EVE Online is one of those games that I have had a quiet relationship with over many years. It is not your normal type of game; it is a chin stroking, strategic, lean-back-and-watch the explosions type game.

Now there is a challenger for its crown: Aion, created by the South Korean company NCSoft. The game had already been ordered by more than 400,000 players across Europe and North America before its launch in Britain yesterday.

Turning its eye now to attractive Western markets, NCsoft said today that Aion will launch on the PC in North America on September 22, with the European rollout occurring three days later.

Have you ever had to give bad news to someone before? Sure you have! I’ve found that the best way to give bad news is to make a “crap sandwich” out of it.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, IPVG said IP E-Game Ventures Inc. granted GEM Global the right to purchase its shares for up to P500 million ($10 million). IP E-Game will use the funds for its future business activities and engagements, IPVG said.

Aion has been riddled with bugs and the latest one is one of the most annoying so far. Nobody can truly understand what’s really happening, but what’s clear is that the Aion Game Service Agreement is not there.

Ndoors Interactive announced today that with their upcoming update, the level cap for their strategic MMORPG Atlantica Online will increase from 120 to 130. As players strive towards this goal, they’ll have a variety of new content at their fingertips, including a new mercenary class and two new dungeons to explore.

The general manager of Wizet Studio, the developer responsible for Nexon’s global smash hit MMO MapleStory, believes that a game launched now with the same six precepts as that game “wouldn’t succeed today” – because of the number of rival titles in the online space.

Turbine Inc. of Westwood, a leading maker of Internet-based, multiplayer video games, has been named in a patent infringement lawsuit that targets several of the world’s largest online gaming firms.

Sometime in the next few weeks, the social network’s tens of millions of users will begin to be able to have high-quality voice conversations, even as its third-party developers are able to start including voice in their applications.