What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...

QUOTE | "Activision should man up and buy Take-Two."—Asif Khan, analyst with Panoptic Management Consultants, on what Activision should do to make sure their sales numbers continue to look good.

QUOTE | "THQ is dancing on the edge of the abyss."—Steve Peterson, West Coast Editor for IndustryGamers, translating THQ's statements about their horrible third quarter losses and seeing what the company's prospects look like.

STAT | 34% – Amount game industry sales in the US dropped in January 2012 versus sales in January 2011, following December's 21% drop in sales.

QUOTE | "FIFA Ultimate Team could be as big as Call of Duty Elite alone."—Peter Moore, EA COO, talking in an exclusive interview about EA's digital content plans to keep one step ahead of Activision.

STAT | 18%—Percentage of gamers in the US who regularly download games to their mobile devices, according to a new report from analyst firm Parks Associates.

QUOTE | "We are fundamentally pushing the whole game industry to go free-to-play."—David Perry, CEO of Gaikai, on why streaming games will be great for the game industry in a number of ways.

QUOTE | "Chinese, Korean and Japanese developers are much, much better at making the next ten years of games than we are."—Gabriel Leydon, CEO of Addmired, noted this while saying that free-to-play games are going to take over from $60 console games.

QUOTE | "It can be a bad thing."—CD Projekt's Adam Badowski, talking about the possibility of the Xbox 720 being able to ban used games.

QUOTE | "I would be happy to have more iOS titles priced around $15."—Emeric Thoa, The Game Bakers' creative director, on why $11.99 for the iOS version of the Dreamcast game Soul Caliber is a good price.

STAT | 12%—Amount of Facebook's revenue that comes directly from games, according to the filing that Facebook made with the SEC before their upcoming IPO.

STAT | $2.2 billion—Amount of sales Japanese mobile social game company Gree expects to rake in for its fiscal year ending June 2012, with operating profits of more than $1 billion.

Taco Bell is giving PlayStation Vitas to customers every 15 minutes — except when it isn't.

Over the past few weeks, the fast food chain has been running a promotional contest for Sony's upcoming handheld system. Customers can take codes found on the "Taco Bell $5 Buck Box" and enter them in a submission form on the corporation's website. If you have a winning code, you get a Vita.

Or so everybody thought. Kotaku has been contacted by several customers who say Taco Bell informed them that they won the contest on January 30 (through the page captured above this post), but never followed through. They were told to expect a follow-up by e-mail or snail-mail within 2-3 days to verify that they had won. The follow-up didn't come.

The affected customers have formed a Facebook group to unite and share their woes. Customers report contacting both Taco Bell and its partner on the contest, a marketing company called Ventura Associates. Neither corporation seemed to be listening.

"I received no response, so I began the process of calling Taco Bell/Ventura Associates for info, where I kept being told to wait," customer Dan Hill told me in an e-mail.

Hill forwarded me an e-mail exchange he says he had with Ventura's Vanessa Gross on February 2.

"We have to wait 2-3 days to receive a list of winners, as that is the time it takes to process the hundreds of submissions we receive each day," Gross told Hill, according to the exchange. "Thanks for your patience."

On February 8, Hill says Gross wrote to him again with this form response:

Dear Consumer,

Thank you for your e-mail. We are in the process of researching your inquiry. Someone will respond to you as soon as possible.

If you believe you are a winner, and have not received a notification within 3-4 days of claiming, please respond to this e-mail with the following information:

· Name

· E-mail

· Method and Date of entry

· code

Thank you for your interest in the Unlock the Box Instant Win Game and Challenge, sponsored by Taco Bell.

"I have tried two or three times to contact them, once I was reasonably sure that a first-class letter could have made it to central Florida by now, through their Facebook page and e-mail," said James Harrod, another affected customer, in an e-mail to Kotaku. "Others have used Taco Bell's helpline to little effect, or the Sony PlayStation Blog."

Other customers have taken to the Facebook page to say they have received verification e-mails from Taco Bell. Customer Kevin Famuyiro says he won last Sunday, then received the e-mail this morning. As of right now, the issue seems to only be affecting contestants who won on January 30.

In a statement to Kotaku this afternoon, Taco Bell said the following:

The Unlock the Box promotion has been tremendously popular with consumers who want to get their hands on a Sony Vita but unfortunately a small group of people have tried to game the system. Winning confirmation codes can be verified by contacting tb@sweepspros.com or calling (855) 255-1746.

When I called (855) 255-1746, I got a message saying that the company's voicemail box was full. Taco Bell did not elaborate who it thought was gaming its system or how.

Further adding to the weirdness of this whole situation is the fact that anybody can see this winning screen. As of Friday, February 10, all you have to do is click this URL to be taken to a screen that says "Congratulations! You won!" So either I've just won several new Vitas or something's a little bit off with this contest.

Update: In the Facebook group, several contestants are now reporting that they have received the following e-mail from Taco Bell:

We have received your inquiry and determined that you are not a valid winner. This was determined by checking the information (i.e. code, email address, cell phone, name, etc.) you gave us with your inquiry to the data in our system's records.

Please note that ANY ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS PROMOTION AND SWEEPSTAKES IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FOR SUCH ACTIONS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

The decisions of the judges are final.

Update 2: Taco Bell sent over another statement later Friday evening:

We verify all winning entries and contact the lucky winners. Nearly all of the calls we've received about discrepancies have been from people who had the URL for the winner's page but who did NOT have winning entries. We are continuing to work with our customer service teams to insure that all real winners receive their PlayStation Vitas.

We've reached out to Ventura Associates and we've asked Taco Bell to elaborate on its comments. We'll continue to update if we hear more information.

We reported late last year that Silent Hill 2 was getting an HD makeover. As a fan of that game, I see myself as a bit of a purist and snob. Honestly, I think it comes with the territory. So I kinda scoffed at the idea of someone re-dubbing the entire game for it's re-release in the Silent Hill HD Collection. "Sure everyone sounds like they're on Dayquil; That's the whole point!" I said to myself.

Lucky for you, the guys at Konami have included both versions. Good for them! And hey, the voice acting isn't terrible, from what I played! If anything, I'm more surprised that they replaced some of the acoustic guitar tracks in the new version with an electric guitar.

See the video above and judge for yourself. And if for whatever reason you start foaming at the mouth in internet rage, just count backwards from 10 and remind yourself that you have the choice to play whatever version you like, original music and all.

There's been article after article about how gaming culture (and perhaps all of nerd culture) is typically and fundamentally a straight, white, cis-male dominated scene. However you look at it, it's hard to deny the fact that the character landscape in video games is a little monochromatic.

This is where The Arkh Project comes in. The group is trying to raise money to create a game that represents the underrepresented. The idea is this: take a development team made up entirely of queer people and people of color and create a fully-realized RPG that stars a main cast of mostly queer people and people of color. The Arkh Project is asking for $100,000, which they plan to spread out over a series of different fundraisers, to cover the costs of their game. The project's indiegogo page summarizes their goal like this:

The Arkh Project is a group of amazing people getting together in an attempt to raise funds and create a video game completely off the beaten path. People of Color are often tokenized in video games, leaving them to play one of very few roles. Queer people are consistently left in the dust in meaningless relationships, or relationships that are mocked. We're looking to turn that upside down. This game is for people who don't get to be fantasy and sci-fi heroes! This game is to help normalize the millions of other people who play video games!

An eventual release is planned for PC and Mac, with a possible release on Xbox Live. The game is still in its design phase, and the team is currently putting together concept art. In other words, this is a long, long way from being a playable game. The spark is there, however, and something like this is certainly overdue.

You can donate to The Arkh Project here, and get even more information about the project on the group's tumblr page.

UPDATE: Many commenters have pointed out The Arkh Project's past, including statements attributed to its members, doesn't speak well of its ability to execute on its ambitions, or of being a strong voice for diversity. This post, by someone who supports the concept of queer characters in videogames, particularly raises some legitimate concerns with the substance of The Arkh Project's business plan. It also points out that an Arkh Project member runs a Tumblr blog entitled "dumbthingswhitepplsay"which has posted some topics that damage the Project's moral authority on the subject of diversity. [ h/t BubbleF***ingBuddy]

In the previous developer diary about Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the creative triumvirate of the Remedy dev studio said that they're making this new Xbox Live game with more of an action focus in mind. But they're back again to assuage any fears you might have about the minimization of the moody narrative that won so many fans for Alan Wake in the first place. The comments in the video above shed some light on where American Nightmare fits in Wake continuity and also shout out other influences that will be coming to the fore in the downloadable title. Me, I'm just glad for more Night Springs. That show-that-doesn't-actually-exist rocks.

We're no strangers…
to love…
You know the rules,
and so do I!

Aah, Rick Astley. His tune "Never Gonna Give You Up" is one of the most enduringly hilarious pieces of music composed in the latter half of the 20th century. Usually, when you hear it, it means you've been Rickroll'd. But starting next week, thanks to Harmonix and the requests of their users, you'll be able to play along in Rock Band.

Today, Harmonix announced that Astley's 1987 pop hit will be coming to the game via next week's Valentine's Day DLC pack. It has been the most-requested song among their users (not according to a poll, as I initially thought). Most requested!

This means that it will be easier than ever to Rickroll your friends. "Hey Jill, come here! We're playing Rock Band. Check out this song we're doing, you'll like it."

Never gonna give you hup!
Never gonna let you dahhwn
Never gonna run a-rowhoud
and desert yew!

On Twitter today, Harmonix's John Drake pointed out that since this was the result of fan desires, Harmonix didn't really Rickroll us:

If you say so, Mr. Drake. But regardless of how it got there, I've now got that beautiful, horrible song stuck in my head. And so, now, do you. Sorry. But then, music is meant to be shared, isn't it?

DLC Week of 2/14 - Gold Star My Heart w/ Rick Astley, Heart, Mr. Big and Poison! [Rock Band Blog]

Very, Very Important Video Game News [Vital, Insider Source]

That shiny new Star Trek game based off of J.J. Abrams' reboot of the sci-fi classic will be finally going into warp drive next year. Today it was announced that Namco Bandai—best known for Pac-Man, SoulCalibur and Tekken games—will be publishing the action/adventure game and that it'll be out in the first quarter of 2013, ahead of the expected release of Star Trek 2 film.

Developed by Digital Extremes, the cross-platform title will let players control Kirk and Spock with missions that showcase unique abilities for each. The game's original release window was to be this year and it's not clear if it got pushed back to better coincide with the also-delayed film or if the development of the game is taking longer than expected. Either way, you get to set phasers to stun in about 12 months.

Valve CEO Gabe Newell said today in a statement to Steam users that as a result of a hack last November, it is "probable" that hackers have obtained a backup file with information on Steam transactions performed between 2004 and 2008. The compromised material includes user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses, and encrypted credit card information. It does not include Steam passwords.

Here's the full statement from Valve:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users

We continue our investigation of last year's intrusion with the help of outside security experts. In my last note about this, I described how intruders had accessed our Steam database but we found no evidence that the intruders took information from that database. That is still the case.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised. However as I said in November it's a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.

We are still investigating and working with law enforcement authorities. Some state laws require a more formal notice of this incident so some of you will get that notice, but we wanted to update everyone with this new information now.

Gabe

We'll continue to update if we learn anything new.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg jokingly announced a new slogan for Call of Duty: Elite today:

Call of Duty Elite: It's not a douche move.

That's as of some time in September when a guy who was rallying people back in the spring to boycott the world's first subscription service for Call of Duty changed his tune. That guy, not Hirshberg, passed that revised judgment.

Hirshberg talked about Elite's rocky road at the DICE Summit out here in Las Vegas. What was supposed to simply be a popular, payment-optional add-on for CoD was a controversial, and well-hated thing in mid-2011. Then Activision explained what Elite entailed—and how much of it would be free for everyone.

This was the heat Hirshberg's team at Activision were getting in the spring.

And this is how it turned in September.

So, yeah, the slogan's just a joke. All's well.

But... funny how he didn't mention that once Elite launched it was a debacle again. Only recently has Activision straightened things out, after a fall full of Elite inoperability.

A rocky road indeed.

UPDATE: Hirshberg did acknowledge the service's rocky launch but believes that Activision has improved the service quite a bit since them in its effort to provide customers the service the company feels its customers deserve. (I apologize for this omission from the original post; I had misheard the end of Hirshberg's talk. He had said, "We still have a long way to go on Elite. But, we are in it for the long haul. We believe we made it for the right reasons and that it's the right idea, for our players. And if we can get it right, we can make the game better, more social, more connected and more fun.")

(You know what else was rough, readers? My photo-taking for this story. Sorry about the blurriness of the lead image!)

Crowdfunding website Kickstarter takes a 5% cut on successfully funded projects, which is a nice chunk of change on Tim Schafer's point-and-click adventure game. The project has made almost $1.4 million so far, putting $70,000 in Kickstarter's pocket. [Kickstarter]