Did you know that at 1.3 billion people, the mainland Chinese population encompasses around 1/6th of the world's population? It's true! This might help to explain why Take-Two Interactive announced today not just the launch of NBA 2K Online -- an online basketball game for the Asian market -- but also the creation of Take-Two Asia, a new satellite office for the BioShock publisher.

The game is being co-developed by Take-Two and Chinese game company Tencent Holdings Limited for distribution in China and "other key markets" (notably Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia). Information on the game's pricing structure or what it looks like or, well, anything really is rather scant, though we do know that it will include "all of the NBA teams, as well as current and retired NBA players." Will the game be free-to-play with microtransactions? Will it ever be offered on this side of the Pacific? Will we be able to showboat our jersey in a raucous celebration of happiness a la Kobe Bryant when we dunk on fools? We just don't know.

Did you seriously think he'd just roll over and die? He's Duke Nukem, guys. We're pretty sure he can't be killed by conventional weapons (such as bankruptcy).

This news came in response to last month's Take-Two court filing against Duke Nukem Forever developer Apogee Software, which attempted to recoup loans the publisher had distributed to Apogee -- loans which would have ostensibly been repaid by DNF royalties. Apogee's attorneys responded Friday with a shocking revelation -- in exchange for their support, Apogee gave Take-Two the rights to simultaneously develop another Duke Nukem game. Take-Two tasked 2K Games with said development under the working title Duke Begins.

Apogee's defense states that 2K "halted or otherwise canceled all development work by the third-party game developer on the Duke Begins game in April 2009," an action Apogee sees as Take-Two's attempt at, "pressuring Apogee to sell the Duke Nukem franchise rights to Take-Two for less than their true value." With the cat officially out of the bag, we expect to hear more about the Duke's origin story (like, if it's still being developed) in the near future.

Dwight Howard probably wasn't much consoled by his image on the recently revealed NBA Live 10 box cover after losing the NBA Finals to the Lakers on Sunday, but the honor must have meant a little something (if not just more pocket change) to the Magic's superman -- until now. Kobe Bryant, winner and MVP of the NBA Finals, has been selected as the boastful NBA 2K10 cover athlete, cementing another dominant victory over Howard. 2K Sports' b-ball franchise has long been superior to EA Sports' annual effort, after all. We're thinking Howard should demand a trade.

Source - 2K Sports Congratulates Four-Time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant
Source - Dwight Howard Named Cover Athlete of EA Sports NBA Live 10

The original Mafia won critics and gamers over with its deep storytelling an intriguing new gameplay conventions -- but for some reason, it never seemed to become a mainstream hit as much as the industry's other huge, crime-riddled sandbox franchise, Grand Theft Auto, did. Perhaps it's because its creators weren't backed by humongous, multi-billion dollar juggernauts. Or maybe the name just wasn't as catchy.

Regardless, developer Illusion Softworks, now operating under the moniker 2K Czech, is hoping to capture more of the gaming public's brainspace with their upcoming organized crime epic, Mafia II -- and from what we recently saw of the game at E3, 2K's well on its way to producing a product that could very well be the heir apparent to the sandbox genre throne.

"This spider has a weak point right there, so ... see! You can blow his ass-sack apart. Well, that sounded bad."-- Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford

Then, not three minutes later:

"Yes. Yes! That midget's on fire!" -- Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford

We're sure the lot of you would rather hear about the intricacies of the single player campaign of BioShock 2 that we divined from our time with the game at E3 -- unfortunately, 2K wasn't keen on sharing any new details about the story of the core game. What we did get a chance to see was the multiplayer portion of the undersea follow-up -- a feature that we've yet to hear much about before today.

Watching the six-player deathmatch BioShock 2 demo was kind of like watching your beloved family dog sing opera. Mind you, this dog sang opera really well, but still, watching your canine companion sing is a somewhat unsettling experience. For some reason, it's ingrained in our minds that BioShock is meant to be experienced on ones lonesome. When you strip the rich story away from the game and toss in multiplayer elements, you end up with a product that, despite its strengths, seems a bit out of its element.

Life's tough in the lawless lands of Borderlands. You have to watch out for machete-wielding maniacs, gigantic saw blade-wielding death machines, and the pincer-equipped beasts that roam the lands looking for human blood. But, hey, as deadly a place as it is, at least it looks damn good.

You can catch the new trailer past the break.

Take-Two announced today it intends to offer $100 million of "convertible senior notes" due in 2014. We have not a clue what that means, so we contacted Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who not only is a master of prognostication, but apparently knows quite a fair share about business (for real!). Pachter explains:

• Convertible - "Means that the debt can be repaid with stock at the borrower's option."
  
• Senior -- "Means that it stands in line ahead of all other debt in the case of bankruptcy -- not likely, but it makes the interest rate lower."
• Note -- "Is debt."

Pachter explains it appears to him that the company is borrowing for a five year term in order to repay its line of credit, which has a high interest rate. That leaves the line of credit available to take if Take-Two ever needs "cash in the future for operations or acquisitions."

Thanks, Michael!

According to Gamasutra, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey isn't buying the release dates Take Two is selling. Hickey has "concerns" about the announced release date for BioShock 2 -- October 30 in Europe and November 3 in North America -- "given the unannounced platforms and expected last-day-of-quarter release." We're not psychics or anything, but we get the feeling that the platforms just might be announced at E3.

Concerning the upcoming GTAIV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, Hickey is even less optimistic, saying it might not release until late 2010 or possibly even 2011, though he states that a fiscal 2010 release "seems probable." Quite a statement considering how heavily the DLC and GTA: Episodes from Liberty City factor into Take Two's plans for the rest of 2009.

Furthermore, Hickey resurrects the ghost of the EA buyout of Take Two, stating that the company is a "viable acquisition candidate" thanks to the fact that it has "some of the strongest video game development talent and IP in the world." Gamasutra adds that acquisition by another company is more feasible this year, as Take Two stock is trading for significantly less that it was at its highest point last year.

IGN took a microscope to yesterday's announcement and came up with some with some ideas on what to expect from Rockstar's latest GTA IV DLC episode. We already know about Tony's fall from financial grace in the main GTA IV campaign, so IGN surmises that this latest episode will focus on Tony's attempt to reclaim his lost riches through the exploits of his assistant, Luis.

When The Lost and The Damned released, it included updates to Liberty City's LCHC and Liberty Rock stations, and IGN expects the same to happen for K109, Electrochoc and The Vibe, which hold Liberty's club-dwelling populace's interest.

There's a good chance that The Ballad of Gay Tony will mostly take place in Algonquin, IGN writes. Considering that Lopez's Dominican friends operate out of Northern Algonquin, and Gay Tony's empire spanned most of the south eastern part of the island, it's a safe bet to assume Luis will be handling business in the area when the DLC releases this fall.

Gaming industry juggernaut Take-Two Interactive recently released its second quarter financial results (among other things), and as one might expect, the outlook isn't quite as rosy as Q2 of last year. With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, Q2 2008 brought the publisher a net income of $98.2 million, or $1.29 per share -- this year, with no GTA IV to lean on, the company experienced a net loss of $10.1 million, or $0.13 per share. Not disastrous, but not exactly a celebration-worthy fiscal quarter, either.

Combined with Q1, the first half of 2009 has brought Take-Two a net loss of $60.5 million -- a harsh contrast to the first half of 2008, when the company raked in a net income of $60.2 million. The report also highlighted Take-Two's top selling products over the past three months -- unsurprisingly, they included The Lost and Damned, Major League Baseball 2K9, Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA: Chinatown Wars. For more delicious, nigh-incomprehensible numerals, you can read the full report here.

During Take-Two's second quarter financial conference call, CEO Ben Feder announced that BioShock 2 will release in Europe on Friday, October 30, while North American gamers will be returning to Rapture on Tuesday, November 3. It's worth noting that Take Two still lists the game's platforms as "TBA." Given that the previous title was released for Xbox 360, PC and (eventually) PS3, and that Take-Two enjoys making money, it's likely the game will again hit all three high-definition platforms. There is still the question as to the order in which the game will hit those platforms, though, and with E3 looming, a timed-exclusivity announcement may be in the offing.

Take-Two advised its shareholders of two big delays that will impact its earnings for the rest of the financial year. The upcoming Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption have both been delayed "to allow additional development time for the titles and to maximize their full potential in terms of the quality of the player experience and market performance." In other words, the development teams needed a bit more time.

The two titles are now planned for the first half of fiscal 2010, which spans November 2009 to April 2010. This means either of these games can still make the all-important holiday shopping season. However, even without Mafia and Red Dead Redemption, Take-Two still has a relatively strong lineup with BioShock 2, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Borderlands.