Sega parent Sega Sammy posted a profit and increased sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, but continued losses for its games division means the company will increase its focus on content geared towards social networking services and smartphones.

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As plans go, it probably sounded pretty watertight. Hire two gorgeous models. Put them on stage in front of the press. Get them to show off the controller-free awesomeness of Kinect. Retire to the nearest drinking establishment for beers and good times. What could possibly go wrong? ...

Veteran game designer and erstwhile astronaut Richard "Lord British" Garriott has prevailed in his legal action against former employer NCsoft, scoring $28 million in a dispute over stock options and the circumstances of his departure from the company. A federal court yesterday ruled that NCsoft had deprived Garriott of profits on his stock options by mis-categorizing his exit. The Ultima creator, whose last project with NCsoft was the disappointing Tabula Rasa, left the company in ...

You think you’re conscious, but you’re not entirely sure. You don’t remember waking up, and if you did, you certainly don’t remember how long ago. All there may ever have been is this hazy, hot, uncomfortable limbo. The vague memories of your life before it may themselves have been a dream, for all the plausibility of any emotion or experience beyond the pain of this thirsty, bone-aching, thought-sucking hell.

You slither out of bed and crawl to living room. You drag yourself like a busted Terminator over to the sofa, fall upon it with the impact of an dinosaur-wiping asteroid, and try to think of a game with which to sooth your tortured mind. But they’re all too loud, or too reliant on skill, or too fast-paced, or have narratives you couldn’t possibly concentrate on through your current haze of hot-skulled stupidity.

But fear not, friends. Games can have the answer to this disgusting state. They require very careful choosing (after all, the trip back to the shelf if it all goes wrong is hardship enough to make you give up on the whole escapade), but choose carefully we have. This list is tried and tested, and one weekend soon, it may save your life.  ...

While many major Japanese game companies seem to be struggling to stay healthy in the face of a strong yen and Western market factors -- Capcom yesterday posted a dramatic 90 percent profit decline and Nintendo opened up a $288.4 million loss in its first quarter -- the picture is a bit better for Sega, which turned a profit in its own first quarter report today. Sega Sammy, the holding company that is parent to ...

A newly signed deal between Lovefilm and streaming technology provider Widevine will enable the European film rental service to offer movies on demand via game consoles and other devices.

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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.'"