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The summer box office may be heating up, but it’s probably going to be another month before the summer gaming season really gets going. In the meantime there are a few interesting developments to chew on, and a new DS to tote around with you because, like everything now, it has its own camera. But there’ll be more on that later, first, the news.

In the News

Blasphemous game taken offline

The Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents most Muslim nations, has won their fight to get the game “Faith Fighter” removed from the internet. The group considered the game, which featured caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings, to be highly offensive. "The computer game was incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians. ... The game would serve no other purpose than to incite intolerance," an OIC statement said.

Game designer Molleindustria told the Associated Press that the game, which had been around for more than a year and played millions of times, was misunderstood, but had been removed. "This was meant to be a game against intolerance and against the one-way Islamophobic satire of the Danish Muhammad cartoons," Molleindustria said in an e-mail message to AP. "So if a respectable organization didn't understand the irony and the message, we failed." In a statement on its website, where the game can be found, Molleindustria said the intention was not to be offensive to any religion.

Games teach college kids about recession economics

In what may be a case of the blind leading the blind, mtvU has joined with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's Indebted Campaign to launch the online video game "Debt Ski," which was designed by a university graduate and developed by Persuasive Games that specializes in video games with an opinion. In the game, players guide a pig, Piggy Banks, on a jet ski through various obstacles to maximize his savings, limit his debt and keep him happy while buying food, housing and other items, with the aim of teaching players how to identify and manage debt. "College students are dealing with a broad range of issues from rising tuition to entering one of the most daunting job markets in recent history,” said Ross Martin of MTV360. “Students don't sit on the sidelines, they take action -- they become the creative engine driving social change."

Ghostbusters opening revealed

GameTrailers.com now has the opening cinematics for the upcoming Ghostbusters video game coming out next month on all platforms. The sequence, which kind of parallels the beginning of the original film, features a pair of night-shift museum security guards patrolling the new Gozer exhibit when something strange happens. Also featured in the nearly two minute clip are the voices of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, as well as the original theme by Ray Parker, Jr and the classic Columbia Pictures logo. I guess it really is the third movie as Aykroyd, who helped developed the game, has previously stated.