General

* The StarCraft II Editor is now available!

o Players will now be able to begin creating trigger maps in preparation for map publishing which will be made available in an upcoming beta patch.

* Achievements & Decals are now live!

o Players will now be able to earn achievements, browse the list of available achievements, and view achievements earned by friends.
o Players will be able to highlight favorite achievements in their Showcase.
o Earning certain achievements will unlock portrait and decal rewards.

* The updated Homepage now includes a Recent Broadcasts panel and a News & Community panel.
* A new Match History page is now available which will allow players to browse and filter their last 1,000 games played.
* A new Community page is now available which features an in-game version of RSS news feeds.
* A new Friends-of-Friends feature has been added, which allows players to easily find and connect with more real life friends on Battle.net through existing friends.
* Additional friends’ presence details are now available from the Friends’ list.
* Improvements have been made on the Voice Chat system in game.

o Please use the new voice chat and provide feedback via the StarCraft II beta forums.

* The score screen now features a new graph tab.
* The art for many parts of the user interface has been updated.
* Hotkey templates have been added.
* In the gameplay options menu select from standard name based hotkeys for right and left-handed players, grid based hotkeys for right, and left-handed players, and classic StarCraft keys.
* Several hotkeys have been changed to avoid conflicts with the “Select All Warpgates” UI button:

o The Set Worker Rally Point has been changed from W to R.
o Build Sensor Tower has been changed from W to N.
o Terran Infantry Weapons have been changed from W to E.
o Terran Vehicle Weapons have been changed from W to E.
o Weapon Refit has been changed from W to R.
o Burrow has been changed from W to R.
o Spawn Larva has been changed from R to V.
o Neural Parasite has been changed from R to E.

Balance Changes

* TERRAN

o Marauder

+ Concussive Shells research cost decreased from 100/100 80 seconds to 50/50 60 seconds.

* PROTOSS

o Immortal

+ Build time increased from 40 to 55.

* ZERG

o Infested Terran

+ Damage increased from 5 to 8.
+ Speed decreased from 1.5 to 0.9375.

o Queen

+ Speed off creep decreased from 1.5 to 0.938. (Speed on creep unchanged.)

o Spine Crawler

+ Attack period decreased from 1.6 to 1.85.

o Infestor

+ Neural Parasite range increased from 7 to 9.
+ Fungal Growth projectile removed; Units in the target area are now instantly hit.

Maps

* We’ve made a change to the (2)ScrapStation map to make the natural expansion easier to defend.
* New maps have been added to the ladder rotation while others have been removed as follows:

o 1v1

+ Added (2)IncinerationZone

o 2v2

+ Removed (4)LostTemple
+ Removed (4)Metalopolis
+ Added (4)AridWastes
+ Added (4)Coalition
+ Added (4)Decena
+ Added (4)ScorchedHaven

o 1v1 (Novice)

+ Removed (4)NoviceKulasRavine

o 2v2 (Novice)

+ Removed (4)NoviceKulasRavine
+ Removed (4)NoviceShakurasPlateau
+ Added (4)NoviceDecena
+ Added (4)NoviceScorchedHaven
+ Added (4)NoviceTwilightFortress

1. Wii 3.81M
2. Nintendo DS 3.31M
3. PlayStation 3 1.36M
4. Xbox 360 1.31M
5. PSP 654.7K
6. PlayStation 2 333.2K

U.S. Top Ten Console Game Sales, December 2009:

1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, Nintendo) 2.82M
2. Wii Fit Plus (Wii, Nintendo) 2.41M
3. Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 1.79M
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360, Activision) 1.63M
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3, Activision) 1.12M
6. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) 1.01M
7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo) 936.1K
8. Assassin’s Creed II (360, Ubisoft) 783.1K
9. Left 4 Dead 2 (360, Electronic Arts) 728.5K
10. Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS, Nintendo) 656.7K

U.S. Top Ten PC Game Sales:

1. The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts)
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack (Blizzard)
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (Electronic Arts)
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest (Blizzard)
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
6. World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
7. The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts)
8. Spore (Electronic Arts)
9. Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
10. Empire: Total War (Sega)

Analysis from NPD’s Anita Frazier:

Overall

“The video game industry experienced its biggest sales month ever, besting last December by 4%. It wasn’t enough, though, to compensate for the sales decline throughout the year, and so full-year sales came in 8% below last year’s record-setting revenues.”

“The only category to see an increase over last year was portable hardware, which was up due to a 7% increase in the average retail price. The DS platform, across all categories, contributed 17% of total industry dollars in 2009, up three points from 2008.”

“Unit sales were down only 6% from last year. Average retail prices were down in all categories except for portable hardware and accessories, which led to the greater dollar sales decline.”

“December marks just the fourth month of the year where the industry saw an increase over last year. January and February were both up, and since the decline that began in March, only September experienced growth. The big sales this month, particularly on the hardware front, is a positive move for the industry headed into what will hopefully be a recovery year in 2010.”

Hardware

“There are a lot of hardware records this month. The PS3 realized it’s biggest month of sales ever, and the first time sales have exceeded 1 million units. The Wii and the DS also had their biggest sales months ever, and in fact the two platforms hold the top two spots in sales of any hardware device in a single month. Overall, it was the biggest month of sales for hardware on both a dollar and unit basis.”

“This current generation of console hardware has outsold the last by more than 9 million units during the first 50 months in the market.”

“Hopefully, the big increase in the overall install base of hardware systems will bring good things for software sales in 2010, especially with the incredible line-up of content coming out early in the year.”

Software

“The best-selling game of the month was New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which also captures the third spot on the annual top 10 list for 2009.”

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the fourth best-selling game of all time. In fact, 3 of the top 10 games of all time are Call of Duty games.”

“The music/dance genre was the best-selling genre for the month and second best for the year behind first-person shooters.”

“Madden NFL 10 had a big month selling 1.5 million units across all platforms, besting last December’s performance of the ‘09 game. December’s sales made up some of the lost ground realized out the gate when the title came to market in August.”

“Software sales in December were more concentrated among the top games this year than last. This year, 20% of sales came from the top SKU’s, whereas last December it was just 12%.”

“6 of the top 10 games totaling 20.8 million units for the year were on the Wii platform as compared to 4 last year at 19 million units.”

Accessories

“7 of the top 10 accessories items in December were for the Wii platform, along with the Xbox Live Points card and wireless controllers for the Xbox 360 and PS3.”