A few years back Spanish Commandos developer Pyro Studios created Ilion Animation Studios to get foot in the door in the movie industry, and it has just secured a $60 million deal with New Line Cinema for Planet 51, written by Shrek's Joe Stillman, scheduled for March 2009. Pyro Studios are developing a game based on the movie, presumably on Wii, PS2, X360, PS3 and PC. You are Capt. Charles "Chuck" Baker, an astronaut unwittingly invading Planet 51, who has to avoid being captured, recover your spacecraft, and return to Earth. Both projects are tentatively scheduled for March 2009.

PAIN is much more than a game, it’s actually a creative, user-driven comedic experience that presents players with the unique opportunity to control and capture the irreverent style of humor found in television shows such as Jackass or Viva La Bam. The game boldly tackles a rarely explored area of video-gaming… comedy.

The Chronicles of Spellborn is an MMORPG set in the Enclave of the Five Sacrifices. Developed by Dutch studio Spellborn, previously known for Alpha Black Zero, it uses the Unreal 2.5 Engine. Players can customize, tweak and tune their fighting characteristics whichever way they like, by using a wide variety of “Sigils” that can be attached to the character.

EA announced the winner of the 2007 EA SPORTS Craftsman Nascar Challenge, Brandon Coppinger. After five rounds of virtual racing at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Coppinger beat out his competitors and won the $10,000 Grand Prize and bragging rights as the #1 NASCAR 08 video game player in the country.

SEGA is developing the video game adaptation of the theatrical movie release, The Golden Compass, based on the first book in the award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy, by British author Philip Pullman.

Based on better than expected consumer response to its holiday titles, Activision is raising its outlook from the previously estimated $1.05 billion to an expected record net revenue of $1.23 billion, driven by Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4.

Microsoft has released the fall backwards compatibility update, adding 84 original Xbox games that you will be able to play on your X360. At the time of writing it may not yet available on Xbox Live, but you can always download it here, and burn it to DVD. Titles of note are Burnout 2, Syberia II, Test Drive, and a ton of old NFL, NHL, MVP, NCAA, Nascar sports titles.

Announced way back in 2003, Microsoft Train Simulator 2 provides the opportunity to command a 200-ton modern diesel locomotive or operate a steam-breathing behemoth from the past.

SC2: Weapons and Warfare incorporates a huge list of fan requested new features, including a bigger world map, new units, enhanced naval movement and combat rules, a deeper weather model, additional terrain types and resources, the simulation of roads and railways and a greatly extended editor.

CoD 4: Modern Warfare is a new action-thriller that will arm gamers with the most advanced and powerful arsenal of modern day firepower to fight a new war in the world’s most treacherous hotspots.

Playlogic has won the legal proceedings in copyrights to the game Ancient Wars: Sparta. So has decided the District Court of Amsterdam in the case of Playlogic Entertainment against developers WorldForge/Visionvale from Cyprus and Burut from Russia.

Sudden Strike Next7 is a generic RTS engine to be used in subsequent games in the Sudden Strike series and other games from Fireglow. Fireglow is also developing thorough documentation in order to license the engine to third parties.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific takes players to the depths of the Pacific Ocean as the skipper of an American submarine. Ubisoft has released a new v1.4 patch adding new graphics features, several gameplay changes, and the usual bugs and crash fixes...

Virgin Comics announced a partnership with Perspective Studios to co-create and develop a diverse slate of original intellectual properties. The goal of the collaboration is to create a compelling portfolio of new characters and franchises for exploitation in multiple formats, including comic books, mobile content, video games and feature films.

Midway Games announced NBA Ballers: Chosen One as the next installment in its NBA Ballers franchise. The fast-paced one-on-one and two-on-two action returns as players can select from more than 65 NBA superstars to be the next "Chosen One".

Another day, another batch of games shipped to stores. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are announcements for:

• Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (PC)
• Geometry Wars: Galaxies (NDS)
• 
  We will update this throughout the day when new announcements become available. Read more for details ...

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom will take the franchise in a new direction as developer BLUESIDE and series director Henry Lee plan to create a truly next-generation action-RPG, departing from their well-known action-RTS formula.

Myst is an immersive experience that draws you in and won't let you go. You enter a unique setting, venturing alone to varied times and places, the worlds that compose Myst. There are no instructions, and you encounter no living beings but soon realize your actions may help individuals who are somehow trapped in a parallel dimension.

Nikitova Games announces two new IP titles are currently in production and planned for release in 2008. CCTV where you play the role of a surveillance officer using Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and police cars to catch criminals, and Mind Games is a selection of 21 mini-games based on the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery.

CoD 4: Modern Warfare is a new action-thriller that will arm gamers with the most advanced and powerful arsenal of modern day firepower to fight a new war in the world’s most treacherous hot spots.

Originally announced at the X06 media briefing, scheduled for release early 2007, Codemasters has finally confirmed that the Xbox Live Arcade edition of its 90's classic lightning-fast football game Sensible World of Soccer will launch Dec. 19, 2007.

In 2008 the strategic orientation of the Berlin based publisher points towards next-gen consoles as, in addition to PC products, The Games Company will be extending its portfolio with titles for Nintendo’s Wii console and for NDS.

Syphon Filter: Combat Ops expands the multiplayer experience presented in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, by adding mission and combat modifiers, map editing features, and the ability to share user-generated content.

Rock Band allows you to perform famous rock music with your friends as a virtual band using drum, bass/lead guitar and microphone peripherals, as well as online. As previously announced, Harmonix has released a downloadable song pack with three new David Bowie tracks (Moonage Daydream, Queen Bitch and Heroes).

Dementium: The Ward tells a twisted story with gruesome 3D visuals and FPS gameplay. The game's interactive narrative reveals the puzzling nature of a strange hospital frozen-in-time, and introduces a cast of peculiar characters.

Fury is a competitive online RPG mixing MMO elements (combat, advancement and teamwork) with FPS (instant action, fast pacing and diverse game types.) Age of the Chosen is a free content update and brings many improvements and enhancements, as well as introducing additional game types and maps.

SEGA's Universe at War: Earth Assault, developed by Petroglyph, is a combat-intensive RTS game enlisting players in an epic struggle to prevent total alien domination of planet Earth. Valve announced that Universe at War will be available through Steam the same day as retail, Dec. 5, 2007.

Set in a violent Middle Ages based scenery, 2Moons is GameHi's free to play fusion-fantasy 3D MMORPG game. Dead Front is a recurring team-based event, in which up to four parties compete in an assault on the impregnable Pokas Fortress built by the Serpent demons., kill off the boss demon, Ophiuchus, and then survive a free-for-all team PvP battle.

Guns of August is a WWI turn-based strategy game putting you in command of waging war at a grand strategic scale from Paris to Baghdad. The entire Western, Eastern, Italian and Balkan fronts are included as are the three fronts of the Ottoman Empire.