Gadgets and Video Games

Tags: bothell, bundle-will, conviction, for-1200, Gadgets, house-party, live, manual, show-the-world, soldiers, top 10, Xbox

Right off the bat, you should know this: for EA, losing $82 million in the third quarter of a fiscal year is an enormous improvement. Compared to the same period last year (“Q3″ for EA is October 1 – December 31), the company lost 559 million fewer actual physical dollars. Yes, really. Now that we’ve told you that, we should also note that the publisher pulled in 24.85 percent less revenue year over year (down to $1.243 billion in Q3 2010 from $1.654 billion in Q3 2009). That said, Playfish had “two of the top ten Facebook games” for the quarter! Good thing EA spent $300 million on those folks, eh

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EA loses $82 million in fiscal Q3 2010, revenue down 25%

It’s been so long since we’ve heard anything about Greed Corp that the conservationist-friendly strategy game nearly qualifies as a retro classic. Fortunately, today brought us the first news about the title since it was announced . In addition to PSN, its lead platform, Greed Corp will also be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Windows-based PCs in early 2010. Today’s announcement mentions that Greed Corp is just the “first in a series of games based in the rich Mistbound universe.” Considering the heavy appearance of Don’t Break The Ice -esque elements present in this game, we wonder if future installments in the franchise will adopt other popular board game tropes. For the record, W!Games, if you made a Mall Madness RPG, we would buy that .

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Greed Corp coming to PSN, XBLA and PC early 2010

The American Council on Exercise recently conducted a study on the effectiveness of Nintendo’s Wii Fit , and was “underwhelmed” by the results (PDF link). The study examined what the ACE dubbed to be the “most aerobically challenging activities,” including the Free Run, Island Run, Super Hula Hoop, Free Step, Advanced Step and Rhythm Boxing.

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Fitness group ‘underwhelmed’ by Wii Fit exercises

While it might be tempting to go straight to Craigslist with those Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles you stole, it turns out that Activision notices exciting, high-profile offers just like your potential customers might. VentureBeat reports that when Activision noticed a listing for one of the bundles last Thursday, the company hired a private investigation firm, IPCyberCrime.com , to track down the seller. When IPCyberCrime found the person behind the sale, the investigator discovered that he was an employee at a retailer, who, with friends, had stolen the bundles to sell on Craigslist. The sellers were turned over to the store’s loss prevention department.

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Activision catches both pirates and thieves in Modern Warfare 2 investigation

Ubisoft’s website lists James Cameron’s Avatar as launching across all platforms — Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS, Wii, PSP, Wifi-enabled Toilets and Toasters that also cook hot dogs — for December 1. As we’re often skeptical with what we read on the Internet, we decided to find out if the listing was accurate. According to Ubisoft , the game will indeed launch in North America on December 1. The date thrusts gamers into the Avatar universe more than two weeks before the film hits theaters on December 16. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players — with the proper set up — will also be able to experience the game in 3D

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James Cameron’s Avatar launches for everything Dec. 1

As details slowly drip out of Xbox World 360’s recent hands-on with upcoming water-based puzzler Hydrophobia , the game’s developer, Dark Energy Digital, is putting Internet-less Xbox 360 owners’ fears to rest. In addition to releasing the game as three chapters on Xbox Live Marketplace , Hydrophobia will be getting a disc release at the end of next year. Also of note, despite the game’s grandiose scale, it weighs in at under 250MB — well under the allowed 2GB file size for XBLA releases that Microsoft recently increased

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Hydrophobia flooding retailer shelves as well as XBLA

Two things about this trailer for the new Rocket Knight (after the break) stand out upon our first viewing: The stylized projectile/jetpack effects It’s a Rocket Knight Adventures game That last one may seem obvious, but we’re still a bit shocked to see Konami bring the series back after so long — to be honest, we’re a bit shocked every time Konami announces a game that isn’t Metal Gear . And, to our delight, what we see here is true Rocket Knight : Sparkster has his sword and his jetpack, the latter of which is used basically to bounce all over the screen. It’s here that the 3D remake actually benefits the game: with the wider area and the smaller Sparkster, he seems to have a lot more freedom to fly around. Even the shooter stages have returned, with some interesting dynamic camera work. If you never paid attention to this series because of mid-90s animal mascot platformer overload, you should start getting familiar with it now.

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Rocket Knight trailer sparks our interest

Even from our poorly lit offices, some 6,500 miles away from the Tokyo Game Show floor, we heard shouts of jubilation coming from the Koei stage. The reason for the uproar was due to the announcement made just moments before: Dynasty Warriors Online , an MMO-Samurai-Warfare-Sim for PC, will be making its way to PS3 next year in Japan. Wait. We hear those cheers again! Man, our windows are closed! What’s going on?

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TGS 2009: Koei announces Dynasty Warriors Online for PS3

We’re misleading you a bit. The screenshots aren’t quite dropping anything themselves, so much as the stars of upcoming bromance sequel, Army of Two: The 40th Day , are putting down their shields. Donning masks with flames — so as to terrify enemies into thinking they’re being advanced upon by White Zombie, of course — Salem and Rio are clearly concerned with meeting attire standards for the professional workplace: sporty, yet hardcore . That’s what those bad guys get for standing in the way of movie night! Gallery: Army of Two: The 40th Day (TGS 2009) New AoT: 40th Day screens drop shield, charge head first originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:31:00 EST.

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New AoT: 40th Day screens drop shield, charge head first