Midway is now owned by Warner Bros. -- by default. The LA Times report that the media conglomerate has won the bidding rights to Midway for US$ 33 million. So how come they won it by default? According to reports, the big WB was the only one who had a "serious offer".

Alex St. John, the CEO of online video game company WildTangent, has predicted at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle that consoles will be "extinct" by 2020. He said that "the PS3, the Wii and the X-box are the last generation of consoles that you either see or that anybody regards as successful in the market." Want to know what else he had to say? Well, the "read more" link is right below, use it.

There has been a lot of buzz about the upcoming 2008 ION Game Conference. If you plan on attending the event, then you might be interested in knowing that early registration for the event has now been opened and will close by March 17 this year.

For more information on the 2008 ION Game Conference, scoot on over to the full article.

Ever since the Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) started, more than a few big names have graced the event. However, it won't be known as the OGDC for much longer. Evergreen Events has announced that it will now be known as the ION Game Conference.

Want to  know more about this change? Head on over to the full article by clicking on our "read more" link below for more information.

It's never too early to reserve a place in the next Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). It was announced today that the event will be accepting registrations as early as January 2008. The last PAX had 37,000 gamers roaming its floor. Tickets were sold out so early registration may be a good idea.

PAX 2008 will be held on August 29 to 31 and attendance is expected to double again. "Again" because attendance has been doubling ever since the first PAX. The attendance grew so large that the last event was held in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle just to fit everyone in.

Next year's PAX will mark the expo's fifth year and will continue the tradition of game exhibitions, conference programs (about games of course), concerts, tournaments, freeplay gaming and general fun times for everyone and all in the gaming community.

Here's a new video clip for the upcoming video game Godzilla: Unleashed featuring the Pipeworks Software Designer Simon Strange and Seattle. The designer hopes that the resident of the iconic city will appreciate what they've done with their locale - adding volcano and crystal formations, ultimately giving it an apocalyptic feel.

Strange explains in the clip the different aspects of this level, including the new engine they've used with the water as well as the relationship between the monsters and the crystals. According to him, these formations are the ones responsible why Godzilla's enemies became berserk.

Godzilla: Unleashed will be available later this tear. Its publisher, Atari, has yet to announce a concrete release date.

Microsoft is among the front runners in a bidding battle to acquire a 27-acre site that Nintendo is putting up for sale in Redmond, Seattle. The land can accommodate some 550,000 square feet of office space and is conveniently situated near other Microsoft sites.

The land is situated just north of Nintendo's North American headquarters, and accessible by state route 520 on the city, making it a prime spot to do some serious business. Nintendo is reportedly limiting the space it occupies because of moves to relocate key personnel to Silicon Valley and New York where they can better serve projects.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is sticking with its Seattle stronghold and is looking to add more power to its work force. To compensate for the increase in employees, the computing giant wants to build more installations in strategic sites such as the one that Nintendo is giving up.

Redmond deputy planning director Jim Roberts explains that there's a lot of interest besides Microsoft for the site. "If you think about the Overlake area, there's not many big pieces like that left," he says.

Although much of the information that came in from the Nintendo Media Summit at Seattle aren't as massive as those from parallel games event Ubidays from Ubisoft, we reckon that the best of news from the Media Summit would be ground-breaking after the alleged news embargo.

 

In fact, what manages to slip through are a couple of keynotes from Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime, as reported by Game | Life of the Wired Blog Network. Before the unveiling of much of Nintendo's new lineup of games for 2007, including the most coveted of third-party and first-party titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, Fils-Aime first talked about a new trend that both consoles are offering to developers and publishers alike.

According to him, Nintendo's new hardware is beginning to break off from the common sales cycle for games, where holiday seasons bring forth the most in game sales. The Wii and DS have shown to Nintendo that it is possible to keep garnering good sales numbers with top titles, holiday or no holiday.

"Games that appeal to a wider audience can stay on the best seller list indefinitely," said Nintendo of America's CEO, adding, "We believe that as the market widens we shouldn't be so dependent on the holidays." Titles such as Nintendogs and Brain Training For Adults on the DS continue to remain at the top 25 bestselling games for 21 months now and still running.

Nintendo also reported that 40% of Wii owners use the Internet features of the console and continue to download titles offered over Virtual Console, a total of which has now been pegged at 3.3 million downloaded. The DS side has also seen similar increases, when Nintendo noted a 127% increase of purchasing on the DS for gamers over 30 years old and a 212% increase for those over 35.

   

As all of you are aware, the official website of Super Smash Bros. Brawl has just been updated with the addition of various comprehensive character profiles. If that isn't enough confirmation that the video game title will indeed make it before 2007 ends, be informed that Fils-Aime is promising again the same.

Nintendo of America (NoA) President Reggie Fils-Aime did the re-confirmation during the recently concluded Nintendo Summit in Seattle. But he didn't do so without bashing the competition first, particularly Sony's PlayStation 3. The official was quoted saying the PS3 finished 2,000 units behind the four-year-old Game Boy Advance SP for the month of April 2007.

Fils-Aime also said that hardware sales for the Wii and DS totalled 471,000 and 360,000 units. The data he used was similar to the one provided by National Purchase Diary or NPD earlier this month.

Prior to all these, there have been speculations that Super Smash Bros. Brawl might be delayed just like some of the major Wii titles. Fans, including us here at QJ.Net, are really anticipating this game as well as other major video game titles Super Mario Galaxy, and DS' The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

More informations makes itself known for the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) for this year, as we disclose details for the event's Omegathon competition, keynote speaker, and headliner band.

For the pre-registrants of Penny Arcade's upcoming PAX 2007 event, we imagine one thing you'll be looking forward to (or dread) is the Omegathon event. This yearly PAX event pits 20 randomly chosen "Omeganauts" from the pre-registered crowd in multiple bouts of tabletop, videogame and computer game matches, culminating in a final match conducted onstage in front of PAX's thousands of (expected) attendees.

This year's Omegathon grand price is a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show (September 22 to 23), plus US$ 5,000 in travel money. Not exactly a new truck, but given the price of gas these days, we like it.

On the matter of PAX's keynote speaker, the organizers have managed to pick up Wil Wheaton - trekkies will remember him as Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Outside his acting role, Wheaton has also authored two books: Dancing Barefoot, and Just a Geek.

As for tunes, PAX 2007 is expected to dance to the tunes of The Minibosses - gamers will this band for its rock revisions of  the music of classic titles  like Mega Man, Metroid, and Castlevania. Other musical guests expected to make it to the event are The OneUps, MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton, Freezepop, The Neskimos and Optimus Rhyme.

This year's PAX will be held from Aug. 24 to 26, at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle. Ticket prices for both pre-registration and on-site registration should be available at Penny Arcade's PAX site (read link).