Industry and multi-console news:

• The leader of a street gang called the Nut Cases that spent all day getting high, playing GTA, and then re-enacting crimes from the game has been sentenced to 75 years to life for murder.
• Capcom has officially responded to the petition against making DMC4 multiplatform, offering a more gentle and professional statement than my personal suggestion of "bitch, please."
• Be forewarned that Gamestop sells opened games as new.
• EA has started a music label in partnership with Netwerk One Music. Naturally, they call it Artwerk.
• Racketboy will soon run out of systems now that he has done the best undiscovered Saturn games.
• Eurogamer has a new Bioshock teaser trailer.
• Print ad revenue is down for Ziff Davis' Game Group (which publishes EGM and Games for Windows), but online revenue grew 76%.
• A diner owner in Tennessee has been charged with hiding illegal poker machines in arcade cabinets. Rather cleverly, they were even rigged to switch between poker and the arcade game via remote control.
• There's a new book out, looking once again at the connections between video games and aggression in children. And once again, it raises the important question of whether these kids are aggressive because of games or play violent games because they're aggressive.
• If you ever wanted to watch Ryu and Chun Li cosplayers in a salsa dancing competition, boy, you're a weird dude.

PC news:

• Real world real estate firm Coldwell Banker will begin selling virtual land in Second Life this week. This is so meta.
• Dave Perry's wacky community-designed MMO is moving ahead, and he's announced it's a racing game rather than the WoW-clone one might expect.
• Activision has detailed all that you get when you buy the Quake Wars collector's edition package.
• A Chinese MMO company is offering to allow people banned for cheating back into the game, but only if they donate blood.

Nintendo news:

• This week's Virtual Console title -- there's only one -- is Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire.
• Sega has announced three more titles to hit the Virtual Console in the near future: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Wonder Boy in Monster World, and Virtua Fighter 2. All three, including VF2, are Genesis games.
• Aksys Games will be remaking PS1 strategy RPG Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth for the DS as Hoshigami Remix.
• EA has left EDTV resolutions out of the PAL edition of Tiger Woods 2007.
• Game Trailers and Game Videos both have footage of My Sims' character creation process.
• The creator of an in-progress 2D Ocarina of Time remake has died in a car accident. The game's official site and forums were immediately closed down afterwards, which is kind of odd. Some wonder if the whole thing isn't a hoax to provide an easy out to abandon the project.

Sony news:

• UK retailer HMV has harumphed and called Sony's free TV stunt at Virgin "unnecessary." "It may have encouraged some of the more cynical media to think of it as a last-minute attempt to bolster queues and PR coverage." I'm sure this has nothing to do with Virgin being chosen over HMV to be Sony's official retail partner.
• The PS3 sold 165,000 units in the United Kingdom over the launch weekend, making it the fastest selling console ever in the UK, beating the Wii's previous record of 105,000.
• Meanwhile, 20,000 PS3s have been sold in Australia since launch, which I guess is a lot because there's only like 200 people and a koala living over there.
• Brazenly refusing to learn from recent history, Ebay PS3 resellers in the UK are having about as much luck as the people in America did.
• Sony says some territories will have to wait for Playstation Store access, and some won't get it at all due to issues like lack of broadband penetration.
• PSP game Pocket Pool will not feature the Girls Gone Wild license. It still involves unlocking pictures of half-naked models, so they haven't really lost much.
• More than 30,000 PS3s have signed up for Folding@Home so far.
• A mysterious God of War website has been discovered that's counting down to... something.
• EB Games has added a listing for Time Crisis 4 for the PS3, though no such game has yet been announced.
• The upcoming Tekken 6 arcade game will be powered by PS3 technology.
• IGN has a big feature on the future of the PSP, including interviews with numerous developers about what they think of the system and where it's going.
• LSD is a game you've likely never heard of, released for the Japanese Playstation. Despite the drug name, it was claimed to be a recreation of dreams written down in a staff member's dream journal. As you can imagine, it's highly experimental and really strange.
• Amazon has Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner marked down to $25.26.

Microsoft news:

• This is purported to be an ad for the 120 gig hard drive, but call it a rumor for now.
• Further fueling the 360 Elite fire is an XNA developer who responded to a question about whether the Elite's HDMI output would require a change in code by saying "No changes required." Not "that thing doesn't exist" or even "no comment."
• Major Nelson has amended his original statement about the recent hijacked Live accounts, admitting that some ne'er-do-wells did use social engineering to coax account info out of support staff. He says they've already begun re-training staff to hopefully avoid this situation in the future.
• A Chinese newspaper is reporting that 360 manufacturer Wiston will reduce and eventually discontinue production of the system due to declining profitability of making the console and "dissatisfaction held by the Taiwanese company over Microsoft’s strategic links to rival ODM (original design manufacturer) giant Celestica, which also manufactures the console."
• Bungie has a lengthy feature on the making of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition packaging, in case you're really getting desperate for Halo stuff to read about.
• Microsoft Australia is auctioning off 360s painted with the likenesses of Australian celebrities for charity. I don't know who Shane Warne is, but if he actually looks like his painting, that man has a weird face.
• Amazon has Phantasy Star Universe marked down to $17.99.