Less 
than two months after Arizona stirred up the free speech hornet’s nest by passing legislation that essentially made Internet trolling illegal, New York is trying something very similar.
Proposed legislation in the Empire State would legally force you to identify yourself if someone didn’t like your comment on a web site. Essentially, it’s a ban on anonymous online comments.
Can’t 
stop playing Diablo III? You and pretty much everyone else who plays computer games.
Blizzard Entertainment says the long-awaited RPG click-fest has set a record as the fastest-selling PC game of all time. Figuring out exactly how many copies the developer sold, though, gets a little complicated.
If 
you’ve been itching to play the new game from Bungie, the creators of Halo, you won’t have to wait too much longer.
The company’s new title, codenamed “Destiny,” is scheduled to hit store shelves next fall, and should be playable on both the Xbox 360 and Microsoft’s still officially unannounced next-generation system.
The 
trading debut of Facebook didn’t exactly burst out of the gate like many people expected. But while the company was getting pounded in mid-day trading Monday, shares of “tracking” stocks — companies people invested in to own a piece of Facebook before it went public — have suffered terribly in its wake.
None more so than fellow social giant Zynga.
Former 
Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling shocked a lot of people when he launched a video game studio following his retirement from baseball. Today, he might be wishing that he hadn’t followed that dream.
38 Studios, who partnered with EA earlier this year to release its debut title, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, is in the midst of a severe financial crisis. The developer was unable to pay its 379 employees this week, and is behind in making repayments to the state of Rhode Island, which loaned the company $75 million in 2010.
One 
of the ugliest lawsuits in the video game industry’s history has been settled just days before going to court, but the legal fireworks may not be over yet.
Activision and Electronic Arts have settled their differences over Jason West and Vince Zampella, former heads of Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty franchise and “agreed to put this matter behind them,” the two publishers said in a joint statement.
Microsoft 
and 343 Industries aren’t waiting for E3 to start spilling the beans about their biggest game of 2012.
Pre-orders for Halo 4 went on sale today, and to help pump up interest in the game, the publisher and developer have released a lot of details about the game’s multiplayer, a live-action digital series and the obligatory special edition.
It’s 
been 12 years since Blizzard last released an installment of its popular Diablo franchise, but judging by the enormous demand that today’s release of Diablo III is seeing, it might as well have been yesterday.
The game unlocked at midnight Tuesday. Despite the late hour, however, players quickly overwhelmed the game’s servers, extending the pain of people who have been waiting to wear out their index fingers on the clickfest.
The Wii, 
Xbox 360 and PS3 have done well for themselves, as over half of all U.S. households own a modern video game console. That also means, however, that a good chunk of the country still isn’t playing along.
With whispers of next-generation systems swirling — and one confirmed to launch later this year — deciding whether to buy a current generation system isn’t an easy one. Should you spend the money now, or should you wait and be a part of the cutting-edge in the months to come? Systems have typically hit the sweet spot in pricing, and there’s a tremendous catalog of games to choose from (many at discount prices, thanks to “Platinum editions” of top-selling games).
With 
the circus-like E3 expo less than three weeks away (listen closely and you can hear the collective gaming industry screaming in excitement/terror), you’d think the focus would be on 2012.
But with game sales on track right now to hit a six-year low, developers and publishers certainly want this year to end on an uptick, right? Well, of course, they do, but more and more, 2013 is looking like the year where things are going to get really interesting.
Chris Morris: Journalist 