Industry and multi-console news:

• Ebay is suspending any and all virtual gold and property auctions, regardless of game. This also includes auctions of accounts and characters.
• The 2007 Penny Arcade Expo will be twice the size of last year's event, and take place in a new, more spacious home: the Washington State Trade and Convention Center.
• Utah's games-as-porn bill has been halted for the third time and is likely to be replaced with a House Resolution. "I am concerned when all the legal experts, including our own attorney general as well as the sponsor, tell us that the bill is likely to fail in a constitutional challenge."
• Probably for the best, as Utah legislators can be heard in recent testimony refering to Bully as "the Columbine game."
• Gold farmers in South Korea have formed their own trade lobby.
• Capcom has criticized the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences for its "pay to play" policy -- requiring companies to be members before their games can be nominated in the AIAS awards. RE4 was apparently a popular write-in vote, but wasn't nominated because Capcom hadn't paid to join the academy. "Does our company really need to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to present awards to our own games?"
• Gamasutra has a transcript of their interview with Susan O'Connor, scriptwriter for titles like Dungeon Siege II and Gears of War.
• Vandals have punched Tetris block shapes into the windows of this abandoned building.
• Japanmanship looks at the problems with Japanese game development.
• GameSetWatch relates yet another story of EB employee incompetence.
• Forbes has done a large story on Rupert Murdoch's recent investments. They question the purchase of IGN, which they say "has grown a flaccid 21% over the last 14 months."
• Video: Pac-Man, Pong and Tetris created in stop-motion with candles.

PC news:

• Tyra Banks had a World of Warcraft addict on her show, and the segment is now on YouTube -- part 1, part 2. WoW addiction is a real problem, but that doesn't make her show any less awful. And is he laughing after they shred the first disc?
• Techgage has some new Vista game performance reports.
• Registration for the Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar beta is now open.
• Someone has created a Shadow of the Colossus Counterstrike map.
• A Korean developer has signed a deal to bring Katamari Damacy online. Essentially, it will be the versus battle stages from the PS2 and PSP games, but online. And there's something about collectables too. At any rate, it's probably all going to stay in Korea, but undoubtedly that won't stop people from other countries trying to weasel their way in like they did with Gunbound and Maple Story.
• A few days ago, Ritual CEO Ken Harward made it seem as if the SiN episodes still had a future despite Ritual's acquisition by MumboJumbo. Doubt is now cast on that idea, however, as MumboJumbo has said that action games will not be their focus. "The idea of acquiring Ritual was to have them strengthen our development in the casual genre ... If there's an opportunity to have them do something on the SiN episodes, we would look at that, but that will not be the focus of the company."

Nintendo news:

• Mario Kart 64, Comix Zone, Bonanza Bros. and Contra III are the new Virtual Console titles for this week.
• Scarface is coming to the Wii. Police have announced that if you hear or read anyone saying "say hello to my Wiitle friend," you are legally free to shoot them.
• Nintendo has a job opening for Reggie Fils-Aime's assistant. I do not envy the person who has to sort through thousands of fanboy resumes.
• There have been a couple theories on the reasoning behind the name Donkey Kong (both debunked by Snopes), but a blogger named Marxy has a pretty convincing theory of his own.
• Sam & Max developer Telltale Games is looking for a Wii programmer.
• Take your pick between the detailed intricacy of the Majora's Mask cake or the more sublime simplicity of the 1-up cake.
• Several Homestar Runner flash games have been reworked for Wii control.

Sony news:

• GameTrailers has a new trailer for God of War II.
• Red Octane says they will continue to support the Guitar Hero series on the PS2 for as long as the system remains viable. They believe that will be at least until 2008.
• A median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg suggests that Sony's third quarter profit may have fallen 50% due to the PS3 losing market share to the Wii. They may still exceed their forecast for the year, however, on the strength of sales of Bravia TVs, Vaio computers and Cybershot digital cameras.
• Epic's Mark Rein says people need to give Sony a break, and that the PS3 is a "beautiful machine."
• Maybe those people who need to give Sony a break are the same ones who take photos like this while snickering derisively.
• Playstation Museum has uncovered an early demo of an unreleased Ghost Rider 2D sidescroller on the Playstation.
• Video: Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian tries to play his own song in Guitar Hero 2. He does not do well.

Microsoft news:

• The classic PC freeware game N is coming to Xbox Live Arcade.
• Midway is working on a new Unreal Engine 3 WWII shooter called Hour of Victory. They understand the importance of WWII games having "_____ of _____" titles.
• A demo of Def Jam: Icon should be available Thursday.
• I'm not generally one for case mods, but this one's not bad. It would've worked even better shortly after launch, where you could claim you had to beat someone to death to get it.
• Japan will get Halo 3 beta keys in their copies of Crackdown too (though the game is called Riot Act there). But how many will actually want them?