Throughout the history of video games, the oldest stereotype surrounding the industry has always been do violent video games affect player behavior and personality. It is a known fact that people who play games are exposed to more violence than the average consumer. From nuking entire civilization to obliterating players online, it’s has become more and more common now that games are more focus on squarely providing violent action. For this reason alone, parents have long held an underlining negative attitude towards the industry and those who stand by it, but is this criticism injustice or have developers gone to far? Should government step in?

Gaming legend Louis Castle, co-founder of Westwood Studios, is the man behind one of the most successful video game companies in the history of the industry. Castle , has donated 500 objects chronicling the company’s innovative history to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG), which is located in The Strong museum in Rochester, New York.

Pop sensation Justin Bieber seems to always be in the news these days. And not just for singing. The teenager, who hasn’t been officially involved with his own videogame (yet), is now involved in a videogame parody lawsuit. Game developer RC3 has sued Bieber over their new mobile game, Joustin’ Beaver. What’s interesting is that the game maker has gone to court first, after Bieber’s people threatened litigation a few weeks ago if the game wasn’t terminated.

If something’s good enough, you know someone will bring it back in one form or another.  For Sega, this is a common business practice, as it’s been bringing back several of its old-school franchise to the current game scene, in an effort to generate newfound success.  This includes a number of resurrected Dreamcast classics, along with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and Virtua Fighter, which will come back this summer with Final Showdown on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.  Now another big game is coming back, and Professor K fans will want to listen up…

With George Lucas taking flight with his new Red Tails movie in theaters, his LucasArts division continues to have success with Star Wars games. With over four years of development, a team of 200 employees and a reported budget of $80 million, Electronic Arts has come under fire of late for BioWare’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. But Michael Pachter, videogame analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, said the game has already sold 2 million copies worldwide. And the game is already a huge success and money generator for EA, as well as licensor LucasArts.

A new study by Martiz Research, which was taken a week before Thanksgiving, has indentified four key buyer segments in the overall tablet market. There are single-minded (21 percent),tablet-committed (44 percent), newcomers (13 percent) and low-end tablet buyers (22 percent). To marketers of Google Android tablets, including those that feature NVIDIA Tegra technology, the study provides key insight into consumer profiles that help effectively target this large market of potential buyers.

Telltale Games is bringing back the longest-running show in TV history. In conjunction with Universal Partnerships & Licensing, the new game Law & Order: Legacies is available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch on Apple’s App Store. Based on NBC Universal’s Emmy-winning “Law & Order” TV series, Law & Order: Legacies brings together an all-star cast of investigators and prosecutors from both “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: SVU”. Check out the unique cel-shaded gameplay in the video below.

Valve had an outstanding year in 2011 with the release of the highly anticipated Portal 2, a game that went leaps and bounds over the original, both with single player and co-op components.  So all that's left to wonder now is...what's left for 2012, aside from the upcoming Counter Strike: Global Offensive?  Well, if Internet hints indicate anything, the company is hard at work on yet another long-awaited sequel -- the follow-up to Half-Life 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is still just over two weeks from release, but it's already considered one of the most highly anticipated games this holiday season -- even if EA's trying to steal a little bit of that thunder with Battlefield 3.  But Activision's making all the right decisions on this game, and we explain why it's going to be an unstoppable juggernaut once November 8th rolls around...

It's hard to believe that the Grand Theft Auto phenomenon has been sweeping over the game industry for years.  And while gamers are currently enthralled in the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV and its two side stories, there was a time when the games had a simpler start back on the PlayStation 2.  This month, the one that really started it all, Grand Theft Auto III, turns ten, and Rockstar Games is celebrating in a big way.

LOS ANGELES -- The second annual 3D Gaming Summit: Gaming and Beyond expanded its scope to include fast-growing segments of the games industry like cloud gaming, mobile gaming social gaming, and the impact augmented reality will have on games moving forward. Highlights of the jam-packed one day conference included an Opening Keynote Interview by David Maisel, Senior Advisor to Rovio creator Angry Birds, conducted by John Gaudiosi, Gaming Summit Senior Content Advisor & Co-Founder of Gamerlive.tv; and a Featured Interview with Vince Zampella, (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare) General Manger of Respawn Entertainment, conducted by USA Today's Video Game Editor Mike Snider.

Browser-based video game publisher continues its rapid expansion. The game maker has taken over the entire production team of Hamburg-based development studio 49Games. More than 40 full-time employees will now become part of Bigpoint’s international team and will be developing online games instead of console titles. The current projects under development in 49Games will be completed by the production team. Aside from the production team, all rights to their multiplatform technology, assets, licenses etc. remain the property of 49Games GmbH.