Some Interesting News In Game Development

1. Via Clickable Culture, we have news that Telefilm Canada will be promoting Canadian videogame development through a competition. The final prize will be 500 K although final details have not been announced (webpage here). It will be interesting to see what comes of this as there are some great Canadian game companies (Relic, Bioware, Ubisoft Montreal, EA Canada, and Rockstar North to name a few), although most are offshoots of larger entities. On the other hand, the Canadian government's idiotic bureaucracy should almost ensure that the entire venture will fall flat (disclaimer: I am Canadian).
2. White Wolf (World of Darkness) and CCP (Eve Online) have announced a merger. Each will use their respective expertise in their own arenas to capitalize on the IP of the other (CCP will develop a MMORPG based on WoD, while WW will help develop more traditional gaming, strategy guides, pen and paper RPGs, and CCGs, based on Eve Online?). Again, I am simply looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I never delved much into WW's games, although I was a big fan of Rage the CCG back in the day and I certainly have not yet ventured into Eve Online, although it certainly produces it's fair share of announcements and stories. Will this cross platform promotion fuel growth in each company's respective audiences? or again, will this fall completely flat.

UPDATE! The 10 finalists for the Telefilm Canada competition have been announced (via Clickable Culture).