Gamespot, after many years of wrangling with IGN has finally taken a lengthy lead in traffic rankings. Gamespot has now held onto the number 1 Alexa (non-poker) gaming site traffic position for a solid month.

Could this be a sign of quality returning to Gamespot, or just a blackhole of a site consuming everything in its path?

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Today Shinji Mikami, the man behind the Resident Evil series, announced that he is forming a new studio after he finishes he latest project for PlatinumGames and SEGA. The new studio, dubbed Tango, isn’t concerned with profits or investors, but rather the next generation of Japanese game makers.

According to Mikami: “One of the reasons I’m building a company is to raise the game makers of the future, people who haven’t gone pro yet. Game development is often overseen from a pure business perspective here, which is unique to Japan, and I have the impression that environment tends to prune away young talent. I really want to make Tango a company run from a creator’s perspective, one that expands upon new talent.” Read more… »

Today Epic Games announced that it has teamed up with Valve Software to help integrate Valve’s free Steamworks tools into all Unreal Engine 3 licensees.

This means that in the future games that use the Unreal Engine 3, like Batman: Arkham Asylum and BioShock, will be able to utilize some of the features that make Steam so great. These include auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking and a non intrusive DRM (and we all know how important that is). Read more… »

Today game streaming company OnLine announced that their service will be ready to roll out on June 17 for American PC and Mac owners. The company also announced that OnLive will require a $14.95 a month subscription fee.

For those of you who don’t know, OnLive is a new service (currently in beta) that allows users to play games remotely though their web browser. OnLive doesn’t require subscribers to download or install games. Instead, all the processing is handled by the OnLive servers, with the visuals being streamed to gamers. Read more… »

It seems that laying people off is in vogue this week. First Activision fires the heads of Infinity Ward. Now today EA announced that it has laid off the team behind Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox series.

Word got out about the lay offs when, now-former, Electronic Arts Los Angeles senior software engineer Jeff Dixon posted “The Boom Blox team was laid off today,” on Linkedln. According to Dixon, fourteen people lost their jobs. Read more… »

Today Sony announced that they have acquired LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule and will be integrating it into the Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios family.

While the specific terms of this acquisition are unknown, Sony did state that it was, “a strategic move to continue to secure excellence in game development for current and future PlayStation platforms.” Read more… »

We’ve been reporting about the R18+ rating debacle for the last year or so, where adult gaming in Australia has become hampered by an outdated, complicated and generally ridiculous scheme that bans any title that doesn’t fit the requirements of your standard 15 yr old.

In December last year, the federal government of Oz released a discussion paper on the subject and invited the public to make submissions for or against the introduction of an R18+ rating for gamers. 3 months on, and there has been a resounding response from the gaming community, local industry and general concerned public in support of the rating.

How successful has it been? Most public submission calls usually rope in a few thousand responses at the most. This one has brought in a whopping 22,000+ submissions. These aren’t just signatures folks, since they can range from a simple template based response, to full blown 17 page researched and referenced essays. In any case, every single one is obligated to be published and submitted to the Attorney General.

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Today media giant Warner Bros. announced that it has acquired developer Rocksteady Studios, best known for last year’s blockbuster Batman: Arkham Asylum.

According to a Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president, “Rocksteady demonstrated its professionalism and extraordinary development abilities with Batman: Arkham Asylum. This arrangement is a great strategic fit and we are very pleased to solidify our relationship with this talented development team.” Read more… »

Today developer/publisher Red Eagle Games announced that it has partnered up with veteran RPG developer Obsidian Entertainment for the development of games based on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time book series.

For those of you who don’t know Obsidian Entertainment is associated with some of the most critically acclaimed RPGs. In fact the studio employs a large number of industry veterans from Fallout developer Black Isle. Some titles associated with Obsidian are Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2, and the upcoming espionage RPG Alpha Protocol. Read more… »

Yesterday during an analyst conference, Activision CEO Mike Griffith announced that the publisher is going to refocus its rhythm games into two main franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero. According to Griffith, this will help Activision reach a “broader audience.”

In 2010 Activision plans to release less than ten music game SKUs. While that still sounds like a lot, it’s not even half of what 2009 saw. Griffith explained, “This year, fewer SKUs will service a broader audience.” Read more… »

Today Microsoft announced that it plans to shut down Xbox Live service for the original Xbox on April 15. According to Microsoft by discontinuing original Xbox support, it “will allow us to continue evolving the Live service.”

How does this affect you? Well, shutting down Xbox Live for the original Xbox means that all version one Xbox games that are playable on the Xbox 360, as well as Xbox Originals, will no longer be playable online. Read more… »

Today used game trade-in kiosks maker e-Play announced that they have suspended operations, and consequently will be shutting down all of its kiosks at Best Buy and Walmart locations. Some of you may remember, way back in May, when e-Play announced that it will be testing these kiosks at various Walmart and Best Buy locations around the U.S..

Upon investigation of the e-Play website, all I found was the statement, “e-Play, LLC has suspended operations. Thank you to all our customers. For more information call 1-866-602-6014.” Read more… »