Gaming

For all the excitement that follows Nintendo's Wii and big-name releases for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, the video game industry is hardly impervious to attack by a spiraling global economy. Now, word comes that a fan-favorite ... developer and Microsoft are both laying off staff. The worst news might be word that 3D Realms, best known as the developer for the sensationally popular mid-90s hit Duke Nukem 3D, will close its doors, laying off all of its employees. Two decades ago 3D Realms began life as Garland, Texas' Apogee Software, owned and administered by Scott Miller and ... (view more)

Gamers love war simulators. The chance to virtually step into the shoes of American troops storming Normandy, Iwo Jima, or Sicily is hard to pass up for fans of shooters, but it seems it's still too early for a similar game based on the Iraq war. ... Legendary game publisher Konami has announced that it recently decided to kill its upcoming title "Six Days in Fallujah," a game based on the famous Iraq battle. Developed by Atomic Games (well known by PC gamers for their much-praised Close Combat strategy franchise), the game was to follow characters into the Second Battle of Fallujah from a third- ... (view more)

Think video games are wasting away a new generation of frag-happy, overweight teens? Nutritionists might have good reason to be worried, but optometrists could soon be pushing action games on patients after a recent study found they can actually ... improve eye sight. According to a study launched by the University of Rochester in New York, those participants who played a significant amount of action video games were better able to differentiate between varying shades of gray. Doesn't sound notable? Well, researchers believe it could actually help people see at night, particularly when they're ... (view more)

The Nintendo DS has officially sold 100,000,000 times. The feat, which Nintendo estimates must have occurred somewhere around March 6 puts the DS in an elite league with just four other systems. The milestone lands the ubiquitous DS, which features ... two tiny screens and a handy little stylus with touch screen capabilities, in the same ballpark as previous handheld champion, the Game Boy (including the Game Boy Color). Also in the plus-100 million club are two Sony systems, including the very popular PlayStation 1 and its heir, the PlayStation 2. (Source: gamasutra.com ) That 'other' Nintendo ... (view more)

While Nintendo boasts that its Wii can make you fit, the game company's popular line of DS "Brain Games" have for some time promised to make kids smarter by challenging them with word puzzles and math formulas. However, a French professor isn't ... buying the shtick. University of Rennes professor Alain Lieury, a cognitive psychology specialist in Brittany, France, recently studied a group of ten year old children playing a variety of mentally-challenging games. Not all were video games, however; Lieury pit more traditional games (including sudoku, Scrabble, and regular old reading and homework) ... (view more)

Despite its recognizable blue-and-gold logo and the popularity of its big box stores across North America, Best Buy does not appear to have emerged from a slow holiday season unscathed. In fact, according to reports released last week, the ... electronics giant actually posted significant sales losses in one of its most prominent markets. A report released late last week discussing Best Buy's fiscal month ending January 3 revealed that the company's video game sales had dropped significantly. According to industry insiders Gamespot, this year's holiday revenue was generally much lower for the ... (view more)

Shocking news for long-time gamers this week, with reports that Ziff Davis publishing will end production of its popular magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM). In addition, it has sold fan-favorite web site 1up.com to UGO, which in turn has ... terminated the gaming page. At first, news that UGO had acquired the site didn't seem all bad for 1up.com employees. UGO chief executive officer J. Moses told the media that the acquisition of 1up.com would allow his company "to expand our base of quality content and represents a major step forward in UGO's mission to become the leader in the games ... (view more)

The Playstation 2 is eight years old, but it's still the most-played console in America. The news comes with figures that also show the 23-year-old game Tetris continuing to succeed in the mobile age. The new stats come from Nielsen Media, the firm ... best known for producing television ratings. As well as asking panel participants to provide details of programs they watch (both through diaries and automatic metering equipment), the firm measures activity across a range of entertainment. The games console figures are based on how long users spend playing games. The figures for 2008 show that of ... (view more)

Last week I reported that Electronic Arts, the largest and most powerful video game publisher in the world, had cancelled plans to open a new studio in lovely downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Well, it seems EA's problems run much deeper -- in ... fact, the game company recently announced it will lay off a large portion of its workforce. According to reports, EA will eliminate one-tenth of its entire workforce as part of a broad restructuring plan meant to maximize profits and stop the bleeding caused by a dragging economy and slow holiday sales. Although this is not the first word of EA's ... (view more)

Despite its line of popular holiday sports titles and a few new favorites (including the critically-acclaimed Dead Space), even video game giant Electronic Arts has hit a patchy skid due to the slowing U.S. economy. The company recently revealed ... that it has cancelled plans to open a new studio in Vancouver, British Columbia. For those of you unfamiliar with Electronic Arts, or EA, the company is by far the largest games publisher in the world. Franchises like Need for Speed, Burnout, Madden NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB routinely top sales, and in the case of NHL, ratings charts. Despite the ... (view more)