The despicable-yet-glorious train wreck that is MTV’s Jersey Shore is likely heading to South Florida in May to shoot the second season of the reality TV phenomenon.  MTV looks to continue the unceasing momentum the show has built by moving the cast to South Beach.

Speculation has grown since TMZ intercepted a letter from one of the producers to the owner of Miami’s Mynt Lounge requesting permission for the fist pumpers and self-professed “guidettes” to be filmed there.

MTV is in the process of renovating a house off Lincoln Road; making sure the house has a minimum of 15 Italian flags and eight silhouettes of New Jersey, but no more than one duck-shaped phone.

The mostly-New Yorker cast is coming off negotiations at which they refused to carry on their ritual of GTL (gym, tanning, and laundry) for another season unless they were paid $10,000 per episode.

A $50 million initial public offering (IPO) has been filed by Gamefly with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Gamefly is a  rental-by-mail service; akin to Netflix for video games.

Customers choose plans based on the number of games they can have checked out; with plans ranging from one ($15.95/month) to four ($36.95/month) games.

The IPO registration reveals that as of September 2009, Gamefly had 334,000 subscribers and revenues of $84.7 million for the fiscal year ending March 2009.

Time to cancel those plans for a game of Halo 2 on Tax Day.  Microsoft has announced that it will discontinue Xbox Live service for the original Xbox starting April 15th, 2010.  The video game console that birthed some of the most successful multiplayer franchises will soon be permanently offline, roughly eight years after its launch.

It has long been thought that the service on the Xbox 360 was limited due to Microsoft’s continued support of the original Xbox; most notably the 100 friend restriction on Xbox Live.  The disconnection also includes Xbox Originals and Xbox games played through the 360.

Xbox Live’s general manager, Marc Whitten, released the following statement concerning the shutdown:

“To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games. We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities. We view you as a partner in this process.”

It is relatively common to see servers shut down for games on the PC, but console-wide stoppages are rare.  The Xbox had a good run, but it’s time to remorsefully pull the plug.

With the January NPD numbers coming next week, I thought it was time to catch up with how the holidays treated the video game industry.  Or, in other words, how many good little boys and girls received Nintendo products.  Read below for the answer:

Wii: 3,810,000
DS: 3,310,000
PS3: 1,360,000
Xbox 360: 1,310,000
PSP: 655,000
PS2: 333,000

Over three years after the launch of the Nintendo Wii, it still managed to sell nearly four million units in one month; single-handedly outselling all systems without Nintendo branding.  The Nintendo DS  brought its number of units sold-to-date in the US to a staggering 44 million.  The PS3 and 360 both clocked in around 1.3 million.

On the software side,  Nintendo sold a lot of games (surprise!).

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 2,820,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 2,410,000
03. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 1,790,000
04. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) – 1,630,000
05. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) – 1,120,000
06. Wii Play (Wii) – 1,010,000
07. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 936,1000
08. Assassin’s Creed II (Xbox 360) – 783,100
09. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – 728,500
10. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) – 656,700

Nintendo dominated software sales with five Wii games and a DS game in the top ten, including three with Mario in the title.  Maybe Microsoft and Sony should try that out?

In its second month on shelves, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continued to perform well on the 360 and PS3.

EA hopes this Sharp Dressed Man will demand you to Gimme All Your Lovin’ (definitely shoe-horned those in, but look at him; I just couldn’t resist) when they reboot the Medal of Honor franchise in 2010.

The 10-year-old series has been in decline for some time now, and the need for a revitalized brand has certainly been fueled by the continued, enormous success Activision has had with Call of Duty.

The EA Los Angeles and DICE co-developed Medal of Honor ditches World War II and moves to a modern-day Afghanistan where the bearded man from above (apparently based on an actual US Army Special Forces soldier codenamed “Cowboy” http://www.life.com/image/1373470) is a “Tier 1 Operator”.

I’m hoping EA aims for a more realistic story as opposed to the absurdity that was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, i.e. fighting Russian paratroopers in a bombed-out Oval Office.

Forgive my censorship, but the obnoxious and trite phrase “going green” has pervaded just about every facet of consumer marketing in the past few years.  Luckily, the cringe-inducing term is rarely used in the video game industry. Now that it has arrived, we cannot let it fester and grow unchecked.

I propose the term be permanently removed from the American vernacular or, at the very least, in reference to video games.  The Post could even run a contest to find a replacement term.  The winner would be famous and adored.

Until then we have no immediately identifiable way to explain news such as the Viva Group’s redesign of Xbox 360 video game packaging that uses 20% less plastic while maintaining the same quality and performance.

Commence the contest.

Much of the Nintendo Wii’s success (over 50 million sold worldwide) can be attributed to a key point:  make games more accessible to everyone by simplifying the controller.  The notion that picking up a controller with two joysticks and a dozen or so buttons can be intimidating seems like a long overdue realization.

The AbleGamers Foundation targets another overlooked issue in game accessibility for the disabled.   “There are countless sites out there that review games for their graphics and sound, but no one is looking at the game from the standpoint of accessibility,” states Mark C. Barlet, president of the foundation.

Ablegamers.com highlights how specific games accommodate the 63 million Americans with disabilities.  Games are rated on the assistance they provide the disabled such as one-handed controls, subtitles, and color-blind sensitivity.

Increased attention will lead to new advancements in accessibility; as game publishers do not like to leave out large audiences and, most importantly, their cash.

Abington IP, a Tulsa-based law firm specializing in Intellectual Property Law and Consumer Class Actions, is investigating the possibility of a class action lawsuit in regards to Microsoft’s recent banning of thousands of modified Xbox 360 consoles.  Typically, consoles are modified or “modded” in order to play games without legally owning a copy.  Once banned, the consoles are no longer able to connect to Xbox Live to play games online.

Of course, a law firm suing a major corporation is not news; however, their reasoning in the suit is unique.  Abington IP is suggesting that Microsoft timed the bannings after the releases of two major online games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST; games likely to generate increased revenue in Xbox Live subscriptions.  Apparently, users are still able to connect to Xbox Live using their subscription, just not with the banned consoles.

The reality is that anyone modifying their console for illegal uses knows the associated risks (read: getting banned).  Hopefully the lawsuit fizzles out.

On the heels of the announcement that Electronic Arts is eliminating 1,500 positions, comes the closing of Pandemic Studios.  A reported 200 people were laid off from the video game development studio best known for the Mercenaries series and Star Wars: Battlefront.

The shuttering is even more shocking considering that EA purchased Pandemic along with Bioware for $860 million back in 2007.  EA has said that “Pandemic’s brand and franchises will live on”.  It will be interesting to see how the closing affects next month’s release of The Saboteur which will be Pandemic’s last developed title.

Following last month’s head-exploding news that the Nintendo Wii was outsold by the Playstation 3, console buyers put an end to the madness and took home the Wii en masse.  The (recently $199) Wii cracked over 500,000 units sold during the NPD’s October reporting period which ran from 10/4 to 10/31.

Nintendo marches toward its goal of ensuring every human being in the United States owns the DS, with a very respectable 457,600 units sold.  The Playstation 3 maintained a lead over the 360, although I wonder how long that will hold up considering the huge impact Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 should have for the 360.

The full breakdown for hardware sales according to the NPD Group follows:

Wii – 506,900
Nintendo DS – 457,600
PlayStation 3 – 320,600
Xbox 360 – 249,700
PSP – 174,600
PlayStation 2 – 117,800

On the software side, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves more than doubles its predecessors first month sales (206,000) and rings in an impressive 537,000 units sold.  Nintendo’s pseudo-exercise offerings, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort, sell a combined 755,000 units.  Borderlands has a better-than-expected debut at 418,000 which was good for 3rd place overall.

Some notable (but not really surprising) absences from the top 10 were the Jack Black-led Brutal Legend and Activision’s DJ Hero.

01. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – 537,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 441,000
03. Borderlands (Xbox 360) – 418,000
04. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 314,000
05. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) – 311,000
06. Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) – 271,000
07. NBA 2K10 (PS3) – 213,000
08. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) – 175,000
09. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) – 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) – 156,000