The album cover for Eric B. & Rakim's 1987 classic "Paid In Full"

The eagle-eyed sleuths over at Gamasutra dug into the latest SEC filing from entertainment conglomerate Viacom and unearthed an interesting tidbit. Former shareholders in Rock Band creators Harmonix, which Viacom acquired in October 2006 for $175 million in cash, have recently received a $208.7 million bonus from parent company Viacom for results that "exceed[ed] specific contractual targets." Here's how it was described in the SEC documents:

In October 2006, we acquired Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero and Rock Band and other music gaming titles, for initial cash consideration of $175.0 million. To the extent financial results exceed specific contractual targets against a defined gross profit metric through 2008, former Harmonix shareholders will be eligible for incremental earn-out payments with respect to the years ended December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008. At December 31, 2007, a liability of $208.7 million has been recorded in Other liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet for the expected earn-out payment. We expect to have a final payment with respect to the year ended December 31, 2008 done in 2009.

We proceeded to do some back of the envelope calculations to put this in perspective.

Firaxis co-founder Sid Meier at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City

Last Friday, Civilization creator Sid Meier held court before a handful of journalists at New York City's famous Algonquin Hotel. Because of a previous engagement, we arrived unfashionably late, just ten minutes before the event wound down. But tardiness, it turns out, has its rewards. As the Vicious Circle assembled journalists filed out--and as we ate our filet mignon lunch at Meier and his wife's insistence--the legend of turn-based strategy games agreed to remain a while longer and answer some of our questions. That's how we secured this exclusive, in which Meier explained his diplomatic reaction to last week's news that Electronic Arts is seeking to purchase Take-Two. Here's what Meier had to say:

How are you being affected by the news of the possibility of Electronic Arts acquiring Take-Two, and by extension [Meier's company] Firaxis Games? How do you feel about those prospects, especially in light of the recent remarks by Electronic Arts executives about its new organizational structure--

Right.

--and this whole city-state model, in which Firaxis presumably would be, I don't know, a province in ancient Rome.

[Laughs.] Those are good words. We worked with Electronic Arts ten years ago. We respect them highly as a company. They're a great company. We enjoy working with Take-Two. We'll let them sort that out [laughs]. Take-Two has been very good about giving us the creative freedom to do the best games that we can, and I think what Electronic Arts is saying is really along the same directions. That's really our priority, to really be able make the best games that we can. And both those publishers would give us that opportunity. We'll let them work that out.

So you have to wait and see, but at least you feel as though EA is saying the right things publicly.

Yeah. I think they have a commitment to great games, and that's what's important to us.

 Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg and reggaeton producer Nely

All work and no play makes the Level Up staff very dull boys indeed. So when we got word that our favorite Xbox kingpin Aaron "B.I.G. VIP" Greenberg was rolling through NYC, we agreed to jump in for a Friday night of debauchery good-natured fun. We kicked things off at an after work cocktail party at the offices of Kinetix Integrated Communications, a lifestyle marketing company that both Microsoft's Zune and Xbox divisions are employing to reach out to urban and Latino communities. According to Greenberg, the group product manager for Xbox 360's Live and lifestyle programs, a number of key influencers and media in the urban and Latino markets are still playing videogames on their PlayStation 2s. To remedy that situation, he spent the latter half of last week being driven from meeting to meeting in an SUV, taking Xbox 360 Elites out of the back of the vehicle and dropping them off with late-adopting gamers like a big city Santa Claus.

At Kinetix's Manhattan offices, we witnessed Greenberg dispensing post-holiday cheer to an influencer of particular note: reggaeton producer Nely "El Arma Secreta," the mastermind behind such hits as Wisin Y Yandel's "Rakata" and R. Kelly's "Burn It Up." The charming twentysomething studio wizard was pleased as punch to receive his Xbox 360 Elite. Why? All the better to put the hurt on opponents in his current favorite game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur--tooling around the city after 11:30 PM trying to find a suitable restaurant for late night dining; Greenberg hollaticking with his Miami crew via cell phone; the de rigueur bottle service (Belvedere, of course) that accompanied the breaking of bread at Pop Burger in the Meatpacking district--but it was clear from our night on the town that Microsoft is sparing no expense in its broad-based pursuit of console dominance.

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