With numerous solid franchises and an impressive roster of manga-anime games under its belt, it seems Namco Bandai will be expanding operations to new pastures. For that, they will be trying their hand out on the online PC gaming market, and to handle that responsibility will be their new division, Namco Bandai Online.

This we expected from Jack Thompson. But from the Gundam creator? This certainly brings a whole lot of disconnect to me. Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the most famous sci-fi giant robot (complete with his own posse) Gundam, believes that "video games are evil." Why? Because it's killing our planet. Among many other things, I can only suppose. I think he must have heard of the failed suicide/ arson episode in Japan because mommy took out the guy's Gundam collection to trash. Check out the rest of his statements in the full article.

The latest issue of Famitsu Wave was recently released in Japan with a DVD containing a lot of new info on Square Enix's upcoming PlayStation 3 and PC MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. Hit the jump for some of the more interesting tidbits as well as a video of the interview with director Nobuaki Komoto and producer Hiromichi Tanaka.

The next Tomb Raider game will be an open-world, survival horror series reboot that has Lara Croft fighting against the love child of F.E.A.R.'s Alma and Wolverine. At least that's the vibe I'm getting from these supposedly secret images of the new game that were recently leaked onto the Web.

The Swine Flu (now officially known as the H1N1 virus) is proving to cause a huge damper on the upcoming E3 festivities. With just literally a couple of weeks before the curtains rise to start what could be the biggest games show of the year, we have attendees going over the list and checking it twice, for fear of the said virus. Capcom Japan would be one such attendee.

Want something to mull over for the rest of the evening? Try this one: Namco Bandai has filed a US trademark for one "God Eater". Nothing else is known about this, except for the fact that it's meant to come out on the PC, mobile, and consoles.

Atsushi Inaba of Platinum Games have some words of wisdom to share with the Japanese developers. He'd want for them to be more creative and step more out of the box. Hey, the gaming world isn't just all about Japan, after all.

German fans have reason to rejoice. Electronic Arts has clarified with Eurogamer.de that the initially reported news on Dead Space (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) being banned in Germany is not true. Read up at the full article.

You know it's a great survival-horror game if it got itself banned in three countries. It seems Electronic Arts' Dead Space packs a bit too much gory punch as it's been banned in Germany, Japan, and China. Well now I really want to get my hands on the game already.

Tecmo's unquestionably in a bubbling tub of hot water the past couple of months, but could their luck be changing? Square Enix has revealed earlier that they have a proposal for a friendly takeover on the beleaguered developer.