How do video games stack up compared to movies when it comes to gross revenues? We’ve rounded up the top 10 highest grossing video games ever, based on worldwide sales through the end of 2011. DLC sales are not included.

10: Modern Warfare: $700 million

The Call of Duty series went into the modern era with a bang: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released in 2007 and spawned an instant franchise. Modern Warfare would go on to sell millions of copies across multiple platforms, eventually generating over $700 million in revenue.

9: The Sims: $740 million

The original Sims was released in 2000 and became a best seller among casual and female gamers. The Sims has since become one of the highest grossing PC games ever, generating over $500 million in revenue on PC alone, and $740 million in total.

8: Modern Warfare 2: $780 million

The sequel to Activision’s Modern Warfare wasn’t as groundbreaking as the original, but it still managed to out-gross it, reaching $780 million.

7: Gran Turismo 3/GTA San Andreas (tied): $850 million

Gran Turismo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 3 are two of the best selling and highest grossing PlayStation 2 games ever. Both have generated around $850 million in revenue. However, GTA San Andreas was also released on the Xbox and PC platforms, and was later released on the Xbox 360 as well.

6: New Super Mario Bros. $1,2 billion

New Super Mario Bros. was the first must-have title on the Nintendo Wii. The game gathered great reviews and quickly became a top seller for Nintendo. In just two years, the game passed the $1 billion mark, and has to date generated $1.2 billion in revenue. But even then, it’s still only the 3rd highest grossing Wii game ever.

5: Wii Play: $1.25 billion

Everyone who bought a Wii got Wii Sports, and Wii Play was a natural extension to the bundled title. Wii Play was packaged with a Wiimote and sold separately as well. Despite lackluster reviews, Wii Play went on to sell almost 27 million copies, generating $1.25 billion in revenue for Nintendo.

4: Grand Theft Auto 4: $1,35 billion

Grand Theft Auto was one of the most anticipated titles on the current generation consoles, and gamers had huge expectations for the title. So did Rockstar, who spent $100 million developing the game. But it turned out to be a good business decision: GTA 4 grossed $1,35 billion, making it the highest grossing game in Rockstar’s history.

3: Mario Kart Wii: $1.4 billion

The best selling game for the best selling current-gen console, Mario Kart Wii, was released 2008 and was an instant hit with gamers and critics. It has since sold over 28 million copies, generating $1.4 billion in revenue — the highest grossing Nintendo game of all time.

2: Call of Duty: Black Ops: $1,5 billion

Black Ops took Call of Duty to an all new level: it grossed more than Modern Warfare 1 and 2, combined. This makes Call of Duty Black Ops the best selling title across all current-gen consoles. In all, Black Ops grossed $1.5 billion, and that’s without DLC — DLC packs which have sold millions of copies as well.

1: World of Warcraft: $10+ billion

Not only has World of Warcraft sold over 15 million copies (including expansions), but it has had a base of around 11 million paying subscribers for more than half a decade. This alone brings in over $1.5 billion per year. Overall, World of Warcraft is estimated to have generated over $10 billion in revenue to date.

Following in the footsteps of Street Fighter X Tekken, Team Ninja head, Yosuke Hayashi, revealed that the developer is very interesting in doing a crossover title with another fighter series. Furthermore, he expressed heavy interest in doing so with SEGA’s Virtua Fighter franchise.

He went on:

In terms of collaboration titles, there are staff on our team who just love fighting games and if there was any chance to do that we’d actively, possibly do that. The first 3D game I played was Virtua Fighter, that’s the IP I respect most. Virtua Fighter was the father of 3D gaming, so it’s very well respected.

Also, speaking on the upcoming Dead or Alive 5 title, Hayashi said he would be more respectful toward female design now.

Up to now we thought, with other games, let’s show the beauty of a woman. How do we do that? Make her breasts big and just make them jiggle, that was the concept.

Dead or Alive 5 will release later this year, with a demo of the game being offered as a preorder bonus for, Ninja Gaiden III, which is set for release March 20.

That’s right, everyone. The wait is nearly over. BioWare has announced today that its highly anticipated sequel sequel, Mass Effect 3, has finally gone gold.

Casey Hudson revealed on Twitter, “After an awesome effort by our team, I’m proud to announce Mass Effect is officially gold.” Hudson also went on to tease fans by saying, “Many surprises await you–this week and beyond.”

The demo officially releases tomorrow for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. Mass Effect 3 hits stores this March.

As apart of a Q&A feature today from Rockstar Games’ official website titled Asked & Answered, the company says a sequel to L.A. Noire is a “possibility.”

The company says, although busy with Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto V at the moment, “don’t count out the possibility of a new game in the L.A. Noire franchise in the future.” They continued:

We’re all very pleased with how that game turned out and are considering what the future may hold for L.A. Noire as a series. We don’t always rush to make sequels, but that does not mean we won’t get to them eventually – see Max and Red Dead for evidence of that – we have so many games we want to make and the issue is always one of bandwidth and timing.

While there isn’t any DLC planned for the near future of the game, we’re sure there will be a return of the series, as Rockstar stated themselves, the company definitely gets to their games eventually, as seen with Red Dead and Max Payne.

Sony’s Kaz Hirai, who has been managing the PlayStation division for a decade now, has been promoted to the very top of the Sony ladder: he replaces Howard Stringer as the CEO and President of the company. Hirai will assume his position on April 1, and Stringer will be moved to Chairman of The Board.

Hirai is famously known for his “Riiidge Racer” outburst during an E3 presentation when showing off the PSP many years ago. Video above.

Rockstar has released a new Max Payne 3 trailer, this time, we get a good look at some Max Payne 3 gameplay and game mechanics as well. But somehow, it feels odd hearing the new Max, with the new voice actor. Not much “noir” to it if you ask us, but the gameplay sure looks exciting. Be sure to check out more Max Payne 3 news, including Max Payne 3 bursts and our Max Payne 3 multiplayer coverage. The game is scheduled for release this May.

Ubisoft has announced that its Just Dance games have sold a whopping 25 million copies today, which now makes Just Dance a real franchise, with sales numbers up there with Gears of War and Uncharted. And that’s for a series that most hardcore gamers, even most gamers, don’t really take seriously. But with 6 games and 25 million copies sold, Just Dance is now a huge franchise for Ubisoft, which the latest title confirmed: Just Dance 3, released in October, has sold 7 million units to date. That’s more than Rage. More than Crysis. More than Battlefield 3. More than a lot of AAA games out there.

Activision just announced that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 will be getting a staggering amount of DLC over the next 9 months. Specifically, there will be 20 DLC packs (twenty!) for Modern Warfare 3 in the next 9 months. That’s more than one DLC every second week.

Which begs the question: how much DLC is too much? How much of this DLC was supposed to be in the game in the first place? A game which wasn’t that much different from previous CoD titles to begin with. And at one point do gamers just stop caring? While 20 DLC packs will no doubt generate a lot of revenue for Activision, it’s easy to assume that a large chunk of gamers will just get lost in all the content that’s available, and the fragmentation that could occur: if there are 20 map maps out there, it’ll spread the player base quite a lot, even with a game as popular as Modern Warfare 3. Want to play with your friend? You’ll need map pack #12. Want to play with another friend? You’ll need map pack #17 for that. And so on.

“Want to play with your friend? You’ll need map pack #12. Want to play with another friend? You’ll need map pack #17 for that.”The announcement of so many DLC packs also seems like a selling point for Activision’s Call of Duty Elite service. Elite membership costs $50/year and includes free DLC, but that’s $50 on top of the regular game’s $60 bucks. And on top of the Xbox Live subscription, which is another $50/year. Yes, gaming is getting very expensive. At least multiplayer gaming on the Xbox 360.

While we can’t say that we’re surprised over this (it’s Activision and Call of Duty, after all), hopefully it won’t be a direction that other publishers take. Depending on how gamers respond to this, it has the potential to become the norm — a somewhat lackluster game, coupled with a ton of DLC and a “premium” service sprinkled on top.

Remember when maps used to be free? Remember when instead of a few maps for $15, we got huge expansion packs for $20? Those were the good old days…

Blizzard has confirmed that the upcoming Diablo 3 will be coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well, in addition to the PC version. The news was broken by a Blizzard developer who responded to a tweet, confirming that devs are working on a console version of Diablo 3. We can’t say that we’re surprised, considering that console games bring in much more revenue than PC games, and that PC-exclusives are almost a thing of the past (unless it’s an MMO).

A few days ago Namco Bandai surprised many with its very edgy and possibly NSFW Soul Calibur V promotional poster. They got plenty of attention, and tried the trick once more, with another edgy render of one of the in-game characters. But it appears that they took it too far this time. The poster, which you can see above, was published on their Facebook page, and apparently it was so offensive that many folks complained. And Namco took it down.

UPDATE: there are some reports that suggest the ad might not be of Namco’s making, as it’s taken of a render from Soul Calibur 4. We still don’t know who the original creator is, and why the image appeared on Namco’s Facebook page.