The ongoing war between Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive's management in the lead-up to the launch of GTA IV has entered another phase with both the chairman and CEO of Mafia creaor, Illusion Softworks, putting up a total of 745,303 shares in Take-Two for sale.

Founder and CEO, Petr Vochozka, has registered his full holding of 557,848 shares. Chairman, Jan Kudera, is taking some 187,455 shares to market.

Czech Republic-based Illusion Softworks was acquired by Take-Two subsidiary, 2K in January this year in order to become 2K Czech.

Let's give this a bit more context. The offer of stock by the two 'Illusionists' could simply a matter of timing, with their stock options having just 'vested (e.g. become available for sale). A note attached to the relevant document also points out that the "Proposed Maximum Offering Price Per Share" is $25.74 - less than the $26 per share offered by EA.

This proposed selling price is, however, merely a convenient estimate used by Take-Two. It is, in fact, "Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee...".

Less complicated - but more games-like - is the fact that EA has responded to Take-Two's board moving its annual general meeting date. As we reported on March 26th Take-Two's AGM was moved from April 10th (a day before EA's cut-off point for it's $26 per-share take-over tender) to April 17th. Not to be out-done on the brinkmanship front, EA has now moved the cut-off date to... April 18th.

This means that Take-Two board members will have to face down shareholders worried that they could lose out on the $26 (£13) per-share offer. Big business, eh? It's like watching a game of chess... played by monkeys.