During an investor call, Nintendo revealed that their earnings, for the quarter, were down from what they had previously expected. If you're interested in that, you can read more about it here. There's something about yen, a bunch of number signs, and some arrows pointing all sorts of different directions. Really, it's distracting.

More important, however, is the announcement of an announcement. In an interview with Bloomberg, the company said that they would be revealing the release date for their upcoming handheld, the 3DS, on September 29th. That's right, Nintendo just dropped a release date for a release date. That's right, friends, we're really at that point in this industry. Then again, it's not that hard to figure out when Nintendo is going to release the device. BLIND SPECULATION BELOW!

Fanboys know full well that in less than two months, Bungie will birth upon the gaming world a new child, a child of Spartan descent, a child named Halo: Reach. Today, the developer has unveiled a new look inside the womb with the above trailer. Although it's sorely lacking in amniotic fluid, it does show some good looking action sequences, as well as some of the themes that the game will introduce. All of it is, of course, set to that all-too familiar musical score.

DS owners in the UK may soon have to do something unheard of; something so counter-intuitive and unnatural, that it may shake the very foundations of the British gaming scene.  Soon, British DS gamers may have to (gasp) actually buy their DS games!!!  

Well, those of you who've been eagerly anticipating some sort of good free stuff for being an early adopter of PlayStation+ will have to continue to wait. As cool as Syphon Filter, Crash Bandicoot 3, and Critter Crunch are, their addition to the short list of quality exclusive "free" items doesn't have me jumping out of my seat. Nor do the four Disney-themed PSOne Classics that arrive today. Toy Story Racer? Really? Shameful. At least the demos for Kane and Lynch 2 and Madden NFL 11 are free, but the lack of strong PSOne Classics since E3, and the poor selection of PlayStation+ freebies won't have many people singing the praises of the PSN anytime soon. It's a shame the PS3 couldn't get an exclusive title like Limbo to make the summer a bit more interesting. Sure, Joe Danger was great, but that was weeks ago. Instead, it's another boring week on the PSN. Sony better come up with something soon, or there's going to be a lot of very disappointed paid subscribers.

Be sure to check out the full list of what's available this week below.

Winning the Super Bowl in a Madden football game has always been something of a letdown. You can spend weeks playing through the pre-season, regular season, and the playoffs only to get to the big game. Then you win, and there are some confetti cannons fired off, and maybe balloons in your team's colors, but that's really it. After that, you're taken back to the team menu where you can try all over again. But this year, EA has decided to up the stakes a little bit. Instead of a lackluster ho-hum celebration, the game will give you a full suite of celebratory activities.

GameStop already has a stranglehold on both the new and used console game markets.  Because of this, the company makes enough money that they can dress all their employees in fancy suits made entirely of $100 bills.  What more could they possibly want?  Well, it looks like they want a slice of that highly-coveted casual gaming market, too, and have purchased online free game portal, Kongregate to ensure that they get it.

Well folks, today is the day. After a long and boring summer of bad televised sports, the beginning of the end is at hand. Today EA Sports delivers the Madden NFL 11 demo to both Xbox Live (where it's available right now) and PlayStation Network (which will get it with the Store update later today). No longer do you have to pretend that soccer is an entertaining game and your days of watching US national volleyball matches against countries that can't even field an Olympic team are behind you. Football has returned, and there will be much rejoicing.

Since we can't possibly have a day without discussing some video game that's getting a comic book adaptation, it's time to talk about Silent Hill: Past Life, the upcoming four-issue series from the co-writer of Silent Hill 8 (that's still a working title, I hope). After announcing the book at San Diego Comic-Con, writer Tom Waltz, who is also hard at work co-writing the next game in the Silent Hill series, spoke to Fearnet about the comic tie-in. Although at first it sounds less than promising (he states he got the idea because he "was on the forums"), I'm actually pretty interested in Past Life. Then again, I'm a sucker for a decent story set in the cursed town.

A few weeks back, the Sony let slip the details on three different PlayStation Move bundles, assuring that everyone was able to jump into the second wind of this console generation, regardless of where they stood in terms of hardware. Gamers could pick up the controller by itself for $49, get it with a camera and game for $99, or purchase a system, game, and a camera for $399. The last option didn't get any details, at the time, leaving gamers guessing as to what size hard drive it might come with. We've been sent some more information from a source close to Sony that has not only details on the $399 version, but information on an unannounced $349 edition as well.

The announcement that EA would be reviving the NBA Jam franchise was thrilling news to me.  The only downside, in fact, was the fact that the game would only be coming to the Wii, meaning we'd never see a new NBA Jam in full HD glory (or be able to play it with a "Real" game controller).  While rumors have persisted about the game being brought to multiple consoles, including some quickly retracted statements on one of EA's software engineers LinkedIn accounts, EA has remained silent.  Today, the ESRB ruined EA's plan of pretending the game will be Wii-exclusive, and listed their ratings for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

Holy bikini whales! Last week, rumors started floating around the internet that "Rock Lobster", the classic tune by The B-52s, would be appearing in Rock Band 3. The rumor was confirmed to be a fact at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, meaning that "Rock Lobster" is now officially my Rock Band 3 jam. Holy crap, I am going to annoy people at parties so much when I just want to play that song over and over again.

Over the past few weeks, EA Sports has been meting out a pair of videos a week for this year's version of Madden NFL football. Probably not coincidentally, there really hasn't been a whole lot else going on in the world of sports during those weeks. Sure, some team or another won the World Cup, and the MLB had its All-Star break. But unless you like the sounds of vuvuzelas or Chris Berman repeatedly saying, "Back back back back back!" during the Home Run Derby, it hasn't really been all that appealing to you. Just this past weekend, teams in the National Football League threw open the doors of their training camps to rookies and selected veterans. Basically, the summer sports doldrums are nearly at an end, as soon teams will start playing some goddamned football.

Hey guys, the Virtual Console is back! I thought Nintendo was quietly trying to phase it out, but I guess I was just being paranoid. Joining the newer WiiWare and DSiWare games is Aero the Acrobat, a Super NES game from 1993. I only vaguely remember it, but I generally love platformers from the 16-bit era, so it's probably a better way to spend a few bucks then, say, another version of Brickbreaker (oops, sorry, I meant Brickbuster), or a Petz game, or some wannabe Pokemon... actually, back up, let me get a better look at Crystal Monsters, which looks at first glance like the poor man's Pokemon. Five dollars, huh? Hmmm....

Now that Champions Online has landed with a decidedly dull thud, the only super powered MMORPG left to either excite or disappoint is DC Universe Online. Early impressions appear to be optimistic, and we're fairly excited to see what Sony Online can bring to the MMORPG world after a few disappointing licensed titles. At the DC Universe Online panel at this year's San Diego Comic Con, Jim Lee revealed the game's release date, which will bring the online world of DC to gamers on November 2nd.

While this date has been rumored for a while, this is the first time an actual day has been mentioned by the developer, who, in the past, simply mentioned a release in November. It was also announced that the PlayStation 3 version will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription, though normal $14.99/month rates for the MMO still obviously apply.

Beyond setting a release date, Sony Online Entertainment's game has also been given the context they've been promising for some time now. Instead of just saying that a few million (hopefully) new super-powered beings have entered into the DC Universe, they've offered an explanation that allows even the strictest followers of DC's continuity to have an excuse to enjoy creating their own character to fight alongside Batman, Superman, and Captain Marvel. What, I like Captain Marvel?

Just two days, I, tapping into my vast gaming knowledge and instincts, reported that the rumor of a "double-crossover" between Capcom and Namco was ridiculous.  Why would two publishers put in the efforts and resources to make two separate games that would essentially cannibalize each others' audiences?  They'd have to be idiots!  Today, of course, Capcom and Namco Bandai have announced that Street Fighter X Tekken AND Tekken X Street Fighter are in development, proving that I am, in fact, an idiot...or they are.

Another summer is just flying by, isn’t it? The last week of July is here, and it's not bringing a lot of games to the table. If you're strictly a console gamer, there's not a whole lot here for you, unless you're really into fighting games. Blazblue: Continuum Shift fights its way onto store shelves this week for the 360 and PS3. I'll be checking out Wii RPG Arc Rise Fantasia for review purposes, though I'm going in knowing nothing about it. PC gamers, on the other hand, can rejoice, because the long wait for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is almost over. That's sure to be the biggest game of the week; sorry, Chuck E. Cheese's: Party Games.

After several denials about the existence of a 250GB hard drive for the 360, Microsoft announced during their E3 presser that, in fact, there would be a brand new SKU, called the Super Elite, with an HDD of exactly that size shipping the day of the conference. Now, with the opening of Comic Con, the company has announced that yet another version of the console would soon be available, this one branded for the upcoming Halo: Reach. It will also have the same built-in Wi-Fi capabilities of the SE.

Despite the fact that Comic Con is in full swing, today's news feeds are pretty slow.  On days like this, it's a lot easier to post articles about unfounded, seemingly impossible rumors, so in the absence for any real news right now, that's what we'll be doing.

LittleBigPlanet 2 is coming, and I couldn't be happier about it. Questionable Move-controlled bonus levels aside, the game looks to be pretty goddamn awesome, and I'm so ready to dig in this holiday season. And by "holiday season", I mean November 16, which Sony has just announced via the PlayStation blog will be the release date for LittleBigPlanet 2. See those adorable costumes at the top of this article? Those come as pre-order bonuses for reserving the game at Best Buy, Amazon.com, or GameStop. However, each retailer will also have one exclusive costume, so choose your store carefully.