A Federal Judge has sentenced 36-year old Sang Jin Kim to 40 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit more than $400,000 in assets. Prosecutors charged Kim with criminal copyright infringement in November of 2011 and seized the domains 82movie.com and 007disk.com. Prosecutors claimed that Kim ran an online piracy empire through his Washington-based company World Multimedia Group Inc. The sites offered pirated versions of popular movies, Korean TV shows, software and video games, according to prosecutors.

Microsoft has apparently decided that it will not use Microsoft Points - the popular currency of the current Windows Marketplace and Xbox Live - in its upcoming Windows 8 Marketplace for software purchases. Instead it will simply use U.S. dollars or whatever the currency of choice is in different regions. In previous Windows 8 beta releases Microsoft used its Points system for all video purchases and rentals.

There's a common and widespread misconception among the general population that flying a drone for the United States government or military is like playing a video game, but an in-depth article on the subject from Business Insider reveals that this is simply a falsehood. In fact, if you ask actual drone pilots they will tell you that their work is nothing like a video game...

Walmart will no longer carry Amazon's Kindle Fire in its retail stores. The retailer joins Target, who gave up on the Android-based device in May of this year. Walmart is still selling Barnes & Noble’s Nook as well as some other e-reader devices. Some think this move is in response to its own plans to launch its own e-commerce strategy, which it has apparently been working on for awhile. In other words, Amazon.com is a direct competitor and Walmart doesn't want a device tied to a competing e-commerce destination.

The Gamestation brand of retail stores are now officially dead, with GAME announcing that it will rebrand all of its stores in the UK under its main brand name. Ultimately that means that there will be a total of 341 Game stores in the UK, according to the fine folks at Tech Radar.

While you might think this is a no brainer, it's important to say out loud that if you trade in that Wii console prior to the launch of the Wii U on November 18, you will lose all of your Virtual Console games and Miis. The reason this needs to be said is because retailer GameStop is offering $50 off the price of the new console (via pre-order) to anyone who trades in their Wii system.

While the Wii U is backwards compatible, you will still need to have both systems in order to transfer all of your data and play those games you have already paid cold, hard cash for.

This shouldn't come as too much of a shock to anyone: Guild Wars 2 has managed to sell two million copies in its first two weeks of availability. The numbers come from publisher NCsoft who also said that the game has hit the peak concurrent user milestone of 400,000 users at one time.

Minecraft developer Mojang has teamed up with the United Nations to create a new initiative called Block By Block.

Frank Gibeau, the President of EA Labels, says that the company is saving all of its newest IP's for future generation consoles. Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Gibeau claims that his company is working on a whole slate of new IP's for the next generation of consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

ArenaNet has inked a deal with KongZhong Corporation to bring its popular and recently launched online RPG Guild Wars 2 to mainland China. The partnership is also apparently one of the biggest licensing transactions for a Western game in the Chinese marketplace. Under the terms of the licensing deal, ArenaNet has the option to buy up to 40 million of KongZhong Corporation's ordinary shares after the commercial launch of Guild Wars 2 in the region.

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:

Sony Online Entertainment has officially relaunched its fantasy MMORPG Vanguard Saga of Heroes as a free-to-play game worldwide. SOE claims that Vanguard Saga of Heroes' transition to a free-to-play model marks the beginning of an "exciting new direction" which will include entirely new game enhancements, regular updates and brand new content.

According to a tweet from Mojang business developer Daniel Kaplan, the PC version of the company's ultra popular world-building, Zombie fighting game Minecraft has sold over 7 million copies since its launch.

"More than 7 million Minecraft (pc) copies sold!" Kaplan tweeted today.

This news is yet another indicator that Minecraft is going to make Mojang and its creator Markus 'Notch' Persson twice as much money as it did in 2011.

The CEO of middleware company BigWorld has resigned from the company. Earlier in the week it was announced that World of Tanks developer Wargaming had bought the middleware provider for $45 million. CEO John De Margheriti, who was one of the founders of the company, will step down at the end of this week. He will be replaced by co-founder Steve Wang, who will report directly to executives at Wargaming. Despite the departure, De Margheriti's statement seems to indicate an amicable exit from BigWorld.

The popular video gaming magazine Game Informer is now the third largest magazine in the United States, with circulation jumping 37 percent over last year's circulation numbers thanks mostly to GameStop's PowerUp Rewards Pro card program.

"Game Informer's growth in circulation reflects a culmination of the popularity of video games, Game Informer's partnership with the successful GameStop PowerUp Rewards program, and last but not least, a high-in-quality 21-year publication that tries not to miss a beat," associate publisher Rob Borm, tells Bloomberg.

While some in the Linux community have lauded the idea of Steam coming to the popular open-source operating system, some like Richard Stallman think it is not a good idea. Richard Stallman is better known as the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU operating system. He has said publicly that charging users for DRM-protected games on an open-source platform is "unethical".

According to this Securities and Exchange Commission filings (SEC), Microsoft plans to launch its Surface tablet alongside Windows 8 in or around the month of October.

"The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices," the filing reads.

Taking a break from offering DRM-free pay-what-you-want indie games, the folks behind the Humble Indie Bundle are trying out a new medium - music. Today they announced the Humble Music Bundle, offering six digital albums from the likes of Cristopher Tin, They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, and Hitoshi Sakimoto (who created the music for Valkyria Chronicles).

Electronic Arts has agreed to give up the exclusive rights to create games based on the NCCA and AFL, and to pay $27 million to customers as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. The lawsuit alleged that EA had created a football game monopoly and used its position to edge out competing companies by adjusting prices downward, and locking down exclusive licenses. When that competition disappeared EA then raised the price of its games back to normal levels.

While Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't free-to-play yet, BioWare and EA have made a move similar to what Blizzard did with its World of Warcraft trial version. BioWare announced today that the trial version of the game will let players try out the game free of charge up to level 15. Players will have access to all eight character classes, as well as access to player versus player and player versus environment gameplay.

If you are one of those people dedicated (or crazy depending on your perspective) enough to pay $30 a month to rent a Battlefield 3 server from EA DICE, then today's announcement will make you feel like you are getting more bang for your buck. EA announced that an upcoming update will add new match features which give server owners and players the ability to coordinate and schedule matches.

The European Parliament has officially rejected the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The Parliament voted 478 to 39 to reject the ACTA, which means that it will never be implemented in any member country of the European Parliament. The news is not surprising, given that five committees voted against the treaty leading up to the showdown on the floor of the European Parliament this week. It also didn't help that ACTA was negotiated in secret and citizens in various member countries protested against it because of its loose and murky language.

As is usually the case with every new version of Halo, Halo 4 will require a substantial amount of space on your Xbox 360. Halo 4 will need at least 8GB of hard drive or flash memory card space to play the multiplayer modes, according to Xbox.com. The description on Xbox.com also notes that using the hard drive is "highly recommended" for those who want an "optimal" experience.

The Battlefield 3 Premium service, which was announced during E3 last month, has managed to garner 800,000 customers since its launch a little over two weeks ago. The service offers two-weeks of early access to all the game's expansions (and full access when they are released), at a cost of around $50. The service also gives Battlefield 3 players access to special exclusive DLC, access to strategy guides, videos, and special experience weekend events just for Premium members.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that Microsoft and Sony may very well cut the price of their respective consoles at some point but are waiting to see what the retail price of the Wii U will be so they can respond accordingly.

"I think both Microsoft and Sony are waiting to see Wii U pricing. If it is over $300, they don't need to cut." Pachter tells C&VG.

Imagine Publishing announced that its top two Xbox 360 magazine brands, X360 and 360 Magazine, will be combined into one publication. The new "enhanced publication" will be led by Editor Dan Howdle. Issue #87 of X360 will be the first issue to reflect the changes. It goes on sale July 11 and will feature articles on every major title from E3, exclusive interviews and an enhanced DVD.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter unlocking downloadable content that is already present on a retail game disc when you by it might not be illegal. On the latest edition of his GameTrailers TV show " Pach Attack," Pachter also says that it shows the greediness of developers and publishers in some ways.

Riot Games has banned hundreds of League of Legends players for using an exploit that it affectionately calls "bullshit." A small number of League of Legends players were using an exploit that let them cast powerful spells consecutively without the cool down time associated with such powers. This happened because the exploit let players add more points to the game's Mastery system than would normally be allowed. Riot Games has plugged the hole on that exploit, much to the chagrin of exploiters.

GameSpot and Giant Bomb owner CBS Interactive has inked a deal with Justin TV and Major League Gaming to bring advertising, promotions, and sponsorships to the game competition and game-streaming service. More importantly, it makes CBSi Games the exclusive online broadcaster of the Pro Circuit competitions.

China has an estimated 180 million gamers, and a new report suggests that they spend a fair amount of their hard earned money every month on online games. This news comes from a new study conducted by analyst group Niko Partners.