Microsoft’s PR machine has sprung a couple of leaks on the eve of the E3 video game mega-conference in Los Angeles: A USA Today report that seems to have since been taken down identified the motion and voice controller previously known as Project Natal as the Kinect. Microsoft later confirmed the moniker. Also, a quickly pulled Italian ad identified a slimmed-down Xbox 360 with a 250gb hard drive. [More]
video games
You Can Game In 3D On Your PS3 Now If You Really Want To
By 6.10.10
Welcome to the future, which sadly is lacking in jetpacks, Cubs World Series titles and robot maids but does at least have 3D gaming, although it requires a special, expensive TV and dorky glasses. As of today the PS3 supports 3D in three downloadable games: Wipeout HD, Super Stardust HD and Pain. You can also nerd it up by playing the free MotorStorm Pacific Rift demo in 3D. [More]
Gamers Have Reactions Of Fighter Pilots, Bodies Of 60-Year Old Chain Smokers
By 6.8.10
To see if gamers count as athletes, a British researcher subjected a whole bunch of professional gamers to a battery of tests. He found that while mentally, in terms of reflexes and reaction time they were on par with world-class athletes, physically, they were slothbags. [More]
Playing Video Games Is A Great Way To Ruin Your Posture
By 6.2.10
In addition to rotting your brain, turning you into a social outcast and giving you carpal tunnel syndrome, video games also trash your back, according to a Cal State Bakersfield study. The subjects it studied got lazier and lazier as they played until they were slouching, button-mashing hunchbacks. [More]
Sony Is Making An Xbox Live-Like Cash Cow Of Its Own
By 5.26.10
Citing a swirl of whispers around the video game media world, 1Up reports Sony is set to announce PSN+, which will shake down gamers for $5 to $10 a month for perks such as cross-game voice chat, free play of the first hour of downloadable games and access to a rotating list of downloadable games. Online play should remain free for non PSN+ members, unlike Xbox Live. [More]
Google Took Bite Out Of Workplace Productivity With Pac-Man Game
By 5.26.10
That Pac-Man minigame Google stuck on its homepage Friday chomped up desk jockeys’ worktime, sucking up 5 million hours into impromptu power pellet crunching and ghost chasing, according to data from software company Rescue Time. [More]
GameStop Beefs Up Loyalty Program
By 5.25.10
Perhaps in response to game publishers undercutting the value of its used games by stripping them of online play, GameStop is rolling out a new PowerUp rewards card that gives customers points for used and new game purchases, giving them discounts as well as coupons for food and movies. [More]
HBO To Start Gouging PS3 Owners As Well As Pay TV Customers
By 5.25.10
HBO is putting its shows up for download on the PlayStation 3, NASDAQ reports, but its $3-per-hourlong episode pricing is even nastier than its monthly charge for cable and satellite subscribers — about $20 on Comcast in my neck of the woods. [More]
I Preordered Mario But GameStop Told Me My Princess Is In Another Cancel
By 5.24.10
Brian loves him some Mario, so he pre-ordered seven copies of Super Mario Galaxy 2 at GameStop. When he went to pick up his games yesterday, when it was released, he was stonewalled and told the store could only give him five copies. Never mind he already had paid for all of them in full. [More]
Google Wants To Sell You Web Browser Games, Apps
By 5.20.10
Imitating Apple’s concept of selling apps for devices through a unified storefront, Engadget reports Google announced it’s going to launch a Chrome web store that will offer a lot of stuff you can find on the App Store, including games such as Plants vs. Zombies. Engadget raves about a Sports Illustrated app: [More]
Tragedy Strikes: Facebook And Farmville Make Nice
By 5.19.10
Facebook and Farmville and Mafia Wars-makers Zynga were bickering over in-game currency and the social network took a stand that hampered the game publisher’s ability to advertise through pseudo-updated on the site, causing the games to lose millions of players. [More]
Sell Games Online To Avoid GameStop Flop
By 5.18.10
Gamers kvetch about the walk of shame that ends with flopping a stack of used games onto the counter of GameStop or some other used game business for pennies on the dollar. Selling your stuff online via eBay or Amazon is another option, but that requires tenaciousness and responsibility. [More]
Sony Likely Planning Pay Online Service, PSP Follow-Up
By 5.18.10
Gaming blog VG247 sleuthed a couple of tidbits of Sony’s plans to grab some more money from loyal customers. According to the site’s sources, the company wants to institute a $50 a year premium online service, possibly giving subscribers a downloadable game a month if they pay a monthly fee. Thankfully Sony won’t go the Xbox Live route and gouge players to play online. [More]
Video Game Industry Drawing In Users With Free Versions
By 5.16.10
Influencing people to buy things in times of economic hardship ain’t easy, but the video game industry has figured out how to lure reluctant shoppers: Freebies! By offering free versions of their games, video game marketers are drawing in users from unlikely demographic areas, namely, women and the elderly. [More]
Walmart Giving Used Games Another Go
By 5.11.10
After trying and failing at the GameStop-dominated used games biz, Walmart is taking a mulligan and making another run and used game trade-ins and sales, partnering with Game Trade in the effort to gives you pennies on the dollar for that not-so-old copy of Mass Effect 2. [More]
An Online Thief Spent $100 Of My Money On World Of Warcraft
By 5.10.10
Amanda says someone managed to nab her credit card info and tried to stick her with $500 in World of Warcraft charges. Most of the charges didn’t go through, but she remained $100 in the hole until she got a refund. It’s enough to make someone want to go on a Death Knight rampage. [More]
GameStop Doesn't Want You To Buy A Used Copy Of Fallout 3
By 5.5.10
Reader theSteve spotted a pricing quirk on GameStop’s website that rendered a new copy of Fallout 3 cheaper than a used version. [More]
Sony Moves Into The Protection Racket
By 5.4.10
No longer content to let retailers like Best Buy have all the fun — and ludicrous profit margin — Sony is selling extended warranties on its PlayStation products straight from the company. [More]
