Author: Christopher Bowen

  • OnLive Hires New COO From Pandora

    Streaming games service OnLive has hired Etienne Handman as their new Chief Operating Officer, reports Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat. Handman was a co-founder of streaming music service Pandora*, and will be replacing Mike McGarvey, who will become OnLive’s Chief Strategy Officer. * In the interests of full disclosure, the author of this piece is listening…

  • Harmonix’s Sale Price: $49.99, Plus Baggage

    When Harmonix was sold to investment group Columbus Nova, which essentially let Harmonix buy itself out from under Viacom, it was figured that the sale price couldn’t be that high, and that it was likely that Viacom was willing to take a loss. It turns out they did just that: Harmonix was sold for a…

  • Review: Score Rush (Xbox Live Indie Games)

    Author’s note: it was exceptionally tempting to just make my entire review “METAL AND BULLETS. F***ING AWESOME.”

  • Network Neutrality Adopted By FCC

    A contentious set of rules – commonly known as Network Neutrality – has officially been passed by the Federal Communications Commission in a five person vote along party lines. The rules prohibit the blocking of lawful content on fixed broadband networks (I.E.: what you have in your home), and lawful websites on wireless networks (I.E.:…

  • Diehard GameFAN Hall of Shame: Custer’s Revenge

    Every week, we will present a new game to be nominated for the Diehard GameFAN Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame. These nominations will occur every Monday and Friday, respectively. Our standards are just like the Baseball Hall of Fame: every game will be voted on by members of the staff, and any game…

  • OnLive Granted Patent For Cloud Gaming Technology

    Streaming video game service OnLive has been granted what is being seen as a key patent as the spectre of “cloud based” gaming – meaning, a system where all of the data is stored on a remote server, including the files to run the game itself – continues to grow. As reported by VentureBeat, OnLive’s…

  • Gawker Network Account Details Stolen; Users of Kotaku Affected

    Gawker yesterday confirmed an earlier report by Mediaite that a database containing the account details of 1.3 million usernames, passwords and email addresses has been compromised. Gawker’s content management system (CMS) has also been breached. When talking to Mediaite, the group responsible for the hack stated that their reasoning for doing so was their arrogance…

  • Australian Government Delays R18+ Rating

    On December 10th (this past Friday), as I reported before the weekend, the Attorneys-General of Australia would meet to discuss potentially adding in a rating for mature video games – known as R18+ – that would allow video games that would potentially be de-facto banned in Australia for not making it under the guidelines of…

  • Australia Approves Major Step In Getting 18+ Games Rating

    According to a report by Australia’s Sunday Telegraph, and picked up by Game Politics, Australia has gained a step towards authorization of the 18+ rating that would allow mature rated games to be classified in the country. The cabinet of Prime Minister Julia Gillard has approved the addition of the 18+ rating, which they feel…

  • IGN, GameStop Enter Into Online Service Agreement

    An interesting deal was struck yesterday that could turn one of the largest video game sites on its head. News Corp’s IGN and Grapevine TX based video game retailer GameStop have combined to increase the online profile of both companies and to mutually assist each other. Under the terms of the deal reported by the…

  • Fallout: New Vegas Patch Rolled Out To Platform Holders

    According to a Facebook post made on the official Fallout account, they have submitted a patch for approval by each of the three companies – Microsoft, Sony and Valve – that would need to approve and roll out their respective patches for them to go live. At this point, there’s nothing anyone – including Bethesda…

  • Sony Releases Firmware Update 3.55, Update Fixes Absolutely Nothing

    Sony has today pushed out version 3.55 of their PlayStation 3 firmware. Calling it a “minor” update that adds a “security patch”, the update has no changelog on the dashboard, and the entirety of Sony’s blog post on the subject is half as long as this sentence. The update is mandatory; users cannot connect to…

  • redspotgames Announces New Sega Dreamcast Shooter

    Today, German-based publisher redspotgames announced on German TV show “neues” that they would be releasing a game called Sturmwind for the Sega Dreamcast. The portion of the show that’s relevant has been embedded to the left of this text. The game is a 2D side-scrolling shooter with 3D elements that looks so much like Gradius…

  • Microsoft: Kinect Shortages Not Managed

    In response to Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter accusing both Microsoft and Sony of “managing” (read: lying about) shortages of Kinect and Move, Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, Xbox manager in the UK and Ireland, told GamesIndustry.biz (reg required) that this simply was not the case. Anyone who actually works in the business of producing new technology, especially…

  • Pachter: PSP2 “Dead On Arrival”, 3DS Not Looking Hot Either

    My readers might wonder why I haven’t reported on the PSP2 yet. My reasoning is because I don’t report harried leaks and other rumours that could – and often do – turn out to be wrong. However, I do report on the industry at large, which means when Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter says something stupid,…

  • Review: Baseball Superstars 2011 (iPhone)

    The spirit of R.B.I. Baseball lives!

  • Level 3 Accuses Comcast Of Charging Additional Fees For Netflix Streaming

    Level 3 Communications, a major partner with Netflix in sending streaming data to customers on multiple platforms, has accused internet service provider Comcast of charging additional tolls whenever Comcast customers request Netflix data on their network. They have stated in a statement put out yesterday that they will be appealing to the Federal Trade Commission,…

  • Electronic Arts’s John Riccitiello Not High On Buying Harmonix

    In an interview with Bloomberg, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello discussed something I’ve talked about as a possibility before: the possibility of purchasing for-sale Harmonix. He’s not nearly as high on it as I was. I’m sure some smart investor will buy the business feeling that they can catch a falling knife, but more people…

  • Sony Boasts About Move Shipments, Games Press Falls For It

    Sony has sent out a press release crowing about their strong shipments of their Move controller, stating that they have sold 4.1m units, and sending a statement to Industry Gamers boasting about the “incredible demand” for the device while pointing out the momentum that the company has heading into Christmas. “Heading into the home stretch…

  • G4 Secures Exclusive Broadcast Rights To E3 Through 2013

    G4TV, the United States based network and website that brings video game coverage to network television and had exclusive broadcasting rights to this past year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, has signed a deal that gives them those exclusive broadcast rights through the 2013 E3. Adam Sessler, host of X-Play and Editor-in-Chief of games content for G4,…