Always quick with a comment, Michael Pachter has weighed in on the rumor about Microsoft buying Electronic Arts. As far as the Wedbush Morgan analyst is concerned, the rumor doesn't make any sense at all.

First, a disclaimer: this is just a rumor, so get your saltshakers ready. All set? Okay. Rumor has it that Microsoft is gunning for a takeover of video game publishing giant Electronic Arts.

A few days ago, we reported on a rumor of a motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox 360, which came complete with a features list and a picture. Today, we've got an update on that, albeit also as a rumor form, this time saying that it may even have been already demoed at the Consumer Electronics Show last year.

Ohhhhh boy... Talk about flame bait. Reuters recently quizzed various stakeholders and analysts on their take on the recession benefiting the MMO scene. With jobs being lost, a lot of folks have more time on their hands now, and that points to more play time for MMO players. So where does Pachter come in? Find out in the full article.

So why is it, pray tell, that most of the games we see today are either sequels or spin-offs? You've got Gears of War 2, BioShock 2, Resident Evil 5, Patapon 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, God of War III, Fable 2... the list goes on. Yes, from time to time new IPs pop into the picture, but they're few and far between, unfortunately. Maybe an article at Reuters can shed light on this "sequel spammage" scenario, as well as reveal some of the measures that they take to make their sequels more approachable to the general market.

New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series. Learn more after the jump.

We've just gotten a report from Reuters that points at Madden '09 songs making their way into Harmonix's Rock Band (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii). Learn more about this crossover and find out what tracks are coming after the jump!

Electronic Arts has announced that it will not buy Take-Two just yet. The company has made an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that it will wait until the FTC finishes its probe into the takeover proposal. More in the full article.

A lot of talk has been going around regarding the currently pending Activision-Vivendi deal and EA's US$ 2 billion offer for Take-Two Interactive. While it may seem that mergers and acquisitions are the current trend, THQ's Chief Executive Brian Farrell feels that it isn't a necessity for company growth. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

The first HD DVD and Blu-ray format discs were released back in 2006. Since then it's been a long and grueling war. Both sides have dished out and taken hits, and for a while there, some thought the format war would end in a stalemate. However, the HD DVD camp started losing backers in the last few months, a movement that probably started when Warner Bros. decided to go Blu-ray exclusive. Now, HD DVD has lost one of its biggest supporters, Toshiba, signaling what may be the end of the war. Read the full article to recap some of the biggest events that led to this point in the format war.

Originally posted on February 20, 2008 at 1:34 p.m.