Author Archives: Chris Morris

Supreme Court: First Amendment covers video games

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In a landmark ruling, the U. S. Supreme Court Monday declared video games are protected forms of free speech, striking down a controversial California law that that attempted to restrict the sale of some titles to minors.

The state argued that violent games are harmful to children and, as such, their sale should be restricted. California took a slightly different approach than other states who have attempted to pass similiar laws, though, by including violent games in the same category as cigarettes and adult magazines. The Court strongly rejected the argument.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

High court strikes down Calif. vidgame law

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Violent video games are protected forms of free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today.

In a 7-2 ruling, the Court struck down a controversial California law that attempted to restrict the sale of violent games to minors.

“Video games qualify for First Amendment protection,” the Court said in its ruling, written by Justice Scalia. “Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And ‘the basic principles of freedom of speech . . . do not vary’ with a new and different communication medium.”

Read more at Variety.com

Violent Video Games Can Be Sold to Minors: Supreme Court

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The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down California’s attempt to restrict the sale of violent video games to children, saying the state’s controversial 2005 law was a violation of free speech.

In a 7-2 ruling, the court said that despite California’s argument that strict scrutiny laws (which govern the distribution of adult entertainment to minors) should apply to this sort of material, the First Amendment protections outweighed those concerns.

Read more at CNBC.com

Gamers play Mario for charity — and a long, long time

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It might not be as famous as the Boston Marathon, but a marathon taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom sounds like a lot more fun.

A group of civic-minded — and seriously dedicated — Nintendo fans have kicked off Mario Marathon 4, a fund-raising effort for the Child’s Play Charity, which provides hospitalized children with toys and games.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Google moves deeper into the entertainment space

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Google has long since moved past its roots as a company focusing on Internet search, but in the past month or so, it has been demonstrating an increasing interest in the world of entertainment – raising some questions about its end game.

In mid-May, it launched the Google Music cloud storage system and a month earlier, reports suggested it YouTube arm was looking to add up to 20 ‘channels’ of original, professionally produced content, which will fill between 5-10 hours per week. Now it has the games industry in its sites.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Interview: Sony’s Tretton Addresses Hackers, Downplays iPhone Threat

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[In this interview with Gamasutra editor at large Chris Morris, SCEA CEO Jack Tretton talks candidly about April’s PSN security breach and outage, and how low-priced mobile titles aren’t necessarily “training people to pay $5 for games.”]

While Sony would probably argue otherwise, the rest of the world tends to agree that the company’s public handling of April’s data intrusion was a textbook example of PR fumbling. After waiting what many consider to be too long to address the problem, the company finally apologized, but the sentiment seemed rehearsed — and less than sincere to many.

But when Jack Tretton stepped on stage at this year’s pre-E3 press conference and addressed the issue for the first time, he did so without a script or teleprompter, choosing instead to speak from the heart.

Read more at Gamasutra

3D gaming gets its closeup

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Between the Nintendo 3DS, Nvidia’s efforts to push 3D on the PC and Sony’s recently announced PlayStation 3-branded 3D display, stereoscopic 3D video- games are finally stepping into the spotlight.

But even as more and more games utilize the technology, there’s a debate among game- makers on how much of a draw it will be for consumers.

Read more at Daily Variety

Hackers vs. Gamers

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Given how fierce the console wars can get – and how loyal some users are to one brand – it’s not surprising there was a little bit of schadenfreude when Sony announced it had been hacked and shut down the PlayStation Network in April.

As the sophistication and extent of that data breach came to light, though, feelings began to change fast. If a company as big as Sony could be caught unaware by an attack this big, was Microsoft really any more prepared?

Read more in the August edition of Official Xbox Magazine

Amazon dives a bit deeper into the streaming video space

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Amazon is ramping up its fight against Netflix.

The online retailer, which lets members of its Amazon Prime service stream over 5,000 films and television shows, has added another 1,000 offerings to the mix – and is prominently letting users know that on its front page today.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Pottermore: Less games, more reading

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Harry Potter is going digital, but he’s bypassing the gaming world for the literary one.

Despite early reports – and an alleged leaked memo – that indicated Pottermore would be an online game with real world prizes, author J.K. Rowling announced a different sort of experience Thursday morning with the formal unveiling of the site.

Read more at Yahoo! Games