When you've got a business going, it's a wise idea to keep track of your cashflow. THQ has been doing precisely that. In fact, the company has recently reported the fourth quarter results of the fiscal year, which ended last March 31, 2008. More financial statistics in the full article after the jump.

With all the flak that video games have gotten from politicians, we're tempted to think that two will probably never mix.

The latest one involves U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama and his comment about video games. You can read an excerpt of his statement n the full article after the jump.

Independent works will always have a hard time finding its niche in an already established market, and video games are no exception. Usually the bottomline in creating a game is creativity versus profitability.

Steve Escalante, Business Development VP of the Gamecock Media Group, talked about this subject during the Texas' Independent Game Conference. Read more in the full article.

Resident PSP homebrew coder (and emulator guru) Zx-81 dropped by the QJ.Net Forums earlier to announce the release of PSPXTI: A TI-92 Calculator emulator v1.1.0.

As its name implies, this homebrew application is a PSP port of the Unix-based XTiger emulator (Unix version 0,8), based on Texas Instrument's TI-92 calculator. The original XTiger app was written by Jonas Minnberg, but was eventually passed on to Misha Nasledov under a General Public License (GPL). As for the latest changes in version 1.1.0:

• New user interface
• Use Virtual keyboard
• Use SDL library
• Render mode max (fullscreen)
• Add keyboard mapping menu
• New help window
• New background image
• Multiple keyboard mappings feature :
• You can now toggle between 3 different keyboard mapping using LTrigger and RTrigger keys
• Delete files option
• Bug fix in the file requester
• Compatible with firmwares 2.x, 1.5, and custom fw 3.X-OE.

Zx-81 further notes that you will need a ROM of TI-92 or TI-92 plus to get this app working. That's the skinny on PSPXTI's details - extra information can be found in the file README, Zx-81's site, and at the app's release thread at the QJ.Net Forums. With that said, enjoy the download!

Download: PSPXTI: A TI-92 Calculator emulator v1.1.0
Visit: QJ's PSP Development Forum

Now that evidence shows that Cho Seung Hui didn't own a single video game at the time of the Tragic shooting, a new article over at MSNBC questions Thompson's fervent accusations. This is in light of his recent interview wherein he responded to IGDA criticism.

The MSNBC article notes that contrary to Thompson's claims of counterstrike being a "killing simulator" for youths, Cho didn't need much skill to shoot as many people as he did. Eye witness accounts indicate that many of the victims were shot at point blank range.

Moreover the article notes that Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California and author of the book "Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today's Youth" points out that before this week's Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly school shooting in history took place at the University of Texas in Austin way back in 1966, before the days of pong.

The article says that nobody realises that since the advent of videogames, violence rates in the US have declined "precipitously." Sternheimer even notes that it is likely that any 23-year-old man living in America has already played a videogame. How many 23-year-old men go out on a killing spree?

The MSNBC article goes on to note this nice gem:

For those who didn't grow up playing video games, the appeal of a game like "Counter-Strike" can be hard to comprehend. It can be difficult to understand that the game promotes communication and team work. It can be hard fathom how players who love to run around gunning down their virtual enemies do not have even the slightest desire to shoot a person in real life.

As a commenter on Digg noted, the truth is that massive multiplayer killing fests are really just slightly more complex and themed versions of cops-and-robbers. An online and engaging visual form of "tag" wherein players "tag" one another in the form of virtual kills, in a world where there are no real consequences. A game of tag in a world where death isn't really malicious or evil, or "desensitising" - death only means waiting for the next play round or respawn.

It is a competitive environment where sportsmanship is still the norm; where it is expected that after all the boasting and chest-thumping is done, the winning party will get up and shake the losing party's hand and say "good game."

Latest word from PSP owners: We want a PSP redesign! Latest word from Sony: Don't count on it. Yep, IGN reports that a Sony rep in the currently ongoing Games Developers Conference (GDC) in Austin, Texas claimed that there are no existing plans of redesigning their handheld to fit the demands of their users.

According to the same Sony rep, the reason behind this is that PSP is yet to reach its peak, something which could happen this year. It's hard to argue with this considering the PSP's growing interconnectivity functions with the PS3. But it's also harder to ignore the growing user base's clamor for the handheld's Lite version (like what Nintendo did with the DS) and a modification paving the way for dual analog sticks.

However, a closer look could show that Sony could be right in not coming with, what most PSP users would dub it, a PSP2. Releasing a brand new and redesigned portable would mean that a larger userbase would be left with an older, less efficient hardware - something that could be a marketing headache for any company.

How would future games be developed for handhelds that have two versions with different controls? The reason behind the DS Lite's success is that its features remain very much the same as the earlier versions, so there aren't many owners who felt they were left out on the cold. With a PSP2 redesign, that's harder to achieve.

Still, I could be wrong. Maybe it's worth the risk having a totally revamped version of the handheld. Perhaps Sony can even come up with a trade-in option, where owners can have their PSPs tweaked to be more like the newer gaming devices for a lesser price. But that's just me being too optimistic. How about you, what do you think?

While we can understand his sentiment, Senator Barack Obama's choice of rhetoric was a bit stale. Game Politics notes an Associated Press report that mentions his use of gaming as an equivalent to slacking.

According to the Associated Press, Obama was heard saying this at a a recent promotional rally in Austin, Texas:

Obama told the Austin crowd that they should try to recruit their friends to support his campaign. "I want you to tell them, 'It's time for you to turn off the TV and stop playing Game Boy,'" Obama said. "We've got work to do."

It obviously wasn't meant as a literal term, as the senator's been somewhat vocal in getting newer voters to go out and rock the vote (for him, presumably). He previously criticized youth culture as "watching TV, playing video games, and avoiding tough classes in school." Whether or not he wins the elections, we just want to tell him one thing though: "The new handhelds are the DS Lite and PSP. Take your pick for your next performance."

It's a mother's worst nightmare and every pubescent boy's dream: the gift of free pornography. Well, it wasn't actually free per se, but it definitely WAS a mother's nightmare since it turns out that the memory card that she herself bought for her son's PSP was loaded, not with eboots or homebrews or the latest version of DevHook, but pornographic videos and images. And the source? A GameStop store in Fort Worth, Texas.

Apparently, the said mother bought a refurbished memory card for her son's PSP, only to discover later on, when her kid and a friend turned on the PSP, that it wasn't only refurbished, but most possibly heavily used. A GameStop spokesman was told about the incident and has been noted to remark that he has never heard of a similar incident happening before because of the company's policy to erase data on refurbished cards before reselling them. An investigation is currently ongoing.

There have already been numerous warnings that such gadgets as the PSP can be a potential hiding place for your 12-year-old's porn collection, but then again, other items such as cellphones, flash disks, or almost anything with a USB cable and some memory can be used for the same purpose.

Tsk tsk. Could it be that the attendant who sold the memory card mistakenly sold the card that is for his, um, personal use?

Calling all cowboys: Saddle your horses and get ready to ride as Activision games has announced that the PSPs very own cowboy 'simulator' has shipped to game stores across North America today. If free roaming in the nomadic lawless west back in the good old days with drunkenness, prostitutes, and gun slinging is your thing, then you should definitely give Gun Showdown a try. This game gives much more than the title would like to suggest though, with the action-adventure hybrid having much more proportion than your average first person shooter as the 'bullets fly, people die' trailer shows.

Gun Showdown expands on what previous games have left behind, allowing you to take control of the untamed West on both sides of the law. Firstly as a gunslinger, you must shoot, knife and dynamite your way through an epic story. Good cop or bad cop, it's your choice. You'll be overjoyed that you bought your PSP when you get to see the game's list of features, taking full advantage of the PSPs technical abilities with a brand new wireless multiplayer and Quickplay modes, exclusive missions, and gameplay features that you won't find on any other console.

In Gun Showdown, players have a licence to dish out vigilante vengeance as you face-off against corrupt lawmen, a murderous preacher, a renegade army psychopath, and merciless outlaws that won't listen any other way. In a world where greed, lust and murder reign, the only way to survive is to wage war on horseback, hold up banks, collect bounties on prisoners dead or alive, and commandeer trains as the lines between good and evil are drawn in blood.

If you fancy a break from all the killing and bloodshed then you can settle down with multiplayer modes which allow you to team up or go head-to-head in Showdown mode; includes Deathmatch, Golden Cross and Texas Hold 'Em poker gameplay modes via the PSPs wireless network capabilities.

Now doesn't that sound fun? What are you waiting for, it's out today!

Preorder: [GUN Showdown]

   

A common dream of many adolescent hard-core gamers is to get past high-school, and enjoy the Utopian world of Higher Education. Thing is, when most kids get there, they discover to their horror that the grass isn't really greener on the other side. You've got more homework, tuition is more expensive, and despite the easily accessible alcohol via the staple college party, your gaming lifestyle isn't really that secure.

If you want to live it good, then this list we found might just be able to help you out.

The Global Gaming League has released a listing of what is in their opinion the top ten best games colleges you'd want to go to if you want to make it big in the gaming industry, or at the least just enjoy a healthy gaming lifestyle during your stay in Higher Education. The colleges were evaluated based on several Factors, namely the size of the student body, its geographical location, student organizations within the college, frequency and number of tournaments and LAN parties, tech-friendliness,  internet connections and curriculum.

• 10 - Full Sail Real World Education - Orlando, Florida
• 09 - University of Michigan, Dearborn Campus - Dearborn, Michigan
• 08 - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus - Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 07 - Georgia Institute Of Technology - Atlanta, Georgia
• 06 - University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
• 05 - Digipen Institute of Technology - Redmond, Washington
• 04 - University of California at Los Angeles - Los Angeles, California
• 03 - Rochester Institute of Technology - Rochester, New York
• 02 - Penn State University - State College, Pennsylvania
• 01 - University of Texas, Austin - Austin, Texas

The University of Texas gets top spot for its student body of 50,000 students, its proximity to all the major LAN gaming festivals, its old school and new school arcades,and its blazing fast internet connection. Connecting from your dorm there will get you LAN pings of 30 milliseconds of latency from Texas to the East coast and 40 to the West coast.

So, pick a college, go there, live high on the gaming life, and earn a good chance of getting into the industry.