Could the last member of the EA staff to leave for a casual gaming gig please turn out the lights? NBA Elite executive producer Jeremy Strauser is leaving the company to work at social gaming juggernaut Zynga, according to Pasta Padre. This comes on the heels of two executives leaving for social gaming startup Row Sham Bow. Also, former EA COO John Schappert announced he was going to Zynga in April.

Rock Studios, the developer of Split Second, is going through layoffs. Around 40 will be let go as the studio gets down to a single development team, according to Eurogamer. That site’s unnamed source said about half of the studio’s employees haven’t had a project to work on since December 2010. Split Second debuted in May 2010 to favorable reviews but tepid sales.

Raven Software, the developer behind the X-Men Legends games and recent first-person shooter Singularity, has laid off around 40 employees. Raven has been scaling its workforce back considerably since Activision acquired it in 1997..

The long-expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Blockbuster Video will happen in September 2010.

Viacom Inc. purchased Blockbuster for $8.4 billion in 1994, the company’s current value is estimated to be $24 million. In July 2010, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Blockbuster’s stock which closed at 11 cents August 26, 2010. Times said Blockbuster informed Hollywood’s studio heads of the impending bankruptcy hoping it can keep their support during this difficult time. Those partnerships are key as Blockbuster reportedly seeks a “pre-planned” bankruptcy, meaning many of its creditors would work with them.

The summer gaming doldrums hit the world’s largest videogame retailer hard, as GameStop missed its second-quarter earnings expectations and lowered third-quarter projections. The Wall Street Journal reports that GameStop shares fell seven percent in midday trading after the news broke. GameStop’s shares are 12 percent off for 2010 so far.

Gregory Reaux, 29, did not take to his dismissal from a Hammond, LA, GameStop too well.

In 2008, GameStop fired Reaux for improperly using discounts and store deals, what the company considered effectively stealing from the store. After getting fired, he began actually stealing from the stores armed with a box cutter and wearing a cut shirt sleeve as a mask.

Wow, people will try to sell anything on eBay these days.

A mom-and-pop video game store in Grand Junction, Colorado, is going out of business and has put up its store for sale on eBay with a Buy it Now price of $30,000.

The store’s owner explained that potential buyers can either buy just the inventory (worth $60,000) or take over ownership of the whole store. He also mentioned that delivery is free if the location is within 750 miles.

Even developers working on blockbuster franchises aren’t immune to the current economic pressures. Ready at Dawn Studios, charged with bringing God of War: Ghost of Sparta, to the PSP, has announced a layoff of 13 people.

Labeled as a “Midweek Madeness” sale, steam is offering Psychonauts for only $2 through this Thursday (January 28, 2010).

The platformer currently retails for $9.99 and was originally released in 2005 by Majesco for PC (windows), Xbox and Playstation 2.

Psychonauts stars Raz, a young psychic who leaves the circus to sneak into a summer training camp for future Psychonauts. As expected, nothing is as it seems and Raz has to quickly acquire and perfect a few psychic skills to defeat baddies and solve puzzles. Some of his learned abilities include telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, pyrokinesis, clairvoyance, confusion, shield and blast.

According to an industry census report by Game Developer Research, despite the recession there were more people employed in the videogame industry in 2009 than in 2008.

That’s due to some explosive growth in the Canadian game industry, which experienced a 30 percent increase in the number of employees between 2008 and 2009 (an estimated 9,500 in 2008 blossomed to more than 12,500 in 2009). Government subsidies have helped new studios spring up all over Canada, particularly in Montreal and Ontario.

Also, the growing surge in casual gaming led to new jobs with companies including Zynga and Popcap.