It’s a good news/bad news situation, depending on how you view it: if you pre-ordered the game for as a Christmas gift, it’s bad. If it’s one of the many games on your Christmas shopping list, and you’re short on holiday money, it’s good – but not all that good.

Yesterday, Take-Two Interactive announced that BioShock 2 won’t be releasing within the company’s fourth quarter, as previously planned. BioShock 2 has instead been pushed up to the “first half” of 2010.

“The decision to shift a release date is never an easy one, especially with a product as highly anticipated as BioShock 2,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. “We felt that it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve.”

However, the move is worst for the company’s current fiscal year, which ends on October 31, but good news for its 2010 fiscal year, said Jesse Divnich, director of analyst services at Electronic Entertainment Design & Research in Carlsbad, Calif.

“I expect them to dominate fiscal 2010,” Divnich said. “BioShock 2, Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II, additional Grand Theft Auto Downloadable Content (DLC), and the possible launch of Agent should make fiscal 2010 the year of Take-Two. As far as I am concerned, Take-Two is just moving numbers from one financial year to another.”

[Bioshock 2 delayed; Take-Two's stock takes a hit via LA Times]

It looks like this awesome game has awesome sales. When speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Tokyo last week, Capcom CFO Kazuhiko Abe has revealed that Resident Evil 5 has sold 4.4 million copies worldwide since its launch in March.

“We are still enjoying strong demand, very strong demand, that is,” Abe said on Thursday. “In the single month of April, sales came to as many as 570,000 units.” Capcom posted an 11 percent jump in operating profit in the year ended March 31 as it enjoyed strong sales of Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV.

For the current financial year to March 2010, it forecast a 6 percent rise in operating profit to a record 15.5 billion yen ($164 million). Abe said the company aims to drive its overseas sales by offering titles that appeal to the expanding U.S. and European markets but has no plans of pursuing acquisitions.

Wow, out of the many company’s that I though would be laying off people, EA had to come and pull this trick. Today, word has hit the web that Electronic Arts has “massive” layed off 6 percent of its staff, which adds up to be about 600 people.

“EA is continuing to make progress against our business plan, but we have the constant imperative to keep our costs in line as we grow our revenues and improve our margins,” said Electronic Arts spokesperson, Mariam Sughayer. “Decisions that impact people’s jobs are always extremely tough but all of the people affected will be treated fairly and respectfully.”

The spokesperson goes onto reveal that the company has “reduce hiring” and that “open positions that – they – had previously planned to fill this fiscal year” were closed. This is because they are tiring to “adjust employee numbers” to ensure that their resourced in a ways that allows them to continue to grow, revenue-wise.

“These are challenging economic times around the world, and it’s impossible for any business leaders to predict the future. However, EA has made good progress in improving product quality, building a holiday lineup of titles that is extremely strong, filling our new IP pipeline, and expanding our Direct-To-Consumer and online businesses. As well, our talent remains the best in the industry.”

[Electronic Arts Lays Off Six Hundred via Kotaku]