It's been a while since we've heard of any industry-related job cuts, and for some time back there, it looked like everything was getting back on the right track. Then we get this. Square Enix Japan is being rumored to be getting ready to bring down the axe on some 200 to 300 jobs in their company.

When you're talking about Square Enix in a global scale, there's no doubting that they've managed to rake in huge amounts of sales for all their franchises. Final Fantasy? Kingdom Hearts? And of course, the more recently acquired Tomb Raider? How do they all stack up against each other? It's not surprising that they're raking sales by the millions for these big franchises. I'm just left wondering... how do they fare against lifetime sales for MGS, GTA, CoD, and the like?

It's final - nearly a month after Eidos shareholders approved the Square Enix takeover, court has finally approved the publisher's acquisition, making Lara Croft and Tomb Raider part of the Square Enix family, although it doesn't appear that Eidos' operations will be affected too much by the new arrangement.

Twice the fun, twice the Croft! Eidos Interactive has announced via press release that they're coming out with a Double Pack edition for their two Tomb Raider games on the PSP.

Looks like the future of Lara Croft is in the hands of Final Fantasy studio, Square Enix. The latest news is that Eidos Interactive, the company that owns the Tomb Raider franchise, will be bought by Squeenix for a whopping US$ 120.8 million.

Who else is suddenly thinking of Lara with a gunblade?

Discuss: QJ.NET General Gaming Discussion

SCi Entertainment has announced its intent to change its name to Eidos. To this end, they have already filed an application with the Registrar of Companies. SCi is the parent company of Tomb Raider and Hitman publisher, Eidos Interactive.

The rumor mill is abuzz over talks of someone making a grab for Eidos Interactive's parent company, SCi Entertainment. The big names mentioned were the US company, Electronic Arts, and the French company, Ubisoft.

There's always to sides to a fence, so they say. And when it comes to game reviews, the usual side that we see are the journalists' - particularly highlighting the many issues they have to contend with, especially with PR people breathing down their necks to bag a good score for their product. Today, however, we are allowed a peek at the other side of the fence as one guy from the biz explains why devs push the journalists to give their games a good score - and why it is right for them to do it.

We have had quite a share of sports titles last week, and this time we're going to add a little more into the fitness equation with the release of Nintendo's much-hyped up Wii Fit as well as UEFA EURO 2008 (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PSP, PC). Meanwhile, PS3 owners should have yet another field day at the retail stores with the release of the highly anticipated FPS, Haze, and the karaoke title SingStar. See the full article for more details!

* Article originally posted May 19, 2008 at 12:45AM

People say Jane Cavanagh, the founder of the SCi Entertainment Group, has just released the company's 2007 annual report where they revealed that sequels to the Tomb Raider, Hitman, and some of their other IPs are in development. There's an uneasy air surrounding its emergence, however, since SCi's own investors called for the ousting of Cavanagh a few months ago. To find out more, head on over to the full article.