While 
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 won’t hit store shelves for more than six months, it’s already setting records.
Amazon reports the game, which was just announced this week, is on track to become the most pre-ordered game in its history, outpacing Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and…um, well, a bunch of other Call of Duty games.
The 
price of the Xbox might be about to come way, way down. But you’ll end up paying more for it.
Confused? You’re not alone.
Could 
the Master Chief have an impact on the next Commander in Chief?
Political activists fear it’s possible.
Plenty 
of celebrities have lent their name or talents to video games, but few seem as odd a fit as Oprah Winfrey.
Nevertheless, the talk show queen and media maven has teamed with Jane McGonigal, the leader in the ‘gamification’ movement, to create Oprah’s Thank You Game, a Facebook game that lets players, well, thank people.
Really.
In 
space, no one can hear you scream…unless you’ve got feathers.
Angry Birds Space continues to shatter records for the popular iPhone series. The latest adventures of the peeved parakeets has been downloaded 50 million times in just 35 days, making it the fastest-selling game in the series — and one of the the fastest-selling mobile games of all time.
Nintendo 
usually likes to keep things pretty close to its vest, so you’d expect details about the Wii U, the company’s next generation console, to be pretty scant right now.
Nope. With the system’s big coming out party planned during the E3 video game expo just over a month from now, we’re learning plenty about what the company has in store, though far from everything.
Last 
year’s decision to slash the price of the 3DS helped the handheld gaming system from falling on its face, but it sure took a toll on Nintendo’s bottom line.
For the first time in its history as a publicly traded company, the game maker has reported an annual net loss, today posting figures that were $533 million in the red. That follows a $960 million profit for the previous fiscal year.
As 
the Xbox 360 enters what appear to be its swansong years, Microsoft might find that there’s no such thing as a smooth finish.
A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has ruled that the console infringes on four patents held by Motorola, reports Bloomberg. Worst case scenario? It could result in a blockade of Xbox 360 consoles imported to the U.S.
Video 
games get plenty of negative press, but it turns out they can do some real good as well.
Researchers in New Zealand have created a fantasy game that helps teens conquer depression. And not only does it work, it can be even more effective than traditional treatments.
When 
Double Fine Entertainment launched its crowd-sourced video game experiment on Kickstarter in early February, it was anything but a sure bet. While the funding platform had boasted a number of successfully funded projects, it had yet to chalk up any victories on the big stage.
By now, of course, everyone knows how that story ended. The developer, which had hoped to raise $400,000 to create an adventure game, took in more than $3.3 million. That opened the dam, and it wasn’t long before Kickstarter was flooded with game projects, many from well-known industry names.
Chris Morris: Journalist 