At least 2 million Xbox Live users have logged into Facebook this past week, which I guess means the feature is a bit of a success. (You’ll recall that Microsoft launched Facebook and Twitter to so much enthusiasm last week.) Mysteriously, Microsoft didn’t reveal the number of people who logged into Twitter. Is this the end of Twitter?

World of Warcraft turns 5-years-old today. Back on November 23, 2004, a year before the current generation of video game systems even began (with the launch of the Xbox 360), Blizzard released the massively multi-player online game at a time when massively multi-player online games were still largely the haunt of hardcore gamers, people with fast Internet connections who were willing to pay $15 per month for access to a game that they already bought. Who can forget the message board threads: Why do I have to pay for a game that I already paid for at the store? How do you beat the game? What happens if and when I stop playing?

You’ll recall that Microsoft recently banned a bunch of people from Xbox Live because they had modded their 360s. Modding is against the rules, don’t you know? Microsoft told VentureBeat not to believe the numbers being thrown around—the number most relayed is 1 million banned 360s—because it never releases numbers to anyone.

This is the worst time to be a gamer. Yeah, it’s great that so many good games have come out recently (take your pick from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed II, Left 4 Dead 2, etc.), but it’s pretty difficult to shell out $60+ every other day in the span of two weeks.

Is saying “I play Modern Warfare 2 for the single-player” the new “I read Playboy for the articles”? It might as well be. But get this: I play Modern Warfare 2 for the single-player. I stink at multi-player, so why even bother? That said, I know that many of you bought the game merely to play the multi-player, and thus have no idea what the single-player’s story is about. Thank God for this video, then.

You’ll recall that CrunchGear broke the news regarding the leak of Microsoft Cofee, a suite of applications used by law enforcement officials for their own devices. The leak came from a popular BitTorrent site, and then spread to The Pirate Bay and all over the Internet. Needless to say, it’s “out there.” So good luck to Microsoft in trying to stop its spread.

There really is something to be said about being the first to the dance. I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Steam was the first big digital distribution service for video games, and I also think we can all agree that it was something of a success. But how big a success? Stardock, which owns the Impulse distribution service (and published Sins of a Solar Empire), believes that Steam enjoys 70 percent market share of the digital distribution business.

Figures. Just yesterday we write about all the different e-books you can get your hands on this holiday shopping season, and then we get a bombshell:Barnes & Noble is 100 percent sold out of nook. The company says that it has exhausted its current supply, and will only have enough nooks to fulfill current pre-orders. In other words, if you were thinking about getting a nook for Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) but didn’t pre-order one yet, well, too late now.

It’s safe to say that we hear at CrunchGear think you should be able to do whatever you want with hardware that you buy. Let’s take console modding. You wanna flash the drive on your 360 for whatever reason? Fine, go ahead. But don’t think that you can log onto Xbox Live with said modded console, and play your misbegotten wares (or is that warez?), on Microsoft’s network. It’s against the TOS, it makes a mockery of the entertainment medium that you purport to support, and, well, is unfair to the other players.

Sharper eyes than mine have spotted this little easter egg in the Google Chrome OS Demo video that Google published yesterday. (Or were you completely off the grid yesterday, and didn’t know that Google hosted members of the media to demonstrate Google Chrome OS?) Big Boss? An e-mail from Yoji, asking you to be on time today? Snaaaaake!

Looks like California approved the new energy standards for televisions. The Consumer Electronics Association is predictably upset, whinging on about “constraining” innovation and choice, while environmental groups are predictably thrilled. The state’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, hailed the decision, and said that it will make California a “world-leader” in “the fight against climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

It must be pretty darn easy being an analyst at one of those fancy Wall Street firms. Take this story, that Nintendo may well launch an on-demand video service for the Wii here in North America next year. Japan’s Nikkei reported the same thing nearly two months ago, but it’s only now that someone at Lazard Capital Markets has officially predicted such a store for the North American market.

So this is reasonably exciting. Some super secret source told PlayStation Insider that Sony has talked to Mozilla about porting Firefox to the PS3. Note the wording of that sentence: talks about porting Firefox. Needless to say, if this is even true, then we’re at a very early stage of development.

There’s some sort of video game developer conference going on in Motreal this week (titled, to use its full name, the Montreal International Game Summit), and an interesting charge was just levied there. The CEO of A2M (the company that developed Wet), Rémi Racine, said that some game publishers will go out of their way to deceive the ESRB in order to get a lower rating for their games. You know how Hollywood tries hard to make sure the summer blockbusters are rated no higher than PG-13 in order to ensure a large audience? Same thing with video games, apparently. Why release an M-rated game, and know that your limiting your potential audience, when you can eek out with a T rating?

Look at CNET, breaking news left and right. The site ran a little survey asking its UK readers how many times their video game consoles crashed. No surprise: the Xbox 360 leads the pack with a full 60 percent of heaving died (due to the red ring of death). The PS3 comes in at 16 percent (yellow light of death?), and the Wii is only 6 percent.

I’m in charge of writing the e-book gift guide, but it’s sorta hard to recommend items that haven’t been released yet. That IREX reader, the nook, and the Sony Daily Edition Reader are all missing in action. Thanks, guys. Today we take a minute to ask, “Where’s the Sony Daily?”

It turned out that a lot of those so-called Modern Warfare 2 protesters were talking jive, as they played the game late into the night, alone with their hypocrisy. (It’s overdramatic Tuesday, by the way.) How did the Left 4 Dead II protesters do?

I point you in the direction of Business Insider, which has compiled a list of knock-off products that’s worth your time. It’s not just the typical, Chinese iPhone wannabe, either. Like, nalencia oranges? Never heard of those. Dolce & Banana? I might be able to afford that. And, hmm, that looks an awful like the Amazon Kindle, but it’s not quite it, now is it?

Pretty big news to share with y’all today: The Pirate Bay is no more. Well, “no more” in the sense that the site’s admins have decided to kill the tracker once and for all. The site will continue to serve the BitTorrent community, but will instead rely upon trackerless technology, such as DHT and PEX.

Today’s another big day in gaming, friends. (You’ll notice that we’re practically a game blog now. I blame the publishers for releasing the biggest games of the year within a few days of each other.) Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II, Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2, and Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride come out today (I assume the Tony Hawk franchise is still around because it’s still popular. I haven’t played one since Tony Hawk 4.)

Here’s another topic I’m stealing from Ron and Fez: disaster movies. We sorta discussed this a few times already, but the movie 2012 broke all sorts of records at the weekend. I’d make a big stink about Americans having zero taste, but if I could make $80 zillion per movie sleeping through my lines like the cast of 2012 presumably did, you can guarantee I’d be right there alongside them. That aside, the topic on the radio show was this: what is it about disaster movies that make people so excited?

Note: This post contains Modern Warfare 2 spoilers. If you’re not cool with reading spoilers, well, then move along, nothing to see here (but you’re missing out!).