Round Up: Moore, PA & ESRB, Steam Updated, ICM CEO

Today's round up includes news of Peter Moore's comments regarding continuing support for backward compatibility on the Xbox 360, Penny Arcade and the ESRB teaming up to educate gamers, and a new update for Valve's Steam service alongside Half-Life 2: Episode 1's launch, plus a new CEO for the World Cyber Games organizers, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - In a new interview with UK website Kikizo, Microsoft's VP Peter Moore was asked several questions concerning the Xbox 360, not the least of which concerned the console's backward compatibility with titles developed for the original Xbox. "Nobody is concerned anymore about backwards compatibility," commented Moore. "We under promised and over delivered on that. It's a very complicated thing... very complex work. I'm just stunned that we have hundreds of games that are backwards compatible." He followed up on this with statements that indicate that Microsoft may soon quit adding support for more Xbox titles, stating that "more are coming, but at some point, you just go, there's enough, let's move on." - Noted webcomic Penny Arcade has revealed that its creators are teaming up with the ESRB on a new advertising campaign. The project, as Penny Arcade's Gabe explains it, is a way to get the ESRB's message to gamers, specifically conveying “why the ESRB is important, even if they don't think it directly affects them.” The website duo of Gabe and Tycho spent months creating characters representing each of the different ESRB ratings, along with back stories concerning what that particular rating pertains to each of them. The characters were shown in teaser form on pillars at the Los Angeles Convention Center at E3, and will soon be seen in magazine and online advertisements soon. - Valve announced that it has released an update to its Steam PC 'content delivery system' client, and has also released Half-Life 2: Episode 1, its episodic follow-up to its immensely popular sci-fi franchise. The Steam system update, which is applied automatically when the Steam client is restarted, includes a functional friends list, a feature that was in beta for the past few weeks. Other additions with this update include the ability for Steam to automatically detect and fix file fragmentation, thus “giving performance improvements on cache accesses of up to 600%”, as well as an update to Steam's driver check, which will make sure players are using the most current set of video drivers. - The organizer of the World Cyber Games, International Cyber Marketing, today announced the appointment of Mr. Hyoung-Seok Kim, former head of Audio / Video Business Marketing Group at Samsung Electronics, as president and CEO of ICM. Mr. Hyoung-Seok Kim brings 22 years of experience to ICM, having most recently served as the delegate of telecommunications in the business division of Samsung Electronics Australia. Previously he was the head of the marketing group for the computer business division and of the mp3 marketing group for the A/V business division. The inauguration of Mr. Kim will be held the same day that he is officially appointed as new CEO in the provisional meeting of stakeholders. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include a look at a website linking to music videos for the Ouendan songs, IGN giving the Dreamcast a second chance, and a new viral marketing campaign for the Civilization IV expansion, featuring world leaders squaring off against historical threats. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news on Hexagon Interactive creating training tools for the military, and a PC game to help children deal with divorce, plus Gamasutra product news including three new 3D products released by Strata, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from 3D Realms, Electronic Arts Tiburon, Irrational Games, Irrational Games Australia, K2 Network, Kush Games, Red 5 Studios, and Vigil Games.