With the recent controversy golfer Tiger Woods has found himself embroiled in, Forbes National Editor Michael Ozanian believes that the biggest name in golf is done being a pitchman. Ozanian claims that companies like Electronic Arts, which publishes the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series, will drop Woods "regardless of what they are saying now."

Well, we were actually curious to hear what EA is saying now, so we contacted the publisher. A spokesperson for the company informed Joystiq, "There is no change in our marketing strategy for the franchise. Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged."

Site Gamerinvestments.com believes there's "no way" EA is going to drop Woods. Its logic: "There is simply no other golfer that EA Sports can replace him with and there is no way that they are going to stop making one of their most successful games."

OK, everyone, let's gather in a circle and repeat: Oh, lords of downloadable games, please guide PixelJunk Shooter to sales. For now is the time of retail and PJS has been released into the wastes. May it find an audience in this unforgiving time.

Meanwhile, PSP Go (and normal PSP) owners have some downloadable games and even a couple PSP minis to choose from. Check out the full PSN update after the break.

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Today's 39 layoffs at Rock Band-developer Harmonix represented 13 percent of its staff, Joystiq has learned in a follow-up with MTV Games. The publisher expressed that Harmonix, its QA department and support positions were built to accommodate the 2009 worldwide release schedule. The developer will now shift to a "combination of temporary/part time help, outsourcing and support from external partners -- which is in line with how other game developers manage their QA departments."

When asked if this restructuring was precipitated by sales of The Beatles: Rock Band, a Harmonix/MTV Games spokesperson told Joystiq, "No. This was a process and business decision unrelated to the performance of any MTV Games / Harmonix product. MTV Games and Harmonix are very pleased with the sales of our Rock Band titles and we expect to continue to see strong sales throughout the holidays across all of our titles. The Beatles: Rock Band has sold over 1 million units worldwide to date. Again, the reason for the restructuring is due to better aligning our staffing to best suit our product development plans and schedules moving forward."

MTV Games also wanted to make sure that it was clear that "no future projects were affected by the restructuring."

Mass Effect 2 is bound to have some recognizable actors, what with 90 actors voicing 546 characters with 31,000 lines of dialogue. EA revealed today that the cast includes ... oh, by Grabthar's hammer, here's the list:

• Martin Sheen (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez's dad) -- Illusive Man commanding Cerberus
• Shohreh Adhdashloo (sexy voice lady from FlashForward) -- Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay
• Seth Green (hand in your geek card if you don't know) -- Joker
• Yvonne Strahovski (wiener lady, lust of Chuck) -- Miranda Lawson
• Adam Baldwin (a man named Jayne... or the man they call Jayne) -- Kal 'Reegar
• David Keith Keith David (Halo's Arbiter) -- Admiral David Anderson
• Michael Dorn (Star Trek TNG's Worf) -- Gatatog Uvenk
• Tricia Helfer (2020 Oscar winner after people stop treating her like meat) -- EDI, voice of the "new Normandy"
• Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh) -- Captain Bailey
• Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from The Matrix, singular, no sequels exist -- especially not Revolutions) -- Aria T'Loak

We also can't forget Jennifer Hale, who is reprising her role as the real Commander Shepard, nor Mark Meer, the male Shepard and known expert at cutting the council off at weird times.

MTV Games has confirmed to Joystiq that 39 positions at developer Harmonix were eliminated today. The move was part of a restructuring to "better align [the] staffing to best suit [Harmonix's] product development plans and schedules moving forward." The publisher claims that "those affected were primarily in QA. The others affected ranged from administrative to other various roles within the company." At least one staff designer seems to have fallen under the "other" category.

Although Electronic Arts has a partnership with Harmonix, these layoffs are "totally and completely unrelated" to EA's issues.

Update: MTV Games/Harmonix answer some follow-up questions.

With a second year of major layoffs at publisher Electronic Arts, questions about morale and investor perception surround the company. EA CEO John Riccitiello told IndustryGamers that in the case of morale, those who survived "understand the logic, they agree with it and support it and think we're a stronger company for the moves." The exec stresses that those who remain are "all excited about [EA's] move into digital and direct-to-consumer" -- something that may not have been true when he brought up the strategy two years ago.

Riccitiello also feels that there was a lot of bad press relating to EA's Q2 results -- the one with all the layoffs -- and that "a lot of negative articles were written that entirely missed the point that [EA] felt [it] had a great first half ... sometimes people almost believe more what they read in a newspaper than what they hear from their own company." In fairness, that seems rather understandable, given recent events in corporate America.

Popcap Games, developer and publisher of broken homes, recently filed a trademark for Robodojo. The trademark, dug up by Superannuation, doesn't sound as intriguing as YetiTrain, but mixing robots and dojos sounds almost as intriguing as zombies and -- erm, plants?

When contacted for comment, a Popcap representative told Joystiq, "We don't comment on such things, sorry. As you know, our games take years to build, so this one, if indeed it ends up using that [trademarked] name, is still quite a ways away." Yes, yes, that's all fine and good, but as a public service we need to let the Drug Enforcement Agency know whether it should be keeping an eye out for YetiTrain or Robodojo.

Apple's iTunes store has listed the best-selling and top-rated apps for this third-to-last year of humanity's existence. It appears the big boys of game publishing are doing quite well on the App Store, with the ten top grossing games making room for only one independent studio. Gamasutra states Firemint's Flight Control, with its 99 cent price tag, sold 1.5 million copies and grabbed the number seven spot.

The top-rated titles have much more indie spirit, as Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Real Racing and Zenonia wrap up the top three spots. Check out the lists for both categories after the break.

[Via Gamasutra]

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As noted by PS3Trophies.org, it appears that more Borderlands DLC is imminent. The five recently added Trophies point to three coliseums, called The Angelic Ruins, The Gully and Hell-Burbia, all of which appear to have "lesser" and "larger" challenges.

Eurogamer mentions that Borderlands Creative Director Mikey Neuman was all set to reveal something on Twitter, but it appears the marketing powers changed the announcement to a "later occasion." Publisher Take-Two seems happy with the success of Borderlands and critical reception to the game's first DLC pack, The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned. Reaching out to 2K Games about the DLC, we were informed, "No official announcements have been made regarding future Borderlands DLC at this time."

[Via Eurogamer]

The Guardian reports that the British government will likely reject the Games Tax Relief proposal. According to the paper, the video game industry "contributes more to the UK economy than the film industry," yet doesn't receive the same assistance from the government.

All of this is leading up to Tiga, the UK's trade association for the video game industry, either owning the role of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" or Cassandra of Greek mythology. The organization claims that 1,700 jobs will be lost without tax breaks and that competition from other countries, like the US, France, and especially Canada, is too strong. Dundee and Manchester are to receive a £10 million cash injection from the government, but that probably pales in comparison to government tax relief. It appears that Tiga is going to have to take a gamble on the Shadow Lords soon.

[Via Edge]

Come to think of it, this game sounds an awful lot like a hybrid of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model. Seriously, how are we supposed to learn to walk properly on a Wii Balance Board without Ms. J telling us that we're plodding along like a drunken elephant or a tweaked out drag queen with a case of the twirls. Anyway, good luck, designers. Make it work!

A recent LA Times article explores the "why" of the Screen Actors Guild's dispute with game publishers over pay for voice actors in video games. The main issue in the contract dispute is the "atmospheric" provision, which allows the client to use actors in 20 voice roles, up to 300 words, at the "daily base rate" of $800 for four hours of work. The article singles out 38-year-old Dave Wittenberg, who has done extensive video game work and earns about $30k a year.

Amy Hennig, director of Uncharted 2, kind of lays out the feelings of many in the video game industry. She expresses that employees of studios may receive discretionary bonuses, but aren't "going to have a lot of sympathy for actors who want back-end residuals." She continues, "That's why we're talking two different languages when we sit down at a bargaining table."

The SAG proposal seems to acquiesce on the contract the publishers want, but asks that actors who play "principal roles" (think Nolan North) who drive the narrative forward would receive the same fee for three characters and double if they do six to 10 voices in six hours. As actors become more important in the video game industry, expect this issue to grow. Optimistically, if actors begin receiving residuals, it may bleed into development -- a terrifying notion for publishers.

[Via GamePolitics]

Lance Henriksen, who was most memorably cleaved asunder as android (ahem, "artificial lifeform") Bishop, will see another continuation of his Aliens film role in Rebellion's Alien vs. Predator game. Henriksen plays Karl Bishop Weyland, the descendant of Weyland-Yutani corporation founder Charles Bishop Weyland. The 69-year-old actor is happy with his virtual likeness (seen above) and is quoted as saying, "I might score from this game!" Joystiq is quoted as saying, "Maybe if it's from a facehugger, Lance."

Considering Henriksen's appearance in one of the most gore-riffic scenes in film (at the time), we should reiterate that Aliens vs. Predator will release in February 2010 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC -- in countries that don't require toned-down violence. Rebellion has stated that it will not be "releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices." Sorry, Australia and Germany.

A "rally" in Brisbane, Australia in support of an R18+ rating for video games attracted approximately 50 people -- so maybe more along the lines of a "gathering," then. But let's not dwell on the meager turnout, let's focus on the intent and message, which GamePolitics reports was uploaded to YouTube (1, 2, 3, 4). Speaking at the event were Nicolas Suzor of Electronic Frontiers Australia and Ethan Watson of Treat Us Like Adults. Thankfully, it appears nobody was doing cosplay, a tactic that a previous rally considered implementing.

The first priority of the groups is to have Commonwealth Minister of Home Affairs, Brendan O'Connor, release the R18+ discussion paper that the "censorship ministers" have been slow to make public. Yes, a report on censorship is being censored. South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson had previously tried a political maneuver to bury the report and put the debate on an R18+ rating on indefinite hold.

[Via GamePolitics]

UK video game industry trade association TIGA delivered a petition today to 10 Downing Street (that's where Her Majesty ... oh, it's just the British Prime Minister's residence), seeking the introduction of Games Tax Relief. The petition was signed by 55 "senior industry figures," which gives the proposition a bit more weight than the standard internet plea. The argument set forth by Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, is that "if it is right to provide tax relief for the UK film industry then it is also right to provide tax relief for the UK video games sector."

TIGA's push on the UK government is being framed as a matter of survival for the British games industry. The organization previously stated that 1,700 jobs will be lost without tax breaks and that the current government funding structure for the games industry is "incoherent." If TIGA doesn't receive assistance soon, the group can always accept the outstretched hand of assistance from the ominous-sounding "Shadow Cabinet."