Since there was some positive response yesterday, and few to zero nay-sayers in sight, I’m going ahead and bringing back another edition of the GNoI (Game News of Interest). So here it is, unedited, on proofed, and free from all of the distracting web-browsing that you would need to unceremoniously submit your self to, in order to find this stuff on your own.

GNoI - the daily report of interesting game industry news that is, well, of interest! We wade through the seemingly endless muck of shock, shlock and gleaming stupidity of the industry news so YOU don’t have to! Here are today’s bite-sized, nuggets of interest, behold, news:

The Federal Trade Commission is taking a good long look into the bid (hostile in most regards) from EA for Take2.

Adam Sessler interviews the authors of Grand Theft Childhood, the new book which takes a careful look at the correlation between violent vid-games and real-world youth violence, with surprising results that are far from the norm that we’ve come to expect on the topic, especially from politicians looking to utilize games on their poli-platforms.

Games, in way to get kids into libraries again is what libraries are looking to do. Tomorrow, Friday, has been designated as ‘Gaming @ Your Library Day’ byt the American library Association, which is, quite obviously, meant to try and lure and sway today’s youth to the old standby of the brick and mortar public houses of books. We’ll see how it goes…

The FCC will be holding a hearing regarding Net neutrality at Stanford Uni today. It is expected that representatives from ECA, GamesForChange, and SaveTheInternet will be doing their best to show up, and voice their concerns regarding the corp-thieving and control of digital space. Let us all hope that this time, Comcast won’t pull another ringer stunt like they did last time to quell the voices of descent/reason/freedom.

According to analysts the EA proposed take-over of Take2, will require EA to pony up even more cash per share ($30USD+ per) which is at least a $4USD increase from the initial proposal. Whether or not EA will actually show the money is still yet to be seen, and with the revived interest of the FedTradeComish now being thrown into the mix as well, things do not bode well for EA’s attempts to grab the house behind GTA.

SCi has not been in the best financial condition of late (not Atari level bad, but still), yet it seems that they may be receiving a bit of a vitamin boost in the form of a possible and alleged stock deal with either NBC Universal or Time Warner. SCi is the parent Co of Eidos (think TombRaider). The new deal will either increase NBC’s current interest or create a new interest for TW, either way SCi needs the funds to secure their new salvaging strategy.

In apparent reaction to the recent price-cut of the M$ 360, Xbox is reporting a full doubling of sales in Europe, even hinting at more than doubling.

The gama is running a good thought/opine piece on the possible future of a one-console environ and what it would ‘really’ do to the industry as a whole outside of the general consumer perspective.

Ankama Studio (France) has partnered with Kalmeo to release DofusPocket for the mobile market. The title is a mobile version of the hugely (7m reg users) tactical-MMOrpg, Dofus. The port will have new content and additional features to help separate it from the online flash-based version and to make it more than a clone/port.

MindCandy has launched new VW called Moshi Monsters, which is reportedly targeted at ‘little kids and big kids alike.’ It is cute, there’s no denying, but will the tamagotchi style play design offer enough to keep the kiddies entertained and coming back for more, and enough to get monies from mommy and daddy? We’ll see…

Cheyenne Mountain (dev house behind Stargate Worlds) has just announced the creation of a new publishing house, known as FireSky. Some of the thinking behind FireSky’s strategy is fairly interesting a worth at least a sound-bite driven glance.

SquareEnix has announced a new mobile ‘mail’ MMO entitled Ellark. The release is scheduled for Japan with no work for other regions and it will incorporate the now popular micro-transaction model to support the otherwise free game.

Toyota, not content to merely have a VW presence in Gaia Online is now opening their own VW, known as Totya Metapolis. The link includes a vid tour of the project currently running on the Meet-Me technology for Japan.

Numedon (Whyville, SportsBlox) is looking to close their Series B funding drive with an estimate of nearly $2mUSD(+) in the final outcome.

BBC Worldwide has partnered with Star Farm Produictions to release a new children’s fantasy VW.

The Cartoon Network original VW, announced at last year’s SDCC, has now been pushed back to Fall 2008.

Gaia Online has announced a new MMOG that will be in some way ‘tied’ to the existing Gaia brand but not directly connected to the current gameplay. The game has been in dev since 2007 and SDCC will be where you need to be to get into the Beta version of the game.

GTAIV’s proposed DLC might actually feature an entire city, this would be the largest DLC currently available for any title and actually makes it closer to an outright expansion in more traditional PC gaming terms.

Tokyopop (where many mangaka seem to get their start, yours truly included) has set a 3 yr publishing cycle to release 22 new mangas tied directly into the WoW and Starcraft seri/universes. To be accurate the mangas are actually more manwha with possible writers from the west added in - the announcement has been made in correlation with the currently running NYCC.

Allegedly, a Take2 stock-holder is filing a class-action lawsuit against Take2 for its refusal of EA’s buy-out offers, reporting that the refusal is fiscally irresponsible on the level of being criminal.

And finally to close out today’s GNoI in the proud and continued tradition that you’ve come to expect, here it is, your moment of zen, featuring Uwe Boll, Voltron, VGcats, and aDutyToDo (say it fast please). Zen is beginning now:

Uwe Boll is actually (and I’m really NOT kidding here) stating that Spielberg and Michael Bay, have been using false idents to sign the current petition to get the crazy German to quit butchering cinema and game-movies in general. For those not in the know, Uwe, supposedly stated (probably in a publicity stunt to coincide with the upcoming trash, Postal) that he would quite making movies if 1,000,000 individuals would step up and tell him to ‘STOP.’ So far, the effort has garnered at least 200k responses, and in light of the strength of the internet driven poll/petition, Uwe is already backpedaling and claiming that the ’sigs’ are merely the work of a ‘few individuals’ signing over and over under aliases. He didn’t say ‘alias’ actually, probably, because he can’t spell it…

Official petition for all interested parties and lovers of both cinema and games that wish the horror to finally come to an end.

Free Voltron episode is now available on Xbox vid… erm kaaaaaaaaaay…

Glory be unto Scott and his VGcats, which despite the very efforts of god himself, has survived a recent tornado and is back to doing what he does best… making game-themed webcomics fun again.

GNoI has it’s own ‘duty to do’

–Aleister

Gnarls Barkley - Surprise

PS

Work on tomorrow’s comic is still commencing, right now, I’m just busy coloring the thing and with any luck (and hopefully, without any currently unforeseen complications, professional, medical or otherwise) it will be here, where it belongs on NR!

Welcome to the Monday edition of GNoI (Game News of Interest!) - the countdown continues for GTAIV, with the obviously far reaching entanglements for EA and Take2 as well as some not so surprising move-spurning from RealTime Worlds (who offer an MMO version of GTA/clone), this is a no doubt a big event, and one that is shaking up the industry as well as the very focus of decision making itself… lots going on, and only days left until the release of the title - so let’s look at the news, both GTAIV and nonGTAIV related - GNoI news feed is live:

Due to journalistic coverage (and the term is being used very loosely) by Fox news of GTAIV and current street violence in Chicago, the CTA bus adverts for GTAIV are being pulled. In fact, they’ve already been pulled, hooray for the ability of neo-con journalism to directly control our media… wait, what’d I just say?

Matt Damon’s mother is giving her two cents on what contributes to youth-tied violence in the media, basically, action figures (O_O!)… But apparently, violent, Spy-movies are considerably ok, because, well, you know they’re not real or something

RealTimeWorlds is looking to resecure their global rights from Korean co Webzen, for upcoming title, APB. This is more than a little unusual, but perhaps it shows that there might be something to the current rumors that ‘Western’ based companies are looking to directly cash-in to the online gaming craze and not simply leave their babies in control of publishers who may not have the cultural touchstones necessary to handle them… or just plain GTAIV cash-in-greed, you decide.

Take2 has officially responded to the newest offer from EA. The crux: it’s another rejection. Which is simply awesome, thank you Take2 for making a direct stand against another pushy-corp buy-out attempt.

Ubisoft is opening a new campus is Casablanca, you may happily begin your black-and-white-noir-film jokings in earnest.

The ESRB is working to educate parents by partnering their efforts with national PTA’s, honestly, I’m not entirely sure that this is a good thing, anytime we have to basically ‘force’ parents to educate themselves on some new topic what interests the kiddies, it throws up a lot of red flags to me, makes me think that perhaps our nation’s parents do not put in the amount of time and care that they should be for their spawn.

GamerDNA (formerly GuildCafe Entertainment) has secured $3mUSD in series A funding and has will be expanding their current market with the new resources, including the launching of their official website, the interesting thing about this company is that they seem to be trying a recent soc-net / game hybrind community idea that hasn’t quite been proven to work yet.

LindenLab has let on that they are closer to finding a replacement CEO for the house that made SecondLife, but even with a new CEO I doubt it will make their product suck any less.

Another perspective, according to a new article being passed around, via Kotaku and others, it seems that the core of good game design is fewer not more mechanics and choices. Interesting read for anyone who is *really* into MMOs and the like, or simply aspires to design games in general.

Kian Bashiri, creator of the extremely fun and oironically funny, YHTBTR mini-flash game complete with a Portal-esque ending theme is interviewed. Again, the game is pure gold, and worth the 5 min of your time it takes to complete it and get to the snazzy song!

And here it is, your daily dose of FDA approved zen intake, featuring PowerPoint cliches, and the awesome rejection of Uwe Boll. Zen intake begins now:

Blizzard has (very wisely) rejected Uwe Boll’s request to direct any upcoming WoW movie - more companies should follow this sound example of integrity.

Finally, someone takes a good scathing look at Powerpoint and its over-usage in industry presentations.

The weekend has ended…

–Aleister

18 Visions - Black and Bruised

Welcome to today’s daily dose of game industry news, where we find reports of much-money-investing, new VWs, the spiking of vid-game sales and other strangeness. Welcome to GNoI, please restore your tray-tops to their upright and locked positions, extinguish all flammable materials, and be sure that your seatbelts are fastened as we are now taxing the runway for take-off. GNoI:

Joystiq and Political Game give a nice summary and opine on the current EA vs Take2 dilemma. For those that haven’t been following it, here’s your chance to really catch up on the all the juicy bits as well as a get a good view of some of the longer reaching possible effects of the inevitable aftermath.

Penguin, traditional massmarket/paperback publisher, is broaching new ground with a new interactive fiction feature. Dude(!) where are my interactive choose-your-own-adventures!?

According to the ESRB, DLC can have a different rating than the original title… which means that even though the ESRB is looking to further ‘educate’ parents on the in’s and out’s of the actual rating system for their kiddies, the parents might very feesibly be crying ‘foul’ down the road when they buy a game for their kid with one rating and then let them download some DLC with a higher rating (like Mature) weeks later for the same game… /sigh. I don’t know what the real answer to this is though.

Post mortem roundup of the recent Midway annual report held in Vegas, spurns some questions regarding the once great company’s ability to beat its current losing streak and become viable once more- or are they going to go the way of Atari, who has been dying the slowest corporate death ever.

Very interesting Q&A regarding the future of casual gaming, XLA and newly conceived, I-play with Oberon Media.

38studios has now added an Evercrack ex-pat to their line-up for the still undisclosed MMO project. So now we have some jock running a game company and he’s bringing out a new MMO innovation, which is… erm, a fantasy-world-set-sword-and-sorcery-flinging game?… great

SCi, while not disclosing any actual details as of yet, has confirmed that they are considering an open offer, reportedly in the amount of $100mUSD (likely from NBC). Now, for those not interested, this is a bit of industry blustering for SCi as the big debate is not whether or not they’re going to get the funding as much as who would be giving it to them and at what agreement… this is about control, and the fact that NBC is a big contender for this, which would give them another stronger foothold in a varied media outlet.

According to the authors of GrandtheftChildhood, parents often ignore ESRB ratings on their kiddies games. Why am I hearing crickets instead of shocked gasps of outrage? Oh, that’s right, because I think most of us already knew this to be true.

The Florida State ruling on Jack Thompson, may now be delayed until the end of Summer. Judge Dava Tunis wishes to wait until my birthday, August 31st to release her decision, and I wholeheartedly thank her for the gesture as long as Jackie-boy is duly disbarred. Come on Judge-y and give me a good birthday present!

According to one analyst, the game sales for the industry at large may well have peaked for this current calendar year… seems a bit early with a whole holiday season still many moons away. This seems especially odd with the upcoming release of GTAIV alone looking to break Halo3’s record, but they’re the professionals and it was on the internet so it must be true.

HelloKittyLand with Playhut’s GoLive2 is beginning Closed Beta from April 23rd to May7th. Now for those that aren’t aware, I have a horrible love for cute things, and special, horrible place in my heart for Sanrio in general (particularly Kurumi!) and I believe that HelloKitty Cube Frenzy to be one of the single most ‘evil’ and difficult games ever created… but even I am not exactly jumping up and down to get in on this thing.

According to VirtualWorldsManagement over $184mUSD+ has been invested in 23 different vw companies in Q1 of2008. This is a small TON of moolah, but just the same, considering the recent predictions for VWs/Soc-nets and the comparison of the game industry at large being on par to the film industry for profitable return, it is interesting to note how little the investment amount really is by comparison - even if you segregated the comparison to genre movies alone, it’s still staggeringly small.

Barbie and Mattel in light of recent earnings reports will be moving to a ‘competitive subscription’ model in the very near future. Um, are there really little girls who still play with Barbies enough to warrant this sort of program? I’m asking honestly, because I really can’t believe that there are…

Nasa Learning Tech has cut the budget for their educational MMo project. Yay! Go government go! Don’t spend money on anything educational or innovative! That’s the way to do it!

And here it is, to close out today’s GNoI, your daily dose of zen, complete with NES mods, Grant Morrison, Lego jewelry and pres-candidates getting into wrestling. Begin direct neurological-zen-dowload-now:

Spoon me!

–Aleister

Adicts - Swat Her

As yesterday suddenly exploded into a small family emergency, there was no reported GNoI. Today, as things have calmed down to say a perriwinkle, or stage mauve level of alert, we are resuming the posting of GNoI. Since there was much missed yesterday, today’s report will be a bit longer. So on we go, to today’s industry news in your regulraly scheduled GNoI:

Law of the Game discusses the current EA vs Take2 entanglement and what the real legal issues are and could be.

With apparently little or no warning, several key-members of the RetroStudios staff have left the Austin based dev house… there are currently no updates on whether or not this will lead to the formation of a new studio, however, there are some *rumors* that this is in direct response to the way in which Nintendo has gone about asking employees to relocate.
Gamecock Media is promoting Hail to the Chimp during a pres-primary in Philadelphia. Gamecock Media is awesome, they’re funny and silly and occasionally they publish games too!
Minusworld is releasing a very funny (and highly satirical) activity and coloring book for GTAIV. Please remember, that this is obviously meant to be ironic with regards to actually ‘hocking violence to the kiddies’…

The actual link:
There’s a new documentary film for gamers, this time taking a look at the world, as in, real-world, lives of MMO players. The film is called, Second Skin. Let the new digital and celluloid record bare witness to the underground world of cyber-sexing and poop-socking!
Former Take2 exec/CEO, Ryan Brant is back in power once more, this time with a new start-up game company, known as GreenScreen Interactive.
Since the Chicago Trans-Authority banned the recent bus adverts after severe pressure from Fox News and Jack-y-boy Thompson, it seems almost as if Take2 is raising the stakes with the newly witnessed full building adverts in LA and NY for GTAIV.
Also of note, Jack-y-boy’s recent comments and erm, thoughts, if the term can be used on the Florida based bus-stop poster adverts for GTAIV as well, which very specifically included absolutely zero questionable material in both the visual and copy portions of the promotional material.
According to Ubisoft’s CEO, they are looking positively to a possible big-name merger in the very near future, and in the interim are on a large scale hiring spree, boosted by very positive sales of their products in 2007 to current. Ubisoft could see as many as 900 additional and newly hired staff members.

The gama has a very nice if not, as they put it themselves, highly-debatable opine piece on the top 20 underutilized licenses. The gama scores extra points for using the Watchmen in the banner itself to help sell the seriousness of the point.

Full version of the article:
According to McKinsey&Co (consulting) any company who is not looking to experiment and test the waters in VW’s is shooting themselves in the foot (I’m paraphrasing as they actually said, ‘[they are] ignoring them at their peril’). The term, ‘Duh!’ easily comes to mind in a snarky-internal-monologue sort of voice.
1Up is running a good feature on how dev’s and PR utilize popular forums to get a grass-roots gage of player reception and anticipation. It seems simple, and obvious, but not everyone realizes how this works apparently, hence the article (please see the ‘duh’ comment from above for this one as well).
Will Ferrell, seems to be looking to expand his current ‘funnyordie’ website with an actual game-slant/content and possible game focus, possibly known as ‘gameordie’(!?).

Today’s moment of zen must be relegated to SFW, and thusly, despite certain recent stories of both humorous and serious interest running the interwebz, about con’s and conduct therein, specifically, personal space and sexual, we won’t be discussing them or linking them here, even though they are in no way leud or crude, and actually have storng cultural significance… instead, here is Yahtzee and his (as always) humorous thoughts on games. Your Smash Bros. Brawl Zero Punctuation Moment of Zen, begins with a man in a hat and ends with a song. Zen!

Because brains, sense of humor and intelligent wit are the Smexiest things of all

–Aleister

The Adicts - Na Na Na

Welcome to this, your Monday, heaping, helping of Game Industry News, or Game News of Interest (GNoI) as we are lovingly known. GTAIV is coming out this week, and again, due to the very staggering amount of hype and lots of money to be made industry-side GTAIV is still taking center stage in one form or another in the industry news. Yet, despite the fact that even Guinness Records is watching the launch there is still plenty of industry news, so here we go, on to what should be known from the unknown - GNoI Monday edition!

Blockbuster video is strongly tackling the idea of expanding their current line-up to include more games (sales/rentals). This should come as little surprise considering the even stronger rumors of a possible Blockbuster take over of CircuitCity.

According to EA CEO, John Riccitiello, some Hollywood execs are shaking in their boots about the possibility that GTAIV may show the Halo3 effect on big budget movie offerings such as IronMan this week.

Guinness World Records is looking at GTAIV to make some new sales numbers in the epic sort of way, and apparently are preparing for the likely event that GTAIV will have the largest launch in vid-game history.

In the wake of the recent (and failed) attempts by EA to absorb in blob-like-fashion, Take2, there have been quite a few comments on both sides of the fence. The newest and somewhat surprisingly bold is from Activision’s Bobby Kotick, who offhandedly commented that EA steals the souls of many studios.

Freaky Creatures, a toy-based multi-platform v-pet/VW is opening Beta reg, and is hoping for a Spring 2008 launch (better move fast) - to coincide with the Beta and upcoming ‘full’ launch, they are giving away an Alienware gaming laptop, along with other prizes.

On the gama, there is a good opine piece on the need for subtext in games.

Despite the need to not do horrible things to the proud tradition of cinema (we still can’t seem to stop Uwe Boll either), the Dragonball movie is continuing production.

Because there is so much hype and it was bound to be covered eventually, here is the official impression list of links and reviews/previews for GTAIV courtesy of Kotaku.

Miyamoto wants kiddies to play outside and put down their games… unless it’s a Wii or DS title, because you know, those burn calories too and can be played outdoors.

There is often a reason why the most ‘hardcore’ fanboys are single and living in their parent’s basements…

–Aleister

Beck - Think I’m In Love