Wire service AFP reports that last night's deadline for Take-Two shareholders to agree to EA's takeover bid passed without a peep from either side. Take-Two commented earlier Friday saying that the issue "is in [EA's] court." EA would not comment on the situation.

In non-business news, the AFP could've probably used an editor on staff who plays video games while reporting this story. Forget the semi-understandable error that it called GTA IV, a game with one of the best retail launches of all time, Grand Theft Auto IV: Liberty City Stories. Focus more on the fact that the AFP in reporting about GTA IV says, "Players score points with acts such as carjacking and killing prostitutes or police officers." Looks like Rep. Lee Terry and the AFP are getting their info from the same source.

The website which reported that three Rock Band tracks would be packaged with the South Park: Season 11 DVDs has now taken that bit of info back. TVShowsonDVD.com says that a Paramount representative informed them the information was incorrect, but that there will be other bonus materials in the release. South Park's eleventh season had the infamous "Guitar Queer-o" episode.

Considering South Park had an entire episode about Guitar Hero, it would have been a little weird if the DVDs came with Rock Band downloads. However things got mixed up, it's a little sad to see the info turn out false -- unless the "bonus materials" end up being Guitar Hero III tracks.

[Via X3F]

Joystiq has just confirmed with the Entertainment Software Association that LucasArts is no longer a member of the organization, but will still feature at E3. "Today, we can confirm that one of our members, LucasArts, has decided not to renew its membership. We value each member of our association, but respect the unique factors that led to LucasArts' decision," ESA Senior VP of Communications Rich Taylor said in a statement (copied in full after the break).

Recently, Activision and Vivendi also left the ESA. We're currently seeking a statement from LucasArts and will update. Update: LucasArts has sent us a statement as well (full text after the break) confirming it is no longer with the ESA, but supports the organization's mission in the industry. LucasArts also confirms it will still attend E3.

There are a little over 12 hours to go before EA's $25.74 per share deadline for Take-Two ends at 11:59PM EDT. Analyst Michael Pachter told Forbes (via GamePolitics) that EA started off too high with its $26 a share offering and should have started around $22 back then. Meanwhile, analyst Colin Sebastian tells the San Francisco Chronicle he believes the deal is going to get "hammered out," possibly at a higher price.

As of this writing, Take-Two's stock is trading around $27 per share, but EA could be buying up all those shares with its billion dollar loan for all we know. Word on the street is that something could happen Monday, but the only certainty right now is tonight's deadline.

Konami's fiscal year ending March 31 enjoyed a good rotation around the sun with $175 million in profit, an increase of 13% over the prior year. GameDaily reports the publisher saw revenues of $2.8 billion, thanks to numerous titles in Japan, Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii in North America and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 in Europe.

The company gave guidance that it expects revenues of $3.15 billion this fiscal year; probably due to a game called Metal Gear something and continued strong sales of its numerous franchises. We're certainly curious to see how Rock Revolution -- and its drums o' doom -- will do this fall.

Although this information has been reported on in one form or another, here's the condensed list of Sony's first-party titles coming out for PSP and PS3 in the foreseeable future:

• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP) -- June 3, 2008
• Secret Agent Clank (PSP) -- June 17, 2008
• wipEout HD (PSN) -- Summer 2008
• Elefunk (PSN) -- Summer 2008
• PixelJunk Eden (PSN) -- Summer 2008
• SIREN: Blood Curse (PSN) -- Summer 2008
• SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation (PS3) -- September 16, 2008
• LittleBigPlanet (PS3) -- October 2008
• NBA 09 (PS3, PSP, PS2) -- Fall 2008
• BUZZ! Quiz TV (PS3) -- Fall 2008
• BUZZ! Master Quiz (PSP) -- Fall 2008
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3) -- Fall 2008
• Resistance 2 (PS3) -- Fall 2008
• Killzone 2 (PS3) -- February 2009

Dates, titles and everything else are subject to change without warning. If it's LittleBigPlanet though, you'll probably hear quite a bit of whining from us first.

Sony has finally settled on an executive to fill the shoes of former Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president (and Infogrames' current Directeur Général Délégué) Phil Harrison, with the company handing the baton over to the US division's senior vice president Shuhei Yoshida. The exec is something of a familiar face around the Sony camp, having first joined the company in 1986 before moving on to SCEI in 1993, where we can thank him for being one of the initial forces behind getting the original PlayStation off the ground.

Yoshida was elevated to his most recent role in February 2007, and will begin calling the shots at SCE WWS starting, well, now. His plans for the company at this point remain anyone's guess, with Sony front man Kaz Hirai boasting only that the company "will reinforce our software business by further enhancing coordination among the studios under a new leader." Let us at least hope that part of that plan includes completing the work Harrison started and getting Home out the door someday sooner rather than later.

Things that won't surprise you

April proved to be yet another lucrative month for the ol' gaming biz, with total industry sales reaching $1.23 billion, reports GameDaily. Software sales in particular grew to $654.7 million, an increase of 68% carried on the fine leather seats of Grand Theft Auto IV's recently stolen convertible. Rockstar's urban riffraff romp sold 2.85 million copies -- that's 1.85 million on Xbox 360 and 1 million on PS3 -- while Nintendo's Wii took the top spot in hardware sales. Mario Kart Wii, however, had to settle for second place.

Things that will surprise you

It was a photo finish for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but the photographers had likely packed up and left for the day by the time the steeds reached the finish line. Selling 188K and 187.1K units respectively, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were thoroughly bested by the systems that didn't have GTA IV. We'd feel a bit silly if we were them.

- Wii: 714.2K 6.8K (0.94%)
- DS: 414.8K 283.2K (40.6%)
- PSP: 192.7K 104.3K (35.1%)
- Xbox 360: 188K 74K (28.2%)
- PS3: 187.1K 69.9K (27.2%)
- PS2: 124.4K 91.6K (42.4%)

You'll find the top ten in software sales after the break.

Nintendo has been ordered to pay $21 million to Anascape Ltd. for infringing on a patent with its Gamecube and Wii Classic controllers. The AP reports Anascape Ltd., a "small East Texas gaming company," also sued Microsoft, but that was settled out of court. Nintendo says it will appeal the decision.

A representative for Nintendo stated that no infringement was found in any of the Wii's motion-sensing technology and it expects that on appeal the award to Anascape will be reduced "significantly." Remember kids, if you want to stick it to some big corporation in the future and cash in, just make patents for everything imaginable.

CBS will pay $1.8 billion in cash to become the proud parent of CNet and its spawn GameSpot in a deal that's expected to close in the third quarter pending shareholder and regulatory approval. The acquisition values the company at $11.50 per share, a 45% premium over CNet's closing stock price on Wednesday, reports the Associated Press. Sheesh! Well, CBS, you've just been robbed "welcome to the internets" ... but as The Washington Post puts it, you've certainly got your work cut out for you not to become known as "CNet Buy Sunk."

Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian believes a price cut for the PS3 is unlikely this year. He states that Sony management is focused on achieving profitability in the PlayStation division and that a PS3 price cut won't happen in the near term.

Sony expects to sell 10 million PS3s this year, doubling the global number of systems stationed on our little big planet. With the HD movie war in the bag and an increase in HD television adoption, it's not unreasonable to assume the PS3 being people's go-to movie player. As this blogger's mother put it, "Why would I @$%&ing pay for a basic Blu-ray player when I can get a PS3 for the same price? I want to play my Final Fantasy. When is my Final Fantasy coming out?"

PS3 sales for FY08 were up a whopping 156% over FY07, which saw only 3.61 million systems leave the warehouse. Despite the impressive upturn, Sony's current-gen box continues to trail behind PSP and last-gen's champ, PS2, which sold 13.39m and 13.73m units during the same period, respectively. Still, Next-Gen reports that SCE has managed to make a significant dent in its losses over FY07 (￥124.5 billion [US$1.18b], down from ￥232.3b [US$2.21b]) and predicts that it will finally be back in the black by this time next year.

Vivendi Games, soon to merge with Activision and become the goliath Activision Blizzard, saw its sales fall 24% from Q1 last year, thanks to the lack of a World of Warcraft expansion. The percentage may be down, but the money still flows like an Azerothian river, with Blizzard contributing €192 million of Vivendi's €221 million in sales this quarter. Vivendi also announced that WoW added another 700,000 players and the Sierra divisions performed "slightly higher" than last year.

With Vivendi expecting the next WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sometime later in 2008, we'll plan on a Naaru size jolt to Activision Blizzard's cash flow at that time. For now, Vivendi will just have to enjoy the disgusting amounts of cash it gets from WoW, instead of the nauseating amounts Activision Blizzard will make from the WotLK release.

Microsoft has announced that Xbox 360 has become "the first current-generation gaming console" to break the 10 million threshold for units sold in the US. According to NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier (via CNET), the Wii stands at 8.8 million and the PlayStation 3 at 4.1 million units sold.

Much as we did yesterday with Nintendo's announcement of having sold 6 million Wiis in Japan, let's break this number down. Assume the Xbox 360 hit 10 million as of midnight May 14, or 903 days since its November 22, 2005 launch.

• At a population of 301.4million, that's approximately 3.32% of all people in the US.
• Using the 903 metric, the Xbox 360 has therefore sold 11,074 per day, 461 per hour and 7.7 units per minute.

Microsoft also announced 12 million global members of Xbox Live and 19 million Xbox 360 units sold worldwide, which they claim is "more than any other current-generation console." Update: GameDaily contacted Microsoft to remind them that the Wii is currently sitting at 25 million worldwide, to which they said, "we apologize for any confusion. Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any current gen, high definition gaming console" (emphasis added).

Those who wanted to pay extra to explore Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' lands a little early are probably going to be upset to discover that "early access" is now sold out. A post on the MMORPG's official forums gives little explanation as to why this occurred, but eagle-eyed players who read the fine print point to Funcom having discussed limited availability.

Looks like MMO players will need to find some other game to grind in until Conan officially begins next week.

[Via Massively]