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THQ’s CEO Farell takes 50% cut in pay, board of directors also takes pay cuts

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THQ is not in a good way at the moment and after multiple stories over the past 24 hours, it appears even the higher-ups in the company are going to be suffering a hit as well. THQ’s investor document was released earlier today and in this new document we learn that the CEO Brian Farell will be taking a pay cut for the upcoming year.

Starting on February 15 his salary will be cut in half, going from $718,500 to $359,250. Depending on THQ’s situation next year, his salary will return to normal. The board of directors has also chosen to take a bit less money than normal as the document says that they have “elected” to take 50% less cash compensation for their time starting today. Let us hope that this reduction in salary will help save at least a few THQ employees’ jobs.

EFF helping users get back their Megaupload content

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a new website that will help those who have lost content on Megaupload.com.  The website, MegaRetrieval.com (link here), attempts to help people who legitimately uploaded their own content to the service and now can’t get it back,  due to the website being taken down for copyright infringement

If you live in the USA and are missing legal content, be sure to email [email protected].

MegaRetrieval.com was started by EFF and storage provider Carpathia Hosting.

“EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them,” wrote Julie Samuels, Staff Attorney at EFF. “We think it’s important that these users have their voices heard as this process moves forward.”

“We have no immediate plans to re-provision some or all of the Megaupload servers,” wrote Brian Winter, CMO at Carpathia Hosting. “This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, we will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of re-provisioning any Megaupload servers at www.Carpathia.com and www.MegaRetrieval.com. We continue to recommend that Megaupload users seeking to retrieve their data contact Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for assistance by visiting www.MegaRetrieval.com. Please continue to visit www.Carpathia.com or www.MegaRetrieval.com for updates.”

PSN being maintained on Thursday morning

According to European forums, Sony will be performing maintenance on the PSN starting on tomorrow morning, more commonly known as Thursday, the second of February.  From  9AM to 3AM EST in the USA and 2PM GMT until 8AM Friday morning in Europe, many PSN systems will be down.   The maintenance will affect the PS Store, Customer Account Management and Registration services. Games will apparently still function.  To the absolute chagrin and outrage of many, Playstation Home will be unavailable.  Plan your life accordingly.  Check out the official Forum announcement here.   Although this announcement was only published to European markets, it usually affects the USA as well.

Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine Writes Lollipop Chainsaw Soundtrack

If you didn’t already know Suda51’s upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw is a pretty twisted game…and that’s a good thing. A cheerleading zombie-hunter, Juliet Starling, has all the hallmarks of a weird and wacky Suda51 game. However what you may not know is that the game’s soundtrack has been worked by electropunk Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Jimmy Urine.

Every single epic boss battle track has been composed by the man himself, and he even voices Zed – a punk themed boss. So expect some pretty insane electro, punk, and industrial music to accompany your zombie killing action.

Lollipop Chainsaw is set to be released sometime in 2012 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Vita game downloads cheaper than boxed counterparts

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Those of you who actually buy a Vita now have at least one reason to buy games for the system through the Playstation Store.  Shacknews has confirmed that the downloadable copies of games will be cheaper than the same game that can be bought at the store.  Sony has already done this in Japan, and has been rumored to follow through with the same system in the USA and other countries.  Exactly how much you’ll save is speculative, but the best guess  is around 10%, according to a leaked Best Buy ad.

Is 10% enough for you to give up digital media?  Will the Vita’s focus on downloadable content convince you to get one, even with all the restrictions that Sony put upon the system?

Prototype 2 and the launch of Radnet

Prototype 2 is joining the rapidly growing online pass club.  Yay.

The first batch of Prototype 2 titles will ship with a “free” code that will grant access to Radnet.  Radnet will offer gamers new content for up to 2 months after the games release.  This content includes races, challenges, avatar items, and in-game events.

Those who play in every single weekly challenge and event will also be given  “the ultimate shape-shifting reward,” which is to be revealed at a later date.

“Radical Entertainment has always focused on bringing long lasting fun to its fans, and Prototype 2’s RadNet content is our way of rewarding the game’s most loyal supporters – the early adopters, the one’s who will replay it over and over again,” said Ken Rosman, Studio Head, Radical Entertainment. “We think this is great because we’re giving our fans hours of additional gameplay outside Prototype 2’s main narrative, and cool rewards – all delivered weekly following the game’s launch!”

All in all, we suppose that this is one of the better online pass systems implemented.  At least, it certainly is marketed to look that way. Check out the video below for more.

Errors abound in new Mass Effect novel

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A new novel that complements the Mass Effect universe is having trouble hitting home with fans.  Buyers of the book have started a public Google document that lists canonical errors in the book.  So far, over 80 mistakes have been found, divided into “Lore,” “Timeline,” “Characters” and “Oddity” categories.

William C. Dietz is the writer of the book and he has written several books based on video games, including Halo, Hitman and Resistance novels.

Check out the Google doc here if you are interested. Hopefully, Bioware, the publisher, the author and the community will be able to rectify this so everybody comes out a winner.

Reckoning Launch Trailer has entered the Realm

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be releasing next week and in anticipation on the title’s launch, EA have released a promotional launch trailer for the game.

The trailer can be seen below and features a deep and thrilling look into what gamers can expect come next week when Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning becomes available to players across the country.

Reckoning launches next week for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The demo for Reckoning is also currently available for download. What do you think of the Reckoning Launch Trailer? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.

ESRB rating reveals new characters for Street Fighter x Tekken

Whenever the ESRB rates a game it can either be disappointing or hilarious. Usually it is hilarious whenever it has to deal with any sexual aspects of a title or various insults that can be thrown around. However this time around the ESRB has actually enlightened us about a few new characters that will likely be showing up in Street Fighter x Tekken. You can read their rating below.

This is an arcade-style fighting game in which players engage in two-on-two battles with characters from the Street Fighter and Tekken universes. Players punch, kick, and use special attacks (e.g., energy blasts, fireballs, electrical strikes) to deplete opponents’ life meters. Some fighters also use laser swords, chainsaws, metal claws, or explosives to knock characters across the screen or to the ground. One bear-like character can perform a flatulence attack to strike opponents, resulting in yellow gas clouds.

A variety of female fighters wear revealing outfits that expose large amounts of jiggling cleavage; some sequences include close-up camera angles on their breasts or buttocks. The dialogue references alcohol and drunkenness (e.g., “Getting drunk isn’t really a good way to fight,” “[W]anna go for a few drinks?”), and one wobbly character uses “drunken” fighting moves. The words “sh*t” and “a*s” appear in dialogue.

In the description you may notice that there is a character who uses chainsaws as weapons as well as a character who uses “drunken” style fighting moves. No one who uses those moves has been revealed so far, however the only character who uses chainsaws is Tekken’s Alisa Basconovitch and the only drunken fighter is Lei Wulong, both of whom will likely make appearances in the game and have been revealed a tad too early for Capcom’s liking.

THQ confirms that 240 employees will be laid off

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THQ has now confirmed that they are planning to layoff “up to 240 selling, general and administrative personnel worldwide,” over the course of the next nine months. The layoffs will begin before March 31, 2012 and will also be when the “majority” of the layoffs will take place. As it stands the layoffs will end on September 30, 2012.

This number of 240 layoffs is a much larger number than was originally being tossed around. This could be a dire piece of news for THQ as the bad news continues to pile up for the company. This includes the moving away from making games for kids and a warning from the NASDAQ that their stock will be de-listed if it does not raise above $1 in the next few months. THQ did not state in the announcement if this would affect any franchises or games they are currently working on.