The Pokemon Company has filed a lawsuit against an unaffiliated party that was being held at PAX this year. It was the fifth year straight that this party was being organized- however, this year seems to be the year that it has caught the attention and/or ire of The Pokemon Company.

It is unclear why exactly they went after the organizers- it might have been because the party was charging for entry (though the amount was negligible enough that the organizers can’t have profited from it), or maybe it was because of the Pokemon themed drinking activities that the organizers had had planned. As a brand that is aimed squarely at children, The Pokemon Company probably took issue with that.

The official lawsuit states that the organizers were “incorporating infringing copies of Pikachu and Snivy into their poster.” This is a direct copyright infringement- considering that branding is a huge deal for Pokemon, and nowhere on the poster did it state that the party was not affiliated with or endorsed by Pokemon, you can sort of see where The Pokemon Company was coming from here.

Still, it’s a bit rough… maybe they should have just sent a cease and desist first?

Star Citizen. Seriously, who hasn’t heard of that game at this point in time? If you’re big into gaming, then you’re already fully aware of the upcoming and monstrously ambitious game that raised a ludicrous amount of money.

Fret not though. That money has been put to good use and boy oh boy does it look like this game will deliver.

The game is releasing portions at a time to build into a greater whole. One such module is the first person shooter module. Visuals are nice, movement looks good and the HUD has a nice little Sci Fi feel to it, but isn’t over cluttered. All in all, things are looking good.

I will say this though. I personally don’t like it when people start talking like a team. Acting like a team and playing like a team is all well and good, but saying “Contact Right, Clear Ambush, On me!” in a game is just too much. Oh, and don’t listen to the crowd…actually, perhaps you should just turn the sound off.

With the launch of such additional features as Xbox Live and The PlayStation Network, which allow gamers to download games, apps, DLC, and other features directly to their system hard drive, the prevalence of external storage in gaming has increased exponentially.

However, Microsoft has confirmed that, at least at the time of the Xbox One launch, gamers will not be allowed to add external storage to their Xbox One systems. According to a Major Nelson podcast, when fielding a fan’s question at PAX he said, “The future plan is for definitely to support external storage much like we do on the Xbox 360. My understanding is that feature will not be there at launch because the team is working on some other things, but it definitely is on the list. I don’t know when it will come in though.”

The Xbox One will come with a non-replaceable 500 gigabyte internal hard drive. Hopefully this will be sufficient until such time as external hard drive storage is supported.

Source: Major Nelson

“Ultimately, it’s probably gotten worse than when I was talking about it before. And that’s a shame. But there are options out there. And there are many options that Japanese independent developers can pursue to gain more control, to own their own IP, et cetera.

“And Kickstarter is one of those fantastic options. And so, one of the reasons why I was interested in doing this Kickstarter wasn’t just because potentially being able to connect with the fans, but also potentially being able to show other Japanese independent developers that there is a way, that there are options.” Inafune recently began a Kickstarter for his game Might No. 9.

Of course, he believes that the industry “still lots of great solutions” if developers begin delivering “great content” to get consumers to “stand up and listen and support it”.

For Bayonetta, Kamiya stated that, “Given the chance, I’d like to make a game based on Jeanne from Bayonetta. Something that’s not as big in scale. Something that’s portable, that you could play in quick sessions, where she’s a history teacher and the kind of fun things that could come out of a scenario like that.”

As for Okami, “If I could get away with it, I’d also like to come up with a spin-off of Ōkami, less focused on the grand idea of saving the world, but [rather] something focused on the smaller world of the fairy Issun.”

Meanwhile, The Wonderful 101 is set to debut in North America on September 15th.

Indie survival game, Outlast, has been making waves throughout the gaming community, with it’s unique brand of gaming horror showing much promise for a full-fledged terrifying gaming experience. What we’ve known up to now is that the game’s protagonist, Miles Upshur, is making his was through the Mount Massive asylum, where sketchy happenings are occurring as a product of the Murkoff Corporation.

Upshur’s obsession with exposing the Murkoff Corporation as what they really are, evil human rights abusers, has led to his investigation into the asylum. Developers, Red Barrels, have released a document which reveals some additional information about the upcoming plot, and Upshur’s association with the Murkoff Corporation. The full text reads:

“THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN
How Murkoff Turned the Global Water Crisis into a Billion Dollar Revenue Stream
by Miles Upshur

May 9, 2013 2:19pm

ACCRA, GHANA

Nine-year old Akosua stands before the water-vending machine with its bright “ALSAB” logo, a few bills clutched in her small hand. You can still see the blank place on the machine’s hull where the words “Freeflow Global Charities” was pried away last year.

She explains that 2 cedis (about $1) will buy her five liters of purified water, which her Cholera-afflicted mother desperately needs. But 17 cedis at the Worldfree Clinic would buy her mother the course of antibiotics that would shorten the disease’ course and possibly save her life. It’s a terrible choice for a child to make, and one facing more and more of the world’s 1.6 billion inhabitants without access to clean drinking water.

More than a quarter of Accra’s citizens buy their water from Wellspring Industries, either monthly through their taps, or directly from the ubiquitous, bright yellow Alsab machines. What few Ghanians know, however, is the hidden connection between Wellspring Industries, Alsab, Freeflow Global Charities, and Worldfree Clinics.

All of them are subsidiaries of the multinational Murkoff Corporation.
In an increasingly clear partnership between Western Capitalism and Third World corruption, the Murkoff Corporation has used its dozens of subsidiaries to open back doors into selling the source of life to drought-starved populations in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

Here’s how it works: a newly-started charity, fueled largely by donations, establishes a water supply and sewage systems for communities whose well water has been rendered non-potable by industrial runoff. Murkoff gets the tax write-off for charitable spending, while their subsidiary Alsab gets the profits for building and installing the system. When the cost of running the system becomes too great, the charity (in Ghana’s case, Freeflow Global) declares bankruptcy and abandons the project. Then Murkoff subsidiary Wellspring Industries (or another Murkoff shell company) steps in and offers the local government completion and maintenance of the project in return for the construction fee and complete deregulation of the water supply, allowing Wellspring/Murkoff to name the price of the population’s water.

As Murkoff is also the owner of the three most active pharmaceutical manufacturers to the Third World, they’ll profit nicely whether the locals choose clean water or cholera.

It’s only the latest in Murkoff’s near-century long history of playing both sides against the middle, maximizing profits at the cost of human rights. Whether licensing aggressively pollinating, genetically-modified rice with a built in “suicide gene” to India, flipping blood diamond real estate in Angola and Sierra Leone, or peddling amphetamines to the Nazis in World War II, you can’t swing a dead cat in an arena of human suffering without knocking over a Murkoff piggy bank.

Water is fast becoming the new oil, an issue largely ignored by the developed world, by wealthy Americans and Europeans comfortable with their hot showers and iced drinks.

But earlier this year Murkoff subsidiary Heartland Springs Charity began construction of three Alsab-built water purification plants in Detroit. Welcome to New World Water.”

Outlast will release in full for Steam on September 4th, but a new playable demo will be available at PAX at the logitech booth, #3630.

CI Games, formerly known as City Interactive Games, will be attending PAX Prime in Seattle this coming weekend. They will be showcasing three of their upcoming games at the expo, including the RPG, Lords of the Fallen, which they have now confirmed will be coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PCs (see the trailer above).

They have also announced that they will be showcasing the World War II shooter Enemy Front; this game sounds interesting for two reasons, one because it is being helmed by creative director Raphael van Lierop (the narrative director for Far Cry 3, and a producer for Company of Heroes), and the other because it is a friggin World War II shooter when none from that breed really exist anymore. The game is due out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Finally, the old school shooter Alien Rage, powered by Unreal Engine 4, will also be coming to Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam this Fall. it will be showcased at PAX Prime as well.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage of the upcoming event.

“So much has happened in the past twelve months that sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that it was just one year ago today that we launched Guild Wars 2. If you haven’t joined us yet, there’s never been a better time. Whether you’d rather wage war in epic battles with hundreds of players, test your skills against fellow players in our competitive PvP scene, or just explore a vast world that offers new surprises every time you log in, I invite you to check out Guild Wars 2 today”.

Till date, more than 3.5 million copies have been sold with +1 billion transactions, with +460,000 players online at one time, 45 petabytes of content released since launch and more than 1.3 billion events triggered till now.

Sonic Lost World, Total War: Rome II, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F and Heroki will be at this year’s PAX convention, and will be playable to attendees on the floor. Interestingly, Sonic Lost World will also be shown at Nintendo’s booth as well.

Along with play-time for each of its games, SEGA has also announced that The Creative Assembly, developer of Total War: Rome II, will be hosting their first ever panel at PAX on September 1st at the Kraken Theater. The panel has been dubbed, “History vs. Gameplay – Hey Creative Assembly, where’s the accuracy in my pew pew shooter?”, which in itself is an awesome reason to attend. Stay tuned for more details.

What does Nintendo have in store for attendees? The Wii U will see games such as Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Sonic Lost World and much more.

The Nintendo 3DS lineup will gave fans a chance to go hands-on with Pokémon X & Y, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Scribblenauts Unmasked, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Sonic Lost World, Retro City Rampage and many more titles for the StreetPass Mii Plaza and Nintendo eShop.