Sony is doubling down in the handheld 
gaming space.
Company unveiled its next-generation handheld system Thursday in Japan, then surprised the gaming world by also announcing a new initiative that will bring games from the original PlayStation to Android-based smartphones and tablets. Both the system and the initiative will launch before the end of the year.
Disney is swinging the axe at its gaming 
arm, cutting a substantial number of positions as it transitions from being a packaged goods company to a player in the growing digital videogame space.
Disney declined to give the number of people affected, but Mouse House insiders said as many as half of Disney Interactive Studios’ 700 staffers may have been cut.
As interest revs up in the cloud 
gaming world, venture capitalists are doubling down.
Playcast has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round to help it expand its ongoing rollout of services to telecommunications companies and cable television providers. MK Capital, a Chicago/Los Angeles-based venture fund specializing in digital media, and JVP, a leading Israeli venture capital firm focused on media, technology and content, led the round.
3D is just two months shy of 
taking its biggest step into people’s homes.
Nintendo announced Wednesday that its 3DS handheld gaming device would go on sale March 27 in North America for $249.99. The system allows users to play games in stereoscopic 3D without special glasses.
Following the disclosure on Monday that Apple CEO Steve 
Jobs will be taking his third medical leave in six years, Apple shares fell 4% in early trading on Tuesday, or $14 to $334.35.
Since the markets were closed on Monday due to the holiday, this is the first glimpse at how U.S. investors are reacting to the news. Some analysts late on Monday had predicted shares could fall by 10% in early trading. Apple is expected to release its quarterly earnings after the market closes on Tuesday.
As technology gets more complex, it’s fitting that an 
underlying theme of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show is making people’s lives easier.
Tech advances can be a dual-edged sword. Bleeding edge products might be phenomenal, but using them can often be frustrating (look no further than the bulky glasses required for 3D TV). There will be announcements galore at this year’s show – but more and more companies are realizing that the key to success is focusing on products that not only fill a need, but don’t require users to memorize a hefty manual before they turn it on.
Kinect, Microsoft’s recently launched motion 
capture device for the Xbox 360, has lived up to its reputation as one of the holiday’s must-have gifts.
The software giant says there were 8 million Kinects sold through the end of the year. That’s far beyond the company’s 5 million estimate (which was raised from an initial estimate of 3 million right before the system’s launch).
Panasonic is opening an app store – and launching a tablet.
The company announced plans Wednesday to transform its VieraCast service, which embedded a limited number of apps on select HDTVs, into Viera Connect – a market that will welcome apps from a larger pool of developers.
Intel is courting entertainment content makers with its new processor chip.
Big Blue formally unveiled its second-generation Core processor – code named Sandy Bridge – at CES Wednesday, focusing the spotlight on the chip’s video processing capabilities and security enhancements for studios.
Streaming movies directly to Internet-enabled TV sets has already become familiar, but manufacturers are about to begin adding top-tier videogames to their bag of tricks — which could prove to be a fundamental shift in the vidgame industry.
OnLive, a cloud-based game streaming service that has been making headlines for the past few months, announced Tuesday that it has struck a deal with Vizio that would put the service on all 2011 model HD TVs and Blu-ray players as well as forthcoming smart phones and tablets from the company.
Chris Morris: Journalist 