In a recent interview with IGN, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli says the vast majority of PC gamers pirate their games. He gives enormous figures of 15:1 to 20:1, which may or may not be true, at least for Crytek. However, as an industry, this number seems too large, yet reports of pirating Crysis specifically are numerous; not to play, but to test machines to see if they will run it.
Asked about online verification, Yerli stated that there will always be some way to crack the game or go around the system, and if not other problems can occur. The recent Mass Effect PC dilemma may hold back sales for publisher EA, but as of press time reports were not available for sales numbers.

In an unexpected move towards action against videogames, the UK government published a plan to make videogames safer for children: reclassify games over a four month period to better help children and their parents properly understand what games they can and cannot play. You can find Gameindustry.biz’s angle here.
As some of you may be aware this plan was recommended by Dr. Byron in the Byron Review, but according to EA’s VP and General Manager for the UK, Ireland and Nordic regions, this will make delays in games reaching store shelves. Will citizens and game developers/publishers step up and denounce this plan? Should they? Let us know what you think…

Ultraviolet Machines will be showing off their wares at this year’s M Festival in Stoneleight Park, 8-11 August. Among their latest Xodus gaming laptop hardware will be a real monster of a desktop PC: the Genesis XXX. Sound a bit sexy, does it? Cop a load of these specs:

• Intel’s uber-powerful D5400XS Skull Trail motherboard
• Dual Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 CPU’s (overclocked!)
• 8 GB RAM
• Twin Velociraptor RAID system
• EVGA GTX 280 Black Pearl graphics - in triple-SLI
• Liquid Cooling

According to reports from Videogame247 and Kotaku, the game development and publishing arm of George Lucas’ LucasArts has laid off between 75-100 staff across all departments, including game designers and programmers. It’s a sad sight for a company that has produced so many bona-fide PC classics in the past, but an interesting side effect for gamers are the rumours being spread by disgruntled LucasArts employees revealing unannounced titles. A post on Kotaku claims that the web site has received emails about a Knights Of The Old Republic MMO being developed in partnership with Bioware, another Lego Indiana Jones and a third Battlefront game. And just to rub salt in LucasArts’ wounds Kotaku also got a message describing the upcoming action game Fracture as “an absolute piece of garbage”. Ouch.

CPU manufacturer AMD has announced it’s launching a new standardised PC system that’s playable ’straight out of the box’. It’s called AMD GAME!, is Vista-based with a Phenom processor and ATi graphics - check the full specifications here. It’s being marketed at a console-esque breed of PC gamers who don’t want to have to know what’s going on inside the box, with AMD intending to update the specifications every six months to keep in step with the industry. Currently it’s only available from Canada and US, but if its target market overcomes their confusion over the difference between a 2008 and 2009 Ultra system, we could be seeing them stocked over here.

Click here to check out the new AMD GAME! website.

In issue 5 we reviewed the outstanding Sins Of A Solar Empire from Ironclad Games, awarding it 9/10 and commenting that it was a “brilliantly executed space-strategy game.” And we weren’t wrong. However, at the time of writing Sins was only available via download or international order from Stardock.com, and several readers got in touch with queries about purchasing it in their local game emporium. Now, thanks to Kalypso Media, UK players will be able to grab a boxed copy from stores. The release date is TBA but expected to be sometime in June, and in the meantime why not download the demo, giving you 90 minutes of play over several maps.

Blizzard, creator of World Of Warcraft is suing the maker of a software tool that it says infringes its copyright. Michael Donnelly, creator of the MMO Glider program that automates everyday actions in the game, denies any infringement. He states that no copy of World Of Warcraft is ever made using his program.

Blizzard is demanding that he cease selling Glider and hand over all profits he’s made from the program. This could amount to several million dollars as Michael claims to have sold over 100,000 copies, which ranges in price from a $5 month subscription to a $60 lifetime pass.

Ubisoft announced today that it has acquired full intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name from Mr Tom Clancy. The acquisition means Ubisoft can create future Tom Clancy titles including films, books and merchandise as well as games, completely free of any royalty payments.

While the sum involved was undisclosed, it is likely to be in the region of £15 million, based on Ubisoft’s previous 2007-2008 financial year cash position of €150 million, compared to its current €130 million estimate.

“The Tom Clancy brand is recognised around the world for offering exciting video games, films and books,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, “The most recent example of such value creation through brand management is the EndWar book, based on the video game story, which has been in the NY Times top 10 Paperback Mass Market Fiction best-seller list for the last four weeks.”

Financial wisdom aside, the move by the French publisher signifies an unofficial severance from the man behind the brand, as the amount of input Tom Clancy had into every game created under the name was questionable anyway.