[ Original Source - 1Up.com ]

Tomonobu Itagaki, creative director of Ninja Gaiden, announced that he would be leaving Team Ninja as well as suing Tecmo.

Quote from Itagaki’s announcment letter…

I, Tomonobu Itagaki, hereby announce that on the 14th of May 2008 I filed a complaint in the Tokyo District Court against Tecmo Co., Ltd. for unpaid completion bonuses, and against the President of Tecmo, Yoshimi Yasuda, for such unlawful acts as unreasonable and disingenuous statements made towards me, claiming damages in total of 148 million yen. I also announce that this complaint was delivered to the defendants on May 22nd of the same year. In addition, I hereby announce that I have today submitted a letter of resignation to Tecmo Co., Ltd. stating that I will resign as of the 1st of July, 2008.

Before the start of development on Dead or Alive 4, Tecmo Co., Ltd. had agreed to pay a completion bonus to me for this Xbox 360 title, which I produced. However, when the time came for the actual payment, Tecmo Co., Ltd. went against its previous agreement and refused payment. President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me ‘if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.’ In addition, he made demeaning remarks about me to my subordinates and colleagues, causing me significant emotional distress and worsening my personal relationships and work environment. Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo Co., Ltd.

In addition to his announcement, Itagaki also had a letter to the fans…

To All Game Fans

I truly feel sorry to all the fans of the games I have made. Ninja Gaiden 2, which will launch on the 3rd of June will be the last Ninja Gaiden I will create. I will also never be able to make Dead or Alive 5. I regret the circumstances that have forced me to leave Tecmo, where I had worked for so many years, and I regret the disappointment this will cause my fans. However, I can no longer continue to work with President Yoshimi Yasuda, a man who chooses not to honor promises even when he is able to do so. I truly hope that nothing like this happens again in the future.

1UP.com also notes that there are rumors of Ikagaki believing that Yasuda had put too much focus on making profits and less on quality.  They also suggest that the Tecmo ports of Rygar (Wii) and Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3) could possiable be targets of Itagaki’s anger.

[ Read the whole article on 1Up.com ]

As being reported on a number of website including Destructoid and Kotaku, EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) are refusing to bow to the demands of Konami when it comes to how they handle their Metal Gear Solid 4 review.  How are they handling this: by not reviewing it at all.

Metal Gear Solid 4, for those who don’t know, appears to contain one of the most lengthy cut-scenes in a video game clocking in at around 90 minutes.  In addition, MGS4 reportedly has one of the longest install processes on the PS3 to date.

[ From GameSetWatch.com ]

It’s not the Metal Gear Solid 4 “review,” although that’s generating the most discussion online — the editors decided against giving out scores due to “the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments,” so they just printed a five-page roundtable instead, one mostly filled with praise but also throwing a few jabs (the control system’s not as good as Splinter Cell’s! Oh noooooo!). It’s not even the “Gun Show” spread, where they ask military advisor Hank Keirsey for his take on the Gunblade, the Gravity Gun and other fanciful video-game weapons — hilarious stuff.

Great TF2 Machinima

Team Fortress 2 – Meet the Red Team from Laurence Oliver Chase on Vimeo.

One of the WoW Machinima Wonders of the World, Oxhorn, has released his latest production “Associate Professor Evil Kills All Ninja Looters” and within the day it has hit the front page of Digg.com.  My suggestion, show your support, watch the video, then in the words of Mr T, DIG IT FOO!!!

[Posted by Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback on Revision3.com's Blog]

Internet attacks leave lots of evidence. In this case it was pretty easy to see exactly what our shadowy attacker was so upset about. It turns out that those zillions of SYN packets were addressed to one particular port, or doorway, on one of our web servers: 20000. Interestingly enough, that’s the port we use for our Bittorrent tracking server. It seems that someone was trying to destroy our bittorrent distribution network.

Let me take a step back and describe how Revision3 uses Bittorrent, aka BT. The BT protocol is a peer to peer scheme for sharing large files like music, programs and video. By harnessing the peer power of many computers, we can easily and cheaply distribute our huge HD-quality video shows for a lot less money. To get started, the person sharing that large file first creates a small file called a “torrent”, which contains metadata, along with which server will act as the conductor, coordinating the sharing. That server is called the tracking server, or “tracker”. You can read much more about Bittorrent at Wikipedia, if you really want to understand how it works.

Revision3 runs a tracker expressly designed to coordinate the sharing and downloading of our shows. It’s a completely legitimate business practice, similar to how ESPN puts out a guide that tells viewers how to tune into its network on DirecTV, Dish, Comcast and Time Warner, or a mall might publish a map of its stores.

But someone, or some company, apparently took offense to Revision3 using Bittorrent to distribute its own slate of shows. Who could that be?

[Continue Reading Story Here]

[From SouthCoastToday.com]

NEW YORK (AP) — A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit challenging YouTube’s ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, YouTube owner Google Inc. said.

Google’s lawyers made the claim in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan as the company responded to Viacom Inc.’s latest lawsuit alleging that the Internet has led to “an explosion of copyright infringement” by YouTube and others.

The back-and-forth between the companies has intensified since Viacom brought its lawsuit last year, saying it was owed damages for the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, including such hits as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

In papers submitted to a judge late Friday, Google said YouTube “goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works.”

It said that by seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression.”

[Continue Reading Here]

Congrats to Scott Johnson from MyExtraLife who has prooved that Digg.com is the home of rehashed content, getting to the front page for his 56 Geeks Project for the third time.  If you don’t have the 56 Geeks poster yet, what are you waiting for?!?  Get it naow!!!

Well, it’s Monday again and you know what that means?  WiiWare and Virtual Console goodness.  This weeks addition…

That’s right.  Dr Mario has hit WiiWare, but it’s not just the good Doctor you knew on the NES.  Online RX brings new modes of play, including online play with randomly picked opponents from all over the world or (with the use of the game’s OWN friend codes) play against your friends online.

A reminder to all those TGM fans out there than have a Nintendo Wii. Please go to this thread on our forums and post your Wii Friend Code, as well as any Friend Codes to individual games you have (GuitarHero 3, Dr Mario, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Strikers, etc).