An interesting report on ShackNews reveals that some PC modifications created for Grand Theft Auto III will actually work with the recently released Android and iOS versions of the game. While the process of getting them to work is a bit cumbersome and might be complicated for some users, the results can lead to importing new cars, textures, songs, and more into the game.

Microsoft announced this week that it is taking part in next year's Independent Games Festival, the annual celebration of all things indie game-related that runs in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference. The new partnership with Microsoft adds a new prize to be awarded to the winner of the festival: a first-party publishing deal through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service. The news is part of a multi-year partnership between the Independent Games Festival and Microsoft.

How far will Rovio go to market Angry Birds? As far as they can, apparently. Besides the numerous licensing, marketing and merchandising deals, the high profile brand is being used as a cross-marketing tools for companies like Wonderful Pistachios.

It seems like the Reuters Media Summit is where CEO's of game companies go to say bad things about other game companies. Yesterday it was Activision saying that EA would not make as much as LucasArts would off the new Star Wars MMOG, and today it's Take-Two taking a shot at Zynga.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says that he doubts the Zynga business model, and has accused the social gaming company responsible for Mafia Wars and Farmville of having serious "disclosure issues."

The six crew members of the $15 million Mars500 experiment each paid 3 million roubles ($98,300) to participate in a 17-month long test to see if people stay healthy and sane on a trip to the red planet. The all-male crew of a 520-day mock mission to Mars had to find ways to ease tensions. After all, if you are on a trip to Mars it's probably not a good idea to pick a real fight with your comrade, who is more than likely a specialist in some field you are going to need. According to a Reuters report the crew turned to video games to ease their tension during the 17-month sim.

Over 330,000 new players have joined DC Universe Online in eight days since SOE switched the game from the traditional MMO subscription model to a free-to-play model. SOE's John Smedley claims that these new users represent a ridiculous 1000 percent growth in "concurrent users" in just over a week. The game officially went free-to-play on November 1.

These concurrent users do have a downside - more traffic, more congestion and long queue lines to got on servers, according to SOE.

Alex Chapman, head of the law firm Sheridans, thinks that a consumer with even a small iota of common sense can distinguish between Mojang’s Scrolls and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls franchise. Chapman's firm has been retained by Minecraft maker Mojang to deal with Bethesda's trademark lawsuit claiming that "Scrolls" will cause brand confusion among consumers when it comes to their popular RPG franchise "The Elder Scrolls."

Free-to-play MMO leader Nexon America passed along some interesting statistics of relationships in its game Maple Story, and how they are just as awful in the virtual world as they are in real life - no offense intended to my wife.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell says that Microsoft needs to relax the terms and conditions of Xbox Live to allow other platforms onto Xbox Live. Newell made his comments related to the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive release, which features Steamworks integration. Newell said that Microsoft would do well to emulate Sony, whose decision to allow Steamworks support in the PlayStation 3 release of Portal 2 resulted in better experience on that platform.

Despite posting a decline in sales in July, the Xbox 360 still leads the U.S. console market and Microsoft said this week that it is still on track to have the biggest year in the system's history. For the month of July, the Xbox 360 held the top spot for the seventh consecutive month, despite posting a 37.6 percent drop in sales compared to July 2010. Last July, Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox to clear out inventory and make room for the new console. This obviously gave the company a huge boost in hardware sales.

Netflix will be making its way to Latin America and the Caribbean later this year. All told the popular streaming movie and television service will be available in 43 countries by year's end. The news follows rumors and hints from Netflix about its future expansion plans. While many predicted that Netflix would break into the European market, the company decided to stay on this side of the planet and expand southward.

Netflix said its streaming entertainment services would launch in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Netflix did not give specifics on which countries in the Caribbean it would launch in first. Netflix in these regions will be available in English, Spanish and Portuguese languages. Much like its launch in Canada last year, Netflix will only offer streaming video in these new markets.

As mobile broadband providers such as Verizon and AT&T push data caps onto its subscribers, consumers are finding ways to limit the amount of data they use at home and on the go, according to a Free Press report. Most of this is being done at Wi-Fi hotspots around the country or at home through internet providers. According to a new survey from Devicescape, 64 percent of consumers surveyed use a hot spot at least once a day and 89.8 percent use Wi-Fi at home and when on the go.

The data comes from Devicescape's Wi-Fi Report, which it conducts on a quarterly basis. Devicescape develops software that helps devices connect "seamlessly to Wi-Fi networks," and polls its customers every three months for their opinions and usage statistics.

Other highlights from the latest survey:

A quadriplegic has started an online petition in the hopes of persuading console manufacturers and game makers to eventually allow gamers to remap controller setups.

Kotaku points us towards the story of Chuck Bittner (pictured with the Frag Dolls), who broke his neck in a car accident and now suffers from total paralysis of his legs and partial paralysis of his arms. Bittner, who calls himself a “capper,” (short for handicapped), currently plays games using his limited arm movements and his chin and mouth.

Among his complaints/suggestions, “R1 and L1 are too far apart, no remap = no sighting up, no sight = no kill,” and “a ‘sight up' lock option would be awesome Mr. Zampella!”

Bittner’s petition presents a pair of options:

Proving that BitTorrent technology isn’t just for Internet pirates, an overwhelming response to the free download of a new game is forcing a developer to turn to the file-sharing technology as a replacement for its own overloaded proprietary download system.

MekTek is currently offering up MechWarrior 4 for download through its website, this after 100,000 customers brought down its MTX system, and website, over the weekend. The developer, according to TorrentFreak, is now preparing a release of the free game via BitTorrent, once the new version makes its way through MekTek’s beta team.

While noting that other game companies have turned to BitTorrent technology in the past, including Electronic Arts, who used it to distribute the beta for Warhammer Online, Torrent Freak offered:

Backed by a group of proven independent game developers, a new organization has launched with an aim to buck the traditional game publisher funding model by providing financing to up and coming game creators.

Indie Fund is comprised of Ron Carmel (pictured) and Kyle Gabler from 2D Boy (World of Goo), Jonathan Blow of Number One (Braid), Kelle Santiago from thatgamecompany (fl0wer), Nathan Vella of Capy (Critter Crunch), Matthew Wegner from Flashbang Studios (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari) and Aaron Isaksen of AppAbove Games (Armadillo Gold Rush).

The company’s goal is to, “is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.”

Gamasutra has a Q&A on its site with Carmel, who offered some additional insight into the new venture. He indicated that funding discussions are already underway with several indie developers and that Indie Fund is equipped to back “a few games a year for two to three years.”

Carmel added:

Most developers today fund their games by bootstrapping or by signing a publishing deal. In many cases, those indies that sign a publishing deal don't really need a publisher; they just need funding and can easily handle everything else themselves.

Carmel will disclose more information on the project in a lecture at next week’s Game Developers Conference.

|Image from Flickr|

In a setback for Hollywood, an Australian judge has ruled that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not liable for the illegal downloads of its customers.

The case was originally filed in 2008 by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) on behalf of 34 movie studios, including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney. The suit, as noted on the Sydney Morning Herald website, alleged that ISP iiNet, Australia's third-largest, was liable for authorizing copyright infringement on its network because it did nothing to warn or disconnect users downloading illegal goods, despite repeated notifications from the movie studios.

iiNet, for its part, argued that it was not required to act upon “mere allegations” of copyright infringement and that customers were innocent until proven guilty. It likened the lawsuit to suing an electric company for things people might use electricity for.

The conclusion of an eight-week long trial saw Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy issue a ruling in iiNet’s favor, in which he stated that the ISP was a legitimate communications company that was neither intended nor designed to infringe copyright.

Justice Cowdroy continued:

iiNet is not responsible if an iiNet user uses that system to bring about copyright infringement ... the law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another.

AFACT’s Executive Director Neil Gane indicated that the decision would be reviewed before a decision on an appeal was decided.

He added:

…we believe this decision was based on a technical finding centred on the court’s interpretation of how infringements occur and the ISP's ability to control them.

Expect an appeal.


Thanks Grant and CMiner!

A recently released iPhone/iPod Touch game pins the U.S. recession on the collapse of a bank that was infiltrated by giant maggots from outer space.

The Bank, from Primus Productions, drops players into the game after the collapse of the one bank that started the whole economic downturn (Sun Valley Bank in Bells, Montana) and allows them to mow down said maggots while piloting a flying car named “Sally” that is outfitted with a variety of weapons.

A self-described $18.00 marketing budget resulted in the embedded video at left and a second that can be viewed at YouTube.

A video featuring game play footage can be seen here.

The Bank is available for $2.99 from the iTunes Store and is rated 12+.

Fighting a war on terror demands that military personnel be able to quickly react and adapt to enemy tactics—traits which improve from playing videogames.

Research currently being undertaken by the Office of Naval Research is showing that videogame training is having “surprising” results in helping military personnel adapt to the challenges of fighting terrorists, according to a story on the Department of Defense website.

Ray Perez, a Program Officer for the Office of Naval Research’s Warfighter Performance department, offered comment on what the group’s research has uncovered so far:

We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players.

Using the term “fluid intelligence” to describe such field adaptability, Perez believes that cognitive advances gleaned from playing games can last for up to two and a half years.

He continued:

We know that video games can increase perceptual abilities and short-term memory. They allow the player to focus longer and expand the player’s field of vision compared to people who don’t play video games.

We think that these games increase your executive control, or your ability to focus and attend to stimuli in the outside world.

Perez’s group is looking to advance the integration of videogames into training, eventually hoping to be able to “blur the distinction between training and operations.”

We’ve all been there as gamers—someone attacks the pastime we love and the immediate tendency is for us to come back firing wildly, casting our own dispersions (sometimes angrily) in the process.

A reflective piece on Bitmob cautions that this tendency to lambaste game critics doesn’t always reflect well on the gaming populace. In “Gamers Are Too Defensive,” Jeffrey Michael Grubb writes:

…the complications of hot-blooded passion often pave a path directly to irrational behavior and a tendency to be overly defensive. If a gamer wants to be defined by his passion, there isn't anything perverse about that.  However, the perception of gaming is tarnished when gamers defend it from every misconception and ill-informed pundit.

Grubb offers advice for dealing with the trolls:

They are a lost cause. What can be done about someone who looks even at the tiniest offense and becomes excited about having something to get enraged about?

While it is infuriating when cable news channels misrepresent a game to make it appear more violent or sexually explicit than it really is, we have to laugh these occurrences off -- as many of you already do.

Grubb offers a great analogy for dealing with game critics, saying that we should act like Barry Sanders, the all-world ex-Detroit Lions running back who used to simply hand a referee the ball after scoring a touchdown:

Barry Sanders treated scoring a touchdown as if it were no big deal to him, because he had been in the end-zone before, and he would be there again. That is how we need to treat our passion. Video games will take their place next to music, movies, and books simply because we know that is where video games belong.

Using Avatar as a benchmark, a USA Today opinion piece praises the mainstream adoption of fantasy in media such as movies, novels and videogames.

The author wonders if the popularity of World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter indicates that today’s society is obsessed with escapism, or the ability to leave the real-world behind for the chance to immerse oneself in a fantasy world.

The scribe answers with a resounding no, and offers a positive spin on the new state of geek (and gaming) culture:

I've met hundreds of gamers and geeks. Their reasons for embracing fantasy and gaming aren't about mindless escapism. Games teach social skills, leadership and strategy; they inspire creativity and storytelling.

They provide rites of passage, accomplishment and belonging, even belief systems. They let people safely try out aspects of their personalities — often dark, evil sides, or extroverted or flirtatious — that they can't or won't flex in "real life." The games connect folks to magical thinking, to nature, to a primal, pick-up-your-battle-ax and kill mentalities long suppressed by so-called society.

As an added bonus, the author writes, the ability to insert ourselves into a different world—even if only for a short time—allows us to mitigate the “minutiae of our modern, mundane troubles.”

Amen.

The New York State Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill which bans texting, playing video games or surfing the Internet while driving, reports Buffalo Business First.

The measure, which previously was approved by the New York Assembly, now goes to Gov. David Paterson, who is expected to sign it into law. If so, the new regulations will take effect in November.

Newsday offers a comment from bill sponsor Sen. Martin Dilan (D):

This is a long-overdue safety measure for New York. Texting and burgeoning [portable electronic] technologies continue to pose serious, and sometimes fatal, distractions to drivers of all ages.

Violators of the new law will be subject to a $150 fine. However, the ban on portable electronics is considered a secondary offense, which means that it could only be levied if a driver is pulled over for another violation.