The week between 
Christmas and New Year’s Day is gaming nirvana. You’ve got a stack of holiday games, no pressing responsibilities and Domino’s on speed dial. You’re all set.
That is, until you get stuck on some ornery puzzle or impossible mission. Forward momentum, gone.
Relax. The internet is here to help.
EA received 
some holiday coal in its stocking Thursday when a California Superior Court judge rejected its argument that it should be excused from a $400 million contract-interference suit.
Activision alleges EA illegally attempted to lure away Call of Duty creators and Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision is also suing the two developers.
He might be 
great at keeping state secrets, but when it comes to the holidays, Barack Obama does a pretty lousy job of maintaining gift-giving surprises.
The President did a little Christmas shopping Wednesday — and brought the press corps along. And it looks like Sasha and Malia will find Just Dance 3 and The Sims 3: Pets under the tree this year.
Microsoft’s 
appearance at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show will be its last.
The tech giant has announced, via its corporate blog, that it will no longer host a booth or deliver the show’s annual keynote speech after 2012.
Microsoft 
is breaking up with the Consumer Electronics Show.
The tech giant has announced via a company blog that this year’s keynote and exhibit booth will be its last at the show – a notable departure, since the company’s keynote has long been the unofficial kickoff to CES.
Christmas is 
looming and you don’t have a gift for the gamer on your list. At this point, heartfelt is pretty much out the window. You just need something to put under the tree.
Last minute gifts tend to be stinkers, though. Combing through the dregs of whatever serious holiday shoppers have left behind usually nets nothing but trouble. And for gamers, that means they’re stuck with things like Wii classic controllers and 101-in-1 Sports Party Megamix or PlayStation Move Ape Escape.
[From layoffs 
to the rise of freemium/smartphone gaming, several analysts share their biggest game industry disappointments and unhappy trends of the year with Gamasutra.]
Analysts, by nature, are critical beings, so having heard their thoughts on the best things to happen in the gaming industry this year, we definitely wanted to hear what they thought had gone wrong.
Retail sales are set to record their third consecutive year of declines, after all – and while some companies have seen their stock prices rise (congratulations EA!), others continue to lag. Here’s what Wall Street’s most notable game industry analysts thought went wrong in 2011:
Sony’s next big 
hope for the handheld gaming market has made its debut in Japan, and while the numbers aren’t awful, they aren’t exactly stellar, either.
More than 321,000 Vita units were sold in its first two days on store shelves, according to Famitsu. That’s a bit shy of launch figures for Nintendo’s 3DS (371,000), though it nearly doubles what the original PSP boasted when it went on sale seven years ago.
When the 
clocks strike midnight, the rush will be on into EA’s newest massively multiplayer online game – and the only title around that has any chance of giving “World of Warcraft” any sort of competition.
“Star Wars: The Old Republic,” made by the company’s Bioware Studios in conjunction with LucasArts lets players explore the rich universe 3,500 years before the Star Wars films occur in the timeline.
It took 
more than 24 hours for the world’s news organizations to learn of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
But a video game saw it coming nine months ago.
Chris Morris: Journalist 