Ubisoft has more reasons to celebrate once again as Assassin's Creed was hailed as the chart topper for the PC software sales list from the NPD Group. Other notable titles that were recognized during the week of April 6 to April 12 included Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Valve's Portal. You can view the complete list by reading our full article after the jump.

One of the relatively newer genres in the gaming industry is the MMORPG. It's advent goes back to as far as the 1990s when games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest popularized the concept of an online gaming community where people can band together and bash random critters for experience and gold.

One of the most popular MMORPGs to date is Blizzard's phenomenal World of Warcraft, which has a subscriber count of at least 8.5 million worldwide. However, it owes a lot of its existence to its proverbial forefathers. Conditions back then were considerably different for such a budding game genre to grow.

In 1999, Ubisoft introduced EverQuest to the German market. A lot of hindrances such as the limitations of technology, as well as the relatively high costs of online fees made its rise to popularity quite slow compared to today's standards. Peaking at 500,000 subscribers,many consider EverQuest as the one which paved the way for the MMORPG genre to take flight.

Karsten Lehmann, a spokesman for Ubisoft, relates their past difficulties: "It's hard for players today who are accustomed to the idea of flat rate Internet access to remember how complicated this kind of stuff was at the time".

It was only during 2004 that Blizzard capitalized on the growing fame of the new gaming genre and launched World of Warcraft into the MMORPG giant it is today. It took all the elements that gave EverQuest its massive appeal and simplified it for users everywhere to enjoy. It goes without saying that Blizzard definitely struck gold here.

Today, more and more gaming companies are riding on the ever growing community of online gamers. With the genre continually growing in depth and dynamics, who knows what the next wave of online games can bring.

Day 2 of the E3 Media and Business Summit seemed to be a more subdued affair compared to the events of the first day. As you guys will notice below in our daily recap, many of the news tidbits we covered for the day had more to do with the release of new assets for already announced games, along with a trickle of new information, screens and/or video for the newly announced games, such as Nintendo's Wii Fit fitness training program.

For some rather important news, you'll be able to find details on Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive's E3 2007 briefing details, as well as look at more of the redesigned PSP in all of its slim glory. For our E3 first-look articles, you'll be able to take a gander at the first screens and info regarding Steven Spielberg's Project PQRS, as well as an exciting new dungeon addition to Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Zul'Aman. We also have tons of new screenshots and videos for everything from God of War: Chains of Olympus to Soul Calibur 4, so check our links below to savor more gaming goodness.

We're hard at work updating the site with more info so you don't miss a thing. While you wait for the latest 24/7 coverage of E3 2007, feel free to check our current coverage of day 2 of the summit, as well as our roundup of day 1. Enjoy!

Breaking News:

More images, comparison pics of the redesigned PSP
Take-Two E3 2007 Briefing details
Ubisoft E3 2007 Conference details

All the latest updates after the jump!

The Best Buy online store has an ongoing deal at their site that gamers may want to take advantage of. First is a discount on Blizzard Entertainment's highly popular World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, while the second is for GRAW on the Xbox 360.

Originally priced for US$ 39.99 when it was first launched in January, TBC is currently priced at US$ 29.99 over at the Best Buy site - guys who have not yet gotten the latest WoW expansion may want to take advantage of this offer.

Meanwhile, for the Xbox 360 owners, we have a Best Buy deal going down for Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter game. The site currently lists GRAW at US$19.99, which should be a reasonable price for the guys who have yet to try out one of the 360's memorable FPS titles.

That's it for now, and there should be more coming up, so remember to drop by once in a while in case we find more gaming deals for you guys.

Now, videogames may not be the first thing that comes into people's heads when they hear "France," but the fact of the matter is that three of the world's biggest videogame manufacturers - Ubisoft, Infogrames Entertainment and World of Warcraft publisher Vivendi Games - call the country home.

According to Culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, local production of videogames is as important to France's national identity as the Louvre, and he is now calling for laws that would prevent the country's videogame companies from outsourcing their production to low cost countries.

One of the things he is suggesting is to give France's game producers the same tax breaks that are given to cultural institutions.

"Call me the minister of video games if you want; I am proud of this," said Donnedieu de Vabres, in a recent interview with the International Herald Tribune. "Video games are not a mere commercial product," he continued. "They are a form of artistic expression."

Of course, the heads of France's videogame industry are all going for the idea. They've even pledged not to even think about outsourcing if the French government agrees to the deal. Says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, in an interview with the Herald Tribune, "Without production in France, we lose the creativity and diversity that this country offers."

At the top of the most popular PC games in the U.S. is (surprise!) the ever-popular Sims 2. Although its MMO incarnation did not take off as EA was hoping, its latest expansion, Family Fun Stuff was the best seller for the week of 7 May, while Open For Business and the original game took sixth and seventh place.

Of more interest to MMO gamers, World of Warcraft - which took a MMORPG.com prize at E3 - came in second, followed by Guild Wars Factions, which was NCsoft's first stand-alone expansion for this particular MMO.

PC versions of the two most popular Xbox 360 games took fourth and fifth: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and  Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter from Ubisoft

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Three "real-time strategy" games by RTS took the last three spots: Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Age of Empires III and Star Wars: Empire at War came in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.