Category Archives: Yahoo! Games

Hi-tech pajamas hide bedtime stories

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Of smart-pjsall the weapons in a child’s arsenal to stretch bedtime out as long as possible, there is none more valuable than the bedtime story. Inevitably, your young son or daughter will take FOREVER trying to pick out just the right book before you can corral them back into their bed.

Technology to the rescue! Smart PJs are new nighttime apparel that not only keep kids comfy and cozy as they doze, but they’re festooned with patterns that hide QR codes that can quickly be converted to bedtime stories.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Nintendo abandons E3 keynote

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One nintendo-skipping-e3-presserof the tentpole events of E3 won’t be taking place this year.

Nintendo shocked the gaming world late Wednesday by announcing that it has decided not to hold its annual E3 press conference. Instead, the company said, it plans to focus on smaller events and will address the gaming world through a series of Nintendo Direct broadcasts, essentially cutting out the large, noisy middleman.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Nintendo has sold fewer than 400,000 Wii Us so far this year

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If wii-u-sales-top640there was any remaining doubt that the Wii U has been struggling, Nintendo erased that in its latest earnings report.

The company reported that in the past three months, it has sold just 390,000 units of its next generation console. Life to date sales for the Wii U are under 3.5 million. That’s more than 500,000 less than the company had predicted in January, a figure that had been revised downward from initial forecasts of 5.5 million.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

 

Xbox Live subscriptions continue to rise

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With xbox-live-substhe successor to the Xbox 360 likely to hit stores before the end of the year, you’d think people might hold off on things like an Xbox Live subscription at this point in the console cycle. But apparently the online service is more popular than ever.

Microsoft reports Xbox Live subscriptions hit 46 million worldwide in the most recent fiscal quarter. That’s up 18 percent from a year ago.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Female video game characters shedding stereotypes

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Female female-characters-top640characters have had a rather dubious run in the video game world. When they aren’t damsels in distress, they’re oversexualized stereotypes meant to titillate rather than foster a sense of empowerment in players.

There have been exceptions, of course — Half-Life 2’s Alyx or Samus from Metroid — but progress has been slow. In the past year, though, the exceptions are starting to become … well, if not the rule, less of the exception.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Hacker ‘fixes’ E.T., the worst game ever

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New et-game-hacker-top630Mexico residents might want to grab their shovels.

Those long buried copies of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the infamous Atari 2600 game that many believe contributed to the great North American video game industry crash of 1983, might be worth digging up thanks to a hacker who has seemingly fixed its biggest bugs.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Bioshock Infinite tops charts in another slumping sales month

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If bioshock-march-npd-top640there was a beacon of hope for the video game industry in the first half of 2013, it was Bioshock Infinite. The hotly-anticipated game, currently the top-rated title of the year, was the best chance for retail sales to rebound and return to positive territory.

As it turns out, Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth couldn’t quite live up to that pressure — even with Lara Croft, Kratos and the Gears of War crew backing them up.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Is Facebook gaming dying?

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Not farmville2-top630too long ago, many people believed Facebook was the Next Big Thing in gaming. Developers debated it — sometimes ferociously — at conventions, while venture capitalists couldn’t fund the companies making those games fast enough.

But over the past few months, the air seems to have been let out of Facebook’s tires. Major publishers are withdrawing their support. Pop culture breakouts like Farmville are far and few between. Most damningly, players seem to have moved on to other diversions.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Nintendo announces new Zelda, long-awaited Earthbound and more

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It new-zelda-3dsmight be the year of Luigi, but another green-garbed Nintendo mascot stole the spotlight Wednesday as Nintendo announced a slew of upcoming titles.

An all-new The Legend of Zelda game set in the world of 1991’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is scheduled to launch for the 3DS this holiday season. Also on the way are new entries in the Yoshi’s Island and Mario Party series, as well as the U.S. arrival of the cult-classic Earthbound, the company announced in a direct broadcast to fans.

Read more at Yahoo! Games