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I don't care what Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski says, I want to blame Justin Bieber. He's such an easy target. 

News Blips:

Microsoft unintentionally confirms Gears of War 3 for April 2011 via Xbox Live Spotlight despite the lack of a formal announcement. Last night, Cliffy B was scheduled to appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, presumably to announce the new game, but instead he got bumped by pop-sensation Justin Bieber. He mentioned in a couple of Twitter posts that despite wanting to "start a fight with @justinbieber," his team is actually taking the weekend to "polish what we're showing." Apparently someone forgot to tell the guy who runs Spotlight since a teaser image went up that was likely suppose to be timed with the show. Oops. We'll still try to act surprised when watching Monday's Late Night show. [1UP]
 
A 12-year-old boy in Britain racks up a hefty real-world bill buying virtual money for the Facebook game Farmville. The youth managed to spend over $1,300 of his own savings and money from mother's credit card (without her permission) on the online game. Developer Zynga refuses to pay back the woman since the boy lives in her house and instead recommends that she use a password-protected lock on her computer. Jerks. No video game should have a way for cracked-out players to spend that much money on it. It just seems so unethical to me. [Guardian]
 
A recent error in Electronic Arts's Warhammer Online billing system resulted in the publisher charging some subscribers more than 22 times in a month. Justifiably angry victims have taken to a thread titled "Billing Error" on a forum dedicated to the game to express their outrage. EA addressed the issue on the Warhammer Online Herald, saying that they plan to reverse the charges and that "any fees that have been incurred should be refunded as well." Perhaps this is a promotional stunt for the game, but if it was, I don't think that the "any publicity is good publicity" mantra works here. [Kotaku]
 
The BBC reports that police in England have teamed up with the charity Support After Murder and Manslaughter (SAMM) to educate elementary-school students on violence using images from the Grand Theft Auto series. The program involves showing the youths, ages 10-11, various pictures of violence from the game, real-life-domestic disputes, and cartoon violence, asking them to distinguish between what's good and bad or real and unreal. The organizers hope that this will help deter the kids from lives of violence. I like this method better than the U.S. policy of just imprisoning everyone, and I'm not just saying that because I also like video games.

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