With numerous solid franchises and an impressive roster of manga-anime games under its belt, it seems Namco Bandai will be expanding operations to new pastures. For that, they will be trying their hand out on the online PC gaming market, and to handle that responsibility will be their new division, Namco Bandai Online.

Remember the E3 teaser for Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC)? It's the one where the voiceover goes, "...and if we run out of bullets, baby, they're gonna wish we hadn't." Got a laugh out of that one, and sure enough, you'll be packing ten melee weapons to pummel hordes of infected with. We've got the list of those whacking tools right here.

Minus the digital downloads, this has to be one of the smallest batches we've seen on On Shelves. Talk about a dry batch - no AAA titles in this lineup. Anyway, there's still ArmA II for the PC if you're a die-hard FPS fan, or if you're a baseball fan, 2K Sports' The Bigs is also coming out this week. For the other two titles, read on for this edition of On Shelves This Week.

Take-Two Interactive, still hot in talks with Electronic Arts (supposedly) over their merger, has sent in its financial statement for the previous fiscal quarter. The report reveals their line-up of games for the next (fiscal) year. Details in the full article.

Taking all the talk of a takeover by Electronic Arts aside, it's still business as usual for Take-Two Interactive, which released its financial reports for the first quarter of 2008. The report held a number of interesting things, including an official confirmation of BioShock 2 and its still vague pending release date, news on coming games, and even a restatement of Grand Theft Auto 4's release date. Go to the full article for details.

We're in for a brutal week to kick this month off, marked by Kratos' latest killing trip through God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and Jimmy Hopkins' enrollment for scholarship in Bullworth Academy. War is nigh with Warhammer 40K's latest expansion and Army of Two, though there's still a couple of baseball titles inbound if you want a break from all the violence. All these are waiting at the full article, so hit that jump!

Alright fanboys, get your wallets ready cos there's a truckload of goodies coming your way this week. Yup, we have here for you the USA weekly release date for the week of March 19, courtesy of GamersReports. We know, we know, we all love new releases, especially if it includes titles that we have craved for so long.

Some of the titles that will be making your local retail stores busy are Ubisoft's multiplatformer, TMNT, Cooking Mama for Nintendo's family-oriented Wii, Virtua Tennis 3 for Sony's PS3, and After Burner. I don't know about you, but this writer here is pretty excited about Cooking Mama: Cook Off. Yeah, so am a girl and I can't cook. Maybe this could be a helpful tutorial for me or something.

Anyhow, below is the full list of titles for the DS, Wii, PC, PS3 and PSP. Enjoy!

DS
March 19
Custom Robo Arena
Major League Baseball 2K7
March20
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of Warlords
Steel Horizon
Theme Park
TMNT
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007

Wii
March 20
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Cooking Mama: Cook Off
Kororinpa: Marble Mania
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
TMNT
Wing Island

The list for PS3, PSP and PC awaits after the jump.

Can EA Sports gain sole dominion of the video game sports arena in the next generation of consoles? With the right money, it just might, says Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, remarking that the stock status of Take-Two interactive has gone from "hold" to "sell."

He says, "We think that Take-Two’s flagship franchise, Grand Theft Auto, will continue to generate significant profits but are less optimistic about the profit potential from its sports business and from 'everything else."

And though GTA IV's October breakout is a sure-fire splash, Pachter says that the sports division creates less-than-significant profit. He cites the reason - the fact that the division is lacking and spending is astronomical.

The woes are compounded by the company's corporate drama which involved the resignation of such stalwarts like Rockstar Games co-founder Terry Donovan, Take-Two founder Ryan Brant, and board member Barbara Kazcynski, who left some scathing remarks to the management team in her resignation letter. Michael Pachter further mentioned that:

We think that Take-Two's greatest asset is also its greatest liability...The company has an environment conducive to creativity and reaps tremendous benefits from allowing its creative staff to work on what it thinks will work...It has also resulted in the inclusion of sexual content (hot coffee) in the company’s flagship brand, the decision to enter the sports business and compete with an 800-pound gorilla named EA, the decision to green light a slew of movie properties with consistently poor results, and several other decisions with poor outcomes.

Pachter said that the equation boils down to the fact that "It is clear to us that Take-Two’s sports business would have tremendous value to EA, as it would give EA a monopoly on football, basketball, baseball, and hockey...It is arguable that EA would benefit by as much as billion if it were to obtain an exclusive; this does not mean that it is willing to pay billion."

It's not hard to figure out that very few competitors, if any at all, would be willing to wage a war of attrition against EA Sports in this age, and Pachter says 2K Sports can go to EA for roughly a quarter of a billion dollars and sleep sound at night knowing that its biggest rival is dead and buried. Neither EA or Take-Two has given statements on the matter so far.

Sports builds, aside from muscles, camaraderie among players. Kidding aside, at the core of every competition is the desire to unite each and every participant. The Global Gaming League (GGL) together with its partners were probably thinking along this line when they launched the Professional Baseball Videogaming League (PBGL).

PBGL aims to enable online gaming competition between actual major leaguers and fans. Aside from GGL, the concept was approved by the Major League Baseball Advance Media, Boras Marketing and New York Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon. Also, Damon will serve as the league's first ever commissioner. He announced:

Both baseball and video games play a huge role in today's culture in the US and around the world, and the PBGL is doing a great job of bringing these two communities together. More importantly, the PBGL is allowing me to invoke another passion of mine.

The Wounded Warrior Project raises funds and awareness for wounded veterans. As Commissioner, I'm proud to add former U.S. Army Sergeant Steven Andrew Robison of Kansas City, Missouri, to this season's PBGL line-up.

Well, that's hitting two birds with one stone! Anyway, PBGL for its first season will be employing Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360. PBGL has a lot of in store for everyone. For details regarding these activities and how to join, refer to the Read link below.

If you're in the mood for some gaming-related bargains this Christmas (and honestly, who isn't?), then you'll be glad to know that Matrix Games is spreading some good old holiday cheer with this year’s Holiday Sale Event. They're offering a special 25% discount on over a dozen of the most popular titles available from Matrix Games all the way until January 6, 2007.

There's a little bit of everything for everybody in Matrix Games' gift bag, from casual gamers to the hardcore fighting-for-bragging-rights types. For sports fans, there will be delights aplenty when they find Maximum Football or PureSim Baseball wrapped and ready to play under their Christmas tree.

Thinking of having fun with friends and family through play by email gaming (PBEM)? Matrix Games offers a wide selection of titles that support PBEM which give players a convenient and easy way to communicate with distant family and old friends. Games like Korsun Pocket will have you catching up with that uncle or cousin who lives halfway across the country while royally pummeling him with your Panzers at the same time.

Check out the image up top for a list of the games that are covered by this Holiday special from Matrix Games.