A lot of opinions and analysis has been given from all angles in regards to the EA-Take Two acquisition. But here's one that really does matter. The FTC has concluded its non-public investigation on the matter and they've basically given EA the green light for it. What were their findings? Find out after the jump.

Electronic Arts has complied with the Federal Trade Commission's requirements and has submitted necessary information to allow the government probe against possible antitrust law violations. The company has also promised to take no actions in its takeover quest of rival Take-Two until late August, ensuring that the competition is safe for now. Full details after the jump.

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the record-breaking Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), has agreed to comply to the Federal Trade Commission's wishes and will send information about its supposed deal with giant Electronic Arts. This means that the commission will now start assessing the US$ 2 billion deal to safeguard against potential antitrust law violations. More in the full article.

Another roadblock has appeared in the FTC's ongoing probe into EA's hostile takeover bid for Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two has declined to comply with a subpoena and civil investigative demand from the FTC, saying that the new requests are too broad and costly. More in the full article.

Electronic Arts has announced that it will not buy Take-Two just yet. The company has made an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that it will wait until the FTC finishes its probe into the takeover proposal. More in the full article.

It seems like Electronic Arts still hasn't given up its hopes of acquiring Take-Two Interactive. It was reported that EA recently submitted a second information request to the Federal Trade Commission about its proposed acquisition of the company behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise. For more details regarding this, check out our full article after the jump.

North America's ESRB has sent out a reply to the GamePolitics blog criticizing the the National Institute of Media and the Family (NIMF)'s Video game Report Card, released earlier today. Among other details, the said report card criticized the industry as a whole for its alleged inability to enforce its M-ratings. Details are available in the full article.

Annoyed with the whole business of the Zipatoni PSP-advocating viral blog? Well, we have good news for you. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently took their own stand on the issue of viral marketers, and it's definitely not on the side of the virals.

In a recent edition of the Washington Post, the Commission is quoted as saying that viral marketers should disclose their relationship with the companies they are marketing for. Good news to many people who don't like being deceived by others, and it definitely helps keep us from warning people about another weird Sony advertising plan for their handheld, for instance.

In this day and age though, virals happen often enough, but there are many instances when it seems less like subtle advertising and more like duping people into following a particular opinion, which in this case happens to be the viral marketer's.

In good viral ads, we're amused because the viral either makes it very clear that it's a viral (think of flash games made to advertise a show or a product) or doesn't directly reference the product it's advertising, making it more of a funny Easter egg for fans than an annoyance (The "I Love Bees" Halo campaign). In bad ones, internet sleuths will track your IP down, find out what the deal is, and make sure you're blacklisted among the internet-savvy for offenses to good taste.

With proper implementation by the FTC, we may just see an end to bad rapping and viral graffiti campaigns forever. Of course, whoever was rapping in the PSP viral video we got from YouTube will probably be haunted by the ghosts of really crappy choices till the day he dies.

The Federal Trade Commission decided against imposing fines or taking other punitive actions against Take Two Interactive and Rockstar games after an exhaustive investigation into the "hot coffee" mod led to a settlement agreement between the FTC and Take Two instead of further charges.

The new agreement requires the two companies to "establish, implement and maintain a comprehensive system reasonably designed to ensure that all content in an electronic game is considered and reviewed in preparing submissions to a rating authority."

The agreement also states that Rockstar and Take Two must clearly disclose all pertinent ratings information about a game on the outside of the game's packaging. In the event that Rockstar or Take Two fails to meet the conditions they agreed to in the settlement with the FTC, they will be fined $11,000 per incident.

Maybe this situation has something to do with Rockstar Games' decision to release a ping- pong (or table tennis) game instead of yet another mega-popular violent shoot 'em up! All jokes aside, both sides seem to want to claim victory in the case and both sides seem ready to move on with their lives.

The ruling was followed by a 30 day period where politicians and the public alike voiced their disapproval about the agreement. Now that the debate is over and the settlement has been ratified, it is unlikely that Rockstar or Take Two will ever face any further prosecution over the hot coffee issue.