The Honorable Sarah Curley, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona yesterday approved the Tulga Games’ bid to purchase the assets of Artifact Ent, the developer of multiplayer online role-playing game Horizons: Empire of Istaria.

JoWooD's Stargate SG-1: The Alliance is the spectacular interactive game expereince that puts players in the action packed universe of the Stargate SG-1 TV series. Jowood sent us a pre-canned Q&A, but nontheless a very interesting read with plenty of new info.

CDV Software Entertainment today announced that Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, the sequel to their critically acclaimed real-time strategy title, Cossacks: European Wars, is in development and is slated to ship worldwide for the PC in April 2005.

LucasArts and Sony Online have made the joint decision to increase the investment in the game development team. LucasArts and SOE are adding more people to all parts of the development team including production, project management, programming, design, art, community and QA. Over 20 new people are being added to the SWG team this month. Read the full newsblurb over at the official SWG website...

ARUSH Publishing, in conjunction with Groove Games, today announced that the highly anticipated multi-platform video game release, "Playboy: The Mansion," will feature a diverse soundtrack including music from more than 40 artists. Players can select from eight different stations ranging from hip-hop to rock to house music, setting the mood at their virtual Playboy Mansion.

Wing Simulations has released a Building SDK for its military multiplayer shooter Soldner: Secret Wars, allowing you to create your own buildings for Soldner: Secret War’s. This package includes a detailed Tutorial, 3d Studio Max Plugins, some example files, one Testmap and the documentation. Read more for download links ...

'NFL Street 2' has been completely redesigned and reinvented challenging players to change the way the game is played. In addition to several new game modes, EA-Tiburon has added a whole new dimension to the game with interactive wall moves and style catches. 'NFL Street 2' will be online for Xbox Live as well as the PS2.

Ubisoft has released the English demo for Blue Byte 3D RTS game 'Settlers: Heritage Of Kings.' featuring a tutorial and one single player mission. Fans will enjoy fully animated 3D technology and enhanced gameplay features, but still be able to relive the experience that makes the Settlers series such a big hit. Read more for download links ...

Midway announced today the development of Blitz: Playmakers, a new, unlicensed videogame exposing the harsh realism and troubling, behind-the-scenes stories of a fictional professional football league. Blitz: Playmakers has been in development at Midway's Chicago studio for the past year in collaboration with a writer from ESPN's controversial "Playmakers" TV series.

Hearts of Iron 2 presents tons of new features including a redesigned map and interface, updated battle mechanics, re-worked technology tree, fine-tuned diplomacy and trade system as well as gameplay details like co-operative multiplayer. To commemorate the 60th year Anniversary of the Ardennes offensive on Dec 16, 1944, Paradox Interactive has released a demo for its strategy game Hearts of Iron 2. This demo features the Ardennes offensive battle scenario. Read more for download links ...