Source: UK gaming Web site CVG.

What we heard: In January, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment trimmed staff at Surreal Software. The move appeared to signal the end for This Is Vegas, a property that was acquired by the media company when it purchased the remnants of Midway in July 2009. However, by May 2010, that initial presumption of doom and gloom for the game was again reversed, when WBIE registered a variety of Web domains, including one for This Is Vegas.

Now, it appears as if This Is Vegas has gone bust. Citing a source close to the project, CVG reports today that WBIE closed down Surreal Software in June, canceling This Is Vegas in the process. "Apparently, the entire This Is Vegas project has been totally canned," CVG's source claimed.

What happens in This Is Vegas will apparently remain a mystery.

The game's cancellation is all the more shocking, claimed the source, considering the amount of money Midway and WBIE spent on it.

"Midway spent in the region of $43 million up to the point when it was being sold to WB," the source reported. "Alan Patmore, who was [Surreal] studio boss, either left or was let go--but considering the resources and art created this is a lot of work down the drain. It was moving along to a point where the title was on the schedule for release late last year--but still needed another eight months to a year to finish with a studio burn rate of $250,000 per month."

First announced for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2008, This Is Vegas was initially penciled in for later that year. The game was billed as a tongue-in-cheek approach to the notorious Nevada city, depicting its many vices through open-world gameplay. In addition to the expected casino action, the game also let players indulge in some spirited partying, which could segue naturally into another of the game's focal points, brawling.

The official story: WBIE had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Too close to call. On the one hand, the amount of money that has reportedly been poured into This Is Vegas typically isn't a figure most would simply walk away from. However, it is possible that WBIE simply saw no future for the project--even if it made positive impressions when it was last shown in 2008.

[UPDATE] Harmonix has hilariously confirmed the entire Rock Band 3 setlist.

Sources: A Gottgameshows YouTube video and Rock Band community site RockBandAide.

What we heard: Earlier this month the entire setlist for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock leaked and was later confirmed. However, now it seems Harmonix is having a similarly difficult time keeping the soundtrack for its own upcoming rhythm game under wraps.

Might this be Rock Band 3's entire tracklist?

According to RockBandAide, a YouTube video from Gamescom showed a Harmonix staffer casually scrolling through the entire Rock Band 3 setlist. And thanks to the recording's high-definition capacity, community members at RockBandAide have been able to decipher the supposed entire track listing.

The complete, purported Rock Band 3 soundtrack is below:

Amy Winehouse – "Rehab"
Antrax – "Caught in a Mosh"
At The Drive-In – "One Armed Scissor"
Avenged Sevenfold – "Beast And The Harlot"
The B-52s – "Rock Lobster"
The Beach Boys – "Good Vibrations" (Live)
Big Country – "In a Big Country"
Blondie – "Heart of Glass"
Bob Marley & The Wailers – "Get Up, Stand Up"
The Bronx – "False Alarm"
Chicago – "25 or 6 to 4"
The Cure – "Just Like Heaven"
David Bowie – "Space Oddity"
Deep Purple – "Smoke on the Water"
Def Leppard – "Foolin'"
Divo – "Whip It"
Dio – "Rainbow in the Dark"
Dire Straights – "Walk of Life"
The Doobie Brothers – "China Grove"
The Doors – "Break On Through (To the Other Side)"
Dover – "King George"
Echo & the Bunnymen – "The Killing Moon"
Elton John – "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"
Faith No More – "Midlife Crisis"
Filter – "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
The Flaming Lips – "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1"
Foreigner – "Cold as Ice"
Golden Earring – "Radar Love"
HIM – "Killing Loneliness"
Huey Lewis and the News – "The Power of Love"
Hypernova – "Viva La Resistance"
Ida Maria – "Oh My God"
INXS – "Need You Tonight"
The J. Geils Band – "Centerfold"
James Brown – "I Got You (I Feel Good)"
Jane's Addiction – "Been Caught Stealing"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience ˆ"Crosstown Traffic"
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – "I Love Rock 'n Roll"
John Lennon – "Imagine"
Juanes – "Me Enamora"
Lynyrd Skynyrd – "Free Bird"
Maná – "Oye Mi Amor"
Marilyn Manson – "The Beautiful People"
Metric – "Combat Baby"
The Muffs – "Outer Space"
Night Ranger – "Sister Christian"
Ozzy Osbourne – "Crazy Train"
Paramore – "Misery Business"
Phish – "Llama"
Phoenix – "Lasso"
The Police – "Don't Stand So Close to Me"
Poni Hoax – "Antibodies"
Pretty Girls Make Graves – "Something Bigger, Something Brighter"
Primus – "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver"
Queen – "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Queens of the Stone Age – "No One Knows"
Rammstein – "Du Hast"
Ramones – "I Wanna Be Sedated"
Raveonettes – "Last Dance"
Rilo Kiley – "Portions for Foxes"
Riverboat Gamblers – "Don't Bury Me… I'm Still Not Dead"
Roxette – "The Look"
Slipknot – "Before I Forget"
Smash Mouth – "Walkin' on the Sun"
The Smiths – "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before"
The Sounds – "Living in America"
Spacehog – "In the Meantime"
Steve Miller Band – "Fly Like an Eagle"
Stone Temple Pilots – "Plush"
Swingin' Utters – "This Bastard's Life"
T. Rex – "20th Century Boy"
Tears for Fears – "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
Tegan and Sara – "The Con"
Them Crooked Vultures – "Dead End Friends"
Tokio Hotel – "Humanoid"
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - "I Need to Know"
The Vines – "Get Free"
War – "Low Rider"
Warren Zevon – "Werewolves of London"
The White Stripes – "The Hardest Button to Button"
Whitesnake – "Here I Go Again"
The Who – "I Can See for Miles"
Yes – "Roundabout"

The official story: As of press time, Harmonix has not responded to GameSpot's request for comment or clarification on the matter.

Bogus or not bogus?: The YouTube video has been pulled, so GameSpot cannot check the validity of RockBandAide's claims. However, already confirmed artists and tracks for the game are all listed above, and Harmonix has previously confirmed that the game will ship with 83 songs, the total listed above.

Source: Gaming blog Kotaku.

What we heard: The Duke Nukem Forever saga may not yet be over. Over a year ago, 3D Realms laid off virtually its entire staff after spending $20 million over nearly 13 years to develop the sci-fi shooter. Then, as is often the case with publisher-developer disputes, the game became the subject of a tit-for-tat set of lawsuits between 3D Realms and Take-Two Interactive, which had planned to publish the sci-fi shooter under its 2K Games label.

Gearbox may be taking a double-take on Duke Nukem Forever.

Now, the presumed-dead title has resurfaced. According to Kotaku's sources, Borderlands developer Gearbox Software--which, like 3DRealms, is located in suburban Dallas--has taken over the reins of the project, which was first announced in 1997. Because 2K Games still retains the publishing rights for the title, it could presumably go ahead with shifting development of the game to Gearbox--if 3D Realms didn't claim it owned the Duke Nukem intellectual property in its lawsuit.

And this is where the plot thickens. According to 3D Realms' lawsuit, Take-Two had commissioned Gearbox to prep another Duke Nukem-branded game, Duke Begins, for a 2010 release, but shut it down to stop royalty payments to 3D Realms. Court documents filed by Take-Two in July 2009 claim work on Duke Begins was shelved "for the time being," but the publisher disputed 3D Realms' claims that it was done for financially punitive reasons.

The official story: Gearbox reps had not responded to requests for comment, but Take-Two offered the following statement: "While it is the company's policy not to comment on rumors or speculation, we can confirm that Take-Two maintains the publishing rights for Duke Nukem Forever."

Bogus or not bogus?: Too little to go on. One possibility is that the Duke Begins project may be revived and simply retitled Duke Nukem Forever because it had been scheduled for a 2010 release already. A rumored Penny Arcade Expo panel by Gearbox may shed some more light on the matter.

One of the more notable absences from June's Electronic Entertainment Expo was The Last Guardian, the upcoming game from Shadow of the Colossus studio Team ICO. The PlayStation 3 exclusive, which centers on the friendship between a young boy and a towering beast, was officially revealed via a trailer at Sony's E3 2009 press briefing.

The Last Guardian will likely resurface at TGS next month.

Some footage of the title's environments was shown off at last year's Tokyo Game Show, an event that will likely be repeated next month. Via a post on his recently opened Twitter account, Team ICO head Fumito Ueda said, "We should be able to show something at Tokyo Game Show," according to a translation by Japanese gaming blog Andria Sang.

TGS is held in the massive Makuhari Messe convention center and runs from September 16 to 19. However, Sony hasn't tipped its hand about its plan for the expo. "We haven't announced any specific plans or titles that will be shown at TGS 2010," a US Sony rep told GameSpot.

The Last Guardian has been a long time coming, as it was first hinted at in late 2005. It was initially expected at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, and a rough version of the reveal trailer surfaced in May 2009. However, besides a few screenshots, details on The Last Guardian's gameplay mechanics and story remain shrouded in mystery.

Source: Game Informer is reporting that Namco and Capcom are working together on a pair of crossover fighting games built off the Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV engines.

What we heard: While the fighting game genre hasn't been the same since the heyday of arcades, crossover efforts have been one surefire way to draw attention. In 2008, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe scored the last big hit for Midway Games, and next year's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 dominated this year's Capcom booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Is it time for a rematch of Namco x Capcom in fighting game form?

With Street Fighter, Soulcalibur, and Tekken, Capcom and Namco own some of the biggest fighting game franchises in the world, but the two publishers' brawlers have very different play styles. Capcom generally restrains its fighting action to a single 2D plane and features fireballs as commonly as fisticuffs, while Namco's fighters allow for more free-roaming movement and lean more toward melee combat.

Those different styles would make settling on a middle ground for a crossover game difficult, but the Game Informer report offers an interesting solution to the problem. According to the rumor, Namco would make a game called Namco vs. Capcom using its own style and based on the Tekken 6 engine. Meanwhile, Capcom would produce Capcom vs. Namco how it saw fit and build the game on the Street Fighter IV engine.

That's a similar approach to one used for Capcom's original cross-company crossover with SNK. Beginning in 1999, Capcom created a handful of titles using both companies' characters, including arcade and console editions of Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2. Meanwhile, SNK created SNK vs. Capcom card-battling games and a fighter for its short-lived Neo Geo Pocket Color console, and years later it released SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom for the Neo Geo, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.

As for Namco's fighting game crossovers, they've been more limited in scope. Each of the console versions of Soulcalibur II featured an exclusive guest character, with the GameCube version including Nintendo's Zelda star Link, while Xbox players got to take control of Todd McFarlane's Spawn. For the PS2 version, Namco brought in one of its own brawlers, with Tekken's Heihachi entering the weapons-based fighter bare-handed. The publisher took a similar approach with Soulcalibur IV, shipping the game with Star Wars icons Darth Vader and Yoda as exclusive characters on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively.

Namco and Capcom have also worked together on a crossover project before, even though it never saw release outside of Japan. In 2005, Namco published Namco x Capcom for the PS2. Unlike the SNK-Capcom games, Namco x Capcom was a role-playing game featuring more than 200 characters pulled from both publishers' entire catalogs, including non-fighters like Klonoa, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Xenosaga, and Resident Evil.

Game Informer's story doesn't name its sources and clearly labels its report as "rumor." However, it also says the crossover will be announced in a trailer this Saturday at Comic-Con. Looking through the Comic-Con panel schedule, Capcom does have Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono scheduled to give a talk reflecting on his latest game and offering "his exciting vision for the future of the franchise."

The official story: "We don’t comment on speculation or rumors."--A Capcom representative.
"We do not comment on rumors or speculation."--A Namco representative.

Bogus or not bogus?: There's not enough info to make a call just yet, but the rumor makes sense. Both companies have been amenable to such partnerships in the past, and two distinct crossovers would generate tons of interest. Check back with GameSpot throughout the weekend for the latest from Comic-Con.

Source: A recent television appearance by Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

What we heard: So far, 2010 has been a year of high drama for the game industry, much of which was generated by the split between Activision and a large portion of the staff of Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward. After studio cofounders Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired in March, over two dozen of their former employees (so far) followed them to their Electronic Arts-backed startup, Repsawn Entertainment. Then came the inevitable tit-for-tat lawsuits, followed by a legal complaint by current and ex-Infinity Warders seeking a whopping $150 million-$625 million.

Given its minimalist Web site and its founders' recalcitrance about their next project, speculation has been building about what Respawn and its ever-growing staff are up to. Now, Pachter has thrown his hat into the ring, predicting the suburban Los Angeles shop will take on Halo creator Bungie, which recently inked a 10-year exclusivity deal with Activision for its own mystery project.

"The one genre that hasn't been cloned a lot is the space shooter, so I'll make a prediction here. Respawn Entertainment, the ex-Infinity Ward guys--that's their next game," prognosticated the analyst. "They're gonna make a Halo-killer. They're gonna make a game that is going to compete in the space shooter genre."

The official story: Electronic Arts reps had not responded to inquiries as of press time.

Pachter predicts Zampella's new studio is cooking up a "Halo-killer."

Bogus or not bogus?: At this point, who knows? With Respawn going dark after touting its EA deal--and still solidifying its development team--it is still very early days. And, despite his clout, Pachter's prediction record is mixed. He thought US game sales would be up in May, but they were decidedly down. Then again, he also infamously taunted David Jaffe with cries of "Twisted Metal!" months before the reboot of the series was announced at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference.

Source: European gaming Web site Eurogamer.

What we heard: Crystal Dynamics is trying out a co-op focused, arcade-inspired, isometric downloadable take on Lara Croft with the Guardian of Light later this summer. But outside of the impending download-only release, the developer might be preparing a full-scale title as well.

An unnamed source told Eurogamer that the next entry in the long-standing Tomb Raider franchise is due out during the holiday 2011 season. What's more, concept artwork appearing on ex-Crystal Dynamics artist Joel Boucquemont's Web site, under the Tomb Raider tab, shows a variety of environs, ranging from cityscapes to eerie tombs.

Perhaps this is Lara's new look.

The source verified last year's rumor that the game will be a "reboot" and will star a “young and inexperienced Lara Croft.” What's more, the conjecture said the game will take place in Japan and will tell the story of how Lara came to be a hardened adventurer, which are two claims the tipster verified.

The game is reportedly being developed by series studio Crystal Dynamics for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. According to the loose-lipped tipster, the development team has wrapped work on Guardian of Light and is now focused on the new game.

The official story: A representative from the game's publisher, Square Enix, has not responded to GameSpot's query for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. While 2008's Tomb Raider: Underworld failed to meet once-independent Eidos' sales expectations, the franchise remains an industry staple. Further, Eidos chief financial officer Robert Brent affirmed the studio's commitment to the franchise last year, saying that its future may reside in a more female-friendly Lara Croft.

Plus, it's not like Lara Croft hasn't undergone a complete makover before. Following the poor performance of 2003's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the heroine was completely redesigned for the last series reboot, 2006's Tomb Raider: Legend.

While both Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Rock Band 3 will use Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," fans of the heralded rock group might have more to enjoy next year.

Speaking with Swedish news site DN.se, Queen guitarist Brian May let slip the next band-specific music game from Activision. When asked about Guitar Hero: Queen, May confirmed the game's existence but kept mum on the project. He revealed only that the game will release in 2011 and will let users participate in the band's concerts.

Will Queen rock you in 2011?

This isn't the first time May has let loose details on the band's intent to appear in a band-specific music game. Preceding the release of Lego: Rock Band, a game in which some of the band's songs were featured, May said there was talk "behind the scenes" about a dedicated Queen Rock Band title.

Queen is no stranger to the self-titled music-game phenomenon though. SingStar: Queen, a karaoke title that released last year for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, featured 25 songs from the band's career and was warmly received.

Source: News outlet Kotaku Australia.

What we heard: At the end of April, EA announced that Realtime Worlds' upcoming online shooter APB would be released on the PC on June 29 in North America, on July 1 in Europe, and on July 2 in the UK. While no mention of Australia was made, there's now speculation that the title may never make it Down Under.

According to Kotaku Australia, EA has decided not to release APB in Australia because a local server would be necessary to play the game. The article said an EA rep told Kotaku that Realtime Worlds had no plans to host a server for the game Down Under, which effectively means no APB for Aussie gamers.

APB is a massively multiplayer open-world shooter, in which players will take on the role of a criminal mastermind or dedicated law enforcer in a virtual city populated with up to 99 other players. Because the game is driven by an asymmetrical matchmaking system that assigns players to a game based on their skill level without the use of a lobby, there is no doubt that a local server would be needed to eliminate lag and ensure speed and accuracy during gameplay.

You may not be able to do this if you live in Australia.

The official story: EA has not returned comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. APB has not yet been rated by the Classification Board of Australia, and while retailers EB Games and GAME both show listings for the title, there is no release date on either site. Interestingly, you can preorder APB from the GAME Web site.

Stay tuned for more updates.