Halo creators Bungie may have signed a publishing deal with Activision, but let's not forget, there's always the possibility they can sign with rivals Electronic Arts as well.

Remember: Bungie's deal with Activision is for a single piece of intellectual property. With Bungie being a massive studio, however, there remains the distinct possibility it could become so big that, like Rockstar, it splinters and can work on several games at once. Should that happen, EA will be waiting in the wings.

"I don't want to see them fail - I want them to be successful", EA's David DeMartini told CVG. "And when they start up a second team, we'll have other discussions with them about that game as well - because they're a great studio. There are probably only 20 studios in the world that are that highest level - and they're certainly one of them."

Sounds like desperation on the part of EA, but I'd hope that if Bungie learned one thing from its departure from Microsoft, it's that saddling up with a single publisher for the long term can be a risky proposition.

EA: Bungie deal still possible [CVG]

Halo creators Bungie may have signed a publishing deal with Activision, but let's not forget, there's always the possibility they can sign with rivals Electronic Arts as well.

Remember: Bungie's deal with Activision is for a single piece of intellectual property. With Bungie being a massive studio, however, there remains the distinct possibility it could become so big that, like Rockstar, it splinters and can work on several games at once. Should that happen, EA will be waiting in the wings.

"I don't want to see them fail - I want them to be successful", EA's David DeMartini told CVG. "And when they start up a second team, we'll have other discussions with them about that game as well - because they're a great studio. There are probably only 20 studios in the world that are that highest level - and they're certainly one of them."

Sounds like desperation on the part of EA, but I'd hope that if Bungie learned one thing from its departure from Microsoft, it's that saddling up with a single publisher for the long term can be a risky proposition. After all, the Bungie that signed the initial pre-Halo deal with Microsoft was a different Bungie to the one releasing Halo: Reach, and you'd think in ten year's time they'll be different again.

EA: Bungie deal still possible [CVG]

You gotta give Prince of Persia star Jake Gyllenhaal credit. That's some great hair. So great that perhaps it, not Jake, could star in a biography film about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

"I don't know if I'd be the right choice — but the hair from Prince of Persia could translate somehow," the actor tells music source NME. "We could just bleach it!"

Of course the actor is not confirming that he will be in a Kurt Cobain flick — this is hypothetical territory! Gus Van Sant, known for Drugstore Cowboy, has already made a Kurt Cobain-esque flick called Last Days.

Previously, Gyllenhaal revealed that the developed arm muscles by washing his hair. Wonder what he'd develop if he bleached his hair? The Kurt Cobain Story starring Jake Gyllenhaal's bleached locks, that's what.

Jake Gyllenhaal and his unbleached hair star in the big screen version of video game The Prince of Persia.

Jake Gyllenhaal: 'I could bleach my hair to play Nirvana's Kurt Cobain' [NME]

Epic, and its series of Unreal Tournament games, used to be known as a PC-centric developer. These days, consoles come first, something that rankles PC gamers no end.

If you were wondering why Epic made that switch, you only need to look to company president Mike Capps, who tells Edge magazine, "If you walked into [Epic's Offices] six years ago, Epic was a PC company. We did one PS2 launch title, and everything else was PC. And now, people are saying ‘Why do you hate the PC? You're a console-only company.'"

"And guess what?" says Capps, "It's because the money's on console."

"We still do PC, we still love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy: it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model."

"So, maybe Facebook will save PC gaming, but it's not going to look like Gears of War."

Interesting words, given the fact EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Capcom, Lucasarts, Take-Two and THQ all have little issue publishing quality, AAA games - albeit multiplatform ones - on the PC.

Epic President: "The Money's On Console" [The SixthAxis, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Hostesses? Ha! Hosts!
Comment by: hbkotaku
Nominated by: MonkeyBiz

I guess most people commented here are Westerners, which makes sense to me.

It's just cultural difference. I don't get why people overreact so much.

I grew up in Japan and China and it's pretty safe to say that not only in Japan, in China, Taiwan, Korea(pretty much everywhere in East Asia), pretty looking guy(as oppose to manly man) has always been an important part in eastern aesthetics, history and culture.

In Asian old literature, portray of beautiful man like woman is very common. Also exists in Chinese Beijing Opera, Japanese Kabuki, they both have man playing female character. And there are many words and phrases to describe pretty man in Japanese and Chinese(eg. the expression that the man is so pretty that he's like a flower exist in both languages) . In Asian culture, if you see someone or say someone pretty, beautiful or feminine, people won't think it's weird or unmanly. It's just one type of beauty recognized by the society. And what's more, not all Asian guys will go with that style. There are tons of non-feminine men who are considered good looking in Asian culture(check out Hirai Ken). If you do get the chance to go to Japan or other East Asian countries, you won't see the hair-sprayed guys everywhere.

So if someone judge or bash it simply because the different culture, I would say it's really one-sided and unfair. I come from that culture and I'm man myself, yet I see nothing wrong with it because it's what considered good looking and fashionable.

If we put the other way around, Western stereotypical man with a lot muscles and body hair might be very disgusting to many people in Asia, too. And it's pretty funny to see some people bashing the hair style while in the West, men basically don't style their hair(well, short cut with gel doesn't count).

God Of War Writer Gets Shanked
Comment by: Tacticalspoon
Nominated by: ViewtifulJoe

Writing procedure for God of War game:

1) Center text on page horizontally and vertically.
2) Change font to 72pt
3) Push CapsLock
4) Write "I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE"
5) Add multiple exclamation points, for emphasis.
6) ???
7) PROFIT!

Sony Making A Movie Out Of...Rollercoaster Tycoon
Comment by: CloserDivision
Nominated by: (Vashified) Ratosai

Magic 8 Ball the Movie. Will it suck ass?
Signs point to Yes.

Modern Warfare Developers Seek Half a Billion in Activision Suit UPDATE
Comment by: Stealth_chill
Nominated by: jayc4life

On top of a mountain high,
there was a man named Kotick who was clever and sly.
"I will keep their money!" he said with a hunched- back.
Even though it was clearly a breach of contract.
He had no excuse, he couldn't implore!
what would cause the firing of infinity ward.
"I've got an idea! a marvelous sensation!, i will charge those fools with insubordination!"
He thought he had won, he was having much fun,
Till he found he was sued by 37 plus 1. 
"We had enough!" IW said in their plea. "You can't force us here for MW3!"
So Kotick is in trouble, he might have to pay,
the members of IW who signed with EA.
So the story continues, will IW get the boot?
Or will kotick's pocket get destroyed like a tactical nuke?

Best Buy Launching Its Own Video Game Mag
Comment by: KillerBeeTX
Nominated by: Dominic J

Checking out at Best Buy:

- Would you like an extended warranty?
- Do you have a rewards card? No? Would you like to fill one out? It is free.
- Would you like to apply for a Best Buy card?
- Are you sure you wouldn't like to buy the warranty on that?
- Would you like a free magazine subscription to one of three leading magazines?
- Would you like a subscription to our Best Buy magazine? It comes with money saving coupons.
- Are you sure you wouldn't like to buy the warranty on that?
- Can I see your credit card?
- Would you like a bag?
- Are you sure you wouldn't like a Rewards Card? It is free!
- Did I mention that we now have our own Best Buy magazine? Would you like to buy a subscription? It has coupons!
- Here is your receipt. Please go online and take the survey and you could win a $5000 shopping spree!

Want to nominate comments? Send to tips any insightful or funny comments you read from other commenters. (Read: NOT YOURSELF). Be sure to include the post's URL, the commenter's page, the actual comment and your commenter page.

Here's a handy guide to commenting. Read it, learn it, live it, love it.

Steam is now available on the Mac. Great news for people who only own a Mac, but what if you're like me, and own both? Which is faster?

Tom's Hardware is on the scene to find out, using both a Macbook Pro and a "Hackintosh" - a non-Apple computer modified to run the Mac's operating system - to test the speed of Valve's Portal running in both Windows 7 and Mac OSX 10.6.

Sounds fair to me! Rather than pitting a Mac against a gaming PC, where the specs aren't really comparable, the benchmark instead shows the differences made by running the same game on the same hardware, only under different operating systems.

And there are differences.

Basically, thanks to a combination of work-in-progress code for the Mac version of the game and the inability of Mac drivers to keep pace, the Windows tests on both computers came back with significantly better results, especially on the Macbook Pro.

Now, if you've only got a Mac, don't worry. It's not like Portal is unplayable, and as any PC user can attest, any glitches or performance problems with the Mac version of Portal (or with Steam itself) are usually fixed after a volley of updates from Valve.

But if you've got both systems - or are running both operating systems on the one computer - Windows is the way to go.

Steam for Mac Benchmarks: Windows Is Much Faster [Gizmodo]

Steam is now available on the Mac. Great news for people who only own a Mac, but what if you're like me, and own both? Which is faster?

Tom's Hardware is on the scene to find out, using both a Macbook Pro and a "Hackintosh" - a non-Apple computer modified to run the Mac's operating system - to test the speed of Valve's Portal running in both Windows 7 and Mac OSX 10.6.

Sounds fair to me! Rather than pitting a Mac against a gaming PC, where the specs aren't really comparable, the benchmark instead shows the differences made by running the same game on the same hardware, only under different operating systems.

And there are differences.

Basically, thanks to a combination of work-in-progress code for the Mac version of the game and the inability of Mac drivers to keep pace, the Windows tests on both computers came back with significantly better results, especially on the Macbook Pro.

Now, if you've only got a Mac, don't worry. It's not like Portal is unplayable, and as any PC user can attest, any glitches or performance problems with the Mac version of Portal (or with Steam itself) are usually fixed after a volley of updates from Valve.

But if you've got both systems - or are running both operating systems on the one computer - as of May 2010, Windows is the way to go.

Steam for Mac Benchmarks: Windows Is Much Faster [Gizmodo]

I bought my PS3 when the old backwards-compatible PAL model was taken off the market. I got one of the last ones. That's my story. But why do other people buy PS3's? Research firm Nielsen decided to find out.

Polling 700 people aged between 7-54, all of whom were in the market for a PS3, the company asked what it was exactly that was driving these people to purchase Sony's home console. Their responses show that, at least by this stage in the console's lifespan, anyone thinking individual games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted or Killzone had a big influence on console sales is crazy.

As you can see, the console's Blu-Ray drive, overall library of games and recent price cut all played the biggest part in convincing these consumers that the PS3 was right for them. Also important were things like upgrading from a PS2 (and with 150 million of them out there, there's a lot of people left to upgrade)and playing games with friends who own a PS3.

Something that wasn't playing an important role was a desire to purchase a single game, only 12% of respondents saying that even contributed to their decision, let alone serve as the key motivator. Those that did, though, cited God of War III as a must-have, with no other game - including Final Fantasy XIII - managing much of a mention.

You can see the full range of responses below. They're interesting, but I can't help but feel that one for the Wii would be even more interesting.

We're just weeks away from getting our first official look at the Nintendo 3DS, promised to make its debut at E3. New trademarks could portend Nintendo 3DS related games that come along with it.

Siliconera spotted recent trademarks for 3DSWare and 3DSPlay, registered by Nintendo, that aren't surprising, but could be telling. As it did with DSiWare, specific to the Nintendo DSi revision of the ultra-popular handheld, Nintendo could be readying a 3D-only game store.

3DSPlay is as generic of a name as they come, but could capitalize on Nintendo's other super popular property, Wii Play, and give the Nintendo 3DS-owning masses something casual and profitable to play.

Another option is that neither of these things could become products, that Nintendo is just casting a wide trademark net. How boring would that be? :(

Nintendo 3DS Has 3DSWare And 3DSPlay? [Siliconera]

*Grumble Grumble* Oh, it's Kotaku Off Topic time? I suppose we should get together and have some non-video game related discussion. It may make this Monday a little easier to forget.

Perhaps we're in need of those clean memory wiping services as fictionalized in movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Hell, I'll even take the glitchy version, as seen in Total Recall. There are a few internet horrors I wish I could send to the mental trash heap, one of which I happened to run into today. Let's not get bogged down with the violent and scatological curiosities of the web.

Instead, let's lighten the mood. I brought cake!

• First draft of 'The Empire Strikes Back' surfaces - Crazy differences, which you can read in full here.
• 'Lost' gets a letter from George Lucas - Speaking of Star Wars, things sure can change over time.
• AT-AT cake! - Speaking of Star Wars, this is a cake.
• Step into the sensory box - An amazingly beautiful video. Boxes and lights.
• How to Tweet your way out of a job - You crazy kids with your stupidity online. It's so endearing.