It looks like Microsoft and Remedy Entertainment are finally getting ready to spill more details about their upcoming psychological action thriller, Alan Wake (Xbox 360, PC). The game will apparently be present at this year's Tokyo Game Show according to a Vista gaming contest. More in the full article.

These days, GameStop has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It's working on an industry that's growing every day, it's posting some serious numbers financially, and has recently opened its 1,000th store outside of the US.

The Texas-based game and console retailer has opened new stores recently in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway to hit the thousand-store milestone. Prior to that, the company has already branched out to Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

GameStop points to the booming hardware sales led by Kyoto-based Nintendo with its DS handheld and Wii console. Microsoft and Sony are also pitching in with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively.

Total sales posted by the retailer last year amounted to US$ 5.32 billion and is expected to grow even more this year as hot demand continues for pole platforms. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw GameStop with its best quarterly performance ever with US$ 24.7 million in profits while gross sales were at an all-time high of US$ 1.279 billion.

The European Commission is set to introduce a list of common sanctions against retailers that sell violent video games to minors. Perhaps, what's good about this is that the Commission has decided to leave it to member states to identify which games will be considered "violent."

EUobserver reports that the EU justice and security commissioner, Franco Frattini, has told journalists last January 10 that he would file new and stricter rules governing the sale of video games to children below 16 before this year's summer break.

Reuters informs that Frattini had this to say: "I do want to harmonize rules punishing people illegally selling products, people not controlling and checking identity." Frattini does however stresses that the EU executive would abstain from suggesting which kind of material should be banned. He adds: "We cannot judge from Brussels which videogames should be prohibited. "

It can be recalled that last December, Frattini suggested that the Brussels' package could include new age restrictions on certain games as well as stronger, more effective, parental advisory warnings. The commissioner is confident with the proposal, especially since he has so far received support from eight EU countries – Germany, Britain, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Finland, France and Spain.

It has to be noted that this initiative comes after last November's incident in Germany, where Sebastian Bosse injured eleven students at his school before killing himself, and that retailers in most EU countries are not legally obliged to restrict the sale of adult classified products.

Why should we bother to know about these things? Because some people might get some bright ideas.

Gamers in Finland better start taking a good look at those age ratings a little more closely, as the Finnish government has tweaked their media classification system to make Pan-European Game Information ratings (PEGI) equivalent to actual laws.

The Finnish Parliament decided to move the power for rating games from their movie ratings group, the Finnish Board of Film Classification, to the PEGI. In a nutshell, Finnish law will now reference PEGI ratings almost exclusively with regard to their laws on video game regulation. This is some sobering news for those gamers who were hoping to grab an 18+ rated game, at least in Europe.

This also makes some changes to Finnish game ratings in general. Game Politics notes in their coverage that Finland's previously given age ratings of 11+ or 15+ will now be rated as 12 or 16, as per PEGI's standard. It doesn't seem so bad, given that's it's only a few months difference, but conscientious parents might just keep some games away from previously eligible gamers.

There is one bright side to this, however, as some games that are normally rated as Teen by America's Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) happen to have much lower ratings with PEGI. If you're in an area under PEGI jurisdiction, then you can find amusement in knowing that a game like Need for Speed: Carbon has a 3+ rating there compared to ESRB's Teen rating.