In a recent report over at kotaku.com, it sounds like the Mortal Kombat developers team wants to open up their own studios. It’s mentioned in the piece that they’re already in talks with production companies as well as talks with Midway, their current parent company.

Here’s an excerpt from the article,

Sources said that the Mortal Kombat team has become increasingly “frustrated” with the handling of Midway’s bankruptcy filing. MK staffers also expressed irritation from being in the position of delivering million unit-selling titles on time and on a bi-annual schedule while other projects at the company languish in development.

Midway representatives, when contacted for comment, opted not to discuss the Mortal Kombat team’s plans, saying that the team was in “good shape.” They did, however, want to stress that Midway itself is not withholding any owed payment to the Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe developers.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the Mortal Kombat team evolves and moves onto being a full fledged game developer.

I’ve been pushing the sheer joy that appears to be oozing out of screens and videos of Jumpgate: Evolution for a good six months now, and I still believe I’m right. I recently posted up a boss fight walkthrough video up on www.newgeekorder.com that had been put out, and just today I stumbled upon a video hosted by Kotaku.com that’s more or less a short promotional video for Jumpgate: Evolution. The only reason it’s worth mentioning is that it promotes the beta at the end, quite distinctly.

The Beta for this game is close, I can feel it in the force young padawans. Multiple promotional videos released in the same week, displaying different themes for the same game across the internet that’s been widely touted as the spiritual successor to Earth and Beyond? That’s proof something’s brewing I think. Keep your eyes peeled for Jumpgate: Evolution beta invitations in your email boxes soon, and if you’re not signed up for it yet then get on the internet and get that done, because being left out of this is something any good MMO gamer is going to regret.

Here’s the video that was posted recently on Kotaku.com…

It’s April 1st, and tons of practical jokes are all over the flowing, yet strangely dump-truck like intertubes. One that really caught my eye involved a very well put together, serious looking game promotion that featured none other than head-Valvist CEO Gabe Newell and gaming expert Robert Krakoff. Here’s a little excerpt from the promotion:

Enter Onyx Rift, a biogenetic research lab, where you must make the choice of taking control of the wise-cracking street smart lab technician, Gabriel Newman who can never catch a break or the ex-special forces badass security guard, Rob Krakowski with a quick temper and a heart of gold. Lock and load as you are thrust into the middle of a level 4 biohazard when the lab’s centralized super computer goes haywire and blows up one of the viral research containment wings releasing the deadly triple helix S.N.A.K.E virus upon the lab’s unsuspecting work force.

To make matters worse, the military has been called in to forcefully contain the lab before the super computer controlling all function within the facility can do anymore damage. Cut a swath through your colleagues and coworkers as they succumb to the infection and violently turn on you. You must contain the outbreak and regain control of the lab before a tactical nuke does it for you.

This is an amazingly well done April 1st gag. Valve has always had a great sense of humor, and Gabe Newell himself has been a big player in the internet gaming culture that has spawned around the large retinue of Valve products that stock the shelves of Steam. One part of this article stands out though, it’s at the very, very, tiny bottom of the page. A little except about a collectors edition for the game, here’s what it said…

…a limited edition 12” talking plush toy of either Gabe and Razerguy (batteries not included) armed and ready to take your heart by storm!

All I have to say is…. I WANT A PLUSHIE GABE NEWELL!

UPDATE: We have a petition up to get us a Gabe Newell plushie or action figure. Sign it! This Petition here!

Okay, heckuva lot of buzz over this going around lately, the idea that Blizzard Entertainment has a NEW, SHINY 5th unknown game in the works that isn’t their new MMO project, and isn’t tied to any of their current IPs. Seeing as I have yet to find any concrete proof of this, I though it would be nice to sound off.

I first heard about this over on Kotaku, and followed the internet paper-trail through the internet tubes around in hopes of finding something of substance. I didn’t, of course, as most rumors don’t have much of a basis.

People, please, please I know you’re intelligent (you read this website on some basis), so stop the rumor mongering here. If anyone asks about a possible 5th IP from Blizzard, tell them that there isn’t any concrete information at all on this. It’s not worth the time talking about. When Blizzard Entertainment DOES release any information regarding their next IP, you’ll bet you can find it right here, but it’s not here yet.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog posts and podcasts.

-Dan “Leto” Hahn, your neighborly CEO

Today the following message was posted on Filefront.com, long time standing file hosting service and staple of mod makers, game creators, and all around internet folks.

We regret to inform you that due to the current economic conditions we are forced to indefinitely suspend the FileFront site operations on March 30, 2009. If you have uploaded files, images or posted blogs, or if you would like to download some of your favorite files, please take this opportunity to download them before March 30th when the site will be suspended.

We would like to give a warm thank you to all of you who have been part of the FileFront communities we have built together. Your support has had a meaningful impact for all of us here at FileFront. Again, we want to give you a sincere “thank you” for your support over the years and wish you all the very best.

Keep gaming alive,

FileFront Management and Team.

Contact_us@filefront.com

TGM wishes them the best, and hopes that a service can step up and fill the void that we’re sure will be left after March 30th.

Coming from darkzero.co.uk, it’s been announced that CryTEK will be introducing a brand new game development engine at the Game Developers Conference Expo this year. It’s slated to be the greatest and most advanced Developer’s Platform ever put together in one singular program. Make what judgements on this you will, but I think this is wasted time and money in this day and age.

As it stands, the current graphics coming out of the CryTEK DPs are already over the top of what the everyday system can handle. It stands that Crysis still won’t run on my system on it’s lowest settings, and I can currently play World of Warcraft on it’s highest settings without any hiccups or issues. With that kind of benchmark, I really scratch my head and ask myself what CryTEK wants to do by advancing their platform, graphics, and tools even more. I understand they’re out to sell copies of their software and prove they’re the premium game developer that they feel they are, but seriously? More powerful graphics? Do they want no one to be able to play their games? This is silly in my opinion, you have to let the general public catch up with what you’re putting out.

This has been a random opinion from your neighborly CEO, Leto.