Surprisingly it was almost a clean sweep. The majority of QJ writers agreed on this one, a single publishers name kept coming up around the water cooler. Can you guess which publisher stole our hearts this year?

Of course, there are always the dissenters. Booo! Hissss!

Prepare yourself for 2009 as Ubisoft promises something big to come your way, particularly in the online department. Yves Guillemot shares their company's outlook to the new year, and yeah, it's gonna involve MMOs.

Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive recently spoke at the BMO Interactive Entertainment conference and shared his opinion on the game industry's standing amidst the ongoing economic turmoil. His observation: they're not immune from recession. His prediction: it's not looking good. Find out more about these earth-shaking revelations after the jump.

This week welcomes the much-loved and much-awaited Metal Gear Solid 4 from Konami. No longer should we worry about broken street dates, because today it all becomes official. But Solid Snake is not the only superhero around as there's also Goku and the gang of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, as well as the big, green machine, The Incredible Hulk. If you'd rather work on the sidelines, then Don King Present: Prizefigther is here as well to show you the ropes of managing in the boxing profession, as well as Total Extreme Wrestling 2008. More games await after the jump!

Ubisoft struck gold with their acquisition of the Tom Clancy name for life. How much did it cost them, and how big a gold mine will it bring them? Talks are also in the air about their venture into the world of MMOs with the said name. To find out more, read up over at the full article.

The Heroes of Night and Magic series has earned its spot among the PC gaming world's elite with successful launches over the years. Now Ubisoft wants to enter some new territory by ushering in web-based strategy title Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms. This new game can be downloaded, installed and played easily to allow you to raise armies and lay siege on cities set up by thousands of other players online. See the detailed version for more.

Some gamers may find in-game advertisements to be nothing more than shameless plugs, while others still believe it's necessary.

In the Independent Game Conference in Austin, Gordon Bellamy goes into the subject a bit more and discusses how advertising could benefit not only the company who does the advertising, but also the game itself. He also explains why Doritos can't go multiplatform. Find out why in the full article.

Oh, yeah! Just when you thought your wallet was safe after last week's releases, this week comes along with absolute must-buys for just about every platform there is. This week, we're going to witness the highly-anticipated launch of Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii. The Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 won't be bullied by the famous plumber though, as Assassin's Creed lets loose the dogs of war in the Third Crusade! 'Nuff said. Dig in!

*Article originally posted Nov 12, 2007 at 07:22AM

One of the relatively newer genres in the gaming industry is the MMORPG. It's advent goes back to as far as the 1990s when games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest popularized the concept of an online gaming community where people can band together and bash random critters for experience and gold.

One of the most popular MMORPGs to date is Blizzard's phenomenal World of Warcraft, which has a subscriber count of at least 8.5 million worldwide. However, it owes a lot of its existence to its proverbial forefathers. Conditions back then were considerably different for such a budding game genre to grow.

In 1999, Ubisoft introduced EverQuest to the German market. A lot of hindrances such as the limitations of technology, as well as the relatively high costs of online fees made its rise to popularity quite slow compared to today's standards. Peaking at 500,000 subscribers,many consider EverQuest as the one which paved the way for the MMORPG genre to take flight.

Karsten Lehmann, a spokesman for Ubisoft, relates their past difficulties: "It's hard for players today who are accustomed to the idea of flat rate Internet access to remember how complicated this kind of stuff was at the time".

It was only during 2004 that Blizzard capitalized on the growing fame of the new gaming genre and launched World of Warcraft into the MMORPG giant it is today. It took all the elements that gave EverQuest its massive appeal and simplified it for users everywhere to enjoy. It goes without saying that Blizzard definitely struck gold here.

Today, more and more gaming companies are riding on the ever growing community of online gamers. With the genre continually growing in depth and dynamics, who knows what the next wave of online games can bring.

Day 2 of the E3 Media and Business Summit seemed to be a more subdued affair compared to the events of the first day. As you guys will notice below in our daily recap, many of the news tidbits we covered for the day had more to do with the release of new assets for already announced games, along with a trickle of new information, screens and/or video for the newly announced games, such as Nintendo's Wii Fit fitness training program.

For some rather important news, you'll be able to find details on Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive's E3 2007 briefing details, as well as look at more of the redesigned PSP in all of its slim glory. For our E3 first-look articles, you'll be able to take a gander at the first screens and info regarding Steven Spielberg's Project PQRS, as well as an exciting new dungeon addition to Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Zul'Aman. We also have tons of new screenshots and videos for everything from God of War: Chains of Olympus to Soul Calibur 4, so check our links below to savor more gaming goodness.

We're hard at work updating the site with more info so you don't miss a thing. While you wait for the latest 24/7 coverage of E3 2007, feel free to check our current coverage of day 2 of the summit, as well as our roundup of day 1. Enjoy!

Breaking News:

More images, comparison pics of the redesigned PSP
Take-Two E3 2007 Briefing details
Ubisoft E3 2007 Conference details

All the latest updates after the jump!