Round-Up: New _Mutant Storm_s, Sarnoff Joins Activision Board, 2006 WCG Site Selected

Today's round-up includes a new mobile-related appointment to Activision's board of directors, a new city for the finals of the World Cyber Games, and an Xbox 360 debut for some excellent indie titles from PomPom Software, as well as the latest SIGGRAPH-related product news, a new Letter to the Editor, and today's Gamasutra job postings. - Richard Sarnoff, president of Random House's New Media and Corporate Development Group, has been named an independent director of Activision's board of directors. "We welcome Richard to the Activision Board," said Robert Kotick, chairman and CEO, Activision. "His substantial experience in the mobile and wireless arena coupled with his strong corporate development background and distinguished career will be an asset to our Board and management team as we continue to pursue our strategic objectives." Sarnoff's role at Random House involves overseeing its initiatives in e-books, print-on-demand, and mobile and wireless content. - The World Cyber Games has selected Monza, Italy as the site for its final round in the 2006 competition. The city will host the Grand Final of the tournament, beating out other competitors for the spot such as Sydney, Australia; Cancun, Mexico; and Shanghai, China. The 2006 WCG will be the sixth annual event; the 2005 Grand Final is scheduled to be held in Singapore with teams from across the globe competing. - PomPom Software, developers of Mutant Storm, have announced that an updated version of the game along with a planned sequel will be available on the Xbox 360's Live Arcade service. The original game was also a feature on the Xbox Live Arcade, and the next-gen versions will follow in that tradition. The updated edition of Mutant Storm will be a launch title for the service when it debuts alongside the console's release, and the follow-up will be released in 2006. "Writing for a platform as powerful as Xbox 360 is allowing us to put in features and ideas for the game which just weren’t possible previously. We’re looking forward to delivering the best ever version of Mutant Storm," said PomPom's Miles Visman. - Also updated today: product news including SensAble's announcement of its latest OpenHaptics toolkit, JetBrains' release of IntelliJ IDEA Version 5, and Turbo Squid's announcement of Hairtrix for 3DS Max, as well as a new Letter to the Editor from Patrick Dugan offering further erudition on story and games, and the latest Gamasutra job postings from companies including Airborne Entertainment, Brown College, and Rockstar San Diego.