Now here's one of those news items that blends a little bit of gaming and science. Now we're pretty sure why MMORPG giant NCSoft has been named in this particular press release, but we'll also tell you: it's amazing what the human race can think of in the brink of its "serious and pending" extinction. Learn more about Operation Immortality - a part-game, part-reality project aimed at preserving the human race - at the full story.

NPD Group's recent survey manged to investigate the niche segment of the gaming market that is extreme gaming, together with six other segments that the games industry has categorized gamers like us under. Feeling like a can of peaches at your local convenient mart? Well, welcome to new, modernized, cash-driven games industry, folks. Find out where'd you fit in among the 20,000 sampled at the full story.

Well, that pretty much rules out any possibility that Diablo 3 will be an MMO. Okay, so maybe there wasn't need for doubt. Since Diablo 3's announcement is out, we probably have just one more rumor to confirm: the Team 3 project. Blizzard never hinted on the upcoming RPG's relations to the mysterious 50-man team still laboring away inside the company walls. Maybe Team 3 is responsible for developing Diablo 3 for the past four years, or maybe - just maybe - they're actually part of this secretive next-gen MMO project. Learn more of your favorite Blizzard game at the full story.

So what's going to be in our videogaming menu starting this week? A whole lot of DS games once again, we tell you, though there's a few gems or two in the Nintendo handheld rough on Tuesday. There's a music rhythm game for almost every console out there, plus a couple new additions to the portfolio of PC games. Somehow we're also seeing another relaunching of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 the "Refresh" edition. We don't know why it's re-listed, but it is. The full list follows at the full story.

The organizers of Cabal Online European servers have may have untimely closed down access to servers, but they're willing to compensate those who've lost their time-limited in-game items due to the inactivity. What we hear is that the Game-Masters.com are offering those who've held in-game items in Cabal Online's item shop will have their expired items reactivated upon their return to their respective servers this weekend. But wait - there's more. Check out what else Game-Masters.com has in store for gamers.

This issue is another one of those weeks where you could selectively stave off from spending hard-earned cash, but then there are millions of gamers who need their gaming fix. Gladly enough, third-party publishers on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii have addressed the casual gaming populace, and that pretty much sums up this week's retail release line up. On second thought, no - we still have an MMO, EA Maxis' pre-Spore sampler, a formerly retail, now PSN game, plus the release of Rock Band on the Nintendo Wii. Check the full story for details.

A few weeks ago, Valve's Gabe Newell, an advocate of the PC gaming platform, spoke well of Nintendo's next generation console. It was at that same time that he wished to make a game for the platform, of which an MMORPG was hinted at. Now we hear Paul Barnett from Electronic Arts who opines that Nintendo could be the company to resolve the console MMO problem - despite SOE's recent efforts with The Agency, and Funcom with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

And you thought they wouldn't go far. Now at three, Wizet's MapleStory is still growing strong at 60 million registered users worldwide, and in celebration of the fact, Nexon's announced that three special events to run in this month toward June. Plenty of giveaways have been prepped, and the one of the delights you can bag is a whole DELL XPS computer! More at the full story.

This shouldn't be surprising, folks, but we know not everyone's inclined to take in a daily dose of business trivia so here's a little primer: EA was just like any other small-time company back in their infancy. In order to build up their portfolio they needed a third-party investment firm to financially back them. We know that EA is at its prime time today, so would it be startling to see ol' Bing (a.k.a. William Gordon), co-founder of EA, joining the venture capital firm that gave them a chance to shine? Nope, not at all. More at the full story.

Whoa. Did he say what I think he just said? Brian Farrel, head honcho and the man of the "creative hub" that is THQ, spilled the game publisher's thoughts on their future ventures. And while strumming a few notes to the tune of market segmentation, Farrell revealed that the Warhammer 40k and Company of Heroes franchises were heading online - and in the massively multiplayer fashion, too. More details at the full article.