Their old world yarn craftsmanship brings new meaning to the phrase "sweater kittens"—hard to believe that this one two-of-a-kind holder is not for sale.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5221320/the-uno...bies-ds-holder ...

GameBiz recently had the chance to speak with Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, about pricing and distribution within the games industry. Wardell follows up a bit on the Demigod piracy fiasco from a few days ago, and mentions that retail outlets may be on their way out.
"Retailers need to be careful about this stuff. They're kind of signing their own death warrants once they push digital distribution at the store. Once you have the thing set up — once you've experienced how to purchase the game or deal with it online — why would I go back to the store for the next purchase? Especially if the store isn't providing added value. If you're a retailer, you're killing yourself. If I can't get a game off Impulse, I'm going to Steam. I like stores, but I'm really lazy."

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../04/21/0435227 ...

In June, Nintendo will be releasing a peripheral called MotionPlus. This small device attaches to the bottom of the Wii-mote and acts as a more sophisticated motion-sensor to the controller as it currently stands. Its goal is to bring greater parity between a user's movements and the animations that they bring to life on-screen. Gameplayer got some hands-on time with the device, and they are extremely impressed."
The MotionPlus will only affect new games; Nintendo has said they have no plans to add support for older titles. Virtua Tennis 2009 will be the first game to support it, and Eurogamer has a look at the game both with and without the MotionPlus.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../04/20/0549241 ...

Long before Nintendo unleashed the DS and Wii, Sony was winning over a new type of family gamer with titles such as SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz – and that PS2 legacy will become a vital tool in Sony’s plans to take PS3 to the casual market.
“We’ve captured the hardcore,” SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller told VG247.
“We’re moving on now to continue to support them with a tremendous line-up of games, but also look at softer brands that maybe we had with PS2 franchises we’re bringing over to PS3, or new IP.

“There’s certainly a line-up of very strong family-friendly titles that we’re looking at for PS3 in our continuing effort to appeal to that casual consumer. Think of some of the latter-half PS2 franchises.”
The PS3 is already enjoying massive success with karaoke title SingStar, and although its efforts with its next-gen EyeToy the PSEye have met with less success, the PlayStation Network has become a leading portal for cutting-edge, family friendly games content. ...

EA Sports has announced that the Wii versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis will be bundled with the Wii MotionPlus.

The titles will ship with the device, which plugs into the base of Wii Remotes to improve functionality, once they are launched in Europe.

"This exclusive and limited-time offer is exciting news for sports fans who want to enhance their Wii experience for a great value with the new Wii MotionPlus right at launch with both Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis," said Peter Moore, president of EA Sports.

"The functionality of the Wii MotionPlus will help us deliver the authentic, true-to-life sports motion that will redefine the sports experience on the Wii."

Nintendo detailed the release dates of Wii MotionPlus earlier this month, with the device set to hit the US on June 8, EU on June 12, and later to be bundled with Wii Sports Resort on July 26.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...wii-motionplus ...

Warner Brothers has confirmed that it is at work on Lego Rock Band in partnership with Harmonix, MTV and the Lego Group, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and DS.

Set to come out later this year, Lego Rock Band sports a 'build-and-play' theme, in which users can create and customise their Lego band and entourage. The title's DS outing will be co-developed by TT Games and Harmonix with Backbone Entertainment.

"Lego Rock Band combines two compelling properties and creates an experience that family members of all ages will enjoy playing together as a group," said Tom Stone, managing director, TT Games.

"Harmonix and MTV Games are the world experts in music gameplay, and we're genuinely thrilled to bring the unique and humour-filled Lego experience to their Rock Band universe."

Warner Bros acquired TT Games in 2007 in a deal worth a reported USD 200 million. Nick Ricks, games producer at the company, later told GamesIndustry.biz that there was "no push from Warner Bros" to create any more Lego titles than it already planned.

Bob Picunko, SVP of electronic games for MTV, concluded: "Rock Band is a social game experience that crosses every generation and every genre of rock."

"Harmonix and MTV Games are big fans of the Lego game franchise and excited to work with TT Games to develop a new take on Rock Band that focuses on great music and Lego humour that's fun for the whole family."

Last month, MTV announced that The Rock Band franchise surpassed USD 1 billion dollars in North American retail sales within 15 months.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...go-rock-band_0 ...

Acclaim exec and former game designer David Perry has said that the media industries are reluctant to adopt new business models which could help battle the problem of piracy.

Last week the founding members of torrent site The Pirate Bay were found guilty of copyright theft and sentenced to a year in prison, but Perry believes the ruling won't have any long-term affect on the wider problem.

"This decision will slow down the 'overt' sharing but it's an impossible battle to win," wrote Perry on his blog.

"It's like Sony when they release new firmware updates for the PSP handheld because hackers keep breaking the previous one. After countless firmware updates, at some point you accept that this battle is going to go on forever.

"Jail-broken iPhones being another example. It's actually impressive to last a full 24 hours before the next crack happens," he added.

Perry believes he's already involved in two projects that combat or bypass piracy – Acclaim's free-to-play games model, and new cloud gaming venture Gaikai.

The problem, said Perry, is that media companies – videogame publishers included – would rather rise prices than bring them down to levels that are more convenient than pirating content.

"I don't expect media companies to consider this option, they will keep charging more and more and more and more (just like the videogame industry is doing), the prices will continue to rise, and piracy will be fuelled.

"I call it the 'money wall' and we just keep making it higher, making the barrier-to-entry worse and worse. It doesn't require an MBA to see that's not a good strategy."

He added: "Our industry has very smart people too, and so if anyone can get this right, our industry can. But the solution isn't to fight in courts, or to play 'revision ping pong' with hackers, it's to move forward and design convenience, quality and access at a mass market price.

"That's what will get people to pay, even if there's an inferior pirate version available on some dodgy website."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-to-win-perry ...

The man behind the hugely popular Rolando game on the iPhone platform, Simon Oliver, believes that one of the reasons for the Apple product's success is the "phenomenally good" distribution system - the App Store.

Talking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, the indie developer revealed that he'd thought about working on other platforms previously - including XBLA, but that the iPhone made life that much easier.

"Well, XNA was good, and this was before the whole community games thing," he said. "At the time, you could develop games, but there was no way of getting them out there. That was probably the primary reason at the time that I discounted it as a platform to work on.

"The thing about the iPhone is that the distribution is phenomenally good as well - the cut that Apple takes is great, and is so streamlined. You compare it to WiiWare, or even XBLA, it's such a streamlined process. You can do it via computer, via your phone, it's very easy and the automatic updating system is just fantastic."

Oliver continued that he felt that Apple had taken a significant market lead as a result, and that while more traditional gaming companies like Sony and Nintendo were working on or evolving digital distribution systems, they were some distance behind.

"Nowadays, I think there's a certain amount of response from guys like Sony and Nintendo to this, and there are rumours of what's going to be on PSP 2 in terms of digital downloads, plus there's the DSi and DSWare, WiiWare, etc," he said.

"But I think Apple's placed so far ahead, there's going to have to be a rapid reaction from the others - just in terms of the sheer amount of the content that's produced. Obviously there's not the same level of quality control that you get on XBLA or WiiWare, but I think you'll get so many more interesting games on the iPhone because the barrier to entry is so unbelievably low.

"All these people with ideas, people that have been wanting to make games for years - like me - they can finally realise that idea and get it out there."

The full interview with Simon Oliver, in which explains the background to the development of Rolando, as well as his thoughts on the sheer number of applications deluging the App Store, is available now.

Oliver will also be a panellist at the forthcoming BAFTA Presents: Digital Distribution event, in association with the GamesIndustry.biz Network, taking place in London next week. Tickets are available for the event from the BAFTA website.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ibution-rivals ...

The man behind the hugely popular Rolando game on the iPhone platform, Simon Oliver, believes that one of the reasons for the Apple product's success is the "phenomenally good" distribution system - the App Store.

Talking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, the indie developer revealed that he'd thought about working on other platforms previously - including XBLA, but that the iPhone made life that much easier.

"Well, XNA was good, and this was before the whole community games thing," he said. "At the time, you could develop games, but there was no way of getting them out there. That was probably the primary reason at the time that I discounted it as a platform to work on.

"The thing about the iPhone is that the distribution is phenomenally good as well - the cut that Apple takes is great, and is so streamlined. You compare it to WiiWare, or even XBLA, it's such a streamlined process. You can do it via computer, via your phone, it's very easy and the automatic updating system is just fantastic."

Oliver continued that he felt that Apple had taken a significant market lead as a result, and that while more traditional gaming companies like Sony and Nintendo were working on or evolving digital distribution systems, they were some distance behind.

"Nowadays, I think there's a certain amount of response from guys like Sony and Nintendo to this, and there are rumours of what's going to be on PSP 2 in terms of digital downloads, plus there's the DSi and DSWare, WiiWare, etc," he said.

"But I think Apple's placed so far ahead, there's going to have to be a rapid reaction from the others - just in terms of the sheer amount of the content that's produced. Obviously there's not the same level of quality control that you get on XBLA or WiiWare, but I think you'll get so many more interesting games on the iPhone because the barrier to entry is so unbelievably low.

"All these people with ideas, people that have been wanting to make games for years - like me - they can finally realise that idea and get it out there."

The full interview with Simon Oliver, in which explains the background to the development of Rolando, as well as his thoughts on the sheer number of applications deluging the App Store, is available now.

Oliver will also be a panellist at the forthcoming BAFTA Presents: Digital Distribution event, in association with the GamesIndustry.biz Network, taking place in London next week. Tickets are available for the event from the BAFTA website.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ibution-rivals ...