Looking back to Chart Track's statistics for the first week of July, Electronic Arts' Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, DS, Wii, PC, mobile) stays on top of the all-platforms charts for the second week in a row, while UK gamers flex their nerve cells with Nintendo's More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima which sticks to a solid second.

Activision's Shrek The Third still keeps to the third spot the week ending July 7, though Take-Two's The Darkness dips two spaces to fourth. Keeping close to another fellow horror game, Capcom's Resident Evil 4 haunts at fifth place, while happily tailing behind with a Wiimote is Wii Play from Nintendo - still strong in the charts after re-entering the top ten.

Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas still relies on lucky number seven to stay up the charts, with Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 2 slowly revving down from sixth to eighth. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End slips to ninth place from eighth (giving new meaning to nine pieces of eight, we reckon), while Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training from Nintendo re-enters the charts and continues to twist noggins at closing number 10.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: (Electronic Arts)
2. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
3. Shrek the Third (Activision)
4. The Darkness (Starbeeze)
5. Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
6. Wii Play (Nintendo)
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)
8. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Eurocom Entertainment)
10. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)

Ubisoft, best known for its action-packed last and current-gen games, is still considering getting a merger with mammoth publisher Electronic Arts which owns 20 percent of the company's shares.

According to the French publisher's CEO Yves Guillemot, a merger is just one of the options to make Ubisoft flourish. The other one is to go about their business in the same manner as they always have or better yet, get into the movie industry.

In particular, the long-running Prince of Persia franchise just may get the silver screen treatment. Details aren't all that clear as of now, but plenty more tidbits are on the way.

In a Gamasutra interview, Guillemot explained the three paths they can take. "The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge. We think the market is going to grow fast, and we can take a big share of that market, so we don’t have to change the way things are done at the moment."

  

UltraGames101 and Star Productions team up to bring the first OfficialUltraGames Expo over to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a video game event bonanza for consumers and industry leaders alike. As announced in an official press release, Star Productions and UltraGames101 hope to combine the best elements of a video game trade show with a consumer even focused on the past, present and future of the video game industry.

"It will be the biggest video game event to hit Canada!" said UltraGames101 president Mark Bartkowiak. Canada is site of two of the world's largest development studios, including Electronic Arts Canada and Ubisoft Montreal.

The event is planned to be a major software showcase, for consumers to try out games offered by publishers and developers slated for release soon. The event will also sport conferences, press events, live demonstrations of new video game technology, but may be subject to being an invitation-only affair.

Evenings will allow attendees to mingle with developers, publishers, retailers and media folk at informal gatherings, while being able to watch video game titles to be released for the year. The event will be open to the general public, although there has been no official announcement of ticket prices or entrance fees.

Companies involved in the PC, online, console, and mobile game industries are all eligible to participate in the event. Even hardware manufacturers of gaming peripherals are also invited to attend. Certain meetings and demonstrations will be invitation-only, however. There is no word yet on the official even bookings, but the venue could be at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

In the next six months, the announcement of the official Exhibition venue, date and location will be made. Alan Smithson, President of Star Production, concluded the announcement stating:

The UltraGames101 Game Expo 2K8 is first and foremost biggest video game event to hit Canada! When UltraGames101 asked its members they heard that they wanted opportunities for a video game expo to happen in Canada. And after careful consideration UltraGames101 and Star Productions have partnered up to make this event happen.

 

While "Canuck" sounds like a cross between a cough and a hiccup (now don't hurt yourself trying to reproduce it), the second Annual Canuck Awards is more affectionately known as the Elan Awards. This new awards event held in Canada annually will honor the best artistic productions in electronics: anything and everything in games.

While being just another awards ceremony to add to the countless ones coming out each year, the Elans is slated to honor any and all platform titles, including casual, arcade and mobile games. It will also honor story and concept writing in games, a dedicated Hall of Fame for games that make the cut, and even animation and voice-over productions. Everything art, they've got just the fart part (pardon our French).

The awards categories will each have their own panel of five judges (no judge sits on more than one panel) to decide on the criteria for choosing the winner among qualifying nominees. Judges only qualify in the panel if they are respected minds in the industry. Other strict procedures are as follows:

• All Companies/Institutions providing Jurors may provide more than one.
• No two representatives from one Company/Institution will be selected to sit on the same Panel.
• Every Juror must sign a non-conflict contract to be approved by the CAEAA.
• Each CAEAA Category is judged by Panels from outside of Canada.
• Each International Category is judged by Panels from within Canada.
• All Nomination and Winning Ballots will be handled directly by the Elans Auditing Firm, Buckley Dodds.

Click on Full Article to view the complete listing of categories plus a few more details.

Gameloft shouts "Driver is mine!" to Glu Mobile, announcing that it has acquired the exclusive rights to develop, publish and distribute games based on Atari's Driver franchise, and that all previous Driver mobile games developed and published by Glu will be off the market on March 31, 2007.

Gameloft expects to launch its game Driver: LA Undercover in both 2D and 3D in June 2007, in time for Ubisoft's release of Driver titles. Ubisoft and Gameloft are sister companies, which may have helped Gameloft acquire the Driver license as Ubisoft also holds the PC, Wii and PSP license of Driver. Last year, Atari itself released the Xbox and PS2 Parallel line skus.

In a statement, Gameloft President Michel Guillemot said that they are excited about adding Driver to their award winning portfolio of games, and that they are confident that they can take the Driver franchise to the next level.

We wonder how the two rivaling game publishers will render the same franchise title?