Microsoft announces big numbers for Gears of War franchise sales.

Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad continue to beat the odds and make the Gears of War franchise one of gaming’s most impressive success stories. A new report has the sci-fi action series selling more than 19 million units since the first game hit shelves in 2006.

According to Joystiq, the Gears of War franchise has sold more than a million additional units in the time between a July report from Microsoft and a recent update from the company which trumpeted the series’ landmark sales. While specific sales figures haven’t been made available for the most recent release, Gears of War 3, the new tally suggests that there’s been quite a few more units sold since the game moved more than 3 million copies in its first week of release.

All told, the Gears of War franchise encompasses three games and a long list of DLC packages. A fourth game, Gears of War: Judgement, was announced in May of this year and is scheduled for a March 2013 release.

The new game will follow returning characters Baird and Cole and feature a few new characters, including “a straight-edge elite Onyx Guard and a refugee of the URI.” As we saw at E3, Judgment will be a prequel “told through a series of flashbacks, as the trial [of Baird and Cole] makes up the framework of the story. But beyond being part of the narrative, this actually becomes an integral piece of the gameplay itself.”

Players who adopt a Cinder Kitten make a donation to the American Red Cross.

Blizzard Entertainment has turned their attentions — and those of the World of Warcraft community — to disaster relief once again with the announcement of a new in-game pet that players can purchase, with all proceeds going toward Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts.

The arrival of the Cinder Kitten was announced on Blizzard’s Battle.net website, with the fiery feline going up for adoption later this year. The Cinder Kitten will cost $10, and all proceeds will go to American Red Cross.

“Your support will enable the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support, and other assistance to survivors of disasters like Superstorm Sandy,” states the announcement.

Blizzard and the World of Warcraft community previously teamed up to raise more than $2 million for the tsunami relief effort in Japan using the sale of Cenarion Hatchling in-game pets.

More information about the Cinder Kitten and the exact day it will be available for adoption is likely to come soon.

The phablet world started with one device, the Samsung Galaxy Note. Since then, it looks like the market is exploding. The LG Intuition (Vu), the HTC Droid DNA (J Butterfly), Oppo Find 5 and now a Sony Phablet as well?

The so-called Yuga is a 5-inch quad-core Sony handset that is believed to arrive sometime in early 2013. The above image comes from a Swiss Android site and apparently is a prototype for the Sony flagship phablet. According to the source, the device will run on a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 12MP camera and a 5-inch 1080p display— from the sounds of it the specs are very close to the HTC J Butterfly (aka Droid DNA).

Keep in mind that the somewhat boring design of the Yuga doesn’t necessarily represent its final form. Considering the device isn’t arriving until sometime in early 2013, this is likely just pre-production hardware that could dramatically differ from the actual finalized production model.

Don’t be shocked if we officially see this the Yuga by Sony at CES 2013. What do you think, would you be interested in a Sony-made 1080p phablet?