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Microsoft sued over Xbox Live Points

Microsoft’s Xbox Live Points system is arguably deceptive, where a $10 item will cost 800 points, where most people think that it translates to $8, which it doesn’t, and Microsoft have now been sued over another “points” issue, which deals with the “leftover points” that members buy. For instance, buying 1600 points, spending 1500 of them on DLC, and then you’re stuck with 100 points which you can’t really buy anything for, and the points are not redeemable. You’re essentially forced to buy more points if you want to spend those last 100 points. Most people never do, and Microsoft basically profits the leftover points.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Samuel Lassoff, a Philadelphia-based attorney who claims that Microsoft engages in a “scheme to unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling” of his Xbox Live Account, and claims that hundreds of Xbox Live members aren’t getting what they’re paid for, saying, “Microsoft breached that contract by collecting revenues for digital goods and services which were not provided.”.

Microsoft has yet for file a response for the case. The company has been dealing with criticism of the points system for a while, and has said that they might even scrap the whole system and switch to cash purchases. However, there’s no indication that this will happen anytime soon.

Correction: we previously stated that $10 equaled 1200 MS Points, which was false, $10 equals 800 points.

New Super Mario Bros Wii outsells Modern Warfare 2

Activision has bragged about Modern Warfare 2 selling 10 million units, solidifying that franchises always rule. However, while MW2 was riding a high wave of publicity and PR, another franchise was released around the same time; New Super Mario Bros. Wii. And it instantly became the fastest selling game in Japan, and has to date sold 3 million copies there, according to Famitsu.

Count in the sales from North America, 4 million, and Europe, 3 million, you get 10 million games sold + at least half a million in Australia and the rest of the world (like Korea and China), sales pass on the other side of 10 million, and surpass Modern Warfare 2, which was always thought to be the best selling game at this time.

It’s not. The best selling game is New Super Mario Bros Wii.

PopCap donates todays proceeds to Haiti

The situation in Haiti is a mess, with millions of homes destroyed and over a hundred thousand dead, aid is badly needed. PopCap games has announced that all game sales proceeds today will go towards aid in Haiti, so if you were thinking of buying a PopCap game (we recommend Plants vs Zombies), today is the day to get one. Or you could just donate via RedCross.org.

Gran Turismo uses 80% of PS3s power

Gran Turismo producer Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed that Gran Turismo only uses around 80% of the power of the PS3, saying,

“Gran Turismo 5 uses about 80 percent of the processing power. The PS3 hardware has a very high peak performance. The better you manipulate it, the better it performs.”

Gran Turismo 5 has been in development for a good 5 years (and at a cost of $60 million), so they’ve had enough time to tinker with the hardware and software.

Mass Effect 2 prequel novel announced

BioWare has announced a prequel novel for Mass Effect 2, called “Retribution”, which has been written by Drew Karpyshyn, the writer of the first two Mass Effect novels, Revelation and Ascension. The new novel will be available o July 27, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon now for just $8.

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Independent Games Festival reveals 2010 finalists

The IGF — Independent Games Festival — has revealed the nominees for their 12th annual festival, featuring indie games released in 2009. And we must admit, we haven’t heard about half of these games last year. That’s how indie they were.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)

Excellence In Visual Art
Shank (Klei Entertainment)
Owlboy (D-Pad Studios)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Limbo (Playdead)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)

Excellence In Design
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)
Star Guard (Sparky)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Dejobaan Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)

Excellence In Audio
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Shatter (Sidhe)
Closure (Closure Team)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)

Technical Excellence
Closure (Closure Team)
Limbo (Playdead)
Heroes Of Newerth (S2 Games)
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Vessel (Strange Loop Games)

Nuovo Award
Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui)
A Slow Year (Ian Bogost)
Tuning (Cactus)
Closure (Closure Team)
Enviro-Bear 2000 (Justin Smith)

The fall of 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever

A lot of folks were disappointed when 3D Realms shut down earlier this year and canned Duke Nukem Forever. The aftermath saw a lawsuit filed against #RD from Take-Two, and 3DR sued back. However, that’s just a tiny scratch on the surface when it comes to 3RD and DNF.

Wired Magazine has an amazing in-depth article about the rise and fall of 3D Realms, and what happened during the 12+ years of development that Duke Nukem Forever endured.

Check it out here.

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Top 10 original video games of 2010

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Hollywood usually takes most of the slack when it comes to criticism for lack of originality, but in fact, the video game industry is even worse at creating original content, it’s a world dominated by franchises of every kind, from sports to action games, publishers and developers are usually taking the easy and safe way: sequels. And spin offs. And remakes. Etc.

We’ve compiled a list of top 10 original games that are scheduled for release for 2010 — and it was quite a challenge: out of the 130 games confirmed for 2010 by major publishers and developers, we found 19 that were original. Just 19.

10: Brink (Spring 2010)

Brink, an FPS developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, centers around a two sides: Resistance and Security, and is a team based multiplayer shooter much like Quake Wars, which was also developed by Splash Damage. It looks promising as a multiplayer game, as it’s story based, much like Quake Wars, where one battle takes place over several maps, with a story connecting everything together.

9: Alpha Protocol (Spring 2010)

Alpha Protocol, developed by Obsidian Entertainment — developers of Star Wars: KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 — is a third person action RPG where the player assumes the role of Michael Thorton, a CIA agent who’s been betrayed and must not only fight his way through enemies, but also uncover the conspiracy that set him up.

8: Singularity (Q2 2010)

While time travel is a known concept in games, albeit underused, it’s still something that is difficult to fit in wiht the overall storyline, and the time feature never seems to be used properly. In Singularity, the player will have control over a TMD (Time Manipulation Device), a “weapon” which will be used to solve puzzles, for instance, if a door is locked, instead of looking for the key, you use the TMD and speed up time for the lock only, which will rust, and voila, door opened! Or use it on an enemy and watch him turn into a skeleton. The concept certainly seems intriguing, and offers some truly original puzzles.

7: Dante’s Inferno (February 9, 2010)

Dante’s Inferno has already caused a lot of controversy, from the fake E3 2009 protest, to gameplay elements where players can slay children. The gritty, hell based game is loosely based on the actual Inferno by Dante in The Divine Comedy, and the player assumes the role of Dante, who has to fight his way though monsters and demons in the 9 circles of hell, and decide whether he’ll be good and spare some (like children) or go reckless. It definitely looks as one of the darkest games of 2010.

6: MAG (January 26, 2010)

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a PS3 online FPS multiplayer who’s main feature is a massive 256 player online matches, with 128 players per team, divided into 8-player squads, 4 squads into a platoon, and 4 platoons into a company. With 256 players on the map, MAG is set to deliver some of the most intense and frantic combat yet, and will offer detailed stats and rankings, where higher ranked players will be able to command the battle and give orders to individual squads and platoons.

5: LA Noire (Q3 2010)

LA Noire, an open ended adventure game set in a recreated 1940s Los Angeles, which players can freely roam around, and chose to solve a number of murders around the city. The game has a great feeling of classic noir films based in LA, like LA Confidential, The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, and draws inspiration from such works as well.

4: Rage (Q4 2010)

It’s been a while since Id Software has made an original game — actually, the last original game Id Software made was Quake, back in 1996. Id finally shows something new with Rage, a fusion between a first person shooter and a racing game set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max styled world. It’s built with the all new Id Tech 5 engine, and shows very promising visuals, to say the least.

3: Heavy Rain (Q2 2010)

Heavy Rain has been on the radar since it was originally showcased at E3 2006, and will be released almost four years later, in Q2 2010. The gorgeous looking game centers around a serial killer known as “The Origami Killer”, and players assume roles of different characters who try and solve the murders. It’s one of the most stylish and atmospheric games to come out in 2010.

2: Alan Wake (Q2 2010)

What Heavy Rain is for the PS3, Alan Wake is for the Xbox 360. Developed by Remedy, Alan Wake is a psychological thriller inspired by the likes of Twin Peaks and Stephen King novels, where players assume the role of Alan Wake, a writer who seeks refuge at a quiet place where he can write his next novel (much like Stephen Kings “Misery“). However, when his wife vanishes, it’s up to him to get her back.

1: APB (March 2010)

APB is not only the most original MMO game to his the stores in 2010, it’s also the most original game overall. It’s the classic cops vs. robbers gameplay, but on a massive scale, with endless customizations and options, tons of missions and weapons. Created by David Jones, the original creator for GTA, APB is hailed as everything he wanted to do wince he made GTA, and while originally trying to pitch and sell APB to Rockstar as GTA Online, it’s good that APB is on its own now, we need a great, original game. And an MMO that’s not fantasy based.

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USPS worker steals over 2000 GameFly games

This will certainly add to the ongoing battle between GameFly and the United States Postal Service: a USPS worker has been caught and admitted in court that he stole over 2200 GameFly discs from his workplace.

The man was busted after surveillance showed test mailing of fake discs disappear during his shift, and found 170 discs in his SUV. It was later discovered that he was apparently trading the discs at the local GameStop.

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Analysts expect game market to hit $92 billion by 2015

It’s common knowledge that the game industry is huge, much larger than the movie and the music industry. Combined.

Analysts from Global Industry Analysts Inc. predict that the market will hit a staggering $91.96 billion in the year 2015.

The current game market is at about half of that, which means a massive growth is ahead of us, despite the financial crisis.

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Fathers in video games

With today being father’s day – another excuse for card companies to make tons of money – Kotaku took a look at the fathers in video games, focusing on specific genres. It’s an interesting cast, to say the least, and they even offer their take on their favorite and least favorite fathers. Here’s a bit:

Best Dad. Pankraz, because, while he couldn’t keep his son from being sold into slavery, he didn’t hesitate to take on a horde of monsters to save him.

Enjoy the good read, and go tell your old man that you still care (or something).

Gamers Get Less Sleep: Gamers Ask “They Needed a Study?”

We’ve all been there. You sit down to play a few levels of whatever you’re plowing through at the moment and the next thing you know it feels like someone’s glued sandpaper to the inside of your eyelids and the clock taunts you with an obscenely late hour. A study presented at the recent SLEEP 2009 event told the world what millions of World of Warcraft subscribers already know: gamers get less sleep.

The study also showed that people who reported their gaming interfered with their sleep got 1.6 hours less shut-eye than everyone else and those who reported being addicted to gaming slept an hour less on weekdays. Only a third of those who reported being addicted felt that it interfered with their sleep.

While it’s easy to blame this on escapist, socially inept stereotypes, it’s quite easy to get caught up in games. Sandbox games can be particularly time-obliterating since there’s no obvious landmarks to call your attention to how long you’ve been playing. Bizarrely, the easiest I’ve ever been drawn into a game without concern for time was Viva Pinata. I haven’t played it since out of fear of losing entire days to its colorful world.

Warner offers $33m for Midway

Game publisher Midway has received an offer from Warner to acquire the bankrupt company, its assets and all its debts for $33 million. If successful, Warner would take over many of the popular license like Mortal Combat.

However, the deal will not include Midway-owned studios in San Diego and Newcastle. Midway confirmed that the offer has been made and will have 30 days to consider. The company also noted that several other buyers might be interested, although no formal offers have been made.

Walmart to offer used game sales

Used game sales are a huge business — they account for well over 40% of GameStop’s — the largest game retailer in the world — revenue. So it’s of no surprise that more players are looking to enter the market, one of those being Amazon, and now, Walmart.

The mega retailer has opened used games kiosks in 77 of its retail stores, helping gamers sell their old games and buy used ones. Walmart is looking to expand those kiosks to even more stores, once the system has been fully developed and tested.

Bomberman Used In Supposed Anti-Nazi Threat

Though on occasion films like Valkyrie point out that there were some Nazis who opposed HItler’s racist ideology the fascist group is a popular punching bag for the media. Set a war movie in Vietnam or Korea and it’s impossible to escape the political and social ramifications of those conflicts, yet when you set a film in the European Theatre of World War II you’ve got an instant clean conscience for most viewers.

It seems the Nazi movement lives on to this day and not just in the thuggery and ignorance of Neo Nazi skinheads, but in a legitimate political party in Germany. Recently a German ex-politician was arrested for supposedly threatening the Nazis via a protest poster on a website. The poster depicts the classic hero Bomberman holding aloft a cake with a burning fuse and text that reads “No cakewalk for Nazis.”

While I doubt many people would lose sleep over actual violence being perpetrated against a group that still clings to such outmoded, racist beliefs which ultimately culminate in genocide, they still have legal rights and protections under the laws of civilized nations. Ironically if the sort of fascist government that Nazi Germany had was still in place violence against Nazis might go unpunished.

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