Marvel fans who have been dreaming about future sequels to Iron Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man might be entering into a creative nightmare. According to The Hollywood Reporter the children of comic book icon Jack Kirby have officially sued Marvel to terminate copyrights and gain profits from such lucrative comic creations as Iron Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man.

The suit, officially filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is a follow-up move from the 45 notices of termination the estate sent out to Marvel, and owner the Walt Disney Co., as well as Sony, Universal, Fox in September of 2009. Marvel responded in January, filing its own lawsuit, claiming the creations were “work-made-for-hire” and that Marvel was the real “author” of such works under the 1909 Copyright Act.

Kirby’s heirs are seeking declaratory relief, including copyright termination and profits, focusing on Kirby’s chief creative period, from 1958 to 1963, when Marvel existed in a tiny office with few employees and relied upon “freelancers to which they had little or no obligation.” As such, they are disputing Marvel’s claim that all creations were “work for hire.”

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Move over, Wii. You’re no longer the only motion-controlled gaming system in town. While Playstation 3’s Sixaxis controller had some motion-sensing capabilities, it wasn’t much to write home about. But yesterday, at Sony’s GDC press conference, the company officially revealed their new motion-controller, simply called “The Move.”

Looking curiously similar to the Wii-mote, the Move will feature True 3D rotation, buttons similar to the regular Sixaxis, and an analog trigger. The Move also has rechargeable batteries, and plugs into the same USB port as the Sixaxis.  The device seems to have two controllers, like the Wii-mote and nunchuck combination seen on the Wii.

The difference is that the Move’s two devices are connected wirelessly. The Move is said to be far more sensitive and responsive than its predecessor, because it uses the Playstation Eye to detect movement as opposed to a sensor bar like the Wii.

Games like LittleBigPlanet and EyeToy were demoed with the Move, and third party publishers like Square Enix, Konami, EA, Ubi, Disney, Sega, WBI, Crave, and Activision are all behind this new technology. It also looks like the Playstation 3 will start getting ports of games originally slated for the Wii, the first one being The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest.

The Move will be released on its own, bundled with the Playstation Eye, and in a Playstation 3 bundle. No idea how much the controller will cost on its own, but bundled with the Eye it’ll set you back about $99. You’ll be able to get your hands on the Move this fall.

Who hasn’t walked down the street and seen people with their heads buried in their iPhones? And you know they aren’t all looking up stock quotes or making work calls. Most are playing Paper Toss or checking in with Foursquare. We even see those jealous Verizon customers with their Droids as they secretly wait for their carrier to pick up the iPhone.

Smart phones are the way technology is pointing with their layers of functionality and ever increasing capabilities. That’s why it wasn’t a surprise Thursday morning when the Wall Street Journal reported that Sony would be entering the smart phone arena. Of special interest to this particular item though is that it will be “capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games”, possibly referring to PlayStation One titles specifically.

Reported as a device that “blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable,” they are already expecting a 2010 launch. It is possible that Sony may make a big announcement regarding this phone next week during the Games Developers Conference.

With ever declining PSP sales and the lackluster response to the PSP Go, one would think the portable device market was in trouble. Nintendo has shown with the DS and the record breaking game sales of Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone have shown that this isn’t the case however and that Sony is just searching for its niche still.

2010 has already proven itself to be a big year for games and only two months have gone by so far. From the look of things, March doesn’t seem like it is going to slow down either.

Cross platform heavyweights Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Final Fantasy XIII start off the month strong while Mega Man 10 finds itself sprinkled through the month on the various consoles. Closing out the month on the cross platform titles is Just Cause 2.

Likely the biggest individual release will come from the PlayStation 3 with God of War III. After being the inevitable comparison for Dante’s Inferno, Kratos comes out on March 16th ready to take no prisoners. The PlayStation 2’s lifecycle finally looks to be coming to an end as it only has one release this month.

Take a look below at every game coming out for the month of March.

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According to various news sites across the Interwebs including Joystiq, 1Up, and Kotaku, Playstation 3 consoles across the globe have been suffering from what looks to be a global network lockdown. While it sounds like this would just affect people’s ability to do things like sign into their accounts, check their trophies, use dynamic themes or access the PlayStation Network, some users have reported that they can’t even play games.

Consoles most affected seem to be the older PS3 models, not the PS3 Slims released last year. Titles that are giving players issues, like the newly released Heavy Rain, will give users a screen stating “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will quit.” The console then reboots and returns to the main screen. This is incredibly frustrating, because even if the PSN is down, gamers should still be able to play their games offline without a problem.

Sony is aware of the PSN connection problems and is telling users to “stay tuned” for updates. But in the meantime, they advise you not to use your PS3. Hopefully, this is something that will be fixed very soon.

In an effort to keep things out of the hands of those who made the characters popular, major studios such as Sony, and now Regency and Fox, are rebooting their recent Marvel films in order to retain the rights so they don’t default back to Disney owned Marvel. Sony is doing so with the reboot of Spider-Man, while Regency and Fox have recently announced that they’re doing the same with Daredevil.

Originally made in 2003, and starring Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell, the film isn’t even a decade old and it’s getting a complete revamp. This time, the writer behind 2008’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, David Scarpa, will be penning a script, and the story will more than likely scrub the previous films’ continuity.

It’s unfortunate that studios resort to these childish ways. If the franchise eventually ends up in the hands of Marvel and Marvel Studios, this could mean great film cameos from some of our favorite heroes. A perfect example is what Favreau, Brannagh, and Joe Johnston are doing with the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America films, and it’s all like a fanboy’s greatest dream.

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With the movie business seeing record box office in the form of James Cameron’s Avatar, another business that used to also be thought of as pretty successful seems to have stalled a bit last year. According to Variety, the video game business saw an overall fall in sales of 8% with revenues of $19.7 Billion last year.

That’s down from $21.4 billion in 2008, according to the NPD Group, a company that keeps track of this sort of thing. The industry was expected to take a hit after only four months last year saw an increase in sales over 2008. One of those months, however, was December.

The videogame industry’s $5.5 Billion take in December was the biggest sales month ever, beating the previous year by 4%. Nintendo’s “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” was the winner of the month, selling over 2.8 Million units. Nintendo also sold 3.8 Million Wii consoles during December thanks largely to a price cut on the popular device.

Cost reductions also helped Sony sell 1.4 million PlayStation 3’s and Microsoft to move 1.3 million Xbox 360s. For the year every videogame category experienced a decline aside from sales of portable hardware, up 6%. Console sales were off 13%, and software sales for PC games took an even bigger hit, with earnings down 23% to $538 Million in 2009.

Even with the drop in sales last year, let’s try not to feel too bad for the video game industry. Even though the made 8% less money in 2009, they still managed to rack up $19.7 Billion dollars. That’s a lot of Mountain Dew and salty snack foods.

Ever since Joss Whedon put in his open request for the rights of the Terminator franchise back in November, things have been pretty quiet on the front of studios bidding for the sci-fi property. The first news came through yesterday, as Lionsgate put in an offer for $15 million, with a 5% cut of future gross receipts.

The property was originally put up back in September, as the company currently holding the rights, The Halcyon Group, filed for bankruptcy. The auction includes just about anything Terminator, which include the rights to future films, TV series, DVDs, and any merchandise that gets produced.

Up until now, the films have been around the block, so to speak. Pacific West helped produce the rights to the first films, while distribution rights went to MGM, then Artisan and Columbia/Tri-Star, then to Warner Bros and Sony for the final two films. A purchase by Lionsgate could mean a resurgence in the franchise, as they are known for mildly successful reboots with Punisher: War Zone, 3:10 To Yuma, and Bangkok Dangerous.

Other studios have until February 4th to submit their offers, which have to top Lionsgate’s bid by at least $500,000 in order to count. The auction for all other “Terminator” assets will take place on February 8th in Los Angeles. No word on if Joss Whedon has plans on taking out his credit card to outbid the studio, but he’s still got time.

As first reported via Deadline Hollywood, things are going in a completely different direction in the cinematic world of Spider-Man. According to the report, the fourth film featuring the web slinger won’t star Tobey Maguire or be directed by Sam Raimi. In fact, none of the creative team from the first three films will be returning and the next film will be an entire reboot of the franchise.

This news comes after recent reports of script and villain problems and delays in filming in order to reach a projected release date in 2012. In addition, Sony released a statement today and we’ve got that for you right here:

Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

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With Cameron’s Avatar raking in over $1 Billion, and just about every big-budget film coming out in the next year getting the “3D treatment”, it only makes sense that three large companies would decide to partner up so that America would have that technology in their homes, 24/7.

It looks like that’s exactly the case here, as Sony, IMAX, and Discovery announced this morning that they will be developing a 24 hour channel that will broadcast in high-quality 3D. From the New York Times:

Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, TLC and other cable channels, will distribute the channel, which has a 2011 start date. It is expected to showcase a mix of 3-D content, including entertainment and sports. It will also show some of the natural history programming for which Discovery is well known.

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