Gadgets and Video Games

Not only are publishers trying to prevent the sale and distribution of R4 game copying devices for the Nintendo DS, but illegal importers are going to jail. GamePolitics reports that UK resident Yun Can Meng was sentenced to a year in prison after he plead guilty to importing over 26,500 R4 cards for distribution.

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UK R4 importer sentenced to 12 months in prison

For many, 2009 was the year Sony started turning things around: the PS3 finally dropped to an affordable price with an ad campaign that didn’t give children nightmares. However, Gamasutra ’s Matt Matthews points out that in terms of revenue, 2009 is one of the worst years for the company. Whereas Sony was able to generate $6.4 billion in revenue from its family of PlayStation products in 2008, the company was only able to rake in $5.1 billion in 2009 — that’s a drop of $1.3 billion, or 20 percent

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Plummeting PS2 and PSP sales shrunk Sony’s market share in 2009

It’s been about a month since we’ve done one of these, but we thought it would be worth bringing WIAN out of retirement for one of the biggest developers on the planet. Here’s the (astoundingly dry) story behind Blizzard’s name: Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce: You know, it is a complicated process. You look through the dictionary and make a list of big long words, and you start narrowing it down. [Laughs.] You get feedback from the people working at the organization, and then you get feedback from the legal department after they have done some trademark searches. And after that big extensive process, “Blizzard” is where we landed

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What’s In A Name: Blizzard Entertainment

From the on-site report of last year’s Gaming Showcase at the Consumer Electronics Show , it wouldn’t take anything more than two video games to dramatically expand upon what was previously available in the dedicated games area. And despite the Consumer Electronics Organization’ announcement of double the floor space for the Showcase, only one game is named specifically as a feature: Lego Universe . The PC Gaming Alliance will be there, and Microsoft and Sony should be showing games in their own respective areas, but the exhibitor list for the Gaming Showcase focuses almost entirely on peripherals, middleware, hardware, and other things that aren’t games. But there will be a lot of space for you to try out Wii controller shells, DDR mats and chairs with speakers in them! CES takes place in Las Vegas from January 7-10 and, as always, Joystiq will be reporting from there with the latest, breaking news on games you control with your mind . CES 2010’s Gaming Showcase to have more showcase, not much more gaming originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

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CES 2010’s Gaming Showcase to have more showcase, not much more gaming

ELSPA is assuring the UK public that the plan to make the new PEGI ratings legally enforceable won’t be affected by the fact that there is currently no law with which to enforce them. ELSPA director general Mike Rawlinson told MCV that the government told the organization “that the timetable for the introduction of PEGI as the legal system of video games classification will not be adversely affected by this error.” ELSPA expects legislation to be passed in the general election following the Queen’ speech this November, in order to fix the loophole that renders the Video Recordings Act unenforceable. In the meantime, “ELSPA will therefore advise our members to continue to forward games to be rated as per the current agreement while the legal issues are being resolved.” Until then, nothing keeps retailers from selling anything to kids but common sense.

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ELSPA: Legal loophole won’t delay rollout of PEGI ratings

Here’s a lesson that governmental bodies across the nation just can’t seem to learn — if you try to regulate the sale of video games for any reason, you’re stepping to the ESA . When you step to the ESA, you’re gonna get burned. We’ve seen examples of the ESA’s domination over would-be gaming regulators in the past — but the organization’s latest annual report put a number to their success: 43 legal victories, zero losses. That’s 43 bills over the past year that hoped to restrict the sale of video games in some manner that didn’t become laws due to the ESA’s legal intervention

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Annual ESA report boasts perfect 43-0 record against gaming regulation

If pale white skin and sulking over lost love sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll likely identify with the Sith Warrior class in upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic . It’s the latest class to be revealed , one that “channels the destructive emotions of fear, anger, and hatred to purge weakness from body and mind and become a being of pure, brutal efficiency.” Yes, but can he also make julienne fries?

Excerpt from:
Impressive: Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Sith Warrior class detailed

Why, hello! Next week’s Rock Band Weekly brings a heaping serving of Talking Heads. No, no, not television talk show guests and nightly news anchors … the band, you know?

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Rock Band Weekly: Talking Heads, The Jam, Oasis, Rage

It seems the increasingly popular “Horde” mode first presented in Gears of War 2 (before spreading to other popular FPS titles in some form) isn’t just proliferating through the shooter genre — GameSpy recently revealed details for “The Last Stand,” a similar gametype which will soon be introduced into Dawn of War II . The new mode, which will come as a free download for those who own the full game, lets three players select either the Space Marine, Ork or Eldar hero classes, then face off cooperatively against wave after wave of computer-controlled adversaries. Between waves, players will be able to level up their heroes and manage their equipment

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Dawn of War II’s ‘The Last Stand’ mode detailed

Filed under: Podcasts Sure, there’s more Batman: Arkham Asylum , you have to expect that. But there’s also price drop talk, a first-hand account of GamesCom madness from our own Alexander Sliwinski, some sad news for Maxis and, of course, your emails and voicemails. And sorry to disappoint, but we skip the Megan Fox story. All apologies

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Joystiq Podcast 107 – Horatio edition