To wrap up the 2007 Year in Games, and forecast trends for 2008, we sat down with one of the industry’s biggest authorities, Joseph Olin, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He’s been with the AIAS since 2004, and worked with video games and consumer products for 25 years. We asked him about the biggest developments in gaming this year, and some of the things we’ll see in the next 12 months. Here are Five Questions with Joseph Olin:

According to Stephen McGill, head of gambling and entertainment for Xbox UK, the "Xbox 360 is uniquely placed to take the UK by storm this Christmas". After yesterday's announcement of a price cut for the gaming console, we thought it high time to update our statistics on searches for gaming consoles.

GamePro analyst Michael Pachter says it was development difficulties on Sony’s PlayStation 3 that forced Take-Two to delay Grand Theft Auto IV for both PS3 and Xbox 360.  "We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently," Pachter said in a statement.

Redwood City, CA - In what's believed to be an industry first, Redwood City-based game developer and publisher Electronic Arts (EA) said that it has teamed with The Weather Channel to offer real-time weather conditions and updates in its newly released NCAA Football 08 game. The latest version of the popular college football game will use information from The Weather Channel Interactive (TWCI) -- transmitted through the Internet -- to reflect accurate, real-time weather conditions at NCAA stadiums.

Tokyo - Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii game console outsold Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 by a ratio of over 4 to 1 in Japan in July, game magazine publisher Enterbrain said on Friday.

The Xbox 360 has overtaken the Nintendo Wii as the most searched for gaming console based on share of US Internet searches for the first time since the Wii’s launch in November 2006. The Xbox 360 is #1 console based on sales volume but the Wii has enjoyed the fastest growth in market share. We often find that Internet searches are a leading indicator and can be predictive of future sales growth.

London - Japanese video game publisher Namco Bandai has signed a deal with Sony to use the Cell processor found in the PlayStation 3 to power an arcade game title, GamesIndustry.biz reported, citing an article in The Mainichi Daily News. The first arcade game to feature the Cell will be Namco Bandai's "Tekken 6," scheduled for release later this year. The company has previously used PlayStation 2 technology in older arcade machines.

The PlayStation 3 launches in the UK on Friday and so we did some analysis of search data to get a sense for demand. The PS3 was the most searched for console last week, edging out the Nintendo Wii. However, searchers seem to be price sensitive and are comparing prices to other markets. Also, the volume of searches is lower than when the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii launched.

Foster City, Calif. - Sony Computer Entertainment America announced on Tuesday that it will offer its next software update for the PlayStation 3 on March 22, which will add features including Folding@home, a project that will allow Stanford University to utilize participating PS3 owners' computing power for medical research.

Rockville, Md. - Bethesda Softworks on Monday shipped its PlayStation 3 version of "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" to retailers. The game, which features character voices from actors including Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean, was released for Windows and Xbox 360 in March 2006.

Los Angeles - Nintendo's Wii was the top-selling video game console in the U.S. during the month of February, and its DS handheld outsold all other game hardware, according to sales data from market research firm NPD Group.