If you don’t have a clue what Ilovebees is, which you probably don’t, Ilovebees was a viral campaign for a little game we all know which released in 2004, called Halo 2. Yes, 4 years ago. And now it has “returned” coincidentally near this years E3 starting on July 14th, and there have been even more rumours of Bungie’s new game; Kotaku discovered that in Bungie’s latest podcast, Brian Jarrard and Luke Smith teased about something being revealed at E3.

Brian: Isn’t there something going on on July 14th or something like that?
Luke: Yeah, around then.
Brian: Somehow that’s sticking in my head for some reason. Guess we’ll have to see.
Luke: Yep, we’ll just have to be patient. Who could say?

And on Bungie.net, a weird profile has “popped up” with the logo that everyone on Bungie.net forums and even more have been pondering about. For more information on this logo, please click HERE. In the profile you can see that it’s signature is “Keep it Clean!” which was “subliminally” put into the new ViDoC (at the very end) and the profile’s Bungie username is IIIIIII, which I can’t even explain. Because of this resurfacing of these new rumours and ilovebees, expect something big from Bungie at this year’s E3.

10 Minutes of Halo 3 Panoramics from Trevor Mack on Vimeo.

Above is a nearly ten minute video featuring Halo 3’s best panoramics created by the community, in my own opinion of course. There are some 360 degree ones and more with just amazing enviorment shots mixed in, and even more with great effects used to really create that epic atmosphere, so please have a watch and see for yourself. Enjoy. (Oh, the video was created by me.)

It looks like someone’s creating an actual Halo board game. B1 Games and Genius Products, Inc are going to be selling an ‘interactive strategy game’ with DVD content and music, along with the board play. “The all-new Halo™ Interactive Strategy Game captures the edge-of-your-seat action and storyline of the video game as it gives players the chance to control UNSC Marine and Covenant forces in strategic battles for power.“ Looks like it’ll be on store shelves in September.

Since it’s for all ages, and the actual Halo videogame is only for people over the age of 18, I will like to see how this shapes out. For more information about the announcement, please click HERE for the full press release.

A series of new reports from DFC Intelligence forecasts worldwide video game and interactive entertainment industry revenue to reach $57 billion in 2009. This forecast includes revenue from video game hardware and software, dedicated portable system hardware and software, PC games, and online PC and console games in 25 countries. According to DFC, there are now 11 countries that have annual video game revenue in excess of $1 billion.

With high spending on expensive hardware and a slumping economy, there was some concern that consumers would not have enough money to buy software products. This does not appear to be the case. “Consumer spending on software is at record levels and the game business seems to actually benefit from a recession because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment,” said DFC analyst David Cole.

The report forecasts sales for each of the major game platforms. The Nintendo Wii is expected to be the number one selling console system of this generation. “The Wii does not appear to be a fad and it has the chance to be one of the best selling systems of all-time,” says Cole. However, that does not mean the other systems will not do well. The Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to equal the Wii in annual software sales by 2012. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Xbox 360 remains a leading player in some of the top markets, most notably the U.S. and U.K.

Another new DFC report, Video Game Genre Forecasting, takes a look at expected sales by platform and genre for the next two years using multiple assumptions about product features, licenses, development and marketing budgets and consumer usage trends. “With multiple platforms establishing healthy installed bases there is a growing need to look at potential sales on a given platform based on not just aggregate hardware sales, but also game type,” says analyst Jeremy Miller. “The Wii not only has unique features and a broad demographic appeal, but Nintendo is dominant as a software publisher. For many third party publishers this means they will have much greater success on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, even if Wii sales continue to be strong.”

With all the talk about game console systems, surprisingly the number one platform for games in 2007 was the personal computer. According to the new Online Game Market Forecasts report, PC online game revenue alone passed $7 billion in 2007, not including retail sales. Total PC game revenue is expected to reach $19 billion by 2013.
The new series of reports is part of DFC Intelligence’s ongoing research service. DFC Intelligence is a market research firm focused on video games, PC games, online games and interactive entertainment. For a sample of the monthly DFC Dossier report, or an overview of DFC research, contact Ozzie Monge at omonge@dfcint.com or sign-up at http://www.dfcint.com.

The video above is a short GRID crash video that I created with my friend. It was created in about 4-5 hours time with my old capture card. The clips we got were from Race Day and in Multiplayer on Xbox Live. A sequel should be coming soon because some people have considered to add some of their own crashes into the video. Enjoy.

Taken from Bungie.net: Halo: The Cole Protocol will be the sixth novel set in the Halo Universe. Tobias S. Buckell, author of Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin will pen the novel, which reveals the location of the Spartan Gray Team and “takes readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered…”

Bungie expatriate and Microsoft’s Franchise Development Director Frank O’Connor had this to say on the upcoming book, which is slated for a Fall 2008 release, ” Buckell continues an excellent tradition that’s now a solid aspect of the Halo novels, bringing a fresh new perspective to a limitless universe and bringing his prodigious writing talents to bear in ways that will surprise and engage fans of the series and newcomers alike.”

About the Author (shamelessly copped from tomorrow’s forthcoming press release)

Tobias S. Buckell exploded onto the science fiction scene with Crystal Rain, (Tor 2006) a debut that combined a unique mix of Caribbean culture – where Buckell was born and raised – and hard SF adventure elements. Buckell’s unique and groundbreaking work won him acclaim from peers and the literary community, who called him “a dazzling new voice.” His second novel, Ragamuffin, (Tor 2007) was a 2007 Nebula Award nominee for Best Novel; a 2008 Prometheus Award finalist for Best Novel; and a Locus “Best of 2007.” He is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, and was a first-place winner for the Writers of the Future, as well as having been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Buckell’s blend of hard science fiction with character-based action adventure and forays into classic SF pulp won the admiration of both Tor and Microsoft. Buckell is also a big Halo fan who has played every incarnation of the game

Europe is the world’s largest potential market for the videogame industry, but it’s also the least mature according to Forbes.com. The business site referred to market research from IDG showing that the European market generated USD 17.9 billion in revenues in 2007 - less than the USD 18.8 billion in revenues generated by the US - despite having more than twice the population. The Forbes article claims that videogames aren’t as widely accepted in Europe as they are in the States, and that the worldwide development community has focused on capturing the hardcore US gamers - paying less attention to European players who prefer short, so-called casual games.

Games with “guns and gore” don’t sell as well in Europe because casual games fit the European lifestyle better - people can play short games on trains and subways on their way to work rather than spending hours at a stretch at a console to play long, epic tales. Since Europeans tend to be casual gamers, older versions of consoles sell well there - the PS2 grabbed a 47 per cent market share in Europe in 2007, with the Nintendo DS in second place with a 25 per cent market share. The Nintendo Wii, however, had only a 7 per cent share; the Xbox 360 had 5 per cent. Not surprisingly, then, current-gen console games that sell briskly in the US didn’t do nearly as well across the pond. Only 900,000 copies of Halo 3 were sold in Europe, for example, compared with 4.8 million in the US. Sales of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in the US trebled European sales.

According to IDG - looking at sales in the UK, France and Germany - the following titles were the best-selling games in Europe for 2007:

• 1 Brain Training
• 2 FIFA 2008
• 3 Wii Play
• 4 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
• 5 New Super Mario Bros
• 6 Need for Speed: Pro Street
• 7 Assassin’s Creed
• 8 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• 9 Big Brain Academy
• 10 The Simpsons Game

Whether or not you own a PS3, there’s a pretty fair chance you were aware of the Metal Gear Solid 4 release last week. There’s also a pretty good chance that you are at least familiar with the series. Perhaps you even know that Solid Snake, protagonist of the series, has a habit of hiding in barrels and boxes. There’s one thing we know for sure though, and that is that Battlefield: Bad Company developer DICE definitely knows about the series. In a new video the soldiers of Bad Company poke fun at the longstanding Metal Gear convention. Enjoy the humour above.

Atari Inc has reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and the year ended March 31, 2008, showing an improvement over the same period during the prior year.The company reported Q4 net revenue of USD 15.3 million - down from USD 26.9 million in the comparable year-earlier period - with a net loss of USD 3.7 million or USD 0.27 per share.

A year earlier, the company reported a net loss of USD 61.7 million, or USD 4.58 per share. For the fiscal year, Atari reported net revenue of USD 80.1 million and a net loss of USD 23.6 million, or USD 1.75 per share - compared to last fiscal year’s net revenue of USD 122.3 million and net loss of USD 69.7 million, or USD 5.17 per share. Without restructuring charges, the net loss for the year ended March 31, 2008 would have only been USD 17.1 million or USD 1.27 per share.

A computer-generated image of a post-nuclear Washington D.C., crafted by the Fallout 3 artists at Bethesda Softworks, has apparently popped up on terrorism-related Internet forums, and the image is now at the center of an online brouhaha. According to the Entertainment Consumers Association’s GamePolitics blog, U.S. defense contractor and intelligence analyst group SITE found the image while perusing message boards commonly used by Islamic terror groups, who were apparently discussing the possibility of nuclear attacks on Western nations.SITE reportedly passed intel about the online terror activity to government and media, and the latter (including the Telegraph in the UK and the Australian newspaper) disseminated the info far and wide.

England’s Daily Mail posted the pic under the headline: “Al-Qaeda’s terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack.” According to the Daily Mail, there was also a post-apocalyptic video on the terror-related sites. Said the paper: “U.S. analysts said a lot of effort had been put into the video - entitled Nuclear Jihad, The Ultimate Terror - with graphics, music, and clips of different leaders and groups. The same expertise seems to have gone into creating this image of a devastated Washington.”

As of this writing, the Mail and the Australian were still running the Fallout 3 image alongside the terrorism stories, but the Telegraph has since removed its article. The piece remains the most-read article on the paper’s Web site however, under the dead-linked headline “SITE red-faced as Islamist ‘Washington ruin’ turns out to be from Fallout 3 game.” After the Telegraph ran its SITE-sourced story claiming terror groups were responsible for creating the image, SITE issued a press release rebutting the Telegraph’s “red-faced” headline, saying the company never made any statements about who created the artwork.

SITE reported to its subscribers that extremists posted the image to a password-protected forum affiliated with al-Qaeda. This is entirely accurate. Moreover, this information was part of a report describing the general atmosphere in this forum with regard to extremists’ discussions on weapons of mass destruction, making its context all the more important. This report in its entirety is also completely accurate. The Telegraph is not a subscriber to SITE’s services. Apparently, the newspaper made these erroneous claims without actually reading SITE’s original report, and the basis of their information for their incorrect article is unknown to us.

As GamePolitics points out, videogame images have crept into terrorism discussions before. In 2006, Battlefield 2 footage was presented to the House Select Committe on Intelligence as al Qaeda propaganda.

To view the larger version of the very controversial image, click HERE.