Gaming

PC gadget maker Logitech took the wraps off a box of new goodies for PC game enthusiasts, including a programmable keyboard with an LCD display and two mice with laser tracking technology.

All three products are designed to tap into a video games industry (hardware, software and accessories) that The NPD Group estimates just reached $4.1 billion for the first half of this year--June to July. That's an increase of 21 percent over the $3.4 billion the analyst firm found in the first half of 2004.

Logitech's new G15 keyboard ($79.99) features a built-in LCD … Read more

An Alabama jury took just one hour to convict a 20-year-old who had killed three police officers, and whose lawyers claimed that Grand Theft Auto made him do it, the Associated Press reports.

Good for the jury, I say. It's an absurd contention that game players relinquish moral responsibility for their actions, because they've somehow been hypnotized by playing. More dangerous is the assertion made in the police officers' civil suit against the Grand Theft Auto creators, seeking to hold Take-Two Interactive Software responsible for the deaths, however.

Yes, the boy played the violent game. Yes, he apparently … Read more

Playing video games shouldn't be a way to qualify for the Darwin Awards, but thanks to a South Korean man, that seems to no longer be true.

According to Reuters, the man, identified only by his family name, Lee, died after a 50-hour binge in which he played online battle simulation games almost nonstop. Police in the southeastern city of Taegu said the 28-year-old man died of heart failure nearly three days after sitting down for the first time at a cybercafe there.

The only times he got up, apparently, was to visit the bathroom, eat or take a … Read more

When Nintendo first released its much-anticipated handheld game device, the DS, last year, it excitedly promoted many things about it. The dual screens, for example. The stylus. The fact that it was released before Sony's mini-wonder, the PSP.

But one thing it didn't talk too much about was that the DS has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, and in fact one of the basic DS games, "Pictochat," incorporates that feature so that many players can play together wirelessly when in close proximity.

But even as Nintendo was staying largely mum about Wi-Fi on the DS, a lot of … Read more

For some time, Blizzard Entertainment, which publishes the massively popular massively multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft," has had its many people under two roofs.

It had a Blizzard North operation in San Mateo, California, where games such as "Diablo" and "Diablo II" were developed, and a Blizzard South location in Irvine, California, where WoW and "StarCraft" were done.

Now, Gamasutra reports, Blizzard is getting all touchy-feely and uniting its disparate PC development teams under a single Irvine roof.

"We're looking forward to having our PC development teams together in … Read more

Since the releases of the next-generation game consoles are many months away, there's not much for those of us interested in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution to do but speculate and bandy about reporting from informed inside sources.

Thus, this space is happy to report that PSM Magazine has an article in its September issue in which it writes that Sony plans to upgrade the PS3 hardware even beyond the super-machine it showed off at E3 in May. The article says the PS3 will get even more system memory than it originally said.

In addition, the … Read more

Over the last few years, while the world of online games focused on the success of titles like "Everquest" and "World of Warcraft" and the huge numbers of people playing online in South Korea, little notice was given to the fact that China had become one of, if not the, largest markets of so-called massively multiplayer online games.

Now word comes from the Chinese publication Shanghai Youth that the government in Beijing has decided to invest $1.8 billion in the development of as many as 100 different kinds of online games.

According to the publication, … Read more

As if a couple of weeks of bad publicity wasn't enough, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has now apparently been banned outright in Australia.

According to Game Insider, the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has dictated that because of the cartoon sex that can be uncovered in the game, it no longer qualifies for an age 15-and-under rating, meaning it is no longer eligible to be sold anywhere Down Under.

As has been the case with just about every other development in the entire so-called Hot Coffee scandal--GTA developer Take Two Interactive being investigated … Read more

A shutdown notice from the RIAA received by a Web site hosting machinima videos created using video game engines has turned out to be a hoax. But that didn't stop more than 700 people from signing an online petition decrying the RIAA's move.

The popular culture blog BoingBoing reported on Tuesday that the recording industry lobbying association had sent a letter demanding that RPGFilms.net cease hosting music videos incorporating RIAA-member content.

But on Wednesday, BoingBoing noted that the whole thing had been a hoax.

BoingBoing co-editor Cory Doctorow interviewed RIAA director of communications Jenni Engebretsen about the … Read more