It's great to see that an indie developer has made it to the same level as other big shot studios. According to Develop's list of most successful game studios, Rebellion Developments - the studio that developed The Simpsons Game (the PSP and Wii versions) and Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron - is Europe's leading independent developer. Details in the full article.

Looks like Mario and Sonic aren't headed for video game retirement anytime soon, as they're still at the top of their game. The Olympic Games that is. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is still persisting in the UK as the top selling game for the week ending on March 1, only getting knocked off the top spot a few times since it landed there last December. For the full list of top games in the UK, head over to the full article.

It's time once again for GameStop's weekly deals. This week, GameStop is offering the Halo 3 Legendary Edition for only US$ 79.99, down from US$ 129. The Halo 3 Legendary Edition comes with a bunch of extra stuff and of course its crowning glory, a model of Master Chief's helmet. Check out the full article for the rest of the deals GameStop is offering this week.

Rebellion Developments, the studio behind the PSP games Star Wars Battlefront, Alien vs Predator and The Simpsons Game, is now stepping out of its shell and moving on to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms, starting with a sequel to Eidos Interactive's Shellshock. More in the full article.

Need for Speed: ProStreet rips its way into first place in the UK for the week of December 1, finally eclipsing Assassin's Creed, which has dropped to fourth place. ProStreet was in second place last week. See the full list of top 20 games for the UK in the full article.

The Chart track for the UK's all format polls for the week ending November 24 indicates that Assassin's Creed (PS3, DS, Xbox 360, PC) has stepped out of the shadows, retaining its presence as the top game for the said time period.

That said, we imagine the guys will be curious about the rest of last week's top contenders. You can view the list over in the full article.

It came to our attention that the webpage dedicated to the parody Grand Theft Scratchy from Electronic Arts' The Simpsons Game has been changed. While the said changes are not reflected on the trailer videos and screenshots yet, the trailer itself is now being referred to as "Mob Rules".

It should be remembered that this started in early October when EA Lead Designer for The Simpsons Game Greg Rizzer commented that some companies are not particularly happy with their spoofs. It looks like that the company being referred to by Rizzer is no other than Rockstar Games.

This became clearer when he commented, "If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto. But yeah, we've definitely had some reactions - we've had to pull stuff from the game." The designer was able to comment regarding the things that they had to remove.

We guess we will all know when The Simpsons Game launches on October 30 for platforms Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2. For now, check out the "new" Mob Rules trailer by clicking the Read link below.

PSP gamers located in BeNeLux will get more love this November, with a handful of new releases coming their way, as well as a couple of limited edition PSPs that avid collectors may want to get their hands on.

Gamers haling from BeNeLux will soon get the Spider-man-themed and The Simpsons-themed red and yellow PSPs, which will be available exclusively for a limited time in Europe along with the other games enumerated below:

• Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice - November 23
• SOCOM Tactical Strike - November 28
• Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow - November 30
• WipeOut Pulse - End of November

The Spiderman and The Simpsons special edition PSPs will be released on a yet-to-be-determined date in November.

What's the Big Deal with GameStop's deals this week? It's the Simpsons Game which will be available by the end of the month. The price cut for the Sony PlayStation 3's 80 GB console is also spotlighted this week, plus a couple of discounted games for the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the PC.

This week's promo is a free Homerball when you reserve the Simpsons Game (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS). The Homerball is a little toy doll of Homer. If you recall, getting as fat and round as a watermelon is one of Homer's powers in the game. Also this week is MotorStorm, bundled with the 80 GB console.

Discounts this week are WarTech: Senko No Ronde (US$ 9.99), Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (US$ 19.99) and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (US$ 49.99). The 20% trade-in credit for reserving Super Mario Galaxy is still in effect, and probably will be until the game is finally released next month on November 12.

The Simpsons animated series has always been known for its parodies of everything from video games to movies to public figures, so of course this is reflected in Electronic Arts' upcoming The Simpsons video game (Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3, PSP, DS).

The company has received some negative reactions from a few video game companies regarding the spoofs in The Simpsons, however. This was revealed by The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzer in a recent interview with CVG.

"We've definitely had some reactions - we've had to pull stuff from the game", said Rizzer. "But that's cool to me. It's cool to still know, I feel, that the industry's been waiting for a game like this to come along. It's been too long since we really had one, and of course [there's] The Simpsons being the perfect vehicle to poke fun at the games industry."

Not everybody had negative reactions to the game's various video game spoofs, though. "I don't know if you've seen Sitar Hero? We did Apu playing this 60-button controller and songs like Pour Some Curry On Me - we made this wonderful parody poster and the guys from Harmonix loved it and we sent them 20 copies of the poster," said Rizzer. "They just loved it so much."