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).

The industry hasn't heard much about Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella since their very public exit from Infinity Ward and Activision earlier this year, or at least not much that hasn't come by way of legal channels. But now id Soiftware has announced the duo will be making a public appearance at their QuakeCon 2010, sitting in on a panel that's set for August 13.

West and Zampella will join id's Tim Willits and Bethesda Softwork's Todd Howard for a panel titled "Building Blockbusters." West and Zempella obviously know a thing or two about that, considering their last game with Infinity Ward was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which quickly became the fastest-selling game of all time.

After leaving Activision, West and Zampella formed a new development studio called Respawn Entertainment. Don't necessarily expect them to have too much to announce about whatever Respawn's first project will be at this panel, but it'll still probably make for a very interesting discussion.

Codemasters has revealed the next entry in their Operation Flashpoint series in the pages of the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine (via CVG). The game will be titled Operation Flashpoint: Red River, and it's set for release sometime in 2011.

Not much is actually revealed about the game yet, although OXM describes it as a "tighter, more focused game" than its predecessor, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, but also says it's "nevertheless still striving for a more realistic recreation of warfare."

We can only hope the description of Red River being "tighter" and "more focused" holds true, as we found Dragon Rising to have its "sublime" moments, but just not enough of them (check out our full review for more).

Insomniac Games may have just recently gone multiplatform, but their next game will still be a PlayStation 3 exclusive -- and we'll know what it is sometime between now and September. In their latest newsletter, Insomniac revealed the game will be announced sometime before the Penny Arcade Expo takes place in Boston between September 3 and 5, where it will also be demoed for the first time before the public.

"We're bringing our new game to a very special Penny Arcade Expo panel on Saturday evening (September 4th), at 6:30pm in the Serpent Theatre," the newsletter reads. "G4TV's Adam Sessler will moderate a panel with key creative talent from Insomniac Games as we discuss (and demo!) our upcoming PlayStation 3 project."

In all likelihood, the game to be announced is Resistance 3, which has previously shown up on a "billboard" on a movie set (shown above) as well as on a Sony survey. And if an announcement does indeed come before PAX, look to Gamescom in August as a likely venue.

We've got a couple official stores in the spotlight this week, with EA kicking off the third week of their summer sale and Capcom offering a special deal on fightsticks. Dedicated fighting fans will definitely want to have a look at the latter.

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!

The limited edition of the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot is picking up another extra. EA announced today that the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions will all contain invitations to the beta for Battlefield 3, which is currently under development by DICE.

Battlefield 3 was confirmed last year, but few details regarding the new shooter have been released. The most recent entry to the series is Battlefield Bad Company 2, which was released earlier this year.

Buying the limited edition of Medal Honor will afford access to the beta, which is slated to begin within twelve months of that game's release. Other extras include special pistols and shotguns, with the PS3 version also throwing in a remastered version of Medal of Honor Frontline.

Is Activision planning to release elaborate "Hardened" and "Prestige" editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops, just as they did for Modern Warfare 2 last year? Quite possibly, as IGN reports online retailer Buy.com briefly listed both versions before quickly pulling the listings from the site.

While the listings no longer exist, IGN says Buy.com had the Hardened version priced at $79.99, and the ultimate Prestige version priced at $149.99, although there were no details on what these versions would supposedly include. When asked for comment, Activision wouldn't confirm or deny the existence of the deluxe versions, with a representative only saying that "we haven't made any announcements to date."

You will of course recall that the Prestige version of Modern Warfare 2 last year included no less than a real, working pair of night vision goggles, which certainly sets a high bar for whatever items a Prestige version of Black Ops may include. If Activision does indeed release such a deluxe version for the game, we can only hope the bonus item is a Vietnam-era flamethrower. Or at the very least a KA-BAR knife?

Remember way back over a year ago when Bethesda was considering developing an iPhone game? No? Well it doesn't really matter anyway, because speaking to Industry Gamers, Bethesda's Todd Howard now says the internal team behind Oblivion and Fallout 3 currently has no plans -- or much interest -- in developing iPhone games, nor Wii and Facebook games for that matter.

"From my group, which is the internal Bethesda development team, probably not," Howard said in response to whether there's any consideration for Wii development. "The stuff we're doing is a better fit on the other platforms. You can never say never, but I think for the kind of games that we like to play and make, it fits the other platforms."

And as for the once-considered iPhone development, Howard says those plans changed some time after Bethesda parent company ZeniMax acquired id Software last year. "Initially, we were like, 'OK, we're going to do something; we have a really cool design for a game,'" Howard explained. "Once the id thing came about, they were doing enough mobile stuff that I kind of felt, 'OK, they're doing some really good stuff right now; let's see how that market goes before I start putting my own time or other people's time into something that, at the end of the day, might be a distraction from the bigger game that we need to be making.'"

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed executive producer and and writer Haden Blackman has resigned from LucasArts. Blackman announced that he is moving on after a 13 year career with the studio (via IGN).

In a statement, Blackman thanked LucasArts and said that he's "really grateful for their ongoing support."

"While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career," he said.

Following Nintendo's disappointing financial results, Capcom have also reported "sluggish" results, with a 90% decrease in profit down from the same time last year -- though the company still managed a profit; admittedly a mere 213 million yen, or roughly 2.4 million dollars.

As with Nintendo, Capcom blamed an unfavourable exchange rate, particularly as a result of "US and European markets shrinking under the stagnating economy." However, the poor results may have some wide-ranging results for Capcom's future release schedule. The company recently announced that they intend to increase the output of releases in their most popular franchises, and their financial report squarely places the "drastic decline" in profitability on the "increase of new flagship titles release from the same term of the previous year, when most sales were made of repeat titles." This "resulted in higher game development costs."