gamers

The Nintendo DS has officially sold 100,000,000 times. The feat, which Nintendo estimates must have occurred somewhere around March 6 puts the DS in an elite league with just four other systems. The milestone lands the ubiquitous DS, which features ... two tiny screens and a handy little stylus with touch screen capabilities, in the same ballpark as previous handheld champion, the Game Boy (including the Game Boy Color). Also in the plus-100 million club are two Sony systems, including the very popular PlayStation 1 and its heir, the PlayStation 2. (Source: gamasutra.com ) That 'other' Nintendo ... (view more)

Although we won't be expecting any major new hardware releases this holiday season, Christmas 2008 might feature some of the best-reviewed video games ever. Two years after the release of the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii (and three since ... Microsoft released the Xbox 360), next-gen consoles appear to be hitting their stride. Surprisingly few of these exciting new titles are original franchises. Perhaps the most talked-about game is the recently released Fallout 3, which places gamers in the middle of a massive post-apocalyptic universe. Awakening in the middle of a bomb shelter, the ... (view more)

Think that video game-playing son of yours is nothing but a bum? Well, guess again. A recent study obliterates a number of common perceptions about gamers, including their age, level of education, employability, and income. According to both ... Canadian and American studies recently launched to investigate the subject, gamers are not the slobby, pizza-eating and pizza-faced basement dwellers we may have thought. Instead, U.S. researchers Ipsos MediaCT found that the average age of gamers is a stunning 40. Even more surprising, 55 per cent of all gamers are married, another 48 per cent have kids ... (view more)

Some early buyers of the brand new and much-anticipated Guitar Hero: World Tour (which effectively rivals Rock Band by offering drums and a microphone) have complained that the "instruments" don't work as they should. It wasn't supposed to be like ... this. After a year in Rock Band's shadow, the original franchise that started this whole rock 'n roll video game thing, Guitar Hero, was supposed to reclaim its throne. If you haven't seen or played either Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you're missing out on one of the best party fads to ever hit the video game market. Players "strum" by flicking keys at ... (view more)

Millions of people log on to Blizzard's Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft every day. The game is a sensation around the world, and has arguably made Blizzard the king of PC gaming. However, WoW's popularity ... has demonstrated that there is room in the marketplace for rival franchises, and LucasArts recently revealed plans to bring people together online via the Star Wars universe. With the media buzzing about at a recent San Francisco unveiling, LucasArts and BioWare (makers of the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series) announced Star Wars ... (view more)

Thought your old friend Diablo, the "Lord of Terror" was dead? Think again. Just when gamers figured it was actually possible to kill Blizzard Entertainment's most fiendish devil, the company has announced it will be releasing a new version of the ... hyper-popular action-Role Playing Game (RPG) in September, 2009. It's been seven years since the last time gamers embarked upon that most terrifying quest of vanquishing Diablo and his brothers. Not since the June, 2001 release of the Diablo II expansion set "Lord of Destruction" has anyone heard word on the series. Many gamers, this one ... (view more)

Fans of the Sony PlayStation 3 had a rough time of it when the console launched in November 2006. Pounded in sales by Nintendo and overshadowed by the game library of the Xbox 360, few Sony fanboys could legitimately 'sell' the system for gamers. ... Now, that may be changing as the console regains a critical feature once thought lost forever. When it first shipped well over a year ago, the PS3 lacked a small but important little trick that many gamers enjoyed: rumble. Part of the reason, as claimed by Sony, was that the PS3's new controller function, SIXAXIS, would be impaired by the vibrations ... (view more)

Too lazy to get off your duff, pick up a guitar, meet some friends with purple mohawks, and form a band? Me, too. That's why it's pretty likely that Electronic Arts' "Rock Band" is going to be a hit, even if the price point seems a bit steep. Gamer ... or not, you've probably heard of Guitar Hero. Like the Nintendo Wii, it's brought many casual players into the next-gen fold, offering untraditional approaches to gaming. Although Guitar Hero III is slated for this fall, it's being overshadowed by industry giant EA's Rock Band. Rock Band, which ships November 23 for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, ... (view more)

Blogging over the course of the first 24 hours of April can be a dangerous game. As if it isn't hard enough to pick apart the rumors from the reality in our tech world, some sources simply throw curveball after curveball on the morning of April ... Fools Day. The most blatant piece of goofery may be a recent Nvidia story, whereby the popular video card manufacturer has allegedly admitted a serious problem with its wares and is ready to replace or even upgrade them at no charge. According to reports -- some of which try their best to keep a "straight face" -- Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS ... (view more)

With the launch of the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 now underway, the next-gen war between these two gaming powerhouses and Microsoft (producers of the Xbox 360) is now officially on. That should make for some mudslinging in the media and ... ambitious attempts to trump one another in the general gaming realm. However, although the former two systems -- the Wii and PS3 -- are produced by makers who do depend on the success of their consoles, it's surprising to hear Microsoft's Xbox 360 chief Peter Moore tell the media that the software giant (which has its hands in pretty much everything) ... (view more)