The GameStop corporation happily announced today that its earnings had shot up 5.2% for the quarter ending November 1, with over $1.69 billion in sales. During that quarter GameStop opened 191 new stores, 94 in the United States and 97 internationally. It also snatched up French games retailer Micromania, expanding its influence even further. We hope they bought the protection plan with their Micromania purchase, just in case it gets scratched or... or worse!

New video games sales were up 10%, with GameStop reporting that its five best sellers were Madden NFL 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fable II, Wii Fit and Guitar Hero World Tour.

"Despite the dramatic decline of the global economy and its severe impact on the entire retail industry, GameStop had a strong quarter," Daniel DeMatteo, Chief Executive Officer, said. "Sales have been very robust over the last several weeks, driven by strong new title releases such as Activision's Call of Duty: World at War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and Microsoft's Gears of War 2."

CHRONICLES OF SPELLBORN: Another release delay has been announced for THE CHRONICLES OF SPELLBORN. The fantasy MMO, long ages in-development, has had its North American debut pushed to January 2009. Not really a surprise for those paying close attention.

In happier TCoS news - Open Beta is now available for select European countries. Looks like ya win some, ya lose some in the never ending chronicle of SPELLBORN’s development saga.

“When the European countries go live on November 27, Acclaim will simultaneously start Close Beta testing in its territories and then go live in January 2009. Both launches will have the exact same product versions featuring identical Freemium models but with a different release date to accommodate additional testing for a smooth official release. Extensive testing of the game will ensure players receive the highest quality gaming experience at launch.”

GameStop managers and the odd journalist have already seen Fight Night Round 4 on the big screen, but come December 14th everyone else will get to see it too. Oh sure, we've seen blurry shaky-cam footage that in no way gives us the proper visuals to over-scrutinize and pick apart and that simply will not do. The world premiere of EA Sports' boxing franchise will hit during the Spike TV Video Game Awards next month. The "ultimate boxing match up" from EA Canada does have at least one thing going for it — the inclusion of video game boxing legend Mike Tyson. His style is impetuous! He wants to eat your children!

On this weeks show we recount what it was like to discover Half-Life 10 years ago. How strong an industry we the PC can be. Also, the editors give their Wotlk, L4D, and Fallout 3 impressions, answer a few listener questions and more.

It was a down week for hardware sales in Japan, with the Wii the only platform to see an uptick in sales week-to-week. The recently launched Nintendo DSi still tops the charts and is in no danger of losing its position to any of its hardware competitors. It does about half of the total hardware sales for the week of November 10 to 16. PlayStation 3 sales stay solid amid a half-dozen new releases over the past month, including Way of the Samurai 3, Resistance 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Wonder how long the DS Lite will continue to chart...

• Nintendo DSi - 85,327
• PSP - 38,153
• Wii - 26,787
• PlayStation 3 - 17,448
• Xbox 360 - 7,983
• PlayStation 2 - 5,421
• Nintendo DS - 3,559

Did you detect that stench of viral marketing wafting from that "Bike Hero" YouTube clip? Your nose doesn't lie; the clip purported to be made by "madflux" and the "Brierwood Vandals" is really the work of production team Droga 5, MTV Multiplayer reports. Activision's chief creative officer Brad Jakeman tells MTV that one of the clip's more impressive technical feats — the flashing LEDs on the handlebars — was born from "some filmic magic."

If you're feeling hornswaggled by the CGI-laden marketing attempt, Jakeman says you shouldn't — this was all according to plan. "It’s not meant to be deceptive. It’s meant to be fun,” he said, claiming that Activision was hoping you'd figure it out all along, that they wanted to "engage" you and get the "conversation" going. If it moved a couple more copies of Guitar Hero World Tour, it's a win-win.

Activision Coughs Up Real Story Behind Amazing ‘Bike Hero’ Clip [MTV Multiplayer]

The World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has become, according to Blizzard, the fastest selling game of all time. In the first 24 hours of its availability, WotLK sold over 2.8 MILLION copies. Check out the official word on it after the jump.

Star Wars: Galaxies players have a brand spanking new area and plenty of new missions to explore in Chapter 11: The Battle of Echo Base. Find who will be making a guest appearance by clicking below.

Warhammer Online fans who enjoy reading novel tie-ins based on the WAR universe will be happy to hear that the second book in the "Black Library" series will be coming in Spring 2009. Find out more details by clicking "read more".

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