fair documented policy." It is therefore up for approval again.

ICANN may choose to not vote at all, and CEO Rod Beckstrom says the public opposition to the domain is still very heavy.

If approved, porn sites can use the .xxx domain, but are not required to do so.

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The Plastic Logic Que 'business' e-reader has been delayed until at least the Summer, reads an eWeek report.

CEO Richard Archuleta says the company is working on "fine-tuning" the device, as well as improving overall stability. Anyone who pre-ordered the device was sent an email explaining the delay.

Because the Que has a businessman target demographic, the device will retail for $650 for the 4GB/Wi-Fi model and $800 for the 8GB/Wi-Fi/3G version. Mostly all other e-readers sell for under $300, including the popular Nook and Kindle devices.

The Que features a large 10.7-inch screen, and has built-in support for Microsoft Office documents as well as PDFs.

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Nokia has asked a federal judge to toss the ongoing patent dispute case between the phone giant and Apple, claiming that Apple's claims are "designed to divert attention away from free-riding off of Nokia's intellectual property."

In October, Nokia filed suit against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on 10 patents and asking for backpay on royalties for the patents. Apple has sold 42 million iPhones since 2007.

Apple then counter-sued, accusing Nokia of patent infringement, as well, asking for an injunction on some Nokia smartphones.

Nokia's latest filing accuses Apple of "revisionist history, misleading characterizations, unsupported allegations and flawed and contradictory legal theories to turn these fruitless negotiations into a multi-count federal lawsuit." Both companies tried to work out a deal, but got nowhere.

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In February it was reported that tucked away in the iPad/iPhone 3.2 SDK, a few icons relating to video calling, such as "decline or end video" and "accept video," were found, giving theory that future versions of the devices may have front-side cameras.

Today, 9to5Mac is reporting that SDK 3.2 beta 4 removes all those video chat files, although it is unclear as to whether Apple did so to make the video chat features a "surprise" in the future or just because they were originally there as a mistake.

Old SDK beta:


New SDK beta:

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The NPD Group has released their latest industry sales figures for the U.S. gaming industry, and the number were not pretty.

Overall sales fell 15 percent year-over-year to $1.48 billion, a 50 percent higher drop than even top industry analyst Michael Pachter was expecting.

"Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month," adds NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "Nonetheless, strong new releases, and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March."

Outside of the giant decline, the most notable news was that of the Xbox 360 outselling the Nintendo Wii for the first time since 2007. The 360 saw 422,000 units sold, with the Wii seeing 397,000 sold. Closely behind was the PlayStation 3 at 360,100 units sold. For handhelds, the DS/DSi blew out the PSP again, 613,200 to 133,400.

"The Xbox 360 nabbed the top-spot among the three console systems for the first time since September 2007, when Halo 3 was released," notes Frazier of the hardware sales. "The PS3 enjoyed a 30 percent increase over last year, even while retail supply is reported to remain constrained."

Other top industry analyst Jesse Divinich says Microsoft shouldn't be so quick to tout their victory, instead saying that Nintendo is having a supply problem (as reported here).

"Our extensive retail channel checks have all indicated that, in fact, the Nintendo Wii is in short supply. We believe February numbers reflect entirely on the Wii being supply constrained and has little to do with declining demand of the product," says Divinich.

Numbers via GameSpot:

FEBRUARY 2010 US GAME SALES

OVERALL DOLLAR SALES

Games $1.48 billion (-15%)
Hardware $534.2 million (-20%)
Software $736.7 million (-15%)
Accessories $206.1 million (-1%)

HARDWARE SALES

DS 613,200
Xbox 360 422,000
Wii 397,900
PlayStation 3 360,100
PSP 133,400
PlayStation 2 101,900

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