The Red Baron was first known to have been rated by the ESRB back in April, and was later on confirmed to arrive on the PSN on September. However, there rings out an eerie absence of the game's presence, and it's looking like it's also a casualty of the Activision-Vivendi merger. What gives? Find out after the jump.

A bit of bad news has arrived regarding the entity that's now known as Activision Blizzard. The company sent out a press wire announcing that only five of Vivendi's games are expected to be published, leaving the future of the company's other titles in question. Further details are available in the full article.

*Update* Ghostbusters is still in development.
*Update 2* Brutal Legend has also left limbo.

Not long after Grand Theft Auto 4 (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3) rocked the world, and a few weeks before Metal Gear Solid 4 does the same, we're left with several decent titles that can't be dubbed as mere distractions. This week marks the release of Myst on the Nintendo DS, while Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is set to build a kingdom on the Wii. The rest await at the full article, so hit that jump!

* Article originally posted May 12, 2008 at 12:05AM

If you enjoyed the last Nordic Game conference and are looking forward to this year's event, we've got some news for you. Quite a number of big name speakers will be sharing their thoughts at the Business and Production part of the program. To find out who will at the event, head on over to the full article.

Vivendi recently confirmed its Q3 guidance, and it racked up performance with accurate ties to market analysts' expectations. Apparently, their guidance also falls in confidence with observers in the business market, reassuring investors that its full year outlook is on-track.

Though the conglomerate-like Vivendi ran through Q3 of fiscal year 2007 with flying colors, its own video game publishing segment holds a success story in itself. Vivendi Games' performance also grew with the rest of the corporate umbrella. Read on to find out why.

Activision has just sent out a press wire announcing their recent purchase of UK video game developer Bizarre Creations. As some may be speculating, could the purchase be a sign that the studio's in some sort of financial trouble? That doesn't seem to be the case, based on a complementing announcement made by Bizarre's Ben Ward over at the studio's official site.

Ward explained that the move was made so that the studio could push for the development of even better games in the near future. In light of the sale, Ward also explained how the arrangement between Bizarre and Activision was going to play out, specifically regarding their ongoing work on Project Gotham Racing 4 and The Club:

• Bizarre Creations continues to exist as is. We won't become Activision Liverpool or anything like that.
• We will have absolutely no redundancies.
• All of our teams continue to exist exactly how they are at the moment. Amax team (PGR4) and Shitstorm team (The Club) will move onto new games, whilst our Shared Technology team will use this opportunity to take our experience and tech to new levels and new formats.
• The Activision way of running things is "hands off". Bizarre continue to have creative control over what we do, we still run the studio how we see fit, and we still get to run our own web site and do all sorts of fun community things! :)

So, could this new relationship mean we'll be looking at a multi-platform port of PGR4 in the near future? We're not too sure, although Ward noted that the the aforementioned Amax and Shitstorm teams would each be working on two new titles for Activision - one a racing game, the other a character game. And while there weren't any exact details on these new projects (much less a name), Ward did state that more information will be unveiled in the near future. And in case you're wondering, here's what Ward said about how their Bizarre's current titles will be handled:

What about the now? Firstly, Geometry Wars will remain unaffected; we'll continue to expand and advance the series just as we were going to do before. The Club will still be released with SEGA, Geometry Wars Galaxies will still be released with Sierra, and PGR4 will continue to be supported after its launch in October. No massive changes here then...

PGR4 for the Xbox 360 is currently scheduled for an October 12 release in the UK, while The Club for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC is expected early next year. We'll let you know if this news bit picks up any further updates - especially regarding Bizarre Creations' two new mystery projects.

Did Sierra Gamer's Week '07 get you wet yet? If not, be ready to cream your pants (so to speak) due to their latest installment, Wet (Xbox 360, PS3). Don't let the title give you any ideas, because this game is a solid third-person shooter with a good mix of sword swinging action. Find its first trailer below.

Info on the game is slippery, but we do know that the girl in the bathtub is named Rubi. We see a lot of her crazy moves, which you can find on the first high-budget Asian action film you can think of. Our well endowed babe is a gunslinger who can do fancy kills with a katana.

Wet seems to be set in Mexico, but with a twist of Hong Kong flicks. Prepare to get wet and wild! Here's the video:

The industry-focused leg of the Games Convention at GCDC 2007 will take place">Leipzig is expected to break its previous record of 650 attendees, after Leipziger Messe GmbH announced through press wire that the registered attendee tally for the 2007 event has hit 850 attendees. The Games Convention Developers Conference (GCDC) will take place on August 20-22, just before the consumer and retailer exhibition.

 

Hailing from 35 countries all over the globe - 60 percent from the North American and UK regions - participants have the opportunity to witness the delivery of more than 80 event keynotes from over 120 speakers. And representatives from their respective industry segments - namely handheld, mobile, console, PC, Mac, and online markets - will expound on visions, themes and issues relevant to the industry's times.

Although much of the planned discussions will be focused on the industry side, there will also be discussions on how society and political bodies can properly recognize the gaming industry, and the significance of associations representing the game industry to the outside world.

And in another note, Leipziger Messe has particularly named Tim Schafer of Double Fine Production (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts) to deliver his keynote speech entitled "Games and Creativity," adapted for the new age of game development. If memory serves us right, Schafer and his studio has been secretly at work on a game project under Vivendi's revived Sierra Entertainment label.

It was claimed to be titled "Brutal Legend", but that has been under question for some time since it was retracted. But if former Leipzig revelations are were groundbreaking, then you may count that fellow blogger Schafer will spill more details on his ambitious "labor of love."

The 2007 Games Convention Developers Conference opening remarks will be delivered by none other than the Chairman of the European Games Development Forum (EGDF), Fred Hasson. More GC and GCDC news coming your way, before the Leipzig-filled week begins next Monday.

For a game so faithfully tied to the motion pictures, Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) was designed to be anything but a movie game. San Diego-based High Moon Studios spoke to The Hollywood Reporter recently, and it was discovered that while the game picked up the Jason Bourne from the beginnings of "The Bourne Identity," it was designed to stand on its own two legs, separately from the movies.

 

"We started off almost making a straight 'Bourne Identity' adaptation," said chief creative officer Emmanuel Valdez. In the eyes of third-party onlookers, it would have been a wrong decision: the first movie premiered in 2001 -  the same year Robert Ludlum passed away - which was quickly followed with the second installment premiering just a year before the game development started.

"We knew we didn't have enough time to build a quality 'Bourne Ultimatum' game and come out with it at the same time as the movie. So we decided to do things differently, something new," Valdez stressed, and so it became that The Bourne Conspiracy would have to make do on its own. And yet it had to be original, but intimately close to what fans of the movie - the potential customers of the game - recognize from the big screen.

Striking a balance between the two, coupled with unavoidably difficult negotiations between the intellectual property owners and the creative force, was often the undoing of movie-based games. But Ludlum Estate, holders of the Bourne IP, made a choice that sealed the game's blockbuster potential.

They chose to hire a creative consultant to advise them during the game's development, and they selected independent game producer Matt Wolf, an industry veteran from Electronic Arts and SEGA Entertainment. "Head-butts" involved in the creative process were easily smoothed out, and it turned the movie hero into a hero perfectly sculpted for the video game scene.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy will touch Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers by mid-2008 and will be released under the newly revived Sierra label of Vivendi.

About a few months ago, Saber Interactive is a video game developer based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. They focus on first person shooter games. It released the game Will Rock in 2003, and is currently developing another game called TimeShift.">Saber Interactive's TimeShift for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC got pulled into the proverbial wormhole for some major design revamps. Aside from several tweaks to the game's mechanics and graphics, the team was also going to integrate the Havok 4.5 physics engine, which was hoped to bring out even more of the game's potential.

Now, in case you're wondering how the title's looking in light of its overhaul (and previous trailers), we've pick up a new gameplay trailer for your viewing pleasure - and it's just in time for E3 2007.

Currently published by Sierra Entertainment, TimeShift is expected to launch this Fall. Keep an eye out in case we hear more details.