Bejeweled developer PopCap Games has opened a studio in San Francisco, California, to complement its Dublin, Ireland and Seattle, Washington headquarters. The new studio will serve as a regional hub for PopCap's game design and development activities, tapping the wealth of software engineering and artistic talent found in the area.

Turbine is pleased to announce the first module for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. The Dragon's Vault module will provide players the opportunity to battle the dangerous Vault of Night that is protected by a ferocious guardian – the red dragon!

The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript is a major adventure and investigation game, the first game created about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. It offers players the opportunity to grapple with the mysteries of the codes hidden within the works of the great Italian genius.

Dungeon Runners is a fast paced, action RPG experience where you take on the role of a brave hero and explore dangerous dungeons, battle ferocious monsters, and discover unique items! Your hero can adventure alone or team with a party to hunt terrible monsters and reap fantastic rewards.

Atari today announced that its Hollywood-style action driving game Driver: Parallel Lines has shipped to retail stores worldwide. Driver: Parallel Lines offers an open, fast-paced driving action-movie experience and features an unfolding storyline of double crossing and revenge.

SCEA announced today the release of its PSP exclusive Neopets: Petpet Adventures - The Wand of Wishing, an action adventure role playing game served up in "bite-sized" gameplay sessions that entice players to progress through the larger story.

Nival Interactive today announced it has established its global headquarters in the United States and recruited an executive management team comprised of American video game industry professionals, including Kevin Bachus, co-creator of Microsoft's Xbox, as chief executive officer. Nival plans to expand into the console and mobile games market.

SCEA announced today the launch of its PSP exclusive title Daxter, taking players through the Jak and Daxter universe through the eyes of Daxter as this time around, Daxter drops his sidekick image when he finally fulfills his lifelong dream of becoming the action hero.

Atari today announced that development is complete on Eugen Systems' Act of War: High Treason. The expansion pack for its techno-thriller RTS Act of War: Direct Action comes loaded with new features including modern-day naval combat and mercenaries.

Far Cry Instincts Evolution will introduce players to an entirely new story, characters and game features that reflect and improve upon the critically acclaimed elements of the first title.

Tony is back in a brand-new adventure with modern 3D-graphics. However, Tony Tough 2: A Rake's Progress is no sequel, but a prequel – it takes the player back into Tony’s youth, into the year 1953, when Tony was 13 years old.

French Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres knighted Ubisoft's Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil and King Kong, along with director and general manager of Nintendo EAD, Shigeru Miyamoto and author Frederick Raynal as knights of arts and literature for their outstanding achievement in video games. France's Order of Arts and Letters recognizes eminent artists and writers who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update to Steam client, Source Engine, Half-Life 1 engine and Counter-Strike Source. This update allows you to join the Friends Beta, fixes a Counter-Strike exploit, reveals results of the hardware survey, improved HL2 filesystem addressing stuttering, and a few other Steam client fixes. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Rogue Trooper is a mix of intense 3rd person action and next generation stealth elements, with complex line-of-sight AI, multiple game paths, full tactical use of your bio-chip operated equipment and both single- and multiplayer online gameplay.

Last week US District Judge Claudia Wilken threw out Sony's appeal of a 2005 ruling that ordered it to pay Immersion $90 mill. due to patent infringement allegedly incorporated into Sony's controller, including its Dual Shock. This decision hits hard as the upcoming PlayStation 3 also features said technology in its controllers. A spokesperson said it had already appealed to a US Court of Appeals and procedures there are under way, denying out-of-court settlement talks are being held.

Is this where it all starts? The past few days rumors have been abound, initiated by Koei's President Kiyoshi Komatsu, but today Sony has confirmed that on March 15th, at 3PM Tokyo time, it will kick off PS Business Briefing. Open to the press and industry specialist, this conference may very well be the first actual showcasing of Sony's PlayStation 3, and additional rumors even mention a major PS2 announcement, including a possible price drop. We'll have more details when the conference starts...

RedOctane announced today that the English PAL version of Guitar Hero has gone gold and is ready to ship to outlets across UK, Scandinavia and Benelux on April 7th. Finally, gamers will have the chance to fulfill their dreams of being a rock god on stage, minus the stage and actual god status – unless, of course, they master the tricky Expert difficulty level.

Wizards of the Coast today announced it would make available PayPal as a new payment option for Magic Online, its multiplayer online collectable digital objects game experience. The new payment option will be available as of today.

NCsoft and Massive Incorporated today announced a strategic partnership to integrate dynamic in-game advertising. Explore a post-apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis and even tanks, battle other players both in arenas and in epic race vs. race wars for control of the regions in a devastated Earth.

Another day, another batch of game trailers was released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for:

• Gekido [PSP] - Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...