ELSPA unveiled their anti-piracy plans for 2007 and they're taking off the kid gloves and taking on online and digital thieves. According to ELSPA Director">Paul Jackson, ELSPA director general, the organization is not only ready to tackle both political and public opinion battles but is "perfectly prepared to deal with the new forms of theft that are coming forward."

This year ELSPA aims to forge a closer tie with the UK Government in five major areas:

• Promoting education for new industry entrants
• Highlighting the economic importance of the UK games industry
  
• Taking a stronger stance on piracy.
• Promoting the public's understanding of the educational and social benefits of gaming
• Demonstrating the importance of games as a part of digital and creative culture

But it is the organization's anti-piracy unit that gets the most "weapons upgrade" this year. ELSPA is funneling more resources for combating online and digital theft and plans to lobby for stronger laws. In addition, ELSPA is seeking additional powers for Trading Standards, the police and Customs on the issue.

"Our aim is to a lot more in-depth investigative anti-piracy work, as opposed to the anti-piracy work... in the past. And that needs a different type of anti-piracy unit, which is what we've been constructing," said Jackson.

According to Transgaming Technologies, more than US$ 3 billion are lost worldwide to video game piracy every year.

From NPD's report "Kids & Digital Content" comes these very interesting information: even two-year old toddlers are now into videogames. The study looks closely at how kids between two and fourteen years of age acquire and use digital content for their computers, portable digital music and/or video players, cell phones, and video game systems.

NPD reported downloading and playing games is the most popular activity followed by watching downloaded movies, television, music videos or online streaming video content. The study says kids play games at an average of 44 minutes in one sitting.

By the time kids are 7 years old, more than one in 10 are downloading content in some form. In the 10-year-old age bracket, 22% of all kids included in the online survey are downloading. Half of all 14 year-olds included in the study were into downloading digital content.

How many kids with access to the Internet are actually surfing the net? The figure is a big 75%. Almost half of them are online and surfing the Internet without any assistance. Only 25% are surfing the Internet with their parents or someone else. The top sites visited by kids include Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. MySpace and Yahoo! are also fave surfstops.

"Without a doubt, kids are digital content natives, seamlessly navigating between traditional and digital sources of media without missing a step," said The NPD Group. "To kids, there is nothing new or novel about digital sources of entertainment. The real challenge for marketers is to be one step ahead of their competition, providing the content and technology kids crave."

We may have mentioned Nyko's Charge Base PS3 in passing, but now we got the features and the pic of the 4-port charging dock for SIXAXIS Controllers from the peripheral expert.

The Charge Base PS3 rapidly juices up four SIXAXIS controllers at once. The sleek, compact Charge Base PS3 plugs into any standard wall outlet, and won't stick out like a gamer's sore thumb in any home entertainment setup. When plugged in, the Charge Base charges SIXAXIS controllers simultaneously through the Mini USB ports. It also makes a handy storage place for the controllers and takes away any excuse for just throwing them wherever after a vigorous game.

Charge Base PS3 features:

• Rapidly charges 3 SIXAXIS controllers simultaneously
• Store and charges all controllers in one place
• Conveniently place in any home entertainment center
• Powered by a standard wall plug, no USB port required
• Compact design
• Keeps controllers fully charged and ready for use

We interrupt the game news with hardware "news" (more sales figures, an exec says something quotable, intercorporate politics, and questions about game format).

Parts of the porn industry may have "sided" with HD-DVD, but according to NPD sales figures, Blu-ray is still way ahead. Not that the HD-DVD Xbox 360 add-on isn't moving: the MS hardware sold an impressive 92,000 units in the last two months of 2006! But Sony's Blu-ray has sold 687,000 units in the PS3.

Still, Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner (Time Warner supports both HD-DVD and Blu-ray) says the PS3 sales figure doesn't necessarily mean Blu-ray is winning the format war. "Do I think that the game console platform is really going to drive the conversion?" Parsons said, "I don't think so. People get those things [PS3s] to play games, not watch movies."

The real winner will be determined by the sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. Or both could end up as losers with some companies opting to manufacture a compromise. Warner Brothers is fielding Total HD, a disc that can play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media. Meanwhile, LG Electronics has its Super Multi Blue player which plays both formats.

What would be interesting would be a hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-ray format. That should end all this brouhaha about which HD-DVD versus Blu-ray, so we can finally stop arguing about disc players and start talking about what matters most: game titles. Right? Right?

...But this one's not a game.

"The Sword of Oz", the first of a planned trilogy of "The Dark Witches of Oz," has been transformed into an epic fantasy adventure interactive ebook for the PC, DS, PSP, PS3, Wii, and the iPod. Yes, the iPod. The story is based on the classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.

"The Sword of Oz" is set before before the wicked witches overthrew the old king of Oz and prior to the arrival of Dorothy and Toto. Instead, it's Dorothy's future grandfather Arthur Gale who is wearing the ruby slippers, so to speak.

Gale is the character through which this new chapter in Oz’s history is experienced. "The Sword of Oz" is a multi-branching adventure and readers can pick which adventures Arthur will take on. The different paths through the narrative vary widely but also closely connected so events not directly experienced by a reader in one sitting still affect those in the adventure they choose to experience.

"The Sword of Oz", written by best selling fantasy novel author Darren Reid ,will be available exclusively at NextGenBooks. NextGenBooks is a new website where PC and console (Wii, DS, PS3, and PSP) users can access Darren Reid’s free ebook library. The Sword of Oz interactive ebook will be released on January 19. Hopefully, it will create a generation of interactive e-bookworms.

For more info on "The Sword of Oz", Darren Reid, and NextGenBooks, please click on the "Read" link below.

There are optimists who see half-empty glasses as half-full. Then there's the super-optimists who see an Olympic size swimming pool where the rest of us see a puddle. THQ is definitely a super-optimist. The company predicted its total sales for this financial year will hit US$ 1 billion dollars.

However, THQ didn't just pull that massive figure out of hat. The company raised its total sales outlook this fiscal year following the outstanding performance of its franchises such as Cars, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, and Avatar: The Last Airbender that surpassed even THQ's expectations.

At the end December 31, the company earned US$ 475 million (above the projected US$ 400 to US$ 425 million). For the fourth quarter, the company expects about $146 million in sales.

"THQ's platform strategy served us very well this holiday with stronger than expected sales of mass-market franchises... across key current and next-generation hardware systems," said a very happy Brian Farrell, the very happy president and CEO of THQ. "This performance combined with our successful original property launches exclusively for next-generation systems have positioned THQ to achieve the significant milestone of $1 billion in sales for fiscal 2007."

Yesterday we reported how MS head honchos Michael Moore and Chris Satchell ganged up on Sony calling its Playstation Network a "disaster" and claiming the company itself does not have the talent to kill Xbox Live. Now it's time for Sony to give back some lip.

In response to MS, SCEA senior director of corporate communications Dave Karraker says the PlayStation Network is far from being  the video game industry's Titanic. In an interview with GamePro, Karraker said "I would argue that consumers worldwide, to the tune of over 200 million PlayStations, PS2s, PSPs and PS3s, have decided whether or not Sony has the DNA to deliver hardware, software, and services to suit this industry."

Using Gran Turismo HD as an example, Karraker said "it points to the potential of the PlayStation Network and the kind of groundbreaking content we plan to offer."

Terra Soft Solutions will host HPC Consortium's first-ever PS3 Cell processor "hack-a-thon" on January 20-26 at the company's headquarters in Loveland, Colorado.

The hack-a-what?

It's basically a week-long event where researchers from all over the planet convene to "port science and engineering applications to the Cell processor and create the initial knowledge base of Cell-optimized code." The hack-a-thon will be composed of fast-paced coding, Cell-centric software development instruction, and personal support from industry experts.

Event participants will enjoy opening day presentations, daily tutorials, assistance and even online support from support from IBM, Mercury, and RapidMind. On top of that, PS3s, Mercury and IBM Cell products will also be available on-site. The hack-a-thon also promises to offer a creative (and comfy) atmosphere, as it will be supported by home-cooked catering, a continuous flow of warm beverages, skiing, indoor/outdoor rock climbing and a hot tub after a long day and evening of coding.

Sounds just like techno-geek heaven, doesn't it?

Anyone who wants to learn about programming for the Cell processor is invited, free of charge. However, availability of slots is limited  due to the number of available Cell systems and facility accommodations. For more info, just click on the "Read" link below!

Famitsu magazine recently revealed that Konami has decided to kill four PS3 and a couple of Wii games. The list of casualties include:

PS3

• Gradius Series
• Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball
• An untitled Action Game
• An untitled Role Playing Game

Wii

• An untitled Action Adventure Game 2
  
• An untitled Role Playing Game
  

Konami gave no explanations for cancelling the said projects. So will there be any Konami games coming to the two consoles at all? Yes! According to Famitsu, Konami will still release the following games:

PS3

• Pro Baseball Spirits Series
• Metal Gear Solid 4
  
• World Soccer Winning Eleven Series
  

Wii

• An untitled Music Simulation Game
• An untitled Action Adventure Game
• An untitled Soccer Game
  
• An untitled Baseball Game
  

The holidays may be officially history but the spirit of giving is alive and kicking at Early Miser. The world's first meta shopping comparison engine is giving away three 60GB PS3 consoles for simply registering at the site by January 25. Winners will be announced the next day.

By the way, Early Miser checks the world's top shopping engines for the best bargains. So if you're into bargains, signing up sounds like a good idea anyway. The on-line brochure carries info about hardware and accessories, games, games, and more games.

If you want to try your luck click on the "Read" link below  to find out how you can join the contest.