On the heels of generating over $5 million from the Humble THQ Bundle, THQ says that it is evaluating various options for making more of its PC games Linux friendly. One of the biggest complaints against this particular bundle was that it was Windows-only. THQ now says that it is evaluating the costs and benefits of Linux, following consumer feedback on the Humble THQ Bundle.

We often like to point out when companies crush fan-made projects under a barrage of cease-and-desist letters and threats of punitive court actions, but Capcom has taken a different and positive tact for the fan-made mash-up game Street Fighter X Mega Man. The game pits the Blue Bomber against the stars of the popular Street Fighter series of fighting games, and as Mega Man beats the snot out of the likes of Blanka, Ryu, and Rose, he gains their special powers to use against other folks in the Street Fighter universe.

Electronic Arts employee Wendell Harlow has been honored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation with a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal marks the 60th anniversary of England's Queen Elizabeth II’s "accession to the Throne" and honors the achievements and contributions of Canadians. Wendell received the distinct honor for over a decade of supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Canada.

Blizzard will give 100 percent of sales of Cinder Kittens from the World of Warcraft Pet Store to the Red Cross and disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The previously announced pet the Cinder Kitten can be yours for $10 USD. This fiery little feline is warm, adorable and will light the steps of any adventurer kind enough to adopt it. The Cinder Kitten has Rare-quality stats and is a part of the Elemental family.

Aksys Games passed along word that it has managed to raise $12,920 in donations for the American Red Cross after its successful "Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts Sale" on Nov. 14.

No matter what you think of Uplay (PC gamers know it as a future digital distribution platform and as facilitator of horrible always-on DRM masquerading as something else - particularly for PC gamers), what Ubisoft is trying to do with it on Wii U is interesting because it adds a number of features to its games on the platform.

While there has been a fair share of bad news related to the Wii U's North American launch on Sunday, today we offer a story that is good news for anyone that wants to play some of those older Wii titles on the system: they look better on Wii U. According to the video to your left - pointed out by this NeoGAF forum thread - the Wii U appears to upscale Wii games.

Time Magazine has compiled its list of the "All-Time 100 Video Games." Compiled by Time staffers, the list is divided by decades going all the way back to the 1970s and ending in 2010. Nominations from the 1970s include such classics as The Oregon Trail, Pong, and Space Invaders. For the 1980s hits such as Super Mario Bros., Frogger, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda get a listing. The 1990s choices include Solitaire, Doom, and Goldeneye 007.

EA Sports has put some cold hard cash behind "Movember" - the month long fight to raise money for prostate cancer. The EA Sports division is putting up $500,000 in advertising throughout the month inside its most popular franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, and NHL. The goal of Movember is to raise awareness about prostate cancer and male mental health by asking "Mo Bros" to grow moustaches in the month of November. "Mo Sistas" are also encouraged to help raise funds and awareness.

Apparently some XCOM: Enemy Unknown players have declared to 2K Games' Firaxis that easy mode isn't all that easy and that they wouldn't mind something done about it. Firaxis has listened to the community (as detailed in this forum thread) and plans to tone things down a bit with a second patch - release date to be determined.

Besides making the game a lot easier in easy mode across all platforms, the patch will deal with a number of other issues that have cropped up:

Hive Mind founders Will Wright and Jawad Ansari have resolved their disputes in an amicable fashion, though details on how their issues were resolved were not disclosed. Back in June it was revealed that Ansari had sued Wright to maintain his 30 percent equity stake in the company. Ansari filed his lawsuit after - he claims - the directors of the company - including Wright and Raj Parekh, a managing director of Redwood Venture Partners - removed Ansari from the company.

Brenda Romero of Loot Drop confirmed that Ubisoft has cancelled her strategy-based Facebook game Ghost Recon Commander. The social game spin-off launched on Facebook in May, but didn't quite get the kind of response Ubisoft wanted. Along with the cancelation of the game, Brenda Romero also revealed that the development team working on the game had been laid off.

"Sad news. Today, Ghost Recon Commander was cancelled. As a result, we laid off a team of kick-ass developers. If you have openings, ping me," she tweeted.

While we often point out the failures of crowd-funded games like Haunts: The Manse Macabre, it's always good to bring you a story where a game has been successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign and ends up being available for purchase.

Earlier this month some Muslims in the Call of Duty community complained that the Favela multiplayer map in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was offensive because a painting placed above a toilet had holy teachings written around its frame "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty."

The official blog for Bethesda has a short Q&A with Bethesda QA testers Joe Mueller and Jen Tonon, who are participating with other Bethesda employees on a team called "Children of Akatosh" to raise money for the Extra Life Charity.

The Twitch community has managed to raise more than $1.5 million for the Extra Life 2012 charity, which is set to see thousands of gamers partake in day-long marathon gaming sessions to earn money put up by thousands of sponsors. The fund goes to hospitals that are part of the Children’s Miracle Network.

UK-based game-related charity GamesAid announced the organizations it will support for the remainder of 2012. Voting for which charities to support ended on September 23 with such UK-based organizations as Accuro, Action for Kids, CHIVA (Children’s HIV Association), Dreamflight, Family Holiday Association, Friends of Chelsea Children’s Hospital School, Jigsaw4u, Julia’s House, Lifelites, MAPS - Sutton Borough Volunteer Bureau, Scottish Huntington’s Association (Youth Service), Small Steps, SpecialEffect, and The Willow Foundation vying for some much needed cash.

While developers are often credited with doing their best to punish bad player behavior and cheating within their online gaming communities, it's rare that anyone gets rewarded or even acknowledged for engaging in good and often helpful behavior. Riot Games hopes to change that with a new "Honor System" for its popular MOBA game League of Legends. Below are the details from the League of Legend forums:

GaymerCon, the gaming and tech convention focusing on LGBTQ culture (set to take place early next year in San Francisco), announced that the convention has gained the support of Electronic Arts. EA is the first game publisher to announce participation in the event.

"EA believes that to be truly innovative, you must be inclusive. We are proud to be a part of this event," said Ginger Maseda, Global Diversity and Inclusion for EA.

NCsoft informed subscribers to its super hero themed MMO City of Heroes that it will begun issuing automatic refunds to paid subscribers and players with other outstanding account balances beginning on September 26. The company announced, much to the chagrin of current subscribers that it would be shutting down the game as part of a company-wide focus. Customers with recurring subscriptions plans as of September 1st or who purchased in-game currency after August 24th will also receive full refunds through their "original method of payment."

In an opinion piece on Politico, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA.) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA.) make the case for open internet policies. They open the opinion piece by noting that both political parties have some language paying homage to the concept of a "free and open Internet" and explain what it all means in terms of what is going on in Washington. You may remember that Congressman Issa was at the forefront of fighting against SOPA when it was in committee.

We have served a fair share of negative news about Guild Wars 2, so we are always eager to mention something good about the game (which by most accounts is a pretty awesome game experience - bannings and hacking schemes aside) when it happens. The good news is that a beta of the popular online RPG is coming to Mac OS X today. The Guild Wars 2 beta will be connected to the game's main live servers, which will allow Mac and Windows computers to play together, according to publisher NCSoft. Also the Mac Beta is free to anyone who bought the PC version of the game.

An interview with Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, and another interview with Ubisoft's Stephanie Perotti reveals that the company is finally starting to turn the corner on its "always-on" DRM schemes for PC games.

The Kickstarter for GaymerCon closed, raising $91,389 from 1,531 backers. When organizers launched the crowd funding appeal they were looking to raise right around $25,000. Thanks to the generous support of the gaming community, North America will see its first GLBT gaming event ever August 3 - 4, 2013 in San Francisco. Details on the venue will be revealed at a later date.

While it's not much of a shock, it is still a good sign that Madden as a franchise is strong at retail and as popular as ever with consumers. Electronic Arts claims that Madden NFL 13 has managed to sell-through 900,000 units in its first 24 hours of release. The company said that the number represented a 7 percent year-over-year increase on HD platforms. Madden NFL 13 also set a day one online usage record with a 28 percent increase in peak simultaneous users over last year’s first day.

Microsoft is looking to snap up some of OnLive's former employees, according to this report from GamesIndustry International. While the company was rumored to be interested in buying the cloud-based streaming game subscription service many moons ago, it looks like the Xbox 360 maker is picking the bones. The company is using EventBrite as its recruitment vehicle of choice, posting the following message:

From time to time we like to give EA "the business" about its policy on used games, online passes, the way it handles DRM, etc., but sometimes they do good things for consumers. For example, today DICE announced that it has increased the number of official Battlefield 3 servers for console systems. This is in response to complaints from some fans about having to use servers run by other gamers who are not always the most cordial hosts... From Dice:

CD Projekt RED's DRM-free role-playing game The Witcher 2 has swept the European Games Awards. The game won awards for Best European Art Direction, Best European Character Design, Best European Gameworld, Best European Game Design, Best European Game, and Best European Special Edition.

Battlefield 3 did pretty well too, scoring awards for Best European Action Game, Best European Multiplayer Game, Best European Console Game, and Best European Sound.

At Gamescom in Cologne, Germany today Sony announced a new initiative that will give PS3 players an incentive to buy: free games for the Vita. Dubbed the "Cross Buy initiative," players who buy a PS3 game in this program will get the PS Vita counterpart game for free.

For example, gamers who buy the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale will get the PlayStation Vita version free. Sony also announced that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will be part of the initiative.

Epic Games has announced the official launch of Impossible Studios, a game development studio it claims is "comprised of highly skilled, senior-level game development talent." Based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Impossible joins the likes of its corporate headquarters in Cary, North Carolina; ChAIR Entertainment in Salt Lake City, Utah; People Can Fly in Warsaw, Poland; Epic Games Korea in Seoul, Korea; and Epic Games Japan in Yokohama, Japan.