October 20, 2008 – 2:00 pm
This is a shot from Best Buy’s circular this Sunday, October, 19, still showing LittleBigPlanet coming out this week. And, as Yaris posted about yesterday, the game has been postponed until next week. His post goes on to explain the reason for pushing back the release date is the discovery that one of the background music tracks in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qu’ran. The game was pushed back to rectify the situation and avoid further offending anyone.
Now, this is not a “look how stupid Best Buy is,” post. In fact, the Sunday ads for Circuit City, Target, Toys R’ Us, and probably a few others contained the same thing, and some (including Best Buy) tagged with, “Date subject to change.” It seems to be just a case of the release date changing after the ad material already went to press. This is, instead, a sort of letter of sympathy to any who work in video game retail for having to give the above explanation to who knows how many pissed off parents and uninformed gamers looking to grab one of the years most anticipated games on the date given in the circular.
Word of advice: Sometimes less said is best said. When asked why you don’t have the game, just say, “It got delayed,” and if asked why just say…well, just say, “it’s complicated.”
In a recent study conducted by the Federal Trade Commission only 20 percent of teens under the age of 17 were able to buy M rated video games. Pretty impressive statistic to show all the enraged parents that blame video games for causing violence that only a small percentage of children are able to get their hands on the titles.
The Federal Trade Commission report studied kids’ success at buying tickets to R-rated movies or purchasing R-rated DVDs, mature CDs, and M-rated games. In every case, the FTC found, the success rate had dropped over every previous year it conducted its study.
But nowhere was the drop sharper than with video games.
Read More »
I know that HD DVD is dead in the water now and the HD DVD players and movies are no longer being supported, but what I am talking about are the physical discs themselves? For about a few weeks after the announcement that BluRay was taking over as the predominant medium for Hi Def movies, we saw the prices on HD DVD fall and go on sale and then boom, they disappeared. Where the hell did they go? Did Best Buy and all the retailers burn them out of spite? You can’t find a physical HD DVD anymore, I wouldn’t mind picking up a few for cheap in a store.
What do you guys think?
Loading ...
September 27, 2007 – 10:35 am
Every time we say his name, he just gets more power. This is officially the last time you’ll see me say Jack Thompson. From now on, the law buff will be known as Chuckles, because every time he does something, the entire gaming world gets a laugh.
So Chuckles decided to rock out another “sting” operation. He previous sent his son in to a Best Buy to pick up a copy of BioShock. His son isn’t yet 18, which is what he’s trying prove. However, he’s going after 2K Games for the problem instead of Best Buy. 2K Games doesn’t control a retailer’s action. They brand the game as mature and it’s up to the retailers to enforce the sales. The new “sting” operation involves Halo 3.
Chuckles sent his son into a South Florida Target store to buy a copy of Halo 3, which he was able to do on the first try without an ID. Granted, this shouldn’t happen. But again, Chuckles isn’t going after Target, he’s going after Microsoft. Because somehow the gaming industry is responsible for this happening at retailers. Are they also responsible for R-rated movies and CD’s with Parental Advisory stickers being sold to minors as well?
This editor can only hope Chuckles stops his antics and gets put in his place pretty soon.
August 16, 2007 – 2:37 pm
In case you live in a bubble, there was chaos yesterday as Toys R Us prematurely sold BioShock in many of their US stores. Combine that with a commercial that also ran prematurely saying the game was available, and the intarwebs went into a tizzy. Rest assured, this was all user error. BioShock has not yet been released.
2K had to take some time and wrap their heads around what happened before releasing a statement.
It recently came to 2K Games’ attention that one of our retail partners prematurely sold some copies of BioShock prior to the game’s official launch date. Retailers are typically shipped product in advance to ensure they can meet launch day demand on street-dated product. As a result, a few people were able to purchase the game early. Additionally, a TV advertisement for BioShock prematurely ran that incorrectly indicated that the game was available for purchase. 2K Games has reached out to our retail partners and is maintaining the street date of August 21st in North America and August 24th in Europe, when BioShock will be available at retailers. 2K Games is appreciative of the gamer excitement and critical acclaim leading up to the title’s launch.
Yep, Toys R Us is gonna get jacked up. Word on the street is it’s going to cost them $5000 per unit sold before the street date of August 21st in the US. That’s gonna add up pretty quick.
So, with all the hubbub, did any of you get a copy of BioShock early?
Sony sent out word that Warhawk for the PS3 has gone gold via PlayStation.Blog. The game will be available on August 28th.
Pricing for the title was also announced. The retail version will run you $60 and include a Jabra Bluetooth headset as well as some behind the scenes footage from the game. The PlayStation Store download will be $39.99.
I’m thinking it’s a pretty fair price for the downloadable title. I know some critics have said $30 is the maximum they should charge, but I think $40 is a good value. The game is online only and will include a multitude of maps and game types to provide hours of fun.
After played the beta extensively, Warhawk is one of my favorite online titles of late. There’s a lot of ways to play, whether in flight, in ground vehicles, or just running around shooting. I would highly suggest picking this one up if you can.
August 2, 2007 – 10:10 am
GameStop managers received an email letting them know of a special announcement from Microsoft on August 8th, as reported by Joystiq.
The email states that this announcement will become public on August 8th and they should not display the signs they receive early, lest they be bitch slapped by upper management. Yeah, because we know that’s going to work.
There’s very little chance this is something other than the rumored price cuts we’ve seen from retail ads. We’ll keep you posted as more information is available.
I recently read an article by Julian Dibbell entitled “The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer” and I was thoroughly intrigued. It brought perspectives to light I hadn’t thought about, Many gamers out there are quite familiar with MMO games such as World of Warcraft, Phantasy Star Online, Ultima, Guild Wars, Second Life, Final Fantasy, the list goes on, but some may not be aware of the subculture that exists as a result of these games.
There are many players who play the game straight up and are content with leveling and questing, perhaps joining some buddies every once in a while and making a new one at other times. Then there are the hardcore gamers that play with no other purpose than being the best and having the most elite gear or the largest bankroll. Then there are the players that want to be “elite”, but want it the easy way and purchase their items from farmers or online services.
The latter classes of players are the ones that intrigue me and made me think about what is right and wrong with MMO games. In all MMO games there is a sub culture of gamers for the most part of Asian decent that play, no better stated “work”, in these games to gather gold or currency in order to sell it back to real life players typically in Europe and America. If you have played an MMO like WoW they are typically known as “Chinese Gold Farmers” and typically are frowned upon by other players and in extreme cases hated and even hunted.
Read More »
So you thought that your Ziggy mousepad was cool, then you haven’t seen anyhitng yet. SteelSeries has released their new SteelSeries SX mousepad made of fiber polished aluminum and an anodized oxide surface treated. (I don’t even know wtf those are, but damn if they don’t sound fancy) It even comes with a treated cloth that ensures less friction.
These surfaces are boasting the smoothest surface possible and the ultimate in gaming reaction time. I had no idea that a mousepad had that much of an affect in gaming, but I guess I was wrong. If you want to roll like a pro gamer this bad boy will seet you back $60 but it will ensure you get at least two extra kills per CounterStrike match. (Ok I made that part up, but it is space age.)
Check it out. What next a carbon fiber mouse?
Form the press release:
The spectacular gliding sensation of the SteelSeries SX is achieved by the most time consuming manufacturing process ever put into a mousepad from SteelSeries. Every SteelSeries SX is individually fiber polished and anodized, before being manually treated with a new unique liquid silicone coating, developed specifically for this surface. The surface on the SteelSeries SX was further developed and sophisticated from an original aluminum surface released by SteelSeries in 2001, once labeled “the sexiest mouse pad in the entire industry” by Angel Munoz, Founder and President of The Cyberathlete Professional League®.
Read More »
April 24, 2007 – 12:58 am
It is probably easier to score black tar heroin right now than a Nintendo Wii. Unless you plan to buy a $600 bundle that contains the must have titles like Happy Feet or Shrek 3 or pay some eBayer who somehow has 10 unopened(stolen??), you are basically SOL. Finally Nintendo has promised to churn out more Wii’s to meet the demands of the market that they grossly underestimated reports Consumerist.com The system so far is good, but not great. The fact that you can’t get one may be the reason its so sought after. Either way, more Wii’s to come.
