We're 10 days from New Year's but tomorrow is the winter solstice, starting us on another trip around the sun. And a new year that will be full of its own controversies, challenges, triumphs, disappointments and delights in video gaming.

I half imagine Atari's board of directors has a sticker on its windshield reminding it to change CEOs every 5,000 miles. Sure enough, it's happened again. Former chief operating officer Jeff Lapin is now in the top job.

Sony Computer Entertainment America is consolidating its two QA groups in one location, meaning 30 staff positions are being sent from the Bay Area to San Diego, Calif., and we hear another 100 contract positions were affected.

The Screen Actors' Guild's rejection of a contract with game makers can be seen as a tempest in a teapot - 80 percent of voice work is non-union. But the LA Times goes further to see what's really at stake.

A contract proposal hammered out between the Screen Actors Guild and video game publishers was shot down after a union vote. A key sticking point seemed to be "atmospheric" work, in which one actor voices multiple minor characters.

As seen on Flickr [thanks, tipster Mario Pants]

Everyone's favorite industry analyst, Michael Pachter, says that, rumored Wii HD upgrade not withstanding, this current console generation is gonna be with us at least four more years.

The boss-mans learned a important lesson about other people's feelings when he called Wii Fit a wee fad. Indignant Wii Fitters ultrabombed his inbox to say not everyone who "plays" it looks like this.

In a week that saw our new previews format, we gave you the goods on Resident Evil 5 (preview) and Killzone 2 (impressions) plus nearly half-a-dozen more titles.

Sam Houston's list of game industry types who use Twitter got a lot of exposure last week. So much that he's launched a site, updated with even more devs, journalists, community managers and the like.

Flipping Obi-Wan from good to bad? Is this pro rasslin'? Apparently Free Radical's decided to turn eternal Force face Ben Kenobi to heel. I'd rather see a bunkhouse stampede with Zuckuss, Porkins, and a Dianoga.

Every time I see the Goatie coin I imagine Montel Williams on my TV at 2 a.m. hawking a set of collector's edition 50 State quarters with Fahey and Crecente painted on them.

Funde Razor brought in the dough, PlayStation Home went live and had the inevitable launch crashes, and Luke defused a bomb by singing into a microphone. The week that was in Kotaku's original reporting:

News out of my home state: Epic Games has been recognized by the North Carolina Technology Association as the state's "Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year." I guess that means "the balls" in the industry-driven technology world. The award specifically cited the contribution Unreal Engine 3 has made to…

Sony Worldwide Studios continues to shuffle people about in the wake of Phil Harrison's departure, announcing not one but two new vice presidents, one for each side of the Atlantic. Heading up things over in Europe will be Sony Computer Entertainment Europe VP Michael Denny, who joined Sony in 1995 as the head of…

In a move that could very well be just a bit late, games industry veterans David Warhol of Realtime Associates and Vincent Bitetti, formerly of the Take Two-purchased TDK Mediactive, have announced Music Video Games (MvG), a company focused on delivering casual interactive experiences to gamers and music fans alike.