In 2007, 11,074 consoles - and that's all consoles and handhelds lumped together - were reported stolen to authorities. In 2008, that number roughly doubled, to 21,732. And in 2009, it roughly doubled again, rising to 42,615.

The increase comes despite an overall decline in other property crimes, and probably has everything to do with the economic woes afflicting the US during this time period.

"Criminals are rational", criminologist Larry J. Siegel told USA Today. "They steal things that have high value, are easily transportable and easily sold. The most expensive thing in my house is my refrigerator, but nobody is trying to steal my refrigerator."

Thieves load up on electronic loot [USA Today]

Responding to a question about the announcement strategy for the next GTA from Arvind Bhatia of brokerage firm Stern Agee, Zelnick made Take-Twoe's stance on the subject perfectly clear.

"We're not going to announce it. We're not going to announce when we're going to announce it. And we're not going to announce the strategy about announcing it or about when we're going to announce it either, or about the announcement strategy surrounding the announcement of the strategy. Any other questions?"

What do you suppose that means?

In The Lost And Damned, you'll step into the biker boots of Johnny Klebitz, vice president of the motorcycle gang The Lost. Things seem to be going pretty well in low-life biker gangland for Johnny and crew until The Lost's leader, Billy, returns from his stint at rehab to resume control.

Control, in Grand Theft Auto storytelling terms, means something along the lines of total anarchy, as Billy quickly escalates the feud between The Lost and rival gang the Angels of Death in a brutal and bloody fashion. Along the way, Johnny and his biker buddies will work together to wreak havoc and take down their rivals, a substantial change from Niko Bellic's mostly solitary journey in Grand Theft Auto IV.

What Did They Show Us?
We took a look at three of the game's missions, "Action/Reaction," "Buyer's Market" and "Shifting Weight." They introduced us to The Lost And Damned's cast, gameplay changes and the return of on-rails shooting missions. The mission "Buyer's Market" illustrated how Johnny's life in Liberty City will intertwine with Niko Bellic, as the two cross paths via Grand Theft Auto IV's Elizabeta. Less obvious connections and crossovers between GTA IV and The Lost And Damned popped up during cut scene dialogue.

What's Unique About It?
Johnny's already established in Liberty City. He won't be building relationships with the burg's low-life. Johnny and The Lost already have reputations, they already have safehouses to squat in. And they already have enemies.

The Lost And Damned's most obvious changes are new bullet point additions like new weapons, new vehicles, new interiors, and new radio, internet and television content. Johnny has access to weaponry previously unavailable to Niko, including an automatic 9 MM pistol, a sawed off shotgun, an assault shotgun, a grenade launcher and pipe bombs. You'll get access to the fun-to-fire grenade launcher in the mission "Action/Reaction," in which Johnny does serious damage to his rival's clubhouse, thanks to a stream of grenades.

Rockstar reps pointed out that some of the game's new music and radio chatter will be tailored to The Lost And Damned experience. That translates to new music for the game's rock, hardcore and metal radio stations and a little less so for the jazzier, more world beat stations. Think more "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead, less Dizzy Gillespie.

There are even new mini-games (arm wrestling!) and still unannounced multiplayer additions on top of the already revealed changes, neither of which we got a chance to play during our hands on time.

Less obvious additions help to differentiate The Lost And Damned from Niko's trip through Liberty City. Menus have a distinct, grungier look, with a new grittier film-grain effect giving Johnny's story a more appropriate visual style. Even his cell phone looks more bad ass. Rockstar has also added more weight to the expansion's motorcycles — all of them, not just the choppers — to make riding a little easier on the player.

What Did We Like Most?
Curiously enough, it was The Lost And Damned's pack riding mechanic that we found most interesting, even if it feels largely superficial. When Johnny's riding with his crew in formation, The Lost's gang insignia will be emblazoned on the pavement. Ride on it and Johnny can get a health boost and spawn new strings of dialogue from fellow Lost members. It's a minor thing, but considering that we're mostly interested in seeing how Johnny's story line plays out, during our hour of gameplay, we thought it pretty cool.

What Are We Concerned About?
After spending fifty hours cruising through the streets of Liberty City, do we really want to spend another ten, but now in biker outfits? Honestly, yeah. Rockstar North appears to have done a respectable job of making the look and feel of Johnny's version of Liberty City somehow unique. They're careful to start and end missions in spots previously under-explored by Niko, giving the player a fresh perspective on the city.

With an expected minimum of ten hours of new gameplay in The Lost And Damned, in addition to the changes, the first downloadable episode looks like a sound investment at just $20. New gameplay styles and thankful concessions — some missions can be restarted at halfway points, not just from the start — make The Lost And Damned feel less like a tacked on expansion and more of an evolution.

Check out all new screens of the Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And Damned in our gallery below.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And Damned will be released on February 17th for the Xbox 360. The downloadable episode retails for $19.99 USD.

Along with praising Grand Theft Auto IV for balanced combat, driving mechanics, and impressive writing, Schiesel also praises and pokes a few games and companies for their more obscure achievements. He awards Nintendo with "Best Explanation of Why Nintendo Hardly Needs Big Games Anymore" for The Wii, pointing out that widespread acceptance by non-gamers has allowed Nintendo to ignore core fans "For now." Left 4 Dead receives a much deserved "Best Zombies" award. He lists Spore as "Best Disappointment", while giving Molyneux a nod with "Best Vindication" for Fable II.

Of course it all comes down to the game of the year, and for Schiesel, that was GTA IV. Here's what he had to say:

G.T.A. IV came out in April, and for the rest of the year I kept waiting for some other new game to captivate and refuse to release me the way this masterpiece from Rockstar did. I’m still waiting. Beyond its formidable craft, apart from its well-balanced combat and driving mechanics, what impresses most about G.T.A. IV is its writing. It is one of the few games that even try to take on the real world in any adult way. (Of course, the game’s Liberty City setting is a parody of modern New York.) Penetrating through all the game’s gangster trappings is a hunger to engage with the idiocies, the contradictions and even some of the good things in modern America. After all, someone has to.

This is the moment where one of us stands up and starts a slow clap. You guys sort that out, and we'll join in shortly.

The Zombies Look Better Every Year [The New York Times]

"The server-side interface used by the client is carefully protected to ensure that no abusive or unwanted information is transmitted to, or from the internal EVE server systems. Nothing the EVE client can do can affect the game state, no advantage can be gained by manipulating the EVE client, no advantageous or disadvantageous information can be transmitted to other EVE users by altering the EVE client."

On March 12 McPherson returned from SXSW to discover that his home had been broken into and that the burglar had made off with his Xbox 360, an old Powerbook and a television.

Familiar with the competence of the Philadelphia police, McPherson decided to hunt for the items himself and soon found that the burglar had tried to sell his laptop at a local pawn shop, which has images of the guy from their camera. He tries to give the info to police, but never hears back.

Fast forward to Friday when McPherson's workmates present him with a replacement Xbox 360. He goes home, hooks it up and discovers a voice message on his 360 from some guy saying he has his 360 and wants cash to give it back. Better still the idiot uses his current account to leave the message.

McPherson calls police again and is hung up on... so he turns things over to the Internet and business is handled.

As everyone probably knows mob justice is a bitch and Digg Mob justice makes that look pretty. Since the story hit Digg the person who left the message asking for 360 ransom has been identified, his address and high school location posted, he's been harassed, seemingly endlessly, via AIM.

Eventually the kid caved and told his parents, McPherson was, apparently in touch with them and now seems to have all of his stuff back. According to his Twitter, the kid actually hand-delivered some of the stolen goods on Sunday.

Makes you feel good inside doesn't it?

Update: Wow, You're a Moron. When the Internet Attacks [McFearsome]

Is it relevant for the qualification as theft whether the stolen fortune stays officially in game? Well, not to me. I see no reason for distinguishing between virtual and physical theft. The original owners of the stolen Habbo furniture obtained the items after they bought credits with real money, and do attach value to those items. As long as the original owner looses something of value (such as virtual items) due to the act of another individual who gains possession over the item, it should in my opinion be qualified as theft, no matter whether the locus delicti is in the physical or the virtual world.

I love this virtual law stuff, so many areas are so vague - I do wonder what sort of changes are going to be going on the books in the next decade or so.

Why not qualify the taking away of virtual objects as theft? [Terra Nova]

"All I can say is that code did not leak from Climax - 100 per cent guaranteed," said Jeffery.

"The code that is out there is fingerprinted and was supplied solely to Konami for marketing purposes."

Silent Hill PSP demo leaked online [GamesIndustry.biz]

Earlier, we reported that stores like EB and Gamespot were likely to use credit card deposits to ensure no punk ass kid wandered off with the Wiimote. Now, Nintendo's weighing in on how it'll be handled.

"Retailers will either receive a pre-built, self-contained interactive [kiosk], including a TV, game console and controllers, while others will receive the game console and controllers and will set up an interactive Wii experience using their own TV," said Harrison.

Echoing previous statements by Nintendo of Australia spokesman Vispi Bhopti, Harrison said that retail staff members would be at the demo units ostensibly to help consumers "have a successful first experience with Wii." Whether or not Wii's purportedly intuitive controls need explaining, staff members will likely serve as deterrents in attempted thefts of the Wii Remote.

I honestly don't understand why Nintendo doesn't wire the Wiimotes for the stores. It's possible: in Leipzig, I played with a Wii that had Wired controllers. This all seems like a needless hassle for a problem solved quite elegantly.

Other solution: slap one of those anti-theft stickers on the back of a Wiimote. Florian Eckhardt

Wii Kiosks to be Wireless, Supervised [The Wiire]

Tipper Jeff writes in to point and snigger at a man in an unfortunate shirt who committed ghastly crimes against God and GameStop:

The man, who was the last remaining customer in the store, pointed a revolver at two employees and demanded money. He left with an undisclosed amount of cash, an X-Box game system and two games.

Furthermore, says Jeff, the poor bastard went to all that trouble to relieve the retail chain of an Xbox core system. Pshaw.

As an aside, I personally cannot tell the core system from the premium just by looking at this grainy security photo. Perhaps I lack a certain finesse in these matters.

Further aside than that, if your name is Jason, Jeff, Brian, Rob, Mike, Chris, John, Erin, Erica or Jen, please choose a cool nickname and start demanding that people call you by it exclusively. My Mike quotient has become so swollen (I know at least six or seven, and meet a new one every few days) that I've taken to demanding they choose an alternative when we are introduced. The last Mike is known only as Mikatron, and the Chris I met on Saturday night is now "Fetus".

I suggest the rest of you poor cursed fools with unimaginative parents start choosing nicknames now, so you aren't saddled with something filthy and ludicrous should I ever chance to shake your hand. Eliza "D-Day" Gauger

Video game store robber sought [DallasNews]

Gamers With Jobs is claiming that Flagship Studios servers have been hacked by a nefarious Chinese cybercriminal and the source code for Hellgate: London has been stolen.

Weirdly enough, this all seems to be news to Bill Roper of Flagship, who says he has 'heard the same rumors' but 'cannot confirm or deny that any code has been lifted from their studios.'

Apparently, the source code is now available for sale on a Chinese website... a shiny no-prize to the Kotakuite who can find it! As for Hellgate: London, this news, if true, sucks. Everyone knows that the ultimate value to Valve of the HL2 source code theft was giving them a plausible excuse to miss their inexplicably optimistic release date. I want Hellgate sooner rather than later... let's hope this is just an unsubstantiated rumor. Florian Eckhardt

Hellgate: London Source Code Stolen [Gamers With Jobs]

"There will be little impact on the European supply as the licensed producer is rushing additional output," said a Nintendo spokesperson.

Look, Nintendo, I don't care. As the Kotaku representative tasked with purchasing three ebony DS Lites bright and early Friday morning, I'm frankly relieved that you have furnished me with a prime excuse to sleep through my obligations. As long as I can buy at least one black DS Lite to sell on eBay, I'm happy. Give me another to buy off goth gaming grrl Gauger's affections, I'll be positively giddy. And if I can manage to get a third one to send off to the grand prize winner of Kotaku's DS Lite giveaway contest? Yeah, that's okay too, I guess. Florian Eckhardt

DS Lite Raid 'Won't Harm Europe Launch' [Next Generation]

True story: I once got so aggravated by the blister packaging on a five dollar pair of headphones i'd picked up that I had a friend back his car over it. Although the tons of pressure and high velocity would have caused the brains of even George Broussard's big, fat, impenetrable head to spurt all over the payment, the blister packaging was scuffed but otherwise unscathed.

I'm not the only one who finds these things impossible to open. Wired has a report about the impenetrability of packaging, specifically game packaging, and the rising emergency room cases where kids and parents end up slicing off half their fingers trying to open up that damned 360 faceplate. So don't drink and open, lads.FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Tales from Packaging Hell [Wired]