In 
the first 15 minutes of its annual pre-E3 press conference, Ubisoft had a surprise performance by Flo Rida, dancing girls and in-game footage of a topless woman being fondled.
The message was clear: Ubisoft is not fooling around with its latest crop of titles — clearly targeted at men.
Nintendo 
just couldn’t wait for E3 to share some big news about the Wii U.
Scooping itself two days before its scheduled pre-show press conference, the company released a 30-minute YouTube video Sunday unveiling a revamped Wii U controller and divulging new details about its forthcoming game system.
As 
Nintendo prepares to launch the Wii U later this year and Microsoft andSony gear up for expected 2013 launches for their next generation consoles, there’s a sense of excitement building in the videogame industry — but there’s also a sense of fear.
The market has changed considerably since the launch of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — and while new console launches used to be a surefire way to reinvigorate both core and casual gamers, nobody’s certain if that will happen this time.
Every 
industry has down cycles, but for several companies in the videogame space, 2012 can’t end soon enough.
While the year is likely to finish stronger than it started, with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii U console and the return of popular franchises like “Halo 4” and “Call of Duty Black Ops 2,” pretty much everything that could go wrong in the first half of the year has.
It 
can be kind of hard to keep up with everything that comes out of National Geographic. This app is a daily cliff notes version, though, filled with news, videos, stories and the always impressive photography.
For 
the past several years, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise has been the videogame industry powerhouse — dominating the sales charts not only during the critical holiday sales period, but also carrying that momentum well into the following year.
In 2012, though, the franchise is showing signs of weakness.
LucasArts 
is turning to the Dark Side for its next Star Wars game.
Not the Dark Side of the Force, mind you. It’s done that several times already. Nope, this time the publisher is hoping to explore a darker, more mature side of the sci-fi universe in a new game called Star Wars 1313.
There 
aren’t a lot of sure bets in the video game industry, but for the past few years the “Call of Duty” franchise was a pretty safe place to put your money.
The past three installments of the game have set consecutive entertainment-industry sales records at their launch. And even after the holiday season ended, they’ve led the sales pack for at least the first few months of the following year — but not this year.
E3 is 
usually the video game industry’s big party of the year — a chance to celebrate its strengths and showcase the titles it expects to drive sales forward for the rest of the year.
But as the game makers gather for this year’s event, a cloud hangs over the soiree. Retail sales are down 27 percent compared to this time in 2011. Mobile devices are stealing the spotlight from traditional consoles. And naysayers are openly questioning the long-term viability of the console industry.
Unlike its popular console cousin, the app store incantation of Skylanders isn’t exactly heavy on story. That doesn’t stop Skylanders Cloud Patrol from being an incredibly entertaining and time sucking game, though.
Chris Morris: Journalist 