Sony executives are considering splitting the company's entertainment and electronics divisions, following billionaire Daniel Loeb's proposed initial public offering of its entertainment business. The entertainment arm includes all PlayStation properties, alongside Sony's film and music businesses.

Loeb, with Third Point LLC, owns a 6 percent stake in Sony worth $1.1 billion, and is Sony's biggest investor. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the top brass is considering Loeb's offer, but didn't say when it would come to a decision, Bloomberg reports.

"It's only a start," Hirai said. "It's important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony's stance." Following Loeb's offer yesterday, Sony stock surged 9 percent.

Square Enix America CEO Mike Fischer left the company this month and is now vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan, Polygon reports. This follows news in April that Square Enix America eliminated "a number of positions" and Fischer was expected to leave in May. Those same reports said the head of marketing should be gone after E3, along with other employees in public relations.

In March, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped down and the company announced widespread restructuring that it expected to cost $106 million. Square Enix posted a net loss of $134 million for fiscal year 2013, citing "weak" sales of major console games, including Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, the last of which sold 3.4 million in its first month.

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It's quite the week for content on Sony platforms, with several major releases making their debut on the PlayStation Network today. Metro: Last Light, the 4A Games' sequel salvaged by Deep Silver, launches today. If you haven't had a chance to read our review yet, be sure to give that a gander.

It's joined by CCP's EVE Online offshoot (get it?) Dust 514, available free to all PSN users. Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery eases its way onto PS Vita today as a $3 download, while Rockstar makes good on its promised Manhunt for $10.

PlayStation Plus subscribers' freebie this week is Knytt Underground, which is flanked by discounts on both Metro: Last Light and a special pre-order price on Grid 2. For the full list of what's in this week's content dump, hit up the PS Blog through the source link below.

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Sony had a net income for fiscal 2012 (ending March 31 2013) of ¥43 billion, which converts to $458 million. It's the first time the company's posted annual net profit since 2008. A far better situation than the company's $456.7 million loss last year.

As the company predicted following several cost-cutting measures across the previous year – including the sales of major buildings in Tokyo and New York, as well as thousands of layoffs - Sony posted an operating profit for the fiscal year, which came in at ¥230.1 billion ($2.45 billion).

Sony shifted 3.4 million PS3 and PS2 units across the last quarter, while the Vita and PSP came in at 1.3 million. Sony's fiscal year figures were in line with projections made last quarter, with the home consoles at 16.5 million and the portables at 7 million.

However, the portables' figures compare unfavorably with the company's initial estimate for the year, which was 16 million. Sony is being much more cautious for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, predicting only 5 million units in what's approximately the Vita's second year at retail. PS3 figures are estimated at 10 million, while Sony chose not to include PS4 projections.

The PlayStation division saw 12.2 percent year-on-year decline in sales, coming in at ¥707.1 billion ($7.52 billion). Operating income saw a much sharper drop, down 94.1 percent to ¥1.7 billion, or $18 million. Sony put the declines down to decreased hardware sales, as well as the "strategic price reduction" for the Vita in Japan earlier this year.

One area where growth is predicted is software, even without including the PS4. Sony projects an increase from the 266 million units sold in fiscal 2012 to 319 million (including digital units).

United Front's open-world action game, Sleeping Dogs, is now available for free to PlayStation Plus members as part of Instant Game Collection.

Papo & Yo is available for $9 this week (or $12 if you want the soundtrack tossed in), while Retro City Rampage is down to $7.50. Fatal Frame 2 joins the PS2 Classics list, and a multiplayer demo for Fuse teases Insomniac's latest shooter before its launch later this month. Check the PlayStation Blog for the full list of new content.

FIFA 13 sold through 14.5 million units in fiscal year 2013, up 30 percent compared with FIFA 12 sales from the prior year. Net revenue from digital sales hit $200 million in adjusted, non-GAAP terms, an increase of 94 percent compared with FIFA 12 year-over-year. The entire FIFA franchise generated $350 million in digital net revenue in FY 2013, including sales from FIFA Online and FIFA World Class Soccer.

By Q3 2013, which ended on December 31, 2012, FIFA 13 clocked a total of 12 million sales.

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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon lights up this week's hefty PlayStation content dump, available as a PS3 download alongside Poker Night 2, Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut, Zombie Tycoon 2 (PS Vita cross-buy; free on PS Plus) and Ninja Sigma 2. On the PS Vita side, Keiji Inafune's Soul Sacrifice sets out for role-playing adventure.

This week concludes the Spring Fever sale on PSN, highlighting games featured in Sony's mascot brawler, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. Deals on BioShock, Metal Gear, Ratchet & Clank and many more are up for grabs. The full list is available over on the PlayStation Blog.

Gaijinworks is gearing up to launch a localized version of Acquire's PSP dungeon-crawling RPG Class of Heroes 2, and has opened preorders for a physical UMD edition that also includes a downloadable copy of the game.

For $36.99, buyers will receive a digital voucher for Class of Heroes 2 once it hits the PlayStation Network next month. A boxed physical version will be shipped to preorder customers an estimated 4-8 weeks after preorders close on May 8th.

Published in partnership with MonkeyPaw Games, Class of Heroes 2 is a first-person, Wizardry-like dungeon crawler with a focus on character customization. A Kickstarter project for a proposed deluxe edition didn't reach its funding goal, but a limited physical release entered production after meeting with a positive fan response.

"[Class of Heroes 2 is] not out of QA yet, but I'd imagine it should be up on PSN about the 3rd week in May, and the physical a few weeks after that," Gaijinworks founder Victor Ireland notes. "The QA is really just a formality because all that changed was a couple lines of text cleaned up and the opening removed until the rights situation is cleared."

Class of Heroes 2 was originally released in Japan in 2009. Since then, a number of sequel titles have debuted for platforms including the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS. To date, only the first PSP entry in the series has seen a North American release.

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This week's free PS Plus game is Zombie Tycoon 2, launching tomorrow as a PSN download on PS3 and PS Vita. Zombie Tycoon 2 is the sequel to Frima Studios' real-time strategy game pitting two mad scientists against one another, each with an army of zombies at his beck and call, as they try to invade the town of Finkleville.

In addition to the free game, the usual discount trumpeting will take place tomorrow. Spring Fever concludes with arguably its best week yet, offering up discounts themed around PlayStation All-Stars ($20 for PS Plus members) and its featured combatants. Many notable series are on sale, including entries in Metal Gear, Sly Cooper, BioShock, LittleBigPlanet, Devil May Cry, God of War, Infamous, Ratchet & Clank and Twisted Metal. The full list is available over on the PlayStation Blog.

The web-based Sony Entertainment Network store has enabled automatic downloads of PlayStation 3 content. Items in your store queue will begin downloading once you turn on your console, either via Remote Play or a gentle caress of the power button. The process takes a few minutes to kick in after boot-up, according to PSN Stores.

Before this addition, games and other content purchased through the web store had to be manually retrieved from the PS3's download list.

The PlayStation Store update this week includes four full games, two new for PSN and three Vita games. The full games are Star Trek, SoulCalibur 5, Dead Island Riptide and Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII, while PSN gets God Mode and Thomas Was Alone.

Thomas Was Alone is a Cross Buy game, making it available on Vita today as well, along with Draw Slasher and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns is out as a PS2 Classic and PSP gets Black Rock Shooter The Game. The Spring Sale is still on, with discounts on Resident Evil 6 and Thomas Was Alone this week.

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PlayStation Plus subscribers can snag a free copy of PSP (and PS Vita-compatible) fighter Soul Calibur Broken Destiny tomorrow when the PlayStation Store update drops. Soul Calibur Broken Destiny launched on PSP in 2009 with a feature set largely similar to its console predecessor from 2008, Soul Calibur IV.

Curve Studios' port of Mike Bithell's BAFTA-nominated puzzle-platformer Thomas Was Alone makes its debut on PS Vita and PS3 this week. The cross-buy enabled game takes place within a computer mainframe, tasking players with escorting erratic AI entities to their destinations.

Finally, PSN's Spring Fever sale continues unabated, slashing prices across the entire Resident Evil series this week. Highlights include Resident Evil: Director's Cut for $5, Resident Evil 6 for $21 and Resident Evil 4 at $14.

The sales-tracking data hounds at NPD have released their figures for March 2013, which collectively place hardware sales down, physical software sales slightly up, and BioShock Infinite at the top of the best-selling pile.

The physical retail sales sector of the U.S. video game industry pulled in 10 percent less coin than it did during the same five-week period in 2012, amassing a total of $992.5 million between March 3 and April 6, 2013. Hardware sales took the biggest hit out of the three monitored retail sub-categories, bringing in a total of $221.6 million, a 32 percent year-over-year decrease. Microsoft's Xbox 360 claimed its 27th month as the best-selling console in America, selling 261,000 units, down 13.5 percent from last month.

Meanwhile, overall physical software sales (console, portable and PC games) outperformed March 2012 by two percent: $602.4 million in 2013, as compared with last a total of $592.2 million in sales last March.

BioShock Infinite took an immediate victory over the rest of the period's release calendar, with Tomb Raider and Gears of War: Judgment rounding out the podium lineup. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon placed sixth overall; we learned yesterday it has sold 415,000 units. Though that figure's retail-to-digital ratio remains undefined, the "vast majority" of sales took place at retail, according to Nintendo's Scott Moffit.

As always, jump on through for the top 10 best-selling games of March, 2013.

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This week's free North American PlayStation Plus game is Malicious, a third-person action game in which players defeat an eclectic collection of bosses and pilfer their powers.

Meanwhile, the Spring Fever sale event continues for PlayStation Plus with a series-wide sale on the Grand Theft Auto games, including recent PS2 Classics GTA 3 (for under $5) and GTA: San Andreas (for under $8).

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