If Michael Bay’s interpretation of the 
Transformers (and the requisite gaming spin-offs that came with it) wasn’t quite your style, another option is on the way.
Hasbro has tapped UK developer Jagex to create a massively-multiplayer online game based on the 80s toy icon. It’s scheduled to be released in 2012.
As Apple ramps up the hype machine on 
the iPad 2, app publishers are hoping to ride the coattails to higher sales.
Developers both small and large are slashing prices on popular apps in hopes of capturing the attentions of people who can no longer resist Apple’s tablet device. And Electronic Arts is leading the charge.
Gamers went on a buying spree in February, shocking 
analysts and rocketing the video games industry into positive sales territory for the first time in over two years.
Buoyed by an unexpected 10 percent jump in hardware sales and a 22 percent surge in peripherals (led by Microsoft’s record-setting Kinect), video game industry sales are now 4 percent above where they were a year ago year to date, according to the NPD Group.
It’s already been a busy year for shooters, but publisher 
THQ thinks they found the formula for first-person success in the upcoming — and somewhat controversial — Homefront.
Due out March 15 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, the game imagines a fallen America in 2027. Players, as you might expect, will join the resistance and fight their way across the country to win back America’s freedom.
That long string of numbers and letters you 
have to type in when redeeming a Microsoft Points card might seem random, but a group of hackers recently discovered it wasn’t.
Today, Microsoft is licking its wounds after taking a $1.2 million loss once that information was made public.
Since introducing the PlayStation Plus
subscription service at E3 last June, Sony has struggled to give PS3 owners a compelling reason to sign up. But the latest addition to the feature just might do it.
Starting Thursday, the company will allow Plus subscribers to save their games on an online storage system.
Lara Croft is on her way back to 
the big screen.
GK Films, the Hollywood production studio behind “Rango” and the Angelina Jolie vehicle “The Tourist,” has acquired the film rights to the short-shorts-wearing, butt-kicking heroine from publisher Square Enix. The company is aiming for a 2013 release.
Indiana Jones is ready 
to socialize.
Harrison Ford has teamed up with a new L.A. game studio and Conservation International to launch the Facebook game Ecotopia, a free-to-play city building game with a focus on environmental issues.
After ten years of creating and exploring 
the Halo universe, ace developer Bungie Entertainment is ready to build a new world — and it’s apparently going to be a mighty big one.
The developer has confirmed that its next project will be a massively-multiplayer online action game. While the company is still keeping most of the details shrouded in secrecy, Bungie’s lead network engineer David Aldridge told game makers at the Game Developer Conference that the title would not simply be “[World of Warcraft] in space.”
Within days of its retail release, hackers 
were already finding some innovative ways to use Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller. Now they’re going to get their chance with the PlayStation Move.
Sony has announced plans to make the software development application for Move available to students, researchers and enthusiasts later this spring. The company says it’s hoping the action will lead to increased innovation in gaming and other fields.
Chris Morris: Journalist 