LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD actress Maggie Q has joined the cast of Japanese videogame adaptation KING OF FIGHTERS, per VARIETY.

The film is currently lensing in Vancouver. Q's credits also include MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3.

GDC 2009
San Francisco, California, USA
March 23-27, 2009

Midway Games has to lay off 25 percent of its staff and has canceled several projects in early development in order to cut costs as a $150 million debt payment looms, reports VARIETY.

The January deadline for Midway's outstanding notes was triggered when Sumner Redstone sold the videogame publisher to a private investor, Mark Thomas, several weeks ago. Midway is working with advisory firm Lazard to find a way to pay off or renegotiate debt, as it is lacking the cash to pay it off.

Gore Verbinski (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) and Universal have bought the rights to a WALL STREET JOURNAL article depicting the detrimental effect that online fantasy role-playing games have on people's real lives, per VARIETY.

The 2007 article, by Alexandra Alter, focuses on a married man who spends upwards of 20 hours a day at his computer, role playing as a muscled entrepreneur, when he is in fact a diabetic, chain-smoking 53-year-old.

Industry tracking firm The NPD Group reports Friday that the videogame industry is seeing green this year, with dollar sales for all games, hardware, accessories and software topping $32 billion so far this year.

Game sales hit $2.91B in November 2008, up 10 percent from a year ago, and for the year sold $16.04B, up 22 percent from 2007. Leading the hardware unit sales was the Nintendo Wii with more than two million sold in November, followed by Nintendo DS (1.57M), Microsoft's Xbox 360 (836,000), Sony's PSP (421,000), PlayStation 3 (378,000) and PlayStation 2 (206,000).

Activision Publishing has released new details on X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, whose titular hero is one of the most popular Marvel characters of all time. The videogame, scheduled for release in May 2009, coincides with the global debut of Twentieth Century Fox's release of its feature film, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, which is also based on the famous Marvel character.

The quick rise and fall of Brash Ent., the videogame industry's first Hollywood-style publisher, is documented in an in-depth story on VARIETY.com.

Bruce Shelley will be the 12th inductee into The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame. Shelley is a preeminent game designer, who assisted Sid Meier in bringing the award-winning CIVILIZATION and RAILROAD TYCOON to the world, and later the AGE OF EMPIRES strategy games with Ensemble Studios.

PC GAMER named Shelley one of the 25 Game Gods in 1999, and in 2002 GAME SPY named him the eighth most influential person in gaming.

Curious Pictures has named Elyse Lawson as Head of Development. The move is in response to the studio's expansion into original production in areas such as feature films, TV series and games. Lawson joins Curious from Anonymous Content, where she was Director of Development, based in the company's New York office.

Toei Animation has appointed The Licensing Company Germany as the merchandising broker for DRAGON BALL, DRAGON BALL Z, and DRAGON BALL GT.

According to the agreement, The Licensing Company Germany will handle Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. The Licensing Company will have all merchandising rights for the brand with the exception of toy, videogame, publishing and Lamincards categories.