“As we have seen by other recent announcements, the games industry is still going through economic challenges which Krome is not immune from. These times are challenging and as a result, we have put some of our staff on notice pending the outcome of a number of upcoming projects,” a statement issued to GameSpot Australia (via GamesIndustry.biz) read.

The statement made it clear that Krome’s current projects will not be affected in any way: “It is important to note that this action has not affected the development of our current projects, both announced and unannounced, which we are continuing to work on. Additionally, Krome remains firmly committed to the future of all three studios.”

Speaking with VideoGamer.com, executive producer Yoshinori Kitase said that Square Enix chose to develop the game for the PSP because of their experience with the platform.

“But if this game turns out to be a success, then we’d be looking at extending the franchise into PS3,” Kitase said.

Mirroring EA’s recent counter-maneuvers against the used games market, THQ has revealed plans to include a single-use code with new copies of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. Like the online pass for Madden 11, this code will unlock online multiplayer and other premium content.

Specifically, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users get free access to the game’s first DLC pack, which will add Chris Masters to the game’s roster, plus additional, Halloween-themed costumes for Rey Mysterio and Kelly Kellly. Anyone who picks up a used copy of Smackdown vs. Raw this year will have to pony up $9.99 (800 Microsoft points) for these features.

Keep your eyes peeled for WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 starting October 26. It’s coming to pretty much every platform under the stars, including PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, and Wii.

These publishers all say the handheld is roughly the same size the PSP-3000 (pictured) with a “rich and detailed” screen, but the standout feature was its touch controls…on the back of the unit, not on the screen. Evidently there’s a “touch-sensitive area” behind the unit, on the other side of where the screen is, although exactly how games would be controlled in this manner (or how the system would even be held) wasn’t explained.

Sony has also already supposedly settled on a business model for the PSP 2 (also not detailed), and they were originally considering making it disc-based, but after developer feedback it’s more likely it’ll be Flash media-based, like the PSPgo. One source said he expects the system to be ready to launch by the end of 2011, although another said it may be at least another two years. When asked for comment, Sony told Eurogamer they don’t “comment on rumor and speculation.”

Between Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the recently-announced Street Fighter/Tekken tie-in, it seems fair to say that the fighting-game genre hasn’t been this healthy in ages. The question, of course, is how to keep it going — how to keep fighters from falling once more into the creative pit it wandered into around the turn of the millennium.

“I think that if we want to take the fire we’ve started and really fan the flames, we need to up the number of opportunities people have to interact with fighters,” SFIV producer Yoshinori Ono told Famitsu magazine this week. “That’s why we made SFIV for the iPhone and are making Super SFIV for the Nintendo 3DS right now. Having it on lots of different platforms gives users more chances to interact with it, and it lets them enjoy fighting games in a light and easy kind of way.”

SFIV’s release triggered buzz, no doubt, as did the rise of a robust tournament scene. “To be honest, I’ve been making fighters for a long time,” BlazBlue director Toshimichi Mori said. “Fighter fans tend to be pretty dedicated to start with, so I really haven’t noticed if there’s a boom going on or not. If there is, though, I’d say SFIV contributed a lot to it, as well as Daigo Umehara becoming a pro player. If we can see more star players like Daigo, I think that’ll earn more popularity for the whole genre.”

The PSP remake of Tactics Ogre Square Enix is working on right now is subtitled “The Wheel of Fortune” in Japanese — and the publisher explained why this week in assorted Japanese print mags. As it turns out, Yasumi Matsuno and the rest of the development crew are not syndicated game-show fans; they’re referring to the tarot card labeled “The Wheel of Fortune,” and it connects to a couple of the big new features they’re implementing in this game.

In Tactics Ogre, the story branches depending on the choices hero Denim decides to make. These branches lead to multiple endings, and in the original, seeing them all required a major time commitment and an even greater amount of patience. The remake’s Wheel system aims to make that a bit easier. If you pick up a Wheel card off a downed adversary and use it, you’ll be allowed to jump back in time to previous events — retaining some of your current stats, like unit levels and skills — and choose a different path. It’s sort of like the classic “New Game+,” except you’re able to pick up the story anywhere you want to, not just at the beginning.

That’s not all, either, for a variation on the Wheel also lets you turn back the clock within individual battles. A subscreen shows every action you’ve taken during the fight in tree-diagram form. You can then use a card to go back to any point you like, letting you get out of pinches and try out other strategies without breaking a sweat. (Relying on time tricks too much, however, can lead to unspecified penalties later on.)

Ghost Recon Future Soldier may have been delayed to 2011, but Ubisoft is making sure we still get not one but two Ghost Recon titles this year. The company officially announced the previously leaked Ghost Recon Predator today, and also took the wraps off of the upcoming Wii title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. Both games are scheduled to hit in November 2010.

The PSP title takes players into the jungles of Sri Lanka to prepare the area for an invasion force, but the Ghosts run into problems when they find evidence that their country is targeting the wrong enemy. The game keeps the series’ trademark tactical emphasis and high-tech war toys in place, and includes ad-hoc co-op multiplayer.

The Wii title stars two Ghosts, Hibbard and Booth, inserted into Moscow and separated from the rest of the squad. The press release promises a full Ghost Recon campaign, designed to appeal to both casual and core gamers. The two stars make it a distinctly co-op focused game, and friends can hot join in a game to switch off the AI. The game will also feature a scored Arcade Mode with online leaderboards.

Sony announced seven more additions to the PSP Favorites line today, joining the several that were announced months ago. The newly discounted titles include Burnout Legends, Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded and Remixed, Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Medal of Honor: Heroes, and Sid Meier’s Pirates!.

PSP Favorites are available from the online PlayStation Store for $9.99, as part of Sony’s marketing push for the PSP Go. The blog also says that Favorites packaging will be coming to retail copies of the selected games, which should make it clearer for consumers which games will go for ten bucks. Unfortunately, it may cause some confusion with Greatest Hits games — which are also discounted, but less so.

At the end of a week that saw both Nintendo and — especially — Capcom report big drops in profit for the first fiscal quarter of the year (ending June 30), Sega has now also reported their own numbers, and surprise-surprise, it’s actually good news…kind of. Despite disappointing sales from two of their more high-profile releases, Sega still saw a profit of 7 billion yen ($80.8 million), although much of it was due to their pachinko business in Japan.

Sega reports that Alpha Protocol and Iron Man 2 both recorded sluggish sales, with the former selling 700,000 units globally and the latter only slightly better at 1.12 million units (via Industry Gamers). “While domestic sales were mostly firm, in the overseas markets, sales of new titles remained slow as affected by the adverse market condition,” Sega said.

Despite this statement, though, Sega actually saw most of their game sales in the quarter coming from overseas, with 1.68 million units sold in North America, 1.33 million in Europe, and only 270,000 in Japan (for a worldwide total of 3.29 million units sold).

Most of the other outlets have been static this week. Steam is offering 50 percent off on Just Cause 2 products, and Toys R Us is having a Buy 2 Get 1 50 Percent Off sale. The GameStop Power Saver sale is also ongoing.

Check out the complete list below!