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November 18, 2010
Going used, is it a problem or not?
Danny Bilson is the Vice President of core gaming at THQ. THQ has been around since 1989 and some of the popular franchises are Red Faction, Saints Rows and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw. In an interview Bilson was making comments about the next steps for THQ. Ever since he left EA to join THQ in 2008 the company has taken a new turn. For example, Bilson discussed that games need to made as if they were going to be a hits. When Darksiders 1 came out In January 2010, there was already a green light for Darksiders 2. The biggest thing Bilson wants to do is have a blockbuster title per quarter over the next two and half years.
I thought it was interesting listening to a business man talk about what a video game/publisher company needs to do. The most interesting thing Bilson talked about was the problems in the gaming industry. Bilson was asked, "What a big problem with the video game industry?"Â He responded USED GAMES. I've thought about this myself,
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November 16, 2010
Games & News: Silent Hill movie sequel to come soon
Silent Hill, is coming back to movie theaters, this time it's based on Silent Hill 3 and in 3D. Fangoria reports that the next Silent Hill movie, Silent Hill Revelation, will tell the tale of the third game's main character Heather Mason and the search for her father.
The official synopsis reads is that Heather Mason and her father have been on the run and one step ahead of forces she can't understand. On the eve of her 18th birthday, she is plagued by her nightmares and her disappearing father. In addition, she discovers she's not who she is."Â
This movie will be somewhat based
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November 13, 2010
Industry News: Marky Mark with a Big Heart to give out 360s
Mark Walhberg (known to this blogger as Marky Mark) has teamed up with Microsoft in providing thousands of Boys & Girls Clubs across the nation with Xbox 360s and Kinects. For more than a hundred years, the Boys & Girls Club of America has been helping underprivileged children become more productive and caring people as they grow. Today, they have nearly four thousand clubs and serve more than four million young people across the country.
Mark Wahlberg was once a member, and he's giving back with some help from Microsoft by giving out Kinects and Xbox consoles. "I've experienced firsthand
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November 11, 2010
Industry News - Avenida de Super Mario Bros. opens!
November (and the whole Fall of 2010, really) marked a huge milestone for our friend Super Mario! As of this weekend, a parade of violins and cellos playing the theme song, a crowd wild wearing fake black mustaches and the signature overall/hat pairing, and mascots galore partied on the unveil the brand new "Avenida de Super Mario Bros" in Zaragosa, Spain (Super Mario Bros Avenue for those of you who don't "habla Español"Â).
The brand new Arcosur neighborhood is still under construction and future
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November 11, 2010
Industry News - Game Law has no interest to the California Courts
There was little interest on November 2nd's presentation of a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. The law has already been made invalidated by lower federal courts and justices appear to follow its steps.
The hour long debate took a look at the sale/rental of video games that "appeal to a deviant or morbid interest of minors"Â. Critics of the law like those of the trade association representing video game industry, believe its too broad of a law and violates First Amendment speech protections.
The backers of the law written and proposed by Democrat Senator Leland
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November 09, 2010
Gamer News view - Patience
It's expensive to be a gamer, new games come out all the time and it's difficult to stay on top of releases. Quality titles are becoming more spread out as the investors behind them get afraid of launch windows that carry larger more well known titles. Gears of War 3 was pushed back to Fall 2011 and I guarantee that games projected to come out around that time are being rushed to come out before then, or are being given more development time to come out later. Economic times are tough right now and every publisher wants our money.
But really, if we were smart, we'd wait a year before purchasing any game, because in the long run, that would save us money. Anyone that uses Amazon has probably noticed how quickly games that aren't triple-A titles drop in price, but even those come down eventually. BioShock 2 came out a little over 8 months ago and is now only $27.99 brand new. That's a much better price then the original $59.99 we'd pay on day 1. We
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November 05, 2010
Console News - Update in XBOX Dashboard
For those that did not know, Microsoft Kinects will be launching on November 4th in the U.S. Microsoft plans to release a dozen games immediate and has five more waiting to come. I'm looking for Kinects to come out because I'm interested on what games I will be able to play. Gamer will be able to work on their dance moves with games like, Dance Central. There will be others working on their fitness with games like, Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout.
Those games are going to be fun for the friends and family to all participate in. With a new
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November 05, 2010
Industry News - Win a Kinect with a Whopper meal.
Between November 1 through November 28, all you have to do at a BK is order a Whopper Extra Value meal and you can get a chance to get a 4GB XBox 360 Kinect bundle (once every FIFTEEN minutes).The bundle contains a XBox 360 console (4gig memory), a Kinect sensor, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect sports. To enter and win you will have to order a value meal, then take the codes from the sandwich wrappers, drinks, and fries container and text them to a special number to enter.
Pretty ingenious...and a giant kick in my diet program. ÂÂFirst Monopoly McDonalds ends (with their chance to win things like game consoles) and now I'm drawn into buying
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November 04, 2010
Console News - XBOX LIVE reaches 1 billion hours per month
According to one of Microsoft's latest press releases, apparently Xbox Live game network users spend over one billion hours a MONTH using Xbox Live. This averages to more than 40 hours a month a member (all 25 million Live members, that is), basically, more than an hour a day for every single player.
With Microsoft's upcoming expansion from 26 countries to 35 in the month of November, that number can only substantially increase. With the addition of ESPN to Xbox Live catering to an entirely different demographic than the average game playing movie watcher, who knows how high the number will eventually
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October 23, 2010
Industry News - You can't train a soldier with video games!
Former US Marine and Iraqi Freedom veteran Benjamin Busch has come out with his opinion on the new Medal of Honor in his essay to National Public Radio (NPR). He discusses the creative changes that Medal of Honor has made in its latest game, such as changing "Taliban"Â to "Opposing Force"Â
"I honestly don't like that Medal of Honor depicts the war in Afghanistan right now, because "€œ even as fiction "€œ it equates the war with leisure of games...change the name of the enemy doesn't change who it is"ÂHe went on to include that Medal of Honor cannot train its players to be actual skilled as special Ops, nor can it convert anyone into Islamic fundamentalism and that the game is to make modern war into a participatory cinema because that is what the creators do as a business.
I took away from his essay that Benjamin is basically saying you cannot really hide from what something is truly about.