Despite acquiring them just this spring to eliminate competition...

Back in April, Activision was sued by Genius, publisher for the lesser-known Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.  Apparently Activision had done a lot of corporate bullying that failed to discourage Genius, so in order to eliminate the competition for DJ Hero, they simply bought the developer, 7 Studios.  Then there was the nasty lawsuit because Activision began hindering development and witheld Scratch DJ assets from Genius.

Activision denies all this, of course, but their new relaitonship with 7 Studios is not exactly off to a great start.  Months after the Scratch incident, the DJ Hero publisher is cutting staffers from the budding development company.  30 employees have been dropped from 7 Studios as Activision moves for a greater focus on music-gaming.

"Since the completion of its acquisition by Activision, 7 Studios has realigned its business to focus its development resources on the music genre," a rep explained.  "As a part of this realignment, the studio is reducing its workforce to better reflect Activision's upcoming slate of music-based games."

Perhaps 7 Studios will soon be tasked with developing future Hero titles?  I'm thinking Band Hero III World Tour Van Halen, or something.

Ninja Gaiden teaser image serves as only clue -- more pinball?

ZEN Studios is keeping gamers guessing lately.  In August, they released an image of Street Fighter's Ryu with a pinball in the background -- wee, Street Fighter pinball.  Now they're adding some Ninja Gaiden to the mix.

The latest teaser image features Ryu and Ayane standing back to back, and ZEN notes they're working on an official announcement, while Sony will be posting some hints on the official PlayStation blog.

Speculation leans heavily toward a new Ninja Gaiden pinball game.  For now, we just have a very tiny picture.

Major retail store joins in the race of pre-owned games sales

If you're into buying pre-owned games, you may be interested in hearing about another alternative place to bargain hunt.  Walmart, electronic goods retailer, will officially begin selling "gently" used video games.  The store guarantees all pre-owned products will be cleaned and tested before they're stocked, and the games will work like new.

We've known for a while Walmart was planning to hop the used games bandwagon, especially when they started the whole buyback thing.  Now that they're finally selling the used items as well, GameStop and Toys 'R' Us might have more to worry about.

Walmart says that they won't be accepting any trade-ins on used titles, but the used games they sell are guaranteed to play properly.  Any pre-owned games purchased will fall under the same return policy of new products.

Wardell clarifies, UPS says they never pulled FOX News ad support

Likely you recall our news story from yesterday regarding developer Stardock CEO Brad Wardell's boycott of shipping service UPS, who had reportedly boycotted FOX News by pulling advertising in regards to racist accusations from host Glen Beck, directed to the President.

There was a lot of confusion and things taken out of context for all parties involved, so first thing's first: Wardell went in-depth on the issue in his blog since then, making note his comments were never intended or expected to make their way to the media. Elaborating, Stardock released this statement from him just now:

"We all have our political beliefs but my feeling is that if I can select between two shippers I will pick the one that doesn't use their ad dollars as a means to push their ideology onto a media network."

Irrelevant to whether or not we'd do the same ourselves, it seems a respectable enough opinion to us (don't make business personal or political when not required; respect personal freedom).

In any case, it turns out UPS never pulled advertising from FOX after all -- this is the response we received from the company's PR earlier today:

"We did not halt our advertising on FOX; we simply did not have any ads currently airing on FOX. This should not be interpreted as a decision to pull our advertising temporarily or permanently from the FOX network. In fact, a new advertising rotation began on September 14 to support the new The UPS Store online printing service. FOX is included in that rotation."

As for the previous report which claimed otherwise, UPS states the quotes were taken out of context.

All clear!

Brad Wardell stands up for Fox

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell is an outspoken conservative in the gaming industry and has recently declared a boycott against UPS.  What exactly did UPS do to warrant this? 

Recently, the global delivery service became one of at least 33 companies to withdraw advertising from Fox News, in response to some remarks Glenn Beck made about President Obama being a racist "with a deep-seeded hatred for white people."  Wardell then posted on his Facebook that he would be moving his company's business over to FedEx, as a protest against UPS' decision.

According to Wardell, Stardock does "a non-trivial amount of shipping with UPS," and generally speaking, people should stand up for their beliefs.  That being said, we're pretty sure UPS won't be losing much sleep over the loss, and it's unlikely they'll be changing their position unless other companies start pulling their business.

Update: Seems Wardell was quoted out of context by many sources.  An email was sent out to clarify the issue:

My Facebook comment was taken considerably out of context. I could care less about Glenn Beck or whether someone advertises on their show or not. But UPS is boycotting the entire channel which annoyed me enough to ask my publishing director to look into whether it was true (it was) and have them look into Fed Ex which provided competitive pricing and make use of them for our uses.

More here.

Some indie love for Guitar Hero as Rock Band 2 gets Alice in Chains and Breaking Benjamin next week

Hey everyone!  Starting today, Neoseeker will provide weekly updates for all the brand-new songs that will premiere on Rock Band and Guitar Hero games!

Guitar Hero 5 fans, you get three songs from indie bands this week:

• "Dull Life" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• "The Greeks Were Right" - The Faint
• "Munich" - Editors

Buying these three as a pack will cost you 440 Microsoft Points, $5.49 USD from the PlayStation Store, or 550 Nintendo Points.  Individual tracks are worth 160 MS Points, $1.99 USD from the PlayStation Store, or 200 Nintendo Points.  These songs are available right now!

And Rock Band 2 players will be able to buy more tracks from Alice in Chains and have a shot at a new bands debuting for the game: Breaking Benjamin, Just Kait, and Kula Shaker.

• "A Looking in View" - Alice in Chains
• "Check my Brain" - Alice in Chains
• "No Excuses" - Alice in chains
• "Rooster" - Alice in Chains
• "Would?" - Alice in Chains
• "I Will Not Bow" - Breaking Benjamin
• "So Cold" - Breaking Benjamin
• "The Diary of Jane" - Breaking Benjamin
• "U Suck" - Just Kait
• "Hey Dude" - Kula Shaker
• "Knight on the Town" - Kula Shaker

All five Alice in Chains songs will be available as a pack called "Alice in Chains Pack 01" on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for 680 Microsoft Points or $8.49 USD -- alternatively, £5.25 / €6.59 for Europe.  The songs alone are priced at 160 Microsoft Points, $1.99 USD (£.99 UK / €1.49 EU), or 200 Nintendo Points if you're on a Wii.  These songs will be available on September 29th for the Xbox 360 and Wii while the PlayStation 3 receives them on October 1st.

For PSP owners, Rock Band Unplugged gets two songs the same day the PlayStation 3 content is available:

• "Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters
• "Lonely As You" - Foo Fighters

Each track will cost $1.99 USD / £.99 UK / €1.49 EU.

Wall Street abuzz with rumors

Insiders tend to have loose lips, and this latest leak is causing quite a stir.  There are now rumors that Microsoft may be buying (or considering, at the very least) Electronic Arts.

That's right, Electronic Arts -- Command & Conquer, Burnout, Need for Speed, every sports game on the planet, crappy movie-based games, everything.  Needless to say, the suits are all over this one, and EA stock went up 8.1 percent.  Microsoft saw a 1.1 gain, while THQ grew a whopping 13 percent; rumors speculate THQ may be the true target of the yet-unconfirmed takeover.

Some analysts are dismissing these rumors completely. 

"Our contacts just don't see Microsoft buying Electronic Arts, no synergies whatsoever, and also not Microsoft's corporate primary focus right now," commented Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research.

New York's WhatsTrading.com options strategist Frederic Ruffy stated, "There's talk that Microsoft might be interested in acquiring Electronic Arts. It's unsubstantiated chatter, but it's out there."

Update: Looks like the news are just rumors after all.  A Microsoft spokesperson told us the company "no plans to purchase Electronic Arts."  We're currently waiting on a response from EA.

The UNSC gets an anime makeover, plus commentary

Back in July, we heard Microsoft would be funding a Halo anime, titled "Halo Legends."

Since then, we've seen trailers popping up here and there, and recently a television preview featured clips of the first episode, "The Babysitter," with creator commentary.  It offers the first real in-depth preview of Legends, introducing us to the ODST team and their babysitter, a Spartan -- who looks a bit more mech like with that shrunken head.

The anime will certainly get mixed reviews from fans.  Those who already enjoy anime and appreciate the big-eyes-small-mouth-funky-hair look like Halo Legends, while others will undoubtedly curse Microsoft for its creation.  Oh, and there are definitely big eyes, small mouths, and funky hairstyles.  Now correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the UNSC have some sort of guideline against gigantic (or odd colored) hair?  Must be inconvenient, trying to stuff all that into a helmet.

Note that this preview is only part one of three; links to part two and three are in the video.

Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune visits Bungie in Seattle

Keiji Inafune first joined Capcom in the '80s and quickly worked his way up.  No idea who this man is?  Just think Street Fighter and Mega Man.

In fact, Inafune's first gig was graphic designer for Street Fighter in 1987, followed by the creation of Mega Man, then known as "Rockman."  You could call him Mega Man's father, in fact, as Inafune was responsible for developing and designing the blue reploid (as well as the original game packaging).

Recently, he flew to Seattle and visited Bungie headquarters for a tour and a chat.  Needless to say, the entire staff present nearly pissed themselves when they laid eyes upon one gaming's most influential vets, as Bungie's "urk" notes.  He also asked the Capcom legend a few questions -- yes, one studio interviewing an exec from another.

The first question presented the most interesting tidbit, as Inafune casually mentioned a future collaboration with Bungie would be "interesting."  Obviously nothing to get worked up over, but how badass would that be?  Bungie times Capcom would inequivocally equal awesome. 

This interview between Inafune and "urk" is available on the Bungie website but requires some scrolling around to find.  Luckily, you've got us to solve that problem; below, you'll find the interview in its entirety, along with a special message to Bungie fans from Keiji Inafune himself.

Q. So what brings you by the studio today and what do you think of our setup?

A. Bungie is an amazing studio that has made incredible games. So I was always curious about how they made their games in hopes of being up to add some of the flavor into Capcom games. Also, I wanted to come down to Bungie in order to see just how well our philosophies on game design matched up. If things clicked, I know it would be interesting to collaborate together on a title in the future.

Q. You came into the gaming industry back when the console space was first becoming popular, bringing iconic franchises like Mega Man and Street Fighter out of the arcades and into living rooms. What are some of the biggest industry changes you’ve witnessed over that twenty year span?

A. In the 80s, when games were just becoming established, it was pretty easy to create a game based on a flash idea that occurred to you. Of course, production costs and dev cycles made it very easy to take chances on risky concepts. On the other hand, because of these short production cycles and small teams, you knew you had to drill down on a single “big” concept and that helped you to maintain your focus.
 
As the years have gone by, games have become more and more complex so that a single “big” concept isn’t enough. You need to tie in different moves, characters, online, etc for a game to really catch fire. It’s due to this shear planning complexity that makes me think that the number of true “creators” out there, capable of designing and executing an original IP have decreased significantly. From a personal level, I’d like to think that I am one of those people who still have enough creativity to continue to design original games. So it’s great to get a chance to discuss basic game design and trends with other creators because each time I do it helps me to expand my own personal creative ability.

Q. What are some lessons modern day developers could learn from those older titles to help expand their creativity?

A. To be honest, the games of yesteryear may be smaller than their current gen counterparts, but usually the creative core of a game is something that stands the test of time. Whether a game is big or small, new or old, if there is an interesting base concept there, then you can be sure that concept can still be used in today’s games because usually what made it fun before will still hold true today. Of course trends change and you need to swap in some features and swap out older controls but in general that base can still be used as the key component of a new game.

Q. So you still see influences from that era persisting and shaping the games of today?

A. Yes, I think that people are always influenced by the games they played in the past. But it’s not just games. For example, creators around my age that have been in the gaming industry for twenty or so years often base their ideas on the Anime and Manga they knew and loved as kids. By the same rationale, young designers nowadays often look at the old games they played as children for hints on what would make a good game. Mostly this comes from the respect they have for those games.

To answer the question in an even broader manner, recently we have seen a lot of “Super-hero based themes” in games, books, movies, and TV. Whether it’s the X-men, Hancock, Heroes, or the like, all of them are borrowing off of the concept of “Superman”. So most of the games created today are influenced in some way shape or form by different kinds of entertainment that left an impression on the creators. Sometimes these base concepts are remixed and fit into current trends so that they are relevant but whether it’s a TV show, movie, or game, usually that original idea (or a Superhero) is the starting point.

Q. You’ve watched gaming grow over the last two decades, what do you think it’ll be like twenty years in the future?

A. The last twenty years have been incredible. When you think of NES games as compared to PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 games, the difference in scale is incredible. Team sizes, money, creative skill… all have increased exponentially. However, I think whereas the last twenty years have been a period of rapid growth for the game industry the next 20 years won’t have as much “vertical growth” but instead will feature “horizontal growth.”

That is to say, the same basic things you see now probably won’t change as much but they will begin to hit more people and saturate a larger audience. At some point I think the lines between games, TV, and movies will blur and we will all be using some kind of device that is capable of providing “interactive experiences” or “games” if you will.

For example, a concept like the internet and online games may expand more and more to the point that thousands of people are playing socially together and how you interact with these “games” may not even be via a console. I think you will see less and less gaming purists and more people “gaming” on a wide variety of devices in a wide variety of ways. This is the horizontal growth that I envision.

Creators that are able to make not only games but rather interactive experiences on a wide variety of devices will be the ones that stay around. So only people who aren’t locked into “consoles = games” and who are flexible enough to branch out will be the new creative blood pushing the envelope.

Q. What do you hope it will be?

A. In twenty years I’ll be 64. I hope that even at that age, I’ll have the flexibility to create games that people interact in a wide variety of ways.

Q. Did you get a chance to drop by our lobby arcade and throw down with some Street Fighter? Some of our guys claim to be pretty proficient players.

A. Actually I didn’t realize you guys had Street Fighter Although, I’m sure even if I did play I wouldn’t be much of a challenge for the Bungie staffers. As you know I’m a big fan of Halo and I think playing against the staff would be a lot of fun but at my currently skill level, they’d probably wipe the floor with me in Halo as well.

Final Message to Bungie-net fans:

Visiting Bungie was a great experience because I got to see just how passionate everyone even the Marketing staff and high level execs were toward designing high-quality games. I’m not just blowing smoke, I really got that vibe from almost every creator I met when I visited. It’s was a great visit because it helped motivate me to push Capcom to that same quality bar so that we make games that can compete with Bungie. It’s a good thing to see the friendly competition because it helps you set high goals and that is exactly what I have for Capcom. Of course, as I mentioned before a Bungie-Capcom collaboration would certainly create something amazing as well... but I guess we’ll have to see if the next twenty years holds something that special or not.

Major video game firms have self-esteem issues too

Look like emo webcomic artists aren't the only people who edit their Wikipedia pages out of shame or some other deep-seated issues with self-confidence.  Wikipedia is now warning Japanese publisher and developer Tecmo to stop this nonsense immediately.

Many companies do regularly edit their own Wiki-pages, but it seems a Tecmo employee is actually removing some of last year's ugliness from the Tecmo page, much to Wikipedia's chagrin.  How do we know this?  Someone has been making changes from the company's IP.

What, specifically, was this Tecmo gnome trying to conceal?  A few unpleasant details from 2008, such as the employee lawsuits, Itagaki jumping ship (and also suing), a secret audio tape in which former president Yoshimi Yasuda says some damning things about the company -- you know, this and that.

Nice going, guys!  Although, we're still wondering what Tecmo was thinking with the Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 SIXAXIS boob jiggling feature.

One beaten blind with a hammer by D&D buddy

There's always someone out there making a bad name for nerds.  This time, the perp is Zachery Frank King of Cedar City, Utah.

Logan Bryson, one of two victims, woke up on the morning of May 30 thinking he was having a bad dream.  He realized seconds later that someone was beating him with a hammer.

"I didn't realize I was being attacked until I fell to the floor with my arms up to defend myself," recalls Bryson, who took the stand this week during King's preliminary hearing.  The homeowner, Daniel Shokrian, was also assaulted during the incident.

Bryson, age 23, suffered a concussion and bruises, which was nothing compared to what Shokrian, age 20, came away with.  The second young man was beaten so severely that he lost partial vision and his ability to read and write, which Shokrian is now attempting to relearn through therapy.

Apparently, this attack was fueled by a dispute over a game of Dungeons & Dragons.  Detective Nathan Williams states that King was upset at Shokrian for acting "cocky" and did not like what the victim was doing to his character.  There may be an insanity defense here because according to Det. Michael Bleak, King allegedly took an over-the-counter sleeping pill before going to sleep that day.  He later woke up angry and grabbed a hammer before driving to Shokrian's house.

King had climbed through an open window and gone to Shokrian's room, where he said, "I hate you," and proceeded to beating the victim.  He proceeded to Bryson's room after; Det. Bleak also noted that King had issues with Bryson for dating a girl when both men pledged not to pursue her.

July 2009 has been a profitable month

Nexon America, the good people who brought us MapleStory, Combat Arms, Dungeon Fighter Online, and other free-to-play MMOs, is enjoying a profitable summer.  The international publishing arm of Nexon Group announced record-breaking year-over-year growth this July.

Revenue spiked 35 percent this July, showing a major increase over last year around the same period.  Great news really, during all this gloomy news of the game industry's economic hardships.  The NPD Group recently reported a 29 percent drop in sales overall in North America alone.  Guess Nexon isn't one of those figures.

“The economy has been tough on great deal of the games industry, but we fought hard to retain our customers and to bring in as many new players as possible,” said Min Kim, Nexon America’s VP of marketing. “We’re heavily investing on all fronts --  in our games, our publishing platform, aggressive marketing efforts as well as customer service. The best news for Nexon America is that our success isn’t just reflected in registered users, but in actual, dramatic revenue growth.”

They've been pretty busy too.  In July, Nexon America, was heavily pushing Mabinogi and MapleStory with numerous marketing campaigns.  Dungeon Fighter Online also underwent closed beta, and will be release later this year.

“We are serious about making Nexon the top brand in online gaming, and we are not backing on down our efforts to deliver more content to our customers or aggressively work to attract new players,” Kim further stated. 

“We pioneered the free-to-play business model when we brought MapleStory to North America in 2005. With the slew of new games we have planned and the BlockParty initiative, which will bring players together like never before, we will continue to be the leader in this market for years to come.”

Check out the new look of our user profiles

Here at Neoseeker, our dedicated staff continuously endeavor to improve this little corner of the website.

These gradual improvements span all different facets of your time spent here. A small tweak here. A big feature unveiled over there. All sorts of stuff.

Our latest feature we are proud to introduce is our updated user profile screens. This is no small little thing. We completely overhauled it!

If you have a user account here, you can click on your user name -- up on the left hand corner of your screen there, in blue -- to check out the new-ness for yourself. The changes also tie into our new community screen. 

On this new updated profile screen, you can do all fancy new things. For example, you can better track your activity (and see what other users are up to.) The gallery is better integrated into your profile. You can see who replied to different posts you made. There is some more stuff -- click around and explore it for yourself !

You can also personalize your profile page a bit, to your liking. You can change the color of the ribbon bar on the far right, with the "Personalize ribbon" button." And if you click on the little picture beside the headings (example: Gallery, About me, Biography.) 

Here is a great little tutorial video going over the new features, narrated by Redemption himself.

Workforce expected to be cut in Europe and North America

Square Enix has announced plans to form a new entity called "Square Enix Europe" for publishing Square Enix and Eidos products, with the aim of creating "one efficient and powerful structure for game publishing." 

Eidos' various development studios will be reporting to the newly formed Square Enix Europe -- name is subject to change.

This new publishing branch is to be led by Eidos CEO Phil Rogers and will combine the two companies' sales and marketing offices, resulting in numerous layoffs.  Additionally, U.S. sales, marketing and distribution operations will be transferred from Eidos to John Yamamoto at Square Enix's regional office.

"Unfortunately we are expecting some jobs to be impacted directly by this in both Europe and North America," read a company statement.  "We are hoping to minimise this wherever possible and offer support and advice to any employees directly affected."

New line of colorful mini USB storage drives

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage devices introduced their new line of colorful and trendy Pico Mini USB drives today. Like the Pico drives, these Mini drives are built using COB  technology which enables squeezing impressive flash capacities into extremely small packages.
 
Pico Mini drives are water resistant, and support up to 200X transfer speeds. The drives are offered in four bright colors that are color coded for different capacities.

• Part Number     Description    Retail Price
• STU2GMAP    2GB Pico Mini-A, 150X, Orchid Pink    9.99
• STU4GMAG    4GB Pico Mini-A, 200X, Lime Green    14.99
• STU8GMAB    8GB Pico Mini-A, 200X, Sky Blue    23.99
• STU16GMAK    16GB Pico Mini-A, 200X, Classic Black    39.99

 
"We designed these drives to build on the success of our popular Pico family. They share a lot of the same features, but while Pico drives have a shiny chrome finish, Pico Mini drives are colorful and trendy to appeal to a different demographic", explained Super Talent Director of Marketing, Joe James.

Pico Mini drives will begin shipping this week to online retailers worldwide.

No bigger than a quarter and only 1.5 grams in weight these drives are very affordable for everyone, and what a great way to transport your information while having a little fun doing it.

Games from old franchises soon to be available via direct download

LucasArts has been sending the video game community into a frenzy of speculations and rumors by teasing at their Monday announcement.  Something about the "old" and the new.

Their Twitter account was buzzing with activity all weekend, and now we finally learn what that big announcement is.  LucasArts has partnered with Steam, Valve's digital distribution service, to bring back classic franchises.  Games from several of these franchises will be made available for download via Steam on Wednesday, July 8,  Note that these ten titles are only the first part in a series of re-releases to Steam, and more will arrive over time:

•  Armed and Dangerous
•  Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
•  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
•  LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
•  LOOM
•  Star Wars Battlefront II
•  Star Wars Republic Commando
•  Star Wars Starfighter
•  The Dig
•  Thrillville: Off the Rails

This latest partnership reflects the company's plans to "revitalize" its existing portfolio of games from numerous notable franchises.  They're already bringing back Monkey Island, as previously announced.

“This effort is going to make it possible to introduce a whole new generation of gamers to LucasArts’ classic games,” said Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts. 

“It also gives more people a chance to play our games by making them available long after they’ve disappeared from store shelves. We hope our fans are as excited as we are about our plans and we can’t wait to share what’s coming next. This is just the beginning.”

Going from 1gig to 2gig for increasing popularity of HD content

YouTube announced on Wednesday it is doubling the size limit for uploads to its website from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes in order to allow users to post more HD video content.

"The increase means you can upload longer videos at a higher resolution as well as large HD files directly from your camera, the changes allow you to share links directly to the HD version of your video, as well as embed the HD version on your blog or website," the media host said.

HD video is increasingly popular but the higher resolution results in larger files; YouTube, although increasing the allowable file sizes, is still keeping a cap of 10 minutes for the length of each video.

Steam has just released one hell of a deal: 20 Games for 54 bucks

Earlier this week we had an article on a great deal from Steam: Fallout 3 for 25 bucks.  That won't be the only deal blowing out of Steam over the next little while.

2K Games just launched its huge game pack, bundling 20 of its games which would normally cost $229.80 in total, for only $54.00.   This is a real deal considering some of the tiles included in the game pack:

•     Sid Meier's Pirates
•      Shattered Union
•      Prey
•      CivCity: Rome
•      Sid Meier's Railroads
•      Railroad Tycoon 3
•      Railroad Tycoon II Platinum
•      X-COM: Terror From the Deep
•      X-COM: Apocalypse
•      BioShock
•      X-COM: Interceptor
•      X-COM: UFO Defense
•      X-COM: Enforcer
•      Freedom Force
•      Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
•      Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete
•      Sid Meier's Civilization IV
•      Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
•      Civilization IV Warlords
•      Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization

Re-enters GPU market after a short hiatus

In January of last year, Mushkin announced its first graphics card, the Geforce 8800 GT XP.  Now it looks like Mushkin is about to release a few more.

The manufacturer has announced several Nvidia based cards that they plan to produce, ranging from GTX 260 to GTX 285 and GTX 295, all of which should be announced soon.

All of their cards so far have been based on Nvidia's primary design. Branded "UltimateX," the recently announced lineup includes a few overclocked models, and Mushkin is apparently preparing to do a few ATI based cards as well.

These cards are also shipped in nice wooden boxes, a high contrast to the cheaper cardboard containers typically seen. Precise details about the cards are still unknown, but we are quite sure that more information will come up soon.

MSI's overclocking competition in full swing

Selection for the MSI Master Overclocking Arena North American qualifiers begin today and MSI is inviting overclockers from USA, Mexico and Canada to sign up and participate in this online tournament to determine the best overclocking team from their respective countries.

Phase I competition is open to everyone and the qualifiers will run from June 29th to July 19th. All you need to do to take part is submit your highest overclocking score online. The top 10 winners will be selected for the Phase II which runs July 25th to August 2nd. The top two overclockers from that round get to choose a guest to accompany them to the MOA 2009 Grand Final in Beijing. So head on over to the MOA 2009 site and check out the rules and submit your best overclocking score.

Merger first announced in 2008, TKE formed

Today, we finally see TECMO and KOEI officially merged across the Pond, forming TECMO KOEI Europe or TKE.

News of their merger first came up late last year, and the two companies originally planned for the process to be completed some time this spring; in April, the two companies did indeed form TECMO KOEI HOLDINGS.  Now it's summer, and we're hearing about their holy union in Europe as well.

The first game to be released under TKE will be Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, which we've already heard some interesting news for earlier today.  Something about the violence being toned down.

"Featuring new characters, game play, and developed by the award-winning Team NINJA, NINJA GAIDEN Σ 2 is the perfect vehicle with which to launch the new company," commented Will Curley, VP of Sales and Marketing. 

"This is a momentous occasion for both KOEI and TECMO.  With some great quality titles coming from both sides, such as UNDEAD KNIGHTS and QUANTUM THEORY from TECMO, and Warriors: Legends of Troy and TRINITY: Souls of Zill O’ll from KOEI, TKE will quickly become one of the major players in the video games industry."

Company wanted to offer better child-rearing environment for her

Apparently, Konami thinks it can raise children better than their actual parents and will not hesitate to act in the best interest of the child.  Like demoting and cutting an employee's pay for the good of her new baby, for example.

That's exactly what happened to Konami employee Yoko Sekiguchi, who is thankfully speaking out and -- not surprisingly -- suing the company for $343,000 in damages.  After returning from maternity leave, Sekiguchi was allegedly demoted and had her wages cut by $2,080 a month. 

Konami apparently reasoned this would create a better child-rearing environment for her.  Before her demotion, Sekiguchi traveled frequently to acquire license deals for Konami.  Now she holds a domestic position.

Sekiguchi was not amused and states, "Being forced to lessen your career to raise a child is sexual discrimination."

See who's online, who has the most posts, and much more

Every day during the work week a crack team of coders works deep within the depth of Neoseeker's HTML, and CSS, and such. Making new pages. Fixing things. Adding stuff to the site.

The latest work of web art is the reworked community page. You can normally find the link to the community page in the absolute top left of the screen, above the Neoseeker logo, and beside the link to the forums. 

On this new community page you'll find all sorts of fun info. For example, you can observe that total forum posts surpassed 21,000,000 yesterday. Or you can see who is online, and perhaps send them a silly PM if you want, about silly -- or even serious -- stuff. There are also tons of 'top 10' user rankings charts. These are kind of neat. If you are like me, you can be amazed that Neo-user Nabo has over 500,000 profile views, or that lucky Setthotep has over 500 games in his personal collection, or that Kilik64 has 744 images uploaded into his gallery (including alluring manga chicks and funny motivational posters, check it out.)

Over the next year there will be many new features added to the site. We hope you enjoy them, and find they make your entire Neo'perience an even better time.

Prepare to empty your pockets

Still looking for BlizzCon 2009 tickets?  Get ready because the second allotment of tickets will go on sale tomorrow, May 30, at 10:00 am PDT.  These tickets will be going for $125 USD each, and you'll find them at the event website.  Pray for your Internet to stay strong amidst the imminent flood.

This year, Blizzard fans can expect more from their favorite franchises, including WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, between August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center.  BlizzCon and Disneyland in one city for two days?  Now it really is the happiest place on Earth. 

Hardcore attendees can participate in tournaments, while everyone else can just relax with the panels, contests, hands-on game previews and other activities.  No doubt Blizzard will unveil more juicy Diablo III details, on top of the usual venue.

Note that the Blizzard Store does require an active Battle.net account, so you can make one ahead of time in preparation for tomorrow's buying frenzy.  The online store will have a first-come, first-served queue system and a fixed time limit for completing purchases to ensure everyone has a fair shot at these tickets.  Remember to print the ticket and take it to the convention.

The first batch of tickets went on sale on May 16 and sold out within an hour.

Corporate policies on foreign travel cited

Keiji Inafune, Capcom's producer for the Onimusha and Dead Rising franchises, had originally planned to attend the Nordic Game Conference in Sweden this week.  However, the trip has been cancelled due to the global H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak.

"I'm sorry to announce that Keiji Inafune has cancelled his appearance at Nordic Game 2009, due to corporate policy restricting foreign travel during the current influenza outbreak," said a Nordic Game spokesperson.

Taking Inafune's place will be Team 17's Martyn Brown, who will be delivering the 'Digital Publishing for Independent Studios: Myth or Reality?' talk in his stead.

While the ESA has stated E3 2009 will not be affected by the H1N1 scare, it is uncertain whether attendees and guest speakers feel the same way.