The 2011 holiday 
price wars have begun.
During the Gamescom event in Germany on Tuesday, Sony cut the global price of the PlayStation 3 from $299 to $249, positioning the company for a tremendous holiday season. The price drop is effective immediately.
The cost of DVD rentals 
at your local Redbox could be about to increase.
Kiosks in Austin, Texas have bumped the price of movies on DVD from $1 to $1.15 and $1.20. Percentage-wise, that’s an aggressive increase, though it’s still much lower than video on demand or rental store’s charge.
[Is Rovio’s Angry Birds 
really more valuable than Grand Theft Auto? Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris argues that Rovio’s recent push for a $1.2 billion valuation is “somewhat ridiculous.”]
The absurdities of today’s venture capital market – and of investors hoping to ride those coattails to wealth – are multiplying at a staggering rate.
And the reported recent push by Angry Birds developer Rovio to seek funds that would value the company at $1.2 billion could indicate the bubble that has been building for some time in the tech space is reaching a dangerous size.
A game inspired by 
the BP oil spill may not sound like a good time, but Blobster resists the urge to be preachy and focuses instead on fun. It’s not a perfect game, but it ticks off enough checkmarks to be worth your time. The graphics are cute and draw you in. The puzzles are challenging, but not too difficult, and it even gives clever nods to the kings of the genre — Angry Birds and Doodle Jump. The lack of a musical soundtrack is a bit curious, though. And the storyline feels forced, even though most players will skip right past it to start playing. There’s plenty of variety among the levels and there are 40 to enjoy.
Ray Rizzo isn’t 
just a Pokemon collector.
He’s a Poke-champ.
For the second year in a row, the 18 year-old from New Jersey has been named the Pokemon video game world champion, topping competitors from around the world in the Pokemon World Championships, an invitation-only event that wrapped up this weekend in San Diego.
Given Motorola’s notable presence
in the cell phone world, the bulk of today’s coverage on the $12.5 billion deal has focused on what will happen with the Android operating system (quick answer: Not much- HTC, Samsung and other phones will still be supported). But the real interesting twist on this takeover could be its impact on Google TV.
The service, which lets users access the Web on their TV, hasn’t had a particularly strong launch. To be blunt, it has stumbled more than a baby taking its first steps. (In the first quarter of this year, there were more returns of Logitech’s Google TV box than there were sales.)
You have to approach Baby 
Monkey (going backwards on a pig) with your tongue firmly in your cheek. Based on the YouTube hit video and featuring the catchy can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head-no-matter-how-hard-you-try song by Parry Gripp, it weaves in plenty of other Gripp’s YouTube creations (like Nom Nom Hamsters and Space Unicorns). It’s cheesy and fully embraces its ridiculousness.
The real joke is the game isn’t a bad one. It’s a standard platform jumper and suffers from a lack of variety (you constantly have either the pig, monkey, or both jumping to grab bananas). The controls are a little complicated, though, and the game isn’t very forgiving of mistakes, yanking away the multiplier that boosts scores when you miss a single banana. And all the while, you’ll be listening to the semi-annoying, but catchier than it has any right to be Baby Monkey song, which you’ll carry with you long after you stop playing the game.
The social war between 
Facebook and Google just got a lot more fun.
Google+, the search giant’s fast-rising social network, has added games to its offerings, encroaching on the most profitable and popular part of Facebook’s empire. And it’s boasting some big titles, too.
Given the success Time 
Warner has seen with HBO Go, it was only a matter of time before it expanded the concept to its other big pay cable channel.
That time has come. The company today launched MAX Go, allowing Cinemax subscribers to watch movies and original programming on their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad – as well as certain Android devices.
Following news of a 
reorganization at THQ, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris discusses what the company should now consider doing to “right the ship,” such as focusing solely on quality core and Facebook titles.
A few years ago, I came up with an analogy that envisioned the video game world as a high school. EA was the jock. Take-Two was the guy in the leather jacket who blatantly smoked at his locker. And THQ was the guy you wanted your sister to date.
These days, though, THQ’s role in that little drama has changed. Lately, the company has more closely resembled the kid whose attention deficit disorder is so paralyzing that he’s forced to enter special ed.
Chris Morris: Journalist 