Citing disappointing holiday sales revealed in its financial statement last week, Activision is handing pinkslips to about 150 people (7% of its workforce). Company spokesman Ashley Dyer said cuts were across the board, including various people at development studios. The layoffs had to happen in order to realign the company's operations for the next two years. Whether this will delay any of the current titles was not disclosed, but some teams will be trimmed down, so who knows ...

Another day, another batch of game trailers was released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for :

• Battle for Middle-Earth 2 - IsenMor Trailer
• Fight Night Round 3 - Berrera vs. Morales Trailer
• Panzer Elite Action [PS2/Xbox/PC] - Trailer #6
• Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 - Trailer
• The Sims 2 Open for Business - Valentine's Trailers (2)
• Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble [PSP] - Trailer
• TOCA Race Driver 3 [PS2/Xbox/PC] - Classes Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Atari has released an updated version of the European patch for Liquid Ent's RTS/PRG game Dragonshard This update brings your UK/French & German retail game to v1.2.1b adds new maps, addresses multiplayer issues, graphical and sound problems. Read more for download links ..

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is a stand-alone expansion pack for their strategy title Hearts of Iron II. The expansion will include the original game and boasts a World War III scenario, a complete scenario editor as well as an extended time line.

While it is currently still listed as scheduled for April 2006, a "change of pre-order date" email from Best Buy's customer care service obtained by Joystiq reveals that Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess might be pushed back to November 1st, 2006. Officially Nintendo does not comment on speculations and has not narrowed any sort of release date down beyond a vague "2006."

GTR2 is the next big step forward for the GTR brand, and sports a host of new features and improvements. In addition to all the favourite cars and tracks returning from GTR, the player will now be able to experience the thrill of driving a whole set of new and exotic sports cars on several new tracks.

The Western Conference All-Stars will make it four wins in five years and current NBA scoring leader, Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers, will take home the MVP hardware at NBA All-Star 2006 in Houston as predicted by a precise simulation on NBA '06 for the PS2.

Videogame design icon Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims, will deliver a keynote address during the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC). In his address, Wright will explore topics related to next-generation game design and development strategies.

CDV's latest real-time strategy title, American Conquest: Divided Nation, has gone gold today. The game, which will be in stores in early April, will have players re-enacting some of the grandest battles of 19th century America.

Huxley is a massively multiplayer online first person shooting game utilizing the Unreal 3 engine that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Human beings have mutated and are divided into two opposing races, Sapiens and Alternative, who are forced to battle against one another to gain control of the world and its resources.