After GTA4, you'd think this hullabaloo would be over. But it isn't. Analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital says that new developments over the proposed buyout of Take-Two Interactive would come next week, and that Electronic Arts would likely have something new to add to their offer.

The Nintendo DS has slowly been losing ground in terms of sales. Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has predicted that Nintendo may launch an updated version of the handheld if the dip in sales continues. For more on this, check out the full version.

The country may be experiencing some economical doldrums, but the gaming industry shows promise that not only will it keep rolling, it will even roll better and rake cash in the process. Several analysts even admit that they have greatly underestimated the industry's performance for this month. Read more in the full article!

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has predicted that February video game software sales will be up by 25 percent. Even better is the fact that he sees even better sales figures in the coming months because of an impressive line-up of games from various publishers. If you want to find out more, head on over to the full article.

We've been taking days and weeks for granted (hence, the prevalence of procrastination among many people), but the projected January sales numbers may just show us how important a week is. According to some analysts, January 2008's sales numbers were cut off by approximately 18 percent since it is one week less compared to last year's January. Read more about it in the full article!

Now that almost all of us have consoles and handhelds, it's time to go out and grab more games. Analyst Colin Sebastian says that this premise will lead to an unprecedented industry sales total of US$ 10 billion in 2008. Will his prediction hold out? Judging by the amount of grade-A content coming out this fiscal cycle, it's a safe bet. More details in the full article.

The NPD Group will soon release the software and platform sales numbers for December, so it's time once again to hear from our favorite analysts, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets. Check out the full article to find out what they predict for December's results.

Following the release of THQ's second quarter fiscal 2008 results, Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian has revealed that Lazard expects THQ to "remain more closely aligned" with Nintendo and Microsoft's respective platforms compared to those from Sony. Sebastian also mentioned a few of THQ's key titles which are expected to help pull up the company's revenues from internal studios. Check out Sebastian's statement at the full article.

Despite THQ's under-performance for this quarter, analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Market remain optimistic for the game developer studio and maintains that the company's stock is still a "buy."

THQ's revenue for this quarter was significantly lower than their initial forecast, owing to the lack of sales of two of their games in the market: Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, 360) and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PC, DS). This, however, did not deter Pachter who, despite lowering his estimates for THQ, says that this is not likely to happen again.

Sebastian shares the same sentiments, saying that THQ's 2009 lineup seems to be a "significant improvement," mentioning their next Pixar video game adaptation of Wall-E, Saints Row 2 and the sequel to Red Faction. He predicts that the video game for Wall-E will do much better than their Ratatouille saying: "Stated simply, robots are cuter than rats, and make for better video game fodder."

THQ has announced earlier that they will be lowering their fiscal Q2 revenue guidance from US$ 240 million to US$ 229 million, and full-year sales of US$ 1.12 billion to US$ 1.06 billion.

Electronic Arts has recently reorganized its top-ranking officials and made some key changes to its administrative roster. The maneuver was welcomed by a lot of observers, but one analyst made an interesting observation.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that the reorganization was a good move and a necessary one for the publisher, but someone seems to be missing in the equation: R&D  head Paul Lee. "In our view, the most important item in the press release is the omission of any mention about Paul Lee, the current head of R&D. It appears to us that Mr. Lee may have been reorganized out of a job," he says. Pachter continues:

He has been in his position for about a year, following the departure of Don Mattrick last year, and in that brief period, we believe that EA game quality has improved. However, we think that Mr. Riccitiello is laser focused on cost control, given that the R&D budget has doubled during his three-year hiatus from EA, while revenues have grown by only around 5%.

According to the analyst, one reason why EA is reorganizing may be because the administration has decided not to go all-out on research and development. He says he expects EA to begin talking more about its plans and policies soon.

For one, Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets agrees with Pachter on the necessity of restructuring. "We believe the restructuring was a necessary byproduct of EA's rapid growth over the last video game cycle compounded by operational challenges evident during the recent console transition period," he says.

No official word from EA has been released regarding Lee's status and what the new policy on research and development is. A statement is expected by many to come out any time soon. We'll keep you posted for more.