Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision

We know, we know. We said that we wouldn't start posting again until next week. But as a full service blog, when our readers reach out with questions, we do our best to provide the answers. In the comments section of today's post titled "Goodbye To All That: Level Up Issues Its Brief Reflections On 2007 and Looks Ahead to 2008," BigDaddyDW asked:

On an unrelated note, N'Gai, maybe you can comment on the holiday software sales for the Xbox360 and the PS3. In particular, I have seen COD4 on sale for $38 no fewer than five different times between Thanksgiving and New Year's (Circuit City, Best Buy, Target included)...I thought this GOTY [Game of the Year] was selling well--if so, do you think that is related to the numerous sales? Or has it been holding its own at $60?

BigDaddyDW, you're going to have to wait until later this month for the December edition of Monday Morning Quarterback (no, really) for our holiday software sales analysis. But with 2.2 million units in sales in the month of November alone (1.57 million units on Xbox 360, 444,000 units on PS3 and 167,000 units on PC), we find it hard to believe that Call of Duty 4 was being price reduced by Activision because its sales fell off a cliff in December. Nevertheless, we turned to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for his thoughts. Here's what he had to say:

Echochrome, developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment

The staff of Level Up will resume its regular posting schedule next week. With the Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner, we're using the next several days to prepare a slew of videogame related posts so that we can turn our attention to the world of gadgets without feeling guilty about leaving our loyal readers high and dry. For those who didn't read our year end "Who's Next" double issue (the one with Houston Rockets center Yao Ming on the cover), you missed a near-record-setting three separate stories on videogames in our print edition, which included:

1. A brief profile of Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy.

2. The five most important games of 2007.