The one constant in life, as you may have heard, is change – and nowhere does change comes faster than in the technology world.

After three years of bringing you news about technology and how it applies to the entertainment world, Technotainment is shutting down. And while we hate to lower the curtain on this facet of our coverage, it's critical to note that in no way is Variety walking away from this area of the industry.

While this daily blog will no longer be updated, Variety will continue to cover technological matters, the video game industry and everything else we've focused on here as part of our day-to-day coverage in Daily Variety and Weekly Variety. (And you don't need to look much further than our extensive coverage of the just-completed Consumer Electronics Show to see that.)

I’ll still be regularly contributing to Variety – and there’s plenty coming that you won’t want to miss. So if you've got a story to pitch or a comment to make, I invite you to stay in touch with me directly at chris.r.morris@gmail.com.

On a personal note, I want to thank Dana Harris, who brought me into the Variety family to run this and the late Cut Scene blog some three years ago. Variety group editor Tim Gray has been incredibly supportive of the blog and encouraged me to take chances. I will be forever in his debt. And Variety.com Chris Krewson has been a firm backer of what we do here as well.

Thanks most of all to those of you who have made Technotainment a part of your daily routine, however. Your notes, comments and thoughts have never failed to be insightful and eye opening. I look forward to continuing our relationship in the pages of Variety.

Video game publisher THQ, which has worked closely with several Hollywood studios throughout the years, is facing a delisting on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The company, which has partnered with many Hollywood studios, including Dreamworks and Disney in recent years, has filed an 8K form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing it has received a stock delisting notice from the stock market.

The notice was sent on Jan 25, when THQ shares traded under $1 for the 30^th consecutive business day. And while it's certainly dire (and further rattled shaky investors today), it's not necessarily fatal.

THQ will have 180 days – roughly six months – from the point it receives the notice to turn things around and regain compliance, which means keeping its stock above the $1 mark for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days.

At the same time, the company will put together a plan to remedy the situation, in case the stock doesn't turn around naturally. Most commonly, this is done via a reverse stock split. It's expensive, time consuming and embarrassing, but it's also fairly effective – most of the time.

If, after that period, the stock's still not trading above the $1 mark, there's an opportunity for a hearing that could extend the probationary period.

Nasdaq, as a rule, prefers not to delist companies. When possible, they give them the benefit of the doubt. And if THQ can point to a strong lineup of games in development, that could be enough to convince Nasdaq to give it some extra time.

Of course, a delisting threat is far from the only trouble at THQ these days. Analysts have questioned the company's cash flow. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities, in December, wrote he believed "THQ is at risk of running out of cash by the June 2012 quarter" after the company's reduced guidance.

"With another unprofitable year expected in FY:12 (its fourth unprofitable year in the last five years), we expect the company’s cash balance to become an issue if it is unable to turn a profit in the first half of FY:13," said Pachter. "Given its declining licensed and core properties (apart from Saints Row), and an uncertain release schedule next year, we remain unconvinced that FY:13 will be profitable."

Typically, the entertainment highlight of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is the Game Developer's Choice Awards – one of the video game industry's more prestigious award ceremonies.

Those will still be handed out this year, but attendees are likely to be more excited about the announcement that Indie Game – The Movie will be screened at the show on March 5 at 6pm.

In addition to showing the winner of the Best Editing award at the Sundance Film Festival, the show will host a panel with the film's featured subjects and creators following the film.

The film follows independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes (maker of "Super Meat Boy"), Phil Fish ("Fez") and Jonathan Blow ("Braid"), showcasing the creation and release of their titles.

The film has been playing to sold out audiences in select screenings since its premier earlier this month.

Google Music hasn't been making a lot of noise lately and is, in some ways, in danger of being overshadowed by other cloud music sites. But the Internet giant has roared back with the addition of a key backup feature for users.

Starting immediately, Google Music users are able to instantly restore their music collection with a single click. That applies to both purchased music and any songs they've added from their own library.

It is, of course, a direct response to Apple's iCloud, which automatically backs up App Store purchases, but also lets users backup music from other sources on their hard drive – for a price.

Google Music's new features don't appear to carry any charge – and they're being targeted at the Android audience, though PC users will able to use them as well. The only catch? Users are restricted to two downloads each via the Web interface.

Nintendo's financial year won't end until the end of March, but the company is bracing investors for its first-ever financial loss – and it's going to be a massive one.

By the time the year ends, the company expects to post an $837 million loss – a much worse number than the $258 million shortfall it had previously predicted.

Poor holidays bear part of the blame. The company announced dismal quarterly earnings today, noting that its nine-month loss (through Dec. 31) came in at $623 million - $1.3 billion worse than it performed a year ago.

A stronger than expected Yen also contributed to the numbers, and the effects of the 3DS price cut deeper into the company's coffers.

The bright spot was a confirmation from the company that the Wii-U would ship to all major territories by the holiday shopping period. That was widely expected, but whispers about problems with the hardware had some investors and analysts on edge.

Nintendo sold just shy of 9 million Wiis worldwide between April and December versus 13.7 million units during that time in 2010. And Nintendo DS sales plunged as the 3DS took the spotlight, falling from 15 million in 2010 to 4.6 million last year.

And as consumers turn their focus to high definition consoles and smartphones, sales are likely to continue suffering. Nintendo lowered its forecast for 3DS, DS and Wii hardware sales – and expected 3DS software sales to come in lower than initially thought, as well.

While Netflix saw its net income take a hit in the fourth quarter, the news wasn't all-bad.

The company beat estimates and more importantly saw its streaming business grow, despite a series of events in 2011 that were one PR disaster after the next.

The company reports it added 220,000 new domestic streaming customers during the period, bringing the total to 21.67 million. Internationally, it netted 380,000 new customers, bringing that total to 1.86 million.

The outlook for the first quarter of 2012 is rosy as well, with the company projecting a 1.7 million customer increase in its streaming operations.

DVD subscriptions continue to suffer, though, with 2.76 million people canceling their service with the company. At present, 11.17 million people are still subscribing to the DVD by mail program.

Apple's latest announcement may have nothing to do with the entertainment industry, but it's a clear signal that this tech giant is interested in branching out far beyond its current fields of interest.

At a press conference today in New York, the company rolled out a new version of iBooks that is squarely targeted at the educational marketplace – specifically primary and high school.

Textbook that are included under the iBooks 2 umbrella (which became available Thursday) will be interactive, full-screen digital versions of the classroom standards that use video and animations, along with the familiar swiping and pinching gestures.

Additionally, the company introduced a new version of iTunes, which will focus on iTunes U. Previously, that learning program was focused at a college and post-grad audience. Now, the company's opening it up to K-12.

The emphasis for now is on high school books, which will cost $15 or less. Early publishing partners include Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Together, those companies control roughly 90 percent of the market. Additionally, Apple is also working with DK Publishing to create books for younger audiences.

While LED TVs provide a brighter (and arguably better) picture than their LCD counterparts, consumers aren't embracing them at a pace the industry or analysts have been expecting.

That's likely to result in some changes to the sets – and they don't sound especially encouraging. NPD reports set makers are reducing the number of LEDs per TV set which will lower brightness and veer away from the slim designs and picture quality that have helped LED backlit sets.

“LED penetration in LCD TV was 7 points lower than our forecast a year ago, mainly due to high LED premiums,” said Yoshio Tamura, senior vice president at NPD DisplaySearch. "The premium for a LED backlight in a 32" LCD TV was 42 percent in Q4'11, although it had been expected to fall to 27 percent. Therefore, TV makers are changing their strategies on direct LED-backlit TV. Instead of high picture quality, set makers have chosen low-power consumption with a corresponding lower price as selling points for this new type of LED-backlit TV. This will increase its competitiveness with CCFL-backlit LCD TV and even CRT TV."

While sales are the ultimate goal, the trend is a disappointing one for videophiles. NPD did not cite any specific manufacturers in its report, but edge-lit LED TVs are much less dynamic than their backlit cousins. 

The oft-delayed Max Payne 3 has hit another roadblock and been pushed back again – and the delay is going to push publisher Take-Two Interactive Software into the red.

The company's Rockstar Games division announced this morning that the game, originally set to launch this March, would now not bow before May. That marks the fourth delay, if you're keeping score at home.

Because the game has been pushed out of the fiscal year, Take-Two was forced to revise its estimates, deducting an anticipated $210 to $230 million in revenue. The company now expects to report a loss for fiscal 2012.

"We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our company," said CEO Strauss Zelnick.

In an interview with Variety last year, Dan Houser, one of the studio heads at Rockstar discussed the impact the frequent delays have had on the team.

"I think it's part of the industry, if you want high quality games," he said. Maybe, if you are making a sequel without much design innovation and without any real technical innovation -- you know, just a bunch of new content on board with a broadly existing engine with a broadly existing design -- you can have some degree of confidence in guessing your release date.

"Anyone that's doing what we were trying to do and guesses at the start of the project exactly when things are going to be done, well they are better at this job than I am. We can't do that while guaranteeing quality.

What impact did it have on the team? None negative. I think the team was happy that we were pursuing quality. They weren't done, and they could see they weren't finished and it wasn't right, so we were going to keep working on it until it was finished and it was right."

Nathan Drake and a rather evil super computer (and sometime potato) have topped the nominees for the 15^th annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) awards.

"Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception" led this year's nods with 12 nominations, while "Portal 2" got 10. Other multiple award nominees included "L.A. Noire" (with nine), "Batman: Arkham City," "Battlefield 3" and "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," which all got six.

The awards, one of the more prestigious in the gaming industry, will be handed out on Feb 5 during the D.I.C.E. summit in Las Vegas in a ceremony hosted by actor Jay Mohr. CBS-owned gaming site GameSpot has been named as an exclusive partner and will stream the awards live online.

The complete list of nominees can be found after the break.

With the Consumer Electronics Show now in full swing, the amount of gadget and gizmo information coming out of Las Vegas is staggering. And given that there are 3,100 companies showcasing more than 20,000 new products here, that's not surprising.

But while the industry touts its latest and greatest, the general public has already put together its wishlist for 2012 – and the top items on it can't be found at CES.

Online survey company Sodahead has released the results of a poll showing that Apple's iPhone 5 remains the most anticipated tech product of 2012, capturing 35 percent of the vote. Close behind was the iPad 3, with 30 percent.

Rounding out the top five was the oft-whispered Google tablet (16 percent), the PlayStation Vita (12 percent), Wii U (11 percent) and the expected-to-be-updated Kindle Fire 2 (7 percent).

We're likely to hear a lot about 4K before the end of today – press conference day at CES – but the first couple of sets have already made their debuts.

LG has announced a trio of 4K sets, measuring 60, 72 and 84 – yes, 84 – inches). Each boasts a staggering resolution of 3480x2160 and they'll be available this July. Toshiba, meanwhile, showed off a 55-inch, glasses free 4K set last night.

There were no hard prices for either set, but they'll be incredibly expensive. And, while the picture quality is, indeed, beautiful on both, there's no need to camp out to be the first on your block to have one, as the library of 4K content is virtually nonexistent right now.

Kazuo Hirai, the one time leader of Sony’s PlayStation division and now Executive Deputy President, could have another promotion looming in the near future.

Japanese business paper Nikkei reports Hirai will be promoted to president as early as April. Sir Howard Stringer will remain chairman and CEO of the company.

Hirai has been on a fast track trajectory for the past few years and is the heir apparent to the top job at Sony. When Sony was under assault from hackers last year, Hirai was the public face of the company, with Stringer taking a background role and making little public comment.

The Sony board is remaining mum on the reports, saying it has not yet made a decision on whether to promote Hirai. 

Angry Birds gets most of the spotlight when it comes to big money apps, but Epic Games has got legitimate crowing rights as well.

Infinity Blade, the action swordplay franchise from Epic's ChAIR Entertainment division, has now topped $30 million in revenue – with the sequel taking in $5 million in just one month.

"The success of the Infinity Blade franchise is testament to our talented team who is devoted to making games we want to play, all while using Unreal Engine technology to redefine what is expected from games on iOS devices," said Epic Games president Mike Capps. "We have so much more in store for players, and will continue to make great content for Apple's evolving platforms."

The game offers some of the top graphics on the iPhone and iPad, using a modified version of the graphics engine that powers titles like Gears of War and Batman: Arkham City. Beyond the two titles in the app store, the franchise also includes a digital novella, a soundtrack and an arcade game.

OLED – or organic light-emitting diode - has been one of the longest running legends in consumer technology.

The screens, which are incredibly vibrant and accurate in their color technology, have been shown as prototypes, usually just no larger than 15 inches, but release dates have always been nebulous, due to the incredibly high cost of the technology. LG, however, appears ready to jump in at this year's CES.

The company plans to unveil a 55-inch OLED TV panel at the show. The set will be surrounded by a frame that's just 4mm thick and weighs just 16.5 lbs.

"Working closely with LG Display, we have a product which not only delivers on all the advantages of OLED over LCD but at a significantly lower cost than what could be achieved using existing OLED manufacturing technologies," said Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. "OLED is clearly the future of home TV entertainment and LG is very focused on making this exciting technology as easy as possible for consumers to embrace."

LG didn't give any hints as to pricing or availability, though. We'll have to wait until next week to see if it's willing to commit to a launch date – as well as its definition of "lower cost". 

EA received some holiday coal in its stocking Thursday when a California Superior Court judge rejected its argument that it should be excused from a $400 million contract-interference suit.

Activision alleges EA illegally attempted to lure away Call of Duty creators and Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision is also suing the two developers.

EA was added to the suit roughly a year ago, but had recently argued that it did nothing illegal in talking with the pair. The judge disagreed, though, saying there was sufficient evidence to move forward with the case against EA.

West and Zampella, after being dismissed by Activision, formed their own studio and have since struck a publishing deal with EA.

Microsoft is breaking up with the Consumer Electronics Show.

The tech giant has announced via a company blog that this year's keynote and exhibit booth will be its last at the show – a notable departure, since the company's keynote has long been the unofficial kickoff to CES.

"We have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES," said Frank Shaw, Microsoft's vice president of corporate communications. "We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing."

It's hardly a devastating blow to the show, which still has the support of television manufacturers and more, but combined with Apple's boycotting of CES, Microsoft's decision to bow out will create a notable hole in the computer/tablet space.

When the clocks strike midnight, the rush will be on into EA's newest massively multiplayer online game – and the only title around that has any chance of giving "World of Warcraft" any sort of competition.

"Star Wars: The Old Republic," made by the company's Bioware Studios in conjunction with LucasArts lets players explore the rich universe 3,500 years before the Star Wars films occur in the timeline.

That gives lots of flexibility as far as story, but robs players of the chance to interact with favorite characters like Darth Vader and Han Solo. (Then again, seeing as a Sony-run MMO Star Wars game set in that universe just shut down for good, that's not necessarily a bad thing.)

The game's rumored to have cost over $135 million and it shows, with fully voiced characters and epic land and space combat. It will have a long climb to reach World of Warcraft's subscriber base of more than 10 million players, but pre-orders for the game have set an all-time EA record for a PC title – and if any franchise can pose a threat, it's Star Wars.

Social game maker Zynga's much anticipated debut on Wall St. didn't go quite as well as planned Friday.

The company finished the trading day at 9.50, 5 percent below its offering price – as investors, fearful of a new tech bubble, steered clear and analysts ripped the company on growth concerns.

Before shares even began trading, one of the gaming industry's more notable analysts – Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia – initiated coverage with an "sell" rating, citing the notable slowdown in the company's growth in recent months. And Cowen and Company's Doug Creutz gave the company a "neutral" rating in coverage today.

It's an ugly debut for the company, but not one that will negatively impact it. Founder Mark Pincus holds 70 times more voting power than all of the common stock that went up for sale today, so the performance of the stock has no impact on him (or the rest of Zynga, really). If the company tanks and investors call for his head, he can ignore them. If it soars to Google or Apple territory, he profits.

It's a true win-win – unless you're an investor.

As expected, social game maker Zynga will begin trading shares on Wall Street Friday, marking one of the video game industry's biggest public offerings in years.

The company has priced shares at $10 each, the high end of its expected range and will offer 100 million shares to investors. That puts the company valuation at about $7 billion.

That's a lot, but it's just half of where outside consultants estimated the company's worth to stand. Zynga chose to go low because of market turbulence. A recent slate of high profile tech IPOs haven't held up well since their splash debuts. Groupon is already below its IPO price – and Pandora, Zillow and LinkedIn are all well off their highs.

The company will raise about $1 billion through the stock offering, but CEO Mark Pincus will still be firmly in control of the company, thanks to the creation of a third class of stock.

Pincus would hold all of those shares, with each having 70 votes at shareholder meetings. (VC investors would get seven votes per share in their stock class, while folks who buy stock as part of the IPO will get just one vote per share.)

Add Web television to awards season.

The International Academy of Web Television has announced nominees for the inaugural IAWTV awards, with Felicia Day's "The Guild" and drama series "RCVR" topping the list.

"RCVR" racked up a dozen nominations. The show focuses on covert government agents that try to suppress the truth about extraterrestrial encounters and hunt humans selected by an alien species to act as channels for advanced technologies. "The Guild," a long-running Web series that is arguably the field's most popular, picked up nine nominations.

The awards will be presented in Las Vegas on Jan. 12, alongside the Consumer Electronics Show.

A full list of the nominees can be found after the break.

Microsoft continues to roll out new entertainment offerings for the Xbox 360.

The second wave of content providers for the recent user interface revamp of Xbox Live has hit the console, bringing some familiar names. Starting today, U.S. users will be able to access content from ClearChannel's streaming radio service iHeartRadio and Verizon FiOS customers will be able to access a limited selection of live channels.

Also joining the fun is YouTube, TMZ and MSNBC.com.

Verizon's FiOS customers will be able to watch up 26 live TV channels, including MTV, Spike, Food Network, Comedy Central, HBO, CNN and Nickelodeon. In order to use the services, Xbox Live users must prove they are subscribers to the cablers or satcasters, or in Bravo or Syfy's case, confirm that they are paying cable or satellite customers.

Other countries are getting different channels. Here's the complete list.

* blinkbox. United Kingdom

* iHeartRadio. United States

* MSN Video. Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom

* MSNBC.com. United States

* MUZU.TV. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

* Rogers On Demand (Rogers Media). Canada

* SBS ON DEMAND. Australia

* TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States

* RTVE (RTVE.es). Spain

* Verizon FiOS TV. United States

* YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Spike TV's annual Video Game Awards program always tends to divide the gamer audience, which grumbles about the flashy nature of the programming, but the event is still very much a can't miss event among those players.

With several announcements of new game franchises, including Epic Games' "Fortnight" and Sony/Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us" making bows this year, it's a second E3 of sorts. But the real focus is on the awards.

This year's crop were a fairly worthy bunch. While there's always room for disagreement (many fans thought Mark Hamill's Joker in "Batman: Arkham City" was robbed), there's really not a clunker in the bunch – a far cry from the early incarnations of the VGAs, which were often seen as out of touch and an attempt to solely capitalize on the money surrounding the industry.

This year, game makers mixed with the celebrities, with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, among others) making a surprise appearance to accept the first Video Game Hall of Fame award.

Among the current crop of titles, Bethesda's "Skyrim" took home the Game of the Year trophy, while Valve's "Portal 2" swept five categories and "Batman: Arkham City" dominated four.

A complete list of the winners is after the break.

Led by "Modern Warfare 3" and a surprisingly strong "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim," video game software sales soared past analyst expectations in November.

Retail sales of console and portable software were up 15 percent to $1.67 billion. Analysts had expected a climb of just 3 percent.

While the success of "Modern Warfare 3" was telegraphed (the game is currently tracking about 7 percent ahead of last year's "Call of Duty: Black Ops"), it's Skyrim's success that has turned heads. The game beat out EA's much-hyped "Battlefield 3" for the #2 sales spot and is on track to being one of Bethesda's best selling titles.

“In one month, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is just about half a million units shy of matching Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in lifetime sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frasier. "Its first month performance was a five-fold increase over Oblivion’s first month sales. The game garnered outstanding review scores.”

As a whole, the industry fared a bit worse, reporting numbers that matched November 2011. That's due to the fact that Kinect for Xbox 360 launched a year ago, which skewed the comparions. Console hardware sales were down 9 percent as well – but Microsoft continued to dominate the field.

“This is the fourth consecutive month in which the Xbox 360 has been the top selling hardware system," said Frasier. "The gap between 360 sales and sales of the next best selling platform was the largest we’ve seen since December 2008 when the Nintendo DS was the top selling system.”

The full list of the month's top selling games can be found after the break.

The video game industry's top developer seems ready to step back from game making.

Shiergu Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong, Mario and The Legend of Zelda, has told Wired.com that he plans to step away from major game development and focus instead on smaller projects and training younger developers. He does not, however, plan to leave the company.

"Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, 'I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,'" Miyamoto said. "I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position. … What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small."

The news came as a shock to gamers (who expected Miyamoto to be with the company forever) and apparently for Nintendo as well. The company's shares fell 2 percent Thursday and it quickly went into damage control mode as reports that Miyamoto was retiring fully made the rounds.

"This is absolutely not true," a Nintendo spokesperson told Reuters. "There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation. He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned."

Miyamoto has been critical to Nintendo's success over the past 30 years, having a hand in virtually every major hit game the company has put out, from the arcade standard Donkey Kong to Super Mario 3 (which sold more than 18 million copies) to this year's critical hit The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

It takes a lot of guts for a social game to turn its back on Facebook, but you probably would expect nothing less of a game based on the Godfather franchise.

The Godfather: Five Families has decided to bypass the largest social networking site and launch exclusively on Google+.

"As Michael Corleone said, 'It’s not personal... It’s strictly business,'" Kabam VP of marketing Ted Simon told Gamasutra. "As we were evaluating our options, Google+ games came to us and put together the most compelling marketing and merchandising package to support the expansion of The Godfather: Five Families and help drive traffic to their platform."

The game, developed by Kabam and backed by Paramount, acts as a prequel to the book and films. Set 10 years before the first film, the game will let players be a part of the rise to power of the Corleones, Straccis, Cuneos, Barzinis and Tattaglias.

The game isn't likely to stay off of Facebook forever, though. Google+ only has a 45 day window of exclusivity, at which time the studio can bring the game to other sites.

Director Gore Verbinski is getting into the video game industry.

The helmer of such pictures as The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Rango has announced a deal with Microsoft, where his Blind Wink transmedia company will produce original interactive content for Microsoft platforms, including the Xbox 360, Windows Phone and Windows-based PCs.

The deal includes, but is not limited to, video games, the first of which will be released in late 2012. Microsoft says the title, which Wink is developing internally, will be made specifically for Kinect.

“Audiences consume content very differently today," said Verbinski.  "As an idea house, we at Blind Wink are looking forward to our partnership with Microsoft.  Their various platforms give us access to new methods of distribution, allowing us to extend into emerging markets and connect more directly with the audience." 

As the end of the year draws close, the inevitable year in review pieces are starting to roll out. The first, from Twitter, however, shows what the hot shows, music, movies and actors were with the Twitterati – and it holds some pretty big surprises.

While it's not exactly shocking that Charlie Sheen led the actor category, Elizabeth Taylor was the most talked about actress (and Raven Symone topped both Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lopez). And of all the shows on TV, ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" was the hottest topic.

YouTube sensation Rebecca Black was the year's hottest subject in music, while "Thor" was the most talked about movie. It's worth noting that the year's top four grossing pictures (year to date) – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" – were all absent from the list.

The hottest topics in select areas were:

TELEVISION

1. Pretty Little Liars
2. Two and a Half Men
3. The Craigslist Killer
4. Golden Globe Awards
5. People's Choice Awards

MOVIES

1. Thor
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. X-Men: First Class
4. Fast Five
5. Green Hornet

MUSIC

1. Rebecca Black and Friday
2. Nate Dogg
3. FEMME FATALE
4. Gerry Rafferty
5. Gil Scott-Heron

ACTRESSES

1. Elizabeth Taylor
2. Mila Kunis
3. Anne Hathaway
4. Raven Symone
5. Natalie Portman
6. Elisabeth Sladen
7. Jennifer Lopez
8. Nina Dobrev
9. Emma Watson
10. Fernanda Vasconcellos

ACTORS

1. Charlie Sheen
2. Macaulay Culkin
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Ricky Gervais
5. Pete Postlethwaite
6. Tracy Morgan
7. Jake Gyllenhaal
8. Ashton Kutcher
9. Colin Firth
10. James Franco

The video game world has never really been represented well at Robert Redford’s popular Sundance Film Festival, but that's set to change this year.

Indie Game: The Movie has been selected to screen at the event. The film will show in the festival's World Documentary category, which only approved 12 submissions this year.

The film is the work of Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, who secured funding by winning a film pitch competition, DVD pre-orders and their own investments. The gamer community has been solidly behind the project, both morally and financially.

Rather than focusing on the eccentricities of today's players or the people making the game, Indie Game looks at developers of smaller projects, who strive not to get rich, but to create an interactive work of art.

Here's a look at the film's trailer.

South Park has been around the video game block a few times, but its latest trip could be remarkably different.

South Park Digital Studios and Obsidian Entertainment, makers of "Fallout: New Vegas," are teaming to create a South Park role-playing game. THQ will publish the title.

"South Park: The Game" will put users in the construction paper shoes of a new resident of the titular Colorado town, where they befriend Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and explore the city's eccentricities.

“Our goal is simple: to put creative talent first,” said Danny Bilson, EVP of core games, THQ. “Matt and Trey are arguably two of the most important comedic talents of their generation. Bringing their vision of South Park to the interactive space is a dream-come-true.”

The show, as mentioned above, is no stranger to gaming. Four titles have been made since 1998, with a fifth arcade style game for Xbox Live Arcade due in the spring of 2012. None, though, have been critical darlings. 

Outspoken Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has downgraded Netflix to "underperform," calling the film rental service "broken" and saying there may be no bottom to the company's 2012 losses.

Pachter says the price increases of earlier this year were handled in a haphazard fashion that cost the company dearly – and notes the fallout from it is still continuing months later

"It is clear that a price increase was necessary, and equally clear in hindsight that a 60 percent increase on the hybrid customer was too much," he wrote. "While we think that the company would have seen some customer defections and trade-downs at any price point, it is clear to us that the defections and trade-downs would have been less dramatic had the price increases been smaller."

Pachter, who has historically been a bit bearish on Netflix, added he was also particularly concerned with rising content costs and felt the focus on international expansion would be a significant cash drain on the company for an extended period. 

"We think that the company’s pricing structure is wrong, and its business model is broken," he said. "At current prices, we expect Netflix to continue to lose more hybrid customers than it adds, and those who remain will not be particularly profitable. ... Unless the company changes its strategy, we do not see upside to our $45 price target, and we see meaningful downside. In order to prompt a strategy change, company management must first admit that the current strategy is unsound, and we have seen no indication of that over the last several months."

Disney was the first studio to fully integrate iOS systems with their films, but they're no longer the only filmmaker doing so.

The Weinstein Company and Technicolor have teamed up to utilize the tech company's MediaEcho application to supplement last year's Best Picture "The King's Speech" with historical footage, additional commentary and behind the scenes information.

Like Disney's SecondScreen tool, the app syncs with the BluRay version of the film, displaying relevant content at appropriate moments of the film.

"The key benefit of MediaEcho as a second screen application is to offer consumers content that is synchronized and relevant to what they are watching on the TV screen," said Lew Rothman, executive vice president of Operations and Chief Technology Officer at The Weinstein Company.

It's a one-off right now, but the companies plan to add the free app to other films moving forward. The service only works with BD-Live enabled players and you'll need an iPad as well. iPhones and iPod Touches lack the necessary screen space to fully support the content.

Fox, too, jumped on the Second Screen movement earlier this year with its Sons of Anarchy app , only instead of using it as a place to highlight "extras," it focused on capitalization.  "SOA Gear," will enable viewers of the current season and the third-season Blu-ray to purchase products that appear during episodes.

The launch window has been a rocky one for Activision's Call of Duty Elite, but even with a few bugs remaining, the publisher is ready to start ramping things up.

This Friday, members of the subscription service will get the chance to see the first installment of Friday Night Fights, an original entertainment series that's produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott's RSA Films.

The show will let rivals settle their differences in multiplayer battles of "Modern Warfare 3," with the first episode pitting teams from the U.S. Army vs. U.S. Navy.

"From the beginning, our goal with Call of Duty Elite has been to bring the Call of Duty community together in new ways," says Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing.

"Fans of Call of Duty spend as much time playing the game, as sports fans spend following their favorite teams—if not more. So we figured, if sports fans get all kinds of shows outside of the games to feed their passion, why not do the same thing for Call of Duty fans?"

The show will premiere at noon and be available for replay via streaming.

Google TV was the biggest thing that didn't happen at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. Released with a lot of fanfare in late 2010, it immediately hit resistance and most television manufacturers quickly scrapped plans to include it in their 2011 sets.

The system probably won't have much of a presence at the 2012 CES either, but it looks to have found an ally with one of the largest names in TV.

Samsung president Boo Keun tells Reuters that the company is in "last stage" talks with Google to launch a Google TV device. The big question is whether the technology will be integrated into one of the company's sets or if this will be a standalone set-top box, along the lines of Logitech's Revue (something the company's own CEO has dubbed "a big mistake").

Whatever form the alliance takes, it's unlikely Samsung will debut the product at CES. Keun says the company plans to unveil it at a separate event later in the year.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board is about to expand its territory.

The ESRB and CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) have called a press conference for next week to announce a new rating system for mobile applications – an area the video game ratings board has had an interest in for some time.

At present, there's no real standard when it comes to app ratings. Apple uses its own system, while Google's Android Market lets developers rate their own applications. The new system, say the organizations will be "based on age-appropriateness of [the apps'] content and context".

The ESRB's game rating system is one of the most widely praised in the entertainment industry – and currently covers some 21,000 titles. While the group would almost certainly like to see the E, E10, T, M and AO ratings make their way to the app world, there has been some resistance previously.

The details about the new system will be revealed Nov. 29.

The Saturday morning serial model of the 1950s may be long dead in the film world, but a new eBook publisher is looking to bring it back in a more modern form.

Backlit is producing a string of Young Adult fiction in eBook form, recruiting Hollywood writers to pen the tales, which invariably end with a cliffhanger. It's a model that, if it works, not only guarantees a fairly predictable revenue stream, but has caught the eye of producers.

Jack Giarraputo of Happy Madison has secured a first look film and television deal with the company, which currently offers two series - Borrowing Abby Grace and The Start-Up – and has two more queued up.

Prices are kept low intentionally. Borrowing Abby Grace and The Start-Up cost $2.99 per 'episode' with a word count of 20,000-30,000 words. That's about 1/5 the size of a Twilight novel. (One upcoming series, entitled, The Dig, will charge $6.99 for a 60,000-80,000 word episode.) To ensure the material connects with its audience, Backlit has recruited Hollywood writers who have a track record of appeal to the demographic. (All authors write under pseudonyms to protect their day jobs.)

"There's kind of a renaissance in reading these days," says founder Panio Gianopoulos. "Teenagers today read more words per day than any generation before them. Of course, they're reading Facebook and Twiter and text messages, but they're not opposed to reading books."

The serial formula is no stranger to print, either, but hasn't seen a lot of success since Steven King revived it with The Green Mile.

The goal, of course, is to see these series expand to other mediums, but Gianopoulos declined to discuss whether Giarraputo has picked up any options yet. However, he said, "We think the eBook is the perfect way to create a television model for our series."

The records keep tumbling for Modern Warfare 3.

Activision's action shooter has set a new standard for the entertainment industry, earning more than $775 million in five days, beating all gaming, theatrical and book sell-through totals. The previous record, not surprisingly, was last year's "Black Ops" installment of the Call of Duty franchise, which took in $650 million.

Life to date sales for the Call of Duty franchise now top $6 billion worldwide – a number that's going to keep growing as momentum for the game doesn't appear to be slowing down. (The game sold 6.5 million copies in the U.S. and U.K. in its first 24 hours on shelves, earning $400 million.)

"'Call of Duty' has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

The player numbers are just as impressive. By the end of launch day, people had logged more than 7 million multiplayer hours of "MW3" – a 19 percent increase over "Black Ops". (That's nearly 800 years, for those of you doing the math.)

Additionally, over 3.3 million people played the game on day one – a 700,000 player improvement over last year's installment.

The SOPA anti-piracy bill might be strongly backed by the Hollywood community, but the Consumer Electronics Association – the group behind the annual Consumer Electronics Show – wants no part of it.

In a statement to the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 3261 – the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (or SOPA) – the organization voiced concerns about the bill, warning of collateral damage to innovation in the electronics field.

"CEA and its members are eager to support legislation that is directed to foreign 'rogue sites' – the 'worst of the worst' – whose infringing activities lie beyond the reach of existing U.S. authority, and have no conceivable justification under U.S. law," the group said. "But as written, H.R. 3261will do little to stop piracy and instead will undermine both bona fide online U.S. businesses, create new private causes of action and weaken the open Internet that encourages free expression."

The group called the definition of theft "extremely overbroad" and said a single copyright complaint from a company can be a "death sentence" to a legitimate business.

"The law would require not just a 'take down' of the controversial product, but a shutdown of all online purchasing and advertising for any other product on the site," the group said. "The plaintiff need only complain that the business is 'marketing' a product for a 'use' that would be copyright infringement.

"This sort of claim has been commonly, and often unsuccessfully, made against innovative and legitimate consumer electronics products. In 2000, such a claim was made by several motion picture studios against Replay TV, an early competitor of TiVo and a forerunner of the DVR products now routinely distributed by cable and satellite companies to their subscribers – based only on the product’s ability to search, record, index, and retrieve content."

The group also said it believes DNS blocking provisions in the bill will hurt legitimate businesses more than pirates, since pirates are able to circumvent those measures.

Bob Iger, Disney president and CEO, is joining the Board of Directors at Apple.

The company today announced his appointment to the board as well as the company's audit committee. At the same time, long-time board member Arthur Levinson (co-founder of Genentech) has been named chairman.

“Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple.”

Iger hasn't been formally associated with Apple before, but he certainly has been up to speed on the company's operations. Iger and Steve Jobs served together at Disney, following the Mouse House's acquisition of Pixar in 2006. It was Iger, in fact, who managed to mend the rift between the companies, following a showdown between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. 

The Kindle Fire is on the way to customers – and with it, Amazon's hoping to revolutionize the tablet business.

The $199 entertainment-focused device is actually shipping a day earlier than planned, as Amazon looks to build on the substantial buzz the Kindle Fire has generated since it was first announced. The company also plans to ship the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eReaders tomorrow – six days ahead of schedule.

The Kindle Fire is considered the tablet most likely to give Apple's iPad a run for its money, due in large part to its affordable price. Amazon's taking a razor and razor blades sales model with it, keeping hardware costs low but reaping the benefits of that by controlling the content that runs on the device.

Technically an Android tablet – and, thus, able to run most of the offerings in the Android Marketplace, the Kindle Fire is focusing on mainstream entertainment, specifically movies, television, books, magazines and music – all sold through Amazon.

Reviews have been mixed, at best. (Variety has not yet received a review unit of the device.) But with the buzz and the holiday rush underway, those negative comments aren't likely to substantially affect sales.

It's rare that a company is this candid about one of its products.

Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca, in an earnings conference call with investors this week, dubbed the company's Google TV set top box – officially called the Logitech Revue – "a big mistake" and said the company had no plans to build future versions of the product.

"We expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300," he said. "That was a big mistake."

De Luca, who wasn't running the company at the time, says Logitech "executed a full scale launch with a beta product and it cost us dearly." Combined with other missteps, he estimates the company lost $100 million due to operational miscues.

Not all of his comments were quite so harsh. De Luca said Google TV was, in fact, a "great concept" and he believed the success of it or a descendant is "inevitable", but the company would not be building a successor to the Revue.

The growth of the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as gaming devices has done plenty to worry executives at Nintendo and Sony for a while now, but new numbers from Flurry Research may cause even more agita.

The mobile analytics firm says revenues from the iOS and Android gaming markets are now higher than that generated from traditional portable systems from the two gaming giants. And in a $3.3 billion market, that’s noteworthy.

The company estimates the two mobile platforms will make up 58 percent of all U.S. portable game revenue this year – a 24 percent jump from last year and up from just 19 percent in 2009.

Nintendo's DS line has taken 36 percent of portable software revenues in the U.S. so far in 2011, with Sony's PSP earning 6 percent. The decline for Nintendo is a dramatic one, as the company controlled 70 percent of the market two years ago.

"Within the portable category, an abundance of digitally distributed free and $0.99 games, available on hardware that is both comparably priced and more powerful than traditional portable game devices, better appeals to many consumers," said Flurry's Peter Farago in a blog post. "As a result, the days of paying $25, or more, for a cartridge at a retail store may soon end."

The biggest complaint from iPhone owners to date has been the inability to access sites that use Adobe’s Flash player. Adobe spent years appealing Apple’s decision without success. Now the company is throwing in the towel.

Adobe has announced plans to cease developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers – a move that may well signal the end of Flash. The company instead plans to focus on HTML5.

It’s a loss for the company but could be a win for the entertainment and gaming communities, since it puts an end to the dueling protocols in the growing mobile world. Companies that sided with Flash will have to retrench, but in doing so, they’ll be able to offer their content to a much wider audience.

While Adobe is retreating in mobile, it’s standing behind Flash on the desktop PC, where it has a much bigger footprint.

There's little doubt that today's launch of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" will set new entertainment industry records for first week revenues. But to put things in perspective, here are a few numbers – some hard, some estimated by analysts –showing how big of a monster this franchise has turned into.

19 million – The number of units estimated to sell by the end of the year by R.W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian. If the number proves true, it would generate $1.1-$1.2 billion in revenue for the company.

9 million – The estimated number of pre-orders on the game by Lazard Capital Markets' Atul Bagga. (Activision hasn't given a precise number, but said pre-orders were at a record high for the game.)

5 million – The number of copies EA's competing "Battlefield 3" that sold during its first week on shelves.

"Hundreds of thousands" – The number of people Activision said it has already registered for its Call of Duty Elite subscription service today. The crush to sign up for the service (which is much larger than anticipated) has made it impossible for many to sign onto the service today.

$49.99 – Amount those Elite users are paying for a one year subscription.

2.8 billion – Number of hours "Call of Duty: Black Ops" (the previous game in the franchise) have spent playing online.

29 percent – Increase in players "Black Ops" saw over "Modern Warfare 2"

Activision turned heads last year with its eye-popping "There's a Soldier in All of Us" campaign for "Call of Duty: Black Ops". Now it's upping the ante.

Jonah Hill ("Superbad") and Sam Worthington ("Avatar") headline the campaign's new installment – with a quick cameo from Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. And it's just as heart pounding as the original.

The first ad in the campaign mixed Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmell with roughly a dozen "average" players, emphasizing that the series appealed to everyone from superstars to concierges to what appeared to be a mild -mannered librarian.

The common folk are gone this year, but the comedy levels are higher (as you might expect from Hill's involvement).

The increased level of Hollywood talent demonstrates how big an entertainment property the "Call of Duty" franchise has become. The game is expected to set new records as the largest entertainment launch of all time. Pre-orders are at a record high – and Wall St. analyst Michael Pachter expects Modern Warfare 3 will generate $1.1 billion in revenue in its first six weeks.

With Steve Jobs first dropping hints about Apple's plans for a branded TV set in his conversations with biographer Walter Isaacson, others are a bit more comfortable discussing it now.

The latest to reveal details was CBS CEO Les Moonves in an earnings conference call this week.

Asked about the network's interest in striking deals with new streaming providers – particularly those where there's no upfront money - Moonves said "We - frankly, we don't believe in them...We've even been against joining Apple TV, which was an advertiser split."

The network instead prefers unfront licensing deals to syndicate its content and has struck bargains with Netflix and Amazon this year for catalog content.

Of course, since Moonves didn't delve deep into what he meant by Apple TV. He could have been referring to the company's existing set-top box, which toyed with renting episodes for a year – though that program was not set up as an ad split, which has raised speculation he had something else in mind.

Today's revelation that Spike TV has tapped Survivor creator Mark Burnett to exec produce this year's Video Game Awards was just the tip of the iceberg.

The show, which is the highest profile celebration of the industry each year, has also teased a few of the world premieres it plans to unveil and announced its contenders for Game of the Year.

Among the premiere trailers that will debut at the show will be a sequel to "Alan Wake," a bit of a surprise, given the original's underwhelming performance last year. The show will also debut a new game from developer BioWare and more information about the long-in-development "Metal Gear Solid: Rising" will be announced. (The game was announced at E3 in 2009, but very little has been said about it since.)

The game of the year contenders are a fairly obvious selection: "Batman: Arkham City," "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword," "Portal 2" and "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" are in the running.

Missing from that list are the year's two biggest games, though – "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" and "Battlefield 3". And, given that review copies of "Skyward Sword" are just hitting critics' desks – and the vote for game of the year has already likely taken place, there could be some controversy surrounding its selection.

Spike will doll out more nominees and exclusive premieres in the weeks to come. The show will air live on Dec. 12.

Eight days after letting the world know "Grand Theft Auto V" was on the way, Rockstar Games has given us our first look at the title – and it looks like fans of the series will be pretty happy with what the studio has been working on.

The game, set in a Los Angeles clone (Santa Monica is dubbed Pleasure Pier and Hollywood becomes Vinewood), seems set in a modern era, with homelessness and foreclosures highlighted.

The trailer is a tease and doesn't give a lot of details about the storyline. All that's revealed is a character who had hoped to retire and leave a life behind headed to the town and seemingly ends up on the wrong side of the law.

What is on display is the game's signature humor. In blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments, some of the signage of the town reveal the developer is still focusing on the details.

There is, for instance, the "Pump and run gymnasium" or Up-n-Atom Burger ("When it pings, eat like kings") and (my personal favorite) a postal truck bearing the expression "We aim not to lose it." And an ad for a skyscraper from STD contractors encourages people to "join our mile high club."

One of the reasons video games and Hollywood have stayed so far apart in the public eye is the gaming world's casual regard for plot. Games, traditionally, are a series of event moments strung together by a rather threadbare plot (though you could say the same thing about some of this summer's tentpole theatrical releases).

The "Uncharted" series is different – and the release of the game's third installment today is a good example to non-gamers of what game developers are capable of when they bring together all of the elements of an entertainment property.

"Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" continues the story of globe-trotting treasure seeker Nathan Drake and his collection of associates (father figure/mentor Victor Sullivan, love interest Elena Fisher and a mysterious enemy Katherine Marlowe (voiced by Rosalind Ayres, but who looks like a dead ringer for Helen Mirren). It's full of action, truly funny dialogue and interesting characters.

The gameplay is just fine, but what makes "Uncharted" so special is the story that humanizes the characters – and actually creates a bond with the player. Combine this with a ton of mo-cap work by developer Naughty Dog and it results in a game that fuels emotions other than adrenaline rushes.

It's easy to see while playing this game why Sony is so eager to not only make it into a motion picture, but to get it right. (Director Neil Burger, best known for Bradley Cooper's "Limitless" and the Edward Norton-starring "The Illusionist," took over the directorial reins in July after David O. Russell walked away from the project due to "creative differences" – a move that thrilled players, who weren't happy with the direction Russell was taking the franchise.

While it's not a perfect title, the work done by creative lead and writer Amy Hennig is worthy of note. With this game – and this series – she has breathed new life into the Saturday matinee model that served George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford so well. In many ways, "Uncharted" is the rightful heir to Indiana Jones' fedora.

As television and other entertainment industries battle video games for people's free time in today's environment, they might want to keep their eyes on future generations as well.

A study by Common Sense Media finds that 17 percent of five to eight year olds are already gaming on a daily basis – while 81 percent have played games through their lifetime.

That's a higher percentage than the number of parents who have played.

Television still chews up the majority of a child's screen time, coming in at 74 perent. Home computers weigh in at 13 percent and games are coming up fast with 10 percent.

Mobile media is also showing huge gains. In a typical day, the study found, 11 percent of all 0- to 8-year olds use a cell phone, iPod, iPad or similar device for media consumption.

Boys were more likely to play games than girls (by a 56 percent to 46 percent margin) – and were much more likely to play on a daily basis (14 percent for boys vs. 5 percent for girls).

(Disclaimer: I write app reviews for Common Sense Media.)