Konami Digital Entertainment - America announced today that Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom for Nintendo GameCube and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards for Nintendo GameBoy Advance has shipped to retail outlets nationwide. Both titles include three limited edition Official Trading Cards that help to further enhance the Yu-Gi-Oh! gaming experience.

Team registrations for 50 Buy-In-Slots (BIS) to the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games Championships are now available on a first come, first served basis for $150 USD. Teams that purchase a BIS are ensured a slot in the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games Championships double elimination tournaments for a chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. The event is being held in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Thursday - Sunday, Jan. 8 - 11 in Las Vegas.

Midway Games announced today that Super Duper Sumos, the highly rated cartoon series from the DIC Kid's Network and the number one kids import from the UK, shipped today for the Game Boy Advance... Rockstar Games announced today that the Grand Theft Auto Double Pack for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system has shipped to retail stores throughout North America. The PlayStation 2 Double Pack will be in stores in Europe on October 24, 2003. The Grand Theft Auto Double Pack consists of the best-selling titles Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City...

Activision announced today that the company will be an exclusive sponsor of the 2003 Gravity Games and that NBC will use Activision's proprietary Tony Hawk's Underground game engine technology to illustrate the street and vert athlete performances during the October 12, October 19 and October 26 Gravity Games broadcasts.

The president of the Japanese software game maker, Satoru Iwata, said Friday that game consoles equipped with super-large chips and ever more functions may not be the answer for the future of the struggling games industry. Instead, easy-to-play games requiring no prior knowledge may be a better way to attract potential users, Iwata said, referring to Nintendo's surprise hit series of Pokemon software including "Pokemon Ruby" and "Pokemon Sapphire."

Some of the nation's favourite video games are to be sold in a special pack to raise money for young people's charities. The video games industry's official charity, the ESC (Entertainment Software Charity), has lined up a special limited edition games pack for the PlayStation 2 which will be in all video games stockists from 26th September.

ESCAPE 2003 Special Edition pack will comprise three titles: Commandos 2: Men of Courage from Eidos, WRC II Extreme from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and SSX Tricky from Electronic Arts.

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.

The time of year is approaching when all the movers and shakers of the European gaming world head to London to see the latest that the world of gaming has to offer. This year for the first time ECTS forms part of the newly created London Games Week, a packed schedule of gaming events taking place in the last week of August. As part of London Games Week the ECTS show is coming to Earls Court, London on 27th to 29th August and Nintendo will be there.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has sent a goodwill message to London Games Week and has praised the creativity of the games industry in general. His message comes in a week when nearly every major company has confirmed their participation in the event, set to take place in Earls Court in four weeks time.

The Mayor says in his message: "Trade shows and conferences like London Games Week have a major role to play in developing industry, creating an environment where deals can be done and new ideas are generated.

Yahoo! Games, the leading online games destination, today announced the first unlimited subscription packages for their popular Games on Demand program. Now games fans will be able to enjoy as many subscription games as they want, for as long as they want, at any time. Along with the original Three Games Package for $9.95 per month, players can now choose the Unlimited Package, which gives gamers access to all subscription games with no time limit.

Last April, Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh ruled that computer and video games had "no conveyance of ideas, expression or anything else that could possibly amount to free speech" in a St. Louis County case that sought to limit children's access to mature video games. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, saying a "particularized message" is not required when it comes to the First Amendment. Read more for details ...

Atari Inc. Friday said it had sold more than 1 million copies of "Enter the Matrix" one week after the computer and video game hit shelves in the United States and Europe. The game was released May 15, the same day as the movie it is tied to, "The Matrix Reloaded." The game includes additional footage and is one of the most expensive ever made.

The latest addition to Take Two's clutch of labels, Gotham Games, has announced that it's going to be on the look-out for new developers and games to sign up to its brand at E3 next week. The label will be showcasing three titles in Los Angeles, namely Celebrity Deathmatch, Conflict Desert Storm 2 and The Great Escape, and business development manager Juan Gutierrez will be on hand to meet with developers interested in working with the publisher.

Responding to criticism that it was trying to take advantage of the Iraq war for commercial gain, Sony Corp said on Wednesday it will not use the phrase "shock and awe" for PlayStation videogames made by a subsidiary. A U.S. unit of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc has withdrawn an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the phrase for commercial use, a Sony spokeswoman said.

The PS2 was the leading console choice for games developers according to a new survey by independent tools developer SN Systems*. More than a fifth (23%) of industry experts put the PS2 top of the list of consoles they have most enjoyed playing, ahead of other leading platforms Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft Xbox.

Infogrames, Inc. is pleased to announce that robust first week sales of the space epic sequel Master of Orion 3 have made the game the Top-Selling PC Game for the week of February 23 - March 1, according to NPD sales data released last week. The game released worldwide on February 25, 2003.

For 2003, Hasbro, Inc. delivers a host of new Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers and Tiger Electronics games that are fresh and contemporary for today's kids (both young and old), yet provide a familiar game play pattern that is comforting for all members of the family.

The world's most famous videogame character – Lara Croft makes her interactive TV debut in the UK and Ireland today, following an exclusive agreement between BSkyB and Eidos Interactive, publisher of the Tomb Raider series. Lara Croft fights her way into over 6 million Sky digital homes in exclusive new game and we got the first screen to prove it!

THQ today shipped PHANTASY STAR COLLECTION and ALTERED BEAST: GUARDIAN OF THE REALMS for Game Boy Advance. PHANTASY STAR COLLECTION, a compilation of the first three Phantasy Star games released by SEGA, and ALTERED BEAST: GUARDIAN OF THE REALMS, are available now at major retail outlets nationwide. They also today announced that Rugrats Royal Ransom for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and Nintendo's GameCube is available at retailers nationwide. Rugrats Royal Ransom represents THQ's 18th and 19th Rugrats releases in the long-running, top-selling kids' franchise.

Activision today announced the UK release of X-Men: Next Dimension for the PS2 and Xbox and the release of Rally Fusion: Race of Champions for PS2 and Xbox. Midway Games Inc. announced today that Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance has shipped for the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, the GameCube and Game Boy Advance.

With 18 of the world's most wanted games heading only to Xbox by the end of the year and almost 200 in all, it's going to be a green Christmas in Europe. Titles like Splinter Cell, Blinx, Sega GT 2002, and the Live-enabled Unreal Championship, and Mech Assault have tantalised gamers for months, and they're almost here – but only for Xbox gamers.

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.

Trekkers who can’t make it to the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas can now fix their sensors online at the first Official 3D Virtual Star Trek Convention to also check out the latest in Activision, Inc.’s Star Trek lineup. As a convention co-sponsor, Activision will be giving attendees a special sneak peek at its highly anticipated titles, 'Star Trek Elite Force II' and 'Star Trek Starfleet Command III' by debuting two new gameplay movies.

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.