Round Up: Play With Fire, Death Jr. Manga, Station Access Price

Today's round up includes news of International Hobo Ltd's Play With Fire for the PC and PlayStation 2, a Death Jr. manga by Backbone Entertainment, and a price increase for Sony's Station Access, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - International Hobo Ltd has announced Play with Fire, an upcoming PC and PlayStation 2 platform puzzle game in which the player controls an indestructible ball of flames which sets fire to everything in its path. The game has been developed by India’s first console game developer, Fantasy Labs Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Hobo. In addition, the PC version, specifically aimed at the gaming underground, is being released via Manifesto Games, based in New York. Play with Fire for the PC is expected this summer 2006, while the PlayStation 2 version, published by Midas Interactive in Europe, is scheduled for release in Q4. - Foundation 9's Backbone Entertainment announced that it is collaborating with Seven Seas Entertainment to produce an original manga based on the Death, Jr. video game franchise. Death, Jr. began as a PSP game and original comic book series, and will soon see a PSP sequel titled Death, Jr. 2: Root of Evil, a new game for the Nintendo DS called Death, Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom, as well as a second comic book series, and an assortment of other collectible merchandise. The new manga, which focuses on Death, Jr. and his girlfriend Pandora, is scheduled to ship in 2007. - According to a post on Sony's Station Access website, the company has decided to increase the monthly subscription rate by $3 effective this month to $24.99. Defending the increase, the post reads: "The cost of operating the game service for the games included in the Station Access subscription package has increased significantly since we launched Station Access." Since the launch of Station Access, Sony has released two additional games, and a series of Adventure Packs for EverQuest II at no additional fee, including The Fallen Dynasty, due out this summer. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include a news of The Goat Store's upcoming homebrew Dreamcast releases, Second Life real estate being at a premium, and a look at 'The Rise of Blizzard'. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news on a new anti-smoking game in development by IN-Gabriel Entertainment and Indiana University, and papers due today for Serious Games Summit DC 2006, plus Gamasutra product news regarding dynamic ads in Left Behind, ATI's CrossFire X1900 multi-GPU solution, and Kynogon's AI middle solution Kynapse 4.0, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Amaze Entertainment, SkillJam Technologies Corp, Sucker Punch Productions, THQ Kaos, Vivendi Games, and Volition.