When you've got a business going, it's a wise idea to keep track of your cashflow. THQ has been doing precisely that. In fact, the company has recently reported the fourth quarter results of the fiscal year, which ended last March 31, 2008. More financial statistics in the full article after the jump.

With all the flak that video games have gotten from politicians, we're tempted to think that two will probably never mix.

The latest one involves U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama and his comment about video games. You can read an excerpt of his statement n the full article after the jump.

Independent works will always have a hard time finding its niche in an already established market, and video games are no exception. Usually the bottomline in creating a game is creativity versus profitability.

Steve Escalante, Business Development VP of the Gamecock Media Group, talked about this subject during the Texas' Independent Game Conference. Read more in the full article.

It's official: Blacksite: Area 51 (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC) creative director Harvey Smith, one of the developers behind Deus Ex, and parent company Midway Austin have parted ways after Smith's "public resignation". This ends the partnership that the two began in 2004 after Smith bolted his old team by dishing out strong words in a recent interview.

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.

A few more details were released today, as the Gamecock media group begins the long and hard preparations they're expecting to face come the Expo for Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original (EIEIO) event.

The first important detail guys will want to know will be the event schedules - a press release we've picked up indicates that the EIEIO event will be from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on July 11, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on July 12, and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on July 13.

On the event proper - the second detail - visitors can enjoy quite a number of treats, including playable games, accessible developers, Gamecock suckers - we assume this means the Gamecock dev team - and food and drinks. As for Gamecock CEO Mike Wilson's take on EIEIO, and its comparison to the upcoming E3 event:

EIEIO is going to be a celebration of the amazing lineup of independent developers that Gamecock has been lucky enough to sign on, and I'm thrilled to say that every one of them will be in attendance to give personal demos of their works in progress. And, of course, there will be a truckload of that very special Texas hospitality that our friends have come to expect. While this year's E3 'business summit' might seem a bit strange and uptight, those who still harbor a true love for original games and the talented folks that create them should know that there’s plenty of room at the Hotel California. Such a lovely place...

The EIEIO event is expected to take place in Hotel California, at 1670 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA.

In the wake of TimeGate Studios' hiring of Evolve's public relations specialties, information has leaked out that the Texas-based developer would soon announce three new titles that will hit both the PC and console. Indications that one of them will be the Unreal Engine 3 MMO title that they hinted at before aren't apparent, but it could be possible.

Even while TimeGate was at the verge of a major announcement, there are notably no other juicy bits of information that made their way to the open. Gamasutra reports that it could very likely that Section 8, a title that TimeGate mentioned to be working on back in E3 2005, would also be one of the three titles to be announced.

Section 8 is a first-person shooter which happens to be in the hands of the makers of Kohan and Axis & Allies, and it was noted that the game would become a blend between strategy and FPS. TimeGate is likely to use its current experience with shooter elements having worked on F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack for the PC version of F.E.A.R.

Yes folks, in the other side of the world its already May 1 and the first day of the 2007 World Series of Video Games has already kicked off to a huge start - with pretty fanfare and all. The 2007 WSVG in Wuhan, China is a two-day affair to bring together the world's best in Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake 4, World of Warcraft PvP and Warcraft 3: The Reign of Chaos for a chance to win approximately US$ 750,000-worth in prizes.

The U.S. realms' very own Power Trip, sponsored by the veritable Team Pandemic of WCG fame, will be doing battle against Asia's best in World of Warcraft competitive PvP 3v3 Arena series to be held within the two days of heavy gaming battle. We've oriented you on the inventory, the rules and the prizes before. Now you can keep up to date on the news as well, with WSVG's very own Videos on Demand (VODs) providing in-depth coverage of the entire event.

In league with this, the WSVG 2007 season is also rocketing off to Dallas, Texas with the 2007 WSVG in Dallas. Registrations are now open for participants who want to show their professional gaming skills at the Gaylord Resort in Dallas on July 8 - 9, 2007. The event will sport six games plus one game that has been voted as the Gamer's Choice at the WSCG polls on their website.

So what are you waiting for? Get that mouse moving and navigate your way to the WSVG official site now. We'll keep tabs on the latest developments and especially on the World of Warcraft PvP bracket. So keep your eyes peeled, readers!

Now that evidence shows that Cho Seung Hui didn't own a single video game at the time of the Tragic shooting, a new article over at MSNBC questions Thompson's fervent accusations. This is in light of his recent interview wherein he responded to IGDA criticism.

The MSNBC article notes that contrary to Thompson's claims of counterstrike being a "killing simulator" for youths, Cho didn't need much skill to shoot as many people as he did. Eye witness accounts indicate that many of the victims were shot at point blank range.

Moreover the article notes that Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California and author of the book "Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today's Youth" points out that before this week's Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly school shooting in history took place at the University of Texas in Austin way back in 1966, before the days of pong.

The article says that nobody realises that since the advent of videogames, violence rates in the US have declined "precipitously." Sternheimer even notes that it is likely that any 23-year-old man living in America has already played a videogame. How many 23-year-old men go out on a killing spree?

The MSNBC article goes on to note this nice gem:

For those who didn't grow up playing video games, the appeal of a game like "Counter-Strike" can be hard to comprehend. It can be difficult to understand that the game promotes communication and team work. It can be hard fathom how players who love to run around gunning down their virtual enemies do not have even the slightest desire to shoot a person in real life.

As a commenter on Digg noted, the truth is that massive multiplayer killing fests are really just slightly more complex and themed versions of cops-and-robbers. An online and engaging visual form of "tag" wherein players "tag" one another in the form of virtual kills, in a world where there are no real consequences. A game of tag in a world where death isn't really malicious or evil, or "desensitising" - death only means waiting for the next play round or respawn.

It is a competitive environment where sportsmanship is still the norm; where it is expected that after all the boasting and chest-thumping is done, the winning party will get up and shake the losing party's hand and say "good game."

If you want to play creator in your own little world, then Spore is the game for you. From primordial sludge, err - unicellular creatures to your very own creature.

Will Wright from Maxis looks like he's created another Sims, only bigger. At the South by Southwest (SXSW - an interactive festival held annually at Austin, Texas), Wright gave a keynote and showed a demo of Spore. The shaky footage shows how creatures are made, how NOT to eat something that's bigger than you are, and how to create (or destroy) your own virtual world with a little help from a laser mounted on a UFO.

Anyway, we hope to see more of Spore as it's shaping up to be another uber-addicting title from the Sims master. Watch the video as there are some interesting bits there - including Wright's creatures getting gobbled up and mangled by bigger things. Enjoy!