For the past few weeks, the Web has been 
buzzing about J. K. Rowling’s mysterious Pottermore project. And while details won’t be officially unveiled until Thursday, all signs are pointing to it being an online game revolving around the Harry Potter universe.
A leaked memo has revealed Pottermore to be a persistent world that blends World of Warcraft with real world treasure hunts. Users will dig up clues, which will let them find prizes in the real world.
While there’s no end to the people who steadfastly 
maintain that things were better in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there’s one fact they can’t dispute: It’s safer these days.
Violent crime in the U.S. has dropped precipitously since 1991; robberies and murders are the lowest since the mid-1970s. And the BBC says video games could be partially responsible for the improvements.
In late April, there wasn’t a company 
in the world — inside or outside of the video game industry — that wanted to be Sony. By the end of December, though, there are likely to be several willing to switch places.
While there’s no denying that 2011 will not go down as the PlayStation’s greatest year, Sony actually seems poised to bounce back significantly from its hacker problems (and the accompanying PR disaster) by the time we’re singing Auld Lang Syne.
The sky is getting pretty 
crowded these days.
The already competitive cloud music space has another competitor stepping into the fray. Best Buy today unveiled plans for its own service, letting people access their digital music collection from virtually anywhere.
Good arcade games have characters that 
exude personality — and the stubbly little ‘zilla in Demolition Dash HD loaded with it. It takes what could be a standard clone of the “destroy everything in your path” type of arcade game and makes it memorable and fun. With your monster’s almost childlike roar and singleminded mentality, you’ll have fun wrecking major cities of the world as he rampages through town. Beyond this, the game has a wonderful soundtrack and bright artistic style to bring it further to life. The add-on commercialization through Facebook coupon codes is distracting and seems out of place, but not enough to take away from the fun factor. A non-HD version of the game is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Either way, it’s money well spent.
Given the breakout success of Microsoft’s 
Kinect voice and motion controller, it was only a matter of time before the ad weasels took an interest in the platform.
On Tuesday, Microsoft introduced NUads, which allows viewers to interact with ads in games, videos and the Xbox Dashboard via their Kinect controller.
Executives shuffle in and out of companies 
all the time, so a couple moves in and of themselves don’t necessarily have an underlying meaning. But Apple appears to be losing a number of its top dogs.
John Herbold, a senior product manager on Apple’s recently announced iCloud service, has left the company, according to his LinkedIn page. His departure follows that of Apple Store creator Ron Johnson (who moved to J.C. Penney earlier this month) and OS X creator and Steve Jobs confidante Bertrand Serlet, who left in March.
While the original Pocket God was an amusing 
experiment in cartoon torture (and a terrific guilty pleasure), Pocket God: Journey To Uranus falls a bit short. There are a few new ways to torment the pygmies who stare in awe at the worlds you drag them to and, once again, there’s an infinite supply of them, but the real thrust of the game is the three mini-games — clones of the arcade classics Joust and Tempest as well as a remake of the “flick the pygmies into the volcano” game from previous installments. They’re fun remakes, but there are plenty of other clones of those games about. And with a series this popular, you’d expect the fun factor to be ramped up — or at least for there to be more to do in the game. It’s a buck well spent for enormous fans of the series, but easily bypassed by others.
Bumpy Road has its own share of potholes, but 
story isn’t one of them. The game’s real strength is its heartwarming tale of the story’s central couple and their relationship. The road itself is a good metaphor for their life together, full of pitfalls, highs and lows, but highlighting the importance of perseverance. As a game, Bumpy Road isn’t bad, but it’s far from perfect. The control scheme isn’t overly precise and learning the best times to create hills and valleys (which you do by simply touching the screen) isn’t particularly easy. The music in the game is pitch perfect, though, and will stay with you long after you move on to other affairs. Platform fans will enjoy this one, as will romantic gamers, but it’s not a game for everyone.
[In an interview with Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris 
Morris, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata says his company began thinking about the Wii U right after the Wii’s launch, and outlines the firm’s home console and software pricing strategies.]
Hindsight’s a funny thing.
Given the staggering out-of-the-gate success Nintendo saw with the Wii, you might have expected the company to push back its next generation planning for a year or two to focus on ensuring third-party partners understood how best to succeed on the Wii, ultimately extending its appeal in the market.
Chris Morris: Journalist 