Games

As reported on Tuesday, the video game industry's official showcase event, E3, is getting its latest makeover.

On Tuesday, Newsweek first reported that the show, which in recent years had shrunk from its heyday as a mammoth event with a capital E to a smaller, invite-only confab, would be returning to its big, loud roots.

At the time, the Entertainment Software Association, which represents the industry, said it had no comment on the news and would make an announcement when "appropriate."

I suppose that Wednesday, just 24 hours later, was as appropriate a time as any to … Read more

Amazon.com has acquired Reflexive Entertainment, adding to its PC, Mac, and online casual game offerings.

Reflexive, which announced the acquisition earlier this week in a blog post by Chief Executive Lars Brubaker, said the deal will provide a larger distribution channel than it previously had.

Reflexive also noted that game developers can still submit their work to the site and will continue to have access to its GameCenterSolution.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Updated at 4:13 p.m. PDT: This story now includes more information from the press event announcing 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' at LucasArts Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO--At a press event at LucasArts' headquarters in the Presidio here Tuesday afternoon, LucasArts and BioWare unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, a new massively multiplayer online game.

The game is set about 350 years after the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games and about 3,500 years before the Star Wars movies.

The companies did not divulge a release date and it appears that they will not show any … Read more

Updated 1:42 p.m. PDT: Adds Microsoft comment.

At E3 last summer, Microsoft said it would soon be unveiling a new piece of its larger Xbox Live puzzle known as "Primetime." Essentially, it would be an ongoing series of game shows that players could participate in with friends using the soon-to-launch new Xbox Live Experience.

But Forbes reported Wednesday that Microsoft has decided to put off the launch of the Primetime element of XBE until spring, citing technical reasons.

"Aaron Greenberg, group marketing manager for Microsoft, said the company is still very dedicated to the concept of Primetime and continues to work on it," Forbes reported. "And, to be honest, the Redmond, Wash., team could find a way to make the delay a good move ultimately. If nothing else, the company will have more time to polish Primetime."

The plan, however, had been that the Primetime offering would be integral to the full Xbox Live Experience, which is scheduled for a Nov. 19 launch. Now it appears that Microsoft is going to have to tuck its tail a little bit between its legs as it pulls back on that original E3 promise. … Read more

Update (11:31 a.m. PST): This story now reflects the ESA's response to a request for comment on this story.

If ever there was an event with an identity crisis, it's the video game industry's signature confab, E3.

For years, E3 was known as one of the largest, loudest, and most exhausting industry events in the world. Held each May at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it attracted more than 60,000 people--who had to be at least vaguely associated with the industry--most of whom departed at the end of the week with sore feet from … Read more

While Macs have long been the preferred computer of the creative class, gamers have generally looked at the machines and said, essentially, thanks but no thanks.

That tech truism could be on the verge of disappearing forever in the wake of Apple's announcement Tuesday that the newest high-end MacBook Pro model will have the graphics processing firepower--thanks to the inclusion of the Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT chip--to finally give hard-core video game players what they want.

"It's more of a gaming machine than the old MacBook Pro," said Mike Schramm, a blogger who writes for both … Read more

NEW YORK--This may be the last year that video game giant Electronic Arts releases a title that doesn't log on to the Internet, CEO John Riccitiello said in a keynote address at the Media & Money Conference here Tuesday.

That's a testament to how quickly the game industry is evolving, Riccitiello explained. "If you go back three, five, seven years ago, a video game was entirely captured on a disc that we sold. We were in the packaged goods business." Things have changed: "Today what we do, more typically, is we build an online game … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has closed its nearly two-year antitrust investigation into ATI Technologies, a graphics chip company it acquired shortly before the investigation began.

The Justice Department has decided not to take action against the company regarding ATI's pricing and marketing practices.

In December 2006, antitrust regulators began to investigate ATI and Nvidia, the two largest add-in graphics technology players, for possible antitrust violations within the graphics processing unit and cards industry. AMD acquired … Read more

Whether you're one of the legions of hard-core Xbox players or someone who's only played with the game console casually, get ready for an all-new Xbox Live.

Since the first announcement of the new approach to the massively popular service at E3 in July, some longtime fans have fretted that Microsoft is morphing it into a place for purely casual players at the expense of those for whom Xbox Live is nearly as much a home as where they actually live.

Well, based on a demo I got recently of the (not quite finished) new version of Xbox Live, I'd have to say, fret no more.

Dubbed the new "Xbox Live Experience," this re-launched service--which is rumored to be launching in November, but which Microsoft will only say is due "before Christmas"--really does seem to have something for everyone: an easy-to-use graphical interface complete with deeply customizable avatars that casual players will enjoy, and all kinds of new functionality that will actually reward the dedication of the hard-core Xbox player.

Microsoft readily admits that there may be a bit of a transition period for those core players--a time during which a lot of griping might be heard--but the company fully expects a gradual realization on the part of those players that the new service takes the existing Xbox Live and adds all kinds of new community and interactive functions to it.

And, again, I would have to agree.

To date, the Xbox Live interface has been based on what are called blades, essentially pages of information stacked on top of each other in such as way as to maximize the number of choices Xbox Live players have and the directions in which they can go. They can see lists of games to play, choose to watch a movie, go into a section to buy add-ons for games, and so on. The new interface largely does away with the blades era and moves into a more advanced motif of full windows that spread out on the screen and stretch off into the distance, allowing users to shuttle through them, left to right or right to left.

But that's getting a little too far ahead. … Read more