This week the European Commission issued a preliminary antitrust ruling against Google’s Motorola Mobility related to its heavy handed tactics against Apple in German Courts. The finding could ultimately lead to a large fine for Motorola (and by extension Google) and could lead to Motorola being forced to enter an agreement with competitors to license its patents for a reasonable royalty rate.

German game developer and publisher InnoGames announced that its online browser-based strategy game, Forge of Empires, has been named the "Best Browsergame" by the "Deutscher Computerspielepreis" (or German Computer Game Award) and has won a 50,000 Euros prize. While that is exciting news for the developer, the company also revealed that it will divide the prize money up amongst its employees. Forge of Empires beat out Skylancer: Battle for Horizon (Chimera Entertainment) and The Great Jitters - Haunted Hunt (kunst-stoff) to win.

During the United Kingdom's March 2012 Budget it looked like plans for tax breaks for video games developers were a lock, but a European Commission (EC) investigation that was announced today has put their future in doubt. The European Commission announced today that it plans to investigate the proposals, and questions whether there is an obvious market failure in the UK games industry.

Specifically the EC is seeking answers to four key questions related to the UK games tax relief plan:

During GDC last week in San Francisco research firms NPD, iResearch and Digi-Capital held a talk on digital games sales and revealed some interesting numbers on the space. According to data revealed during the event, digital game and downloadable content sales are growing at a rate of 33 percent year over year in the United States and Europe, while spending in China is expected to grow 10 percent annually for the next three years. Asia is going to be the most dominate region in the world when it comes to online and mobile games by 2016, according to the speakers.

Under a new proposal put forward this week as part of the European Union’s Digital Agenda for Europe, all member states would offer a minimum level of 30Mbps broadband to everybody by the year 2020. One of the roadblocks to this lofty goal seems to be a lack of funding; last month over $9 billion earmarked for broadband deployment was cut from the EU budget. Despite this major setback, EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes is still pushing for hitting that 2020 target.

Remember those ridiculous age restrictions on Wii U eShop content in Europe because Nintendo of Europe is based out of Germany and subject to German laws about content? Yeah, well those silly restrictions have been removed much to the delight of our Wii U owning brothers and sisters in various regions throughout Europe including the UK, according to Daily Joypad.

The Wii Mini, the feature-disabled version of the Wii that no one was clamoring for, is nonetheless coming to Europe. The special version of the console was released in Canada last year, though how it performed there is anyone's guess because Nintendo has not released any sales data on it yet. Nintendo announced that it will release the Wii Mini on March 22, and will also be releasing a budget range (dubbed "Nintendo Selects") of games that includes such popular titles as Mario Party 8, Wii Sports Resort, Mario Power Tennis and Super Paper Mario...

CCP Games has informed us that the EVE Fanfest 2013 event to celebrate all things related to its popular space MMO EVE Online sold out last week. The event held once a year in Reykjavik, Iceland will see about 1,400 attendees - about 50 percent more than last year's event. The Fanfest offers attendees three days of EVE Online and CCP-related activities that include panels, local Icelandic excursions, presentations from the game's developers, PvP tournaments, a developer-lead pub crawl, game reveals, and the general joys of camaraderie.

Bohemia is changing the name of the main island in its upcoming military shooter simulation, Arma III, GameSpot reports. The name change for the island from Lemnos to Altis is in direct response to the espionage charges two of its employees faced in Greece. The duo were recently released after spending 129-days in a Greek jail.

The German consumer advocacy group The Federation of German Consumer Association has filed an official complaint against Valve Software for its Steam's end-user license agreement because it does not allow consumers to resell digital content. The European High Court ruled last year that digital content games can be sold. The complaint against Valve filed with the German courts is directly related to that ruling.

After spending 128 days in a Greek prison for espionage charges, it looks like Bohemia Interactive developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar have been freed. According to various media reports in Czechoslovakia compiled by Ivan Martin support site www.helpivanmartin.org, the two Arma developers had to post €5,000 ($6,686) bail each.

Norway is expected to reveal its new proposals to tackle file-sharing sites that offer copyright material which could include changes to copyright law to allow sites to be blocked, reports TorrentFreak.

Even though Funcom's The Secret World MMO found success after switching from a monthly subscription fee to a free-to-play payment model (more than 70,000 copies of the game were sold in the last four weeks, according to Eurogamer), the company is still forced to move ahead with restructuring, according to Develop.

Following yesterday's ruling by U.S District Judge Lucy Koh that rejected Apple's motion for a ban on the sale of three older Samsung devices still being sold in the U.S. that infringed on the company's iPhone-related patents, Samsung has decided to withdraw all of its requests for injunctions against Apple products currently pending in European courts.

The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE published a new report today containing detailed consumer information about gaming habits, broader media interests, online gameplay, gaming in a family context and the PEGI age rating system in Europe. The data comes from an online survey of around 15,000 respondents from 16 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive announced this morning that it has decided to push back the release of its popular military shooter simulation game to sometimes in 2013. The company describes "an eventful year" and the loss of Arma 3 Project Lead Daniel Musil, who left the studio to pursue "other opportunities." Development lead duties have been taken over by long-time Bohemia employee Joris-Jan van ‘t Land.

Nintendo of Europe has finally explained the odd restrictions on 18+ content (which includes reading information, looking at screenshots, and watching video) in place on the European Wii U eShop. It turns out that German law is affecting when everyone (adults and children) can look at mature content. Last week Eurogamer found that it could not look at information on the eShop during certain times (11pm to 3am). This included info on the 18+ rated games ZombieU and Assassin's Creed 3.

Apparently taking cues from 'Cinemax' or 'Showtime After Dark,' Eurogamer has discovered that the European Wii U eShop prohibits all consumers from accessing mature-rated games and content during the daytime hours.

Eurocom has entered administration and ceased trading, with the remaining staff laid off, according to a statement from administrators given to Eurogamer. Last month the studio was forced to let a large portion of its staff go. Eurocom most recently developed 007 Legends for Activision. Today a statement from administrators revealed just how bad the financial situation is for the company:

Intent Media, which owns such popular games industry publications as MCV and Develop, has been acquired by North American publishing group NewBay Media. The deal also includes other Intent Media publications such as Music Week, ToyNews and Bike Biz. Intent Media founder and current managing director Stuart Dinsey will stay on that role and be in charge of the group's UK and European presence.

This weekend Xbox 360 owners will be able to use Xbox Live Gold free of charge - unless you live in Europe. Microsoft decided to have a free Xbox Live Gold weekend for everyone but Europe including the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan. From Major Nelson's (Xbox's Larry Hryb) blog:

Jailed Arma II developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar have released a letter from the Greek prison they have been held at for more than two months. The two were arrested back in September by Greek authorities for allegedly taking photographs and videos of military bases. In the letter released on a support website for the Bohemia Interactive employees, Buchta and Pezlar thanked fans for their continued support and said that they were being treated well.

Indie mobile game development studio Hogrocket is closing, going on what its founders call a permanent hiatus as members of the company move onto new opportunities. The company was founded by former Bizarre Creations staffers after Activision closed that studio down.

Hogrocket was comprised of Pete Collier, Ben Ward and Geometry Wars series creator Stephen Cakebread. The studio shipped a single game while it was in operation: Tiny Invaders for iOS. Collier has moved on to work for British studio Playdemic.

007 Legends maker Eurocom has been forced to lay off an estimated 150 of its 200 employee strong workforce, according to a report from GamesIndustry International. A statement from Eurocom studio director Hugh Binns to the publication confirms the number and a drastic restructuring of the company.

The president of the Czech Republic President pledges continued support for the two jailed Arma developers who are currently being held in Greece on charges of espionage. Earlier in the week President Václav Klaus wrote a personal letter to Greek President Karolos Papoulias - translated by Eurogamer urging him to give the case "special attention," but he also emphasized that he was not trying to meddle in the country's business.

According to this Reuters report, Apple is now complying with local warranty laws in Italy after the company was threatened by the Italian government with shut downs of its local businesses and hefty fines if it did not comply. Last week Apple stopped selling its AppleCare warranty plans in its retail stores in Italy. The paid warranty program from Apple offers coverage after the limited warranty on an Apple product expires.

Advocacy groups ACT-UP Paris, April, and La Quadrature du Net issued a joint statement this week demanding that the European Parliament's European Commission and Member States be more transparent in the negotiations of a number of trade agreements including The Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA), the India-EU, Thailand-EU, Moldavia-EU Free Trade Agreements, and more.

The Bohemia Interactive developers (Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar) who were locked up under the suspicion that they shot video and took pictures of a military base in Greece have yet to be released, and according to the website dedicated to the duo, it is due to riots in the country over austerity measures.

A new bill being secretly passed around to certain members of the European Parliament is making headlines today because of its eerie similarities to legislation like SOPA, CISPA and ACTA. The bill is called "CleanIT," and it is currently in the early stages of being refined. But the draft has been leaked to the public, much to the chagrin of its main supporters and it has a lot of horrible provisions.

Last year the movie industry anti-piracy group ACAPOR delivered boxes full of IP-addresses that they alleged had engaged in illegal file-sharing to the Attorney General’s Office of Portugal. The group wanted the AG's office to act against these 2,000 alleged pirates, saying that they were doing anything they could to "alert the government to the very serious situation in the entertainment industry." Fast-forward to the present day and the AG has a decision that the group is not too pleased with..