The winner of Nintendo's recent Smash Bros. Brawl tournament went home with this, a Wii encrusted with 20,000 Swarovski Crystals.

Industry and multi-console news

• Next Generation has posted part two of their feature on the GTA series and the making of GTA4.
• Registration is now open for the World Cyber Games 2008.
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 designer Phil Therien says it's unlikely Ubisoft will go back to hardcore-only shooters like Ghost Recon because "the market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice."
• Digini has announced Blade3D, a subscription based development environment for the 360 and PC, allowing "everyone from novices and hobbyists to professional users the ability to easily create games.”
• Massachusetts will consider video game legislation this week that would restrict minors from buying violent video games.
• Foundation 9 founder, chairman and CEO Jon Goldman has stepped down.
• Tickets for the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational are going on sale March 20.
• Activision has announced details on the new Call of Duty 4 maps coming to Xbox Live and PSN this spring.
• 3D Realms founder Scott Miller and game industry veteran Jim Perkins have joined together to form Radar Group, an "original IP incubator" that expand video game IP into other forms of media like movies, TV shows, novels and toys.
• Designer Peter Redding claims that Far Cry 2 will run the same on PC and consoles.
• While not yet officially confirmed, reports say that there will be new songs included in the European version of Rock Band.
• Famitsu has published their list of the top 25 games in 2007, based on their review ratings. Surprisingly, 10 of the titles are 360 games.
• Capcom held a poll a while back asking people how much they would be willing to pay for Bionic Commando: Rearmed. The results are in, and it looks like the price will be $10 for the Live Arcade and PSN versions. "Since the title will have to do quite well at that price point to break even (no, I’m not going to give you a specific number), I guess we have to roll the dice and see where they land."
• Wired has an opinion piece asking Sega to kill off Sonic the Hedgehog. "This modern Sonic is a an abomination, a grotesque that simply should not be, and I, for one, am calling for his head."

PC and mobile news

New content: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 5.0 unofficial patch

• Epic Games titles are now available on Steam, including five different Unreal titles from Unreal Gold to Unreal Tournament 3. The set of five is available in one value pack for $59.95.
• Producer Jason Bergman says that Civilization Revolution is never coming to the PC. "We don’t want people to think that this is meant to replace the existing ‘Civ’ games. This is a totally different game, created exclusively for consoles."
• Eurogamer has an interview with Matt Atwood about Mass Effect on the PC. He mentions that downloadable content for the PC version may differ from the console version. "We're looking in to exactly what we want to do; maybe we'll do something different, because the PC offers some different potentials."
• At CNN, a 14 year old Iraqi girl explains how online virtual world Zwinky helps her escape the war around her.
• Engrish Games is a new blog attempting to translate Japanese indie games for English speakers.
• Kotaku has the first ten minutes of MMOvie, a planned feature-length World of Warcraft machinima. The production value is great, the writing is... um.
• Amazon's deal of the day is The Witcher for $32.99.

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console titles: Spelunker, Super R-Type

• Siliconera tried out the Datel Wii Freeloader on a Japanese console to see if North American games would play properly. Twilight Princess worked fine, but rather surprisingly Trauma Center: New Blood completely switches to the Japanese version when used with the Freeloader, Japanese speech and all. The North American version of Trauma Center must contain the entirety of both regions' versions on the same disc.
• The Onion recently put up an article entitled Wii Video Games Blamed For Rise In Effeminate Violence.
• Amazon has Battalion Wars for $30.13.

Sony news

• Pre-orders for the European version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are nearing one million.
• Over the weekend, Warhawk registered its 500,000th ranked player.
• Gamasutra discusses the "hardcore game renaissance" on the PS2 late in its lifecycle. It's bizarre to imagine a game described as a crossover between Aruze's Shadow Hearts, Atlus's Growlanser, Idea Factory's Blazing Souls, Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir, Spectral Force, Spectral Souls and Hametsu no Mars, and RED Entertainment's Gungrave and Samurai Police/Shinsengumi Gunrouden getting a US release.

Microsoft news

• In place of new Arcade titles this week, two older releases are seeing price cuts. Assault Heroes and Doom will now be 400 points. Additionally, Microsoft has announced new Arcade titles coming soon, including Rocky and Bullwinkle, Shotest Shogi, TiQal, Wits & Wagers, and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3.
• D3 has announced an expansion for Puzzle Quest adding new professions, spells, items, monsters and quests. They're asking fans to help name the expansion.
• One of the many features hyped and then cut from Fable was the ability to plant an acorn and watch it grow into a tree. Peter Molyneux has confirmed that "there is absolutely an acorn and it does absolutely grow into a tree" in Fable 2. "We decided we got into so much trouble over acorns and trees that we are going to make it part of the main thread of the story."
• Disruptive Publishers is holding a content to design a 360 theme that will appear on the Marketplace.
• Ubisoft says that PS3 shooter Haze will never appear on the 360.
• Call of Duty 4 is getting a Game of the Year re-release with new box art and a token to download the new map pack.
• I4U's monthly gadget model for March is a woman painted up like Cortana. And using a plasma rifle for some reason.