Game Downloads

Looks like the Penny Arcade Expo isn't the only convention intent on expanding. The Game Developers Conference is heading overseas.

Many would claim that DRM is bad, and perhaps rightly so. But it's unfortunately a necessary evil in the videogame biz (at least it is if you ask almost any company this side of Sins of a Solar Empire publisher Stardock). SecuROM in particular is frequently employed by developers in order to prevent pirates from illegally playing their games. This tends to lead to backlash from the community, as we saw illustrated quite well with Spore, where a class action lawsuit was filed against EA and Amazon customer reviews took a nosedive -- and that didn't stop the game from being pirated, either.

Following the delisting notice served by the New York Stock Exchange, The Wall Street Journal is reporting Sumner Redstone's National Amusements Inc. has sold its 87% stake in Midway to investor Mark Thomas for $100,000 at $0.0012 a share. According to an article from the Boston Herald, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter estimates Redstone lost on the order of $600 million on the investment.

Halo 3 'Blackout' gameplay HD
Xbox Live director of programming Major Nelson chimed in today with some post-Black Friday savings in the form of Microsoft's new Holiday Deal of the Week program. The first of these promotions is a discounted Legendary Map Pack for Halo 3, which Gold members can snag for just 400 Microsoft points this week. That's five dollars in American currency -- a savings of $2.50 off of the regular price of 600 points.

Microsoft has teamed up with Sumthing Else Music Works to release a five-disc set of the full Halo Trilogy original soundtrack. The set includes one disc for Halo: Combat Evolved, one for Halo 2, two discs devoted to Halo 3, and a bonus disc featuring Halo Wars. The Halo Wars disc contains four preview tracks from the upcoming game, a look at the recording sessions, and the opening cinema scene of the game entitled "Five Long Years." Starting tomorrow, the soundtrack can be grabbed as a digital download at Sumthing Digital, or various retailers for an MSRP of $29.99.