Namco Bandai . The outfit, located at the Centre for Digital Media at the Great Northern Way Campus, will be known as Namco Bandai Studios Vancouver Inc.

According to Namco Bandai Studios president Hajime Nakatani, the city of Vancouver was chosen over Montreal and Toronto because of its sizable "cluster" of digital artists and engineers.

Not only that, but Centre for Digital Media director Richard Smith said Canada is a smart choice to establish a studio because development talent is less likely to be lured away.

"One of the things that is attractive about Canada, I think, is the people are just as skilled and they are less likely to jump ship and disappear like in San Francisco or L.A.," Smith said. "Here's a place you can build up a team and they're not going to disappear on you."

From: www.gamespot.com

More than 80 staffers took part in the event, which is a 10km (6.2 mile) fundraising walkathon through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

The money will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) and 50 other AIDS service organizations throughout the Bay Area.

"It's very important for us to be involved in the community and to give back to those causes that mean so much to so many of our employees," EA manager of outreach and corporate giving Julie Wynn said.

EA senior director of tax accounting Mark Mays, who lost his first partner to AIDS 20 years ago, said, "I love the fact that EA turns out for these events and matches all of our contributions and is a great, great support for this cause."

From: www.gamespot.com

reports that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer last week dismissed the fraud claim, saying that the case will now hinge only on whether or not EA broke a 1986 contract with Antonick by failing to pay him royalties from the billion-dollar franchise.

Breyer said in a San Francisco court that after considering briefs submitted by both sides and the case itself, "the court now holds that Antonick has failed to state a claim for fraud." Further explanation will be revealed in a later filing.

"Breyer also said Antonick is entitled to 'only thin' copyright protection and the jury will be asked whether his work and the subsequent versions of Madden NFL are virtually identical when viewed as a whole," Bloomberg reports.

Antonick's lawyer, Stuart Paynter, said in an email to Bloomberg that though he disagrees with the dismissal of his client's fraud claim, he is "pleased" that judge Breyer has "cleared the way" for Antonick to be paid millions in royalties.

An EA spokesperson declined to comment on the decision to Bloomberg.

On June 21, , with the court ruling that the statute of limitations had not expired, allowing the case to move forward. EA at the time said it is "confident" that it will prevail in the case based on the "merits once the evidence is presented."

Antonick is seeking compensatory damages of around $16 million and nearly $200 million from EA's pre-1996 game profits. The court case .

More than .

The next entry in the series is , a special version of the game launching in August to mark the franchise's 25th anniversary.

From: www.gamespot.com