Q*bert 
is having something of a renaissance these days. After playing a pivotal role in last year’s game-friendly film Wreck-It Ralph, the big nosed video game icon is at the center of a pair of new video game records.
George Leutz has broken the reigning Q*bert high score, a record that stood for 30 years, by playing the classic coin-op for nearly 85 consecutive hours. He pressed play right before noon on February 14 and didn’t finish playing until 12:38am on February 18th.
Nintendo 
has a problem on its hands.
The Wii U, in its second full month of availability, sold a paltry 57,000 units in the U.S. according to data from The NPD Group. That’s substantially fewer than its predecessor and well under half the number analysts were expecting for the month. And it props opens the door — and perhaps issues a warning — for Sony and Microsoft, which are both expected to roll out new consoles this year.
If 
you look at the raw numbers, it would appear that the video game industry halted its two-year sales decline in January — but numbers can be deceiving.
Video game software sales were up 1 percent in January as compared to a year ago and hardware sales climbed 4 percent, according to the NPD Group. Before you break out the bubbly, however, this is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
According 
to the Chinese calendar, 2013 is the year of the snake. But in Kyoto, Japan — the headquarters of Nintendo — it’s officially the year of Luigi.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made the announcement in a direct broadcast to fans, even going so far as to wear Luigi’s trademark hat throughout his segment of the broadcast. (Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, it should be noted, declined to wear the headgear, denying Luigi some Valentine’s love.)
The 
iPhone has already had a sizable impact on the traditional portable video game industry, but two video game VIPs are cautioning that the company could have a much larger — and potentially devastating — impact on the home console market.
Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell and Nat Brown, who was one of the first engineers on Microsoft’s Xbox project, have issued warnings about Apple’s potential threat. The alerts come amid analyst speculation that Apple may hold an Apple TV-related special event next month.
In 
space, no one can hear you scream…unless you’re screaming obscenities about the new Aliens video game. We’re hearing that loud and clear.
Critics are eviscerating Aliens: Colonial Marines, Gearbox’s long-anticipated game/sequel to 20thCentury Fox’s film franchise, making the horrors the game’s xenomorphs inflict seem paltry by comparison.
Begun 
the clone wars have.
Though the U.S. government decided not to fund research into a Death Star, Star Wars fans longing to witness the power of a fully armed and operational battle station have taken to Kickstarter to get it done.
The Rebel Alliance isn’t taking that threat lightly, though, and has countered by using the crowdfunding site in an attempt to build an X-Wing fighter.
If 
you thought the idea of an Angry Birds movie was ridiculous, how about a cartoon based on Farmville?
Zynga’s long-in-the-tooth Facebook hit is being transformed into a half-hour animated series, and it has managed to snag bigwig Hollywood director Brett Ratner to lead the effort.
They’re 
at the center of an increasingly heated debate these days, but when you look at the hard numbers, games carrying a ‘Mature’ rating aren’t quite as big a part of the video game industry as they seem.
The ESRB — the board that assigns ratings to games released in the U.S. and Canada — says only 9 percent of the 1,218 games released last year received an ‘M’ rating. Such games are intended for those 17 and up and “may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.”
The 
Scottie dog is about to have a new friend to chase around the Monopoly board.
Following a month-long nationwide vote from fans, Hasbro took to the Today show to announce that it will retire the iron from the game’s iconic pieces, replacing it with a cat.
Chris Morris: Journalist 