Steve Perlman, founder and CEO of the cloud computing online game delivery service Onlive, has posted on the official Onlive blog to reveal that on June 17th, the ambitious technology “will be available for users in the 48 contiguous United States!”

This milestone, Perlman writes, will be achieved after “almost 8 years of development, thousands of partner meetings, millions of lines of code, and an uncountable number of all-nighters,” and will not-coincidentally occur over the week of this year’s E3 games and technology expo.

“Everyone here at OnLive is just incredibly excited about this milestone,” says Perlman. “It’s the realization of a dream that we knew would be a huge undertaking, but also one that would change everything.”

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Take-Two Interactive has released its financial report for the publisher’s first fiscal quarter of 2010 ending January 31st, which saw net revenue rise, net losses fall, and restructuring efforts paying off.

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During Take-Two Interactive’s quarterly financial report it was revealed that the original Bioshock has now sold over 4 million units, with recent sales driven by both the release of the sequel, Bioshock 2, and digital download promotions for both games.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Ben Feder commented that the franchise has now sold a combined seven million units, as Bioshock 2 has so far shipped three million copies worldwide.

Catalogue sales of Bioshock, Feder said, were affected by Bioshock 2:

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Take-Two Interactive recently let the word out that two of their highly anticipated games, the Wild West open-world shooter Red Dead Redemption, and the mobster-themed open-world shooter Mafia II, have both been delayed.

While Red Dead Redemption now has a new set in stone release date, Mafia II doesn’t, but the publisher promises stockholders (and gamers!), that it won’t slip past October 31st this year… although we’ve heard that song before.

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Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two has just announced that three of its board members are to stand down from their current positions, to be replaced at the request of certain stockholders, including Carl Icahn who holds approximately 11.3 percent of the company’s shares.

The three members to be relieved of their positions on the board are CEO Ben Feder, Grover C. Brown, Esq. and John F. Levy, none of whom will stand for re-election. Feder will, however, remain on as CEO of the company.

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That’s right… the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3 to its friends) takes place from June 15th to June 17th this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with the traditional Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony keynotes taking place on the two days prior… with the traditional month of rumours, speculation and pre-E3 events running up to the event proper before that.

To get us all thinking about the expo all the way here in January, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the organisation responsible for running the show, has released the list of exhibitors currently pencilled in to show their wares at this year’s E3.

A notable exclusion, as of right now, is Take-Two/2K, which has a megaton of games releasing in the first half of the year. In a statement to BigDownload, however, a Take-Two spokesperson commented that the publisher is still “planning on taking part as usual at this year’s E3.” So that’s that, then.

The full, current, list of exhibitors for this year’s E3 follows below:

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Irrational Games, a studio of trail blazing developers known for titles such as System Shock 2, Freedom Force and Bioshock, will soon reclaim that name after they were (somewhat confusingly) renamed 2K Boston during the development of Bioshock, and the company’s subsequent acquisition by 2K Games/Take-Two Interactive.

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In a recent earnings call, Take-Two have reported a $56 million loss during their third fiscal quarter, as opposed to a $51.8 million net profit on revenue of $433.8 million during the same period last year.

This represents a roughly 68% drop in revenue year-over-year as a result of a much weaker release line-up for the quarter, in contrast to last year’s third quarter releases Birthday Party Bash for Wii, a multiplatform release of The BIGS 2, and Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: The Complete Edition for the PC, as well as continued sales of the then recently released Grand Theft Auto IV.

Take-Two was quick to remind investors that next year’s release slate will be heavy with Take-Two titles, including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3, and Red Dead Redemption, which are all set to be commercial smash-hits. These titles, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said, are not expected to release before January 31st next year, but will certainly show up before June.

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According to a Variety report, the currently on-hold Bioshock movie has recently had a new director attached to the project as previous director, Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) steps down, although he will still remain on the project as a producer.

Relative newcomer to Hollywood, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director and writer on zombie movie 28 Weeks Later (the sequel to 28 Days Later), has been named as the new director of the movie adaptation of Take-Two’s underwater adventure FPS.

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Take-Two recently announced plans to delay four massive games in their upcoming release schedule (all sequels) to fiscal 2010, which means we won’t be seeing Bioshock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 or Red Dead Redemption until after April next year.

Bioshock 2 was previously expected to release at the end of October/beginning of November, Max Payne 3 was announced to be releasing later this year, while Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption’s release windows had previously been updated to ‘end of this year, or beginning of next year.’

Take-Two CEO Bed Feder said of the announcement:

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During an investor earnings call last night, Take-Two not only announced the new set of downloadable content (DLC) heading to Grand Theft Auto IV, but also revealed updated release dates and windows for some of their biggest upcoming games, including Bioshock 2, Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption.

First, the bad news – Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption have been delayed until sometime between November 1st and May 31st next year… not exactly the release windows we were hoping for, but hopefully they aren’t delayed any further than that.

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Rockstar Games and Take-Two have announced that the next set of downloadable content (DLC) for Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) will be releasing (again exclusively) for the Xbox 360 this Fall, going by the name The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Following in the footsteps of the previous GTA IV DLC, The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony puts players in the role of Luis Lopez, “a part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka “Gay Tony”).”

The DLC will go for $19.99 and makes heavy use of the nightclub life of Liberty City, which is a huge departure from The Lost and Damned’s biker gang theme. The Ballad of Gay Tony will require a copy of GTA IV to play.

Take-Two also revealed that they would be releasing both of the DLC packs, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, on a single standalone disc entitled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. The pack will go for sale at retail with a current RRP of $39.99, and will not require a copy of GTA IV to play. Commenting on this new retail opportunity, Take-Two president Ben Feder said:

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After the highly publicised closure of 3D Realms two weeks ago, and the subsequent news that Take-Two, the publishing rights holder for the perpetually in development Duke Nukem Forever, had filed a lawsuit against 3D Realms for not producing a game after the publisher’s $12 million investment, 3D Realms’ CEO, big man George Broussard, has finally released a public statement to quell the tide of angry, disappointed and indifferent fans:

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise.

“Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6, while we regroup as a company.

“While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”

Broussard then goes on to provide his side of the Take-Two $12 million story, revealing that, not only has 3D Realms never directly received any money from Take-Two for the development of Duke Nukem Forever, but the $12 million in question was paid to the now defunct GT Interactive, 3D Realms’ publishing partner at the time.

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Those of you hoping for a resolution to the Duke Nukem Forever ‘situation’ may want to lower your expectations for the game to be released any time soon, if ever.

Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, has only gone and sued Apogee Software Ltd. (3D Realms’ legal name) over their failure to produce the game that has been in development for twelve years, having seen continually promised release dates come and go without a result.

From the complaint filed by Take-Two in a state court in Manhattan recently: “Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever. Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward comp[l]eting development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

It has also been revealed that in 2000, Take-Two paid $12 million for the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, despite a statement to the contrary released shortly after the news that 3D Realms would be shut down, and their employees laid off.

Take-Two is apparently now trying to reclaim the $12 million that they had provided to 3D Realms, after the developer’s failure to fulfil its obligations to produce Duke Nukem Forever.

In their latest quarterly financial report, Take-Two have announced significant net losses on the back of a 7 percent year-over-year increase in revenue.

Quarterly revenue for the three months ending January 31st was up to $256.8 million, from $240.4 million during the same period last year, while net losses were also up from $38 million last year to $50.4 million, a result, Take-Two says, of “higher marketing, legal, and research and development expenses.”

Grand Theft Auto IV, meanwhile, has shipped in excess of 13 million units worldwide, while analysts predict that the downloadable content, The Lost and Damned, has sold in excess of 2 million units.

Another set of expansion content, mentioned during the financial report as ‘Grand Theft Auto IV Second Episode,’ was announced to be releasing before October 31st this year.

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