How interested? Interested enough to start tracking sales and, over the course of the next few months, to start taking pre-orders on a number of video games.

Our Slurpee-sources tell us these 7-Eleven gaming facts:

One out of ever two 7-Eleven customers own a gaming system.

Nearly 3,200 stores had considerable Madden sales the first week of the game's release.

More than 25 percent of Madden sales at 7-Elevens occurred between midnight and 1 a.m.

What's that mean to you John Q Customer? Why that starting this month 7-Eleven is going to start selling the seven "highest potential games" introduced for the holiday wind up.

Those games include Lich, Guitar Hero World Tour, Fallout 3, 007: Quantum of Solace and Gears of War 2.

The stores will soon have point of purchase signs set up for video game pre-sales.

Games will all be available at midnight on the day the game is released.

World Soccer – Winning Eleven 2008 34 percent
Mario Kart 17 percent
The Three Kingdoms 6 percent

Not sure if that's Mario Kart DS and Dynasty Warriors or Sangokushi Taisen. But what we are sure is that their hair is simply amazing.

men's egg: Gyaru-o 2008 Data Bank [An Eternal Thought In The Mind of Godzilla]

Slurpee® Rocks the Store with Guitar Hero May Promotion Aimed at Music-, Game-Savvy Consumers

DALLAS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—To promote its new Full Throttle Frozen Blast Slurpee® drink this May, 7-Eleven, Inc. has partnered with Coca-Cola, Activision, Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in a marketing and public relations blitz designed to reach music-loving, videogame-playing, techno-savvy, 18- to 34-year-old males.

Online and radio contests, grassroots events and traveling street teams will call attention to 7-Eleven's promotion of Activision's highly anticipated Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. The Guitar Hero videogame franchise has sold more than 14 million games worldwide since its introduction in 2005.

In an online contest at www.slurpee.com, visitors can enter codes found on specially marked 22-ounce Guitar Hero-branded Slurpee cups for a chance to win a copy of the new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith videogame, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft, or Microsoft Points to purchase content from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. One copy of the new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game will be awarded every hour throughout the month of May, for a total of 744 games. In addition, 10 lucky winners each will receive a prize package that includes an Xbox 360 console along with a copy of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Finally, more than 711,000 Microsoft Points will be awarded.

"The sweet spot of the core Slurpee customer is between 18 and 24 years old," said Jay Wilkins, brand manager for Slurpee and Big Gulp® beverages. "Our goal is to keep Slurpee as cool today as it was to teens and young adults in the 1960s when it was first introduced."

Today, that means partnering with hit movies, videogames, popular music and extreme sports ... and reaching out to teens and young adults where they are - online and on the street. To that end, 7-Eleven has planned some non-traditional approaches to this month's promotion in addition to unconventional advertising:

Getting Ripped - Giant tear-off pads of posters featuring art from Guitar Hero and Full Throttle Frozen Blast Slurpee will be posted at 484 outdoor locations near schools, transit stations, theaters, skate parks, beaches, etc., in eight major metropolitan areas.1 (See below for participating markets.)
Mobile Screens - Media vans, each with a 6- by 12-foot video screen, will visit select 7-Eleven stores where visitors can play a version of Guitar Hero live.
Pickin' Slurpee - More than 10,000 custom guitar picks printed with Full Throttle Frozen Blast on one side and the slurpee.com website address on the other will be distributed at special events.
Hot off the Press - College students still read newspapers - their own. Full-color ads including Slurpee coupons will run in 21 college and university newspapers in 7-Eleven major markets.2 (See below for participating markets.)
Slurpee Nation - A revamped Slurpee website is the hub of all the activities, including featured contests, Slurpee trivia games and the 4-1-1 on upcoming special events.
"Every month this summer - every week even - something new will be buzzing around Slurpee," Wilkins said. "Stay tuned. Slurpee is ready to rock!"

I'm very happy about Level 5's decision. Fukuoka's position in the gaming industry is rising every year. The involvement of the youth is increasing. The meaning of this naming rights is that Fukuoka is putting greater effort in the gaming world, and this is a symbol of that.

An animated version of a 7-Eleven store and an employee will appear in the popular MapleStory MMOG. This type of integration is cutting-edge, according to Nexon. It brings relevant content to consumers and provides 7-Eleven with a new way to use virtual worlds to expand its marketing.

7-Eleven® Brings Nexon America Game Cards To Teen, 'Tween Customers

Real Card Buys Kids Virtual Shopping Experience

DALLAS — November 29, 2007 - While most big news in the videogame industry revolves around the midnight launch of a hot, new game or the latest, greatest console to hit store shelves, 7-Eleven, Inc. is promoting a new videogame initiative that is less about hardware and software than it is about going on a virtual shopping spree.

One of the biggest global gaming phenomenons is the "Massively Multiplayer Online Game" (MMOG), a computer game that is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. The games are played on the Internet and feature at least one virtual world. MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other, as well as interact meaningfully with people around the world. While many of these games are free to play, gamers can spend money to create the coolest avatar, a graphic or visual online identity.

7-Eleven® stores and their 24-hour operation make it more convenient for the millions of MMOG fans to personalize their play with certain online games by offering the Nexon Game Card at its U.S. stores.

7-Eleven has an agreement with Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia's leading online games company, Nexon Group, to be the first convenience retailer in the United States to sell these cards. Gamers can use the prepaid cards to redeem virtual in-game items and accessories within the MapleStory, Audition and upcoming KartRider games produced by Nexon. The prepaid game cards available in 7-Eleven stores are sold in $10 and $25 denominations.

"We have a great assortment of prepaid cards and now we have one especially for 'tweens and teens who are the biggest fans of these online games," said Brad Haga, 7-Eleven senior product director for business development and services. "They're perfect for young people on a budget and should appeal to the Slurpee®-beverage crowd."

7-Eleven and Nexon worked with InComm, a technology firm that develops, markets and distributes stored-value gift and prepaid products, to add the Nexon gift cards to 7-Eleven's extensive services category. An animated version of a 7-Eleven store and an employee will appear in the popular MapleStory MMOG. This type of integration is cutting-edge, according to Nexon. It brings relevant content to consumers and provides 7-Eleven with a new way to use virtual worlds to expand its marketing.

"Offering these exclusive game cards is an important first for a convenience chain and massively multiplayer online (MMO) publisher," said John H. Chi, president and CEO of Nexon America Inc. "By partnering with 7-Eleven, we're able to reach a much broader audience than ever before. Many of Nexon's customers are teenagers without access to credit cards. Now they will have a more convenient option to getting the cards."

The Nexon Game Card can be used within any of Nexon's games, which are free to download at http://www.nexon.net. Players use an innovative cash shop system (called microtransactions), that provides the option to individualize Audition and MapleStory characters and create unique identities. These features are purely optional, and players can try out items in virtual dressing rooms before making a purchase. Items range from hip haircuts and stylish clothes in Audition to vibrant, colorful outfits and fire-breathing pets in MapleStory.

"7-Eleven is eager to offer more products and services for tweens and teens who have fun personalizing elements of these online games and interacting with other players around the world," said Haga. "The Nexoncards are a perfect fit for our prepaid product selection."

As the pioneer of the microtransaction, or Item-Selling business model, Nexon has sold millions of virtual items worldwide through MapleStory and other hit titles like KartRider and BnB: Crazy Arcade. In February 2007, Nexon America reported that North American players spent $1.6 million on 600,000 virtual products within MapleStory alone.

A ton of new releases coming out this week with a little bit of everything from RPG's and strategy games to racing and sports titles. The PS2 gets quite a bit of love this week with five games on it's dance card. The rest of the titles are pretty evenly distributed amongst all the portables and consoles, with the exception of the PS3 which is strangely absent from this list.

• Diddy Kong Racing DS DS Diddy Kong makes a bid for the Mario Kart throne.
• Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia PS2
  Pure, unabashed Japanese RPG goodness.
• Final Fantasy VI Advance GBA
  The classic RPG is given a facelift for it's re-emergence on the GBA
• UFO: Afterlight PC
  Be an intergalactic space strategist!
• The Sims Life Stories PC
  Enjoy controlling the lives of your tiny minions with a new story mode.
• Capcom Puzzle World PSP
  Five classic Capcom puzzle games including: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo , Buster Bros., Super Buster Bros., Buster Buddies and Block Block
• Fuel PC
  An around the world race on ATV's.
• Lunar Knights DS
  Battle space vampires from beyond the grave.
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI PS2
  Eleventh game in the long running strategy sim series.
• Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 X360, PS2, Wii, PSP
  Pro soccer debuts on the next gen consoles.
• MVP 07 NCAA Baseball PS2
  More baseball on the PS2, now with a new pitching style!
• SnoCross 2: Featuring Blair Morgan XBOX, PS2
  Blair Morgan is kicking it olde school on the PS2 and Xbox.

Flynn De Marco

Ian over at Water Cooler Games points out that Nintendo has teamed up with 7Eleven to create a, how else can I put this, disgusting contest.

If you run to a 7Eleven and buy a StrawberrWii Banana Slurpee you're entered to win a Wii. I don't know about this whole naming drinks after the Wii. I mean, I've mostly gotten the urge to mock the name out of the system, but this contest leaves me with a burning sensation to start up the stream of jokes again. Brian Crecente

StrawberrWii Banana Slurpee [Water Cooler Games]

To say that I don't care for soccer would be an understatement. Seeing screenshots of FIFA makes me sleepy. Even hearing the words Winning Eleven makes me nod off quicker than a good armful of heroin, but apparently Europeans like this sport and like playing "footie" on their consoles.

It was considered quite a coup for Microsoft when they announced they'd wrapped up the next-gen rights to both FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (nee Winning Eleven). Unfortunately for MS, their Euro soccer reign may be shorter lived than they'd like us to believe.

According to PES producer Shingo Takatsuka:

The presentation was misleading. We never said exclusive for one year on the next-gen platforms. We said this year. We were agreed that it was this year.

It seems that no PS3 Konami footballing in '06 is just a product of development time, not an infusion of cash. Michael McWhertor

Konami Calls Foul on Microsoft [1UP]
Xbox 360 Owns Football, or FIFA07 and PES6 to Sony Denied [Kotaku]