The Entertainment Software Association holds yearly benefits to improve the quality of life for children in America, aiming to create positive social impact by being a large contributor to such organizations as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Starlight Children's Foundation, and more. Right now, the ESA is holding a rather large eBay auction to raise money, and the items up for bidding range from the extremely rare (a Star Wars lightsaber signed by George Lucas) to the oddly mundane (an HP Photosmart printer).

Other items up for grabs include two tickets to E3 along with a pass to Nintendo's private E3 party, two tickets to E3 along with a pass to Sony's private E3 party, an Xbox 360 signed by Bill Gates, and a six-foot-tall statue of Halo's Master Chief.

Most of the auctions end in the next few days, so if you have cash to burn for a charitable cause, get on it!

For those who wonder why console manufacturers always take so long to launch their machines in certain territories, Microsoft's Peter Moore has this to say: "There's a reason no-one has done this before and we are figuring that out. If we knew what we were getting into, we might not have done it."

A BBC report indicates Microsoft is getting rather worried about its ability to keep its upcoming Xbox 360 console stocked worldwide in a far shorter timeframe than has ever been attempted before with a major console. Moore seems determined to see the problem through, but don't ask him how he's going to do that; he doesn't know. "We're going to ship all around the world; how we're going to do that, I don't know," said Moore. "We're going to rent every 747 we can find."

The article also brings up the issue of launch titles, a topic Microsoft seems to want to avoid answering conclusively until the last possible moment. In regards to Microsoft-published anticipated titles such as Rare's Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power as well as Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing 3, Microsoft Chief XNA Architect J Allard said, "These games are not far from being done, and if they're three weeks after the launch or they're on launch day I don't think it makes a significant difference." Moore echoed those sentiments: "Games will arrive with a thousand bugs and get into the certification process. They make it or they don't. It's no big deal if a game takes another week. The consumer will get a strong line-up."

Real Time Worlds, the studio founded by Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones, announced today an agreement with Epic to license the Unreal Engine 3 for use in any of the studio's games. The first title to take advantage of the deal is the upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin (APC) (X360, PC). Real Time Worlds is also working on Crackdown for Xbox 360, but it was not specified whether it will make use of Unreal technology. The game sports a very stylized visual aesthetic, in large part due to its atypical color palette.

Webzen, the Korean firm publishing APB, has also obtained several licenses of the engine.

Nintendo just announced two upcoming hardware bundles, one for its DS console and one for the GameCube.

I've seen quite a few people ask about this in chatty, so here's your answer: Two weeks after Mario Kart DS hits stores, Nintendo will launch a Red Hot Nintendo DS bundle. Like the recently-announced Nintendogs bundle, it goes for $149.99 (the price of a standalone DS before its recent price cut), comes in a limited edition color scheme, and includes a full game. In this case, the game is of course Mario Kart DS and the limited edition color is a deep red. The deal also comes with a checkered-flag wrist strap as well as various decals. Mario Kart DS ships November 14, and the bundle will follow on November 28.

Nintendo also announced another GameCube promotion, following the recent Super Smash Bros. bundle. November 7 will see the release of a bundle containing a GameCube, Mario Party 7, a GameCube microphone, and two controllers--all for $99.99. Separately, the items would retail for about $175, with the upcoming Mario Party 7 priced at $49.99.

Konami has announced a deal with major U.S. gym club chain 24 Hour Fitness to include DDR machines in 24 Hour Fitness locations. The machines will be featured in grand openings of the chain, as well as in 24 Hour's Kids Club section. 30-day trial passes to 24 Hour Fitness will be included in copies of Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2 (PS2) and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3 (Xbox).

IGN asks a few questions of Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack regarding the studio's upcoming Too Human (X360).

1UP has a developer interview with The Creative Assembly's Clive Gratton regarding Spartan: Total Warrior (PS2, Xbox, GCN).

Iain Simons at Gamasutra has a feature up on the processes followed by Xbox 360 design director Jonathan Hayes.

Citing Microsoft's 30% growth in China this year, Microsoft Greater China chief executive Tim Chen said in an interview that the company hopes to launch Xbox 360 in China next year. The country's software market, traditionally a legendary hotbed of piracy, has been growing at a 40% annual rate and is now worth $20 billion. Microsoft has been trying to claim a bigger piece of that pie with its Windows operating system, but the national government supports Linux.

Last month, Microsoft announced that Xbox 360 will be built in three factories in southern China.

Real Time Worlds, the studio recently founded by David Jones, has announced some specifics regarding its upcoming Xbox 360 title, Crackdown. The game is the second of two known to be in the works at the studio, the other being the urban MMO All Points Bulletin (X360, PC). While APB seems to be something of a massively multiplayer Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown is more of an online futuristic Grand Theft Auto. The game features three rival gangs: Cai-Shen Corp from Asia, known for hitmen and vengeance; The Volk from Russia, masters of unlocking firearms; and La Muerta from Spain, hot rod pros. The player, as some kind of superhuman vigilante, must take down these organizations and bring peace to the city. All signs seem to indicate that this is achieved not through clever subterfuge and corporate espionage, but more likely by way of driving around in vehicles and blowing things up. Jones was one of the founders of Scottish developer DMA Design, where he helped to create the venerable Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto franchises. DMA Design, of course, is now known as Rockstar North.

Also, chalk up another RPG franchise heading to Xbox 360. SoftMax, developer of Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (PS2), and Banpresto, best known for its game adaptations of anime franchises, have announced their intention to release the as-yet-unsubtitled Magna Carta 2 for Xbox 360 in 2007. Korean developer SoftMax's Magna Carta was released on PC and PS2 in Korea and Japan, and is set for release by Atlus in North America and Europe this November. Microsoft has been attracting a surprisingly strong contingent of non-Western developers for its upcoming Xbox 360 console, a start contrast to its largely Western lineup for this generation's Xbox. In particular, there have been many announcements for Xbox 360 RPGs.

Finally, developer iNiS also has a game in the works for Microsoft's system. Known primarily for its rhythm games, iNiS is responsible for the excellent Gitaroo-Man (PS2) and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (DS), but apparently the studio's Xbox 360 title will be a platformer, which comes as a bit of a surprise. The game will use iNiS' brand new in-house NFactor 2 engine, which features some advanced lighting techniques. It's a bit odd to hear that a developer such as iNiS is working on a platformer, but knowing that studio it probably won't end up run-of-the-mill.

The most recent issue of the ever-announcement-laden Famitsu has revealed two new "Mana" titles (Seiken Densetsu in Japan) in the works. The first, entitled Children of Mana, is an action RPG coming to Nintendo DS. No details regarding the game are available, but Square Enix plans to ship it this Winter in Japan. The other game, currently only known as Seiken Densetsu 4, has even less information available: its platform hasn't even been announced yet, though PlayStation 2 at least seems like a good guess.

It was not revealed if these titles are directly related to Square Enix's mysterious World of Mana project, other than belonging to the same franchise. Some have speculated that these two newly-announced games simply are World of Mana.

The DS will be getting another strategy title in the form of what is currently known only as Ys Strategy. No details are available regarding this entry in the 18 year old Ys series, including a release date whether the game is real-time or turn-based.

The Ys series will also be hitting PSP when that system's port of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PS2) is released this winter.

SCE's survival horror franchise Siren (PS2) is being adapted to film in Japan by director Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The movie has apparently finished principle filming, and is set for release next February along with the game's sequel, Siren 2 (PS2). It seems unlikely the film will be released in Western territories, but given recent trends don't be too surprised if an American director (such as Sam Raimi or Quentin Tarantino) decides to produce a stateside remake a year from now.

IGN's Matt Casamassina interviews Tancred Dyke-Wells, creative director on Kuju's rather fun Battalion Wars (GCN). In regards to a possible Revolution sequel, Dyke-Wells notes that Kuju is "continuing to have positive discussions with Nintendo", and "we're very aware of how important multiplayer is for possible future versions of Battalion Wars."

As one might expect given it is a daily week-long feature, 1UP has the newest installment of Team NINJA Week, in which Tomonobu Itagaki he reveals how much he friggin hates Tekken (and loves Pikmin! This guy's okay in my book).

IGN has a video interview on Clover Studio's incomprehensibly gorgeous Okami (PS2).

Edge Online has a feature up chronicling the developer relations strategy Sony pursued with its original PlayStation, which helped put the machine on top.

Every gamers' favorite politician (no, not Arnold), Tem Leland Yee, is once again at the forefront of a videogame political scandal. Since it was discovered that users can unlock a sex mini-game in the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Yee now wants the ESRB to give the game an Adults-Only rating. "Once again, ESRB has failed our parents," he said. " Plain and simple, parents cannot trust the ESRB to rate games appropriately or the industry to look out for our children's best interests. The ESRB and the video game industry cannot police themselves and this is yet another example of why we need legislation to limit these types of games to children." The ESRB has responded by saying it will conduct a "thorough and objective investigation."

Bizarre Creations revealed new details on how tournaments will work in the Xbox 360 game Project Gotham Racing 3. Multiple tourneys will be held each month over Xbox Live that include a qualifying and a knockout phase. The first two weeks of the month are all the qualifying races; then Gotham TV takes over and sorts out everything for the knockout round, telling players when to play. The finals can be viewed through Gotham TV, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me! Live gaming events!

Those sleuths over at GameGossip have discovered what could possibly be a new bundle from Microsoft that packages the Xbox with Halo 2. Over on their official site, the Canadian product catalog shows "Halo 2 Edition" priced at $259.99. The link doesn't go anywhere, but one could assume a new bundle is on the horizon. Now the question is.. is this bundle for Canada only?

Okay, so Microsoft decided to port Fable over to the PC and gave it the sub-title of The Lost Chapters, adding in new regions, quests, and story elements. Well, today, Microsoft will be porting the port back over to the Xbox this fall. Fable: The Lost Chapters will have everything the PC version has but it'll sell for the low price of $19.99.

IGN had a recent discussion with a few peeps over at Square Enix and came away with some interesting details regarding the Xbox 360 port of Final Fantasy XI. All graphics work is done with the entire process at about 55% completion. Porting started this past February and they're basing the content off the Windows version. It was actually supposed to release on the original Xbox and be part of the Xbox Live launch, but it just didn't happen. No worries; Square Enix is confident FFXI will be ready for the launch of the Xbox 360.

A European market research group announced their findings on their study that tried to tap the pulse of gamers to see which new handheld they preferred. The results were a landslide in favor of the Nintendo DS. It beat out Sony's PSP in all the major categories: screen, games, quality, and value. Still, there were plenty of complaints for both handhelds; gamers don't like the huge amount of puzzle games for the DS but they also dislike the long drought of new games for the PSP. Check out the full details inside the link.

The upcoming Xbox version of Sid Meier's Pirates! will come bundled with new goodies not found in the original release. New to the version are 200 unlockable items that show off behind-the-scenes media and a new party game featuring ship battles. On top of that, downloadable content will be possible through Xbox Live and there'll be an online leaderboard.

I think it goes without saying that the vast majority of cable news channel pundits are the scum of the earth, but here comes Donny Deutsch to outdo them all. His program lured journalist John Davison, former chief of EGM and current editor at 1UP, to talk about a wide range of gaming topics, including clans, tournaments, and also violence. However, Davison quickly discovered that he was lured into a trap to paint him as the evil defender of videogame violence. Read the whole tale from Davison himself here at his blog. Thanks to Kotaku.

Tecmo announced their first PSP game the other day and it's called Tokobot. "Players will take on the role of the young hero "Bolt", a quick thinking agent who has discovered some friendly, highly advanced robots called "Tokobots" during his explorations of ancient ruins. With the help of the loyal Tokobots, Bolt will reveal mysteries and save the world, as the Tokobots faithfully follow him on his journey, helping him on his way." Sounds a bit like Pikmin!

Sony Computer Entertainment performed a ton of housekeeping maneuvers that shifted around personnel and created new divisions. The two new areas of SCE are Sony Computer Entertainment Asia and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio, with the latter overseeing all first-party games. Phil Harrison, who was the prez over in Europe, now is in charge of all SCE game developments. Also, Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, has been given a new executive position.

The "offline MMORPG" series, .hack//, will continue with .hack//fragment. However, with this baby, you can actually play online with it! It'll have a BBS, mail, and guild system and there'll be a matching server to make it easy to find people to play with. It won't require the PS2 HDD nor will there be a monthly fee.

Ubisoft has tipped off gamers to expect some of those promised Chaos Theory maps within the next couple weeks. In that time frame, the versus map Street Squat will be released. Not long after, two more versus maps will become available with the summer wrapping up with one last final map.

The Japanese-style MMORPG that was canceled near its completion, True Fantasy Live Online, may not be as dead as we all thought. 1UP has learned that Microsoft has renewed the trademark on the game. This may not be saying much; I mean, really, it's not that expensive to renew the trademark, but it gives a glimmer of hope to its fans.

This country definitely has caught poker fever and now fans of ESPN's World Series of Poker can play against the greats right from the comfort of their living room couch. Activision has announced they'll publish a game based on the TV series and it'll feature the likenesses of players that were at the 2005 tournament. Expect this one later in the summer for the consoles indicated above.

Take-Two Interactive announced that it has signed the goalie of the Dallas Stars, Marty Turco, to grace the cover of NHL 2K6. Turco has been voted twice to the All-Star game and won a couple championships in college. The game is slated for release this fall. I forget; will there even be a season this year?

Don't steal the spotlight, Turco! The Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudamire was also revealed to grace the cover of a sports game: NBA 06 for the PSP. The All-Star power forward was an integral part of his team reaching the NBA Western Conference Finals this past season. The game, however, is still slated to suck.

It has been an on-going saga that the 82-year old Viacom CEO, Summer Redstone, has been wanting to gobble up Midway. Slowly but surely, he's been buying large chunks of Midway stock. Over the past week alone, he's made nine stock purchases worth nearly $7 million. With the recent agreement of Midway to partner with Viacom-owned MTV, it doesn't appear long before the two are one.

ABC's megahit series, Lost, will have its own UMD release on the PSP later this year. Launching alongside the Season One DVD set on September 6, the two-part pilot will be available on UMD for an unspecified price. Considering the $38.99 DVD set contains about 26 episodes, I'm hoping the UMD is coming out at a bargain price.

Planning to go to the big San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend? If so, you'll get the opportunity to see Backbone Entertainment's Death, Jr. The game will be playable and the staff working on the comic series will be on-hand. Check the link for event details.

A new version of the EyeToy will be hitting store shelves in the near future. Sony Europe has signed Nam Tai Electronics, the original manufacturers, to build a new EyeToy that is smaller in size than the original. It will be made to sit alongside the upcoming satin silver PS2.

Take a deep breath; it's not as bad as it sounds. Nintendo isn't pimpin' Mario in a yet another oddball sports game. Instead, the Big N is sponsoring the Rip Curl's GromSearch 2005, a national surfing contest. Surfers can win Nintendo prizes, such as GBA games. Also at the beaches will be Nintendo kiosks to try out their games. Cowabunga, dude! Radical!

TeamXbox looks at the A.I. of Far Cry Instincts. 1UP briefly runs down what to expect at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Want to truly understand the interface of the new Xbox Live? Then click that link!

Another set of prominent members of the Japanese games industry has sounded off on the next-gen consoles. Square Enix's president, Youichi Wada, said Microsoft was "one step ahead" in the online games business and publishers need to adapt to this new revolution. Konami's president pledged support for original games on each console (and PC) whereas Namco's VP claimed that only one console will reign supreme in Japan and all publishers will migrate to it. Read the full quotes by clicking the link.

Typically, I don't prefer to report on predictions from analysts but Merrill Lynch does their research and here's their latest findings on the PlayStation 3. They expect the console to cost Sony $494 per unit, forcing them to price it at $399. The Cell, RSX GPU, and the Blu-Ray drive each cost about $101 each. Ken Kutaragi hasn't confirmed a price, but he said a mark down from production costs would not be steep.

If you were looking forward to playing the console version of Far Cry on your PS2, I have some bad news for you: it has been cancelled. Far Cry Instincts is now exclusive to the Xbox. Ubisoft hasn't stated officially why the decision was made to go Xbox-only. Xbox gamers, you can still expect this one in September.

The driving MMORPG All Points Bulletin, from the mind of the creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, will also release on the Xbox 360. Previously a PC-only title, rumors surfaced that it'd have a console port when APB's developer, Real Time Worlds, revealed that they had partnered with Microsoft. However, expect to wait quite a while for this one; it's shipping in 2008, a year after the PC release.

The RPG series infamous for its German sub-titles appears to not be dead after all. Due to not-so-great sales, everyone thought that the episodic Xeno series ended with Xenosaga 2, but a voice actor on the series revealed on his personal site that he's been doing voice work on the third title. No official word from Namco yet.

Nintendo's two-faced portable has surpassed one million units sold in the European territory. The handheld launched over there on March 11 and sold 500,000 units in the first three weeks. In the UK alone, sales are over 250,000. Although we just got Meteos, unfortunately for them, it'll take until September.

If you're already bored with Battlefield 2 (what?!), here's what's coming out this week. The Xbox's sole release is King of Fighters: Maximum Impact. PS2 scores Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana and Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam. PSP owners can pick up Dead to Rights: Reckoning. Riviera: The Promised Land hits the GBA while Meteos arrives on the Nintendo DS.

TotalVideoGames chats with Josh Sawyer about Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.