Fans of Gears of War better pay attention because it’s time to talk multiplayer.

In a new video, Epic Games has the Gears of War: Judgment lead character, Damon Baird, explain the title’s four multiplayer modes. Team Deathmatch and Domination are back. The developers are also bringing in new modes Overrun and Free-For-All to instill a little variety.

Check out the video to get all of the info on the new modes, maps, and weapons:

Gears of War: Judgment is Epic’s prequel to the Gears of War trilogy. The third-person shooter is due out March 19 on Xbox 360. Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly is co-producing the game.

Now that we have a new Gears of War, I wonder if that means we’ll get a sequel to the film Noobz?

NSFW:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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I have a rule: Never trust a lone old man burning a child’s clothes and toys in the middle of nowhere. This rule has served me well so far, and it looks like it may continue to do so in the first project from new studio The Astronauts, formed by ex-People Can Fly developers.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a weird fiction-horror game due out this year on PC. It’s the team’s first game since coming together after leaving Bulletstorm studio People Can Fly.

Players take the role of a detective that can visualize lethal crimes as he investigates. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will have the sleuth looking into exactly that — the kidnapping of a young boy named Ethan Carter.

The case leads the protagonist to a mutilated body of one of the kidnappers. Naturally, it’s all down hill from that point. More mutilated bodies pop up as the hero goes deeper into the mystery of an ancient force that rules the valley that the kidnappers disappeared into.

“What we care about the most is that the players feel like they’re really there. Immersion is our number one priority,” said The Vanishing of Ethan Carter designer Adrian Chmielarz. “It’s a game about exploration and discovery. We’re not abandoning the gameplay – on the contrary, we’re trying to strip it down to the bone and make sure it’s always meaningful and truly makes the experience better.”

The Astronauts — which is the best name ever for a studio — revealed a first teaser trailer of the game using in-engine visuals:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The NRA is an organization of lying hypocrites.

That was my first reaction upon seeing that the 501(c) organization had released an iOS shooter app in the wake of its own comments regarding violent video games.

But the finished product, NRA: Practice Range (by MEDL Mobile), is little more than a crude bait-and-switch (much like this article’s first sentence).

iTunes describes the app as the NRA’s “new mobile nerve center, delivering one-touch access to the NRA network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resources.”

NRA: Practice Range touts its educational benefits on the front page (of the iTunes site, anyhow). But it dresses this “edutainment” in the guise of a low-rent shooting game that serves as the proverbial “bait.”

One minor confession: I’m a gun owner and a supporter of the 2nd Amendment. I love taking my Smith & Wesson 1911 .45 to the local range. And the app’s gameplay won’t win any awards … to put it kindly. “Infuriating” would be a good way to describe NRA: Practice Range’s gyroscopic shooting action (the analog mode improves matters slightly).

I’m not concerned here with the morality of firearms or the objective or artistic merits of the app itself. I’m more interested in analyzing the app’s purpose (or lack thereof) when juxtaposed with NRA President Wayne LaPierre’s statement that “vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse” led – in part – to the Sandy Hook shooting.”

The game portion of NRA: Practice Range places you in an indoor range, outdoor range, or skeet shooting and tasks you with mowing down targets with an assortment of weaponry ranging from an M9 to an M16. And that’s about it.

Each mode offers one free weapon (you may purchase additional guns for $.99). The gameplay – via gyroscopic or analog controls – is repetitive and downright annoying.

But the raison d’etre of NRA: Practice Range is the “Facts” and “Gun Safety Tips” that display during loading screens – much like the historical facts and quotes in a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor title.

Some of these “Tips” – like “Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting” – seem simple to the point of pandering. Others – like “Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot” – aren’t so readily obvious to those weaned on Hollywood’s lax depiction of gun safety.

The app also provides separate links to Gun Safety, NRA News, Hunting Season, Gun Laws, and gun-related Legislation on the NRA site.

These are all useful links and – for the novice shooter – afford a great primer on the basics of gun ownership and pertinent background info. And most of the “Facts” and “Gun Safety Tips” are at least somewhat illuminating (though anyone who’s picked up a firearm in their life should have internalized most of them already).

But I question the existence of the shooting game. With its derivative gameplay, what purpose does it serve other than a bait-and-switch for the educational portion of NRA: Practice Range? I’d have no problem with an app that educates about responsible gun ownership – but then, the “game” segment is right there in the app’s title. It’s fundamentally dishonest.

And what is the purpose of the shooting game? I can’t picture anyone tolerating the infuriating gameplay for longer than 5 or 10 minutes. And coming from an organization dubbed the National Rifle Association – dedicated to educating the populace on firearms and their responsible operation — NRA: Practice Range is surprisingly light on gun-related details.

To its credit, NRA: Practice Range gets some minuscule details right. For example, the M16 only fires in semiauto mode (civilian AR-15 models don’t reach full-auto). But at its core, the shooting game is simply point-and-shoot. You’re not shooting at living targets and your victims don’t spew blood and guts, so no one would (or should) accuse the NRA of hypocrisy for simultaneously criticizing violent video games and endorsing an app like this.

But the game portion of NRA: Practice Range serves little to no purpose. Unlike the popular iOS shooting App, i-Gun by Vanilla Breeze, you won’t even learn the proper way to load a weapon and cock the hammer (for revolvers) or rack the slide (for semiautomatic pistols). It won’t familiarize you with the basic layout of a range (mainly because you won’t have the patience to play for more than 5 minutes), and you won’t learn anything about the real crux of firearms – the wood and metal of the firearms, themselves.

NRA: Practice Range isn’t hypocritical. And unlike some of my contemporaries, I see no problem with teaching responsible gun ownership to young shooters (though the iTunes site, in fact, rates it “12+”, which clashes with earlier reports). But the app serves little purpose, the game portion is a transparent bait-and-switch, and interested parties would do better to browse www.nra.org for pertinent info.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Roles for female video game characters are not exclusively reserved for princesses in distress or oversexualized bimbos. Strong, independent ladies like Samus Aran (Metroid) and Faith Connors (Mirror’s Edge) don’t need men to rescue them. Sadly, sexism is still a problem that affects every aspect of game design, including box art.

In a recent interview with VG24/7, The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann said that Sony asked him to focus on Joel (the male protagonist) for the game’s cover and push Ellie to the back. Everyone at Naughty Dog refused. Druckmann added: “I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less.”

I browsed through some of my favorite games to see how many of them feature their lead female heroines on the cover. See the result of my search in the gallery below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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I’m a freelance games journalist. I write for some of the most progressive publications on the planet. I’m also a gun owner, supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and nominally inclined toward the National Rifle Association.

Strange, I know.

So when the NRA blamed the Newton, Connecticut tragedy on violent video games, it struck a raw nerve.

“There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people,” NRA President Wayne LaPierre said in a December 21st statement.

“Through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’ And here’s one: it’s called ‘Kindergarten Killers.’ It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

Those who associate make-believe violence with real-life violence (particularly the idea that video games make kids more proficient marksmen) don’t understand gaming, firearms, or both. Since the NRA – the preeminent defender of the 2nd Amendment – is sufficiently acquainted with firearms, I’d have to conclude that it knows jack shit about gaming.

I don’t question Lt Col Dave Grossman’s expertise in firearms and marksmanship. But when the former parachute infantryman and U.S. Army Ranger calls certain games “murder simulators,” I can’t help but think that he’s never played a first-person shooter (or any video game with guns).

Anyone who’s both shot a weapon and played a video game in the last 20-30 years can point out clear differences between the two activities. Proper marksmanship entails a variety of mechanical, psychological, and physical elements that video games cannot possibly simulate.

I straddle the fence between gun owner and gamer so these discrepancies seem readily obvious to me. For example, no FPS, no matter how meticulously researched and detailed, can possibly mimic the recoil of a real-life weapon (especially the heavier automatic weapons).

The Weaver shooting stance. You can observe it in movies or video games but can only learn it by picking up a real-life weapon.

I shot an M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun (“Ma Deuce”) from an enclosed Humvee turret once, and my ears were ringing afterward. No video game recreates the tactile response and visceral reality of firearms.

Playing Call of Duty won’t improve your sight picture, breathing, or hand placement. Medal of Honor won’t teach you the “weaver stance” or how to absorb the recoil of a .45 1911 pistol. Putting rounds downrange is the only way to become a more proficient shooter and learn the mechanical skills for handling a sidearm.

This is a very old argument. Any reasonable person — the key word being reasonable – can sense the innate difference between holding a virtual weapon and handling the wood and metal of a real-life firearm.

But few people can exhibit a basic level of familiarity with both video games and marksmanship. And every school shooting prompts calls for tighter regulation of our industry, and “violent video games” has become an all-too familiar refrain. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has already passed a bill to direct the National Academy of Sciences to examine the link between violent video games and real-life violence. My guess? The study is inconclusive, finding no causal link between virtual entertainment and school shootings.

The Newton, Connecticut tragedy is symptomatic of many societal ills — ills that would more befit our tax dollars. Violent video games are not among them.

I’m not a member of the NRA. I support their mission but am generally adverse to large organizations. If I were, however, I would cancel my membership forthwith. Instead of launching a probe into the systematic failures that led to the Newton shootings or merely expressing their condolences, this influential lobbying group has cast aspersions on the least likely culprit.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s been a week since the tragic mass murder at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and the United States’ most powerful pro-gun organization came out in defense of weapons and put the blame on video games and the media.

The National Rifle Association’s press conference, led by its chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre, confronted many of the claims people in and out of the media have made against assault weapons and other types of guns. LaPierre called this “dishonest thinking.”

“A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18,” said LaPierre. “And throughout it all, too many in our national media, their corporate owners, and their stockholders act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonizes lawful gun owners.”

Said moral failings, in the eyes of the NRA, include the media covering up for what LaPierre called “a callous, corrupt — and corrupting — shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.”

“Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, and Splatterhouse,” said LaPierre, listing the games he believes leads to real-world violence. “And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

What is Kindergarten Killer?

Kindergarten Killer is a 2002 web-based Flash game from indie developer Zsoa. It features a crudely drawn janitor shooting kids who are also armed and firing back at the player. It is a callous game, but it also doesn’t support the claim that the media is protecting violent titles so that the shareholders can rake in the money no matter the cost.

Kindergarten Killer is a free indie game. It’s not owned by any of the corporations that run national newspapers or one of the 24-hour cable channels. Likely, no one has even thought about this unfun Internet sideshow — including its developer —  for years.

Although, it is interesting to note that the kids in Kindergarten Killer are armed and are the only thing that can stop the player from killing more.

One of the NRA’s major points at the press conference is that by making schools “gun-free zones,” we’ve announced to would-be shooters that these are safe places for them to attack. Kindergarten Killer supports LaPierre’s argument that only a good person with a gun can stop a bad person with a gun.

The media covers for violent video games?

The other four games are the products of major publishers. Oddly, two of the games (Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse) don’t even feature guns — at least not prominently.

Yet the organization didn’t have anything to say about games that focus on real-world weapons like the best-selling Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Again LaPierre stepped all over his own arguing points. He claims the media is ignoring the alleged violent effects these games have on people, but the media circled endlessly around both Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto games in the past.

The “Controversy of Mortal Kombat” has its own article on Wikipedia. In the entry for Grant Theft Auto, each game in the series has its own separate controversy section. These were media-fueled drives to blame video games for all kinds of violent and anti-social behavior.

The NRA likely knows about those games and the media outrage they produced. That’s probably why they included them in the news conference. Gun advocates know that new antigun legislation is in the works, and the NRA is hoping to get the media riled up over gaming to draw the attention away from any proposed new laws.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Sega shut down several studios world-wide, Zynga held a press event in San Francisco revealing tons of new Facebook social games, and developer Radical Entertainment shuts its doors.

You’ll also find a review for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim expansion Dawnguard and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.

GamesBeat:

The DeanBeat: Zynga battles to dominate the red ocean, not the blue

The Last of Us’ “Truck Ambush” trailer: now with 100% more Sackboy (video)

Console game studio Radical Entertainment shuts its doors

Sega closes multiple offices worldwide and focuses on digital

Nintendo hires a networking chief to shore up a weak spot

Dawnguard finally brings a sense of urgency to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (review)

How we voted in the Game Critics Awards

Infinity Blade is more profitable than Gears of War

Valve releases the magically fiery ‘Meet the Pyro’ video

Halo 4′s free Spartan Ops content detailed: 50 missions spanning 12 hours

Past sales point to a ‘win’ for Nintendo with the 3DS XL

New Smart TV device allows game-streaming via OnLive

Sulake un-mutes Habbo Hotel in select countries for first time since sex scandal

CCP’s David Reid says Dust 514 heralds a new free-to-play era on consoles (interview)

Dragon Eternity lets iOS gamers play with Android users

4 games that should be in Kirby’s 20th Anniversary Collection

GamesBeat casts the Need for Speed movie

Lego Batman 2 tries to redefine the franchise but stumbles (review)

VentureBeat:

Delaware’s approval of online gambling will make social game companies perk up

Gaikai streams Bulletstorm console game in the Chrome browser

Meet the judges for our GamesBeat 2012 ‘Who’s Got Game’ game-startup competition

Lara Croft will invade your Chrome web browser this fall

Hello, Hero Academy: $2M deal helps mobile-platform Yodo1 bring Western games to China

New institute gets $10M to gamify education for kids

The new console war pits Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony in an Apple arena

Pocket Gems launches All Talk voice-based mobile game

Pamela Anderson takes on Zynga with BamPoker game

YoYo Games launches a series of Chrome games with the flip of a switch (exclusive)

Zynga’s big Unleashed event strikes out with investors

Earn real recipes while playing Zygna’s new game, ChefVille

Zynga confirms that FarmVille 2 is in the works

Zynga With Friends to feature live synchronous multiplayer

By the numbers: Zynga’s total words, drawings, users, and more

Take-Two aims big in China with free-to-play NBA online game with Tencent

Google transforms its homepage into a Turing machine minigame

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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You only thought the war was over. Epic Games has passed the torch to subsidiary People Can Fly (Bulletstorm) to create the next Gears of War.

Gears of War: Judgment looks like a prequel that goes back into the thick of the Locust War, with the cities of Sera on fire and monstrous, spider-like Corpsers rampaging above ground. And while Gear soldiers drop before the onslaught, franchise favorites Augustus Cole and Damon Baird — pegged as the stars of this iteration — are dragged before a Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) tribunal. But given Baird’s cynical smirk, you do get the feeling he’s got an ace up his sleeve.

Details on the game — whether it’s a retail release, a downloadable game, or how much of the core gameplay will remain intact — are unknown as of yet. Gears of War: Judgment will release sometime in 2013 exclusively for Xbox 360.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Microsoft’s Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb posted his regular activity roundup for the Xbox 360’s online network, and the Minecraft mania flows strong on the lists.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition nabbed the top position for bestsellers as well as sliding in behind long-standing champions Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops for unique-user counts. Other titans felt the squeeze: Battlefield 3, Halo: Reach, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Gears of War 3 trailed by significant margins.

Here’s the punchline: All of this happened in Minecraft’s first week of release.

Creativity spawns popularity, or so the legions of Minecraft’s stalwart community believes. Originally released for the PC on November 18, 2011, the open-world tinkering title arms players with pick, axe, sword, and other tools while throwing open the floodgates of crowdsourced content, resulting in masterful works such as a recreated Westeros from Game of Thrones and Portal’s test chambers.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition launched on May 9, promptly fashioned a golden sword, and smashed digital-sales records on its first day in the wilds. Its 1,600 Microsoft Points ($20) cost, unusually large for an XBLA title, and its lack of a modding infrastructure didn’t prevent the acclaim rolling in.

Check out Major Nelson’s activity lists below. If you’re playing Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, what have you created so far? Let us know in the comments!

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on unique users)

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
4. FIFA 12
5. Battlefield 3
6. Halo: Reach
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
8. NBA 2K12
9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
10. Gears of War 3
11. Grand Theft Auto IV
12. Trials Evolution
13. Forza Motorsport 4
14. Mass Effect 3
15. NHL 12
16. Madden NFL 12
17. Halo 3
18. Red Dead Redemption
19. Saints Row: The Third
20. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
2. Trials Evolution
3. The Walking Dead
4. Fable Heroes
5. Fez
6. Pinball FX2
7. Awesomenauts
8. I Am Alive
9. Castle Crashers
10. Family Game Night
11. Fruit Ninja Kinect
12. Bloodforge
13. Toy Soldiers: Cold War
14. Gotham City Impostors
15. Toy Soldiers
16. Trials HD
17. Dungeon Defenders
18. Full House Poker
19. Peggle
20. Magic: The Gathering — Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1. CastleMiner Z
2. CastleMiner
3. Total Miner: Forge
4. The $1 Zombie Game
5. FortressCraft: Chapter 1
6. The Impossible Game
7. Avatar Paintball
8. Avatar Deathmatch
9. Fortress Wars
10. FLIRT
11. End of Days: Infected vs. Mercs
12. Avatar Legends
13. Flight Adventure 2
14. Toy Stunt Bike 2
15. Solar 2
16. Firing Range 2
17. Miner4Ever
18. Avatar Air Wars
19. Don’t Die Dateless, Dummy!
20. Attack of the Zombie Horde

Games for Windows Top Live Titles (based on unique users)

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Age of Empires Online
3. Batman: Arkham City
4. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
5. Microsoft Flight
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum
7. DiRT 3
8. Gotham City Impostors
9. F1 2011
10. Resident Evil 5
11. Fallout 3
12. Street Fighter X Tekken
13. Toy Soldiers
14. Fable III
15. BioShock 2
16. Colin McRae: Dirt 2
17. Bulletstorm
18. F1 2010
19. Street Fighter IV
20. Section 8: Prejudice

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The organization plans to have a panel of game journalists and other industry folks debate the list and predict the winners during the PAX East festival this April. It will announce the winners shortly afterwards.

And the nominees are…

Animation:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Dead Space 2
• L.A. Noire
• Rayman: Origins
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Control Design, 2D or Limited 3D:

• Anomaly: Warzone Earth
• Child of Eden
• Kung-Fu High Impact
• Little Big Planet 2
• Rayman: Origins

Control Design 3D:

• Batman: Arkham City
• Bulletstorm
• El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
• Gears of War 3
• Portal 2

Control Precision:

• Dead Space 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Portal 2
• Rayman: Origins
• Super Mario 3D Land

Direction in a Game Cinema:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Catherine
• Dead Space 2
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Game Design, New Intellectual Property:

• Bastion
• From Dust
• Frozen Synapse
• Solatorobo: Red the Hunter
• SpaceChem

Game Design, Franchise:

• Batman: Arkham City
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Portal 2
• Rayman: Origins

Graphics, Technical:

• Crysis 2
• The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD
• L.A. Noire
• Little Big Planet 2
• Sonic Generations
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Innovation in Gameplay:

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Lost in Shadow
• Minecraft
• Rayman: Origins
• SpaceChem

Innovation in Game Technology:

• Child of Eden
• Just Dance 3
• L.A. Noire
• Rayman: Origins
• Rift

Supporting Performance in a Comedy:

• Chris Cox as “Rell” (Bulletstorm)
• Anthony De Longis as “General Serrano” (Bulletstorm)
• Greg Ellis as “Johnson” (Shadows of the Damned)
• Colin McFarlane as “Avalon Centrifuge” (Little Big Planet 2)

Supporting Performance in a Drama:

• Will Collyer as “James Tiernan” (L.A. Noire)
• Erika Heynatz as “Elsa Lichtmann” (L.A. Noire)
• Yuri Lowenthal as “Tobias Nebbins” (Catherine)
• Kevin McKidd as “Soap” (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)
• Michelle Ruff as “Katherine McBride” (Catherine)

Lead Performance in a Comedy:

• Logan Cunningham as “Rucks” (Bastion)
• Steve Blum as “Grayson Hunt” (Bulletstorm)

Lead Performance in a Drama:

• Troy Baker as “Vincent Brooks” (Catherine)
• Adam Harrington as “Roy Earle” (L.A. Noire)
• Billy Murray as “Price” (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)
• Aaron Staton as “Cole Phelps” (L.A. Noire)
• Elias Toufexis as “Adam Jensen” (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)

Use of Sound in a New Intellectual Property:

• Catherine
• L.A. Noire
• Papa Sangre
• Pulse
• Rage

Use of sound in a franchise:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Dead Space 2
• F.E.A.R. 3
• Rayman: Origins
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Writing in a Comedy:

• The Baconing
• Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
• Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One
• Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
• Stacking

Writing in a Drama:

• Brink
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Catherine
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

This Year’s Honorary Award Recipient: Skip Rizzo, for the use of virtual reality, motion control, and gaming technologies in pain distraction for surgery and chemotherapy, as well as for training, stress relief, and rehabilitation of cognition and memory loss

Game of the Year:

• Batman: Arkham City
• Battlefield 3
• Catherine
• Dark Souls
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Minecraft
• Portal 2
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Total sales of game hardware, PC games, console games, and portables rose 3 percent to $1.36 billion from $1.33 billion a year ago, according to market researcher NPD. The report is encouraging since many months have been negative compared to year ago numbers. The core video game industry has been struggling with a slow recovery, aging hardware, and increased competition from gamer time from smartphone and tablet games, Facebook, and web games.  But this report shows that the industry is not necessarily doomed to ever-declining sales.

Software sales (console and portable games sold in stores) were still weak in the month, with sales down 5 percent to $601.4 million from $633.6 million a year ago. Dollar sales were down in part because of lower average selling prices for console games, said Anita Frazier, analyst at NPD.

Hardware sales, on the other hand, were healthy. And accessory sales were up thanks to sales of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system and sales of Xbox Live point cards. The latter means that users are starting to buy lots of cards so they can purchase digital content, such as movies or Xbox Live Arcade games, online.

Retail sales of console software were up 2 percent, while portable game sales declined. The portable game business was probably impacted by gamers waiting for Nintendo to launch its 3DS handheld game system in March and by sales of competing Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

Overall, video games as a whole were down 6 percent in 2010. But the game industry has many growing niches, including social network games, mobile games, browser-based online games, used games, game rentals, and free-to-play games on a variety of platforms.

NPD said U.S. retail game hardware sales were up 10 percent to $466.9 million from $426.4 million a year ago. Game software sales also fell 5 percent in January. Accessories were up 22 percent to $256.9 million from $210.0 million a year earlier, largely because of sales of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing accessory for the Xbox 360, as well as Sony’s PlayStation Move wand-like controller.

The No. 1 title on all platforms was once again Call of Duty Black Ops, the hot-selling combat game from Activision Blizzard which debuted in November. Black Ops was also No. 1 in January, continuing a long streak. Call of Duty Black Ops is now the biggest-selling game in history, surpassing Nintendo’s Wii Play game.

No. 2 was Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, for the Xbox 360 and PS 3. Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 for the Wii was No. 3, showing that music games aren’t dead but the trend is moving from faux guitar games to dance games. Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K11 was No. 4, and Electronic Arts’ Dead Space 2 was No. 5.

For new releases, there were fewer big titles released in February 2011 compared to February 2010. One of the new games that sold well, but not spectacularly, was Sony’s Killzone 3, pictured above. It came in at No. 8. Bulletstorm, also from EA, debuted this month at No. 7.

Frazier said that the best-selling hardware of the month was the Xbox 360, which had its best non-holiday month ever. The 250-gigabyte version bundled with the Kinect sensor was the driver of higher average selling prices for console hardware. Microsoft said it has now sold more than 10 million Kinect sensors. All hardware systems sold more in February than they did in January. That might be a reflection of an improving economy.

Nintendo said that its Wii console sales have now sold more than 35 million units in the U.S. since the console launched in 2006. The console sold more than 454,000 units in February. Nintendo said that Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii has now sold more than 2 million units and New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold more than 9 million units.

Microsoft said it sold more than 535,000 Xbox 360 consoles in February, up 27 percent from a year ago. Total spending on the Xbox 360 during the month was $475 million, the highest among the consoles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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He’s one of the colorful characters of the game industry, and his personality is evident in the games made by Cary, N.C.-based Epic, which typically features over-the-top violence. I consider Bleszinski’s masterpieces, the Gears of War games, to be some of the best and most intense games ever created. But they are extremely violent. I talked to Bleszinski on Wednesday in San Francisco at an event staged by Electronic Arts to show off upcoming titles. Among them was Epic’s Bulletstorm, which EA will publish next March. I can only describe Bulletstorm as a comedy of violence. It’s not sad violence, but cartoon violence.

Bulletstorm is like Gears of War meets Duke Nukem. Or, for those of you who don’t know video game lore, it’s like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry and his .357 Magnum gun being cast among the cute and cuddly characters of Bambi. In Bulletstorm, you carry a few big guns and everyone else is cannon fodder. They’re like the stage upon which you perform your tricks, earning extra points for a particularly elegant kill. If you can drag someone toward you with a leash, kick them flying in slow motion, and then decapitate them with nicely aimed shot, you can rack up achievement points. You get extra points for shooting a guy “in the junk.” This is Bleszinski’s idea of a great time.

I sat down with Bleszinski to talk about video game violence and how Epic’s game, developed by its People Can Fly studio, should be understood by people who don’t play video games and may sympathize with the notion that kids have to be protected from games. Bleszinski clearly doesn’t agree with that, and so he talked about his reaction to concerns about violence and the recent Supreme Court hearing about the California law banning the sale of ultra-violent video games, such as Bulletstorm, to minors. Check out our video of our talk below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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