Ever since the first ever Mario game was released, Japan has been the center of the video gaming world. Heck, two of this gen's consoles are based in Japan. However, Ryan Payton, (former) Assistant Producer at Kojima productions, believes that times have changed, and Japan no longer seems to be the center of video game development. Details in the full article.

The allegations on Fox News that Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 had pornography in it sparked a lot violent reactions from gamers. Interestingly enough, Jack Thompson has let the issue slide saying that he has no problem with the game and that the comments made about it were uninformed. Head on over to the full article for the complete story.

Following through the night event held by Electronic Arts after their announcement of a new Simpsons game (still a working title), we were treated earlier to a little verbal illustration of what we could expect from the game. While this title has been announced for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, PS2 and DS, it seems IGN pegs this game to be also coming to Simpsons fans on the PC.

Now we've got a very short visual snippet of what's coming for the game, straight from the writing staff, including The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening. In the game development team's bet to make this new title "not just another Simpsons game, but 'The Simpsons game,'" they have put a lot of work into making sure the game will entice new and old Simpsons fans alike.

With just a few short seconds of gameplay coverage in the video, at least we can put some pictures to words that Kotaku's Brian Crecente has penned. Spoofs of games (see if you can spot and name a few shown in the video immediately below) are just a few of the laughs we're expecting from this new installment.

Click on Full Article for an extra video interview by GameTrailers.

Actually, just a little bit more of the game, than what was revealed in Electronic Arts' rocking announcement covered yesterday. In fact according to Kotaku's Brian Crecente, who attended the Electronic Arts night gathering, the little previews and information that was spilled at the event sounds like this Simpsons title might just be the type of game we've been expecting from the franchise.

Electronic Arts, avid fans of the series, had thought about bringing the series back into a game for years.

Coupled with an original story - driven by the writers behind the popular cartoon series - around 8,000 lines of dialogue and 60 minutes worth of full motion video, the game is set to give gamers a more comical look at the game industry, while presenting the best of gameplay fans could expect of a Simpsons game.

The premise of the game, where the entire Simpsons family suddenly finds themselves inside video games, leaves Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart into a series of different games and situations, poking satirical fun at the game genres and issues the world game community sees today.

The game will be sporting "drop in, drop out" cooperative play, although it is pretty certain that the game will not sport that feature with online aspects than the proposed hotseat aspect. The original cast of the show have joined in to do the voice work, reassuring you get the authentic atmosphere and comedy the series brought to your living room.

Crecente gives a few verbal snippets of what you can expect from the Simpsons game, as demonstrated through the early levels shown at the event. We wouldn't want to spoil the mood and get it all here, so we'll lead you to that particular coverage via the "Read" link below.

Last week, Jack Thompson had spoken on FOXNews about the Virginia Tech shooting, saying that video games were somehow linked to the worst shootout in U.S. history. Later on, upon catching a video of ace attorney's said stint on the new channel, Brian Crecente of Kotaku did a bit of analysis and dissected Jack Thompson's statements on TV.

And with that article, Crecente seemed to have gotten the attention of Jack Thompson himself. It goes that Thompson asked Kotaku to pull down Crecente's "dissection" article, but Kotaku declined to do so. The following note was then faxed by Thompson to the FBI in Colorado:

Dear FBI:

This web site at the below url is targeting me:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/virginia-tech/

breaking-idiot-thompson-blames-va-shooting-on-games-252702.php

I ask that something be done by the FBI to stop this or prosecute it:

Kyle81 says: Actually the VT shootings are now the biggest mass shooting in US history with 31 dead, not just school shooting. Jack should be shot for taking the opportunity to leech off a tragedy to push his own agenda 04/16/07 03:25 PM

Regards, Jack Thompson

Crecente has contacted the said agency and was told that "it was unlikely they would handle such an investigation, if one was even needed, but that the local police might look into it."

Photo from Kotaku reader Torokun.

First of all, we offer our condolences to the Crecente family. For the guys wondering what this is about, it will be remembered that on February 15 2006, 18-year-old Jennifer Ann Crecente - niece of Kotaku's Brian Crecente - was shot and killed by classmate Justin Crabbe in Southwest Austin, Texas.

Brian's brother (and Jennifer's father), Drew, eventually set up Jennifer Ann's Group - an NGO designed to help spread awareness regarding teen dating violence.

Now, in light of this group's activity, we are letting the gamers know about four ongoing auctions at eBay, whose proceedings are to fund this movement. The items under auction were donated by Nintendo and Seagate to Kotaku, and include a Wii Gift Pack, a DS Lite Gift Pack, a Nintendo Swag Gift Pack, and a Seagate 750GB external HD. All groups interested in helping the movement out (and bagging themselves some sweet new hardware) can check out each of the pack details below to see what's up for grabs on eBay:

• Wii Gift Pack
• A brand new Wii console (including a Wiimote, a Nunchuk, a stand, a sensor bar, and a copy of Wii Sports.)
• Extra Nunchuk controller
• Wii Play (includes extra Wiimote controller.)
• A Wii Messenger Bag
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves
• Excite Truck
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• A Nintendo notebook
• Nintendo paper shopping bag

Details for the DS Lite, Swag, and Seagate Packs are available in the Full Article

Microsoft has released an official response to earlier reports of the rumors that Bungie.Net was hacked and that a portion of Xbox Live was taken over. Supposedly the hack enabled gamer tags to be controlled and points can be acquired (stolen) via the hack or purchased through the controlled accounts.

A Microsoft representative said to Kotaku's Brian Crecente that they are currently investigating concerns and that no security breach of Bungie.net or Xbox Live accounts has been found. The official response is as such:

Recently, there have been reports of fraudulent activity and account theft taking place on the Xbox LIVE network. Security is a top priority for Xbox LIVE, and we are actively investigating all reports of fraudulent behavior and theft. Any customer with a question about the security of their Xbox LIVE account should contact 1-800-4-MY-Xbox, and an Xbox Customer Service Representative will help them understand our security policies and procedures.

It can be recalled that a few days ago, Kevin Finisterre, a security researcher at Digital Munition, has claimed that from his experience with Microsoft customer support, they were "more than negligent in dealing with this issue," and that he was on the phone with a supposed Microsoft Tech and he claims that the tech confirmed with him that "Hackers have control of Xbox live and there is nothing we can do about it."

ZDnet's Ryan Naraine has noted that according to Finisterre, a group called Infamous Clan is offering to hijack Xbox Live accounts and have been boasting about successful account theft. He claims that several Xbox Live users have confirmed with him that stolen accounts have been used for underhanded purposes.

Major Nelson says in his blog that despite the reports and the speculation, he would like to reassure that they have found no evidence of any compromise of the security of the Xbox Live Network or Bungie.net. He notes that there have been a few isolated incidents where malicious users have attempted to acquire the personal information of unsuspecting users and use it to gain access to their LIVE account. He says that it's mostly been cases of identity theft, and not outright overtaking of the Xbox Live network.

Not a good rumor to spread, especially now that the Sony PS3 EU launch is looming. It's not the hacking that hurts Microsoft here really, it's word that their customer support has been sub-par and negligent. The good thing here is that they've got Major Nelson to reassure their community.

We'll update you if more information on the matter is made available. Stay tuned.

There's been a lot of talk surrounding Sony's new PlayStation Home service ever since Phil Harrison demoed it at GDC. Well, actually, the talk started even before that with Kotaku's Brian Crecente breaking the news all over the Intertubes, but that's neither here or now.

Anyway, quite a few people have already gone and labeled the PlayStation Home as a rip off of Nintendo's Mii system, including a Ninty spokesperson who said that it's "an example of Sony's 'Mii-too' approach." While the two do share a few similarities, Sony's PlayStation Home does have a few aces up its sleeve, most obviously its more advanced online world and avatar creation features.

Before we all go and pass judgment on the PlayStation Home, though, maybe we should all just sit tight and wait for it to actually go live. Or, if you're impatient, you could just click on the "play" button in the embedded GameVideos video below and check it out for yourself.

Hey,after that entire blackballing, then "sorry it got that far, let's just agree to disagree" thing, you know we ALL were waiting for this. Kotaku's Brian Crecente sat down with Sony's Phil Harrison for the ten-minute one-on-one that almost didn't happen. Most of it as dedicated to details of the high point of Phil's keynote, PlayStation Home.

Towards the end of the ten minutes, there were a few minutes to talk about Sony's bad PR issues, and hey, maybe our last description of Phil as "humble when he wants to be" does hold water (begin quote):

Crecente: I think it is not an arguable point that you can say that there has been this sort of backlash against Sony.

Harrison: Yeah.

Crecente: Where is it coming from?

Harrison: You know what I would rather do, because time is short today, I would rather spend our time talking about the future, things going forward. The launch (Ed's note: US/Japan) has been the launch. It's about to happen in Europe, I'm really excited about that.

Maybe even more water. At the beginning of the interview (begin quote again):

Crecente: OK, I guess the first question is judging on the...

Harrison: Congratulations on your New York Times performance by the way.

Crecente: I was shocked at that.

Harrison: I'm very proud of you.

To be fair, the full interview on Home can be read at the Read link, but we think we covered the one important point here. Dang, Phil, you are more surprising than a ginormous jack-in-the-box in Times Square. Yeah, it's all PR goobley (the interview was conducted with a Sony PR rep around), but even then, this isn't just "agreeing to disagree."

Kotaku's Brian Crecente brought up a good point, and thus we ask: how in the Forerunner's name could this have slipped under the radar? He asked Microsoft game development manager Chris Satchell about backwards compatibility, and the reply was that Microsoft's team was still on it, but:

"At some point we're going to focus less on it... When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."

Did back-compat drop in Microsoft's priority To-Do list? The justification that there are so many 360 games out there has to sit with another statement Chris made earlier: 50% of 360 owners don't own the original Xbox. From that perspective, it's like saying that as the market composition changes, the original Xbox segment becomes a smaller minority, and sooner or later, it'll probably be more effective to redirect resources on back-compats to other endeavors.

But then that brings up one question legacy Xbox gamers will ask: so, when or how many of our favorite games will be back-compatted before the axe falls (specific games dependent on each gamer's preferences)?

Oh well. Chris also said that XNA Studio Express is getting wide usage - we won't be surprised if, after Microsoft dims the lights on official backwards compatibility, and people still clamor for it, someone starts working on a homebrew Xbox emulator for the rest of the library. Unless that takes an exploit for it to work, or something, which starts raising some very uncomfortable questions... Just wondering.

And if you want to start the countdown now, well, start with January's back-compat update.