The Associated Press

News from the virtual world:

• THE VEGAS IDEA: One of these days, a politician is going to stand up and tell the world how much he loves video games. (Maybe it will be oddball Alaska Sen. Ted “the Internet is a series of tubes” Stevens!) Until then, we can only expect more venom from the likes of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who’s steamed about an upcoming game set in Sin City. In “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas,” due later this year from Ubisoft, an elite military squad battles terrorists who have taken hostages in casinos along the Strip. “It’s based on a false premise,” said Goodman, who described Las Vegas as “the safest place imaginable” and promised he would try to find a way to stop the game’s release. Ubisoft spokesman Tim Cummins declined to address Goodman’s complaints, but instead praised Vegas as a great game location. “Not only is it a world-famous and recognizable city, it is iconic, action-packed and completely unpredictable.”

• AD OUT: Sony has apologized for an ill-considered ad campaign for its white PlayStation Portable. The billboards, which showed a white woman threateningly grabbing the face of a black girl, appeared only in the Netherlands but were condemned by civil-rights activists here in the U.S. “We only intended to make a sharp contrast between black and white, but never meant to discriminate against anyone,” Sony spokesman Nanako Kato said. “Even though the ad was perceived in an unexpected way, we’d like to apologize to the people who were offended by the ads.” The billboards have been removed.

• MORE HEAT: Those scamps at Take-Two Interactive are in hot water again, but this time it has nothing to do with sex scenes in “Grand Theft Auto.” The company reported that it’s being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over stock option grants dating back to 1997. The probe isn’t nearly as lurid as the one launched a few weeks ago by the Manhattan district attorney over the hanky-panky in “GTA: San Andreas,” but both investigations are contributing to the continuing slide of Take-Two’s stock prices.

-MARIO SAVES: There is some good news for the video-game industry: Sales last month were up 25 percent compared with June 2005, according to research from the NPD Group. The turnaround after a months-long slump surprised just about everyone, with conventional wisdom betting on sluggish business until Nintendo and Sony release their new consoles later this year. Much of the credit goes to the June debut of the DS Lite, the new, smaller version of Nintendo’s handheld DS machine, and the premiere of “New Super Mario Bros.,” both of which sold well above expectations.

-XBOX LIVES: We’re also seeing some signs of life on the Xbox 360, with a couple of high-profile releases (2K Games’ “Prey” and Sega’s “Chromehounds”) and some fresh activity on the long-moribund Xbox Live online service. Microsoft announced a new program called Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, promising a new game every week through Aug. 9. The games, which cost $5 or $10, include revamped versions of the arcade classics “Frogger,” “Pac-Man,” “Galaga” and “Street Fighter” as well as one original title, an action/puzzle hybrid called “Cloning Clyde.” Microsoft wouldn’t commit to a new release every Wednesday beyond Aug. 9, but Xbox Live Arcade group manager Greg Canessa said the company hopes to have 50 games available on the service by the end of the year, up from the current 20.

-DRIVER’S AID: The “Driver” series – in which you play a getaway car driver – has run out of gas, sputtering through two uninspired installments in the last three years. But there may be hope yet for aspiring wheelmen. The struggling Atari has sold the franchise, along with most of the assets of developer Reflections Interactive, to Ubisoft, the hottest publisher in the industry. With Ubisoft’s backing – and with a movie adaptation in the works from “Silent Hill” screenwriter Roger Avary – could “Driver” be poised to regain the vehicular-crime crown from “Grand Theft Auto”?

AP-ES-07-19-06 1037EDT