Struggling to stay afloat, Take-Two decided to ship Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with a sex scene in the game and later lied to investors to cover up their decision, according to the suit settled today.

The 2006 suit, which was tentatively settled for $20 million, also alleges that company officers earned more than $18 million in insider trading even as the company's stock plummeted.

"As a result of the disclosures of the Company's true financial condition, its stock ratings have been slashed," the suit, initially filed by John Fenninger who purchased Take-Two common stock, states. "Moreover, the Company is exposed to class action lawsuits and regulatory enforcement actions brought by the Attorney Generals of several states. While the public investors lost over one billion dollars in market capitalization, the Individual Defendants pocketed over $18 million in insider trading proceeds."
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Advent Rising sequels 2 and 3 would be created to complete the trilogy if it was up to Donald Mustard, the designer of the original Advent Rising and now the chairman of Chair Entertainment (of Shadow Complex fame).
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Microsoft never planned for Halo to become its flagship title, according to Microsoft VP of game publishing Ed Fries.

"We didn't know what was going be our biggest title," Fries admits. "There was a lot of negativity around Halo, actually, mostly coming from the games press. We showed it several times publicly, and we got pretty negative feedback."
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G4TV writes:

"Halo 2 is the reason you can't have more than 100 friends on Xbox Live, I reported earlier this week. Technically, it's because the old Xbox Live tech, which Halo 2 runs on, can't support more than 100 friends, but Halo 2 remains the only viable community preventing Microsoft from shutting down the previous XBL. Microsoft has since issued an official response to my story that provides little clarity."
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Split-screen: "Remember that Splinter Cell movie from Paramount Pictures? The project was put on hold after transferring over to Dreamworks and then Viacom, Paramount's parent company, purchased Dreamworks further adding to the muddle. The Splinter Cell movie script, like all things magical, is already available for public viewing on the net but an interesting detail to crop up: This text was penned not by series scriptwriter J.T. Perry but none other than Stuart Beattie. Yes, the same Beattie who's a part of the weapon of mass mindf**k G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra."
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Koku Gamer writes: 'It seems that the long-forgotten Spy Hunter movie that was to star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson could still be made, according to Halo screenwriter Stuart Beattie.'
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In 2006, it was announced that a film adaptation based on the insanely popular videogame series Halo would be helmed by a 26-year old first-time director named Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp went so far as to create some Halo-inspired shorts, but after several months of development, the project ultimately fell apart. Blomkamp went on to work with producer Peter Jackson to create his first feature-length film District 9, but some Halo faithful still held out hope that Blomkamp might return to the video game franchise again.
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EA had previously requested that Judge Vaughn Walker dismiss claims by Geoffrey Pecover and Jeffrey Lawrence. The two Madden buyers, serving as named plaintiffs in the class-action suit, alleged that by eliminating competition for NFL-licensed games EA had acted in a monopolistic fashion and unjustly enriched itself at the expense of consumers. On Friday Judge Walker issued a ruling denying EA's motion. The Judge did, however, rule that only claims in California and Washington, D.C. would go forward since that is where the two named plaintiffs in the case reside.
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Japanese Gaming publication Famitsu recently held a reader poll to see which games it's readers would like to see sequels to.

The results are in and they sure are an interesting bunch.

1. Sakura Taisen (aka Sakura Wars) 267 votes
2. Shenmue 249 votes
3. Okami 204 votes
4. Gotchaforce 189 votes
5. Xenogears 185 votes
6. Breath of Fire 180 votes
7. Rockman Dash (aka Mega Man Legends) 176 votes
8. Ogre Battle 174 votes
9. Chikyuu Boueigun (aka Earth Defence Force) 162 votes
10. Kowloon's Gate 151 votes
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411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include Persona, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier, and Velvet Assassin.
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