The plumber will return in another RPG adventure.

The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly has revealed that the popular Japanese gaming magazine will be unveiling the sequel to the Nintendo 64 title Paper Mario. The update to Mario Story (the Japanese title for Paper Mario) will be released some time later this year in Japan. It will feature the same paper-like 2 1/2 dimensional graphics its predecessor was known for. According to this article, Mario will even be able to fold himself up into a paper airplane to fly around. There is currently no news on this title coming to North America or Europe, but it is likely that this news will revealed some time closer to E3.

Capcom announces plans for a promising new development studio.

Much of Capcom’s talent will have a new home when a new Osaka-based development studio opens shop on July 1st. Capcom has invested 90 million yen into a new fully-owned subsidiary named Clover Studios.

Managerial roles will be filled by key Capcom personalities, most importantly Viewtiful Joe producer Atsushi Inaba as president and CEO. Other high positions will be filled by Kenzo Tsujimoto (president and chairman of Capcom Co., Ltd.), Yoshifumi Yamashita (Director - Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons), Haruhiro Tsujimoto (Senior Managing Directors and COO of Capcom Co., Ltd.), Tamio Oda (Managing Director of Capcom Co., Ltd)., Shinji Utsunomiya (Designer – Resident Evil), and Ryuta Takahashi (Software Engineer - Resident Evil). Clover Studio will consist of sixty-four people in total.

Famous ex-boxer Alexis Arguello sues the publisher of Knockout Kings and associated companies for using his likeness without permission.

The latest in a series of legal battles in the gaming industry, boxing champion Alexis Arguello has filed a law suit against Electronic Arts over his unendorsed appearance in the Knockout Kings series. Also included in the suit are console manufacturers who licensed—and thereby benefited from—EA’s boxing series.

The athelete states he initially became aware of his inclusion in the games when a fan asked him to autograph a copy of one of EA's games.

EIFG04 will run from 8th – 22nd August 2004 with the first four sponsors announced as Nintendo, PlayStation 2, NVIDIA and Xbox.

INDUSTRY BACKS EDINBURGH

EIGF04 dates confirmed: 8th – 22nd August 2004

Friday 26 March 2004/... The EIGF04 (Edinburgh International Games Festival 2004) committee today announced the first four official sponsors for this year's festival. EIGF04, set to run from 8th – 22nd August, launches into its second year with the backing of PlayStation®2, Xbox®, Nintendo and NVIDIATM, cementing its status as the critical cultural event for the interactive entertainment industry.

Tickets for the Game Stars Live consumer games show in London this September are now available.

GAME STARS LIVE GOES LIVE

Tickets go on sale for the UK’s biggest gaming event… ever!

Friday 26 March 2004/... Although the weather might hint otherwise, summer is not far off – and the nation's games-players, young and old alike, should already be making plans for how to spend their free time. And the best will definitely be saved for last as Game Stars Live offers a fun-filled climax to the summer season with a five-day long extravaganza of gaming excitement in early September. Those wishing to ensure they have one of the hottest tickets in town can book online through the show's spanking new Website (www.gamestarslive.co.uk), which launches on 2nd April 2004.

The combined television network will focus on gaming and cater to a larger market.

Comcast today announced its purchase of Tech TV, home of "X-Play" as well as other technology-focused programming. Tech TV will be merged with Comcast's own G4 channel, which is geared specifically towards video gamers but has floundered with a smaller distribution network. The new, combined network will be accessible by 44 million cable and satellite subscribers, a considerable increase from G4's previous distribution of 15 million subscribers. The sale was estimated at $300 million USD.

Includes a revealing 1:44 minute trailer.

In preparation for the April 29th release date in Japan, Nintendo has now opened up the official Pimkin 2 website. Along with the website is a new trailer, showing off a lot of the environments, critters, and game modes. Please watch it.

Gentleman, start your modems.

According to Game Science Chunsoft recently announced that their upcoming GameCube RPG, Homeland, will have an online mode. The game will ship on two discs, one for offline play and the other for online play.

The online version of Homeland will be free to play. Instead of connecting to servers players will run their own servers. The servers are planned to support up to thirty other players connecting to them. Rather than playing along with everybody else, the player running the server will play the role of something like a dungeon master. The host can look at the stats of other players, spawn monsters, and make certain events happen.

The Game Developers Choice award ceremony was held Wednesday night at the GDC. Who were the winners and who got snubbed?

Wednesday night at the GDC, the International Game Developer's Association hosted the 4th annual Game Developers Choice award ceremony. The awards serve as the ultimate in peer recognition, as it is the members of the game development community who acknowledge the very best of the past year's games.

This year's big winner was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Lucas Arts/Bioware) which received the awards for Game of the Year, Original Game Character of the Year (HK-47), and Excellence in Writing. Ubi Soft's multiplatform hit, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, also did well by winning the awards for Excellence in Game Design and Excellence in Programming.

At the GDC, Eiji Aonuma offered insights on recent developments in the Zelda series and teased the audience with a brief reference to the Wind Waker 2.

Wednesday afternoon at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose, Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma delivered a lecture entitled "The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda" in which he presented a retrospecitve on the Zelda series, offered some ideas as to what makes a game "Zelda-esque", and shared some amusing insights on the development of recent Zelda games.

Unfortunately, no concrete details were offered on the sequel to the Wind Waker. The game was only listed with a vague 2XXX release year on a chart of all the Zelda games. On the positive side, more information regarding the future of the Zelda series should be coming soon in May at E3 as Mr. Aonuma said that, "With this new expressive quality [of 2.5d gameplay of The Four Swords Adventure], and with the upcoming release unique Nintendo DS system, I think we'll see more changes coming to the franchise, the likes of which we can talk more about at this year's E3, when we'll also talk about development with the Wind Waker 2."