Dubbed Made Off, the game uses "cellupoints" in lieu of real money. Players can be a savvy investor or sleazy fund manager out to con as many and as much as possible before the government gets wise. "When your fund goes broke, you go, Holy crap, I didn't invite enough people,'" says the developer.

Ponzi schemes use capital from investors to pay back mature investors, creating the phony appreciate of legitimate stock returns. The developer says the game does not poke fun at the victims and sees it as more of an educational tool. Ponzi scheme practice for everyone!

Try Bernie Madoff mobile scam for free [PocketGamer] [Pic]

Cell phone start-up Liveware released a cell phone game in which the object is to keep Nakagawa awake during the press conference. Players must "poke" him with the 5 key at the right time to get him to respond to questions from reporters. His approval ratings are tracked at the top of the screen, and the object is to keep them from hitting zero.

Fifteen minutes after the real Nakagawa finished the now infamous G7 press conference, he visited the Vatican Museum on Japanese tax payers' dime and touched various exhibits. He even climbed over the barrier for statue Laocoon and then sat on the exhibit as the alarm was sounded.

He has since resigned as Finance Minister.

お酒と薬を一緒に呑むとヤバイ！？ [Dream News via The Japan Times Online via Tokyo Mango]

終章控える『FF IV ジ・アフター』累計ダウンロード200万突破 [Gpara via Game|Life]

A few minutes later I received a reply: "At 3:30 a black car will arrive to your house to pick you up. The mission should take no longer than three hours." Three hours, eh? What the hell, I went ahead and cleared my schedule for the afternoon and got ready to embark.

At 3:30 on the dot I went outside and lo and behold, there was a black car with a card with my name on it in the window. Not only was the car out there at the assigned time, but they had managed to get a parking spot right in front of my house. If you know anything about parking in San Francisco, you'll know that this is no mean feat, especially in the Mission. My driver was waiting by the car and told me he would be taking me to my destination as he opened the door for me to get in. I looked and made sure the door locks hadn't been sawed of and got in.

We drove all the way across town and eventually ended up at Fort Mason Center out by the water. If you've ever seen the movie Copy Cat you'll have an idea of where this is. We drove over by the firehouse and the car stopped. The driver told me to go get the information case and return to the car. As I got out, I saw a large metal briefcase type deal sitting in the middle of the pavement. I got out and grabbed it and returned to the car. Inside was a postcard of Coit Tower and instructions to direct the driver to take me there.

Once we were on our way to Coit Tower, the driver received a phone call and then informed me that he had new orders and a new destination for us. What else could I do but say yes? Didn't seem like I had too much of a choice. So I sat and watched the city slide by the windows as we passed Pier 39 and wound our way through The Embarcadero. We finally arrived in a very warehouse-y area down by Third Street and Twentieth where the driver told me it was time to get out of the car. We had reached the final destination.

I took my case, got out of the are and was greeted by a fellow who welcomed me to the assignment and asked if i had any idea what this was all about. I admitted that I didn't but that I had some ideas. We walked into a nearby warehouse and started making our way up the service elevator and through the halls towards the final reveal.

We arrived in front of a door which was opened for me and I entered wondering what I would find. As some of you speculated in the comments of my previous articles, the whole thing turned out to be for... the new Bourne Conspiracy game. Three of the developers from High Moon Studios were there to discuss the project with me and show me a little bit of what it was all about. Unfortunately I can't say much about what I saw as the information is under embargo until the 28th. But I can tell you that I liked what I saw and that The Bourne Conspiracy isn't your run of the mill action game. I saw four different areas covering the various game mechanics including a driving level.

Once my talk with the guys form High Moon was finished, I was escorted back to the front of the place where my driver was waiting for me. I was giving a digital voice recorder that contained my entire interview with the developers (had I known I wouldn't have taken all those notes!) and the case was given back to me although it was slightly heavier than before.

As we drove away, I opened the case to find a ton of swag including a mini-backpack (you can never have too many bags) a flashlight, a 2gig USB drive hidden in a black rubber bracelet, a Sony MP3 player containing some of the music from the game, a game fact sheet/booklet and of course the case itself which looks like it would comfortably fit an Xbox 360. Also included was what I thought to be the most clever addition, a dossier on me that included my name, known associates and habits. It was odd some of the things they knew about me, but then again, on the internet your life is an open book. Attached to the dossier was four large black and whit photos, two of me coming out of my house to meet the car and another two of me picking up the case at Fort Mason Center. It was really quite the clever and ingenious marketing ploy and I must admit that I, like many of you, was completely sucked in.

All in all it was not a terrible way to spend a Tuesday afternoon and I was told that even more would be revealed to me today at Sierra's Editor's Day here in SF. Again, everything I see will be embargoed until the 28th, but judging from the line-up, there will be plenty to talk about when that day finally rolls around.

I hope you've enjoyed unraveling this little mystery with along me. Agent De Marco over and out.

A driver has been assigned to escort you to dead drop point. Confirm pick up name for driver. Standby on April 8 at 1700 for pick up.

A driver? At 5pm on April 8? Hmmm. I'm not really one to just get into car sent by a stranger, but I am dedicated to finding out what this is all about. Seeing as I have documented this entire experience for all to see, if I end up dead in a gutter it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who did it. Please just have "He took one for the team" engraved on my tombstone.

Your cellphone rings, and a detective calls you to the scene — just like a real CSI detective. This combination of game play with popular content and a whole new level of interactivity represent enormous entertainment and business potential for the mobile world.

It sounds like a pretty cool gimmick actually and leaves me wondering if this might tie in somehow with the mysterious cell phone I received yesterday...

"Accommodation address secured. Mission Accepted. Standby on March 24 for further instructions. Date of final mission: April 8."

Seeing as none of the other staff members got one, I'm hoping this isn't some sort of bomb sent by a rival blog to take me out, but I must say I'm rather intrigued. Chances are it's for a cell phone game, but I'm crossing my fingers that it's going to be something really cool. Anyone care to speculate?

Make the jump to check out a small gallery of screens.

[Thanks, ryuzaki]

Whether or not the Google Phone will be good for gaming, I'm all for the industry's numbers dropping to -100 million bajillion until the entire medium improves. You know, like until Nintendo duct tapes a phone to the DS or something.

Games Once Again Slammed As Past Their Peak, But What Innovation Will Save The Industry? [via vh1]

After some trial and error, he was eventually able to host a Halloween Halo 3 LAN party at his house with ten Xbox 360s all run through his cell phone's internet connection. I don't pretend to understand all the technical aspects of this amazing feat, so if you wish to learn more, go check out D15AV0W3D's explanation with a little how to guide so you can do this yourself. Ah, the marvels of the modern age...

HowTo: Play on XBOX Live thru your Windows Mobile cell phone [The Hushed Casket]

Product Page [via pocketgamer]

Of course, all these phones means a huge market for cell phone games. Almost every booth I went into at TGS had some sort of cell phone game in it and in most cases five or six. Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill and Square Enix all had multiple mobile games attached to them. There were also booths dedicated solely to cell phone games and nothing else. It was a strange phenomenon and something I haven't seen at any other convention I've been to this year. It will be interesting to see if the cell phone games thing catches on in the U.S. the way it has here in Japan. Do you think there is a viable market for this sort of thing and would you buy an MGS or RE phone game if it was made available to you?

Raising children is easy. If I can do it — Better yet, if Crecente can do it, anyone can. Even Tiffany! Come On Baby, which is hitting UK cell phones soon-ish, is Cooking Mama, but with children and no knifes. The game stars buxom Tiffany, who has just started up her own nursery. Players must change diapers, feed babies and boiling milk to turn her nursery into a "five star baby motel." The game's publisher Ozura proclaims it is:

The world's first mobile infant game.

Well, congratulations. Have a cigar. Brian Ashcraft

New Mobile Games [The Guardian]

Description of new cell phone game:

The story is quite simple: Mobaria, the girlfriend of Mobario was kidnapped by the evil Pavo. You have to rescue Mobaria from Pavo's Castle, but you have to get there which is not easy. The land, the sky, the caves and even under the water are nasty enemies waiting for you. In Pavo's Castle, fireballs make your journey more difficult. And at the end you have to fight Pavo, who is really strong, you have to beat him 10 times, but take care with jumping on him.

Wait a second... I've played this game before! Back when it was called Super Mario Bros. Nintendo, you might want to call your lawyers. Brian Ashcraft

Mobario Game [Tech Digest]

I'm just going to hit you with the quote here right off the bat.

I-play CEO David Gosen has predicted that the console gaming industry will be left with a "niche audience" to target as mobile gaming becomes ever more popular.

This really blows my mind. I've only ever downloaded on cell phone game in my life, and that one pretty much sucked completely. It all sounds like wishful thinking from a guy who makes a living selling casual mobile games, perhaps enhanced by the local Amsterdam foliage. Your thoughts? Michael Fahey

Mobile gaming will overtake consoles, says Gosen [GamesIndustry.biz]

A patent has popped up that Nintendo filed back in November 2001. It is for a "mobile phone type electronic apparatus" that contains a CPU for a phone and a CPU for game related process. In a sentence: It's a cell phone that pauses gameplay when there's an incoming call. That button placement, though, looks extremely uncomfortable! But Yoshi to that patent drawing? Cute. Brian Ashcraft

Patent For Nintendo Phone [Google, Thanks Derek!]

Sanrio Hello Kitty x TAITO Space Invader Double Charms' Phone Strap [StrapYa Product Page - Thanks Chilly!]

Way back in 2005 Kotaku reported that Halo was on its way to a cell phone near you, thanks to an agreement between mobile game publisher In-Fusio and Microsoft. Over a year later and finally the end result of the agreement has arrived. Unfortunately it's not a game, but a lawsuit. Claiming that Microsoft has either refused to approve or ignored their game designs entirely, In-Fusio refused to make its second payment on the $2 million deal. Microsoft in turn used that as grounds for breaking the deal entirely. Now the cell game publisher is seeking damages.

I can fully understand where they are coming from. A year and a half ago In-Fusio was on top of the mobile game world, having snagged one of the hottest game licenses in the country. Fast forward to today and they are $500k in the hole plus concept development costs with nothing to show for it. Sure they still have the license for Rambo, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, South Park, and Neopets, but it's the principle of the thing.

Of course for all I know the game concepts they presented might have just sucked. After all, it's not like Microsoft to screw over a smaller company like this. Hmmm. Michael Fahey

Microsoft sued over Halo mobile game [GamesIndustry.biz]