There's a lot of speculation today that Sony will unveil the PlayStation 4 at an event scheduled for February 20. Yesterday Sony put out a video encouraging viewers to "see the future" at an event it plans to host in New York City at the end of this month.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello recently spoke out on the idea that video games can be a catalyst that leads to real world violence during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's latest earnings. Acknowledging that the industry faces a "perception issue" when it comes to videogames Riccitiello also said that games can also be "a voice for good," and that there is no research to back up claims that video games directly cause real world violence.

After announcing that Grand Theft Auto V would be getting released a little later in the year than was previously announced and expected, some financial analysts have decided to adjust their opinion on Take-Two Interactive's future earnings. One such firm is BMO Capital Markets.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward S. Williams said in a note to investors that Take-Two moving the upcoming launch of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V for the PS3 and Xbox 360 from a spring 2013 release window to Sept. 17 will have an impact:

Nintendo has cut its hardware sales forecast after a less than stellar performance in the fourth quarter. Projections for the Wii U have been revised down to 4 million by the end of the fiscal year that ends on March 31 - from 5.5 million. Nintendo also says that it now expects to sell 15 million units during this fiscal year - down from 17.5. The Nintendo DS will sell 2.3 million units during this fiscal year, down from a previous forecast of 2.5 million.

Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said that his company is closely monitoring violence in his company's catalog of video games in the wake of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Iger said during a Q&A with Brian Grazer at an HRTS Newsmakers Luncheon that he has directed employees "to take stock in everything we’ve got that can be considered near the line or over the line," according to Deadline.

According to GamesIndustry International, computer and console peripheral and accessories giant Logitech will stop manufacturing and selling video game console accessories. The exit out of the market is the result of a 14 percent drop in sales to $615 million for Q3 FY 2013.

As a result the company will sharpen its focus on PC and mobile accessories.

ArenaNet's Colin Johanson says that the popular online-focused RPG Guild Wars 2 has managed to sell over three million copies since it was released and launched in August of 2012. He made the announcement as part of an update on the game's official site detailing what new content the company plans to bring to Guild Wars 2 players in the next few months.

Analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research has laid out nine predictions for 2013 in a new research report from the firm (which you can read in full here (PDF)).

En Masse Entertainment and Bluehole Studios announced that their massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tera soon be switching from a monthly subscription plan to free-to-play. While the exact date for this switch from paid subscription to free has not been revealed, the companies say it will happen sometime in February.

Melbourne Australia-based indie game developer Endgame Studios is tired of the high prices that gamers in the region have to pay for video games (compared to Europe and other regions) and has decided to voice their opinion about how much they think it sucks. In a post entitled "A stand against exorbitant Aussie game prices!," the studio says that Australian gamers are asked to pay 50 - 100 percent more than American consumers due to - according to publishers and distributors - currency exchange rates.

Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter says that Nintendo's continued weakness contributed to 11 percent of the decline in U.S. video game sector in the month of December. Pachter also said that there was evidence that consumer fatigue has set in - even when it comes to popular games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Update: GamesIndustry International is reporting that Electronic Arts has been revealed as one of the five publishers looking to buy intellectual property or other assets from THQ. Some are also speculating that Ubisoft could be part of that group too.

As news of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in Newtown, Connecticut were coming to light on December 14, the finishing touches were being put on a deal with the Nevada Economic Development Board and Take-Two Interactive (see Vegas Inc. for the details). This week that deal is being questioned by the media in the state.

Hugo Smits, founder of indie developer Goodbye Galaxy Games has responded to the concerns of developer Jools Watsham who lamented about the potential uptick in 3DS piracy after a hacker claimed that he was able to load pirated software onto Nintendo's hand-held. Goodbye Galaxy Games has developed a number of games for DSi-Ware including Flipper, Flipper 2, Ace Mathician and the upcoming game Color Commando.

The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom (the Tories) have created a page on its official website detailing the planned implementation of upcoming tax breaks for the region's video games industry. According to the page on the official web site, tax breaks will officially go into effect on April 1. The page goes on to note that the new tax incentives will give a financial boost to the video game industry and "help level the playing field" against other countries already offering breaks for their own video game sectors.

In what can only be described as the first non-shocking news story of 2013, THQ announced that it was delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange over the Christmas holiday period. The company's stock will now be traded on the OTC (over-the-counter) Markets - at least until Chapter 11 bankruptcy has been sorted out.

Runic Games has hit a milestone with its PC isometric action RPG, Torchlight II: one million sales. A tweet from the official Runic Games Twitter account revealed the milestone.

"We had an amazing 2012, and proud to say that Torchlight2 has sold over one million units! Thank you! Happy New Year's Eve everyone :)," Runic Games confirmed.

Mojang's popular world building game franchise Minecraft had a wonderful Christmas / holiday season, according to tweets from company co-founder and Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson. According to Notch, the company sold 453,000 copies of the game across all platforms during the Christmas season.

"Across all platforms, Minecraft sold 453k copies on dec 24! Wowzers! <3," he tweeted.

He corrected himself in a follow-up tweet shortly thereafter:

Techie Buzz took a look at the top selling games in India for 2012, as tabulated by Game4u, Milestone’s retail unit for PC and video games.

It has been a week since the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut but the country has no more answers for what caused the horrific tragedy than it did last week. In the weeks ahead you can expect the media and politicians to talk about violent media, guns, and metal health care in this country, but one analyst believes that all of this media attention won't have much of an effect on what entertainment consumers will buy (thanks to The Escapist).

Publisher THQ announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with affiliates of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P., who will serve as a "stalking horse bidder," the agreement allows Clearlake Capital Group to acquire THQ’s assets including THQ’s four wholly-owned studios, any licenses it currently holds, and all games in development.

Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business professor Sydney Finkelstein picked the "worst CEOs of 2012" for Bloomberg's Business Week and one of those five CEOs is Zynga's Mark Pincus. So why did Pincus end up on the list? Well a series of "rookie mistakes" by the social game maker CEO had a lot to do with it.

Here's a not-so-shocking revelation about 2012: games were the most popular software on iOS devices in 2012 according to data released by Apple and collected by Inside Mobile Apps. Seven of the ten highest-grossing iPad apps and ten highest-grossing iPhone apps were games, according to the data.

If you think that the biggest selling game of the year is Call of Duty or some other huge franchise then you are likely not taking into account digital sales across all platforms. As this MCV report points out, the biggest games of the year are likely Angry Birds or Minecraft related. According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel, the two week period that ends on January 1, 2013 will account for almost seven percent of all games downloaded across mobile, tablet, console and PC platforms this year.

According to new data from MediaCreate on sales in Japan for the week of Dec. 3 - 9, the Nintendo 3DS has sold more units to-date than the PlayStation 3. The 3-D enabled hand-held system managed to do this in the region in less than two years to boot.

Lifetime sales of the 3DS came in at 8,799,378, beating out the PS3 which came in at lifetime sales of 8,716,260 units in Japan. The PS3 has been on the market in Japan for six years. In terms of sales in Japan for the week, the Wii U came in on top at 308,142, followed by the 3DS at 211,499, and the PS3 at 36,994.

Valve Software has launched the Steam Community Market in open beta, allowing Steam users to buy and sell in-game items using Steam Wallet funds. Sale items can be listed on the Community Market page or in players' personal inventories. Currently only Team Fortress 2 is supported and only consumables and tools can be sold at this time.

As the beta goes on, Valve plans to allow other items to be sold in Team Fortress 2 and to add the Steam Community Market functionality to other games. That will start to happen early next year.

A new report from GameTrack shows that America is a gaming super power, with American gamers outnumbering the rest of the world when it comes to playing games online and across a wide variety of platforms. The data finds that 48 percent of the American gaming audience play online games, compared 42 percent who play packaged games. Around 27 percent of that online gaming in America is done through browsers. Around 31 percent of American gamers enjoy playing through apps on their phones and tablets.

Episode 5 of Telltale's horror adventure series The Walking Dead based on the popular comic series took the top spot on the PlayStation Store charts for the month of November, according to Sony. In fact all five episodes in the series managed to make the Top 20. Coming is second was Assassin's Creed 3, followed by Sonic Adventure 2, Okami HD, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Eurocom has entered administration and ceased trading, with the remaining staff laid off, according to a statement from administrators given to Eurogamer. Last month the studio was forced to let a large portion of its staff go. Eurocom most recently developed 007 Legends for Activision. Today a statement from administrators revealed just how bad the financial situation is for the company:

U.S. video games sales at retail fell 11 percent overall, despite seeing Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, and Assassin's Creed III released during the month and a robust start to the holiday shopping season. Overall total software sales fell 11 percent to $1.46 billion, hardware fell 13 percent to $838.9 million, and accessories fell 8 percent to $280.9 million. Overall the video game industry saw an 11 percent decline at retail in the month of November, coming in at around $2.55 billion.