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Microsoft to Develop New Kids Properties, Buys 4Kids
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News,
Next Generation reports that Microsoft has purchased “entertainment provider and merchandiser” 4Kids Entertainment. Microsoft will develop games and other various media with the 4Kids Entertainment license.
“We are thrilled to serve as the partner of choice and act as the vehicle for Microsoft to broaden its appeal among a more mainstream market focusing on children and family entertainment,” said Alfred Kahn, chairman and CEO of 4Kids. “We are confident our strong track record in developing integrated marketing and merchandising programs designed specifically for kids will enhance the future success of Microsoft Game Studios.”
We see this move only as a good one for Microsoft. With the purchase, Microsoft will hopefully to be able to reach more with its games and media.
Read More 
| Next Generation
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A Pacific Crest analyst speculates that Sony will ship about one million PlayStation 3 units this fall in North America for launch. The analyst goes as far as saying that PS3 will likely be released in the U.S. on November 1st, in Japan over the summer, and in Europe early next year.
While this information isn’t official in any way, we feel it is a good indication of what’s to come. We doubt Sony is planning on launching the PS3 worldwide, as Microsoft did with its Xbox 360. As a result, Sony should hopefully be able to have a million units here at launch - almost three times as many 360s were available on November 22nd, 2005. Still, one million units wouldn’t be enough and we already are expecting PS3 to be the hot item come holiday 2006. So pre-order as many PS3s as soon as you can and prepare to sell extra consoles on eBay to make some landfall profits!
Read More | Kotaku
According to a Gamestop insider, the retail company is having some big troubles. The manager reports that employees are being instructed to work less hours in the name of maintaining profits. Meanwhile, store managers, who work on salary, are being told to work more hours. Upper management is also instructing its stores to make far more Game Informer subscription sales and to lock in more pre-orders.
Why is all of this supposedly happening? Based upon what the source says, these strong demands are being made to cover upper management salaries. Personally, I don’t fully buy it. It’s a known fact that game sales at the end of the year were down. Yes, upper management needs to be paid but the company has a plethora of other expenses, and the only way to pay off the expenses, and hopefully profit, would be to push more sales.
On another note, video game retailing is fiercly competitive. With other retailers, from Wal-Mart to Best Buy selling video games as well, why would anyone want to go to Gamestop when those consumers may have other non-videogame products that are sold at the other stores? Additionally, Gamestop hardly ever offers sales on its video games, while stores like Best Buy do on a somewhat regular basis.
Read More | Kotaku
Game Politics reports of police in Scotland playing PlayStation 2 video games with 13 and 14-year-old kids. The police have regularly been playing games with the kids on a weekly basis and have, amazingly enough, noticed a decline in the youth crime rate. If this isn’t solid proof that video games aren’t all bad, we don’t know what is. And aside from lowering the crime rate, the video games have provided a platform for social interacting. So isn’t it about time you started playing games with the local po-po? If you let them win, maybe they’ll rip up that parking ticket of yours
Read More | Game Politics
This one goes out to all you sports nuts out there. The Gear Live Media Network has just launched its latest site - End Score. While still in it’s infancy, we expect that End Score will quickly become your one-stop sports destination. Whether you are a fan of baseball, football, basketball, or any other sport that involves balls, we think you’ll enjoy it. Go take a look, and let us know what you think.
Read More | End Score
Watch the Original Tetris Commercial
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Strategy,
Looking for a blast from the past? Well, you may want to check out this totally awesome old-school Tetris commercial. Just in case you don’t remember, the commercial’s for Nintendo’s Tetris on the NES. While we prefer Tetris on Game Boy for its portability, Tetris on NES was a classic - as is this commercial.
Read More | Tetris Commercial
59% of teachers surveyed in Mori Poll said that they’d consider using games in their classes to educate students. While we don’t have any previous data to compare these new findings to, they’re still very significant. An increasingly high number of people play video games, more and more of them recognize the cognitive benefits of playing video games. Furthermore, even people who don’t regularly play video games are coming to understand games have such benefits through word of mouth - that is, from other people talking to them about games.
While I don’t expect students to begin playing Grand Theft Auto in classrooms around the nation, there’s high potential for other games. Back in the day on the NES, educational games such as ones that featured the Sesame Street license weren’t unheard of. Maybe we’ll begin seeing more educational titles as a result of this study. Still, I’ll be the first to jump up and say that I played Oregon Trail back in elementary school, over 10 years ago. Who knew fending off small pox could be so much fun?
Read More | Pro-G
Stream Divx Movies To Your Xbox 360
Posted by Oscar M. Cantu Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
As we all know, the Xbox 360 cannot stream Xvid and Divx movies as is. Finally, thanks to a clever piece of software, it can. Basically, you can stream the movies by converting them to WMV format on the fly, but since the conversion time is so fast, you don’t really notice that it’s happening. Follow the lengthy (but useful) instructions from Casey over at Brains-N-Brawn.com.
Read More | Brains-N-Brawn.com
Wireless Guitar Hero Controller
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 2, Strategy,
Shelled out the $80 for the Guitar Hero game and controller? Then we’re sure you’re having a blast with the game, as it’s one of the most original video games to come along in a while. But one problem we’ve had to deal with is the relatively short length of the guitar controller’s wire. It now looks like we may be able to take care of that problem.
TheDude06 over on the Make forums has posted a thread describing how to mod a Guitar Hero controller to make it wireless. The mod looks awesome - in fact, many of the Make magazine’s mods are incredibly slick - however, we’re a little worried that the mod may be a little difficult to undertake. If anyone has the courage to undertake this project, feel free to let us know how it turns out!
Read More | Make
No, we’re not talking about Nintendo’s Revolution - rather the video game industry’s revolution as a whole. While video games have become a big part of our lives, you simply can’t forget their humble origins and the sheer fact that they’re a relatively new form of entertainment. The linked PBS feature takes a great look at the history of video games - starting in the 60’s and going through recent years. Additionally, the feature covers how games have forever changed our world.
We recommend taking a look at the linked feature - it’s pretty well done.
Read More | PBS
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