AOL announced the launch of AOL PlaySavvy.com, a new site that targets parents of children ages 5-17 and helps them decipher the world of games, both PC and console.
PlaySavvy also helps parents stay aware of their kids’ entertainment choices including assisting them in making informed decisions about buying games for their children.
Press Release: AOL Launches PlaySavvy.com
The PlaySavvy.com launch is a continuation of AOL’s overall programming goal to offer consumers interactive and engaging experiences with relevant sites that target people’s passion points.
This year, AOL launched several targeted sites including ParentDish.com, http://www.parentdish.com, Lemondrop.com, http://www.lemondrop.com, WalletPop.com, http://www.walletpop.com, and Holidash.com, http://www.holidash.com.
"Playing video games is one of the top pastimes for children these days, almost more than watching... More »
Courtesy of Microsoft's Major Nelson (linked above) today:
Looking for a way to tell those in your life that you want an Xbox 360 for the Holilday? Xbox.com has posted their Holiday Value Finder Guide.
Scroll down and hit the Start Convincing button to answer some questions (Mad Libs style) and the website will kick out a personalized PDF (pictured below is a sample) that you can sent to that special someone in your life to let them know what is on your list this season.
Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller announced via PS Blog today the following:
I wanted to give you some details on the two PSP ad campaigns that also kicked off recently. One campaign focuses on the new PSP-3000 and the other on the big games that are available this holiday season (or coming soon after), including Resistance: Retribution, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Madden NFL ’09 and more favorites.
This campaign is one of my favorites because not only does it gives a nod to the awesome ‘POV’ TV spot that we aired when the PSP first launched back in March 2005, but it places the PSP within a colorful and diverse blur of urban activity. As someone who spends a lot of time in San Francisco and travels the country often, I see the way that people in different cities use their PSPs and I think we’ve captured that in a fun and interesting way.
David Hasselhoff aka "The Hoff" has posted the following on the PS Blog today:
It’s The Hoff again... coming to you from Korea, where I am filming a new movie. Now that the elections are over, let’s concentrate on the real nitty gritty... PAIN: Movie Studio!
With only 1 day left before the Hoff invades your PS3, I had to make a call into the Ryan Seacrest show on KIIS FM to tell all the listeners in Hoff-land to come check me out this Thursday! We talk about my new role in PAIN: Movie Studio, my upcoming movie, K.I.T.T. and more!
If that’s still not PAINful enough for you, check out PAIN’s producers, Travis and Jason, talking about The Hoff and how they got me into PAIN: Movie Studio on the new PlayStation Nation Podcast!
Do you really want to hurt me? Holla at the Hoff in PAIN: Movie Studio beginning this Thursday... More »
The infamous Xbox 360 "red ring of death" (indicating a failed unit) has caused Microsoft - and its customers - untold pain in the three years since the console's launch in 2005, and cost it $1.15bn (£738m) last year.
Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company's part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.
It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft's engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony's engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high.
Bill Gates didn't really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting ne... More »
From today, GO!VIEW (www.goview.tv), the portable Video-On-Demand Service for the PlayStation®Portable (PSP™), officially launches in the UK and Ireland giving PSP ™ owners the opportunity to access TV Shows, Movies and Sports on-demand and on the move.
Press Release: PSP™ owners to beat boredom this winter with a free trial of the fully launched Go!View service
Following its Beta release in July, GO!VIEW has now been fully updated to bring PSP™ users the ultimate in on-demand content – exactly how they want it, when they want it. What’s more, a free 30 day trial of all three subscription packs is available to all PSP™ users so they can try GO!VIEW for themselves before signing up.
There’s no excuse for any PSP™ owner to be bored this winter with the wide range of TV shows, movies and sports that can be easily transferred to the PSP™ via an internet enabled PC.
From top entertainment shows including Heroes, De... More »
Today Microsoft has detailed NXE's party and photo sharing features via GamerScore blog as follows:
Pretty sure we can all agree that Xbox LIVE is the best place to play games, hands-down. A good game of Gears of War 2 becomes an incredible game when you get into a heavy multiplayer match with your friends – or any person you’re matched with – and reduce them into small chunks with your pretty chainsaw. It’s the little things in life that bring such satisfaction.
But some people asked for ways to create parties and keep entire groups of people together online, no matter what they were doing. Well, we’ve listened and we’ve delivered.
Once NXE launches on Nov. 19, it will be even easier to connect with your friends and the Xbox LIVE community of 14 million people around the world via Xbox LIVE Party*.
Xbox LIVE Party will let you and up to seven friends jump from experience to experience while staying connected at all tim... More »
The question is, do game companies sell less games because they offer a beta or a demo?
In an interview with GamePro magazine, Gears of War head-honcho Cliff Bleszinski said the following: "Once you play a BETA, you can check it off your list - you can say, yeah, I played it."
So, what Cliff seems to be saying is that they will not sell as many games to the public if they offer a beta/demo. Makes some sense and as the old saying goes, why buy the cow (or GOW in this case...) when the milk is free.
Of course BETAs can be looked at in a slightly different light than demos because a beta is supposed to help the devs sort out issues that they might not have found otherwise. Wide-scale testing also stresses servers and other support systems that routing in-house testing just can't do as effectively.
On the other hand, betas do provide quite a bit of insight into the final product. The gameplay will almost certainly be the same and ... More »
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