Don't expect the PS4 anytime soon.

• Next Xbox not coming out in 2012, Sony waiting on Microsoft before announcing PS4:  Microsoft’s French marketing manager Cedrick Delmas recently told French news website Le Point.fr that the next Xbox won’t be released in 2012, noting that “The cycle of the Xbox 360 is by no means complete.”  Meanwhile, in an interview with the same French website, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Phillipe Cardon says that Sony will be the last to announce its next system.

-Nick’s take:  Games like Battlefield 3prove that current-gen consoles need to be replaced.  With the next Xbox not coming out until at least 2013 and Sony’s PS4 not being released until after the next Xbox, however, it looks like gamers will have to stick to their current systems for now.  Expect Microsoft to at least drop hints about the next Xbox at E3 in June.  All eyes will be on the release of Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U (slated for an end of 2012 release) to see if there is consumer demand for new consoles.

THQ had a very rough week.

• THQ had a very rough week:  After vowing to ditch the family game market in favor of pursuing core gamers with franchises such as Saint’s Row and WWE, THQ had a terrible week that went from bad to worse.  On Tuesday, THQ was issued a warning from the NASDAW global securities market that its stock had been valued at less than $1 for more than 30 days and was now facing a delisting if THQ’s stocks don’t rebound to $1 or more by July 23.  Then, early Wednesday morning, the head of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Mobile Special Interest Group said that THQ had cut 170 employees.  That figure proved to be optimistic, however, as THQ noted later in the day that it had actually lain off 240 employees.  As a result, THQ CEO Brian Farrell will be taking a 50 percent pay cut.  Finally, on Thursday we learned that THQ had a horrible 2011 holiday quarter, with a total net loss of $55.9 million.  In a statement, Mr. Farrell noted that “Sales of the uDraw GameTablet and related software, and other titles in the kids, family and casual category were far weaker than anticipated, substantially reducing our financial results for the quarter.”

-Nick’s take:  Things weren’t all doom and gloom for THQ, as it was revealed that Saint’s Row the Third shipped 3.8 million copies so far and WWE ’12 has shipped more than 2 million copies.  Still, THQ is in trouble right now, and I’m not sure that focusing on the volatile hardcore market is the right way for THQ to rebound.  With solid franchises like Saint’s Row, Darksiders, and WWEunder its belt, however, maybe THQ can turn things around with a bit of luck and a new hit IP or two.

Bungie's website will no longer be updated with players' Halo data come March 31.

• Bungie.net ending Halo updates/features on March 31:  After Bungie officially handed the reins of the Halo franchise that it created to new Microsoft studio 343 Industries last year, fans could at least still go to Bungie.net for updated Halo player stats.  Come March 31, however, that will no longer be the case.  Bungie.net will still store all legacy Halo player data, however.  In addition to Halo player stats, the Bungie Pro service that gave hardcore players unlimited data storage for saving Halo videos and gametypes will no longer function starting March 31.  343 Industries—come March 31—will handle all updated Halo stats via its Halo franchise app, Halo Waypoint (available as a free download on Xbox Live).

 -Nick’s take:  This bit of news affects me personally, as Halo has been my favorite video game franchise ever since I first played Halo:  Combat Evolved back in 2001.  Bungie is working on what I believe to be an MMOFPS for next-gen consoles, so it’s understandable and expected that they would have to pass the burden of stat-tracking on to 343 at some point in time.  Halo seems to be in good hands at 343, but Bungie will always be the main reason Halo has been such a successful franchise.

Due to DRM, many PC/Mac Ubisoft games will be unplayable next week.

• DRM-equipped Ubisoft games to be unplayable on PC next week:  DRM (digital rights management) continues to be a hot-button topic in the PC gaming world.  Publishers and developers use DRM in an effort to combat piracy, while gamers argue that DRM doesn’t work and actually hurts legal customers of those games.  The anti-DRM crowd is getting another reason to hate DRM, as many of notorious DRM supporter Ubisoft’s PC and Mac DRM-equipped games—such as Might & Magic:  Heroes 6 and the Mac version of Assassin’s Creed—will be unavailable for play starting next Tuesday (February 7) due to server updates.  Ubisoft does not yet know when these games will become available for play again, either.

-Nick’s take:  Punishing legal video game purchasers is a big no-no, yet that’s exactly what DRM supporters like Ubisoft do.  It’s not like pirates haven’t already figured out how to crack the DRM and leak copies online before a game’s release, anyway.  This should be a wakeup call for Ubisoft; stop including invasive DRM in your games!

In Oklahoma, games with this sticker may soon be taxed.

• Oklahoma representative proposes new tax on violent video games:  Oklahoma state representative William Fourkiller wants to place a one-percent tax on any game rated “T” for Teen or higher by the ESRB.  The tax money would go towards programs aimed at preventing bullying and childhood obesity.

-Nick’s take:  “Violent video games contribute to some of our societal problems like obesity and bullying,” according to Mr. Fourkiller.  In other words, this tax is based upon one man’s opinion that is backed by very little (often contradictory) scientific data.  Preventing bullying and childhood obesity are noble goals, but they seem like red herrings meant to distract people from the shoddy science that is the very reason for this tax.  Taxing video games doesn’t make sense and always seems like a money grab, especially in this case where Teen rated games would be taxed.

New Sony president/CEO Kaz Hirai

• Kaz Hirai named president and CEO of Sony:  Current president of Sony Computer Entertainment International Kaz Hirai will replace current Sony president Howard Stringer as president and CEO of Sony on April 1.  Hirai was instrumental in launching the PS2 and PS3 for Sony, as well as infamous for giving the world the “Rrriiiidddge Racer!” meme at E3 a few years back.

-Nick’s take:   Congratulations to Mr. Hirai for his big promotion.  He’s been instrumental in the PlayStation brand’s success at Sony and will surely put video games near the top of Sony’s priorities going forward.

Be prepared to die… a lot.

Limbo isn’t a particularly long game, the first time I played it I ended up beating it in a single session, but every second of this puzzle based platformer radiates pure joy (Despite the overall gloomy atmosphere of the entire game) and really deserves to be shared with every gamer possible, so I’m glad that PS3 and PC gamers will have the opportunity to enjoy the wonder and frustration that is Limbo.

Ratings systems frequently give away upcoming game announcements, as it did with Limbo for the PS3. In this case Sony Computer Entertainment Korea submitted a rating and it was quickly picked up by gaming news.

“Limbo is production for Steam and PSN, and is coming very soon,” Playdead CEO and co-founder Dino Patti told Edge. “I can’t elaborate more at this moment, but we will have more details soon.”

Keep a weather eye on the horizon PS3 and PC owners, Limbo will be heading your way shortly.

The real gem of this video is the debut gameplay from the newly designed Spec-Ops “Survival” mode in which players fight wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies. Even Simon Pegg, another of Fallon’s guests got in on the action with a character named “Private Pegg” Fallon and Pegg proceeded to fumble their way through the first wave of enemies before the segment ended. But getting a good look at the engine and some unseen gameplay was worth it only being a short demonstration.

All in all it was a nice little segment. Modern Warfare 3 launches November 8th in the US.

According to a statement by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot back in February, the next Assassin’s Creed game would be revealed in May and would be a full “packaged title” rather than an expansion. While the timing is right for the reveal, I really don’t think they meant to unveil it in the manner they did.

The AC Facebook page now has the “Spead the Word” file up there, so should you choose to ‘share and like’ the AC page, you’ll get a sneak peak at the new teaser trailer that’s been floating around.

Or you could just go here

So while we may not have any real confirmation as to the game’s purpose, style, time period, or intent, we do at least have some vague trailer to keep us occupied until those details become available.

GTTV’s Geoff Keighley recently had the opportunity to interview Bethesda’s Todd Howard about Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, while the 15 minute interview didn’t really unveil any new gameplay details it did shed some light on a few technical aspects that we haven’t heard about yet.

We won’t be playing as a dragon, throwing snowballs, or making snow angels, but players will be able to completely customize their characters in ways not seen before in the Elder Scrolls universe. Using skills, abilities, and weapons will increase both their individual levels as well as your character’s overall level, a feature that is intended to balance out the leveling issues found in Oblivion and allow players to change their character around instead of being locked into a particular skillset.

When asked about Horses and their implementation in Skyrim, Howard had this to say.

“I would say we want to do that, it’s something we are definitely messing with. We just want make sure we to do it right, so if it’s a feature we think is really good and adds a lot to the game we’ll leave it in, and if we think is rough and we can’t get it there we’ll probably take it out, but it’s… I don’t want to promise it yet but it’s something we’d really like to have.”

If Skyrim has half of what we’ve heard, then it’s likely to be one of, if not the best game of the year. Really though? Is there any doubt that Skyrim is going to be amazing? When have these guys ever let us down?

The interview can be viewed over at Gametrailers.

Todd Howard Skyrim Interview Part I
Todd Howard Skyrim Interview Part II

Mass Effect 2: Arrival will tell the story of Commander Shepard’s journey to the fringes of the galaxy to save an undercover operative who could have crucial information regarding a possible upcoming Reaper invasion.  Arrival is meant to bridge the gap between Mass Effect 2 and 3, setting the stage for the final confrontation between the galaxy’s inhabitants and the Reapers.

“All year, we have been extremely honored and humbled by the reception we have received for Mass Effect 2 from players around the world, including our post release DLC”, said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer, Mass Effect series. “Mass Effect: Arrival is an exciting extension to Mass Effect 2 and will show players just how close the Reapers are to returning and completing their deadly harvest.”

Probably not a love interest.

A problem I find with a great number of DLC packs out there is that they rarely add anything to the game itself, they’re created as a means of generating cash-flow rather than deepening the background and story of the game itself, Bioware stands out as an exception to this. Bioware has done extremely well in the DLC market, their efforts have extended the game-life of Mass Effect 2 by continually generating new content for players to chew on.

Last year, Ray Muzyka, BioWare CEO, told X360A that the support has been “outstanding” for the DLC thus far, allowing them to plough more cash into building more content.

“So the fans have been incredibly supportive and that allows us to invest more back for them,” he continued, “Building more content, making sure it’s really awesome, and try and sustain it post-launch. That’s one of our goals in all of our franchises.”

Hackett Returns

Speculation continues as to what we’ll see in Arrival, but you can be sure there will be a few throwbacks to previous ME moments, including the return of Admiral Hackett,  voiced by the ever-popular nerd favorite, Lance Henriksen.

Mass Effect 2: Arrival is scheduled for release on March 29th for 560 MS points, 560 Bioware Points,  or $6.99

Luckily the fine folks over at Kotaku got in touch with Nintendo, whose Japanese headquarters are in Kyoto (quite a way from the earthquake/tsunami’s damage center), to find out the truth behind the matter.  J.C. Smith, a spokesperson for Nintendo said,

” [the rumor is] False. Everyone at the Pokemon Company and Gamefreak is fine,”

From everyone here at GamingMoments and the entire Moments Network , our thoughts go out to those affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami disaster.

But gamers are a distrustful bunch when it comes to the thing we love, and in keeping with that Geoff Keighley (gaming journalist extraordinaire, and host of GameTrailersTV on Spike) decided to do some digging. His research (and by research I mean he called up Activision and asked them. Being a legitimate video game journalist has its perks.) netted this response from an Activision spokesperson,

“Let me be clear we are not revealing yet. Anything indicating otherwise is a hoax.”

Further digging by Mr. Keighley revealed that the website was created by We Can Pretend, a Toronto based production company, working on a “Modern Warfare inspired project.”

The following teaser still was sent to Joystick by the creators of the project:

Best guess at this point is that this unnamed project is in fact a short film, but then again we could be wrong… and we usually are.

We’ll just have to wait and see, so check back  in a couple of days to find out.

Armada of the Damned actually looked rather promising, I didn’t expect much from the storyline, but the opportunity to explore the Pirates universe sounded like it could be a blast.

A Disney rep had this to say, “Disney Interactive Studios confirms the cancellation of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned video game which was scheduled to be released in 2011. As a result of this decision, Disney Interactive Studios completed a restructuring of Propaganda Games, its Vancouver, BC internal studio, affecting one of the studio’s two development teams. The studio is still in active production of TRON: Evolution, the video game, which will be released on December 7, 2010 with additional DLC (downloadable content) support following the game’s release.”

Best RPG: Deus Ex Human RevolutionOn any other day I would give this to Fallout, but the variety of ways you can complete a mission and long term consequences depending on how you do is far more important to me than the name of a developer (The same reason I’m not falling all over myself about RAGE). Fallout: NV looks nice but it’s the exact same engine as Fallout 3, gameplay hasn’t really changed, and to me it just seems that they’re playing this one safe.

Best Sports Game: NBA Jam

Best Racing Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Best Shooter: Medal of Honor

Ok Ok, don’t shoot me, let me explain myself. The guys over at Treyarch displayed a decent amount of footage at E3, the problem I found was that none of it actually looked fun… at all. It just seemed like they were trying to one up Infinity Ward and coming up short (“Modern Warfare 2 had a nuke? Ya… well… we nuked the whole planet, this game takes place on a terraformed Mars, booya! Ya we went there!”) So you’ve got a chopper, sweet. But I know from experience with every one of your games that the gameplay footage shown was on the easiest mode possible, and that you almost died… every time you showed it off. Anyone who’s ever played World at War will tell you that Veteran mode is one of the hardest things they’ve ever done.

Medal of Honor footage was entirely multiplayer and frankly, 30 seconds of multiplayer footage looked a hundred times more fun than the idiotic chopper level in Black Ops. Medal of Honor seems like it will be the perfect balance between COD and Battlefield, while maintaining some of the scope of the Battlefield games they’ve also managed to introduce the close quarters intensity of COD. Take a look at the beta on June 21st.

Best Platformer: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Best Fighting Game: Marvel vs Capcom 3

Best Action Game: Assassins’ Creed: Brotherhood

Take one-part Assassin’s Creed add one-part Multiplayer and you’ve got a winner folks. The multiplayer for AC: Brotherhood remains true to it’s origins, allowing players to do all the things they would normally be able to do in singleplayer and then using those abilities to kill your friends. Scarily awesome.

Unfortunately I actually forgot to get my press registration in on time this year otherwise I would have been there, luckily I’ve learned my lesson and I guarantee I’ll be there next year.