In a continuing reversal of the former policy of consolidating game development, Microsoft has announced the closure of ACES Studio, the folks behind community favorite Flight Simulator. The most recent version, Flight Simulator X was released in 2006, with an expansion hitting the market in 2007. A Microsoft spokesmen confirmed the closure, saying that the decision was made “to align our people against our highest priorities.”

Whether this signals the end of the Flight Simulator series is unknown, with Microsoft delivering only a coy response when questioned, “We are committed to the Flight Simulator franchise which has proven to be a successful PC based game for the last 27 years. You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great LIVE experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time.” said the Microsoft spokesmen.

The last in the Flight SImulator series, Flight SImulator X was released in 2006.

In news sure to start Starcraft fans foaming at the mouth, several new Starcraft 2 screenshots have been released. SC2 looks to be shaping up nicely, and will hopefully be released sometime later this year (please Blizzard).

More bad news at the worlds second largest publisher with further redundancies on the way. While overall sales of video games were up 31% in November, EA has said that it will miss profit targets because of an “unexpected slowdown in retail orders.”

When the voluntary redundancy program started in October, many analysts predicted that EA would have to make cuts deeper then the 6% it aimed for to remain competitive, and unfortunately for the workers at the company, it looks like this scenario has eventuated. EA has announced that it is closing Black Box Games, creators of the Need for Speed and Skate games. In a press release, EA said that “It expects the restructuring plan will result in annual cost savings of approximately $120 million and restructuring charges of approximately $55-65 million over the next several quarters.”

After counting out the Wii early, only recently has EA started to get its game together and start putting out titles. Coupled with their relatively poor offerings on other consoles, it is no surprise that EA has had to reduce its workforce. As an analyst at Arcadia Investment put it, “Unfortunately, other people have better seats at the table than EA, Activision is doing really well with Call of Duty: World at War. Microsoft is doing phenomenally well with Gears of War 2. And Nintendo is doing well with Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. EA’s titles, on the other hand, have done somewhere between OK and a little disappointing. None of them have outperformed.”
The news comes after Sony Corp announced it was cutting more than 8000 jobs to cope with the “acute downturn in the economic climate”. Many analysts had predicted that the video games market would weather the crisis better than other businesses, much like cosmetic manufactures during the Great Depression, but it appears that they are not totally immune from the impact.

It’s been busy in the gaming world this past week. From the release of the November sales charts, to the crime-solving abilities of the Xbox 360. Read on for the top stories.

Wireless controller helps recover 360

The intelligence (or lack) of criminals never ceases to amaze. After coming back to his dorm and finding his beloved Xbox 360 missing, student Ryan Ketsenberg noticed that the wireless controller had been left behind. After finding that its just not the same without the actual console, he noticed that when turned on, the controller was still connected – meaning the console was within 30 feet of his room. With somewhat Sherlock-esqe brilliance, Ryan managed to locate the exact room his 360 was locked in, and with the help of the dorm authorities, was able to recover the Xbox before the thief arrived home.

The end for NFS?

Not long after the release of Need for Speed: Undercover, the Electric Playground is reporting that EA may be looking into dumping the franchise. This comes after EA CEO John Riccitiello spoke about changing the Need for Speed development cycle to 24 months, rather then the current 12, to try improve the quality of the games. It is unfortunate that this formerly great series has fallen to such lows, but perhaps it is time for EA to stop flogging a dead horse.

Wii sells over 2 million in November

In news that is sure to provide more ammunition to Nintendo fanboys worldwide, it appears that Nintendo sold 2,040,000 Wiis in the US during November. This is more then double the 981,000 sold in the same period in 2007.

Sony might have to rethink its ‘No price drop’ policy after PS3 sales fell to 378,000, from 466,000, even with the stronger lineup of games available. Microsoft made slight gains with a total of 836,000 Xboxs sold, up from 770,000.

Gears of War 2 Reigns Supreme

Following its release of the console sales, NPD has distributed its game sales charts. Gears of War 2, the second game in the flagship 360 series, has achieved the top result with 2,268,041 copies sold. Call of Duty: World at War (x360), Wii Fit (Wii), COD:WaW (PS3), and WiiPlay round out the top five.

Gears dominance appears to be limited to the sales charts however, with the game slipping further down the ‘Xbox Live’ most played list. Gears currently sits in fourth place, behind the omnipresent Halo 3, and Call of Duty: World at War/Modern Warfare. This appears mostly due to the horrible matchmaking interface that has been implemented, and has resulted in large amounts of ‘lag’. Hopefully this will knock some sense into Epic so instead of creating new maps, they fix the game.

Prince of Persia DRM Free?

After the debacle of the patch released for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 earlier in the year (which was a re-release of a warez group’s no-cd, complete with tagging instead the code), Ubisoft has announced that there will be no DRM on the PC release of the new Prince of Persia game. Though they don’t have high hopes, when asked how successful the move would be, Ubisoft Community Development Manager Chris Easton replied “Not very, I imagine.”

Crysis Wars Trial

Ever noticed how anything free tastes better? Or that dollar you found on the ground feels better then the $100 you worked for? Well EA and Crytek have tried to spread around some Christmas cheer with 10 days of free Crysis Wars fun! Scheduled to run from December 19 until the 29th, just register over at mycrysis.com to receive your free key.