Games Industry Wire

A few of the expected changes in store during today’s XBox Live Update:
HD 1080p video mode support over VGA and component cables.
Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player support.
Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11, Zune software, or Windows Media Connect.
Play video from storage devices such as USB flash drives, Xbox 360 Memory Units, etc.
Play video from CD or DVD data discs.
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset support, including battery level indicator in the Xbox Guide.
Video support for 50 Hz HDTV modes (DVD and HD DVD only).
Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel support.
Set up automatic downloads of newly …read more

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Nintendo acknowledged they are working on a regional (Japan) Wii that will play DVDs. There are no plans to bring this to the EU or US versions as DVD players, standalone, are so very cheap at this time. I got one a few months ago for $40.

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RiversRunRed is a very successful business in Second Life. Here’s the interview with Justin Bovington of RiversRunRed. It’s a great podcast, and any of you interested in how the business developed within Second Life needs to hear this podcast.
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Robyn is Robyn Fritch in Second Life. She loves to receive gifts in Linden cash ::hint hint::

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This past week has seen two video game companies get VC funding. One has already generated millions of dollars of revenue with an ARG, another is as much social as it is ‘gaming’.
1. Bunchball – A social gaming site, Bunchball is viral gaming. As you can embed a YouTube video or a Slideshare slideshow, Bunchball is a way to embed any number of flash games on your own site. This round, their first after a small angel round, amounted to $2M. Bunchball plans to allow for future advertising before and after the games, and is …read more

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GamesPolitics.com, a blog on, you guessed it, politics as it relates to the gaming industry, was purchased by the Entertainment Consumers Association.
In fact, ECA announced two important developments today:
First being that the ECA has acquired GamePolitics, a critically acclaimed clearinghouse for politically-oriented news and opinions about video games, and secondly being a partnership with NCsoft on the PlaySmart Information Program, a first of its kind public service program geared toward educating consumers on Internet safety and protocol.
The ECA is an advocacy group for gamers. If you are interested in joining the ECA, the price is $19.99 per …read more

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Click to Play

The Eragon videogame will ship nationwide November 24th on Xbox 360, PlayStation®2, Xbox®, Game Boy® Advance, PSP, Nintendo DS, mobile and PC.

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Click to Play

Watch Bam Margera skate in his motion capture suit.?

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Original MetaFilter story here, but the real story (as usual) is in the comments:
Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe’s very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan’s official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list …read more

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UPI is reporting that the two studios that were at one time interested in financing the Halo movie, Universal and Fox, have pulled out. This leaves Microsoft in the uncomfortable position of possibly having to finance the movie themselves.
Apparently the issues that blew up the marriage were:
The studios couldn’t get the filmmakers to renegotiate their contract
Fox and Universal couldn’t agree on a power balance.
In addition, the studios were having a difficult time stomaching the preliminary $145M budget for the special effects-laden movie. Microsoft said on Friday, “We are disappointed that Universal wanted to significantly renegotiate the financial points …read more

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Wanna Play With My Joystick?

What a great costume!

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