That's right, a game about the stock market crash of 1987, made in 1987. By current standards 500 points in a day is just a hiccup, but back in the early days it was enough to fuel a whole game. Wonder if there will be a game soon called "The Big Bailout", featuring real-time Henry Paulson supplication controls. Anyway, at least the current financial situation isn't very dire for computer-based games, sales being up 43% and all. Guess people may not want to play a game about the fall of the financial system during the fall of the financial system, but I wish they would. It's a great opportunity to teach and engage with a current problem that is definitely predicated by the playing of financial games in the late-80s, okay maybe not.

It's a fun look back at some not terribly scintillating-sounding titles (but leaping brokers? C'mon).

Financial Woes [How They Got Game]

The company said it will continue to sell HD-DVD products for a while but will stop further development of HD DVD. Meanwhile, it said its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, would be closed.

Market observers said that Toshiba could suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Ouch, if it's true.

Toshiba plans to withdraw from HD-DVD production [NHK] and Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war [Reuters]

Cooking Mama publisher Majesco has regained its compliance with the Nasdaq stock market following a delisting threat. Nasdaq said that Majesco now meets the stock market's requirement to maintain a market value of listed securities of at least $35 million for 10 consecutive trading days. The New Jersey-based game publisher was previously failing to meet that requirement.

The people who publish Cooking Mama are from Jersey? Kim Phu

Majesco COOL with Nasdaq [Next-Gen]

On Morning Edition, NPR talked with Julian Dibbel (the author of this piece, which we blogged when we looked at the prospects of IRS taxing your gear in an MMO). Dibbell talks about his own earnings over the year by trading virtual wares (he made about $11,000), but he isn't going to be the one who starts reporting this to the IRS. As Dibbell jokes in the recording that he doesn't want to be the guy responsible for having game companies file a 1099 each time a " magic earring drops off of a dragon whelp." I wouldn't want to be that guy, either. But as I was listening to Dibbell, and then re-listening to the piece again I started to think about my own character in Blizzard's World of Warcraft. After all it is tax time, and my account is ten months old, so how would I trace my tax history for the year.

Would my repair bills be tax deductible? Should I keep track of how much gold I spend on them each week? Or are repairs simply an operating expense? Hey, about the 2400 gold I sold an item for and then split with two other buddies, is the 1600 gold I gave to them able to be written off as charity? What defines a work expense in-game and a leisure expense? I use an awful lot of potions raiding, is it possible that those are deductible? The very idea, that Dibbell joked about, Blizzard filing 1099s for boss drops is fascinating. Game Masters would have to lurk in raid zones chronicling drops, filing 1099 forms, because the items, while they aren't all sellable, they do increase the value of the character, and therefore the real money value of the character escalates, too. If the IRS gets involved with this, MMO gaming might need a major overhaul.

Online Gaming, Money and Tax Law [NPR]
The IRS May Be Coming for Your Virtual Wares [Kotaku]
The Taxman Cometh [Terra Nova]

Man, Activision must be doing much better than I thought. William Chardavoyne, chief financial officer for the company, just bought a $2.1 million dollar home in Scottsdale with his wife. It probably helps that his wife, Barbara Lopipero, is a senior veep of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The Valley's Priciest Home Sales [Arizona Republic]