Take Two Interactive released their latest financial numbers, this for for their fiscal quarter that began May 1 and ended on July 31. As expected sales from their hit open world action game Grand Theft Auto IV on the PS3 and Xbox 360 helped the publisher get $433.8 million in revenue for the quarter, over double the $206.4 million amount it got in revenues for the same period a year ago. Take Two recorded a profit of $51.8 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $58.5 million for the same period a year ago. Those figures exceeded Take Two's previous predictions.

PC owners can expect just one game from Take 2 for the remainder of its 2008 fiscal year (it ends October 31) with the release of Civilization IV: Colonization. The 2009 fiscal year is expected to see the release of the PC port of GTA IV (most likely this November) with titles like BioShock 2, Borderlands, Champions Online and Mafia 2 expected to be released sometime in the 2009 calendar year.

Blizzard must love making us skwirm. The developer officially announced their action-RPG sequel Diablo III last June. Most of the time, that means the game's maybe 12 to 18 months from release at most. For Blizzard, that means . . . well not much really. They tend to announce titles and let their fans wait and wait and wait until sometime in the next decade they finally get around to releasing the title (or in the case of Warcraft Adventures or Starcraft Ghost, cancelling it).

We are not bitter. We were just wondering why Blizzard announces games and keeps releasing new screenshots like the four new images that appeared today for Diablo III on the game's official web site and then allows us to keep waiting for the game's release. And that waiting continues.

Blizzard is having a busy day today. In addition to announcing the release of the music soundtracks for several of their games on iTunes, the official Starcraft II web site has posted up three more images from the long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel. The new shots deal with two of the three factions in the game, the Protoss and the Zer, going at it as only they can do.

While some have still got the idea that Starcraft II might actually be released before the end of the year, that doesn't appear to be the case. A recent report from an Asian Activision Blizzard retail event stated that Starcraft II "should" be released sometime in 2009. As usual, Blizzard's official statement on the game's release is "when it's done."

Games from Blizzard Entertainment not only have great gameplay and terrific CGI cut-scenes they also have some of the best music soundtracks in the industry. Earlier this week we reported that a free song from the Diablo III CGI trailer has been made available for free on iTunes and today Blizzard announced that soundtracks from a number of their older games have now been made available via Apple's music download service.

Some of these tracks have only been available until now in collector's editions of Blizzard games or on sale at part Blizzcon events. Six soundtracks are currently available for Starcraft, Diablo II, Warcraft III and three World of Warcraft soundtrack albums. Blizzard's podcast can also be downloaded via iTunes.

Getting people together to chat about games is nothing new but the co-founder of the Xfire game messaging client believes he has a new solution that will cross both PC and console platforms. Raptr is the new company from Dennis "Thresh" Fong, the former pro gamer who co-founded Xfire which was later sold to Viacom for a whopping $102 million.

According to a press release we were sent, a gamer who signes up for Raptr will let his friends know he is playing a game on the PC, Mac and Xbox 360 along with Flash based and Facebook games. There's also some PS3 and Wii games that support Raptr as well. Facebook, Twitter and other applications will alert friends to what you are playing as well. It can also automatically download patches for some games. Raptr has released a PC beta client and even Mac user can download an alpha client.

As the world tries to move to a more conservative energy policy, including electronic devices, there's one rather large exception to this trend: PC gaming rigs. News.com has an interesting look at this trend which has seen power requirements for the high end gaming PC skyrocket up in the last few years.

It's not hard to see why; gaming rigs now have multi-core processors and many graphics processors, whether it's AMD's Crossfire solution or Nvidia's SLI set ups. As a result power supplies for these rigs have got up to as much as 1,200 watts which is three times what the high end was just three years ago. Some gamers may require new electric wall sockets or even new breakers be installed in their homes just so their gaming PC can run. PC makers don't see this trend stopping anytime soon. Kelt Reeves, the founder of PC maker Falcon Northwest, stated, "Eventually these chips get so hot that their own heat becomes a barrier to performance."

The big sleeper hit for PC games in 2008 is without question Sins of a Solar Empire. The space strategy game from developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock spent a number of weeks early this year on the top 10 best seller lists. Today Gamasutra reports that the game has sold over 500,000 units; 400,000 of those sales came from retail stores and over 100,000 units were from digital download sales. The game itself cost less than a million dollars to create.

Besides just being a great game, Sins is also designed to run on older PCs. Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stated that the game could have had the ships' turrets move but that would have required the game to have a higher hardware system to run properly. He states, "You make those kinds of design decisions, and you greatly increase the number of people who can play your game. You lose out on some piddly super-mega effect, but you get those units. The results come in sales." Last week it was announced that instead of a full expansion pack, mini-digital expansions for Sins of a Solar Empire will be released for $9.99 each, beginning in December.

It's well known that Bethesda Softworks' upcoming post-apocalypse RPG Fallout 3 was in danger of being banned in Australia for its depiction of drugs in the game (an edited version of the game has now been approved by the country's ratings board). But that doesn't mean the developer/publisher has smooth sailing in other countries where the game is being sold.

In a chat with Computer and Video Games, Bethsoft PR head Pete Hines, while dodging specific questions about the Australian situation, did state, "The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'." As an example he stated, "In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine." In the end, Hines stated that such issues don't really affect their development plans, saying. "We just go through and make the game that we want to make."

Last week Yahoo debuted the final US trailer for Max Payne, the upcoming action movie based on the Remedy developed game series. But you haven't seen anything yet. Yahoo's UK division has the international version of the trailer available to check out as well.

This new version has a number of scenes that were not shown in last week's US trailer and still looks plenty cool with lots of supernatural-like elements, great looking fire effects and plenty of shooting, glass shattering and the like. Can Mark Walhberg make us forget that the studio making Max Payne, Twentieth Century Fox, also made the very crappy adaptation of Hitman last year? We will see when the Max Payne film heads for theaters on Oct. 17.

The Penny Arcade Expo has just finished up and the E For All Expo is coming in early October but across the pond the folks at the Eurogamer web site are hosting their own consumer game show on Oct 28-29 in London. The first annual Eurogamer Expo will be part of London's annual Games Festival.

If you happen to be in town for those two days the first annual Eurogamer Expo will have a number of upcoming fall titles like Prince of Persia, Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge and many more. The best thing is the admission price. No, it's not free but they are asking for a mere GBP 5 donation to UK videogames charity GamesAid. That's a pretty good deal to see a bunch of upcoming fall 2008 titles.

We just have a few more days to wait until one of the most hyped and most anticipated PC games in recent memory finally finds its way to stores (or if you are a PC owner via digital download). Will Wright's magnum opus, the alien life evolution sim-strategy game Spore, is schedule to be released by Electronic Arts on September 7.

While we expect that this game will get a variety of reviews, pro and con (indeed it seems to be happening already) there are still five reasons why we think we will love the final product once it is released. This isn't a review of Spore; simply some things that have been revealed and discussed about the game in the past that have us excited enough to want to try this game out now.

Click on the image above to continue reading "Five reasons why we think we will love Spore"

New games get announced almost every day and today is no exception as Epic Games sent over word that their Unreal Engine 3 tech has been licensed yet again for a new project. This time the licensee is Columbus, Ohio based BlackFoot Studios who will use it to help develop Sky Gods, a military tactical shooter that will be released via digital download in the first quarter of 2009.

BlackFoot Studios was formed in 2004 and has created levels, models and other content for games like Rainbow Six: Lockdown and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Sky Gods appears to be the developer's first original game and is described as a "complete co-operative game experience centering on Special Forces operations, specifically HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) and helicopter insertion missions." No screenshots from the game have been released yet.

We are still waiting for the next few weeks to generate any real change in the NPD Group's weekly list of the top 10 best selling PC games in retail stores in the US. The latest list for the week ending August 23 only has one minor change; the re-emergence of Valve's Orange Box collection. With that said here is the latest top 10 list:

1. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
4. Spore Creature Creator - Electronic Arts
5. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Blizzard
6. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice - Her Interactive
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision
9. The Orange Box - Valve/Electronic Arts
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard

Buffy The Vampire Slayer is easily one of the best TV shows ever created but let's face it; the two console games based on the show were no great shakes. Now comes word that the MMO technology company Multiverse is aiming to make a Buffy-based MMO. The announcement came this week during the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo being held in Los Angeles.

Game Daily News reports that the Buffy game will enter beta testing later this year and can be played as either a 3D virtual world or a 2D Flash style game. Quite frankly, the Multiverse Network has yet to prove it can fullfill these kinds of promises. Nearly two years ago they announced plans to make an MMO out of another Joss Whedon created TV series Firefly. Game Daily News reports that project is now on the back burner to focus on the Buffy project. We will see how that goes . . . .

[Via Blue's News]

If you ask pretty much everyone, the 2008 edition of the invite-only E3 Media and Business Summit was a huge letdown. Many people have been wondering for years why the owners of E3, the Entertainment Software Association, don't make the show open to the public like the Tokyo Game Show does.

Well, Kotaku is reporting through unnamed sources that a proposal for a public E3 has now been put forward to the ESA's board for consideration. Of course, even if this is true it sounds like such an idea is in the very early stages and could be vetoed for another fomat. However if it goes though that would likely be the last we will hear of the E for All Expo (both E3 and E for All are organized by IDG World Expo). A public E3 could also affect both exhibitor and attendee interest in Penny Arcade Expo which has surged in attendance and importance in the game industry following the switch to an invite only E3 in 2006.

Update: Big Download contacted the ESA for comment and received this response from its senior VP Rich Taylor: "As we do every year, the ESA solicits feedback and direction from exhibitors and attendees on how best to adapt and evolve the E3 Media & Business Summit to ensure it meets their needs. Each element of the Summit is opened for discussion and that process is ongoing to execute a productive and efficient experience. Regarding today's published reports, the ESA does not comment on rumors and speculation and will make an announcement about the details and logistics of the 2009 E3 Media & Business Summit at the appropriate time."