Officials at Capcom have announced that company exec Mark Beaumont has been handed the reigns as the publisher and developer's new chief operating officer for both North America and Europe. The promotion, which was effective as of April 1, is the second in as many years for Beaumont, who first joined the company in 2005 before being elevated to the position of executive VP and officer two years later.

Beaumont has more than 25 years of industry service to his credit dating back to the original incarnation of Atari. In his new role, the exec's responsibilities will include "growing and managing" Capcom's eye for Western development and licensing. It's a role that's likely to keep the man up to his eyeballs in paperwork given company exec's recent prediction that Capcom could "acquire a western studio in the next two years."

Atlus this afternoon announced plans to bring Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 stateside, giving us plenty to keep busy amidst reruns of Scrubs and E.R. when the game ships for the Nintendo DS this summer. Atlus confirmed that the sequel, which follows the 2005 release that made us all believe that we could cure cancer with a flick of the wrist, will make it to retail on July 1, offering new modes and operations for armchair surgeons.

But wait, isn't that a full month before the game will be released in Japan? Has the world gone topsy-turvy? We touched based with Atlus and learned that this is indeed the case -- not that the world had gone into a tailspin, but rather that we can expect to stitch up wounds vicariously through Derek and Angie before our friends overseas. The official we spoke to also noted that while the team struggled with a number of titles for the sequel "there really was no other more fitting thing to call the game than Under the Knife 2." Honestly, they can call it anything they want, just get it in our hands STAT!

As expected, yesterday came and went without a peep regarding the first expansion to Sony and Wizards of the Coast's fourth wall-bending Eye of Judgment. March 27 was to be the date that the game's cards and required PSN download were to be released, but that was before something went awry, delaying the whole shebang, though oddly only for North America. Rather than speculate as the cause, we knocked on Sony's front door, and when Brian Keltner answered we asked him straight up, what's the deal?

According to Sony, the North American delay can be blamed on "transportation delays from the European distributor of The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2) trading cards." Keltner added that "we have yet to set a new launch date for the software and cards but plan to do so in the near future."

It looks like players in both Japan and Europe will be getting a leg up on building decks and strategies for the upcoming expansion to Sony and Wizard's of the Coast's Eye of Judgment, as the game will not make its previously announced March 27th released in North America. If we had to guess, this probably can be traced to some sort of printing error with the cards, though Sony hasn't specified a reason for the delay, nor a new North American release date, with a post on the official PlayStation blog saying only to "stay tuned."

As previously mentioned, the expansion will require not only the original game but also the purchase of a download from the PlayStation Store (for new character models and effects we assume), though Sony adds that this download will be kept out of North American players' hands until the cards eventually make their fashionably late debut. Until that time, enjoy the expansion's latest trailer, and imagine yourself playing the game through the magic of self delusion.