Just as I was settling in to pen today’s summary of gaming happenings, we were hit with the bomb: 1UP.com is being sold to UGO Entertainment. Electronic Gaming Monthly won’t be part of the deal, leaving only GamePro and Game Informer to the multi-platform print market. We had heard rumors of this before, but the official word, plus the imminent final publish date of January 2009 for EGM, makes the news seem real. The magazine will be missed. No official word yet on staff changes on the 1UP side, but Ryan O’Donnel of the 1UP show Twittered to say he’d been fired.

In lighter news, Mark Rein posted to the Epic forums to announce another "title update" for Gears of War 2. The invisible shield, infinite Lancer ammo, meleeing through walls and shotgun client-side detection issues are among the list of fixes. Rein said that "all indicators" point to a January release, but there’s no set date yet. Check out the post for the full list of changes.

In a revelation that’s sure to stoke the fanboy flames, Microsoft said the Xbox 360 had sold 28 million units worldwide by the end of last year. Reuter notes that the console outpaced the Playstation 3 by 8 million units. To be fair to both sides, the PS3 did see a 40 percent increase in sales this year. Discuss.

Finally, Fable II got a loving belly scratch from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which dubbed the game "Most Animal-Friendly Video Game" for 2008. Apparently Fable II’s insistence on giving tofu-eaters the same benefits as carnivores sat well with the radical group.

As for us? We wrote about the possible splitting up of Free Radical. More to come once the "i’s" are dotted, and such. Goodnight!