While speaking at a conference, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell suggested that a new chip that is currently in production could mean that video game piracy could come to an end.

At the conference, he explained that this stealth encryption chip (known as a TPM) is being installed on new motherboards that come with new computers, and that it will open up revenue prospects in areas such as Asia and India. In these regions, the chip will be able to "encrypt with an absolutely verifiable private key in the encryption world -- which is uncrackable by people on the internet and by giving away passwords." This will allow a huge market to develop in some sectors where piracy is a major problem.

While this could be good news for software developers, Bushnell believes that piracy of movies and music will continue to be an unstoppable force because "if you can watch it and you can hear it, you can copy it. Games are a different thing, because games are so integrated with the code. The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay."

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Greece, the cradle of the western culture, wasn't very well represented here at MobyGames until now, when DreinIX has risen among the Top 50 contributors of all time. He's already well known among the forum regulars, and being registered in MobyGames for less than one year makes him one of the few to make it so fast into the Top 50. Συγχαρητήρια!

Variety reports that Universal has signed a deal with Take Two to get the last year's critic's favorite video game into the cinemas worldwide. The director signed for the job is nobody else, but Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Weatherman, an excellent indie feature). Verbinski spoke very highly of BioShock, complimenting on its narrative, style and possibilities the game holds for the big screen.

The screenwriter is John Logan, known for The Last Samurai, The Aviator and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It is currently unclear whether the Bioshock original lead, Ken Levine contribute to the project.

This is the most expensive "video game to movie" deal yet. Will it be the best?

Interplay Entertainment has re-confirmed in a press release dated April 8, 2008 sequels to Earthworm Jim, Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK, and a MMOG set in the Fallout universe.

The press release states Interplay's 2007 earnings which rose as a result of the Fallout IP sale to Bethesda SoftWorks who are working on Fallout 3, and their plan to develop a Fallout MMOG and the aforementioned sequels. Interplay also announced that a new website launch is "imminent," as of April 12, 2008 the Interplay website has a placeholder graphic with its logo and a character from MDK and behind it, the blue shield orb that Descent is known for, Earthworm Jim, a character from Dark Alliance and at the lower middle, a depiction of the world in MDK, below that is a graphic with "Coming Soon." The press release also states that Interplay has reinitiated its in-house development studio and is in the process of hiring game developers.

Full press release