Mad Catz has announced that it has shipped the Primer wireless headset. Sold under the Tritton brand, the stereo headset is notable in that it is the first officially licensed wireless headset for the Xbox 360. Nearly identical in appearance to Tritton's Detonator headset -- minus the cables, plus a "base station" -- the Primer utilizes 5.8GHz wireless tech, which purportedly cuts down on interference from appliances, phones and the like.

It's also worth noting that it will work only with the Xbox 360, so keep that in mind before plunking down the $100 asking price.

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GameStop reported sales for the nine weeks ending December 31, 2011. In that period, it achieved sales of $3.02 billion, which, on the surface, is a repeat of last year's number. Moving down the decimal point, the company reported $3,018.1 million in 2010 (itself a record) and $3,019.1 in 2011 -- a new record by a million dollars.

Digital sales increased 60 percent during the period, led by Call of Duty Elite, a 2011 blockbuster. The paid service reached 600,000 sales in early November and had already become one of the retail giant's "top 10 launches of the year."

New video game software increased 9.9 percent, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 leading the pack to the shock of nobody. New hardware sales declined 19.6 percent as "there were no new console products or low enough price points to stimulate consumer demand."

"During the holiday, our solid sales performance of new high-def console software was offset by weak Wii software sales and hardware sales due to the lack of new hardware offerings versus the 2010 period. We were pleased with the performance of our buy-sell-trade business, digital offerings and mobile initiatives," said CEO Paul Raines. The company's used sales increased 3.5 percent during the period, with iOS trade-ins exceeding expectations. "GameStop also retired the remainder of its long-term debt establishing a debt-free balance sheet as we go into 2012."

The average hero lives their life day-to-day, most of the time only holding enough coin to fund their next expedition into a haunted mine or dark forest. The true hero is a frugal hero, not one seeking financial gain or notoriety.

A post in the official forums for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning reveals some PC specs sure to surprise and delight those heroes who have stayed the course -- broke heroes, basically. If you haven't updated your equipment in some time, fret not. The only thing that may steer you off the course of adventure in 38 Studios' upcoming game is the graphics card: the minimum needed is a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB or ATI Radeon HD3650 512MB or better; the recommended is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 1GB RAM or ATI Radeon HD4850 1GB RAM or better.

Head past the break for the full list of minimum and recommended specs.

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She's certainly not the first celebrity to do some voice work for the GPS industry, but she's by far the coolest. Joining the likes of Snoop Dogg, Homer Simpson and Yoda is GLaDOS, available in a new fan-made custom voice pack over on Reddit.

It's a zip file with a bunch of wav files in it, compatible with Garmin Nuvi units -- the files should also work with Garmin Mobile XT units -- and is available as a free download to everyone who wants to be berated by an artificial intelligence while hunting down the closest Burger King. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Disney begins its inevitable assault on Facebook through its subsidiary Marvel, with the upcoming Q1 release of Marvel: Avengers Alliance, a new game for the platform developed by Playdom. It's a "combat role playing game experience with dozens of familiar Marvel superheroes and villains to be collected," in which players can train their stable of Marvel superfolks to upgrade their abilities and stats.

This, of course, means we can expect to see more Facebook games from both Disney and Marvel -- the floodgates have been thrown open (let's say by the Hulk, in the interest of following the theme). We're surprised that this hadn't already happened!

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Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer narrowed down the "early 2012" launch window for Kinect on the Windows PC during Microsoft's CES 2012 keynote today: February 1, 2012. The software development kit has been available to programmers and designers since back in June, but of course people have been doing interesting things with Kinect and PCs since the peripheral's launch back in November 2010.

Ballmer didn't divulge pricing, but Amazon is currently pegging Kinect for Windows at $249.99, a full $100 more than the current price of Kinect on Xbox 360 -- hey, there's a different camera in the Windows version, remember?

Microsoft's Major Nelson says Kinect for Windows will only work with computers running the SDK. Neither have commented on compatibility with Windows 8, but we've got troops on the ground in Las Vegas and will try to find out more.

Microsoft's Craig Davison had some surprise news during the company's CES 2012 keynote this evening, bringing out word that Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp is developing an application for the Xbox 360. Several Newscorp content providers will be pushing out news and commentary via the free application, including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and IGN. Beyond "2012," Davison didn't allow any more specific a date to slip out.

It may not be as curvaceous as the fighters of Soulcalibur V, but at least you need not feel ashamed ogling the game's official Mad Catz stick.

As one of two officially licensed fight sticks (the other being a Hori model), Mad Catz's offering will set consumers back $159.99 and is already off to retail as you read this post. Sticks are available in both Xbox 360 and PS3 flavors, but you already knew that because those are the only two platforms on which you can buy Soulcalibur V.

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Paul Koller's C64 port of Canabalt was already pretty cool (if you're the kind of person who thinks a new Commodore 64 game is cool, a group that we begrudingly recognize doesn't include everyone). Now it's even cooler within that very specific niche, as it's available on a real C64 cartridge.

RGCD has the real, physical release of C64anabalt available in limited quantities for around £20, in your choice of two versions: one with a SID conversion of Danny Baranowsky's original soundtrack, or one with the music from the indie game ThrustBurst for some reason.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has had quite a year. According to a 2011 roundup video released by the company just ahead of its final CES keynote (prepare for Ballmer-age), the Xbox 360 now sits at a total of 66 million units sold worldwide. In case you're keeping track, that means nearly 10 million more were sold over the holiday season since the last check-in with Microsoft in late October.

Meanwhile, the Xbox 360's motion-detecting peripheral, the Kinect, is close to doubling its install base year-over-year, with 18 million units now attached to consoles the world over. This does mean that sales have slowed compared to its bombastic launch, however.

Adding more chest-pounding stats to the pile, the video also notes that the Xbox 360's Live service counts "nearly" 40 million users now, putting the tie-in percentage close to 60. We expect to hear some of these statistics -- and potentially more -- directly from Microsoft head honcho Steven Ballmer in tonight's keynote.

Electronic Arts is seeking First Amendment protections in an upcoming legal dispute with the maker of military helicopters featured in Battlefield 3. Kotaku reports that Textron, the parent company of Bell Helicopters, asked EA on December 21 to cease the depictions of three of its aircraft found in Battlefield 3. Last Friday, EA did a pre-emptive tactical suit against Textron, saying the helicopters are "protected by the First Amendment and the doctrine of nominative fair use."

EA states that the Bell helicopters aren't highlighted or given any great distinction in the game. The publisher also claims the aircraft are just "a few of countless creative visual, audio, plot and programming elements that make up EA's expressive work, a first-person military combat simulation."

The publisher won a similar suit last year against Ex-Rutgers University quarterback Ryan Hart, who believed his likeness was used in NCAA Football without consent. The judge felt EA's First Amendment rights to free expression outweighed Hart's right to protect his likeness, despite the character in the game having "Hart's physical attributes, sports statistics, and biographical information in mind."

Speaking of First Amendment protections, Electronic Arts claims it has no individual position on SOPA, but wants the law to bail it out here ... mmm, chewy irony.

Verizon already has the Xperia Play, and now AT&T has the Xperia ion. Revealed today during CES, this PlayStation-Certified smartphone -- meaning it has access to "entertainment services from Sony Entertainment Network" -- has a 4.6 inch HD Reality display (no slide-out game pad here!) with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine capable of 720p HD. Under the hood is a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 16GB of flash storage. Sandwiching the outside are two cameras: a 1080p lens in the rear, and a 720p front-facing camera.

The ion will be available exclusive through AT&T sometime in the second quarter of this year.

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Sony's stiff-necked CES presentation has granted another look at PlayStation Vita's commercial impact. Only available in Japan so far, the handheld has now sold 500,000 units, according to Executive Deputy President Kaz Hirai.

If that number is accurate -- and indeed sold, not shipped -- it means we can expect reported Vita sales to be higher this week than the last. During its third week of availability, the Vita had sold just under 43,000 units and fewer than the PSP. If it's reached 500,000 by now, it should have sold approximately 65,000 systems during week four.

In other news, Hirai announced that Netflix's TV and movie streaming service would be accessible through Vita once it launches outside Japan. Netflix is currently working to have it operational in the United States and Europe on "day one."

Sony's cloud-based music service, the aptly titled Music Unlimited, has been destined for the PlayStation Vita since before it was called a PlayStation Vita. Today, Kaz Hirai revealed during Sony's annual CES keynote that the service would be available on day one for PlayStation Vita users.

Also of significance to the Sony product owners of the US is the confirmation of PlayMemories Studio, the leaked editing application first seen this past weekend. It will allow users to manipulate photos and videos directly through the PS3.

Irrational Games' Ken Levine writes video games through the lens of a playwright and stage director, having penned plays since the age of 14 and majoring in drama in college. This perspective on storytelling helped him write the audio logs in BioShock, and it's shaping the way he directs the voice actors -- in person for the first time -- in BioShock: Infinite, Levine told Gamasutra.

Writing Elizabeth and Booker, Infinite's main characters, was a completely different process than writing BioShock's antagonist, Andrew Ryan, Levine said. "I always had Ayn Rand in my ear while I was writing him, and she is quite articulate in her viewpoints. So he was a pretty easy character to write, for me," Levine said.

"Booker and Elizabeth, because there's a very different constraint set, because I haven't done this kind of writing for a game before, where you sort of have all this dynamism with a character you're walking around the world with, that you're speaking to, as Booker... just the mechanics of it!"

Levine said he was inspired by the easy banter Naughty Dog placed in Uncharted, and he saw how it could transfer to a period piece. As he describes them, Levine's characters are unique to their time period and his own imagination: "Elizabeth is a person who sees nothing and wants to see everything, and Booker is somebody who's seen everything and wants to see nothing. They're at opposite ends of the spectrum."

The full (and long) interview is here, if you're interested in details about how Levine makes women weep.

Demiurge's still dateless Shoot Many Robots may be closer to release than it seems, as the Metal Slug-esque shooter has been granted an "M" rating by the ESRB for sexual themes, strong language and the use of alcohol. Now, we're not going to put the onus of that rating squarely upon the shoulders of a certain fruit-fetishist robot, but all of those things do sound right in his wheelhouse.

The rating was revealed by the above trailer, which details the game's rendering engine and the various effects that can be achieved by removing certain layers of the game's visuals. While developed primarily for debugging purposes, some of these effects may make it into the finished product as bonus levels or unlockables. Personally, we're keeping our fingers crossed for the Lighting Mode shown at 02:11 and the "Limbo mode" at 02:32.

The PSN version of Amy will hit North America on Jan. 17 for $9.99, the same day and price as the XBLA version. After previously announcing the PSN price to be $3 more than the XBLA price, Developer Lexis Numerique asked the US audience through a Facebook poll if it wanted a cheaper game, but one week later. It turns out Americans are more patient than we thought, but just as frugal.

Now it's official -- Amy will launch in Europe on Jan. 11 for €9.9 (£7.99, 800 MS Points) on PSN and XBLA, and on Jan. 17 for $10 (800 MS Points) in North America on both consoles.

Gamekyo has discovered an image of what appears to be a collector's edition of Aliens: Colonial Marines. Based on the unconfirmed evidence, the collector's edition will include a nifty display box, several in-game weapons, a new "USMC Academy Firing Range" game mode and the USCM Dossier, which offers "essential briefing notes on the Xenomorph infestation." We're assuming the more salient points will cover acid blood and secret mouths.

What's that? Oh yeah, it also includes a badass power loader statue. Despite all that, Sega tells Joystiq that it is "not commenting on this rumor."

Ion Audio is following up on its tiny iCade arcade cabinet with two new iOS controller options, announced just in time for CES, when people get totally excited about electronics accessories. The iCade Core is a less arcadey-looking iPad arcade stick, with eight buttons and a joystick, designed to allow the iPad to operate in either portrait or landscape. It interfaces via Bluetooth, using the iPad's physical connection to charge.

The iCade Mobile is a gamepad attachment for iPhone and iPod touch that adds a for-real d-pad, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons to the sides of the device. Once cradled, you'll be able to position the phone in either portrait or landscape. Both the Core and Mobile are due in 2012; the Core hasn't been priced, but the iPhone gamepad will retail for $80, which seems like rather a lot for some buttons.

Engadget also discovered a prototype at iCade's CES booth for the "iCade Jr.," a teensy, tiny arcade cabinet for iPhones. The release details for this are still undetermined, but how fun! It seems really impractical to play games with a minuscule arcade stick and tiny, tiny buttons, but it's still far more practical than no buttons.