Just how much is a billion dollars? If you had a billion one dollar bills and counted each one, at the rate of a dollar per second, it would take you 30 years to complete the task! That's the kind of counting PC game makers face for selling, well, almost a billion dollars worth of games in 2006. According to the NPD Group, the exact figure is US$ 970 million - which may not be a billion but it's pretty darn close.

Leading the pack of  the hottest PC game last year is Blizzard's World of Warcraft which sold 969,000 units. In second place is The Sims 2 from EA which moved 598,000 units. However, the The Sims franchise dominated the list with five titles in the top 10.

Since we're in the realm of the big numbers, we might as well give you NPD's total PC video game hardware, software and accessories sales digits in 2006: US $13.5 billion.

And here's the rest of the top ten best-selling games of 2006 according to NPD:

1. World of Warcraft (VU Games)
2. The Sims 2 (EA)
3. The Sims 2: Open for Business (EA)
4. Star Wars: Empire at War (LucasArts)
5. The Sims 2: Pets (EA)
6. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Take 2)
7. Age of Empires III (Microsoft)
8. The Sims 2 Family Fun (EA)
9. Civilisation IV (Take 2)
10. The Sims 2 Nightlife (EA)

Blizzard announced it is delaying its 2.0.5 client-side patch until an alternate means of distributing it is available. Earlier patch v2.0.5 had a bug responsible for the sudden disconnection of players from the game and preventing  them from logging in. This was fixed shortly after its release.

The updates have been concluded and players with 2.0.4 and 2.0.5 game versions should be able to log in. Players who have updated to v2.0.5 need not take any further action. Blizzard plans to get everyone else updated to 2.0.5 by January 15.

Finally, the WoW developer wants to thank all players for their patience and apologizes for any inconvenience this incident may have caused.

Based on the movie that made pirates uber-cool again, Pirates of the Caribbean Online is now almost visible on the horizon. During his recent keynote at the CES, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced what every Capt. Jack Sparrow wanna-be has been been waiting for - the arrival of the Black Pearl on the MMORPG scene.

The game's Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) given by Iger isn't exactly solid - sometime later this year - but it will do for now. The important thing is the ship is getting closer to shore. Before you know it, the air will be thick with adventure. Ahoy, ye mangy seadogs, ye best brush up on your pirate lingo!

Second Life developer Linden Lab announced the delayed release of its v1.13.2 update originally scheduled for today. According to the company, continued testing of 1.13.2 on the Beta Test Grid produced some issues with region crossings and attachments. The developer said some of the bug fixes in 1.13.2 may have actually made certain existing bugs worse.

The company decided to postpone the update to the 1.13.2 code base rather than risk any detrimental effects to the main grid. "We still need a full release window today to get out some server patches to improve the database performance under load, and down time for operational work including adding some additional bandwidth between our server co-location facilities."

It will be a bloody Valentine's day in Europe when GOA releases Dark Age of Camelot: Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the seventh expansion of DAoC on February 14. If you're the hopelessly unromantic type looking for another reason to celebrate on V-day, the availability of the expansion pack also celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Dark Age of Camelot in Europe.

Producer Walt Yarbrough said, "This expansion is a great way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Dark Age of Camelot. Labyrinth of the Minotaur is rich with new content and adds exciting new features to the game that will challenge players. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to lose yourself in Dark Age of Camelot!"

And because celebrating DAoC's anniversary doesn't require buying chocolates, flowers, or jewelry, it's also a cheaper alternative to V-day.

If your massively addicted to EVE Online, you better get some substitute quick fix ready. On January 4, its Tranquility super-computer clusterscan will undergo an extended 24 hour downtime for external network infrastructure changes and database server software updates. Tranquility can support at least 50,000 simultaneous users.

The EVE Online team says the changes and upgrade shouldn't take more than 12 hours but the network's stability or connectivity cannot be guaranteed until after the end of the scheduled downtime.

Those of you who can't wait to log on before the end of the scheduled maintenance will be playing 'at risk'. And since you've been warned, you will not be reimbursed for losses incurred by upgrade related issues.

What are you supposed to do during the downtime? The team encourages training for a long duration skill. We also suggest you re-introduce yourselves to your family and friends.

Voyage Century Online, which sailed the beta seas December 22, is adding a third server so more virtual sailors, pirates, adventurers, and merchants can hop aboard. Starting January 5, the De Gama server will join the two other servers, Columbus and Magellan. De Gama, the historical figure, was the first man to complete the all-water trade route between Europe and India.

Voyage Century Online is a massively multiplayer online nautical game set in the 16th Century. It combines conflict and adventure on land and sea.

If you ever wondered what life was like back before radar and cruise ships, Voyage Century Online offers everything imaginable from seafaring era where romance and adventures await those brave enough to lose sight of the land and head for the open waters. If you've always wanted to say "Avast, ye land lubbers! We come to pillage your town, drink your rum, and chase your women!", this is your chance.

The game features:

• Huge game world background: the seven seas, 1026 findings, 206 kinds of ship, 54 ports and 14 empires
• PvP system: PK, guild war, city battle and world war.
• Free profession: be a pirate, a merchant, an explorer, a fish-man or a peasant in the village
• Thousands of tasks: locate lost treasures and take on ghostly pirates

Entropia Universe will undergo a big bang as gamers pop virtual bottles of Sjoeblom winery sparkling wine to welcome the New Year. A limited number of bottles of the bubbly have been distributed to Entropia members on December 19. Just like the real thing, they don't come cheap.  A high demand for the bottled spirits has raised its trading value to over US$ 15 per bottle.

Entropia avatars will be able to pop the cork on their bottles and enjoy the New Year's festivities at the stroke of midnight in their respective time zones. With players from all over the globe, citizens of Entropia Universe will celebrate the New Year for a full 24 hours. Most of them will probably wake up with virtual hangovers the next day.

Not sure if you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa? Wait till you see how virtual worlds celebrate the holidays. Basically, most MMORPG games take the concept of Christmas and give it that virtual twist.

In City of Heroes, this time of the year is marked with gifts littering the streets of Paragon City. While some contain goodies some may, in fact, be harboring vicious monsters. Only in a virtual world.

This time of the year Guild Wars celebrates Wintersday where the cities Lion's Arch, Ascalon City, Droknar's Forge, and Kamadan try to out do each other in the holiday decor department.

In Star Wars Galaxies, players deck their virtual homes with wreaths and trees and greet each other happy Wookie Life Day or sing "Wookie Wonderland" by the fire.

It's beginning to look lot like, not Christmas, but the Feast of the Winter Veil in World of Warcraft. And don't hold your breath for Santa. He isn't coming. Instead keep an eye on a kindly old elf who dresses in red and sports a gray beard known as Greatfather Winter.

Whether you're in the real world or in a virtual one, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry ________ (fill in the blank with the holiday name of your choice).

If you have been praying to Santa for a one-stop, everything-and-nothing-but Final Fantasy franchise website this Christmas, well you got your wish. Square Enix has opened a website dedicated to the wildly popular Final Fantasy series. The site has info on every title ever released on practically all gaming platforms known to man (except Wii for now) including:

• PS3 Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII
• PSP Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics
• Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XI
• Nintendo DS Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Ring of Fates

Info on other titles for PS2, GBA, PC and mobile are also available. The FF site should be heaven sent for those of you who may have lost track of the extremely prolific franchise. There's only one catch. The website is in Japanese.