I've noticed about two dozen players with a Nazi swastika emblem while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. One belonged to a hilarious 9 year old, who made his swastika with one of its wings turned the wrong way. I happily report each person I see running around with the symbol of the Nazi regime, but I didn't have much hope that anything would be done about it.

Wait a second, what is going on? I'm not your regularly scheduled host of the Monday news blips. No, I'm your irregularly scheduled Jeff Grubb.

I'm new here to the Bitmob team, but I'm not new to Bitmob. I've posted a few stories and helped co-host the Pixel Revolt podcast. Now I'll be doing these news blips and maybe some other things here and there. 

News Blips:

Microsoft's Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse (aka the Banner-in-Chief) says Black Ops players who have the Nazi swastika as their emblem will be banned. Toulouse met some backlash from people he refers to as "contrarians." These people argued that the symbol has important meaning in religious cultures around the world and they should be allowed to use the swastika as their emblem without the threat of being banned. On his personal blog, Toulouse essentially responded that Xbox Live was not the place to try to reclaim the swastika from its recent, horrifying past. [1up.com]

Castlevania: Lord of Shadow sells 1 millon units in U.S. and Europe. Certainly an impressive number for a franchise many were sure could never successfully translate into 3D. "The remarkable sales achieved in such a short time are a true testament of the work and dedication that went into this project, and we're very grateful to have partnered with such fine talent in the rebirth of one of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.'s most successful franchises," said Shinji Hirano, president of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. Now that a 3D Castlevania has found financial and critical success, it is about time for Konami to run out endless sequels in classic Castlevania fashion. 

Blizzard Entertainment will be holding launch parties at stores around the globe for the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm release. Fans will be able to meet members of the development team, who will be signing copies of the expansion. For those interested, the U.S. party will be at Fry's Electronics located at 10800 Kalama River Avenue in Fountain Valley, Calif., starting at 9:00 p.m. PST on December 6. For more information and global locations, check out Blizzard.com.

Atlus is bringing time-traveling RPG Radiant Historia for the DS to North America. Atlus is famous for their brave and innovative takes on the RPG genre, and while that is sure to continue, Radiant Historia's is Atlus' throwback to the 16-bit golden age. "We've seen a future without a North American localization of Radiant Historia," joked Aram Jabbari, manager of PR and sales, in a facetious press release. "That future was depressing and noticeably lacking in the 'epic handheld RPG' category." Well, thankfully for RPG fans, Atlus has time travelers working for them. Their number one priority? More Japanese role-playing games. 

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.