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Xbox 360 Ad Wins Best of Show ADDY Award
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Xbox 360,
Microsoft may have received some bad press for their extremely inventive “bang” Xbox 360 ad, but it appears that the advertising community in general has finally recognized Microsoft’s Xbox ad agency for their great work. The “Jump Rope” ad, which you can see here has won the ADDY Best of Show award.
Of course, while the ads are quite amazing, (the double-dutch jump rope ad was shot in one take!) a lot of folks might not have known these had anything to do with the Xbox 360 console - as the logo only appears in the last few seconds.
Read More 
| GameDaily.com
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Another trailer has been leaked/released for Chrome Hounds, one of the most highly anticipated games for the Xbox 360. Chrome Hounds is a combat game centered around “Hounds” which are huge mechanized fighting machines. Chrome Hounds is set to bring mech. fighting action to the Xbox 360 on July 11th. One of many exciting features of Chrome Hounds is the ability to command your computer teammates with the Xbox 360 headset allowing for better control of your own Hound. The game is a welcome addition to the Xbox 360 for mech. fans, especially since the Original Xbox mech. games have yet to make it into a backwards compatibility update.
Read More | Sega
Bad Week For Gold Farmers
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Internet, MMORPG, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360,
This week proved to be a bad week for gold farmers. Blizzard first announced that they have closed over 30,000 accounts in their MMORPG, World of Warcraft. Along with these accounts, over 30 million in gold was removed from affected in game economies. Square Enix followed up with a statement saying that, following an in depth investigation, they have removed 250 accounts that were participating in what they call “Real Money Trading” or RMT in their online game Final Fantasy XI. Square’s instance was a little different, in that the traders in Final Fantasy were more heavily using item and gold duping hacks to gain vast amounts of the in-game currency, gil. Over 250 billion gil was removed from the Final Fantasy servers in this operation. Given the resources available to gold farmers, it is doubtful that these measures will have a lasting affect on the RPGs, but do make for a good show of faith from both Square and Blizzard.
Read More | World of Warcraft Forums
Read More | PlayOnline.com
The title of “hard-core gamer” officially has a luxury price tag attached to it, as game console prices and the cost of outfitting PC’s with the latest high-end gaming capability climb to the stratosphere. For an industry which thrives upon technology upgrades, it’s a good thing that gamers who crave the bragging rights of being the first on their block to own the latest thing are largely insensitive to prices. However, some are wondering if the video game industry might be about to face its first dip within the “rush-to-upgrade” demographic. “You never had to buy a new TV before to play video games,” said Michael Pachter, a video game analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. Industry analysts like Pachter fear that the sharp price increase required to upgrade to the latest consoles in particular will keep the average gamer sidelined. If the video game industry forces the majority of its customers out of the game, it will eventually only succeed in bringing about its own demise. But for now, the early-adopters are enjoying the ride.
Read More | Yahoo.com
As revenue from in-game advertising rises, the market for video game advertising is poised to explode. “Revenue from in-game advertising was $56 million last year, but that figure is expected to grow to at least $732 million by 2010, according to the Yankee Group.” The increasing cost of bringing the latest high-end gaming experience to market has persuaded more and more video game developers to become accepting of advertisements being placed within their games. And now with the boom in online gaming, advertisers are excited by the prospect of offering more timely messages and updating their product placements on-demand. “Dynamic advertising is still in its infancy,” but because game console manufacturers have now effectively bundled online gaming networks with their consoles, the market is really starting to heat up.
Read More | SFGate
Video Games Used In Minneapolis English Class
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Culture, PlayStation 2,
An eighth grade English class in Minneapolis has started using video games to engage students in learning. The students are drawing parallels between the video games and other literature read in class as well as studying the plot of video games. Recently a student noted the similarity between Sonic the Hedgehog’s journey home and the plight of Odysseus. Brock Dubbel, the instructor, acquired the video game equipment on Craigslist as well as accumulating equipment from around the building. Mr. Dubbel also teaches a summer course to educators on using video games as a tool to educate their students. This is a prime example of how video games can be a positive experience for today’s youth. Somebody should copy Hillary Clinton on the article.
Read More | WCCO
More Wii Rumors: Wii Camera Under the “Secret Slot”?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
NintendoGossip is reporting on an image found in some promotional E3 materials that shows the Wii with its “Secret Slot” open (i.e., the flap beneath the blue-lit drive). The image looks a bit iffy - the plastic shown under the secret slot doesn’t appear to match very well with the rest of the console, which is very odd for a company that has placed so much emphasis on design recently. Still, it’s interesting to speculate on what can be seen - there’s a fairly obvious port for memory cards, but also a round port or lens located towards the top of the secret slot. NintendoGossip and Kotaku are suggesting that perhaps this could be the rumored Wii-camera that allows you to “put your face in the game” as Miyamoto suggested.
We’ll file this one firmly in the “rumors that probably won’t come true but would be nice if they did” bin for now. Hopefully after their competitors announce their final specs Nintendo can finally give away the last of the secrets they’ve been keeping on the Wii.
Read More | NintendoGossip.com via Kotaku.com
Last week’s “Sex in Video Games” Conference spawned some interesting discussions, including one on “Emergent Sex,” or the “salacious activities that show up in non-sexual games.” Players who bond while adventuring together online will sometimes take the game play to another level by engaging in virtual sex. And this even occurs in games that don’t allow the avatars to fully disrobe – the people controlling the virtual characters just have “to get very creative.” Sex happens, in even the virtual world.
However, the biggest question lurking beneath every discussion at the conference was whether money could made from combining these two already lucrative industries, namely the adult entertainment and the video game industries. Although some conference participants expressed worries that adult content and video games could never lawfully marry, others were already developing games with explicit sexual content. Gabe Zichermann, the marketer who handled the “adults only” version of “Leisure Suit Larry,” stated that, “As long as companies create an “adult content” catalog that’s separate from its “family friendly” catalog, he said it’s easy to reach adult and mainstream markets without backlash.” Considering the enthusiasm of conference participants, it’s only a matter of time before adult-oriented video games become mass-market items.
Read More | Wired
Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility Update Available
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Retro, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Major Nelson reports that the promised backward compatibility update is now available via Xbox Live. The update includes the following new titles:
- 4x4 EVO 2
- Amped 2
- Bad Boys 2
- Big Mutha Truckers
- DOOM 3
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Fatal Frame
- FlatOut
- Grabbed by the Ghoulies
- Intellivision Lives
- LEGO® Star Wars
- Minority Report
- MLB SlugFest 20-04
- The Punisher
- RalliSport Challenge
- Silent Hill 4: The Room
- Spawn Armageddon
- Spider-Man
- Star Wars Battlefront
- State of Emergency
- Zapper
In addition, the following Japanese-only titles are now supported: Bistro Cupid 1, Flight Academy, Othello Seminar, Igo Seminar, Shogi Seminar, and Mahjong Seminar. The highlights are probably Doom 3, Star Wars Battlefront, and RalliSport Challenge. Its also nice to see a Rare title on the list, but it looks like Conker is still not supported. Other titles still AWOL from the backward compatibility list include both of the MechAssault titles, among others, but it looks like they are making good progress in getting more original Xbox support out there. For those gamers without Xbox Live, a CD-burnable update and physical media should be available soon.
Read More | Major Nelson
The new HDMI 1.3 specification was recently announced, and the largest change, according to Extremetech, is a bandwidth increase from 165 MHz to over 225 MHz. The net effect of this change means that displays will be able to support 1080p displays at up to 90hz, or a 1080p 60hz display supporting 36-bit color or “deep color.” Leslie Chard, President of Licensing for HDMI, explains the limitations of 24-bit color: “that gets you 16 million colors, and the human eye can distinguish… That leads to scaling and onscreen effects which you can pick up. Either 36-bit or 48-bit RGB is beyond the ability of the human eye to distinguish.” The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD specifications technically allow for deep color support, but neither has officially announced availability. Gamers will note, however, that the PS3 will supposedly support the deep color specification, adding one more reason why the HDMI-capable PS3 should be favored. Of course, current digital televisions don’t support the deep color specification, as most are based around HDMI 1.1 or 1.2. The consumer electronics industry should be selling televisions with support for the new specification by this holiday season, adding one more expensive item the hard-core will need to experience the PS3 to the fullest.
Read More | ExtremeTech
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