The Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs’ (MDTCA) raided an illegal pirate game duplication lab in the southern Malaysian city of Johor Bahru earlier this week, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals and confiscation of thousands of pirated computer and video games.

EU: Rome will cover the time period from the first Punic War to the start of the true Empire. Players will have thousand of gameplay choices ranging from country, culture, provincial and character options etc., making each and every game infinitely customizable and unique.

Splash Damage, known for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, plans to double the size of its London-based studio, and is currently seeking to fill key positions for its next project – an unannounced multiplatform title - with vacancies in core roles such as art, programming, and design.

Lost Planet is a sci-fi action shooter set within the merciless frozen tundra of a hostile planet, humans struggle for survival as conflicts arise between man, the surrounding indigenous creatures and the monstrous beings that have invaded.

Goin' Downtown, using Silver Style's Toon shading technology, takes you to a futuristic metropolis to take up the challenge of an exciting point-and-click adventure. You are the charismatic hero Jake, who earns his living as a mediocre and frustrated cop in the year 2072.

While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences inducts Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and bestows Lifetime Achievement Award upon Ken Kutaragi, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, BioShock and The Orange Box each picked up four statues during the awards ceremony.

Developed by Razorback Developments, game designer Dr Reiner Knizia is an expert in algorithmically generated logic problems and has over 300 board games and books to his name. Now he has created a collection of ingenious challenges for all the family.

Crystal Dynamics has made Tomb Raider Underworld more realistic with fluid movements due to motion capturing. Set a few years after the last game, it also features persistent destruction and lush locales across the globe. Lara gets muddy in the game, but with the weather system, rain will wash it away.

For the first time you will have the freedom to define your own character, story and style based on the choices you make, the paths you choose and the style of skating you use on the proving grounds from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Washington, D.C.

Sony has rolled out new PlayStation Store content, starting with Go! Sports Skydiving ($4.99) skydiving simulation game, the classic PSOne game Crash Bandicoot: WARPED ($5.99) for PS3/PSP, a free MotorStorm Chinese New Year Skin, new Rock Band content (Calling Dr. Love – Kiss, We Care a Lot - Faith No More, and Roam - B-52s, $1.99 each). A multiplayer demo for Capcom's Lost Planet, as well as various game/movie trailers, PS3 themes and wallpapers.

Valve today announced that its digital delivery platform Steam has surpassed 15 million accounts and realized year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season.

Hornet Leader PC allows gamers to take to the skies and experience the tactical thrill of commanding some of the most elite aircraft in the world in historical/plausible missions with fantastically realistic equipment and enemies. This new demo includes the same Syrian air skirmish as the original demo but brought up to date with the latest 1.02 update code.

Euro Truck Simulator is a truck simulation game where you can drive across a realistic depiction of continental Europe, visiting its beautiful cities, from Rome to Berlin to Madrid to Prague, picking up a variety of cargo, and delivering them on time!

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

• Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath [X360/PC] - Trailer #3
• FIFA Street 3 [ALL] - Donovan Trailer
• Sam & Max 203: Night of the Raving Dead - Gameplay Trailer
• This is Vegas [PS3/X360/PC] - Trailer
• 
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

During a D.I.C.E. Summit panel discussion, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime revealed a list of titles that got canceled over the past few years, showing they are not afraid to axe titles when they aren't working out. While the most recent Starcraft Ghost is not on the list (maybe it's been revived?) Blizzard mentioned titles like Warcraft Adventures, some fantasy title called Raiko, Nomad featuring two giant zeppelin airships, Games People Play, Crixa, Shattered Nations, Pax Imperia and Denizen (thanks Firingsquad).

Silverfall is a fantasy RPG set in a world of magic, machines & mayhem, the choices you make during the game take you along the path of nature or technology. The Earth Awakening addon features an updated engine with improved gfx/performance, 2 new races, over 50 new pieces of armor, 42 new weapons, 20 new maps, and optimized multiplayer.

Activision's conf. call revealed quite a few new titles in the works, most scheduled for fiscal 2009 (anywhere from April 2008 - March 2009). New titles in franchises such as: Spider-Man, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Call of Duty, a makeover for the Tony Hawk franchise, the eagerly awaited James Bond (using an updated Call of Duty 4 engine) and titles based on Dreamworks movies Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar II. Giving credence to yesterday's Guitar Hero IV rumor, Activision confirmed two new Guitar Hero titles are in development, but declined to give details.

Myst is an immersive experience that draws you in and won't let you go. You enter a unique setting, venturing alone to varied times and places, the worlds that compose Myst. There are no instructions, and you encounter no living beings but soon realize your actions may help individuals who are somehow trapped in a parallel dimension.

Theatre of War depicts authentic battles of World War II between 1939-1945. Command hundreds of different unit types in 5 historically accurate campaigns (US, UK, Soviet, German, French and Polish). This demo features a new, advanced line-of-sight system, radically improved performance and enhanced AI behavior. There is an all-new playable battle taken from the new German Panzer Lehr campaign in addition to five playable tutorial missions.

Activision announced that it had record net revenues of $1.48 billion and net income of $272.2 million for fiscal Q3, respective increases of 80% and 90% over the same period last year, far exceeding their expected revenue of $1.23 billion. This success was driven by strong sales of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, Shrek The Third, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers: The Game. Activision has increased its fiscal outlook to net revenues of $350 million for Q4 and $2.65 billion for the 2008 fiscal year.

Earlier today, industry rumors claimed that Viacom was planning to buy Take-Two for $1.5 billion. The match seemed to make sense, as Viacom owns Dreamworks Studios, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures, and Take-Two has game rights to many MTV and Nickelodeon IPs. However, unnamed sources have since refuted those rumors, and both companies are remaining mum. We'll report back as soon as there's confirmation one way or another ....

Video game publisher Mastiff announced today that it has acquired the Major League Eating (MLE) license. Major League Eating: The Game features the world's greatest gurgitory athletes competing across 12 different food types, and it will be built much like a fighting game.

Bully: Scholarship Edition tells the story of 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins as he experiences the highs and lows of adjusting to a new school. Eight new missions, four new school classes (biology, music, math and geography), new unlockable items and clothing, new two-player off-line minigames, new awards and Achievements.

Paradox Interactive's Penumbra: Black Plague, the final chapter in the Penumbra story, thrusts players into a creepy environment of psychological horror, as they are challenged in this unique action/adventure experience. The demo includes the four first levels of the game.

Interstellar Marines is an FPS, sci-fi, action and adventure game with an original and unpredictable storyline featuring single and cooperative gameplay, with heavy focus on realism. Zero Point Software informed us they will be showing a playable demo of Interstellar Marines to selected publishers on the GDC.