Soft launches and extended beta programs seem to be all the rage, what with Google Mail being perpetually in said state, and Sony's PlayStation Home initiative apparently following the same route. EA's free to play online shooter, Battlefield Heroes would seem to be next. Ben Cousins, executive producer at DICE states that the game's "already out", as there won't be "big splash release". Cousins expects the closed beta to grow rapidly, to the point that "every hardcore gamer in the world will probably be able to get a key if they want to".

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In-game advertising may tend to be amusing or sometimes even intrusive during play, but we haven't seen the full potential of it yet. Google is reportedly testing "AdSense for Games," an in-game advertising system that involves in-game characters initiating product plugs and other sort of advertisement. More in the full article.

The Casual Games Association has announced that it will be hosting Casual Connect Europe. This event will run from February 6 to 8 in Amsterdam and is being held to gather industry leaders in the hope of promoting casual games as well as securing its future development.

Want to know more? Check out the full article via the "read more" link below.

Irrational Games split into two after the completion of Bioshock, introducing the 2K Boston and 2K Australia studios. Now it looks like a new studio is being set up in the Bay Area. According to a cached job listing in Gamasutra, the new studio is to be called 2K Marin and will comprise of some of the people who created Bioshock. More at the full article.

From sports games to irreverent parodies on platformers, the world of in-game advertising has pretty much grown since video games have been on the rise the past few years. Bernie Stolar, Google's "Dean of Games", talks about the role of advertising in today's gaming industry and how AdSense for Games - an ad serving program run by Google - is planning to take on the in-game advertising scene.

Read the full article right after the jump!

A bit of bad news for Google Video users: the media you rented or bought from the web giant's online store will no longer be viewable after the site is shut down by the parent company.

Google said there will be no refunds for any of the transactions, but compensation will come in the form of credits in Google Checkout, the company's online paying service.

The decision to shut the site down came after top officials decided that the Google Video service has become irrelevant due to the success of YouTube, which it also owns and uses to sell videos.

The move was branded as a big mistake by analyst David Card of Jupiter. He also added that the shutdown and the no-refund policy are making consumers more wary of digital media purchases.

"We've seen a physical format-device combo go out of manufacture before: wax cylinders, 8-tracks," says Card. "But can you think of any consumer-purchased medium that actually becomes unusable while there are players that still work?"

 

Okay, this may cause some alarmists to scream "Big Brother!" so before all the speculation, here are the known details - just so all you privacy advocates can relax a bit.

Google has filed a patent that reveals that they plan to compile psychological profiles of millions of gamers by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. Now you may think that this only concerns folks who play MMOs on their PCs, however, the patent apparently says that Google can also monitor people playing on any game console that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360.

What's even more hair-raising is that it says that information could be retrieved from previous game details saved on memory cards. To quote: "Such saved information may be thought of state information, and offers a valuable source of information to the advertisers." Yes, if you've played 350 hours of Oblivion, they'll know. Yep, the patent is that creepy; it even says:

In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying 'if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation', etc... If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee.

Now here's why we're asking all those privacy advocates to calm down and not cry foul. Google has said that they do not plan to roll out the technology in the near future. They say that it was just one of the patents that they wanted to file. The Guardian reports that a Google spokesman had this to say: "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."

So no, Big Brother, er, I mean, Google isn't watching you. Not yet. *insert cheesy B-movie sci-fi music* It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

There were rumors that Microsoft wanted to purchase online ad company DoubleClick. Now, the conclusion of this story is that instead it was another giant - Google - that bought DoubleClick. But adding fuel to the MS-wants-another-ad-company rumor is a report from Google watcher John Battelle who mentions that not only did Microsoft want to buy DoubleClick, they

• made the better offer,
• was nevertheless turned down by DoubleClick, and
• are thoroughly pissed about it.

Which might kind of explains why Redmond, along with Yahoo and AT&T, are calling on the government to investigate the Google-DoubleClick Deal. Battelle claims this from "an interesting call with Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft," who claims that Google will now be in a position to dominate the online ad market, as well as other anonymous sources who say that Microsoft was making an offer better than Google's US$ 3.11 billion.

Both sources, we observe, would be at odds with each other from this perspective. Smith explained to Battelle that companies shouldn't "buy their way" to market dominance - so why the whispers about Microsoft pitching an even more tantalizing bid for DoubleClick? Hey, don't they already have Massive? What plans do they have with online advertising if they wanted DoubleClick that badly?

From the word he's received, Battelle concluded that the DoubleClick investors simply chose Google over whatever Microsoft was willing to give - and Microsoft was willing to give much, he concludes. "The more I think about it, the more the fact that DBCLK went to Google strikes me as a seminal moment in the history of this industry. Microsoft could not win it, despite the cash it was willing to spend. Why?!"

Fine, Microsoft doesn't want to buy Take-Two Interactive. But have you ever wondered what big MS really wants? Well, judging from its actions, it seems that the company is into advertisements these days.

Almost one year ago, it can be remembered that Microsoft acquired the in-game ads company Massive Inc., and now, there are a lot of rumors going around saying that Microsoft has set its eyes on another online advertising company, DoubleClick. Some of its clients include General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oreal, Palm, Visa USA, Nike, and Carlsberg among many others.

For those who may not be familiar with the name, DoubleClick was just founded last year and its total amount of sales was somewhere around £75  million (US$ 147.62 million). We haven't heard any feedback about this company's performance and strategies, but it may be safe to assume that they're doing well enough to catch the eye of a giant like Microsoft.

The rumors also added that if the acquisition pushes through, it will cost MS a hefty sum of US$ 2 billion. Now, they must REALLY want that company.

As repugnant as it may sound to a lot of people, an independent developer actually created a game based on the Columbine massacre called Super Columbine Massacre RPG and is now one of the most recognized game developers in the world. It may sound strange, but the site Game Sutra actually cited reasons why we owe the game in ways we didn't think we should.

In fact, the 8-bit dramatization of the tragic events more than half a decade ago has already been downloaded over 400,000 times by gamers around the world. The game shows up fifth when you enter the keyword "Columbine game" at Google and generates more than a million web pages regarding it.

SCMRPG has stolen the attention of the media with its content - a remarkable feat when you consider that the game was made with a budget smaller than what it takes to buy an old game on sale. The controversy it generated pleased the game community but invoked the ire of Orients and activist groups nationwide and across the internet.

Game Sutra, however, gave Super Columbine Massacre RPG some credit for upholding the nature of electronic games as an art form and for spawning an alternative take on game design. Like any other medium- music, film or print- video games are avenues by which creativity is displayed and allowed to reach audiences for appreciation.

"It's weird being a "celebrity;" I get autograph requests and death threats... all for an 8-bit videogame." says Danny Ledonne, creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG in response to what the game has done for him. He and a lot of other gamers claim that there is misjudgement in how the game is viewed.

Those who have played SCMRPG explain that the game does not glorify violence, but instead gives an artist's perspective of what transpired that day, much like how a true-to-life flick plays out. We don't know for sure what Ledonne's motive for the game creation actually is, but we also say that the points raised are valid and the game does deserve the benefit of the doubt. Follow the read URL to see and judge for yourself what message the game really conveys.