The Australian government's Classification Board refused classification for THQ and Vogster Entertainment's CrimeCraft due to in-game "drug use related to incentives or rewards," effectively banning the gang-based MMO shooter from sale in the country. In CrimeCraft, players create, trade, and consume "Boosts," fictional drugs that can improve their character's performance. In the U.S., where the game was released last August, the subscription-free PC game received a "Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board due ...

Nintendo says American consumers bought more than 1 million units of its Nintendo DS and DSi portable consoles during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, along with more than half a million Wii consoles. The company's sales numbers apply to the period from Sunday, November 22 to Saturday, November 28, which encompasses the legendary post-Thanksgiving shopping day "Black Friday." The figures come from Nintendo's own "internal tracking numbers" rather than an outside firm such as ...

Twenty percent of total video game spending in the U.S. goes toward MMOs and game portals, primarily for monthly subscriptions and online credits, according to a new international study. Home and handheld consoles comprise 57 percent of the nation's gaming budget, including second-hand trade and digital distribution sales. Market research firms TNS and Gamesindustry.com surveyed more than 13,000 respondents aged eight years and older across the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S. ...

Digital distribution service Direct2Drive is disputing claims made by competing digital storefront owner Stardock, which recently claimed its Impulse service is second in market share only to Valve's Steam -- but Stardock is restating its initial claims. "Stardock's recent assessment of its service [that Impulse holds a clear number two position in the digital distribution space] is misinformation at best," Sutton Trout, Direct2Drive's VP of digital content said in an email to Gamasutra. "An NPD ...

[Every week, Gamasutra sums up sister iPhone site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent -- and increasingly exciting -- portable games platform, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Louise Yang and Jonathan Glover.] This week, FingerGaming covers upcoming titles like Sega's sequel to its early iPhone hit Super Monkey Ball 2, and highlights the recent releases Monopoly and A.D.D. Also detailed are the site's regular weekly looks at the ...

Ubisoft today revealed it is developing a new Prince of Persia game, titled The Forgotten Sands, for consoles and handhelds. The game, scheduled for release in May 2010, will revisit the storyline of the popular 2003 Prince of Persia game The Sands of Time and its two sequels, promising the return of "fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations." May 2010 is also the current release window for the Disney-produced ...

When new motion control technologies launch for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, Ubisoft will be ready with a significant slate of titles. CEO Yves Guillemot revealed the publisher's preparations for new input devices today on Ubisoft's fiscal first half results call to investors, and said the company's prepping almost double the number of games for Project Natal as it is for Sony's orb-topped, yet-unnamed motion wand. "We have around 10 games that will ...

With first-week sales of Assassin's Creed II up 32 percent over the previous title, Ubisoft says the game is likely to beat expectations -- but for the first six months of its fiscal year, the company reported a € 78 million ($117 million) operating loss. The loss, which comes alongside sales of € 166 million ($249 million) in the three-month period that ended September 30, is in line with the company's targets. Ubisoft says it's ...

French game developer Quantic Dream has never made secret its ambitions to bring true narrative meaning to video games. 2005's intriguing Indigo Prophecy (a.k.a. Fahrenheit) expressed the direction that the studio wanted to take, and with the upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain, the studio hopes to take its philosophy on narrative and video games even further. Guillaume de Fondaumiere, co-CEO of the studio, told Gamasutra what he hoped Quantic Dream would accomplish with Heavy ...

The British Academy of Film and Television has honored Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet with one of its 2009 BAFTA Children's Awards, which recognize kids' entertainment across various categories. Critically-acclaimed PlayStation 3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet beat out Electronic Arts' Boom Blox Bash Party and THQ's De Blob and Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise to earn the award in the video game category. Other BAFTA children's award winners were chosen from among nominees in numerous categories like animation, drama, entertainment, ...