Midway’s been in deep water for some time now but finally Warner Bros. has picked them up and acquired all of their assets. But one question remains, what will the studio be called?

It was previously thought that Midway would just cease to exist and now operate under the Warner Bros. brand. However, Midway exec Geoff Mogilner was quoted to have said the following:

The name and the mark are owned by Warner Bros. and it is up to them to figure out the branding strategy.

Well Warner Bros., as long as you come out with a new Mortal Kombat game, we’ll call it even.

Read (Joystiq)

Even though franchises such as Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest have been seeing some ridiculously high numbers, it doesn’t mean that the Japanese gaming market is recession proof.

Recent reports are saying that sales were 24% lower in the first half of 2009 than they were in 2008. While this somewaht makes sense due to the fact thatlast year had games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Monster Hunter Portable it’s proof that an economical recessions hurts all industries.

Luckily, buzz suggests that games such as Dragon Quest IX, Monster Hunter 3 and Fintal Fantasy XII (all shipping later this year0 will bring the Japanese gaming market back to its glory days.

Read (Joystiq)

Not too long ago buzz began circulating the internet that suggested Midway’s San Deigo studios were in the final stages of being purchased by Warner Bros. Unfortunately for them, they have recently released a statement that Warner Bros. will not be picking them up.

And, to make things worse, they said that they have just 60 days to find a buyer before going completely out of business. Common you foreign investors, Midway needs your money help!

Read (Joystiq)

Crysis was known for its great graphics capable of melting pretty much any rig you threw at it but Crytek failing to release the game on consoles evidentally wasn’t a very smart move as they were missing out on a huge chunk of change.

Well, it looks like the company has woken up as Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli was quoted to say the following:

“It’s a question of more than economics. At the end of the day we’re paying salaries and we all have to live, but that’s one side of this job. But most importantly and a bit more tangible to us are the families, the nephews, and sons who ask, ‘Why aren’t you going to consoles?’”

So not only did they need to do it for the money, but they were doing it to make those poor Crysis deprived children happy. You get em’ Crytek!

Read (Kotaku)

We haven’t heard much out of Stockholm based Avalanche Studios since Just Cause 2‘s announcement but today brings some unfortunate news — The Swiss developement studio has announced that they have been forced to lay off 20 employees due to current economic conditions.

However, Avalanche CEO Christofer Sundberg assures us that these layoffs will not affect the studio’s projects with Just Cause 2 set to be showcased at next month’s E3. Oh yeah, it’s going to be big.

Read (GI.biz)

When newscasters aren’t reporting on the dangers of the swine flu, they’re speculating on the recession, namely when we can expect to be out of it. As things worsened the video games industry grew despite declining currency values, rising unemployment rates and general low-level panic. Yet recently things have started to go the other way for the industry, with analyst Douglas McIntyre saying that this is an extremely bad sign, pointing to lower console and game sales than last year as a suggestion that most people’s discretionary income has dried up.

Don’t panic people, because there’s a rational explanation for all this. When Mr. McIntyre suggests that video games are a reflection of how much consumers have to spend, he’s correct, but he fails to account for the fact that unlike other discretionary spending such as food or apparel, the video game market fluctuates depending on what’s available. There’s a near continual trickle of video games released year round but the titles that really spur sales are fewer and often clustered around certain periods of time. In April 2008 both GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii were released, two powerhouse titles that gobbled up cash, while this year April didn’t have much to compete.

Falling console sales can simply be attributed as much to market saturation as low cash flow. In 2008 the Wii and PS3 had been out for around a year and a half. Now they’ve been available for two and a half, with the Xbox 360 having been on the shelf even longer. No matter how powerful, intuitive or flashy a console is eventually it’s going to hit the point where the number of people hoping to buy one drops off.

Right now fans are holding out for the big titles. E3 is on the horizon, meaning that many developers are holding back their big guns to debut at the event, thus achieving the maximum publicity. Games aren’t struggling, you’ve just got a lot of gamers playing through old favorites while they wait for the next big game instead of picking up less impressive titles.

Rumor has it that Microsoft is currently planning to return the Xbox 360 Elite to limited availablity as they original wanted.

But why? Well, since the Elite is priced significantly higher than the lower tier models, consumer demand has dropped due to the economy leading retailers to be less fond of the SKU.

When I say they will be returned to limited availability, I mean that Microsoft will take advantage of it’s marketability and use it to coincide with the release of games like they did with Resident Evil 5.

While this is still just a rumor it seems completely plausible.

Read (Fudzilla)

It seems that a large group of people have become financially unstable to the point where they have had to sacrifice their beloved game consoles.

No they didn’t take them out back and smashed them, they pawned them at their local pawn shop:

“We’re seeing a lot of expensive video game systems, PlayStation 3s and X-Box and others, and a lot of LCDs (flat-screen televisions),” Ace Pawn Shop manager Chris Banul told the Associated Press.

Kotaku reports that the pawnshop empire Cash America has acquired over $1 billion in profits last year for the first time since the companies creation, 25 years ago.

All I know is my Wii would definitly go before my 360.

Proving that games can have political agendas too, we take a look at Trillion Dollar Bailout, fresh off the line from the folks at Addictive Games.

How can I tell that the game has an agenda, you ask?  Well, it’s not tough.  Basically, you have two options–hand out bags of loot or slap petitioners for cash upside the head.  Seriously–your buttons are “bag” and “slap”, with accompanying sound effects. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the screen is a bar, ostensibly the economy.  You watch as your choices cause the bar to go up and down.  It’s interesting that most of the time, when you hand out large wads of cash to businesses, the bar goes down, whilst handing out the loot to homeowners (who ask for relatively little alongside the corps) usually makes the bar trend up.

Circumstancial evidence, you might say, indignantly.  All hearsay!  Well, if you still don’t think there’s an agenda from my admittedly roundabout proofs, how about this quote about the game’s description?

Punish greedy fat cats and save honest peoples! Hand out moneys to homeowners. Put the hurt on dudes in suits! Do it right and save the world!

Agenda?  Oh yeah.  The problem with this, of course, is that the agenda was the overmastering point of the game, to the point that they forgot to make a game.  If you play it exactly as described, you will win. The economy will recover.  Try it in a contrarian fashion (back the businesses) and it’ll be bread lines for all.  It’s a bad sign when they actually tell you how to win in the game’s description, and doesn’t make for much fun.  I like a hint when I’m stuck, not when I walk in.

It’s all over the news; the economy sucks, WE KNOW, but not for Activision Blizzard. The company responsible for franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero, have recently gotten some numbers and, if you’re the jealous type, look away now.

In 2008 alone, Activision Blizzard raked in $5 billion, with $429 million of that during the holidays making it a record year for the company.

And, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, god knows how many Guitar Hero titles, and possibly Starcraft 2 just over the horizon, 2009 is shaping up to be an even bigger year for the mega publisher.

Read (Kotaku)