whats a lP?

I haven't heard of it used to refer to "independent project," and if you see it discussed in GameSpot news stories, it's definitely "Intellectual property." It generally refers to a brand or franchise, but the music in a game is also someone's IP, as is the manual, the universe and back story, etc.

When IP gets discussed in the game industry, it's sometimes assumed you mean "new IP." Electronic Arts has recently been big on new IP, creating new games like Army of Two, Spore, and Dead Space. Creating something new is a high-risk, high-reward bet, though. If it pays off, you have a new franchise you can milk over and over again for a ton of money (Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto were new IP once upon a time, and they've done wonders to keep their respective publishers in business). On the other hand, it takes a lot of marketing and development resources to successfully establish a new IP, and they fail more often than games that are just sequels to established franchises. For every Assassin's Creed out there, there are a bunch of Too Humans, Blastos, Punky Skunks, and Dr. Mutos.

For more on IP, check out this story. It's a couple years old, but things haven't changed too much today. Plus, it talks about Psychonauts.

Internet Protocol!

The range of potential definitions of the acronym is broad enough to keep us scratching our heads unless we know in what context did the topic creator saw it used.

*scratches head*

http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/special-achievement/index.html?page=26enigmacomic

"Intellectual Property."

An idea or set of ideas that is owned by its creator through the means of holding theoretical and sometimes literal copyright over it. That is, the "Halo" universe is intellectual property (most likely, I am not sure) owned by Bungie (or Microsoft) and they are the only ones allowed to use it unless they give permission to someone else to use it, which usually leads to royalty payments..foxhound_fox

Although (far) more often than not, it refers to the movie/book/comic that a video game may be based off.