by Conor Dougherty, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
While Tony Hawk has been a skateboarding legend since the 1980s, today there is a generation of kids who know him for his eponymous videogames.
Starting with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999, the Tony Hawk series has spawned more than 10 titles–among the more successful gaming franchises, and popular among skateboarders who play videogames as well as gamers who have never stepped on a board.
by Jamin Brophy-Warren, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Since first releasing the Xbox nearly a decade ago, Microsoft has been targeting your living room. From videogames to film downloads to the coming Facebook add-on for their Xbox Live service, the software maker has rolled out features that aim to shorten the link between your computer and your TV set.
by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Videogame publishers, pushing to expand their businesses, are making games that target girls and women a new industry battleground.
This holiday season, more games than ever are being geared toward female players. Electronic Arts Inc. is releasing the latest installment of its “Littlest Pet Shop” game for young girls and introducing a series of fashion-themed games called “Charm Girls Club” for older girls later this month.
by Steven Kurutz, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Fantasy video games and heavy metal music seem like a perfect marriage, given that both often rely on Tolkien-esque imagery and create elaborate, male-centric alternate worlds.
But while games use metal songs in their trailers, during play the soundtrack usually transitions into orchestral music. “Brutal Legend” on the other hand, a game for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 that’s being released tomorrow by Electronic Arts, is all metal, all the time.
by Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
On Wednesday, a startup called OnLive that’s generating a lot of buzz–and skepticism–in the videogame world raised a new round of financing from AT&T, Warner Bros. and others. We spoke to OnLive founder Steve Perlman, a well-known serial entrepreneur, about the investment (which wasn’t quantified) and some of the implications if OnLive or startups like it are successful.
Hardware freaks flocked to San Francisco last week to hear Intel talk about microprocessors, the electronic brains in PCs. But Advanced Micro Devices made some pretty brainy claims of its own.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
In the near future, consumers will be playing videogames without controllers, giving directions to lifelike avatars and waving files from screen to screen a la “Minority Report,” according to Microsoft.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
U.S. video game sector sales fell 29 percent in August to $848.9 million, down from $1.19 billion a year ago, according to market research firm NPD Group. That includes a 37 percent drop in video game hardware, a 26 percent drop in software sales and a 12 percent decline in video game accessories.
Karl and Dorsey Gude of East Lansing, Mich., can remember simpler mornings, not too long ago. They sat together and chatted as they ate breakfast. They read the newspaper and competed only with the television for the attention of their two teenage sons.
A recent report released by the USC Annenberg School for Communication says that videogames don’t represent American society any better than television does. In fact, it says that some cases videogames do a worse job.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
The threat from Best Buy and other retailers to GameStop’s video game sales is no joke, writes Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter in a note this morning in which he lowered estimates for GameStop.
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