Independent games mega-portal Game Tunnel has announced recently that they will be launching a print magazine, featuring independent games reviews, news, gossip, articles and developer interviews. Issue #1 appears to still be in pre-production, however a preview has been released by the tunnelers in PDF form, allowing site visitors to get a sneak peek into the forthcoming publication. No word on subscription prices or schedules have been released, but I’m sure more information will be forthcoming.

Show more: Game Tunnel launches indie games magazine

Video game sales have always been a hot topic in the gaming world. In the past, many players’ data came from vague and un-confirmed forum or blog postings as well as chatter along the highly-organized video game grapevine. Thankfully there’s no more need in relying on your pizza guy’s interpretation of video games sales charts. For the past 4 years, VGCharts have been collecting video game sales data and organizing it into the internet’s premier source for video game sales charts on the internet. Sales information goes back into the Nintendo 64 days and covers pretty much all of the major sales territories. Sales data are constantly being acquired, so expect many more updates in the near future, including the addition of Sega Saturn sales information.

Read more: VGCharts – Video game sales charts

10TACLE STUDIOS, the publishers of the upcoming Xbox 360 fantasy action adventure title Elveon, have acquired the future rights to all current and future titles from CDV Software Entertainment, further solidifying 10TACLE’s role as an emerging power player in the German / European games industry. With profit on the rise, 10tacle is consolidating it’s European development and publishing reach, with 6 in-house developers currently operating throughout Europe and no doubt more on the way. “Panzer Tactics DS” is one of the titles involved in the deal, which is being developed by one of Vienna, Austria’s few remaining game development studios, Sproing. No word on if this deal will negatively impact the developers currently under contract, but here’s to hoping it’s a positive turn and 10TACLE’s involvment is successful for the studios who are now working for 10TACLE.

Read more: 10tacle Studios assumes publishing rights to CDV titles | 10TACLE STUDIOS

Legendary sim-strategy game Sim City will be making it’s way to everyone’s favorite handheld console Winter 2006/2007 according to EA, though exact details haven’t been officially released. This possibly means that the release could occur before Christmas 2006, meaning hundreds of thousands of DS owners will soon be playing god with the little inhabitants of Sim City. Rumours also have it that the DS game will be based on the PC title Sim City 3000 which will no doubt be a must-own DS title when it’s released.

Read more: Sim City coming to the Nintendo DS

Searching for job offers within the industry is sometimes a major major pain. When your connections don’t pan out and you have to start searching through the wants ads it’s always a confusing myriad of horribly designed search engines, slimy recruiting agencies and job offers that are trapped inside of frames making it difficult for you to print or send to yourself. Those days are over now, thanks to some enterprising game developers in the UK who put together a meta-search site that collects data and offers from some of the largest games industry job search sites and recruiters, displaying them in a simple and easy to use interface. Sure you eventually could get dumped off to the same recruiting agencies you were trying to avoid, but at least your route there was a nice and easy one. You’ll notice that most of the offers are in the UK, but a good number of EU, US and Asian jobs are being added and as more sources are added to the system, a wider variety of job locales are becoming more available. Good job lads, keep up the great work.

Read more: The Games Industry – Meta job search engine

Ubisoft today announced the upcoming open beta round for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, the upcoming fantasy action title developed by Kuju. Open beta rounds will begin Tuesday, August 29th at 9AM PT and potential beta testers will be able to sign-up via Might and Magic’s website. Ubisoft are looking to have approximately 100,000 players participate in this final open beta before the release of Might and Magic.

Read more: Dark Messiah – Might and Magic

IGN’s RPG Vault caught up with Eve Online’s Chief Marketing Officer, Magnus Bergsson, for a short interview and retrospective on the little MMORPG that could. Covering everything from how they gracefully handled the fallout that ensued after Eve publisher, Simon and Schuster’s demise, to their slow growth into one of the more successful massive multiplayers on the market, with over 170,000 subscribers, no small feat for an Icelandic games developer who self-publishes and only distributes their game online. Bergsson also touched upon the future of Eve, such as the upcoming factional warfare which is following the storyline towards war between the various races in the game, as well as the new invention system, which will allow players to invent new items in-game, complementing the completely player-driven economy quite nicely.

Read more: IGN interviews Eve Online creators about it’s future and growth| 14-day free Eve Online trial

Llamma is probably one of the best in the Xbox modding world and nothing proves that more than their customs Xbox and Xbox 360 mods for major players in the games industry. Rockstar Games appears to be a particular fan, commissioning Llamma to do a few custom mod-jobs for the Grand Theft Auto developers. Most recently, Llamma created a stunning Table Tennis mod for two Xbox 360s, one of which went to the developers (probably on display in their happening New York company party loft) and the other was given away at this years PAX games convention which recently concluded in the US. The mod is brilliant, with a clear plastic panel on one side, LED table tennis ball and matching glossy black controls with the Rockstar logo screened onto it. One lucky fan is now in Rockstar heaven with this little puppy, or, a few hundred dollars richer thanks to eBay.

Read more: Rockstar’s custom-modded Table Tennis Xbox 360

It’s our first weekly round up! Right on right on! If you missed something this week on Playthrough, consider subscribing to our newsfeed to keep up-to-date on all of the goings up in this crib!

Out of the way Guitar Hero, bring on Wicki! Wicki!
We fancy ourselves to be hip to the latest indie and electronic tunes streaming our way, so it’s only natural we’d like to spin a bit of Wicki! Wicki! when we’re not banging it out on our plastic Guitar Hero axes of doom. A brilliant little prototype that will probably never see production.

Garage Games cancels IndieGamesCon 2006
Indie games darlings Garage Games admits defeat, postponing IndieGamesCon 2006 due to lack of time and resources. GG needs to focus on the products they’ve been promising updates/new releases to for the rest of 2006. The future of the IGC is still unknown, but, here’s to hoping an IGC2007 takes place

Microsoft scores FIFA and Pro Evo on the Xbox 360 for 2007
But no thanks to Microsoft. Pro Evo developers reveal the exclusivity is due to the lack of development time for the PS3, not due to any deal that MS could come up with on their own. Seems Sony shoots themselves in the foot once again.

EA scoops up Spellforce developer Phenomic
EA goes on a German studio buying spree, acquiring Spellforce developer Phenomic, leaving a withered JoWood to sulk in the corner and lick it’s already large wounds. Can JoWood survive losing one of it’s more successful titles?

Manifesto Games, the online indie games distributor and publisher headed by game design legend Greg Costikyan, has finally opened their site and shop for preview and testing. Manifesto features hundreds of independently produced games for various platforms, from platformers to RPGs to online gambling to RTs, all available to purchase using a low, developer-friendly pricing structure, meaning indie game developers receive a higher royalty rate for every one of their titles sold. Finally the indie games market is learning a few lessons from the indie music market, which has been successfully supporting an alternative to mainstream, independent industry for decades, I just hope that Manifesto continues looking at their successes for guidence towards their own.

Read more: Manifesto Games site has gone (somewhat) live