In the turbulent times we are living globally, I thought it would be relevant to highlight some of the industry happenings as there are potential impacts to the gaming public.  Hopefully this will continue as semi-regular Loot-Ninja feature.  The following have been the recent headlines in no particular order.  Hit the links for the Loot-Ninja articles.

• EA restructuring Casual Label, merges with Sims, now a broad audience gaming section.
• EA posts losses for Q2 2009
• EA stops chasing Take-Two
• THQ posts losses for Q2 2009 and announces lay offs
• Midway cancels licenses, posts losses for Q3 2009 and Shari Redstone resigns as Chairwoman, replaced by Peter Brown.
• Activision Blizzard posts losses for Q2 2009, drops Vivendi titles, and acquires Budcat Creations
• Brash loses some top management, announces layoffs then shuts down.
• Amazon acquires Reflexive Entertainment
• Square Enix sticks with revival titles and posts profit for Q2 2009, opens new studio in the US.
• Konami posts profit in Q2 2009.
• Tecmo & Koei merger announced.  (I’m waiting for a Ninja Gaiden / Dynasty Warriors / DoA crossover)
• Wizkids to Cease Operations
• Avalanche Studios to Lay Off 77 Employees
• E for All for next year is cancelled

Lots of grim news financially and lots of studios shutting down, downsizing, rightsizing, etc.  The global recession taking a toll on the gaming industry, probably.  The above news updates are pretty similar to latest news in the banking industry.  In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past year that means things are not very good.