Last Week In Video Games

The thought of doing something for April Fool's Day had crossed my mind, but I've decided not to do anything different this week. No, seriously. It's just a regular old recap of what happened last week in video games. Of course, sifting through the news today proved a lot more fun than it usually is. Gotta say that there were a few stories that had a lot of effort put into them to make them look legit. Between the faux game news and the fake items added to thinkgeek.com, April Fool's Day is slowly becoming this metal head's favourite time of year. I threw a few links in the tidbits this week so you guys don't miss out on the good ones. But first, there's real news to report!

It's been a busy week! Between all of the PS4 rumours and the laundry list of big name video game developers stepping down, one could hardly keep up. First off, everything that has been revealed about the PS4 (code named Orbis) has not been confirmed by the big guys at Sony. They've also sworn that no details will be revealed at this year's E3. That being said, most of the "details" seem very similar to what may or may not be included in the Next Xbox. There have been rumblings about not allowing used games to be played on the system as well as a chance that there may be an AMD chip used as its processor. Whatever the details are, it looks like we will have to wait until Sony is ready to show us what's in stake for the future.

About two weeks ago, Yoshinori Ono collapsed at a Street Fighter x Tekken event and had to be hospitalized. Almost instantly the news was kinda brushed aside as being a minor incident and Ono will recover. But, he announced that he will step down as producer of the Street Fight series until he feels 100%. Lets hope that everything is okay with the guy and his recover is a quick one!

SEGA dropped the biggest bombshell this week however when they announced that it will be "streamlining" their US and European operations after an estimated $86 million loss this past fiscal year. After this shocking announcement they also announced that a number of the SEGAof America employees will be laid off. Positions range from publishers, marketing and developers. I wonder what this will mean for the recent announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 coming to the PS Vita and if it will still be free-to-play on all platforms (originally announced in 2010, PSO2 is scheduled to be released on PC this summer).

To close off this post, have a look at the tidbits I've gathered:

• Fake trailer for Nintendo Dubstep Experience 3D
• Fake trailer for the new Mass Effect Cartoon
• Fake commercial for Rock Band: The Board Game
• Fake trailer for Assassin's Creed on Kinect
• Fake promotional video for Google 8-Bit Maps
• ThinkGeek's Skyrim Hoodie
• HBO Go has launched on Xbox 360. Just in time for Game of Thrones Season 2!
• Look for these new games coming out this week: Devil May Cry HD Collection on April 3rd and Xenoblade Chronicles on April 6th