Will motion controls kill traditional game controllers?

Before 1983, video games controls were clunky. Instead of thumbs and fingers to play, palms and entire fists were used to push, pull, and jerk joysticks. The interface worked, but it wasn’t ideal.

Then along came Nintendo with a thumb-friendly joypad (or gamepad), and everything changed. Controls were more precise. The competition realized this, then followed Nintendo’s lead within a few years by abandoning the joystick altogether.

Fast forward to 2006. Nintendo shuns the joypad … Continue Reading

Patch society: What's wrong with updating games after release?

Game updates are a wonderful thing. They fix software glitches. Balance online play. Breath new life into aging games. And even fix consoles.

Obviously that makes players happy. Developers too. “The biggest advantage of game updates is that we don’t have to be quite so paranoid about unknown bugs cropping up,” says Brian Greenstone, president of Pangea Software. “In the old console days, you were screwed if a bug popped up because you only got … Continue Reading

Quitting Facebook: sweet salvation or social suicide?

Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends.

It’s also a great way to get fired, have your insurance benefits revoked, or suffer public humiliation. As a result, a number of users are deleting their accounts and leaving the popular networking site behind.

For good.

“It just became too much,” says Josh Rhine, an economic developer from Atlanta. “More an obligation than fun. It also started to smell like some one cracked an … Continue Reading

Heavy Rain: I just changed a diaper. Can this be a video game?

“Did I really just do that?” I ask myself, part way into playing “Heavy Rain,” the new, uh, video game for the PlayStation 3.

Moments before, I faced a unique problem—unique to video games that is. A baby was crying. She had a dirty diaper. And her mother was unable to car for her. In order to advance the game, I had to mash a few buttons in proper sequence to change her diaper. Call … Continue Reading

Better quality creates opening for third-party game controllers

Third party game controllers have never had a good reputation. But conditions are ripe for newcomers and indies to break into this once roped-off section of the multibillion-dollar video game accessory market.

The good thing about this development is that accessory makers such as Nyko and Razer are beating the console makers to market with cool new designs.

That’s a big turnabout. Ask any gamer what they think about third-party video game controllers, and the … Continue Reading

Wii is on track to outsell PlayStation 2, while PS 3 is on par with GameCube sales

Nintendo has gone from worst to first in consecutive console releases, with Sony doing exactly the opposite this generation. A closer look at collective data released by the NPD Group, the official tracker of U.S. video game sales, reveals the stark reversal of roles.

Based on the first 26 months of availability, the Wii is on its way to becoming the best-selling console of all time, a title currently held by the PlayStation 2, which … Continue Reading