The only two companies ever to win Consumerist’s Worst Company In America award more than once are now teaming up for realsies. Comcast and EA are unveiling a new set-top streaming gaming service together, and it looks like a resounding “meh.” [More]
video games
How Do Video Game Publishers Continue To Get Away With Mistreating Their Customers?
By 6.17.15
It’s E3 time: the annual video game conference — still, barely nominally, a trade show — is taking place this week in Los Angeles, drawing developers, publishers, and media from around the world to gawk at titles large and small. From Facebook games to Fallout, everything is on display… including the long history of the contentious, adversarial relationship between the companies that make the games and the consumers who play them. [More]
Steam Summer Sale Has Deep Video Game Discounts… And Pricing Shenanigans That Confuse Consumers
By 6.12.15
For 125 million gamers who prefer to play on their computers, Steam is the online retailer of choice, especially when it runs one of its huge seasonal sales. But while these promotions, like the current “Monster Summer Sale,” offer what appear to be deep discounts, Steam is also repeatedly accused of artificially inflating prices to make these savings look better than they are. [More]
From Pac-Man To Pong, Tetris To Super Mario Bros.: Video Game Hall Of Fame Welcomes Its Inaugural Class
By 6.5.15
From a white ball bouncing back and forth on a screen to a duo of plumber brothers, the history of video games has been relatively short but packed with a wide array of gaming experiences. To honor some of the first greats, the World Video Game Hall of Fame has inducted its inaugural class, including Pong and Super Mario Bros. on the list, among others. [More]
Yes, You Can Be Prosecuted For Stealing Gold, Weapons From Video Game Characters
By 5.21.15
In the Big Bang Theory episode “The Zarnecki Incursion,” Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account is hacked and his in-game character is robbed of all its amassed treasure and weaponry. The local police and FBI both laugh off his demands to track down the virtual thief, but in the real world there are prosecutors going after this new form of criminal. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Excavate More Decade-Old Video Games
By 5.7.15
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are an elite squad who comb the retail stores of North America for rare and precious antiquities. No, Walmart hasn’t taken to selling actual fossils: these are Information Age antiquities, or old video games for older consoles with inexplicably high prices. [More]
Colorado DOT Installing Fake Arcade Racing Game At Pot Shops To Warn Players Against Driving While High
By 4.16.15
Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado, state officials want to make sure that drivers know it’s not just alcohol that shouldn’t be with you behind the wheel, but pot as well. The state’s Department of Transportation is publicizing that message ahead of the April 20 (4/20) celebrations in the state by way of a fake driving game installed at various dispensaries. [More]
GameStop Wants You To Trade In All Those Dusty, “Retro” Consoles, Games & Accessories
By 4.15.15
Nostalgia is all well and good, but it won’t change that dust-coated Nintendo you’ve had sitting around into anything useful. GameStop, on the other hand, says it wants to do just that with the pilot of a new “retro” consoles, games and accessories trade-in program in two cities starting April 25. [More]
How The Gaming Industry Uses Copyright To Prevent You From Playing Abandoned Games
By 4.9.15
It seems like every few months we hear about another video game that the publisher has decided it’s no longer worthwhile to support. Once upon a time, that merely meant no more patches or new content. But now that more frequently means that much, if not all, of that game is now unplayable because gamers will no longer be able to access the servers needed to play or authenticate the title. And it’s all perfectly legal thanks to the infamous Digital Millennium Copyright Act. [More]
Nintendo Announces Plans To Make Games For Mobile Devices
By 3.17.15
Have a hankering to play Super Mario at the bus stop but don’t have the portable gaming console to satisfy that urge? Soon video games from Nintendo will make the move from consoles to mobile devices, as the company announces a partnership with an online gaming firm to develop and operate new apps. [More]
N.Y. Museum Announces Creation Of World Video Game Hall Of Fame
By 2.17.15
Why should traditional toys have all the accolades? Not content to keep all the honors for toy soldiers and board games, the upstate New York museum that runs the National Toy Hall of Fame is adding a new attraction to its rolls with a new World Video Game Hall of Fame. [More]
Video Game Simulates The Singular Thrill Of Assembling IKEA Furniture
By 1.29.15
Unlike many of my friends, I enjoy assembling IKEA furniture — to a point. I have been known to utter a few Scandinavian profanities after a few days of shredding my fingers with an allen wrench. Now a video game will apparently allow me to enjoy that unique thrill of putting together a nonsense-named end table without enduring any physical or spiritual injuries. [More]
Flappy Bird Is Now A Real-Life Arcade Game
By 1.12.15
We’re fascinated with the saga of “Flappy Bird” here at Consumerist, mostly because of the creator’s reaction to the success of his infuriatingly simple game. He yanked it from app marketplaces even though it was raking in ad money, then put it back after the fad had faded a bit. Wouldn’t you rather pump quarters into a dedicated Flappy Bird game cabinet? [More]
GameStop: Industry Needs Market For Used Downloads If It Wants To Keep Charging $60
By 1.8.15
While GameStop brazenly believes it can weather competition in the used game business from bigger retail competition like Walmart, the company faces a more deadly foe in a future marketplace where most games are downloaded. Currently, there are no industry-supported methods for reselling digital games, but GameStop says it will have to happen — not just for its bottom line, but so that game publishers can continue charging top dollar. [More]
The Oregon Trail Lives Again In Browsers As The Internet Archive Adds 2,400 MS-DOS Games
By 1.7.15
You’ve been missing it for so long, you didn’t even know it until now, when the sweet feelings of relief are about to wash over you: You can play The Oregon Trail again in most Internet browsers, no MS-DOS needed, thanks to its addition along with around 2,400 titles to The Internet Archive this week. [More]
Sony’s PlayStation Now Netflix-Style Game Streaming Rental Subscription Service To Launch Jan. 13
By 1.5.15
It’s been a full year since Sony announced their Playstation Now streaming game service at last year’s CES. The streaming, cloud-based, Netflix-style solution to keeping old video games available on newer hardware seemed like a great idea, but details (and access) were slow to materialize. [More]
Sony’s PlayStation Now Coming To Samsung Smart TVs
By 12.24.14
Nearly a year ago at CES 2014, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai announced PlayStation Now, a cloud-based gaming service that would lets users access PlayStation 3 games without requiring a PS3. The service has thus far been available only on Sony devices, but the company confirmed today that it will bring PS Now to Samsung Smart TVs at some point in 2015. [More]
Assassin’s Creed Season Pass Owners Who Take Free Game Offer Give Up Right To Sue Ubisoft
By 12.22.14
Right before Thanksgiving, Ubisoft acknowledged that it botched the launch of the much-anticipated game Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and that people who bought the title early would be offered make-goods of free content. Now that the first of those freebies has gone live, users are realizing it comes with a catch — give up your right to sue. [More]
