Gamers on Apple’s iDevices who want to 
compare scores can do so pretty easily through the company’s GameCenter. But what happens when their friends are playing the same game on an Android phone – or the PC?
OpenFeint is planning to build a bridge to solve the problem. The company has announced the private beta launch for OpenFeint Connect, an API solution that will allow developers to release games on any app store – for any device – and incorporate OpenFeint game data.
Warner Bros. is looking to use 
Apple’s app store to boost legit movie downloads.
The studio announced plans Wednesday to roll out “App editions” of “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The free app gives fans of the film an extended preview of the films and film extras in an effort to persuade them to buy the electronic version, which can be downloaded or streamed via an in-app purchase.
After two consistent years of negative 
growth, investors in the video game industry are hoping for things to start turning around in 2011, but they may have to wait a little longer for that to happen.
Analysts expect software sales in January, which will be announced after the market closes Thursday, to be well off of last year’s pace, as a lack of big titles and the traditional post-holiday slump drag down the retail sector.
Are video games art? Enthusiasts, critics 
and courts might disagree, but the world’s largest museum is pretty clear on the matter.
Visitors to the Smithsonian American Art Museum are going to see some new faces next year. Nestled among the works by Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper will be a mustachioed plumber and a physicist who goes by the name of Gordon Freeman.
Warner Bros. is doubling down 
when it comes to digital distribution on Apple products.
The company has unveiled “app editions” of both “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad – an alternate way for people to buy their films and an opportunity for consumers in 23 countries not served by iTunes to get a copy as well.
It’s not hard to find stories that blame video games for 
all of society’s problems. From ill-attentive children to violent, anti-social behavior, they’re often the first place politicians and self-appointed morality guides point as they search for something to blame.
What makes the evening news much less frequently, though, are scientific studies that show the benefits of electronic entertainment. As gaming becomes a larger force in the pop-culture world, more and more academics are taking the time to study the effects of gameplay on the people holding the controllers.
Heavy metal, mind control…Big Bird? One 
of these things is not like the others — and to Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions, that’s just the way they like it.
Due this fall for the Xbox 360, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will let young gamers join Cookie Monster, Elmo and other familiar Muppets in a living storybook via the console’s controller-free Kinect system. Players young and old will interact with characters and solve problems through dancing, jumping and other physical interactions.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris catches up with the 
Tribeca Film Institute’s director Beth Janson as the prestigious film-making body launches its TFI New Media Fund — for projects that wed traditional film-making with interactive projects like video games.]
One of the film world’s most prestigious festivals is taking an interest in the video game space.
The Tribeca Film Institute (a nonprofit group affiliated with the Tribeca Film Festival) and the Ford Foundations’s JustFilms initiative have announced the creation of a new annual grant — the TFI New Media Fund — for projects that wed traditional filmmaking and new media.
Video games have been making headway in the pop 
culture world for a while now, but they made history Sunday night when Civilization IV became the industry’s first title to win a Grammy Award.
Christopher Tin won the award for “Baba Yetu,” the game’s haunting opening theme, in the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists category. Tin also won the Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album for his debut CD, Calling All Dawns, which featured “Baba Yetu.”
With Apple taking an increasingly large bite of the 
mobile gaming space, Sony has taken out the big guns in an effort to win back market share.
The company has unveiled the Xperia Play — better known as the PlayStation Phone — at the ongoing Mobile World Congress.
Due in March, the device will be available exclusively through Verizon in the U.S. market and will lead the charge of cell phones capable of playing PlayStation titles.
Chris Morris: Journalist 