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Today we celebrate the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien, the English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor whose contributions to English literature forever changed the way we imagine fantasy worlds. More »
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Fifteen years ago Phillips, Sega, and 3DO were struggling to get North American consumers to accept CD-based gaming. On September 9, 1995, Sony came along and showed them how it's done, changing the face of gaming as we knew it. More »
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Ten years ago today, Blizzard unleashed a second helping of hell on PC gamers. A decade later we're still waiting on a sequel. Let's celebrate ten years of Diablo II, while poking Blizzard to hurry up with the third game. More »
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PopCap kicks off a ten month long tenth birthday celebration today for Bejeweled, the causal gaming sensation that's sold more than 50 million units and stifled the productivity of an entire generation. More »
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World of Warcraft isn't the only game turning five this week, with developer Guerrilla celebrating five years of Killzone all week long at Killzone.com, culminating in a weekend's worth of double XP goodness. More »
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Can you believe Asheron's Call is still running 10 years after its November 2nd, 1999 release? Turbine can, and it's celebrating in style with events throughout the day for the diehard fans still grinding away. More »
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It's been 10 years since Sega launched the Dreamcast, and while it eventually failed, we like to think that in an alternate reality somewhere the Dreamcast reigns supreme. Let's imagine Dreamcast victory! More »
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With EVE Online turning six years-old today and surpassing the 300,000 active subscriber mark over the past few days, there was really only one way for developer CCP to celebrate - spaceship cake. More »
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Four years ago today (November 23rd), Blizzard threw open the doors to Azeroth and then quickly shut them, opening and closing them several times until they were sure they had enough servers to handle the massive rush of players eager to enter the World of Warcraft. To celebrate 1,460 days of lost time, broken relationships, and weight gain (and I'm not excluding myself here), folks who log into the game today are gifted with the achievement "WoW's 4th Anniversary" and an adorable little baby polar bear to follow them around everywhere they go. For those of you online right now, you actually have to log off, then login again to receive the award. Consult your instruction manual for directions on how to actually log off. More »
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While other MMO games are busy celebrating Halloween this weekend, Hello Kitty Online is getting ready for a celebration of a far greater caliber. Tomorrow marks the 34th Birthday of Kitty White, the big-headed icon we commonly refer to as Hello Kitty, and Hello Kitty Online is preparing a birthday celebration fit for a character that's been on more erasers than the words "I love you." Festivities kick off tomorrow with a weekend-long birthday party, with KW herself appearing in-game, which I suppose we are supposed to be thankful for. "Gee, thanks for showing up at your own party." More »
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Twenty years ago today, Sega released in Japan what was to be the most successful console in the history of the company. While the Sega Master System had only really taken off in Europe, the Sega Mega Drive, later renamed the Sega Genesis for its North American release, took the western world by storm. While it may have stayed a distant third behind the Super Famicon and NEC's PC-Engine in Japan, in North America the console fought Nintendo to a standstill, and in Europe it consistently outsold all competition, cementing Sega's place as a top-tier console manufacturer...until they went and screwed it all up. More »
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Linden Labs is celebrating the five year anniversary of the launch of their virtual world Second Life, and you're all invited, even if most of you won't come! In honor of this milestone, the Lindens will be holding a two-week long Virtual World Fair, complete with parties, roundtable discussions, and exhibits that highlight the genitalia perversion creativity of the world's residents. More »
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25 years ago today, CAPCOM Co., Ltd.was established in Hirano, Osaka for the purposes of selling software. Now it's two and a half decades later and Capcom is still going strong, with flagship franchises like Street Fighter more popular than ever, and old favorites like Bionic Commando ready to reclaim their popularity in this anniversary year. In celebration, Capcom CEO Kenzou Tsujimoto has released a special message to fans and investors (mainly investors) thanking them for their support and pledging continued success in the future, along with the image you see here. More »
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Ten years ago yesterday the age of the MMO was ushered in with the release of Ultima Online. While not technically the first MMORPG, it was the first one that gained a widespread audience, paving the way for games like Everquest and World of Warcraft. In celebration of this 10 year anniversary, Electronic Arts is inviting players from the entirety of the games 10 years to return to the game for free from now until October 9th using their old username and password to experience the recent changes that came with the Kingdom Reborn makeover. The in-game celebration includes special events like a monster hunt where players can win prizes like maps of Britannia, an ahnk pendant, commemorative sculpture, or a virtue armor set. All players will also receive a wand of fireworks and 10 decor tokens, whatever those might be. Happy 10th Ultima Online! May you last another 10 years with the tiny player base you have left over! More »
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That Forever Blue bug made everything, well, suck. When shark rays are added to the underwater aquarium, the game emits a loud BUZZING noise that doesn't exactly jive with the smooth sea experience. Nintendo has come to the rescue and is offering consumers the chance to exchange their bug infested copy for a deloused one. Yamato messengers will swing by residences to exchange bad-for-good copies on August 21st, which is among other things, my birthday. I will be 29 years old, and Japanese Forever Blue owners will be happy. Delightful! More »
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This weekend, City of Heroes, the comic book super hero based MMO celebrated three years of saving the earth from certain destruction. The thriving community boasts over twenty four million user created characters with more than half of those reaching the game's top tier of Level 50. More »
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Wow, I can't believe it's only been a year (or so) since I first stumbled upon Destructoid and wrote a brief love note to their big, boxy mascot. More »
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