Video Games

The future of baseball cards is virtual

Upper Deck and Flying Lab Software launched a beta version of UpperDeckU, a new kids-oriented online virtual world where sports fans can create their own personal player and socialize and play games with other players.

The ultimate goal of UpperDeckU is to revitalize the dying art of card collecting, but obviously monetization would be great. According to Louise Curcio, vice president of marketing for Upper Deck, "the vision is that this is a marketing tool we're using to engage kids into collecting cards more. That being said, there's also the possibility that it could be a viable … Read more

Quebec says 'non' to English-only video games

The French Canadian government of Quebec is saying non to English-only video games if French versions are available.

French language rules on video games come into force on April 1, prohibiting the sale of new English-only video games in Quebec if a French version is available.

Is this a smart move to get more video games into the hands of French speakers? Or, is it misguided, xenophobic protectionism? I'm going with the latter.

One of the many reasons this is such a bad idea is that game companies can simply stop creating French versions of games to bypass this ridiculous law. I'm not sure how big a market there is for video games in French, but I suspect any kind of regulation that forces game development companies to abide such rules would quickly force their hand to decide if it was worth it to carry on with multiple languages.

One retailer profiled in the Toronto Star alluded to the fact that the delay in getting games to players (assuming the French version came out after the English version) would affect his business dramatically:

"I'm afraid it's going to cost me my business," Ronnie Rondeau said. "If it really was going to make a difference, I'd be for it, but only a small number of people want to play in French. The rest don't care."

If the issue for retailers is really the timely delivery of the French version then this suggests there is a market opportunity for cloud gaming platforms such as Steam to figure out ways to offer new games in multiple languages.

Via GamaSutra … Read more

Periodic Table of game controllers

Game geeks just love this kind of stuff.

Via Gizmodo

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom

House of the Dead: Most profane game ever

Sega's The House of the Dead: Overkill for the Nintendo Wii console has broken into the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition for the most swearing in a video game, with a whopping 189 uses of the f-word.

"It is a dubious honor to receive such an accolade working in an industry where so often, the fruits of your labors are derided and dismissed for being puerile or irresponsible," said Jonathan Burroughs, the game's writer. "But in the case of House Of The Dead: Overkill, a little puerility was the order of business. Parodying the … Read more

Nintendo: DS is fastest-selling game console ever

The Nintendo DS series has become the fastest-selling home game console ever, Nintendo claims. Unit sales reached 100 million as of March 6, 2009, just four years and three months since its release on November 21, 2004.

Nintendo's original portable game console, the Game Boy, took 11 years and two months to achieve 100 million sales, according to the company.

I'm sure that the recent decision by the Board of Education in Osaka, Japan, to distribute Nintendo DS systems to 10 elementary and junior-high schools in the region will only help the numbers grow in Japan. Those systems … Read more

Standards will drive in-game advertising growth

I just read that in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide is struggling. Obviously the economic downturn isn't helping anyone. But video games have stayed strong and as more games use Internet connections for new content, one would expect such a company to be doing well.

It appears that if IGA falters it may be its own fault, having made some bad deals for upfront payments. But that's only part of the story. The bigger issue is that in-game advertising is not like other mediums and requires the industry as a whole to mature.

The current problem is that every … Read more

'Negative Approach' is now 'Software, Interrupted'

You may have noticed that the name of this blog has changed from "Negative Approach" to "Software, Interrupted."

Why the change? First of all, Negative Approach is the name of a highly influential punk band from Detroit, and I was always going for a play on the name with the subtext that I was writing with a lot of cynicism, but most techies are not punk rockers, and the connection was pretty much always lost.

More importantly, this is about focus. The traffic that my blog receives is truly shocking, and I'm making a concerted … Read more

GameStop CEO: Amazon will fail at game trade-ins

Earlier this week, Amazon announced a new program for customers to trade in used video game titles in return for credit at Amazon.com.

This program should be able to work for Amazon thanks to their superior inventory and distribution system. Expanding into a realm such as used games is probably a relatively low-cost endeavor that should will squeak enough profit to be worth it.

Nonetheless, it didn't take long for GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo to call the program a failure in an interview with Edge:

"I give the probability of this working at zero," DeMatteo told … Read more

More popular games coming to a browser near you

Several announcements today further cemented the fact that the Web browser is the new game console.

"Quake Live" will enter public beta on February 24, offering players a stripped-down version of the full game. (Side note: interesting use of social-media tools Twitter and Facebook to promote the launch.)

Square Enix announced a deal to offer some of its games on Steam's Valve platform.The first Square Enix game to be available to Steam users will be the Unreal Engine 3-powered role-playing game, "The Last Remnant." It will release on Steam on April 9, days after … Read more