Independent developer and publisher IllFonic today opens its publishing arm to help small talented teams showcase and sell their games. IllFonic is independently funded and will focus on developing and publishing original intellectual properties on digital platforms.

GOG.com has signed a digital distribution agreement with Activision, expanding its catalog with a slew of classic titles, starting with Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, while more titles will be unveiled gradually in the coming weeks, DRM-free of course.

3D game engine provider Trinigy and particle effects middleware provider Fork Particle have tightly integrated Fork Particle SDK with Vision Engine’s high performance run-time technology and scene editor, VForge, which will be available as part of the Vision SDK in Feb 2010.

NecroVisioN: Lost Company is the prequel to the old-school horror FPS which covers the events that happened before the NecroVisioN story began. The game contains several unique levels, characters, weapons and gameplay elements, as well as a new main hero that tells the original game story from an opposing perspective.

Mamba Games are excited to announce that they have formed a partnership with the UK's leading DVD distribution company Lace Group (DVD and game publishing, sales and distribution business) to create a multi global video games publishing company.

Activision took home several top honors at the 2009 Video Game Awards, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 taking Best Multiplayer Game and Best Shooter, but also awards for DJ Hero, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Activision announced the appointments of former Visceral Games execs Glen A. Schofield as VP/GM and Michael Condrey as VP/COO of its newest internal studio Sledgehammer Games, currently developing a new, unannounced title.

3D game engine provider Trinigy announced that TimeGate Studios, who recently finished up Section 8, has chosen the Vision Engine for a new AAA, next generation MMO that is now in development.

Activision announced a partnership with Dr. Cheryl Olson, co-director for the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital, that will help parents and teachers optimize children's experience with video games.

Microsoft released its quaterly financial results, revealing revenue of $12.92 billion, a 14% decline from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share dropped 25%, 18% and 17%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period. However, its Entertainment and Devices division profits nearly doubled (from $159 million to $312 million), fueled by a 50% profit increase from Xbox Live and titles like Halo 3: ODST.

3D game engine provider Trinigy has signed an agreement with 3D character animation company Mixamo to provide Vision Engine licensees with a faster, more cost-effective approach for producing high-quality character animations for video games.

A witch with powers beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, Bayonetta faces off against countless angelic enemies, many reaching epic proportions. With magnificent over-the-top action and outlandish finishing moves that are performed with balletic grace, Bayonetta brings to life some fast-paced, dynamic climax combat.

Planet 51 Online is an online virtual world, where you play for free, that allows players to become a part of and explore the Planet 51 universe.

While Activision recently opened a studio in Bay Area California, and recruited former Visceral Games people for it, it seems other studios are not so lucky. Recently acquired 7 Studios, previously working on Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, had to let go half of its employees in order to "realigned its business to focus its development resources on the music genre." Long time studio Shaba Games, best know for Shrek Super Slam and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, fared even worse as "Activision evaluates the resources at our studio properties to ensure that they are properly matched to our product slate and overall strategic goals, and recently made the difficult but necessary decision to close Shaba Studios."

For the first time ever, you can customize the makeup of your band with any combination of instruments in-game: two guitars and two drums, or three guitars and a microphone, etc. while also adding new gameplay mode. Earlier today, we reported that Courtney Love is taking legal steps for unauthorized Kurt Cobain usage in GH5, but according to a statement from Activision, it has "secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5."

3D game engine provider Trinigy announced that it will be one of the first middleware developers to have built-in support for Microsoft DirectX 11 graphics processors.

NecroVisioN: Lost Company is the prequel to the old-school horror FPS which covers the events that happened before the NecroVisioN story began. The game contains several unique levels, characters, weapons and gameplay elements, as well as a new main hero that tells the original game story from an opposing perspective.

Check out the following new screens and trailers from Activision's GamesCom 2009 lineup:

• 'DJ Hero' (ALL) Gets Benny Benassi, Paul van Dyk and Tiësto Mixes - Screens
• 'Band Hero' (ALL) Gets Playable Adam Levine - Screens
• 'Tony Hawk: Ride' (ALL) - New Screens
• 'Guitar Hero 5' (ALL) Gets Rolling Stones Track Pack As Launch Day DLC
• 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' (Wii) - First Screens
• 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized' (NDS) - Screens & Trailer
• 'Blur' (PS3/X360/PC) - New Screens
• 'Singularity' (PS3/X360/PC) - 13 New Screens
• 'Modern Warfare 2' (ALL) - New Screens

Activision announced its line-up of titles it will be showing off at GamesCom 2009 (Aug. 19th-23rd), such as Band Hero, Blur, DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Modern Warfare 2, Singularity and Tony Hawk: RIDE and the LucasArts’ titles Lego Indiana Jones 2 and Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes amongst others.

Guitar Hero: World Tour will feature guitar, vocals, drums, the ability to create your own songs (and upload them on GHTunes), four-player on/offline co-op, and an eight-player battle of the bands multiplayer mode (4vs4).

Activision Blizzard posted better-than-expected financial results for Q2 2009, driven by Prototype, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty franchises, as well as World of Warcraft. However, Activision CEO Bobby Kontick revealed that Singularity and StarCraft II are getting delayed until 2010, while Mike Griffith stated that next year we can see new installments in the James Bond, Tony Hawk and Spider-Man franchises.

Revolution Software has announced a new division dedicated to creating and publishing narrative-based handheld entertainment specifically for formats which support online and over-the-air digital distribution.

3D game engine provider Trinigy has signed a licensing agreement with Robot Entertainment, former Ensemble Studios employees, to use the Vision Engine on a new, undisclosed IP currently in development.

Brütal Legend is a 3rd person action/adventure starring Jack Black in the role of roadie Eddie Riggs, who sets on an epic quest to build an army of rockers with only a broad axe, a big block V8 and his faithful guitar in hand. Last month Activision filed a lawsuit against Double Fine to stop the release of Brütal Legend claiming it never gave up the rights, and will suffer irreparable harm. DF now counter sued saying that Activision is trying to kill the game to safe guard its Guitar Hero franchise from any competition.

A witch with powers beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, Bayonetta faces off against countless angelic enemies, many reaching epic proportions. With magnificent over-the-top action and outlandish finishing moves that are performed with balletic grace, Bayonetta brings to life some fast-paced, dynamic climax combat.