One in 12 gamers has an addiction to playing, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney. The study was based on an online poll of 2,000 gamers who answered a series of questions regarding duration of play and their experience of negative side-effects, including declines in work related performance, interrupted sleep patterns, cravings and weight change, reports TVNZ.

The researchers said that eight percent of respondents fit the study's problem gamer profile, with 70 percent in this category said to play games for more than four hours a day. They were found to be more prone to social isolation and compulsive behaviour, and to have a higher risk of depression.

"Their whole lives revolve around this activity and there certainly seems to be a problem there - there is an addiction," said associate professor Vladan Starcevic. "And it seems to us that these people seem to ... have other mental health issues, and it seems excessive videogame playing is a manifestation of these underlying problems."

It’s being coy with the details, but PopCap has finally revealed the title of its brand new casual games franchise – Plants vs. Zombies. The game appears to be a tower defence title where players grow defensive weapons to fend off hoards of the undead attempting to break into player’s houses. The game is due out on May 5th.

Global technology giant IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems in a deal that would expand its server market share, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

IBM may pay as much as $6.5 billion in cash for Sun, the newspaper reported on its Web site, without naming its sources. That amount of money would be nearly double Sun's closing share price on Tuesday of $4.97 per share.

While 2009 is already in full swing, let's see what core video games are the most expected releases for this year according to the most prominent gaming sites.

And those are:

StarCraft 2

Diablo 3

StarWars The Old Republic

Warhammer 40000 Dawn of War 2

Empire Total War

DemiGod

The Sims 3

Hope you'll find something for yourself among the addictive titles!

eGames, Inc announced their plans to develop casual games for the iPhone. They plan to release multiple games for the iPhone, but will start with Burger Island. Other casual games from eGames will be released later, such as Puzzle City.

 eGames has worked on getting their games published on other casual devices, such as Nintendo DS and Wii, so now it is time to tackle the iPhone. Burger Island and other eGame IPs will make good games for the iPhone. Some games may be harder to play with the touch controls on the iPhone, but games from eGames should port well. The touch controls should be easy to use.

According to http://casualgamerchick.com/