Microsoft has told CNET that at least 2 million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook through Xbox 360 in the week since the two services were integrated, and that half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the first 24 hours of availability.

No figures have been released on Twitter use through 360, but according to a rep, there have been “tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live.”

A tenth of all Live users have accessed Facebook through 360 in a week? Amazing scenes.

Functionality aside, one of the biggest differences between Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE gamer network, and Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) has been the cost: If you want to play against other gamers on Xbox LIVE, you need to pay around $50 annually for Gold service (though various retailers offer discount cards); multi-player on the PSN is free.

But in a statement to VG247, SCEA president and group CEO Kaz Hirai revealed that the company plans to launch a premium, pay-to-play service on the PSN: “We are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services.” No details on pricing, what the premium content would include, or a launch ETA-but Hirai made sure to note that it wouldn’t be in lieu of the free service.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) is already making money through PSN Store game downloads and add-ons; the company said October was its “highest month” in terms of revenue, with downloads up 60 percent year-over-year (via Gamasutra). But adding a subscription option would definitely move the company closer to its goal of getting the games business “profitable” by 2011 (via the AP).

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has kept mum on how much money it makes from Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions, but leaked documents (revealed by our own Joe Tartakoff, when he wrote for the Seattle P-I) showed that subscription revenues from Feb 2008 to June 2008 were at least $280 million.

By MATT RICHTEL; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

Published: May 15, 2009

Video game sales in the United States totaled $1 billion for April, 17 percent lower than in April 2008, according to NPD, the market research firm. This is the second consecutive month in which sales have fallen sharply compared with a year ago, suggesting that the industry is not as recession-proof as it had hoped. Software sales fell 23 percent, while sales of consoles and handheld players dropped 8 percent. In a news release Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD, said, “This year’s performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April.” But it also represents a sharp drop-off, as sales of major consoles have been falling month after month. In February Nintendo sold 753,000 Wii machines but sold only 601,000 in March and 340,000 in April. Microsoft sold 391,000 Xbox 360s in February, 330,000 in March and 175,000 in April.  story source

video game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, shot up an easy win at the box office, even as two of the weekend’s other new releases — The Secret Life of Bees and W. — performed nicely, finishing in line with their respective estimates.

The No. 1 action flick grossed $18 million from Friday through Sunday. Although not quite on par with the debut totals of some other game-based movies, like the most recent Resident Evil films, which blew away more than $23 mil in their premieres, Max Payne’s premiere number is a marked improvement on the first-weekend sums of Wahlberg’s previous two gun-totin’ flicks, last fall’s cop drama We Own the Night ($10.8 mil) and early 2007’s Shooter ($14.5 mil). And here’s another sort of backhanded compliment: It’s a good thing the movie earned as much as it did this weekend, for its lamentable CinemaScore grade of C portends a limited audience in the coming weeks.

The Force has never been with you quite like this.

With a push of a button, Darth Vader’s sinister apprentice can lift a canister and send it careening into a squad of stormtroopers, or rip a Tie fighter from the air and send it spiraling into a tower.

He can even pull down a massive star destroyer and crash it into a planet.

“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” has quite a bit that fans will find familiar, but it’s the unique ability to manipulate objects and enemies with the Force that makes it a stand-out addition to a long line of entertaining games.

The story for this console-based, third-person actioner begins shortly after Episode III (Revenge of the Sith), then picks up again years later but still prior to Episode IV (Star Wars, or A New Hope, depending on your level of fandom). You play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller, as he hunts down remaining Jedi. The tale takes quite a few twists, and adds some nice surprises, so I don’t want to get too into detail.

George Lucas himself had a hand in the game’s story, but I’m not sure how fans would feel about that these days.