A few weeks ago, we reported on the killing of an MMO player over the sale of a virtual sword. Today, the BBC is reporting that Qui Chengwei has been given a suspended death sentence for the crime. The suspended sentence means Qui could spend the rest of his life behind bars, although it could be reduced to 15 years for good behavior.

EA announced today that Raymond Felton, point guard for the 2005 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Champion, North Carolina Tar Heels, will serve as cover athlete and spokesman for NCAA March Madness 06, scheduled to be released this fall.

An oft-neglected era, the age of sail has produced only a few computer games over the years, much to the disappointment of would-be Horatio Hornblowers everywhere. Because of this it is with great excitement that Shrapnel Games would like to announce the signing of Spruegames, a new independent developer who will be joining our award- winning lineup with the imminent release of Salvo. Shrapnel Games has announced Salvo! went gold and is projected to ship July 5, 2005.

MotoGP4 is the latest installment in the acclaimed motorcycle racing series, featuring realistic bike physics, licensed riders and motorcycles and adrenaline-pumping multiplayer races, the game promises to be the most complete motorcycle grand prix simulation ever.

Gamers now have one million more reasons to play the sci-fi action video game, Advent Rising, as Majesco launches its Race to Save Humanity million dollar play-and-win contest tomorrow at 8pm EST/5pm PST exclusively on Xbox Live. Each week a clue will be released, read more for the first hint.

Techland announced today that the english version of Chrome SpecForce has gone gold. The game has been sent for replication now. Official date of english version premiere will be revealed soon. Chrome SpecForce is a Sci-Fi shooter set in a far future. You become Bolt Logan, a member of the elite SpecForce military unit. Your mission - to battle terrorist factions on the desolate planet of Estrella.

Paraworld combes for the first time ever a setting never seen before with personalized unit management, it brings new life to the real-time strategy genre. Modern elements blend with primeval conditions in a long forgotten, incredibly beautiful prehistoric world. Creatures long extinct come once more to life, a constant danger to anyone living in the area. Deep Silver confirmed Paraworld's earlier reported delay, as its release was pushed back from Q4 2005, to Q1 2006.

Eidos in conjunction with Highway 1 Productions, takes an unrelenting look at urban street crime in its upcoming action video game 25 To Life. 25 To Life is being developed by Avalanche Software and will be available for PS2, Xbox and PC. Read more for new screens..

Trinigy today announced that future versions of its Vision Game Engine will fully support Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Dutch publishers Xing Interactive announce the release of Winter Sports Extreme, a magnificent snowboarding game which, logically, will be released in mid Summer! On the 14th of July the game will be available at 9,95 Euro and the currency equivalents in non-Euro countries. Winter Sports Extreme has beautiful 3D graphics and enough gameplay to last you til you can grab a board and do the real thing in Winter!

Bully follows teenager Jimmy Hopkins as he tries to survive his crooked classmates and superiors, and navigate the tricky social hierarchy at the fictitious reform school, Bullworth Academy.

Atari today announced that James Caparro has resigned his position as Atari's President and CEO, effective immediately. The board of directors appointed current Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Bruno Bonnell, to act as CEO on an interim basis.

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

• City of Villains - Dev Interview & Gameplay Trailer
• Formula One 05 - Trailer
• Pursuit Force - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Far Cry Instincts is a technically advanced gaming experience built from the ground up using the kind of cutting-edge technology that Far Cry fans will recognize from the PC title. Far Cry Instincts will ship for consoles in September 2005.

Metal Combat plans to re-invent the Fighting game genre with physics-based environments and characters, enabling fights with realistic reactions to every blow and destructible environments. The game is scheduled for release later this year for the PC and in the arcade by Solar Studios.

Spring 1945: World War 2 is drawing to a close and the Russians and Germans are caught in a furious battle for a devastated Berlin. The cold war starts... As a sniper, recruited by the OSS (former CIA), it is the beginning of a lonely stealth mission in the Russian territory. In development since 2003, Sniper Elite is a sniping/stealth game due to be released on PS2, PC and Xbox.

Blitzkrieg II is created with a new focus on fast-paced gameplay, a strategic layer and new tactical opportunities. A completely new engine takes WWII into full 3D where players can command famous aces and units, strategically plan battles in multiple theatres, choose their reinforcements and use a wide range of new unit types such as aircraft and ships. Nival Interactive is now accepting beta test sign-ups, and the actual multiplayer testing will run from June 13-27.

RedOctane announced today that In The Groove, the high-energy, next-generation dance video game, is shipping to retailers nationwide and will be fully distributed on store shelves by June 17, 2005.

Nintendo announced today that it would establish 1,000 WiFi hotspots in Japan by the end of 2005 where owners of its DS portable game machines can play games with others online for free.

Activision is not only working on a Call of Duty sequel for the PC, but also on a sequel to last years Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One will be set during World War 2, has a tentative holiday season release date. Previously Activision mentioned it would be showing "two" new Call of Duty products, so besides the CoD2 for PC, this may be the second one.