More information has become available since reports surfaced earlier this week suggesting developer 38 Studios was in financial trouble.

This morning, it was revealed 38 Studios defaulted on May 1 when it did not make a required $1.125 million payment to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, according to WPRI.com. 38 Studios owner Curt Schilling met with Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the EDC in an emergency meeting for two hours where Schilling asked for additional state assistance. No decision was made at the outcome of the meeting. They’ll meet again on Monday.

“The difficulty that we face is protecting the taxpayers and looking ahead to the future (to determine) whether there’s viability that’s worth further investment,” Chafee said. Schilling did not comment on the meeting, only saying, “My priority right now is to get back to my team.” He said he’ll issue a statement soon.

In 2010, the EDC gave 38 Studios $75 million in taxpayer money to move the studio from Boston to Providence.

Activision and Electronic Arts have reached a settlement in the on-going Call of Duty lawsuit that began two years ago.

Details about the settlement today were not disclosed at this time. Activision’s request to delay the trial date after hiring a new lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, was also denied. The original court date of May 29 will continue. The case now includes former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella and the Infinity Ward Employee Group.

EA was accused of aiding West and Zampella’s departure from Activision. EA will now be removed from the lawsuit.

Activision recently paid out $42 million to the Infinity Ward Employee Group earlier this week.

A “major Canadian company” has various vacancies available for a “semi open-world action adventure title that responds to player choice and interaction.” Superannuation, which posted the link on Twitter, believes the company to be Eidos and suggests the title could be Deus Ex 4.

The project, according to the listing, is based upon an existing IP which is a “well known and respected action/adventure title, with elements of choice and stealth within the gameplay.”

Future iterations of the franchise also “intend to really take advantage of the new platforms coming in the next two years to provide an experience with unparralled realism, depth and consequence for player action and choice.”

The current vacancies are:

*Cinematics Director
*Senior Gameplay Programmer
*Lead Technical Developer
*Level Artists
*Technical Artist
*Lead Artist
*Lead Programmer
*Senior Programmer

The ugly court battle between Activision and its former employees has gotten even uglier.

Activision hired a man named Thomas Fenady to “dig up dirt” on Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella so the company could build up a case to fire them. The newspaper reports that Fenady was asked to hack into West and Zampella’s voicemail, e-mail, and computers in an operation code-named “Project Icebreaker.”

Fenady testified that he expressed concern about the project but was told, “Don’t worry about the repercussions.” Fenady found an outside company, InGuardians, who also balked at the task because of “legal hurdles.” Stymied, Fenady approached the company’s Facilities Department and talked about staging a “fake fumigation” and a “mock fire drill” in order to get West and Zampella away from their computers long enough to copy files on their computers.

Ultimately, Activision did none of those things. Activision declined to comment on the documents, as did attorneys for the developers.

Respawn Entertainment employees will attend this year’s E3, but no, the studio won’t be showing any new project at the big show.

Thus far, little information exists on Respawn’s first project. Aside from a single, extremely blurry screen and news that it’s an EA Partners title, Respawn has kept the game out of the public eye. But with a team comprising many ex-Infinty Ward folks – the same folks who helped launch Call of Duty into the world of sports playoff trailer debuts – it’s hard to imagine Respawn working on anything small.

Respawn wouldn’t tell us whether the mystery project will be revealed this year, nor if the studio would attend the various gaming events scattered across the next several months. We’re hoping for a surprise reveal during Tokyo Game Show, just to mess with the Japanese market.

The case we’ve all been waiting for is set for the first court hearing on May 29th, after a 30-day extension, asked for by Activision was denied. But before that case starts, you need to hear about “Project Ice Breaker”, an operation helmed by Activision to dig up dirt on former Infinity Ward bosses, and Modern Warfare creators Jason West and Vince Zampella, including accessing their work email, computer, and phones. It commenced just months before the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Here’s the full story, as if taken directly from an espionage movie:

Project Icebreaker reportedly arose in 2009 over strained relations between Activision and Infinity Ward. While executive memos suggest Project Icebreaker did, at times, involve improving relations between the two companies, there were contingency plans in motion if and when it didn’t work out.

The details that follow were pulled from a filing made by counsel for West and Zampella on April 23. The filing focuses on Activision director of IT Thomas Fenady’s deposition, and was filed in response to an Activision motion to dismiss parts of his testimony. Activision motion hopes to dismiss Fenady’s testimony under attorney-client privilege. West and Zampella’s lawyers argue Fenady’s testimony outlines Activision’s attempts to remove West and Zampella from the company prior to the 2010 incident.

Thomas Fenady was director of IT at Activision. He left in December 2009, and now works at Warner Bros. Fenady testified that in the summer of 2009, then Activision chief legal officer (now chief public policy officer) George Rose instructed him to “dig up dirt on Jason and Vince” because “we just want to get rid of them.” Rose said the decision came from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

Fenady claims Rose asked him to gain access to West and Zampella’s email, voicemail and computer, and “don’t get caught doing it.” Whatever happened in the course of seeking out this information: “Bobby will take care of you. … Don’t worry about repercussions.” Rose denied he asked Fenady to specifically “dig up dirt” in his deposition with Activision, though he did discuss Project Icebreaker’s existence and instructing Fenady to find information.

In Fenady’s deposition, Activision counsel asked the following:

Activision: So as I understand it, the investigation in your mind included seeing whether you could get access to Mr. Jason and Mr. Vince’s work computers; correct?
Fenady: Yes.

Activision: Which was to gain access –
Fenady: To their work systems, yes.

Besides his deposition, West and Zampella’s counsel pointed to a Facebook message between Fenady and Infinity Ward online operations manager Robert Dye, where Fenady mentioned being asked to uncover information about West and Zampella for Activision. Fenady confirmed the message existed.

“Plaintiffs learned about Fenady from a Facebook conversation Fenady had with Robert Dye, an Activision employee. Fenady told Dye that “atvi [Activision] asked me to dig up dirt on [Jason and Vince] about 6 months prior to COD release. looking for excuses to dump them…”

As noted, Rose disputed Fenady’s directive was to “dig up dirt.” Rose explained his position during his deposition:

Activision: Mr. Rose, I just have a couple of questions for you. First, you testified earlier today about discussions you had with Mr. Fenady. I have a specific question for you. Did you ever ask Mr. Fenady to dig up dirt on Jason and Vince?
Rose. No. Absolutely not.

Activision: Did you ask Mr. Fenady or other people at information technology at Activision to do anything else as part of Project Icebreaker?
Rose: As part of the Project Icebreaker, once it proved to be impossible to do what I just said, no.

To try and accomplish this task, Fenady reached outside parties. He reportedly contacted Microsoft to help crack West and Zampella’s passwords, but Microsoft refused to comply without a court order. Third-party security specialist InGuardians was contacted, too, but the vendor “didn’t feel comfortable” with the “legal hurdles.”

There was also discussion about obtaining private access to Infinity Ward’s space in order to image the contents of West and Zampella’s computers by staging a fake fumigation or mock fire drill at the studio.

“I only know it was discussed,” said Farday in his deposition. “I don’t think it was acted upon.”

The concept of Activision investigating West and Zampella is not new. While reporting for G4 when the original news broke, I’d obtained an internal Activision memo asking internal studios to seek evidence about the following:

“Documents regarding past, current or future IW projects, including but not limited to any and all businesses analyses of future projects (e.g. Modern Warfare 3)”
“Documents regarding any potential ‘spin out’ of IW, including but not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision”
“Documents regarding West and Zampella’s communications with Activision’s competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts”

Not long after the breakup, West and Zampella inked a publishing deal with Electronic Arts with their new studio, Respawn Entertainment.

This is what we’re in for, friends. Get ready for fireworks come May 29th if stories like project Ice Breaker is what we’ll be hearing about. Popcorn, anyone?

We’ll rename today “LinkedIn Leak Day”, as it’s the fourth time the social site for professionals has leaked massive gaming news. This one, however, is the biggest of them all. A Sony US software engineer has on his profile details of work he’s done on PS4.

Frederick Umminger boasts on his LinkedIn that he’s been working on the “voice chat library for PlayStation 4″, although he quickly edited the profile to show PlayStation 3 instead.

No doubt Sony’s working hard its next-gen console, but every bit of information counts, wouldn’t you say?

Thanks, Superannuation.

The talk has been, as of recent, whether Naughty Dog’s new The Last Of Us latest trailer featured in-game footage or was it simply pre-rendered cinematic. Gamers are asking this question because the action/horror title looks too good to be true, however they wonder no longer, as Naughty Dog’s answered the question.

When a fan was convinced that what he saw was simply a pretty cutscene, which lead him to ask for some gameplay footage, Community Strategist at Naughty Dog Eric Monacelli replied in the comments section of the US PS Blog:

“It’s all in-game footage.”

Monacelli also reaffirmed that there would be some form of multiplayer in the game when he said: “We have not announced any plans about online multiplayer but there will be some kind of multiplayer aspect to the game.”

I still can’t believe this is in-game footage. Simply amazing.

A release date hasn’t been mentioned.

LinkedIn is proving useful today, as yet another worker who has his profile on the popular professional site has revealed the recent EA games he’s worked on. Amongst the throng, you’ll see Battlefield: Bad Company 3 and Mirror’s Edge 2.

Apparently he contributed toward the prototyping, design and demo feedback “on various AAA titles including the Battlefield: Bad Company 3, Dead Space 3, Devil May Cry 5 and other unannounced titles.”

But that’s not all, an ex-EA engineer also said he was responsible for “the wandering of crowd system within Unreal3 engine” in Mirror’s Edge 2 between July and August 2009. Meanwhile, a second ex-employee claims to have created “new gadgets and interactive features” into Mirror’s Edge 2, with “leaderboards” and a “mini-game embedded into mirror’s edge game story” highlighted.

For the Halo fanatics around the world, Microsoft has announced the game’s limited edition that’s available starting today from various outlets. Details of said edition are below.

The Halo 4 Limited Edition will set you back $99.99. Here’s the full quencher:

• War Games Map Pack Access

The competitive multiplayer modes of Halo 4 are known as War Games. The Limited Edition includes access to nine maps – three future competitive multiplayer map packs, each including three locations, available for download post-launch on Xbox LIVE. Yes, you read that correctly; you get nine maps in the form of future DLC with the purchase of the Halo 4 Limited Edition. Score!

• Specializations

Everyone will have access to select Specializations, but those that purchase the Halo 4 Limited Edition will receive the ability to unlock six Specializations early, available at launch on Xbox LIVE. You can use them, one at a time, to achieve higher ranks in your Spartan career. In addition to gaining access to new ranks, Specializations unlock new customization options. We’ll be releasing more information about Specializations at E3, so expect additional details about this particular feature then.

• UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet

The UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet includes a Spartan armor customization schematic, information about UNSC weapons, an introduction to the massive ship UNSC Infinity, and insight into what it means to be one of humanity’s finest warriors: The Spartan-IVs. Story lovers will especially enjoy this in-fiction offering that provides a glimpse into the indoctrination of Spartans aboard the Infinity.

• Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Special Edition

The Special Edition of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a 90-minute extended version of the live-action digital series which will take fans back to the terrifying beginning of the Human/Covenant war, when the Master Chief inspired a young cadet who would eventually become a leader aboard the UNSC’s greatest vessel ever: the UNSC Infinity.

Digital content also includes in-fiction bonus content that expands the characters and stories of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, special featurette Bringing Gaming into Reality, and a behind the scenes look at the making of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.

• Bonus digital content through Xbox LIVE

The Limited Edition includes the following bonus digital content through Xbox LIVE: unique in-game Spartan-IV armor skin, unique in-game weapon skin for the Assault Rifle, an exclusive in-game emblem, Xbox LIVE Avatar prop, and Xbox LIVE Avatar Spartan IV armor set.

Outlets include Amazon, Target, GameStop, Walmart, Microsoft Store and Best Buy.

Full image here.

Microsoft also used the announcement of the game’s limited edition to unveil its multiplayer. Here’s what you need to know:

Halo Infinity Multiplayer – The hub of the Halo 4 multiplayer experience is the UNSC Infinity – the largest starship in the UNSC fleet that serves as the centre of your Spartan career. Here you’ll build your custom Spartan-IV supersoldier, and progress your multiplayer career across all Halo 4 competitive and cooperative game modes. Surrounded by the sights, sounds and crew of the biggest vessel in the UNSC fleet, your multiplayer experience will be embedded in the fiction of “Halo” like never before, where your progress and game choices affect your appearance, arsenal, and role on the battlefield.

Spartan Ops – The story of the UNSC Infinity intersects with the Halo 4 campaign, then continues on in a brand-new, story-driven experience known as Spartan Ops. A first of its kind and an exciting new addition to the Halo franchise, Spartan Ops is an episodic adventure that blends immersive storytelling, high-quality cinematics, and action-packed gameplay to deliver an unprecedented serialised experience. A massive-scale adventure that builds off the Halo 4 story, access to Spartan Ops is included with Halo 4 at no additional charge – effectively delivering two campaign experiences in one game.

War Games – The competitive multiplayer modes of Halo 4, known as War Games, take place on the combat deck of the UNSC Infinity and revive the visceral and immersive experiences that “Halo” multiplayer is famous for. Halo 4 introduces fresh, immersive new game modes and strategies to help you progress your Spartan-IV career, while also delivering an experience that’s still distinctly and uniquely Halo. More details on all the modes of War Games will be released at a later time.

Total Combat Freedom and Player Progression – Halo 4 features a vastly expanded suite of new multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armour abilities, a new loadout and player progression system, and a new armour modification system that introduces gameplay-enhancing customisations for the first time in a Halo game. These advancements can be used in both Spartan Ops and certain War Games matchmaking playlists, empowering player choice, vastly expanding their creative options, and make the experience deeper for core fans and more approachable for newcomers.

The Xbox 360 exclusive sees a release in November.

On the heels of declaring Saints Row as its top-selling IP, we now know that THQ has a fourth game in the works for current generation consoles.

Supperannuation discovered the LinkedIn profile of David Payne, a guy that’s been doing work on Saints Row games since the second title, and has continued work ever since on recently-released Saints Row: The Third, and upcoming standalone extension pack Enter the Dominatrix. Saints Row 4 is also listed on his profile.

Back in November, THQ’s Danny Bilson told XPlay, “I already know what Saint’s Row 4 is about, and it is wilder than this one. It’s a good.”

There’s been rumors swirling around this for quite a bit, but now Sony Japan has confirmed incoming Mass Effect 3 DLC.

If you were hoping for the promised Mass Effect 3 extended Ending pack, however, you’ll be disappointed, as this is something entirely different.

It reads:

“The Rebellion Multiplayer Expansion opens two new fronts against the Reapers: Firebase Jade’s jungle reservoir and Firebase Goddess on Thessia. In-game reinforcement packs now include three new weapons as well as equipment, consumables, and six new classes: Quarian Engineer and Infiltrator, Vorcha Soldier and Sentinel, Phoenix Adept and Vanguard. The battle continues – hold the line!”

According to the site, it’s out in Asia today.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan CEO Hiroshi Kawan confirmed that come June of this year, another PlayStation Vita Heaven event will be held. It’s basically an event to unveil great Vita games and new features, etc. The first was held back in March. – Via Andriasang.

Many a LinkedIn profile confirms it.

Grid 2 has been spotted on four LinkedIn profiles, includes those of Nicholas Rathbone, games designer at Codemasters Racing Studio; Toby Hynes, lead artist of characters and weapons; Liam C, a environment artist who left Codemasters in November 2011; and Cristian L, an environment artist who departed Codies in October 2011.

Thanks, Videogamer.

Franchise sells over 11 million life to date (LTD).

Selling over 11 million units worldwide makes Saints Row the publisher’s most successful owned-IP franchise, and to build on its success, THQ will release a standalone franchise extension called Saints Row: The Third – Enter the Dominatrix in September 2012. The game promises even more over-the-top action.

Of the 11 million, Saints Row: The Third has the largest share as it’s sold over 4.34 million units globally, and has also generated the highest digital revenue of any console title in the publisher’s history.

Elsewhere, THQ confirmed that another of its IPs, Darksiders II, will launch on August 14th, 2012.