By Jason Venter | 09-16-2012 | 12:30PM
The industry moves at such a rapid pace that we don’t always have enough time to provide detailed coverage for some of the exciting stuff that happens between the bigger announcements. Each week, we’ll gather some of those news tidbits and share our thoughts on why we believe they deserve to be highlighted, even though for one reason or another they didn’t quite make it to center stage during the preceding seven days. We think you’ll agree that they’re still quite interesting.
Twitter Hands Over Occupy Wall Street Protestor Account
A New York judge told Twitter that it needed to provide a backlog of tweets posted by an Occupy Wall Street protestor named Malcolm Harris, Reuters reports. Twitter fought that order bravely (in part because its handling of private content in the past has provided Twitter with a competitive advantage), but today was the deadline and the company risked criminal prosecution or a fine if it didn’t comply with the order. Naturally, Twitter relented. The tweet history is now available to the courts, sort of. Tweets are sealed until after Harris appeals this coming week, but there’s not a lot of hope that they’ll remain sealed beyond that date. Prosecutors hope that the tweets will prove Harris was an instigator, which would go against his statements in court that actually he was only following instructions that the police provided when he and fellow protestors moved into the street and blocked traffic.
Former Funcom Exec Under Investigation for Insider Trading
The day before Funcom launched The Secret World, Trond Arne Aas stepped down from his role as the company’s CEO. Since then, Norwegian authorities have begun investigating Aas for insider trading. He apparently realized that The Secret World would have a negative impact on share price and so he sold 650,000 of his own shares in the company at a premium rate. The law says that if you own stock in a troubled company where you also happen to work and you know that stock is about to take a bath, you have to smile and take the loss. No stock sales are permitted until the damage is done. Funcom shares were trading for only $2.17 this Thursday, but sold for $17.60 apiece the day before the game launched. Aas could be in a lot of trouble.
Obama Ads Appearing in EA Games
Obama wants your vote and he’s ready to reach you with his message, wherever that might be possible. The 2012 reelection campaign is now advertising in a variety of EA games, including Madden NFL 13, and on Pogo.com. You’re most likely to see content if your computer identifies you as a resident of key states such as Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, and Iowa (those commonly known as the “battleground” states). Those ads are expected to display through the November elections, so hopefully you’ve not yet tired of looking at the POTUS.
Microsoft Opens Studio to Focus on Windows 8 Development
Lee Schuneman, who once was the production director at Rare, will now lead a new Microsoft studio that will focus on Windows 8 development. The studio is looking to “develop a long-term business with Entertainment as a Service at its core.” That means Shuneman and crew will likely be working on tablets and probably Microsoft’s recently revealed SmartGlass technology. That should keep him busy for at least a few years, right?
NBA Live 13 Delayed
The NBA Live franchise is having a rough time, a fact that hasn’t changed since Electronic Arts flirted with the idea of renaming it NBA Elite for 2011’s game, then canceled the project altogether. NBA Live 13 was supposed to fix all of that, and a release date in early October was assumed, but now that’s uncertain. NBA 2K13 will release on October 2nd, but NBA Live is taking its time. “We’ve been working hard on the game,” EA Sports noted, “and so we’re excited to share our first in-game trailer today.” The game is still coming, in other words, but we’ll have to wait on a new release date.
