Sony’s gaming division has announced that last quarter it turned a profit, after several of losses. In fairness, many of those quarters were dragged down by the research and development costs involved with the PS3. Even more to the point, didn’t the Xbox division of Microsoft just recently turn a profit? So, what’s the news about Sony?

Of course Sony lost money with the introduction of a new console. Most console developers do. In fact, many game developers actually lose money or have substantially cut profits with the introduction of a new console as sales slow and research costs go into developing next generation game engines. This isn’t anything new, and in fact what has been new is Nintendo’s recent profit bonanza with the introduction of their sales crazy Wii. Traditionally game companies take substantial losses on the early years of a console’s life in order to get the hardware to market and then reap the profits from game licensing, which partly explains why Nintendo was so angry back in the 8-bit days at companies for bypassing their licensing. (more…)

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Google’s Android is their new mobile phone platform. While it isn’t the gPhone many had wished for, it is an interesting shift for the cell phone industry. With most major carriers signed up to produce Android handsets, it was already a potentially interesting avenue for game development. Dell just made it more interesting.

Rumors are circulating that Dell will announce a new mobile device running on the Android platform. While Palm and Microsoft have fought it out between one another for the past few years, the last year alone ahs brought two major new competitors to the handheld market in Apple and now Google. What does this mean to gamers? (more…)

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A man convicted of beating his 17-month-old daughter to death has been sentenced to 23 ½ to 47 years in prison. Why would drive a man to beat his own daughter to death? Apparently the girl knocked over his Xbox damaging it.

Obviously this is not a “video game violence” story in the traditional sense. No one seems to be claiming he killed her because he played a game where you could kill children. In truth, someone like this would be just as likely to kill over a knocked over HDTV, set of dishes, etc. Still, one has to wonder how anyone could be so upset over anything damaged as to kill a young child. (more…)

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New Mexico is considering a tax on video games and televisions. The proposed one-percent sales tax would go toward funding outdoor educational programs for kids. When one considers that a one-percent tax even on a $3,000 top-of-the-line HDTV would be only $30, it doesn’t sound too bad. However, it misses a bigger issue.

Such an electronics tax is pure and simple social engineering. Depending on your personal beliefs you may find differing levels of social engineering acceptable, and that’s fine. The bigger issue is that it’s fairly selective social engineering. The idea is sponsored by The Environmental Alliance of New Mexico as a means of getting kids out into the environment and learning about it. So there is a very clear environmental bias to the issue, but what about kids’ health? (more…)

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There is no doubt that the first year of life for the PS3 has been a rocky one. Price cuts, new system bundles, and bailing third party exclusives have all served to help muddy the waters of what was supposed to be another easy win for Sony. However, recent events have started to shift things more and more in Sony’s favor.

At least some of the PS3’s problems can be blamed upon the inclusion of its now infamous Blu-Ray drive. While that certainly was a hindrance in the first year (leading to higher system costs and therefore fewer buyers), it has proven to be a worthwhile gamble for Sony. HD-DVD, Blu-Ray’s rival format, is dying a expedited death and Sony now has a corner on the high definition media market.

Recent rumors of yet another new PS3 bundle may have some worried about more confusion, but it offers keen insight into Sony’s long term strategy. With the optical disc format cornered, Sony now turns its attention digital downloads and to Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace. It’s already well known that Sony will take on Xbox Live this year when the finally introduce their Home online counterpart, and it’s been long rumored that around the same time they will move more into digital media distribution. The rumored new PS3 models seem to indicate this may be happening soon. (more…)

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Nintendo has reported a profit of $2.43 billion for the last nine months of 2007. That’s almost double their profits from the previous year. Imagine what the profits might have looked like if they could just have produced enough of the Wii and DS.

The resurgence of Nintendo has been one of the best stories in gaming in years. Here was a company many thought would be out of the hardware industry entirely within a few years. They looked well on their way to being another Sega before the release of the DS. In fact, it was the DS itself that looked like it might send them there. While Sony was prepping its entertainment wunderkind PSP, the DS in comparison looked like a colossal misstep. It couldn’t play video, music, surf the Internet, and the entire system looked like a gimmick. Two screens? Touch capability? A microphone? Wait a second, is this the DS or a cell phone being described?

It may sound goofy, as the PSP has the gee whiz features that cell phone companies have been crowing about for years, but the DS outdid the cell phone manufacturers by a few years. Look at many modern cell phones, the iPhone included, and you will see a move to touch screens and even dual screens. Granted, such phones seem to have a more practical purpose for their second screen (usually hidden on the inside of so-called candy bar phones), but it is difficult to deny the similarities to the DS design. (more…)

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Activision is reporting that Call of Duty 4 was the best selling title of 2007, with an impressive seven million plus copies sold since its November release. Those are certainly impressive numbers for what many considered a gamble on a new series direction. Still, for the gaming community, it’s both good and bad news.

First, the bad news-a Call of Duty game has been crowned the best selling game of the year. Not that’s anything wrong with the Call of Duty series particularly, but it hasn’t exactly been a series of restrain over the past few years. Call of Duty 1, 2, 3, 4, Big Red One, etc. have all clouded the market in recent years. It’s become the shooting equivalent of Madden Football. The games also promise inconsistent quality. While CoD 1, 2, and 4 are generally considered to be of exceptional quality, the other titles have been more suspect (though not nearly as bad as their Medal of Honor brethren). (more…)

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Friday’s update to the Smash Bros. Dojo website was the news of Masterpieces included within the game. Basically, Masterpieces are timed demos of classic Nintendo titles that you can unlock within the game. Sounds great, right? At first glance, sure.

Super Smash Bros. is the equivalent of a Nintendo all-star game, even including its own home run derby mini-game. It makes perfect sense to include some of the games it take characters from, and that’s where Masterpieces is right on the money. Smash Bros. is a celebration of all things Nintendo, and the game should embrace this idea as much as possible. The last edition of the series, Melee, included trophies that featured classic Nintendo character and items. Trophies return with the new edition, Brawl, but bring along with them stickers and the mentioned Masterpieces. So, what’s wrong?

As noted, Masterpieces are not the full games. This makes sense since Nintendo would like for you to buy the full game via its Virtual Console system. While some might belabor Nintendo over this choice, considering the GameCube Animal Crossing title had full games hidden inside, that is not the point here. Nintendo is not wrong in not giving away full games, but instead they’re wrong in giving away any of the game. (more…)

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The recent hubbub over Mass Effect has been the focus of some attention on this site, as well as just about every other site devoted to gaming. Some of that attention has been well deserved-the inaccurate statements should be publicly corrected, as should any untruths. Electronic Arts Vice President of Communications Jeff Brown has come out asking for a correction of the record by Fox News, and he is completely right to do so. The actions of gamers, on the other hand, are a bit off.

Dennis McCauley, Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association, recently published a Joystiq blog entry on the whole ordeal. In his post, he praises the acts of gamers for their emails and calls to the radio show of conservative author Kevin McCullough, who pretty much got this whole mess started when he picked up a story from the Cybercast News Service. McCauley then goes on the slyly praise the cyber vandalism acts of gamers for their comments posted to Cooper Lawrence’s Amazon book listings. In fairness, he does state he cannot condone their acts while with a sly wink praising the gaming community to have the guts to do what game companies will not. His analysis is that such acts “represent a new kind of guerilla activism that says gamers don’t intend to be societal punching bags any longer.” Great, just what gamers need-more bad press. (more…)

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It wasn’t that long ago that this whole mess started due to an appearance by Cooper Lawrence on Fox News. In the clip that has made its rounds on the Internet, Ms. Lawrence complains about the sexuality in game such as Mass Effect, and yes, does apparently get her facts wrong on what exactly does appear in the game. And then, came the backlash.

Kotaku reported on a mass surge in negative postings about Lawrence’s newest book on Amazon (the one promoted in the piece), as well as two others. In a sort of virtual-civil disobedience, Internet folk have been giving all of her books one star reviews (the lowest you can receive on Amazon). But it doesn’t end there, as Amazon allows shoppers to upload images of their own of a selected product, and from that we’ve received the ever classy Faux News pictures and cover art of Mass Effect uploaded alongside the cover of Lawrence’s books. (more…)

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