Jeremy Parish stumbled across this image of the view inside the head of Snake's model from MGS2. "Apparently inside of Snake is... Phil Collins in a fedora."

Industry and multi-console news

• EA has extended its offer for Take Two again, because it's totally going to work this time.
• Texas governor Rick Perry will be delivering a keynote at E3 this year.
• Next Generation has the new UK sales chart.
• Joystiq has the full list of exhibitors currently scheduled to appear at E3.
• EA has criticized Activision and Vivendi for pulling out of the ESA. "They're a big company and we feel that when you're a big company you've got a responsibility to consumers to work on policy issues which are very, very important to consumers. And the best way to do that is with an industry consensus."
• Speaking of the ESA, IRS documents reveal that they spent $5 million to move E3 from Los Angeles last year, only to return to LA this year. Kotaku speculates that the decision (along with the jump in dues it caused) may be part of the motivation behind developers leaving the group.
• Reuters reports that the success of the home console market, particularly the Wii, has put the Japanese arcade industry in a slump.
• Gamasutra's Ask the Experts column responds to the question of whether you should call back to a game company after an interview.
• Gamasutra also has excerpts from Game Developer magazine's Rock Band postmortem.
• And they have a Q&A with the developer of Prototype.
• Eurogamer has an article on the history of Ninja Gaiden.
• GamesIndustry.biz talks to Peter Moore about EA Sports and his past job at Microsoft. "And we've lived a long time in the Bay area, and as much as I thoroughly enjoyed working at Microsoft there was really a yearning for getting back to what we as Brits living in America call home, which is the San Francisco Bay area. And you get to the point in your life where you say, do I live where I work, or do I work where I live?"
• Possibly in response to the Sonic Unleashed leak a while back, Sega has motivational posters with ninjas on the walls of their offices, reminding workers to "guard Sega's trade secrets."
• Noted social commentator Ice-T thinks GTA games diffuse violent tendencies. "It can be an outlet for that aggression. It's a masculine thing. Human beings have some weird blood lust, it roots back to us being animals. It's ill, though." Indeed.
• Forget taking it to Gamestop, Bass Pro Shops want your used games. From May 21 to 26, you can trade in a used game for 15% off Bass Pro Shops branded merchandise.
• According to a National Congress of Parents and Teachers Associations of Japan survey, 2.8% of Japanese 5th graders say they often play adult games with explicit sexual content. The survey also found that only 4.8% of 5th year students didn't own a game console.
• Ars Technica has an excerpt from the book Video Game Play and Addiction (which they call "a much more even-handed look at the subject of children and games than we normally get"), talking about the difference in how gamers learn.

PC and mobile news

New content: Democracy 2 1.17 patch

• AMD has revealed a new plan to simplify the determination of system requirements for consumers.
• Slate has an article on the history computer Solitaire. "When Microsoft first preloaded solitaire as part of 1990's Windows 3.0, clicking and pointing weren't yet second nature. By dragging and dropping cards, newbies developed the mousing fluency required to use every other Windows program."
• The DX10 version of Age of Conan has been delayed and isn't part of the shipment that is hitting stores this week.
• Based on files found within the most recent update, it looks like the next Team Fortress 2 update could be the addition of Pyro achievements.
• Market research firm Gartner finds that 90% of business-launched virtual worlds fail within the first 18 months.

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console title: Skykid
New WiiWare titles: Critter Round-Up, Star Soldier R
New media: Sigma Harmonics screenshots, Infinite Line screenshots

• Blue Dragon Plus is set for a September 4 release date in Japan.
• WiiWare developer Nnooo is pitching a Pokemon MMO to Nintendo.

Sony news

• You can now buy an airsoft replica of Nathan Drake's gun from Uncharted.
• Haze will have a 4 gig mandatory install.
• MGS associate producer Ryan Payton says MGS4 isn't the last Metal Gear. “This is really just the last chapter of the saga of the Solid Snake story.”

Microsoft news

• This week's Live Arcade title is Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One.
• UK retailer HMV is offering 1000 free Microsoft points to anyone who pre-orders Ninja Gaiden 2.
• 1up has some concept art from Rare for games that never came to fruition. Unlike Rare's actual output the last few years, they're not cartoony in the least.
• There's a rumor going around that new European 360 bundles actually contain old refurbished systems.
• MTV Multiplayer examines whether Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts deserves the negative reaction it's gotten. "That revealed the problem I have with the game: 'Banjo Kazooie: Nuts And Bolts,' as a game, has great potential for failure because it gives gamers… great potential for failure."