We've been following this story for quite some time now. Australia is currently debating a new R18+ rating, which would allow more mature games to be released in the country uncensored. The established maximum rating of MA 15+ has been a pain for both the gamers and those producing the games. Now there's a paper that citizens can weigh in on and retailer EB Games is the latest to support the new, more mature classification. Caught up? Good.

In addition to the roadblock of the Australian Attorney General, it would seem the R18+ rating now has another hurdle to overcome: The Australian Christian Lobby and its head, Jim Wallace. In an interview with GameSpot, Wallace equates violent video games to his time spent in the SAS, comparing soldiers' use of simulation exercises and routines as a way to break their "natural reluctance" to kill an enemy. By making these games more lifelike, he thinks the average citizen will be less hesitant to perform these violent acts outside the confines of their television screens and computer monitors, something he says isn't "in the individual's interest, and it's not in the community's interest."

Wallace also had some choice words for the ongoing public feedback phase of the proposed R18+ rating. He says "the only people who are going to be into this are the games people" -- y'know, the people affected by all of this.

[Via Game Politics]

The online multiplayer portion of Cyan Worlds' Uru: Ages Beyond Myst has had about as troubled a past as video games can have. It never made it out of its beta stage when Uru first launched in 2004. Three years later, GameTap opened up servers for the game -- but a lack of subscribers led to them being shut down after just one year. Earlier today, the developer proved its persistence by re-launching the game once more; this time, as a totally free-to-play MMO.

So, once more, with feeling -- you can download and sign up for Myst Online on the game's official site for zero dollars. After that, you and all your friends can start running around, touching glyphs and magic books to your heart's desire.

[Via Big Download]

We know we've already been diligent in keeping you abreast of the status of Bear McCreary's epic soundtrack for Dark Void, so consider this our penultimate update on the topic: The game's score is now available to download through iTunes, Amazon and a number of other retailers. It's very, very good. If you have some extra cash lying around, and enjoy the occasional non-lyrical musical offering, you should purchase it post-haste.

In addition, you can consider this our final post in which we proclaim our musical man-crush on Bear McCreary. That is, until he reveals the next game he's working on, at which point we'll probably pick right up where we left off.

While the big fellas struggle to figure out how to make digitally distributed content profitable, smaller dev houses like RedLynx are handily succeeding. The Trials HD developer claims to have moved 1.5 million digital units worldwide (of all of its games) in 2009, though, as RedLynx itself points out, "most RedLynx games have also free promotional web versions available, bringing the company's key titles to an even wider audience."

Aside from putting out the Summer of Arcade XBLA release Trials HD last year, the Finnish company also made Monster Trucks Nitro on PC and a couple of iPhone games, assuredly assisting that 1.5 million statistic. CEO Tero Virtala looks forward to the coming year, saying things look "even better," and adding that RedLynx is "bringing 8-10 new games to market." We really, really hope the company brings more copies than that if it wants to move past 2009's sales. Come on, guys -- simple math!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Here's the emergency incident message as well.

Listen up, game industry, the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- E3 to the kids -- is kind of a big deal. If you want your company to be a part of it, it's time to get on the ball, as the Expo has revealed that 90 percent of its floor space has already been booked. And seriously, like, everyone is going to be there when the show opens June 15. We're expecting some new Zelda, plenty of PlayStation Motion Controller and Natal talk and, of course, lots of new games. If that's the kind of company you want to keep, it's time to register. That goes for you retail and press types too, as attendee and media registration is now open as well.

Incidentally, Joystiq Publishing is currently soliciting sponsors for floor space. As a no-profit publisher -- it's not that we don't want profits, we just haven't made any yet -- we're looking for a forward-thinking, capital-heavy company to bring our MEGA E3 booth design to life. The current blueprint calls for six full stories of action-packed exhibition rooms, a pizzeria and a ball pit in the center courtyard. We're willing to compromise on the sixth floor (it's mostly Wii shovelware), but the ball pit is non-negotiable.

With a previous appearance in Rock Band as DLC, it's no surprise that known face melters Lamb of God are apparently creating an original song for the upcoming Iron Man 2 game, now scheduled for release on May 4 (just three days before the film's release).

"The music of Lamb of God definitely evokes the intensity of Iron Man action," explains Sean Ratcliffe, veep of marketing for Sega. Meanwhile, Lamb of God's drummer Chris Adler says that some of the band's members are "real game and comic fans," making them all the more excited "to play the game and hear our music as Iron Man kicks a**." Us, on the other hand? We're going to take full advantage of the soundtrack swap function and rock out to some even edgier P.O.D. jams upon the game's release. It just really makes us feel so alive, ya know?

The latest issue of Famitsu reveals (via IGN) that two of the series' classic characters are coming to Mercenaries Reunion in Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition: Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers. Both characters made their first appearance in the original Resident Evil game, but haven't exactly been strangers to the series ever since.

Rebecca co-starred in Resident Evil Zero, while Barry enjoyed an extended role in REmake and was Leon's sidekick in Resident Evil Gaiden, the Game Boy Color game. Barry also played a pivotal role in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

Frankly, we're all for bringing these two back, but only if we get oddly apologetic Rebecca and soft-spoken Barry.

If you bought Mass Effect 2 and you like being on the winning "team" when it comes to game trends, high five. According to DFC Intelligence, BioWare's latest spacefaring adventure sold an estimated 1.1 million copies (of the Xbox 360 version) in January -- six times the sales of any other game. Estimating game sales based on GamerDNA activity, DFC also believes that there was a significant uptick in play of Mass Effect as well, "likely supported by the ability to transfer a save file from a completed Mass Effect game into Mass Effect 2 where several key player decisions in the first game could be carried over into the second game."

The other leading Xbox 360 sellers in DFC's estimate include Darksiders (150,000), Bayonetta (170,000) and Army of Two: The 40th Day (175,000) -- with Dark Void somewhat of a surprise bomb (22,000).

Before the live Joystiq podcast recording, before the Blueberry Muffin Tops Breakfast, and before ... you know, all the news, the festivities of PAX East have to be kicked off with proper keynote address. Appropriately enough, the first-ever east coast iteration of the con will be introduced by the man who led the opening ceremonies of PAX 2007 -- child star, adult star, writer and world-renowned D&D cognoscenti, Wil Wheaton.

If you're curious about what to expect from Wheaton's speech during the almost-sold-out expo, we suggest checking out his speech from three years ago. We imagine it will be in a similar style as that, only ... beardier.

The previously Xbox Live-exclusive Ghost Recon: Future Soldier trailer has found its way onto the YouTubes. As expected, it's a lot of CG and absolutely no gameplay -- with a final title screen promising release in "Fall 2010." One item in the teaser, however, did manage to excite us: Invisibility. It looks like every future soldier gets one of those special Harry Potter blankets. Neat!

Head past the break for the teaser.

Continued →

Accessory company Mad Catz released its earnings report for the third quarter of its fiscal year (ending December 31, 2009), with numbers that suggest its wares are selling like mad. Net sales came to $48.8 million, which is "the second-best quarter of sales in the company's history." Profits increased 51 percent over the same period in the previous fiscal year, a change Mad Catz attributes to its movement out of low-price controllers and into higher-end specialty accessories. Hello $150 FiightStick!

In its announcement, Mad Catz also listed the controllers and accessories it plans to ship in the near future. In addition to the new Super Street Fighter IV "Tournament Edition S" FightSticks (pictured above), the release also reveals plans to sell a new Super Street Fighter IV edition of the standard FightStick. It's as of yet unconfirmed if the standard stick will be given a new layout and shell like the superified Tournament Edition stick, or merely new artwork.

Ubisoft's current focus to iterate its "major franchises" seems to expose its key brands to franchise fatigue and, with it, dwindling sales -- just look what happened to sales of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk when Acitivsion implemented a similar strategy. However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot remains unconcerned about so-called franchise fatigue, as he emphasized today that the publisher's goal is to "increase and come out more often" with games.

Speaking during a financial earnings call for investors, Guillemot expressed his belief that Ubisoft has taken plenty of time to develop the next installments in the Driver, Ghost Recon, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell franchises -- development time that will ultimately result in more iterations in less time, in turn improving brand visibility and training consumers to expect these franchises more often, and plan their gaming budgets accordingly. He also pointed out that sales of these upcoming titles should boost sales of their franchises' legacy games.

Of course, with that said, Guillemot re-emphasized that quality is still important and that the company has invested (and continues to invest) in building game engines and tools that can be used for the next 10 years. The CEO noted that Ubisoft development teams our given enough time to ensure very high quality work, continuing that Ubisoft "takes those elements into consideration."

Giving a speech at the deliciously-named C.C. Lemon Hall in Tokyo, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino revealed that the developer has unannounced Wii and PS3 games in the works.

The developer's current lineup is heavy on DS and mobile titles (including Professor Layton games, Ni no Kuni, and Fantasy Life), with one known console game: the followup to the PS3 role-playing game White Knight Chronicles. One of the unnamed Wii titles could be Inazuma Eleven Break, a console soccer RPG whose platform was never specified. Dragon Quest X, whose Wii development was confirmed by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, but whose developer was never named, is also a possibility. But this is all conjecture, since Hino said nothing other than that there were some new Wii and PS3 games.

[Via Andriasang]

If we've learned anything about LEGO Universe, it's that the game should not be dismissed. Yes, it's an MMO aimed at younger gamers, but did you see the trailer? Whether you did or not, you need to watch it right now. We've embedded it directly above this post. There should be a play button right in the middle. Click it. We'll wait.

Now, having seen that, know this: The LEGO Universe beta is now accepting signups. We suggest you head over to the signup site and sign up immediately. Unfortunately, no one is guaranteed a slot in the beta so, while you're waiting on confirmation, why not check out some footage of the actual game in action? After that, you can start refreshing your inbox like mad.

[Via Massively]