Sony’s 
hoping for a big splash when the PlayStation Vita goes on sale in the U.S. next week, but the news from the company’s homeland is pretty discouraging.
Sales of the handheld gaming system in Japan for the week ending Feb. 12 hit an all-time low, with less than 14,000 Vitas being sold. That’s a drop of more than 3,000 from the previous week.
Right 
around this time 50 years ago, the world of gaming was forever changed.
Spacewar! was launched in mid-February 1962 (the exact date is a matter of debate, though most people agree it was between the 13th and the 15th). And while it wasn’t the first video game ever created, it was the first to strike a chord with people, effectively kicking off the era of video games.
Sometimes, 
Cupid shoots an arrow through the knee instead of the heart.
Video games might not seem the most romantic of hobbies, but for some, they’ve been the path to true love — and in many cases, marriage.
Forget 
singles bars — if you want to find love on Valentine’s Day, you might have better luck on your iPhone.
A study of over 118,000 Words With Friends players found that scoring isn’t necessarily limited to the game. One in 10 players, in fact, said the title has directly led to a hookup at some point.
Go 
directly to Azeroth. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 gold.
Blizzard Entertainment, having conquered the PC, is now setting its sites on the living room by announcing a partnership Monday with USAopoly to release a World of Warcraft-themed Monopoly game and a Starcraft-focused version of Risk.
With Valentine’s 
Day hitting next week, there’s plenty of love in the air — but if you want that love to last, your odds are better in cyberspace.
A study of virtual marriages in MapleStory, a massively multiplayer online game from Nexon, finds that people who vow to stay together forever in-game tend to be more successful at it than those of us in the real world.
Chalk up 
another big win for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda’s much-loved dragon-slaying role-playing-game has taken home another Game of the Year award, this time from one of the most widely respected bodies in the video game industry.
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences held its annual Interactive Achievement Awards Thursday night at the DICE summit, with Skyrim taking top honors — as well as four other awards. Uncharted 3 and Portal 2 each took home a trio of trophies.
To say 
the video game industry stumbled out of the gate in 2012 would be exceedingly kind.
January software sales, which are the most closely watched figure by investors, were down 34 percent – the biggest percentage drop in more than 2 years — to $750.6 million. That’s more than $389 million less than a year ago.
The rumors 
about the next iPad have been growing for a while now — and it may be just a matter of weeks before we find out which are true.
AllThingsD is reporting that Apple plans to host an event the first week of March to launch the new iPad — which is largely expected to be called the iPad 3 (though keep in mind we all expected the company to unveil the iPhone 5 last year, so the name may be different).
On the 
surface, you can’t beat free-to-play games. After all, having access to titles people used to pay $15 a month for without ever having to open your wallet? It sounds too good to be true.
Unfortunately, it often is.
Chris Morris: Journalist 