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While the listings no longer exist, IGN says Buy.com had the Hardened version priced at $79.99, and the ultimate Prestige version priced at $149.99, although there were no details on what these versions would supposedly include. When asked for comment, Activision wouldn't confirm or deny the existence of the deluxe versions, with a representative only saying that "we haven't made any announcements to date."

You will of course recall that the Prestige version of Modern Warfare 2 last year included no less than a real, working pair of night vision goggles, which certainly sets a high bar for whatever items a Prestige version of Black Ops may include. If Activision does indeed release such a deluxe version for the game, we can only hope the bonus item is a Vietnam-era flamethrower. Or at the very least a KA-BAR knife?

"From my group, which is the internal Bethesda development team, probably not," Howard said in response to whether there's any consideration for Wii development. "The stuff we're doing is a better fit on the other platforms. You can never say never, but I think for the kind of games that we like to play and make, it fits the other platforms."

And as for the once-considered iPhone development, Howard says those plans changed some time after Bethesda parent company ZeniMax acquired id Software last year. "Initially, we were like, 'OK, we're going to do something; we have a really cool design for a game,'" Howard explained. "Once the id thing came about, they were doing enough mobile stuff that I kind of felt, 'OK, they're doing some really good stuff right now; let's see how that market goes before I start putting my own time or other people's time into something that, at the end of the day, might be a distraction from the bigger game that we need to be making.'"

In a statement, Blackman thanked LucasArts and said that he's "really grateful for their ongoing support."

"While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career," he said.

Following Nintendo's disappointing financial results, Capcom have also reported "sluggish" results, with a 90% decrease in profit down from the same time last year -- though the company still managed a profit; admittedly a mere 213 million yen, or roughly 2.4 million dollars.

As with Nintendo, Capcom blamed an unfavourable exchange rate, particularly as a result of "US and European markets shrinking under the stagnating economy." However, the poor results may have some wide-ranging results for Capcom's future release schedule. The company recently announced that they intend to increase the output of releases in their most popular franchises, and their financial report squarely places the "drastic decline" in profitability on the "increase of new flagship titles release from the same term of the previous year, when most sales were made of repeat titles." This "resulted in higher game development costs."

Things are looking up for Sony following the company's financial results for the first quarter of 2010. For the period ending June 30, the Japanese electronics giant recorded overall operating profits of $753 million -- a massive improvement over the nearly $300 million loss the corporation posted during the same timeframe last year.

According to Sony's breakdown (via Gamesindustry.biz), the PlayStation division still ran at a loss during this last quarter, though it's making huge strides towards profitability. Losses reached just $43 million during Q1 of this year, which adds up to just over a tenth of the previous year's first-quarter deficiency of $422 million.

Much of those reduced losses can be attributed to increased sales for PlayStation 3 hardware and software. Sony more than doubled the number of PS3 consoles sold during the first quarter compared to 2009's figures, reaching 2.4 million units (up against last year's 1.1 million). The company moved an equally impressive number of PS3 games, with over 24.8 copies sold during the same period. Q1 2009's number: 14.8 million.

Called "Golems of Amgarrak," the DLC appears to take you back into the Deep Roads of Orzammar, as it adds a quest that follows a group of Dwarves who went missing in an ancient ruin where an army of golems (we're guessing golems of Amgarrak) was being created. The DLC will allow you to either import a character from Origins or create a new high-level character to play through, and apparently an advanced character will be needed as BioWare describes it as "an advanced challenge for even the most experienced adventurers."

The DLC will also add new characters to meet and new creatures to battle, and will offer new rewards that can be transferred into the main quests of Origins or Awakening.

While the game was playable at both GDC and E3, it seems that it wasn't quite ready. Zipper didn't say why the game has been delayed, but they did say that they didn't want to take "any shortcuts."

"Instead, we want to deliver the best and most immersive SOCOM game we possibly can and we're going to use our extra time to do just that," Zipper Interactive community manager Jeremy Dunham wrote.

The Metalocalypse game that was to be released by Konami has been canceled, according to online reports.

Based on the Adult Swim series, Metalocalypse: Dethgame was to be a beat-em-up released digitally on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was being developed by Kick-Ass and Screwjumper! developer Frozen Codebase.

Titled Tales of Graces F, the high-def update will feature new special attacks and a new outfit for the heroine Sophie along with the expected visual improvements. A second Tales game was also announced for the PS3, but it is currently nameless.

The third game is Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3, and is currently under development for the PSP. It will feature appearances by some 80 Tales characters and is scheduled for release next year.

In addition, Linkin Park's next single, "The Catalyst," will be featured an upcoming trailer for Medal of Honor. The video will be directed by the band's DJ, Joe Hahn, and will contain both live-action clips and footage from the game. It's set to debut August 1 on the Medal of Honor website.

As for Medal of Honor itself, you can expect EA's take on modern warfare beginning October 12 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Playlogic posted a $20 million annual loss for the year ending December 31, 2009. That was despite a 23% increase in revenues to $11.1 million. It was a major jump in losses, having lost $9.5 million in 2008, though part of it was due to a one-time "impairment charge" of $4.75 million.

The bankruptcy doesn't come as a complete surprise. Back in May, a filing from Playlogic noted, "There is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. If the company does not obtain any necessary financing, we may need to cease operations."

Bilson didn't offer up any details about it other than his comment that it would be less of a simulation, but did note that it wasn't Smackdown vs. Raw Online, the Asia-only PC version of SvR. Bilson explained we likely won't see the game the game brought to the West in order to avoid cannibalizing sales of the Smackdown vs. Raw series proper, and also because it would likely need to be modified to work for Western audiences.

"[Smackdown! vs Raw Online] is for Asia," he said. "I don't think there's any chance of that coming to the US or Europe, not soon anyway. We don't want to confuse Smackdown Vs. Raw! [the brand] with that online free-to-play game.

You can find the site at the enigmatic URL whatisicarus.com, but for now, all you're going to see is a barren grayish-black space with one small grey spec near the bottom (see above for the spec in all its glory). So no, you're not going to learn a whole lot about Levine's new project from the site yet, but at least this does confirm Irrational Games is indeed finally setting up for a full announcement soon, as they also recently sent out invites for an event in New York City on August 11.

Besides being a brand new IP, nothing else is known about Project Icarus, which will be the first title released by Irrational Games since BioShock in 2007 (BioShock 2 was handled by a different team at 2K Marin). Hopefully this teaser site will be updated with more info in the days ahead, so we'll keep our eyes peeled. In the meanwhile, feel free to stare into the site's abyss for any possible hidden clues, but be wary! For if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

"The project began last August, I think," Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono told Famitsu magazine in an interview published this week. "SFIV and Tekken 6 had just come out and the fighting genre was starting to get some life back into it, and so we had a discussion about how to keep this excitement going. As things went forward, we figured that we should probably do something major, put on a real big fireworks show. It was then that Harada [Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada] said he was really frustrated when he saw Capcom teaming up with SNK back in the day."

"Personally speaking, I've been telling people that I want to do a crossover with Street Fighter for at least the past 13 years," added, "I don't mean to flatter Mr. Ono, but I think Street Fighter is seen as the bellweather of the entire genre, the foundation for everything else. It's a major enough title that even people who don't play fighters know who Ryu and Ken are. So, to be honest, part of me wanted to get ourselves on the same playing field as Street Fighter."

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced the "PlayStation Logo Licensing Program," a new initiative which is targeted towards allowing manufacturers to use the logo on "lifestyle products from apparel to everyday items."

Licensees who enter into an agreement with Sony though the program will be able to use the logos from the PS3, PSP, PSPgo, PS2 and PlayStation, as well as using the "iconic marks" of the cross, triangle, square and circle. Sony provided a conceptual design as an example of possible usage.

Of particular note are the tracks by Alice Cooper and The Runaways, which were rerecorded by their respective artists specifically for Warriors of Rock. Other standouts include songs from supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Blue Öyster Cult, and Styx, as well as The Ramones' take on the Spider-Man theme song from the 1960s.

Read up on the full list of newly announced Guitar Hero tracks below:

According to the report, Capcom plans to rely more on North American and European studios to develop new entries in their established franchises. The goal is to reduce development times from four years to two or three years, and increase their frequency of releases from two new entries in major franchises each year to three or four. All of this is an effort to avoid the drop in sales and profits Capcom experienced last year.

The outline of Capcom's plan can already be seen coming into effect, as development duties for Dead Rising 2 is already in Canadian developer Blue Castle Games' hands. Furthermore, rumor has it England developer Ninja Theory (creators of Heavenly Sword and the upcoming Enslaved) has been tapped for the next Devil May Cry.

If a rumor spreading around the net this morning turns out to be accurate, it looks like we may expect to hear a lot of Westside Connection on the soundtrack to the next Grand Theft Auto. VG247 reports (absurdly) that according to a mysterious anonymous source, Rockstar has chosen Hollywood as the setting -- or at least the inspiration for the probably fictional setting -- of Grand Theft Auto 5.

And if a bizarre dialogue with an anonymous source seems a bit of a stretch to believe on its own, note that Eurogamer also later reported this morning that their own independent (and also anonymous) source told them Rockstar is definitely researching Hollywood, although this source couldn't confirm if the research was for Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar, unsurprisingly, only said that they wouldn't comment on "rumour or speculation."

There's still no telling when Rockstar will actually announced GTA5 so we can all find out its setting for sure, though. Rumor initially had it they may have had the bombshell announcement planned for E3 back in June, but obviously that never came to pass. So until Rockstar does decide to share the news, take these rumors with a grain of salt.

While overall sales have dropped some 65 percent to 19.3 million euros ($25 million), online sales have risen 320 percent to 8.4 million euros ($11 million). Subscriptions for Champions Online and Star Trek Online have also reportedly risen.

The overall drop can likely be attributed to the lack of major releases compared to last year. In Q1 2009, Atari released Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbusters, but this past quarter's only release was Sandlot Sluggers.