Macrovision today announced the results of a gaming piracy study that shows significant losses experienced by the gaming industry due to software piracy. The surveys of 6,000 Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 users show that 21% of gamers play pirated games, but 73% would have bought the game within one month if a free version had not been readily available. This high level of piracy on console systems, which are generally considered to be secure closed systems, is surprising.

Activision and Viacom have settled their dispute over video games based on the "Star Trek" franchise. All lawsuits related to the dispute have been dismissed, but settlement terms were not disclosed. Activision sued Viacom in July 2003, claiming Viacom diminished the value of the "Star Trek" game license by not promoting the latest "Trek" series or making new "Trek" movies or TV shows. Viacom countered at the time that the suit was just a ploy to renegotiate the license.

Activision will be enlisting gamers in an all new tour of duty this fall with its latest Call of Duty game for the consoles. The company will develop the new title using its internal studios Gray Matter, the developer of Call of Duty: United Offensive, and Treyarch, creators of the popular Spider-Man series.

Trinigy and development and publishing house Destineer today disclosed the conclusion of a licensing deal regarding the Vision Game Engine. Within the scope of this agreement, Destineer will be developing currently undisclosed games based on Trinigy's Vision technology for multiple platforms.

Following Shrek 2's ranking as the #1 children's video game in the U.S. for calendar 2004, Activision and DreamWorks Animation announced that Activision will develop and publish video games based on the upcoming animated film, "Shrek 3," which is scheduled for release in summer 2007.

Activision today announced that it has acquired game developer Vicarious Visions, most recently known for Spider-Man 2 on NDS. Vicarious Visions' proven proprietary Alchemy middleware technology and tools will be combined with Activision's next-generation tools and libraries to further enhance the company's overall development efforts.

Screens from the titles that were presented by Activision at CES:

• Spider-Man 2
• Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix

Trinigy today announced the release date for the newest version of the Vision Game Engine. On the 30th of November, the development kit with the version number 4.5 will be shipped to customers all over the world.

Namco announced today the hiring of Grantley Day as Director of PC Development, reinforcing the company's commitment to its expansion into the PC games market. Day brings to Namco more than eleven years of experience in developing entertainment software for the PC, including most notably his online game development work for The Sims franchise at Electronic Arts.

Using proprietary methodology, Nielsen Entertainment and Activision will conduct a PC-based test to measure in-game product placement among a representative sample of active video game households. The test will incorporate a watermark - an inaudible audio code - that will identify how long and how often players are exposed to various products.

Macrovision Corporation has signed an agreement with SEGA Europe under which the software publishing giant will use Macrovision's SafeDisc advanced security solution on its forthcoming PC CD-ROM titles.

Today Activision is having their annual Activate press day, and we have new material from a boatload of their titles. We're starting with :

• Rome: Total War
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Star Wars: Battlefront
• Knights Of The Old Republic 2
• Mercenaries
• DOOM 3
• Call Of Duty: United Offensive
• Call Of Duty: Finest Hour
• The Movies
• Tony Hawk Underground 2
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
• X-Men Legends
• Dreamwork's Shark Tale

Activision today announced financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2004. Net revenues were $211.3 million as compared to net revenues of $158.7 million reported for the first quarter last fiscal year. Aside from the numbers, there were some details about upcoming titles and future development efforts. Extra, extra! Read all about it ...

Activision, Inc. today announced that one of its wholly owned studios, Neversoft, the creators behind the best-selling Tony Hawk franchise, is in development on a compelling new intellectual property that will bring Neversoft's world-renowned development prowess to a new genre. The unnamed title is slated for release in fiscal 2006, alongside a new game based on the Tony Hawk franchise that Neversoft will also develop for same fiscal year. Talk about being vague ...

Today we have more screens for Acclaim's 2004 E3 lineup. Check the new screens for :

• Spiderman 2 (GBA/NGC/PS2/Xbox/PC)
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
• Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)
• Rome: Total War (PC)
• Doom 3 (Xbox)
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour (NGC/PS2/Xbox)

Today the German middleware developer Trinigy GmbH announced that it just signed its first licensing deal in the Asian entertainment market. The Chinese company Tianjin Naga Digital Software Development, located close to Peking, purchased a full license of the versatile and powerful Vision Game Engine for the development of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Activision recently had its pre-E3 event showing off their lineup of upcoming titles on display at this year's E3 media convention. Some new titles are still to be announced in the coming days, but in the meantime we have screens of the following titles :

• Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
• Shark Tale (GBA/NGC/PS2/Xbox/PC)
• Spiderman 2 (NGC/PS2/Xbox/PS2)
• X-Men Legends (NGC/PS2/Xbox)
• Doom 3 (Xbox/PC)
• Rome: Total War (PC)
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (PS2)
• Call Of Duty: United Offensive (PC)

German middleware developer Trinigy GmbH just announced the licensing of its Vision Game Engine (formerly known as “Vulpine Vision”) by another game development company. Sixteen Tons Entertainment opted to use the Vision technology in its PC game title “Emergency 3”, published by Take 2.

Vision is the next stride forward in the evolution of modern role-playing games. Exceptional graphics, true-to-life NPC behavior and a finely tuned balance between raw action and deep story development are the essential elements that will make the title irresistible to RPG fans. Read more for details ...

Activision, Inc. has released a special retail edition of its blockbuster action game Call of Duty. The Call of Duty: Game of the Year edition features Infinity Ward's original award-winning WWII first person action game in addition to post-release product updates, including a new multiplayer mode and maps, EAX 3 sound support, mapmaking toolkit and multiplayer gameplay enhancements.

Macrovision Corporation announced that it will hold a first-of-its-kind "Hacker University" at this year's E3 Conference in Los Angeles – a workshop that will allow games developers to learn the tools and techniques hackers use to create "free" games and how Macrovision's SafeDisc Security API technology can be implemented to minimize this threat.

Amid surging Xbox sales and global business expansion, Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft and head of Microsoft’s Home and Entertainment Division, today announced a number of new executive appointments. Shane Kim, currently acting general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, has been named permanently to that position and will report to Peter Moore, corporate vice president. To create additional synergies between game content and marketing, Moore, in turn has been named head of worldwide content and marketing for Microsoft games and game products. Bach also announced that Mitchell (Mitch) Koch, corporate vice president, will lead Microsoft’s global retail sales efforts.

Activision, Inc. announced today that the company will work directly with DreamWorks to develop and publish video games based on DreamWorks' upcoming animated theatrical "Shrek 2" feature film.

NVIDIA Corporation and Activision, Inc. today announced that the top-selling, critically acclaimed PC game, Call of Duty, will be bundled with select GeForce FX graphics cards. Beginning today, participating add-in card vendors will offer a complete retail version of the intense, World War II-based, first person action title for free with select GeForce FX 5900 series graphics cards, delivering a stellar out-of-box gaming experience to consumers this holiday season.

Activision, Inc. is shining a spotlight on the 2003 holiday season with a comprehensive lineup of games for the entire family. The slate includes film inspired titles such as Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, groundbreaking action sports games like Tony Hawk's Underground, titles targeted toward the action gamer including True Crime: Streets of L.A. and Call of Duty, as well as a historical real-time strategy game of epic scope and breadth, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World.