- Boris Johnson opens his mouth and puts his foot in it. Boris has a long history of silly gaffes and it appears that becoming London Mayor has not changed the habits of a lifetime. Things like this damage the electoral chances of the conservatives because most people can see just how silly and plain wrong he is. It looks like he is disconnected from everyday reality. Grand Theft Childhood is a book he needs to read so that at least he might know what he is talking about in future. Violent games have the opposite effect to what Boris says, they act as a catharsis to let off steam, which is why the rise of the video game has seen a corresponding drop in youth crime.
- The stupid BBFC story rolls on. In the UK we don’t want them and we don’t need them to have any more power when it comes to games than they do already (which is too much). Now Electronic Arts state the obvious, that the Byron proposals will delay UK releases. If the BBFC think they should be poking their noses into all sorts of IP then why aren’t they trying to implement an age rating system for books? Books have vastly more sex and violence than games.
- More Playstation phone rumours. This is stating the obvious because if Sony don’t have a PSPhone (or whatever) coming then they really have lost the plot. We assume that Zune is going this way and iPod/iPhone already has. The universal pocket device is the only way forward.
- Xbox 360 gesture interface at E3? We know they need this to go mass market and try to match Nintendo. Now David Gosen says: “We’re always working on new things, and you’ll continue to hear lots from us that we believe will be game-changing” and that there will be fantastic surprises at E3. It looks promising.
- Gamers spend $30,500 on hardware and software between the ages of 18 and 48. $1,000 dollars a year seems like a bargain for such a great hobby. Mine, SCUBA diving, is vastly more expensive for far less time actually doing it.
- Miyamoto says that to make good games the secret is not to make them look like Sega games! Nice dig there.
- “Bioshock was basically a sequence of failures and errors” according to 2K Boston’s Chris Kline. He obviously is a very lucky guy. I’ve seen plenty of failures and errors in game development without getting anywhere near as many sales.
- Sony admit that there is a global piracy issue on PSP. In further news they tell us that the sea is wet. I suppose it must be good that Sony are at last facing the reality that most people would rather steal what they put on the PSP than pay for it. Why would anyone pay for another person’s work when they can be a thief and have it for free?
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There’s a lot of discussion at the moment about age banding for books, so having suggested age groups for kids/teens books. Don’t know of many that are for it though, but it is around as a concept.