K2 has announced that the open beta for their MMORPG Sword of the New World: Granado Espada has now started.

"The growing Sword of The New World community has been waiting for this day and it's finally here," said Grantley Day, Vice President of Development at K2 Network. "Until now gamers could only read about the unique and exciting experience that is Sword of The New World; but now they can experience this truly exceptional game firsthand."

Funcom have announced they have secured an extra US$30 million in funding for their upcoming MMORPG Age of Conan through a private placement.

"We're expecting the launch of 'Age of Conan' to create significant waves in the MMO gamespace," says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. "With the secured additional funding Funcom is in an even better position to make the launch of the game a success. This commitment from the financial market is reflecting the great promise and expectations for 'Age of Conan'."

'Age of Conan' is progressing according to plan towards the announced launch date of 30th October 2007. The game has recently received strong early sales indications from partners and retail channels both in the U.S. and in Europe and press and gamer expectations for 'Age of Conan' continue to grow strongly. To ensure an optimal launch of 'Age of Conan', Funcom and its key partners has through this round of funding strengthened Funcom's marketing and operational capacity prior to launch.

I remember playing an alpha of the original Jumpgate almost 10 years ago. Now, NetDevil have announced a sequel, Jumpgate Evolution.

"Jumpgate Evolution offers fun, intuitive game play that is thoroughly engrossing, while the new AI encourages players to immerse themselves in various roles available in the universe," said Scott Brown, President of NetDevil. "The game has undergone a complete graphics overhaul and has been vastly expanded to offer more weapons, and greater focus on PvE targets, making roles more refined in the process. Advanced social aspects of the MMO are available as well, including player-owned stations, complete with controllable economy, updated player statistics and rankings, and the ability for players to create squads with customizable web pages for each. The overall experience is a vital improvement in terms of playability, accessibility, as well as the overall look and feel. We think it's a great example of just how far you can transform an existing IP."

A playable demo of Harry Potter and the Order of the phoenix has been released for those interested in the next in the series of games based on the movies of the books of the same name.

Explore Hogwarts from the Harry Potter movies and discover its magical secrets using the gesture-based spell casting system.

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Neuf Cegetel have announced they are currently working on a new MMORPG called Exalight.

Exalight prend place dans un univers futuriste et onirique dans lequel des milliers de joueurs peuvent s'immerger et s'affronter dans des courses épiques à bord d'engins totalement customisables.

Les joueurs incarnent un pilote de courses et entrent dans ce monde en créant un personnage vraiment unique grâce à un système de personnalisation poussée. L'expérience, les talents et compétences des personnages progressent au fur et à mesure des courses et de leur évolution dans l'univers.

BioWare have announced they have struck a deal with Sega to develop a role playing game based on Sonic the Hedgehog for the Nintendo DS.

"BioWare is one of the hottest names in RPG development in the world," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. "Everyone at SEGA has huge confidence that Sonic is in the safest of hands, and that BioWare can create the ultimate handheld RPG experience for gamers of all ages."

BioWare is the award-winning independent developer that has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, the 2003 Game of the Year, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the 2005 RPG of the Year, Jade Empire. BioWare is currently developing one of the most anticipated next-generation titles of 2007, Mass Effect.

"We're thrilled to be working with SEGA on Sonic, one of the industry's most enduring and compelling icons," said Greg Zeschuk, president of BioWare. "As huge fans of Sonic ourselves, we're committed to delivering a truly amazing story-driven experience within the Sonic universe, focusing on capturing the character's broad appeal and placing him in a completely original adventure," added Ray Muzyka, chief executive officer of BioWare.

Rockstar have announced that the next trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV will be released via Yahoo next week.

As the first official full trailer release for the game, fans get an exclusive peek at action-packed game footage from Grand Theft Auto IV.

Leading up to the trailer premiere, Yahoo! will celebrate Grand Theft Auto IV with special content including an interview with the creators behind one of the most popular video games of all time and exclusive screenshots from the forthcoming game.

This was actually announced yesterday, but if you missed it, Massive Entertainment and Sierra have confirmed that the hotly anticipated RTS World in Conflict will be making it's way to the Xbox 360 later this year.

World in Conflict represents the next-generation of strategy games, pitting Cold War-era superpowers against one another with completely destructible 3D battlefields, blistering visuals, and a narrowed gameplay focus that removes traditional resource-gathering and base-building in favor of non-stop combat, tactical decisions and an FPS-like addiction to intense action.

"World in Conflict is the natural fit for Xbox 360, as it effectively blurs the lines between strategy, action and first-person shooter, making controlling units and issuing orders quick and easy on the console controller," said Al Simone, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, Sierra Entertainment. "With the game coming to Xbox 360, next-generation console gamers will be able to enjoy the next-generation of strategy games. Fans of action games and strategy fanatics alike will find that World in Conflict's unique gameplay and advanced multiplayer combat will provide a fresh game experience not yet available on consoles."

A post on the Quake Wars: Enemy Territory website on Monday seems to indicate that the first batch of beta keys for the upcoming open beta will be released through FilePlanet from the middle of this week, leading to speculation (and not a little hope) that this means Wednesday (today). The kwys will be distrubuted in small batches over the first few days.

Now why are we spreading these out over several days instead of throwing all 60,000 keys out at once? Simple: We want to make sure that as many people as possible get the chance to obtain a key and we feel that scheduling a predetermined number of keys to go out each day is the best way to do this. We're also going to be gradually ramping up the number of available keys with each passing day, so as time goes on, more keys are passed out per day. This allows us to steadily increase the load on our back-end infrastructure, making sure we can effectively test that.

Of course, a multiplayer beta is useless if there are no servers to play on. Towards that end, we've been working closely with a select number of Game Server Providers to get servers for the Public Beta up in North America, Europe, and Australia. We will continue to work with GSPs around the world to make sure Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars servers can be found in every major territory when the game ships.

The BBFC has refused to classify the upcoming Take 2 game Manhunt 2 for Playstation 2, effectively banning the game in the UK.

"Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly," BBFC director David Cooke stated. "Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board’s published Guidelines.

"In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.

"There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.

"Although the difference should not be exaggerated the fact of the game’s unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying and the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer, together with the different overall narrative context, contribute towards differentiating this submission from the original Manhunt game."

Konami has announced the next version of their long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series will be released in August 2007.

Key to PES 2008 is a proprietary adaptive AI system entitled Teamvision. Unique to the Konami game, Teamvision is a sophisticated AI programming that learns and adapts according to an individual’s style of play. As such, it will learn new ways to build attacks and to counter specific movements and previous attacking or defensive errors, ensuring games are more in line with the tactical but flowing nature of the real thing.

With the Pro Evolution Soccer series renowned for its fluid, realistic gameplay, the new game builds on the implementation of Teamvision with additional key advances. As with previous releases since its inception in 1996, the ball is again treated as a separate entity, with the timing of shots entirely down to the player, while the new AI ensures that defenders work to close down space and block efforts on goal. Similarly, distribution of passes works along the same lines, with players using the space available to them to switch the ball. Close control has also been enhanced with more control when dribbling the ball, and a number of subtle moves added to bypass defenders and move the ball into space.

Following on from yesterday's post, The Times is reporting that the company is planning an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in 2008.

Codemasters, the computer games developer behind the Colin McRae rally series, is preparing for a £200 million-plus flotation in the next year, after its principal investor completed the buyout of the brothers who founded the firm.

Richard and David Darling sold their remaining interest of about 25 per cent to the existing investor Balderton Capital in a tidying-up exercise ahead of a listing. The sum was undisclosed, but is thought to run into tens of millions of pounds.