January:

Jaleco closes (IP and $7.736m/$17.68m loan sold to Game Yarou for $0.01)

MS ACES (Flight Simulator team gone)

MS cuts 30% of testers at MGS + unspecified GFW team

Sega cuts 30 in San Francisco 

Eidos cuts 30 people at Crystal Dynamics
Eidos closes Rockpool Games (Manchester) [mobile]
Seta Corp (Super Entertainment & Total Amusement) closed
EA to cut 10% of staff and 9 studios consolidated/closed by March
unspecified cuts at Sony and MS (kotaku sez bulk of the current 1400 cut from MS are from Entertainment & Devices)
Nexon closes Humanature studio (Vancouver) 90 Jobs lost
Unspecified layoffs at Kuju in US and UK
Ensemble closes
Disney Interactive Studios layoff ~70 at Propoganda, confirms plans to "consolidate a handful of its studios, including Avalanche Software and the Fall Line studio."

February:

Brighter Minds (World of Goo) goes Bankrupt
THQ Mobile shuts down in San Diego, Germany and UK (~100 jobs)
Action Pants (British-Columbia) acquired by Ubisoft
Free Radical acquired by Crytek
EA to close 12 facilities + 1100 jobs
Snowblind Studios acquired by Warner Bros
Eidos drops casual studio (Gimme5games)
Sega cuts 18% of workforce (560 jobs)
NCSoft cuts 55 at NC West (Europe)
Midway files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Rare cuts artist and engineer positions (12 known)
Popcap acquires Gastronaut Studios
Fillpoint acquires Crave Entertainment and SVG Distribution

March:

THQ cuts majority of Volition's (Saint's Row) QA staff - 86 of 102
THQ to sell or close Big HUge Games, Heavy Iron and Incinerator becoming independent.
Namco to buy all branches of D3 publisher, including studio Vicious Cycle

April:

THQ confirms unspecified layoffs at BigHugeGames, still looking for sale

May:

3D Realms closes
Microsoft Game Studios acquires BigPark
38 Studios acquires BigHugeGames from THQ
Grin Studios cuts 160 people
Factor 5 closes (Liar of PS3's work no doubt)

June:

Management Buy-Out/Closure of Chemistry (Kuju)
Deadline Games (Watchman Game) files for bankruptcy
Crystal Dynamics cuts 25 more people
Midway San Diego and Newcastle face closure by end of June.
America's Army studio closes
Rockstar lays of 10% of New England staff
ZeniMax (owner of Bethsoft) acquires id Software

July:

Heavy Hammer lays off Blue Omega team
Sony Online Entertainment lays off 5% of staff
Midway Closes Chicago Corporate Headquarters and Newcastle Studio

August:

Grin shuts down
THQ Buys Midway San Diego
EA cuts back staff at Maxis
Raven lays off 30-35

September:

Bottlerocket closes
Disney acquires Wideload Games
Funcom to cut 20% of workforce

October:

Transmission Games lays off 20
Ubisoft acquires Trackmania developer Nadeo
Activision lays off 30 from 7 studios
Activision closes Shaba Studios
Optimus acquires Witcher developer in CD Projekt takeover
Idol Minds lays off ~26
Transmission Games closes
Slipgate Ironworks lays off ~50

November:

Square-Enix/Taito/Eidos cuts 10% globally
EA Acquires Playfish
EA to layoff 1,500 by April 2010, including "several studio closures"  Tiburon, Blackbox, Redwood Shores, Mythic reportedly affected
Playdom acquires Green Path and Trippert Labs
Pandemic closes
Krome faces unspecified number of layoffs

December:

Fuzzeyes lays off majority of staff
SCEA drops 30 QA jobs
Paradox Interactive acquires AGEOD
Oberon Media lays off 100

The industry trend is of late: Blaming the Wii for they're own shortcomings.

So what do you guys think of all this?

My opinion: I guess when a game flops on wii 3rd parties complain, but when a HD game flops it lights out:(

What games on PS360 floped last year? Bionic Commando aaaand...? On wii, we have flops (in sales, not quality) like The Conduit, Madworld, Little King's Story...

"Nexon closes Humanature studio (Vancouver) 90 Jobs lost"
Sadly, I'm not fully sad about that >_>

No offense but in my opinion bionic commando was shit and thats why it flopped

MGS = Metal Gear Solid, not Microsoft Game Studios. Change this please, it's quite distressing to see!

I know MGS = Metal Gear Solid not Microsoft game studios because it came first!!

Why are there acquisitions on the list? They only mean a change in the leadership, and often a good one.

ouch... lots of disaster

I saw the world of goo thing and went HOW THE HELL DID THAT LOSE money, then realized it was the publisher of the PC version that was pirated, plus they published a lot of bad games too, sad times for them, but that should be clarified.

Also I'd have to find the article but I believe there was some layoffs at Universal, they published Wanted Weapons of Fate and Chronicles of Riddick. I'm really sad Chronicles of Riddick didn't sell better since that was one of those surprise games of 2009 that was really good, plus you get two games for the price of one.

When a company that is bleeding cash acquires another company thats a good thing?