Bungie has revealed details about its mysterious Bungie Aerospace project, and it's definitely a departure from the norm. Bungie Aerospace isn't a game, but is instead an initiative designed to partner smaller studios with the indie juggernaut. Help could come in the form of access to the Bungie.net platform, access to Bungie's community resources, or funding.

“Bungie has always been passionate about making and playing great games, regardless of platform,” said Pete Parsons, Bungie COO. “Bungie Aerospace will allow us to explore game creation in multiple formats with some amazingly talented teams. Now that we’ve returned to our roots as an independent studio, we are in a position to launch Bungie Aerospace to support, foster, and elevate like-minded, independent developers.”

The first game being developed with help from Bungie Aerospace is one from Harebrained Schemes, a studio headed by Jordan Weisman. Weisman js well known for his work on MechWarrior and Shadowrun games, as well as Crimson Skies. But don't assume that Harebrained Schemes' upcoming game, codenamed Crimson, has anything to do with the Xbox aerial combat game.

"It's not set in that universe," Weisman said in an interview with Kotaku. "There is no continuity with Crimson Skies. Hopefully if people are familiar with my work in the past, maybe they'll relate that it has a similar, lighthearted, fun approach to its universe. But it is a different universe with different types of vehicles and so-on."

Indie developers face a difficult task in getting publicity for their games, and Bungie Aerospace could be an instrumental partnership for some of those smaller games. If you can get a community the size of Bungie's excited about something, that's a huge step toward success.

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Fans of Castlevania, Hard Corps, and Rocket Knight can prove their loyalty to these properties by downloading new themes and avatars from PlayStation Network.

Two themes from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, one theme from Hard Corps: Uprising, and two themes from Rocket Knight are currently available. There are also 20 avatars for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow sold in two separate bundles (10 each) plus five new avatars for Hard Corps: Uprising (there is a bundle available with all five).

How often do you download new avatars and themes from PSN?

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You could get your details on yesterday's historic Supreme Court decision about video games from our exhaustive write-up on it. Or you could watch this weird video that features judges firing machine guns at the state of California, children receiving a free copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, and a poor kid having his copy of Penthouse stolen. Your choice!

Taiwan animation house NMA TV has become an Internet sensation thanks to its bizarre YouTube videos with current events and news delivered via weird CG animation. Its take on the Supreme Court decision is just as strange as you'd expect. Check it out below.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

[via Joystiq]

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Now that Duke Nukem Forever is out, Wardevil is arguably one of the longest-in-development games that may never see the light of day. Announced way back in 2004, before this generation of consoles even started, this action game from Ignition boasted the (at the time totally awe-inspiring) claim of being fully 1080p and 60 frames-per-second. Then it was rumored to be canceled. Then revived again. Then canceled. Then brought back once more. Now, after a new round of layoffs from Ignition, it sounds like Wardevil is fully dead.

Develop reports that Ignition has initiated a new round of layoffs at its London and Texas offices. As part of this decrease in staffing, Wardevil has reportedly been canceled.

Develop has also heard from insiders that another Ignition internal project, Reich, has also been canceled. Supposedly the publisher's Japan office will close entirely upon completion of its next project.

In a press release sent out last week, Ignition laid clear the goal of these layoffs: "Ignition Games has taken the strategic decision not to continue with internal development of games." The release states that moving forward, the company will focusing on publishing games from independent developers rather than creating its own title.

We've reached out to Ignition for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

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