This should come as no shock to anyone that has been following the saga between the state of Rhode Island and bankrupt game development house 38 Studios: the state of Rhode Island has decided that it will sell off the studios' assets (which it now owns) to pay down some of the deficit it was left with after 38 Studios went bankrupt.

World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net has filed a lawsuit against Changyou.com and Beijing Gamease Age Digital Technology Co. in the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The lawsuit alleges that the defendant(s) "stole" Wargaming.net's intillectual property to create an online tank game called "Project Tanks" that is "disturbingly similar" to World of Tanks. Wargaming.net is using the law firm Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

Three former Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) America employees have struck out on their own to create a new independent and digital content publishing company located in Los Angeles called Acttil. The name is an acronym for "acceptance +creativity +teamwork +trust +innovation +love." The studio features the talents of long-time and now former NIS America employees Jack Niida, Hiroko Kanazashi, and Nao Miyazawa.

Episode 50 of the show is certainly a milestone for hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight (and myself) - which just happens to mark nearly a year of the podcast to boot. So, yay for us! On this week's show we discuss the prank on pirates played by the maker of Game Dev Tycoon, the Nyan Cat / Keyboard Cat- Warner Bros. lawsuit, the latest poll over at GamePolitics, and some other fun stuff. Download Episode 50 now: SuperPAC Episode 50 (1 hour, 15 minutes) 68.6 MB.

Responding to the widespread reporting that the "Nyan Cat" creator and "Keyboard Cat" creator sued Warner Bros. over the inclusion of the Internet memes in the game Scribblenauts Unlimited, Christopher "Nyan" Orlando Torres said that he tried to talk to Warner Bros. about the issue but was disrespected on multiple occasions.

Grasshopper Manufacturer Goichi "Suda51" Suda says that his various games have not had the best sales because of the way publishers treat its unique gaming experiences. Suda51's games include Shadows of the Damned, Killer7 and No More Heroes.

Having worked with some pretty huge publishers over the years (Sega, EA, etc.), Suda51 feels that the companies don't understand how to handle indie titles like his:

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) announced yesterday plans to conduct a serious of hearings aimed at identifying problems with U.S. copyright laws and updating them for the modern digital age. Goodlatte was a key sponsor of the failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last year alongside the bill's author, former chairman of the Judiciary Committee Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

Vlambeer is no stranger to cloning controversies.

Yesterday we reported the striking similarities between Vlambeer's upcoming mobile game Luftrausers and Rubiq Labs alleged clone of it, SkyFar. Today Vlambeer says that it has asked Apple and Google to remove the game from their app store because it is a blatant clone of its game, currently in development for the PlayStation Vita. Rubiq Labs released SkyFar on April 10 on Apple's App Store.

A new filing from bankrupt publisher THQ reveals details on the last franchises that were not sold separately as part of THQ's big asset auction earlier this year. Nordic Games has secured the rights to Darksiders and Red Faction, while (as we mentioned yesterday) Gearbox snapped up Homeworld.

Mojang has inked a deal with North American toy maker Jazwares to produce a line of action figures, plush, and papercraft items based on the ultra-popular Minecraft game franchise. The new deal covers the entire globe, with toys shipping by year's end if all goes well.

"We are excited by our new partnership with Jazwares," said Mojang CEO Carl Manneh. "This partnership will help give our community a new way to interact with the game they love."

Last week TeamPixel announced that the effort to crowd source the purchase of the Homeworld series from THQ has failed after it learned that the license had been bought by someone else. The campaign began in January on Kickstarter, with TeamPixel promising to secure the license and make Homeworld 3 for PC, Mac and Linux, and Homeworld Touch for iOS and Android. The developer then refunded backers' contributions.

Game Developer Vlambeer can't seem to catch a break when it comes to other developers cloning their games. Their latest game to be cloned on the Apple App Store is Vlambeer's upcoming title Luftrausers. SkyFar is very similar to Vlambeer's game - in fact, except for a few minor aesthetics it looks identical to Vlambeer's game.

The effort to crowd source the purchase of the Homeworld series from THQ has failed after the sponsor of the campaign - developer TeamPixel - learned that the license has been bought by someone else. The campaign began in January on Kickstarter, with TeamPixel promising to secure the license and make Homeworld 3 for PC, Mac and Linux, and Homeworld Touch for iOS and Android. But someone else now owns the license, according to an update on the Kickstarter page:

Telltale Games announced in 2011 that it was working on a reboot of the classic Sierra point-and-click adventure game series, King's Quest, but it looks like that's not going to happen after all. Instead Activision, who merged with Vivendi Games (who owned Sierra's IP) in 2008, has retained the license and will now work on a reboot of the series in-house.

The new CEO of Crytek USA David Adams says that he wants to buy the Darksiders franchise from THQ. Writing on Twitter, Adams said the IP should stay with its makers. Adams co-founded Darksiders makers Vigil Games.

Update: Sunstone Games owner Simon Strange told GamePolitics this afternoon that legal counsel for Wizards of the Coast contacted him way back in December of last year to complain that "Kaiju Combat" was an infringement of its trademark "KAIJUDO."

Ridiculous Fishing and Serious Sam: Random Encounter developer Vlambeer says that "non-evil" free-to-play game design is almost impossible and that game developers should not be afraid to price their games at $3. Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing, which almost saw the studio go under during development, went live last week on Apple's App Store and garnered strong sales and critical acclaim from fans and critics.

We have the results from last week's poll "Should IP owners allow fan projects like the My Little Pony fighting game?" - if you didn't happen to catch them on this week's episode of the Super Podcast Action Committee.

This week 584 votes were cast on this subject - thanks to everyone who took the time to participate.

Zynga General Manager and Vice President Dan Porter has issued an email which was subsequently posted on Zynga Blog that pushes back against reports that he recently said at an event that the company copied games and that it is an industry wide practice. In his email he attempts to clarify what he claims he actually said and what is widely being reported this morning.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight are joined by James Fudge to discuss the new Six Strikes anti-piracy scheme, Time Warner Cable's insistence that customers don't want faster broadband and the latest poll on the PS4's lack of backwards compatibility. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 43 (1 hour, 14 minutes) 67.8 MB. You can also check out the show on YouTube if you prefer an unedited and more visual experience.

Speaking to Polygon Double Fine expressed its desire to reacquire the console publishing rights to two of its games buried in a lot of intellectual property to be sold off as part of an auction related to THQ's bankruptcy. Double Fine owns the IP for Stacking and Costume Quest and the rights to publish the games on the PC platform, but THQ holds limited rights to publish both games on consoles.

THQ announced that it will auction off the remaining assets it didn't manage to sell as part of its bankruptcy. The company hopes to sell the remainder of its intellectual properties by mid-May. Initial bids must be submitted by April 1, with final bids required by April 15. Last month, the bankruptcy court approved the sales of three of THQ's studios and games in development, as well as Evolve, a working title under development at Turtle Rock Studios, Homefront 2, Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Ars Technica points out a new scam trolling internet users with legal threats demanding cash settlements for alleged incidents of infringement. An organization calling itself the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency (ICLEA) recently sent out copyright infringement notices to victims warning them that "if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you.

ESPN is reporting that Take-Two Interactive has signed an exclusive five-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to create and publish WWE-based wrestling games. The new WWE-based games will fall under the name "WWE 2K," with the first game to be released this fall as WWE 2K14, reports ESPN. Take-Two and the WWE have not made an official announcement about this deal yet.

Happy President's Day! You know, the made-up holiday where we honor two presidents with one half-assed holiday. Don't President Lincoln and President George Washington deserve separate days to be honored properly? Apparently not. Anyway.. on this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the file-sharing case headed to the Supreme Court, the President's executive order on cybersecurity, the latest poll results, and more. Let freedom ring.

In an open letter to the media, three indie studio heads decided to break their silence and detail the struggle they have had working with publisher Mamba Games Ltd. The letter signed by Jakub Dvorsky, Managing Director of Amanita Design; Andrey Arutyunyan, Managing Director of Colibri Games; and Sergei Klimov, Director of International Publishing of Daedalic Entertainment, details at great length the alleged trouble these studios had in getting Mamba Games Ltd and Lace Mamba Global Ltd to honor its contracts and make payments in a timely manner.

The Tetris Company announced that the New Jersey District Court has delivered the company final judgment in its case against game maker Xio. The company filed the lawsuit in 2009 alleging that Xio's game Mino for iOS infringed on the copyrights and trade dress rights of Tetris. The court ultimately sided with The Tetris Company, which owns the licensing rights to the popular franchise.

Despite the continued push to vilify video games (despite a lack of research, evidence, or common sense in commentary on the subject), the creators of the upcoming video game The Last of Us will not tone down the high levels of violence in this "world gone to hell-in-a-hand-basket" video game.

Well it is official - the country of Antigua is one step closer to launching a legal piracy portal - according to TorrentFreak. At a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today the World Trade Organization (WTO) officially granted Antigua’s request to suspend U.S. copyrights - confirming a 2007 preliminary authorization given by the WTO to the Caribbean island.