When I first heard about this, I wanted to believe it was about teeth.
Mine were still chattering from a piece of research performed by the University of Iowa that suggested that young gamers enjoyed more cavities. I experienced a severe attack of lockjaw, however, at the news that Korea--that's the nice Korea without the strange leader with dead Elvis' hair-- has imposed a nighttime ban on certain online games.
It seems, though, that the Korean government is less concerned about young gamers' molars and more concerned about their deep-seated obsession with being deep seated in their bedrooms into … Read more
The ongoing drama between ousted Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella and ex-employer Activision has taken another twist. Monday morning, Electronic Arts announced a deal with the pair to be the sole distributor for their newly formed studio, Respawn Entertainment. According to Zampella, the new studio will be based in the same part of Los Angeles as Infinity Ward, which created the $3 billion Call of Duty series, including last year's $1 billion hit, Modern Warfare 2.
While some studios search for years for a publishing partner, Respawn already has one lined up. Electronic Arts will be … Read more
Instant-streaming discs are on their way to all Netflix subscribers who requested one for their Nintendo Wii, the online video rental service said in a blog post Monday.
Wii owners who have been waiting for the ability to view movies and television shows on their Wii consoles via Netflix can expect to receive the discs within the next few days. After getting the disc, they need only to insert it into the Wii to access all the content on Neflix's streaming service.
All smokers smell. All buses are late. All politicians are mendacious narcissists.
Some things in life are so truly self-evident that they require no discussion. Which is why I was thrust into prehistoric hysteria by a piece of research that declared only 20 percent of the world's population believes that green people are already in our midst and enjoying our Corn Flakes.
According to Ipsos, the fine researchers of markets terrestrial and celestial, the majority of the world is still unwilling to accept that aliens are already here and disguised as us.
Gamers who use Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad are likely to be looking forward to Apple's "Game Center" network, which was announced among the other updates as part of iPhone OS 4.0. But what about the companies that are running existing social networks for the platform?
It's not the end of the world, apparently.
Ngmoco, maker of popular game titles such as Rolando, We Rule, and Touch Pets, also created the Plus+ social network. It's built in to all of its own titles, as well as a select group of games from other developers. Ngmoco's chief publishing officer, Simon Jeffrey, told CNET that the company "has anticipated this move from Apple for some time," and that it should bring a "cleaner developer and consumer experience."
But what does that mean for the Plus+ implementation that has been built into more than 75 titles? "Plus+ took a strategic shift in direction a few months ago toward being a service, and less about being a set of social-gaming features," Jeffery said in a statement. "Plus+ is all about empowering monetization and discoverability mechanisms for the development community, and we have clearly demonstrated with games like We Rule that these mechanisms work."
Discoverability was, in fact, one of the biggest benefits of using services like Plus+, but it's also something Apple plans to offer within its Game Center. Plus+'s implementation was to show you what your friends were playing, as well as show off games that had just been launched. According to the very few details mentioned by Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, during Thursday's press event, both of these things will be a part of the Game Center framework.
So does that mean that Plus+ is going to be more focused on advertising and the metrics of what users are doing within apps? If so, that's another area where Apple has delved into with its iAds platform.… Read more
He tells you he made mistakes. Terrible mistakes. He'll change. He's going to be a different man. He's going to be more respectful of life and of the game. He's rehabilitating himself. He's seen that winning golf tournaments (and, one imagines, making money) is nothing when compared with the important things. You know, like family.
Oh, go on, admit it. You watched the Tiger Woods press conference on Monday (live, naturally) and thought to yourself: "Oh, maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. My kids … Read more
Sony PlayStation 3 owners who held off on updating their systems in order to keep from losing the option to install alternate operating systems have a new glimmer of hope. Hacker George Hotz (a.k.a Geohot) has released a video of a new hack that promises to keep the alternate OS install feature, even with the 3.21 firmware update that was released last week.
Hotz says the hack is nothing more than a custom system software update that can be installed without having to do any hardware modifications, but users need to be on version 3.15 of … Read more
Don't worry, everyone. The Scrabble you know and love isn't changing.
When I read this morning that starting this July, the Scrabble rules will change to allow the use of proper nouns, I had to check today's date to make sure it wasn't somehow still April Fools' Day.
But no, according to every calendar I could find, today is April 6, and so the story from the BBC seemed to have been the real deal. In that story, a Mattel spokesperson is quoted as saying the rule change, which is expected to be introduced in a … Read more
The PlayStation 3 Slim is quickly helping Sony reassert itself in the video game industry. But it's a home console that's typically been tied to the living room television--until now.
Hori, a small hardware company in Japan, announced recently that it plans to release an HD monitor that comes with an attachment that encases the PS3 Slim and allow users to play console games on the display. According to the company, the LCD Monitor HD 3 [Google Translate Page] boasts 1366x768 resolution. It also has built-in speakers. The screen folds over the PS3's body to make it … Read more
The iPad is many things to many people, but the area where it stands to make the most change is in mobile gaming.
Until now, gamers have been left with two very different options for mobile gaming. One is user portables like the Sony PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. The other is to lug around a beefy laptop for games, which can work just fine but be a burden on your body and nomadic lifestyle.
The same way the iPhone shook things up for the world of mobile phones, the iPad could end up doing the same for portable … Read more
What's the #1 music streaming-app for iOS? Who wins in an iPhone v. S4 faceoff? We've got it covered with iPhone news, rumors, app recommendations, and more.
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