Paradox Interactive announced three new free-to-play online games that will launch on the Paradox Connect platform in 2011. The titles, Salem, Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, and Hearts of Iron: The Card Game were revealed late last week in New York City at the annual Paradox Convention.

bitComposer Games is officially announcing the creation of bitComposer Online, the aim of the division is to develop, sell and distribute online browser games.

In recent years, the game market in Asia has exploded driven by online games and virtual goods Now these trends are rapidly coming to the rest of the world. A new Research and Markets report predicts that the MMO market will grow from about $800 million in 2009 to over $3 billion by 2015.

China's video game industry regulator the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and copyright watchdog issued a circular on Saturday prohibiting foreign investment in domestic online gaming operations through joint ventures, wholly owned enterprises and cooperatives, while also disallowing foreign firms from indirectly influencing gaming firms through agreements or technology support.

The online games market grew more than 63% to reach $2.8 billion in 2008. A new study by Pearl Research forecasts the online games market in China will exceed $5.5 billion in 2012.

Thriller New Media is specifically focused on creating and operating MMOGs centered on military- and espionage-themed topics targeting first person shooter (FPS) and action gaming experiences.

SOE has signed a publishing agreement with PopCap Games that will bring five hit titles to the PlayStation Network, starting with Bejeweled 2. Fan favorites, Zuma, Heavy Weapon, Peggle and Feeding Frenzy will become available shortly thereafter.

Infogrames announces the formation of a new in-house game development studio based out of London, with focus on innovating and developing mass-market consumer games and services for online-enabled devices including PC and consoles.

A new “Games Market in Korea” study finds that approximately 67% of Korean users in their 20s purchase paid digital content, with one of the fastest growing segments being casual games, that are free-to-play, easy-to-learn and can be played in “micro-slices” of time of ten minutes or less. Current forecast indicates the online games market in South Korea will exceed $1.7 billion by 2011, driven by new releases and an ingrained gaming culture.

A new pan-European games ratings initiative has been launched to make online gaming safer and to help boost parental confidence in the online games industry. The PEGI rating system is now to be expanded to include games playable online via consoles, PCs and mobiles.

Electronic Arts plans to make an equity investment in Korea-based online gaming company, Neowiz Corporation, and expand the existing co-development and publishing relationship with that company.

Bigfoot Networks will bring to market the world’s first Gaming Network Accelerator card, which will allow online gamers to play their favorite games with less lag. Lag is the number one problem in online video games today, and Bigfoot Networks is the only company in the world whose sole mission is to fight lag.

High-performance computer manufacturer Alienware opened a new digital download store providing quick and easy access to purchasing, downloading, and playing the latest PC games.

Founded by 3 key development staff from Climax Online with over 20 years experience in the creation of console and Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Games, newly formed Monumental Games are currently working on a brand new MMO and looking for licensees for their MMO middleware called TitanAT.

Electronic Arts today announced the March launch of four new games on its Pogo.com (free) and Club Pogo (subscription) online game sites. This highly-anticipated launch will include the extremely addicting new version of Poppit!, the multi-player bingo-scratcher game of Lottso!, and two new adventurous card games, 6th Street Omaha Poker and Casino Island Blackjack.

AXcess News (www.axcessnews.com) released a story describing how a sagging online gaming industry got a boost recently by Microsoft when the Redmond-based software maker announced it had lowered the price of its Xbox console and added more software titles.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE) announced today that it is finalizing plans to create SOEGames.net , an online game matching service that will allow gamers to find each other and battle it out across the Internet. The first games to take advantage of SOEGames.net will be Lords of EverQuest and Champions of Norrath, two upcoming Sony Online Entertainment titles. SOEGames.net will also be the first game matching system designed to host both console and PC games.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. today announced development agreements with Lodestone Games LLC and SolWorks to create original gaming content to be published by SOE. Lodestone and SolWorks will be creating two independent, as-yet unannounced games; further product information will be revealed at a later date.

Emerging video game platforms are poised for rapid growth, as a confluence of factors enables advanced multiplayer experiences on consoles and PCs, improved games on mobile phones and other handheld devices, and simple, yet engaging interactive TV games. According to a new study commissioned by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and carried out by Screen Digest, spending on these emerging services by European consumers will grow from Euros 127m in 2001 to Euros 6.5bn in 2006, a growth of over 5000 per cent.

G3 Studios, a developer and publisher of video games for handheld devices, Pocket PC and other platforms, today officially announced the launch of "infinifiles.com", the company's new online games distribution portal. infinifiles.com is poised to become the premier destination for game players around the world to find and buy the latest games for handheld devices.