Lets start with the bad news. Things don't look so good for game publisher Activision as their stock might get delisted from the NASDAQ exchange after the company failed to file its quarterly earnings statement.

Activision alerted shareholders to the news and has pledged to make the earnings report as soon as erm, uh, "practicable." Activision says that the reason for the delay is because of their need to complete a review of the their stock-option grant practices.

The company intends to request a hearing before the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel in order to appeal for a continuance of their listing.

Okay, so with that done, let's move to the bit that's all nice and rosy.

WoW publisher, Vivendi Games, boasts a spike in earnings reaching up to 110 Million Dollars compared to 38 Million Dollars. That's a increase of around 186.7 percent. Aside from the obvious Warcraft money cow, Vivendi also credits start-up investments for the Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile divisions, and the strong sales of Scarface: The World is Yours, as reasons for the profit increase.

When asked about the revenues for World of Warcraft, rumoured to have reached $1 billion for this year, Gamespot reports that  Vivendi opted for general terms. The describe the financial results of its games division as "very healthy and dynamic," and the overall economic performance as "great."

When it comes to the just announced Marvel Universe Online, just two important details are known: first, Cryptic Studios was chosen to develop the said Microsoft MMO; then the game will feature seamless play between the PC and the X360. But the recent chit-chat with the three involved companies (Microsoft, Cryptic, Marvel) aims to shed light a bit further and hopes to keep anticipations running.

Microsoft Game Studios Frank Pape admits the tremendous success of WoW is their main motivation for getting into the massively multiplayer online market. He laments however that "World of Warcraft is a great game but it has been a black hole. It has subsumed a large part of the audience." Microsoft believes that Marvel can change all that by breathing fresh air into the space.

Also, they want to make sure that despite of the fact that PC and X360 gamers are able to play on one server, the two versions of the game are still distinct from one another. "[Cryptic Studios] is working very diligently to make sure the PC game does not feel like a port of the console or the console is a port of the PC game," shares Vice President of Marvel Interactive Ames Kirshen.

Furthermore, Cryptic Studios is still in awe regarding the breadth and depth of the Marvel Universe. Apparently, the comic publisher gave their all it at the studio's disposal. When asked as to where battles will take place, Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert gave a very promising answer: "The Marvel Universe isn't just super heroes running around in big cities," he said. "We have Thor and Asgard, we have Atlantis and we have the Midnight Suns and the other dark slices of Marvel."

Marvel Universe Online was first mentioned during this year's ComicCon. Other details including gameplay, characters availability and release date are still not available as of this writing.