US President Barack Obama has revealed a new education initiative that will enlist the help of games like LittleBigPlanet to get kids interested in science and maths.

The Government is throwing $4bn at the Educate to Innovate scheme and has attracted the help of not only Sony but also the Entertainment Software Association, MacArthur Foundation and Microsoft.

"I'm committed to moving our country from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade," stated Obama during a launch event for the project (as reported by Gamasutra). He name-dropped Sony as an "industry leader" during the speech.

LittleBigPlanet will host a Game Changers competition where participants are challenged to create LBP levels with "new gameplay experiences that enhance STEM [science, technology, engineering, maths] principles".

"We're thrilled by the opportunity to participate and support the Game Changers challenge announced today," responded SCEA boss Jack Tretton. "It casts a huge spotlight on the innovative medium that is videogames and digital entertainment.

"It also embodies for us what we see everyday: amazing things can happen when you provide the right tools and environment, combine it with great technology and put it in the hands of really creative people."

The ESA will join with Games for Change and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop (among others) to organise the STEM National Video Game Competition. This calls for the creation of educational browser-based games aimed at people aged between four and 16 years.

ESA boss Michael Gallagher said it was "a very good day for the gaming industry".

"Our industry's lifeblood is the energy and innovation of new, emerging developers," he told Kotaku. "To create the next generation's epic titles and incredibly immersive storylines, we need America's youth to have strategic and analytic thinking skills along with complex problem solving abilities.

"It is my hope that it will produce games that will have a lasting impact on the STEM skills our nation's students so desperately need.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ob...gise-schooling ...

You may not yet really know how big a DSi LL is, but you know how big a PSP-3000 is, right?

http://kotaku.com/5410575/lets-compa...and-a-psp+3000 ...

According to The Chicago Tribune, a 15-year-old called 911 and then hung up. He wanted to know whether or not his parents were within their rights to take away his Xbox 360.

The parents were, the police replied. Authorities then showed up at the boy's house after he hung up, and after listening to the story, told him that his parents were within their rights to take away his game console as punishment.

The police also advised the boy to listen to his parents and stop wasting tax payers money. Well, don't know about that last one — but they should've told him that, too!

Authorities do not know why the boy was being punished. Yeah, why would any parent punish a child who would question their authority and then call 911?

http://kotaku.com/5410734/teen-calls...-away-xbox-360 ...

As seen on gameSniped — and I'm so glad I spotted them because I really need to banish the image Owen evoked with the words "Donkey Kong's taint" this past weekend.

http://kotaku.com/5411373/colorful-donkey-kong-kicks ...

It's only fair. If Sony's new PSPgo is to be torn asunder in the name of science, then Nintendo's DSi LL should share a similar, grisly fate

http://kotaku.com/5411405/tearing-th...ieces/gallery/ ...

Joining last month's Bayonetta 40/40 score, this month's New Super Mario Bros. Wii has been given a perfect score from Japanese game magazine Famitsu.

The publication has stated that just moving Mario around is amusing, co-op play is fun and single player is a good time as well.

Critics score games on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best score. The four scores are then tallied, and 40 is perfecto.
Today, only eleven, well, now twelve games have been awarded the perfect score. The latest is multi-platform title Bayonetta. Multi-platform Bayonetta is the first game to appear on the Xbox 360 to receive this score.

To review, here are the previous 40/40 games:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

2. Soulcalibur (1999)

3. Vagrant Story (2000)

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)

5. Nintendogs (2005)

6. Final Fantasy XII (2006)

7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

9. 428 (2008)

10. Dragon Quest IX (2009)

11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009)
12. Bayonetta (2009)

To recap: No games in 2001, 2002, 2004 or 2007 got a 40/40, but three games in 2008 and four games in 2009 have been awarded the magic number. What's next, five 40/40 games in 2010? Six in 2011?

OH WAIT. Final Fantasy XIII comes out this year in Japan — whatever will Famitsu do?

http://kotaku.com/5411569/famitsu-aw...-perfect-score ...

Peripheral manufacturer Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, after the console maker blocked all but its own memory devices from working on the Xbox 360.

Law firm Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin will be representing Datel in San Francisco federal court, with the senior attorney for the case commenting: "Microsoft has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves."

"They accomplished their recent update by making a system change that will not recognise or allow operation of a memory card with greater capacity than their own. We believe that with the power Microsoft enjoys in the market for Xbox accessories this conduct is unlawful," he added.

The source of the controversy is the recent dashboard update, which rendered all "unauthorised Memory Units" inactive. A brief description of the change, quoted in Datel's official complaint, was made by Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb, who warned that: "If you continue to use an unauthorised Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games."

Datel, who are asking for a jury trial, contend that: "Microsoft's purpose in disabling Datel's memory cards is to prevent consumers from choosing a Datel product that offers far better value for the price. There is no benefit to consumers from Microsoft's decision to target and disable Datel's memory cards."

Howard Rice goes further and describes Microsoft's actions as "predatory conduct undertaken to deliberately harm competition with no benefit whatsoever to consumers."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...r-memory-cards ...

Microsoft has said that over two million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook from their consoles within the first week of the social networking site being integrated with the system.

Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration went live last week and, according to Microsoft data, have already been accessed by millions of users.

Over half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the initial 24 hours of availability and users streamed 120 million minutes of music in the first week, MS spokesperson David Dennis told CNET. The two million that accessed Facebook account for 10 per cent of the total number of Xbox Live users.

The numbers of Twitter users weren't released, but Dennis noted there have been "tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live."

Microsoft's Neil Thompson told GamesIndustry.biz last week that he believed people would respond well to having the choice to access social sites not just from their PCs but also from their consoles and in their living rooms.

"It's just about giving people choice and giving them a slightly different experience. The Facebook and Twitter applications are bespoke to the service, they do have Xbox Live unique features, such as being able to see which Xbox Live friends are online, et cetera. And over time I'm sure that will evolve as well."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-in-first-week ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?module=news&...0&view_reply=1

We are the usual. Does not pass a single day of the publication of the exploit for firmware 6:10 which, like a bolt from the blue and resumed speaking after months of silence Mathieulh, one of the members of Team C + D. In a speech on MforMature and then replicated even on MaxConsole, the coder FreePlay accused of stealing an exploit (the game Archer Maclean's Mercury) by the server of Team C + D, which previously had access to permit Fanja, and it published without consent. There is no lack of research and then charges a reputation at the expense of others and to demonstrate that changes FreePlay are zero, Mathieulh released the source of the work of the Team. The coder then confirms the futility of such a feat, given that the game on PSN was quickly patched. It's not late, however, the response FreePlay who, finding himself called a thief, tried to assert his reasons. The attacker denies the charges, since he was allowed access to the servers and therefore was not forced in any way. FreePlay continues, stating that the publication of the exploit is only due to the fact that the firmware 6.20 is blocked.
Pending further developments can be found in full, the entire post from Mathieulh and attached, the source of the exploit.

Post:

Quote:

Freeplay has been warned not to leak the Mercury Because the exploit code simply is not his, he abused Fanja's trust when Fanja Freeplay gave an access to his server and svn freeplay tried every possible URL variations until he found something. That something was the prometheus svn Which had various exploits including the mercury one, all coded and ready for use. Freeplay basically stole the exploit.
You can see him here: http://forums.mformature.net/showpos...&postcount=156 (screenshot saved to make sure he does not suddently edit his post)
admiting to this very fact.

You can also see my personal warning here http://forums.mformature.net/showpos...&postcount=141 posted Freeplay leaked long before the exploit. Will You Recognize The Game I talk about is none other than Mercury.

Stealing is lame, is leaking even more, this is not the first time he leaks things he has been entrusted (though he did not even have any rights to have a hold, use or release this exploit in the first place since he stole it)

As I stated in mformature, the amount of work he provided to get it work is 0. Since the exploit was all ready to use and sources were provided in the content prometheus svn he stole.

Either way the developers' community has been warned and have him removed from whatever list trusting he might have been.

As a proof that I am not lying to you, or making this up, now I will be providing this post along the original Mercury exploits and sources as they were in the original svn (after removing. Svn folders for obvious reasons). Trust me, it saddens me to have to resort to doing so, unfortunately I do have no choice considering Freeplay The Game leaked exploits to begin with.

Freeplay seems it was all about get hungry from using work that is not his and this I can not forgive. Hence I am Informing the world of his evil deeds.

I would also like to add that releasing this exploit was pointless and as we have Foretold, The Game Sony removed from the playstation store less than one hour after it was announced, preventing anyone to purchase The Game on the PSP go (even if it was Already in the patched firmware 6:20) Rest assured that we also do have more exploits user (inside the svn (and I do hope those Freeplay does not leak out of hunger either) as well as outside of it) but that unlike him we are not Thus after fame and he does not like wasting exploits (especially as unlike him, we actually do find them on our own and not steal the work of others)

As its always been said, crime does not pay, stealing and using the sources as well as theft for your own profit is a crime Whether you like it, or not.

P.S. The kernel exploits ifhandle provided in the supplied sources has been fixed since firmware 6:00 so there is no harm in supplying it along with the sources that were initially using it.

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