One of the most irritating aspects of social networking is the tendency of FarmVille-style game aficionados to inundate their friends with meaningless clutter in the form of game progress updates. Google+ is set to start integrating the addictive cash cows into its own service, but is showing mercy on its users by sticking them under a “games” tab. To be fair, Facebook’s “hide” function also allows you to block game news from your feed. [More]
video games
Report: Walmart Cutting 3DS Price Early
By 8.8.11
On Friday Nintendo will cut the price of the 3DS handheld from $250 to $170, offering 20 free downloadable games to those who log on to the eShop by Thursday. The gesture is meant to comfort those who overpaid for the device by buying it before the rollback. Walmart, though, is reportedly offering the best of both worlds by marking the 3DS down to $170 Tuesday, giving opportunists time to qualify for the free games while netting the discount. [More]
Nintendo Apologizes To Customers Who Wasted $80 By Buying 3DS Too Early
By 8.3.11
Nintendo is feeling guilty about slashing the price of the 3DS from $250 to $170 fewer than five months after it released. Attempting to ease early adopters’ buyer’s remorse, Nintendo has already promised 20 free downloadable games to those who log on to the device’s e-shop before the price cut goes into effect Aug. 12. [More]
Guitar Hero Is Coming Back After All
By 7.25.11
Like an aging rock star who just knows he’s got another hit in him despite being written off by the world, Guitar Hero will be making a comeback tour. The plastic video game instrument phase seems to have run its course, but Activision Blizzard is betting otherwise. [More]
Reader Finally Receives Unblemished, Functional, Nintendo 3Ds
By 7.1.11
After reader Ray’s story about receiving and swapping out four messed up Nintendo 3DSes in a row, two of which were lemons, Nintendo reached out to get in touch with him. We played matchmaker and now Ray is happy to report that they gave him a brand spanking new 3Ds. They also let him pick out two new games to make up for the hassle. [More]
Supreme Court Does Something That Makes Sense, Strikes Down Law Banning Sale Of Violent Games To Kids
By 6.27.11
So far this session, the Supreme Court has basically guaranteed a future filled with mandatory binding arbitration, said it’s completely cool for drug companies to data mine prescription records and blocked a mammoth class-action suit against Walmart. So they were due to do something that made sense. [More]
I Just Want A Nintendo 3DS That's Not Broken
By 6.15.11
Ray is a huge Nintendo fan. Which is why it hurts so much that every time he tries to get his defective 3DS replaced, they send him another one that has a different defect. The first 3DS had dead pixels, the second had deep scratches, and the top screen was sliding on the third. Now he’s on his fourth DS, and it too has troubs. The touch screen keeps slanting to a greater and greater degree. Why, Nintendo, why have you forsaken your loyal follower? [More]
PR Company Tells Reviewers To Write Nice Things Or Don't Get Review Copies In The Future
By 6.15.11
The publicist for the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever video game isn’t too thrilled that the video game reviewers of the world haven’t crowned the game as the greatest thing since the wheel. But instead of internalizing his frustration or making whispered threats and promises to reviewers, he went ahead and Tweeted to the entire world that overly negative reviewers would be in jeopardy of not receiving review copies of games in the future. [More]
Hackers Swipe Emails, Addresses And Passwords From Video Game Site
By 6.13.11
These are not the best of times to be a gamer who leaves personal information on websites. In addition to the Sony troubles of the past couple months, British game publisher Codemasters has been hacked, leaving emails, addresses and passwords exposed. [More]
Nintendo Admits It Used Footage From Other Systems To Show Off Capabilities Of Wii U
By 6.8.11
If you watched Tuesday’s Nintendo E3 press conference, which I attended, you might have been floored by the showmanship that unveiled the upcoming Wii U wonder-system, which is capable of HD graphics that, unlike the Wii, are theoretically on par with PCs, the Xbox 360 and PS3. But the impressive graphics Nintendo flashed in a demo reel at the conference were from those other systems, and not the Wii U. [More]
Microsoft At E3: Bing, YouTube, More TV Streaming Coming To Xbox
By 6.7.11
Judging from the bulk of Microsoft’s major announcements at its E3 press conference Monday, the company doesn’t want Xbox 360 owners to turn off its machine when they want to watch TV rather than play games. A fall system update will deliver Bing-powered voice web search, a YouTube app and an unnamed TV-streaming service. [More]
Sony At E3: An Apology, Price For New Portable, Unintended Laughter, A Boast And Poor Defense By Kobe Bryant
By 6.7.11
Sony’s marathon E3 press conference Monday, which I attended, was a roller coaster of surreal announcements and pronouncements by the company. It started with Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton offering a profuse apology for the PlayStation Network outage and data breach, and just got more awkward from there. [More]
Visiting Gym In "Second Life" Sheds Real World Pounds
By 6.6.11
Spending your time behind a computer and playing in a fantasy universe can make you fat, but it can also help you lose weight. A new study shows how a group of people who went to a gym in the online virtual world “Second Life” were actually able to lose weight in real life, an average of 10 pounds over the course of 12 weeks. [More]
Reports: "Vita" And "Nintendo" Could Be Names Of New Game Machines
By 6.6.11
Every year before the E3 video game summit launches, announcements that were meant to be held back for press conferences slip into news reports. This year’s event, which officially kicks off Tuesday but really starts today with a slew of press events, is expected to showcase at least two new game machines: Sony’s PSP followup, code-named Next Generation Portable, and Nintendo’s high-def successor to the Wii, code-named Project Cafe. [More]
Some DSi Download Games Won't Transfer To 3DS
By 6.3.11
Nintendo handheld game enthusiasts who bought 3DSs when the system was released in late April have had to hold on to their DSi units for more than a month while the company prepared a system update that will let them transfer downloaded games from the old system to the new one. Now that the update, scheduled for Monday, is upon us, Nintendo says some of the games won’t transfer over due to licensing issues. [More]
Man Uses Consumerist Tips To Gets Xbox Repaired For Free
By 6.2.11
Reader Ben was sad. His Xbox was doing the ol’ Red Ring of Death. He thought that was quits for his trusted gaming companion but then he started doing some research on Consumerist. Perusing our archives, he realized from some of our old posts that included in the price of the repair to the machine he had done not too long ago was a one-year warranty extension. Huzzah! Here’s what he did next: [More]
Sony Says PlayStation Network Should Be Fully Restored This Week
By 5.31.11
Sony managed to patch some key parts of its downed PlayStation Network more than two weeks ago, but some functions — such as the ability to buy and download previously purchased games — are still missing. [More]
Next Call Of Duty Will Ask Gamers To Pay Monthly Fee
By 5.31.11
The publisher of the Call of Duty video game series is attempting to cash in on its massive popularity by rolling out a new service later this year, tied to upcoming game Modern Warfare 3, that will ask players to respond to the call for a monthly fee. The long-rumored service, dubbed Call of Duty Elite, won’t restrict non-payers from online competition, and instead will take the PlayStation Plus route of appearing to offer additional content rather than holding existing benefits hostage. [More]
