The Bulletin is a roundup of a few game-related news stories from the previous week.

More dogs to be put to sleep next year in sequel to Sleeping Dogs

Sorry, I meant to say, “More dogs will be sent away to live on a very nice farm.” Either way, a sequel to Sleeping Dogs is coming, however, it will likely focus more on Hong Kong’s criminal underworld than on puppies. This comes by way of Joystiq, which reports that United Front Games, the studio behind Sleeping Dogs, recently filed a trademark for “Triad Wars,” which it says will be a new game set in the “same universe” as Sleeping Dogs. Whether this portends a direct follow-up or a side story remains to be seen, but at least its development will probably be less rocky than that of its predecessor. Sleeping Dogs was originally announced as a Hong Kong-based reboot of the True Crime series (which is most notable for giving the world this terrible/awesome theme song) before the project was canceled by Activision and later revived by Square Enix. Maybe Triad Wars will be another canceled game resurrected under a different name. Fingers crossed for Star Wars 1313!

Far Cry 4 soundtrack to be sexy stuff; one critic will call it “European”

Far Cry 3

That’s a reference to the movie Drive. Have you seen Drive? It’s great. Anyway, Polygon is reporting that Cliff Martinez, the composer for Drive, is going to be working on the soundtrack for the yet-unannounced Far Cry 4. For those who haven’t seen Drive, its soundtrack had a cool dark ’80s techno vibe, which seems a little more in line with the neon insanity of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon than the stealthy jungle romps of the main series. That’s pretty much the only detail about Far Cry 4 that we can glean from this report. As far as the existence of this unannounced sequel goes, Ubisoft, the game’s publisher, told Gamespot in July that it is “clearly going to make another one,” which is strangely forthcoming for a video game company. It makes my job a little bit easier when I don’t have to explain that companies always lie and say they’re not making a sequel to something when they obviously are. Far Cry 4 is in the works, and it will probably have a cool soundtrack. See how easy that was, game publishers?

Even companies that no longer exist don’t like Electronic Arts

UFC 2009 Undisputed

THQ (or “Toy Headquarters”) used to be one of the mainstays of the video game industry. Then it had the crazy idea that people would want to play video games with a tablet, and it threw away all of its money. Before selling off its properties, THQ put out series like Red Faction, Saint’s Row, and—most importantly for our purposes here—UFC (or “Ultimate Fighting Championship”). THQ sold the UFC license to EA (or “Electronic Arts”) in July of 2012, and now THQ wants it back. This comes via Polygon, which is reporting that THQ has filed a lawsuit against EA and UFC from beyond the grave. The suit alleges EA shared THQ’s financial information with UFC so that EA could wait out its rival publisher’s money trouble and get the Ultimate Fighting license on the cheap. THQ wants the UFC license back or, barring that (especially since it isn’t really a company anymore), it wants the equivalent value of the license. In summation, what’s left of THQ wants loads of money from EA because THQ believes it got screwed in the initial sale. I know what you’re thinking: It’s hard to believe a company as kind-hearted as EA would ever do something like that. But here we are!

Chinese students get a chance to touch the PlayStation 4 early…as they are forced to manufacture them

The PlayStation 4

This one’s for anyone who thinks the gaming news world has been a little too anti-Xbox One lately. Sony isn’t perfect either. Case in point: It decided to manufacture its PlayStation 4 consoles at China’s Foxconn factory (as reported by Dongfang Daily by way of Kotaku). Not familiar with Foxconn? Let’s just say it’s a giant electronics manufacturing plant that had to install nets to stop people from committing suicide at work. Anyway, that Kotaku report says that “thousands of students” from a local university have been drafted into a “work-study program” at the factory, with the students being told that they would lose their diplomas if they refused to take part. Reportedly, the students were forced to complete tasks that were “unrelated to their majors or fields of study” and worked 11-hour days (not counting additional overtime and night shifts). Foxconn has responded to the allegations by saying the forced overtime and night shifts are a violation of company policy. “Such work is voluntary,” Foxconn said, adding that the students have the right to “terminate their participation in the program at any time.” Presumably, once you terminate your participation in the program, you will receive a swift kick in the butt instead of the degree you would have otherwise earned.

This concludes The Bulletin

As you’ve probably heard, The Gameological Society will be going through some changes soon, and that unfortunately means this will be the final installment of The Bulletin. I can’t overstate how much fun I’ve had trimming the fat of video game news for you, and I hope you’ve had fun reading my dumb jokes and semi-obscure Simpsons references. The Bulletin wouldn’t have meant half as much to me as it did if it hadn’t been for the Gameological community. I want to thank you all for showing up every week and chastising me for being too mean to Microsoft or too mean to Nintendo or not mean enough to Sony—or not mean enough to Microsoft. All I ask is that you think of me the next time EA does something stupid (probably next week), and that you continue to say “Xbone” when the full name would have done just fine. Hopefully you’ll see me pop up on Gameological some more in the future, so this isn’t goodbye. This is more “Your princess is another castle.”