The European Union (EU) took a big chunk out of Nintendo's assets as the video game company was recently levied a fine of €149.1 million (US$ 232 million) due to price fixing issues. The court filings from the commission mentioned that Nintendo failed to pay "particular vigilence" in preventing price collusion with distributors as their role as producer. For more details regarding this story, check out our full article.

What would you do to protect minors from violent images? For the European Union, that would mean coaxing the video game industry to come up with a widely-accepted code of conduct for that very purpose. The EU has set a deadline for that, too. More politics follows after the jump.

If you're a video game developer, wouldn't it be great if the government were to give you a 20% tax rebate on all of the games that you produce?

That's exactly what UK developers are thinking, and they're urging their government to seriously consider implementing tax breaks to support the UK games industry. Their example is, of course, France.

More taxing details after the jump!

With the issues of global warming and ozone layer depletion still hanging over our heads, it's good to know that people are still trying to find out ways on how to reduce traffic, specifically by reducing the public's reliance on cars and promoting public transportation usage.

Such is the case with Daventry, a Northamptonshire town in the UK that is experimenting with a self-driving vehicle termed the Cybercar.

The Cybercar offers the best in public transportation: push-button convenience, windows with a view, and no grumpy driver to contend with. The driving is done by a computer, one smart enough to use lasers to avoid obstacles and the like on the road.

This adds another layer of protection, considering that the Cybercar itself is only built for short trips at low speeds.

The demonstration of the Cybercar, the end result of Daventry collaborating with European Commission group Citymobil, is situated on the town's Eastern Way, where the vehicles can be seen zooming around in a test track. The demonstration itself ends on October 5.

As for the rationale of the Cybercar demo, Daventry District Council leader Chris Millar says, "We can build lots more car parks and have lots more cars going in or we can look at a viable alternative to the car. We believe this could be the answer."

Carry on, the little Cybercar that could. Chalk up one for the folks of Daventry!

Just because it's big doesn't mean that it's invincible: Microsoft, creator of the widely popular Windows operating system and the Xbox 360 console, had its request to overturn a 2004 anti-trust ruling rejected by the European Court of First Instance.

The court ordered Microsoft to honor the March 2004 commission order, which required Microsoft to ensure that its products will work with other systems. A US$ 689.4 million fine was also placed for allegedly abusing their dominant status over the market.

The official statement delivered by the European Union has stated the following:

The court has upheld a landmark commission decision to give consumers more choice in software markets. Microsoft must now comply fully with its legal obligations to desist from engaging in anti competitive conduct. The commission will do its utmost to ensure that Microsoft complies swiftly.

Many are ecstatic with the European Court's ruling, and considers the ruling a victory for the software market. "This is an incredibly huge victory. The doors are kept open now for competition," said Carlo Piana, a lawyer representing the Free Software Foundation Europe.

Looks like that's one anti-trust case over and done with for the European Commission (for now, at least). With high-profile cases like the unofficial HD-DVD and Blu-ray probe, the EU Commission doesn't have much time for rest.

In a move that seems like a breath of fresh air within the gaming industry in general, the French Ministry of Culture has just recently announced that their government shall be offering tax credits to local game companies.

As part of the effort to encourage local developers, French Parliament has approved the proposal to offer the mentioned tax credits to "producers of video games 'with a cultural dimension.'"

With this benefit in place, a company's production costs may be reduced by up to 20% a year, with a maximum of up to €3M (about US$ 3.91M).

In a statement that the Ministry of Culture has released, they have noted that this move was prompted by the fact that they have recognized the increasing cultural significance of video games, and that they are hoping that the implementation of these tax credits would keep video game production within France, and maybe eliminate the need to outsource in other countries.

The statement also mentioned that this movement "recognizes the cultural character of the video game, which involves several branches of artistic talent: writers, directors, graphic artists, musical and sound creators."

In the meantime, the European Commission is already examining the proposed measure, which is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks.

On a side note, we can't help but wonder about two things: did the self-appointed Prime Minister of video games, Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres have a hand in all of this? And does this spell more rabbids (Rabbids: published by Ubisoft: based in France) for the rest of the world? Hmmm...

If the German Government has its way, we could be looking at an EU-wide ban on violent games. It has taken the initiative to the European Commission's justice minsters, requesting for more control over violent gaming across the 27 countries in the Union.

"A certain degree of linkage between the growing violence among the younger generation and the growing diffusion of violent games exists," said European Justice commissioner Franco Frattini during Dresden meeting last Tuesday.

In connection with their initiative, the German Government announced it was conducting a study of each of the country's rules governing video gaming. The study is hoped to help establish a centralized ruling system.

"The Commission wants to see a combination of outright bans on the most violent games, together with minimum age rules on other titles," Frattini said.

In related news, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe objected to the proposed ban. While they agreed on Frattini's reiteration of protecting children from bad influences, they strongly proposed an age-rating system much like in movies instead of outright prohibition

It will be remembered that Bavaria's Gunther Beckstein had made a similar statement, when he called for the ban of violent games like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty 3 in Germany last year. Consider this your latest news from the country that's brought us Heckler & Koch, Mauser, Walther...

The European Commission has recently launched an unofficial antitrust investigation into the two emerging DVD formats that will be sported by two of the battling next-gen consoles-- the Toshiba-supported HD-DVD on the Xbox 360 corner, and the Sony-backed Blu-Ray on the PS3's side.

Both formats, who are fighting for next-gen audio-visual format dominance, will be probed by the commission because they suspect that the licensing terms both are applying for breach European competition rules. A spokesperson for the commission who wants to maintain his anonymity said that "we sent a letter earlier this month to the makers of HD DVD and Blu-ray to request information about licensing,”

Apparently, Sony had already confirmed that they have received the said letter, but on the other side of the fence, the Toshiba camp has not spoken anything about it. The replies of the companies will be very important since these will help the European Commission determine if they will open a hassling and full-time antitrust probe or if they would just drop it.