With EA's deadline for Take-Two Interactive coming up fast, a lot of people are eagerly waiting for Take-Two's reply to the game publishing giant's takeover bid. Whatever happens, though, it seems like Rockstar Games president and co-founder Sam Houser actually sees a few good things about an alliance with EA.

Everyone in the gaming community and industry knows just what the heck a Wii is. It's that little console that could. Its success is at fever pitch and the brilliance behind it is undeniable. The machine's performance has in fact been so impressive, the Wall Street Journal itself felt the tremors.

The esteemed business magazine ran a story describing the Wii's success titled "Wii and DS Turn Also-Ran Nintendo into Winner in Videogames Business." It details how Nintendo as a company turned from the has-been of gaming a year ago into the hottest hardware manufacturer on the planet to date.

Everyone remembers how the Wii was codenamed "Revolution" during its development and hardly anyone gave a spit about it because it was revealed early om that the new Nintendo console would not compete with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in terms of hardware power. Instead, the makers said they would focus on gameplay. Everyone scoffed for a moment at the claim, only to be silenced later.

What happened afterwards was history. Attracting the casual and non-gamer demographic, the Wii was sold to young kids, ladies and the senior populace. Expanding the market, showing up with top-notch games and its stalwart motion-sensing Wiimotes, it set the business on fire and is to date the fastest-selling next-gen console on the planet.

The Wall Street Journal now refers to the Wii as the console to beat. That goes double to its handheld game machine, the Nintendo DS which went head to head with Sony's PlayStation Portable and outsold the PSP on a two to one basis.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that big third party developers and publishers are coming to the fold. Square Enix and EA have already pledged support, and more are on the way. The console wars are far from done, but the Wii is looking very good at this point. To read the full WSJ story, follow the read URL.

Well, it looks like Google is once again finding new ways to integrate itself into our everyday lives. And its new target? In-game advertising.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to acquire Adscape, a company which specializes in in-game advertisements. Though there has still been no official word about the matter, many are guessing that negotiations may already be happening. Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson did say this:

We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers. In-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others.

It has also been noted by members of the industry that Google may have taken a fancy to Adscape because of its AdverPlay technology which allows "two-way communication between in-game ads and the outside world".

Considering that other Google applications are already starting to make their appearances in the world of gaming, could this mean that those Google text advertisements that we usually see on webpages will soon become part of the wall graffiti in your next round of CounterStrike?