Trade With Our Scandinavian Brothers

Ahoy there my GayGamer buddies, as the cleanup crew for the weekday blog postings, oftentimes you'll find me sifting through the smaller news stories that fall through the hustle and bustle of the busy workday news channels. I'll take the few nuggets that I find and try to post him here at the end of the day for all to read in their leisure. Over the weekend, I actually saw a few stories of Scandinavian origin slipping through gaming tubes that I'd like to share with you, especially since Scandinavia is well known for having legalized gay partnerships well over a decade ago (1989 in Denmark to be exact). So let's see what we are giving back:

First up is the news that Gamestop has announced that it will be acquiring the Free Record Shops in Norway and "re-branding" them to join the GameStop family. This news follows shortly after GameStop announced their better than expected quarterly earnings for the last quarter of 2007. Gamestop already has stores in Norway; however, there's nothing like assimilating the competition into your own fold to booster profits. Hey, it worked for the Borg.

Next up is the news that in-game advertising firm Double Fusion has entered into a partnership with Karnig4media. Karnig4media, a large Nordic international media representative, will basically allow Double Fusion to increase its advertising reach to companies in the Scandinavian region. This means plenty of billboards and product placements for fine furniture from IKEA in your Brothers In Arms game.

Last, but certainly not least, is the recent news from one of the biggest Norwegian game developers, Funcom, on their upcoming game, Age of Conan. Recently, the Age of Conan developers released some new on the variety of PvP options available to players in the game. They have options ranging from a traditional 'Siege' PvP system, in which players fight for ownership of battlekeeps, to 'Drunken Brawling', where players can get inebriated in taverns and take wild, drunken swings at their friends and foes. They also announced an PvP advancement system to go along side the normal advancement system in the game.

In summary, Scandinavia can expect to receive more Gamestops and in-game advertising from abroad and the rest of the world can soak in the pleasures of what Age of Conan has to offer us from Funcom in Norway. Seems like a decent trade, no? Err... hmm... maybe not.