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Last summer, just weeks after E3 2008 ended, Midway fired a bunch of folks from their Austin studio. Layoffs happen all the time (especially during economic recessions) but this one brought with it the death of an "unannounced title." Midway president Matt Booty, at the time, said, "Midway Games Inc. today announced that it has canceled an as-yet-unannounced project in production in its Austin, TX, facility, and as a result Midway will have a reduction in force of a portion of the affected development team."

Today, we have assets from an unannounced title credited to The Collective (said to have been working on a canned title for Midway) known as both "The Executives" and "Career Criminal." Found on 3D artist Kye-Wan Sung's personal website, he's got art assets from what seems to be a variety of different console iterations of the game. Keep in mind these are all renderings for a game that was canceled and not final art or even in-game art. We know we're nearly a year late but ... someone tell that lady her pants are falling off!

[Via superannuation]

We've all heard this story before: Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl produce child, boy decides to create next child by himself, girl sues boy for infringing on legal rights of girl ... alright, so maybe this is a little different. Bohemia Interactive, creator of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, this week posted a press release on its company forums, stating that Codemasters' upcoming OFP sequel (Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising) isn't a true "sequel."

Leora Hermann, a lawyer representing Bohemia Interactive, states in the release, "In the license agreement, Bohemia Interactive expressly reserved the exclusive right to develop sequels to the original OFP game." Hermann expands upon the agreement between Codemaster and Bohemia Interactive, claiming, "Codemasters also acknowledged that Bohemia owns all the intellectual property in the game -- except the words 'Operation Flashpoint.' Since Codemasters has no right to use the Bohemia Interactive game engine or any other component of the Bohemia-developed game, how can it rightfully claim to produce a 'sequel'?"

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, a Cold War-era FPS, was developed by Bohemia Interactive and published by Codemasters for PC in 2001. Codemasters has since developed a sequel (in name only, according to Bohemia Interactive) internally as Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising; while Bohemia Interactive has continued using updated versions of the original Operation Flashpoint game engine in its ArmA series. We've seen this kind of franchise catfight before (see: Call of Duty and F.E.A.R.), though this one seems likely to bare some deeper scars.

We've put in word to Bohemia Interactive and Codemasters for comment and will update as necessary.

It might seem as though the once-strong relationship between Rockstar Games, developers of the highly profitable Grand Theft Auto franchise, and Sony, the progenitor of the consoles said franchise once almost exclusively appeared on, is on the outs. Following the 360-exclusive Lost and Damned DLC, and the movement from the series' portable appearances to the DS with GTA: Chinatown Wars, it appears Rockstar has jilted all things PlayStation in hopes of attracting younger, more lucrative suitors.

However, this isn't exactly the case. In a recent interview with MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo, PSP hardware marketing chief John Koller explained that Sony isn't ready to let that particular cash cow go out to pasture. Koller commented that the two PSP-based GTA titles sold like bullet-riddled hotcakes, adding that there's "definitely continued conversations with Rockstar" regarding future Grand titles on Sony's handheld. We can only pray that they'll be as Phil Collins-centric as the last one.

It seems that NCsoft will be ushering the fairly unsuccessful Tabula Rasa off this mortal coil in a somewhat unorthodox, yet completely awesome fashion. Soon-to-be-retired players won't be popping champagne and mingling during tomorrow's server shut-off festivities -- no, they'll be pushing back one last onrush of bloodthirsty Bane combatants in a cataclysmic event that will likely see the annihilation of every living thing, ever.

Players were warned in an in-character message on the Tabula Rasa site that should their defenses crumble during the Bane's final onslaught, humanity will turn to its ominous-sounding "last resort weapon," which will ensure the complete destruction of both sides of the conflict. The missive's reasoning was concise -- "if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed," it explains, "we are taking them all with us." Tabula Rasa may have not made a flashy arrival onto the MMO scene, but it sounds like NCsoft is making sure it has one hell of a departure.

GeoEye's $100 million dollar commercial-use satellite imagery system will serve as the backdrop for Ubisoft's upcoming air-combat title, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. The Washington D.C.-based company -- that supplies data for Google Earth, among others -- allowed Ubisoft access to satellites 423 miles high to photograph real-world locations for the game's multiple missions. How powerful can a 423 mile high satellite be? The GeoEye-1 satellite that launched in September has the capacity to see objects on the ground that are just 16 inches long.

VP of communications at GeoEye, Mark Brender, told Venture Beat that using such a sophisticated technology to map H.A.W.X. will help in "immersing the player in the experience" rather than using "cartoon maps." So, a South Park, Colorado, mission cannot be confirmed at this time.

A dark, unstoppable force is looming over the typically serene plains of the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup. Refusing to adhere to the standard three-panel format, and undefeated in its every appearance to date, Hiimdaisy's parodical jab at Metal Gear Solid 3 took home the gold yet again this week with its latest installment, "Let's Destroy The Shagohod Part 3." With at least one more strip to come, we anticipate this won't be Hiimdaisy's final week atop the WWW dogpile.

Second and third place went to Penny Arcade's "Please Check One" and Brawl in the Family's "Lullaby," respectively. Unhappy with this week's winners? You should make some suggestions for tomorrow's illustrated round-up in the comments section. It might just be the only way to interrupt the unflappable Hiimdaisy's tyrannical reign.

This Monday, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" begins and Conan O'Brien ascends the ranks of late nightdom into the much-vaunted "Tonight Show" position. Why is this exciting news for you, you ask? Because Fallon loves Felicia Day! Wait, no, that's not it. It's because Fallon, like Engadget's Josh Topolsky, is a big fan of comically oversized iPhones. Wait, that's not it either.

No friends, it's because, speaking with Canada.com, Fallon said, "We're going to treat a video game premiere as if it was a movie premiere. My generation grew up with the computer. We grew up with the Internet. We live in a video game type of world - video games are second nature to us. Games make more money, as an industry, than the film industry." He's certainly got a point. We'll be on the lookout for Mr. Fallon's promises on March 2nd, when his show premieres. And ya know, Jimmy, if you're ever looking for experts in the gaming field ... your friends at the 'Stiq are always available.

All weekend long, Steam'ers can grab a digital copy of Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for the low price of $5. That's something like 75% off the retail price and is the best $5 purchase one could make in preparation for Lost Planet 2. It's either that or a discounted pair of snow mittens. (Though mittens are much less entertaining.)

Steam's special Lost Planet offer will only be available through Monday, so make a prompt purchase decision ... or be left out in the cold.

[Via Capcom Blog]

GI.biz reports that Eidos has posted financial results for the six-month period ending December 2008, and things are looking up for the publisher. Revenues for the period were up a full 26% at £80.3 million, up from £63.4 million during the same period in 2007. The cut to the publisher's losses was even more dramatic, down to just £1 million compared to £81.4 million in 2007. Eidos also managed to lower its debt from £5.7 million to £3.2 million.

The uptick in revenues is largely the doing of Lady Croft and her recent Underworld adventures, which sold 2.6 million copies (with 1.5 million sold through to consumers). Eidos noted that Tomb Raider: Underworld has outsold both Legend and Anniversary, though the company reiterated that sales were still lower than expected.

This has got to be good news to Square Enix, which recently crammed more Eidos stock into its portfolio and is gunning to acquire the publisher. It has to be even better news for the growing number of stockholders that support the acquisition.

The industry seems to be getting comfortable -- in that nervous sort of way -- with Twitter. The whole 140 character phenomenon definitely cemented itself recently when "tweeting" became part of publisher non-disclosure agreements. More than a fair share of game companies and press have accounts now. We've been doing it for a bit too. So, everyone on staff with an account will also have their Twitter account listed next to their name in this week's WRUP. Oh, and if you want to know our main account, it's @Joystiq, of course.

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If at first you don't succeed ... fail, fail again. That must have been the mantra during filming of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, staring Canadian sweetheart Kristin Kreuk. Can anyone even feign surprise that the latest Street Fighter flick is a train wreck? It isn't easy following up a classic, and by that we of course mean Street Fighter: The Movie, staring the Muscles from Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yes, we said classic. It was one of the greatest unintentional comedies of our generation.

• AMCtv.com: "I much prefer the flamboyant badness of the '94 flick to the attractive, even-keeled mediocrity of this one. Jean-Claude Van Damme's stock just rose considerably."
• WJFK-FM (CBS Radio) (-5/5): "As a fan of the video game series, I can honestly say that this is hands down one of the worst films I have ever seen. Chris Klein is so bad that he made the movie a comedy."
• IGN Movies (1.5/5): "It may not be as gaudy or goofy as its predecessor, but it's far more boring and banal. It's a videogame adaptation that loses sight of what made the game popular to begin with: it was fun."

Hey gang. After checking out this staggering list, we played this hot new game on the Joystiq Podcast this week. It was such a hoot, we'd encourage you to do the same with someone you love. Here are the rules.

In Round 1, you're trying to pick the one real game among the fakes. In Round 2, you're trying to find the fake amongst all the real games. In the Lightning Round, you just have to identify each game as real or fabricated.

Then, see how you rate!

0-5 -- You're a Nintendolt
6-11 -- You did NintendOK
12-17 -- You Nintendidit!

We've got a list without answers first up, then we'll give you all the answers so you can test your friends. Let us know how it goes!

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What's on it? The better question about this week's episode of the Joystiq Podcast? What isn't on it? Do you want a guest appearance by 50 Cent? Done. Want to know our thoughts on his game in even more detail? You got it. Want to test your skills at distinguishing between real and fake awful Wii and DS games? Your wish is our command.

Oh, and thanks to Mike Santos for cashing in on that photoshop. Get lulz or die trying!

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Hosts: Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy

Music: "Get Ready for Love" by Nick Cave, "Red Eye" by Ben Kweller

For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group

See all of this week's links after the jump.

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Taito has announced that iPhone and iPod Touch users can access versions of Space Invaders and Cooking Mama in the app store now. The Space Invaders game available in the app store is of the classic variety, but features "full use of the motion sensor and other iPhone 3G and iPod Touch input methods." As for Cooking Mama, the version available for the iPhone and iPod Touch includes "both favorite recipes from past console installments as well as a variety of dishes completely new to the series" and has been enhanced to "make the most of the iPhone 3G / iPod touch's multi-touch screen accelerometer." You can find Cooking Mama and Space Invaders in the app store now for $6.99 and $4.99, respectively.

In addition to new games for Apple platforms, Taito has also announced plans to support Android. T-Mobile users will be able to pick up Arkanoid and Space Invaders now for $5.99 each.