Next time you're on a multiplayer server, you might want to ask everyone who's a Canadian, and then ask who among them are dudes. Because according to a Microsoft survey, every fifth one of them (in the long run) has gamed in the nude, and might be doing so now.

Microsoft commissioned a pretty serious poll up in the Great White North, asking Canadians all sorts of questions that sound like a Cosmo bedside astrologer survey, if "game" is used as a euphemism for "sex." Do you game at work? (30 percent). Do you game in the bedroom? (27 percent). The bathroom? (7 percent — WTF?!) In public? (19 percent). And yes, they asked who does it completely bare. The answer 17 percent of Canadian men, 9 percent of Canadian women.

Best Buy Canada To Sell Used Games

GameStop will be getting some major competition in the used game market in Canada as Best Buy Canada begins to roll out used video game sales at their Future Shop outlets throughout the country. The company is kicking things off with a test at six of its Calgary stores, with plans on rolling out used product to each of its 133 Future Shop stores across the country by late summer.

Future Shop's director of merchandising Michelle Grawe expects that the sale of used games will draw in younger customers to the chain while doubling the chain's video game sales over the next three to five years. Grawe also commented that the chain is prepared to undercut GameStop prices in order to lure customers away from the chain, which until now has been Canada's only major retailer offering used games.

If the used game push is successful in Canada I wouldn't be surprised to see this initiative rolled out in U.S. stores soon after.

Best Buy to enter used video game market [ReportonBusiness.com]

Is There A New Oddworld Game On The Way?

Could be. Speaking at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, Jeff Braun, co-founder of Maxis, announced that he's working with Oddworld Inhabitants on a new Oddworld title. Thing is, Oddworld Inhabitants cut out internal game development years ago, and CordWeekly, the university's paper reporting on his talk, didn't provide any further details on the specifics of the announcement. Are EA (or somebody else) taking over development of the series (they only published Stranger's Wrath)? Is this meant to tie-in with Oddworld's movie project, Citizen Siege? Who knows. And until we know more, Oddworld fans might want to keep their kickers untwisted.

Maxis co-founder speaks at Laurier [CordWeekly, via Gamasutra]

Canadian Playstation 3 gamers are getting a price drop on Playstation Network downloadable content by tomorrow due to the strengthening Canadian dollar, Sony Computer Entertainment of America said today.

"We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player experience on the PLAYSTATION®Network, and downloadable content through the PLAYSTATION Store is just one of our areas of focus," said Grace Chen, Senior Manager for the PLAYSTATION Store. “We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PLAYSTATION Network experience."

Sony Still Fixing Canadian PS3 Pricing

Regarding Canadian pricing, we have been looking into this and will be adjusting it. We understand the concerns and are looking to correct the discrepancy.

The UK Declares War On Canadian Game Industry

"The Canadians have driven a tank over the French Citroen and have now parked on our lawn," Paul Jackson, head of the industry organization representing British games studios, complained to the Financial Times earlier this week. "It is becoming very challenging to keep core development studios here."

Canadian Blockbuster Video stores and Microsoft are once again teaming up for their Badges of Honour program, which features five limited-edition pins, available now through April 7th. As with last year's program, a $2 donation to the Children's Miracle Network nets you one of these five lovely pieces of flair. This year's selection includes Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden II, and Rock Band buttons, while the Guitar Hero II and Halo 3 buttons of last year are only a memory. Disappointing, yes, but you should have been charitable in a more timely fashion. Don't miss out this time!

Badges of Honour [Xbox Canada]

Canadian Arm of EA Raises Ire

While EA's Army of Two has been doing brisk business since it's release last week, the tale of two military contractors has been raising eyebrows and ire for its subject matter. While some have deemed it to be too 'pro-American,' it was developed in EA's Montreal studio. Alain Tascan, the general manager, said: "In Europe for instance, certain places feel the game is very pro-American. But the thing I want to tell them is, 'Do you know it's being done by French Canadians?'" He further went on to address criticism:

... he figures if Army Of Two causes some gamers to Google "private military contractors" or touches off debates about the role of mercenaries in real-world war zones, that's not such a bad thing.

"It's not the goal of the game (to educate people), because it's entertainment," Tascan said. "But if they learn a little bit more about it like we learned about it, it might open their eyes a little bit."

In addition to getting people's hackles up for content, Canada has attracted the wrath of European trade unions for offering supposedly unfair incentives to encourage studios to make the move. Oh, Canada.

Montreal firm Yanks some chains [Winnipeg Sun]

Tiga Wants Tax Breaks For UK Developers

With Eidos' decision to move their production headquarters to Canada, Tiga (a trade association representing European developer interests) is asking the British government to ensure that developers aren't bailing ship for lower-cost, subsidized locales:

"UK games developers can compete successfully against games developers all over the world where market conditions are fair," said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

"The UK is the fourth largest developer of games in the world in terms of revenue generation. Games developers contribute 30 per cent of the country's media exports.

"However, Canadian government subsidies for games developers mean that the playing field is increasingly tipped against UK based games developers."

Beyond the short-term fix of tax breaks, Tiga is agitating for a World Trade Organization investigation into whether Canadian incentives are breaking WTO rules on fair trade. Wilson said "If they do, as seems likely, the Government must take action via the World Trade Organisation against Canada at the earliest opportunity." Who's ready for a gaming industry redux of the Seven Years' War?

Tiga urges government to create competitive environment [GamesIndustry.biz]

Xbox 360 Gets A Price Drop (In Canada!)

Good news, Canada! You're about to save yourselves a lot of money, if you're in the market for a new Xbox 360. Microsoft announced today that prices have slashed across the board, with the Elite now ringing in at $449, the Pro at $349 and the Arcade at $279. An Arcade for $279? That's Wii pricing, Canucks. Looks like someone noticed the Canadian dollar isn't as lowly as it used to be. Maple whiskey shots for everyone!

The official word, with all of the details for our brothers to the north is right after this.

Niagara has always been an industrial city and that's starting to change. We're going to start seeing things in this region that people are not used to.

Kotaku Tower Welcomes Its First Intern

And you all thought I had forgotten about the internships. I'd like to introduce everyone today to Tori Floyd, Kotaku's first ever intern (well, not really, but the first in recent memory. Here's Tori on Tori:

Greetings, all, from the newest (and, apparently, first) Kotaku intern! I'm a fourth-year Media Studies and Journalism student at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, Ontario, and decided that working for Kotaku from home sounded much cooler than commuting to the CBC every day. Thankfully, Kotaku, agreed, and here I am. I'm currently writing my thesis essay on video games as they relate to identity development (particularly gender and sexuality), and am in the process of applying to a Master's program so I can continue studying that, and hide from the real world for another two years (or so).

In the meantime, I can generally be found playing The Sims 2 on my Mac, or an assortment of games for the Nintendo Wii and DS (currently playing Super Paper Mario, Mario Party DS, and Trauma Centre: Under the Knife). I'm notorious for not finishing games, but am willing to try everything once.

I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Tori will be helping out around the tower, occasionally posting and working, I hope, on one or two long-term projects. Say "Hi" be nice.

Oh, and I am sorta still looking for another intern, one who is preferably closer to Denver than Canada, like in Denver or its surrounds. As you can probably tell from Tori's intro, the most important thing is that the intern will actually be an intern. In other words can use this experience for school credit or toward journalism experience in their future career.

Canada's universal healthcare has one catch: patients can go for a long time before seeing specialists—apparently years. That's why at least one Canadian researcher is studying drug-alternatives to pain management. And in a recent study, researcher Simon Fraser found that subjects playing fully-immersive games (they tested a 3D skiing title) reported less pain than the subjects taking drugs.

While this is an interesting idea to pass the time, I wonder how the patients felt when they were done playing. And I wonder which meds were being tested...(is Mario better than morphine?)

Video games beat drugs for chronic pain [via nextgen][image]

Sex Worker Advocate Points To GTA Violence As "Normalizing"

You may not be aware that today is the fifth annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, but the Toronto Sun and Anastasia Kuzyk of the Sex Workers' Alliance of Toronto are. The latter was quote in the former as saying that "Sex work is a job, and violence isn't in the job description" and points to depictions of violence against prostitutes in popular culture as legitimizing. Specifically, Kuzyk points a finger at Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series.

There's a video game out there where you can run down prostitutes and kill them and beat them up and take their money. It feeds into the whole subculture of allowing the violence to continue. Violence against sex workers should not be normalized, but it is.

It's somewhat of an odd aside for the topic, but I suppose it warrants discussion. The beating of hookers is one of the Grand Theft Auto's focal points when discussing its level of violence, mostly due to the perception that one benefits greatly or is scored better somehow for the killing of the game's street workers. However, virtually any bystander can be beaten and killed for reward.

One might think that Rockstar would be better off dropping this gameplay aspect in Grand Theft Auto IV and future entries in the series.

Organization advocates end to violence against sex workers [Toronto Sun via GamePolitics]

Father Raymond J. de Souza, a columnist for Canada's National Post, recently wrote a scathing exposé on the dangers of video game addiction. And in this provocative piece, de Souza explores his own troubled past with his own dark demon...known to some as Tetris.

I learned the truth about video games the hard way, and so this is the lesson I offer for free: Don't play video games. Don't own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don't buy them for your children...

Since [deleting Tetris] I have never played another video game. It's too dangerous. Video games take what is most precious — time and thought. And they are making kids fat.

Canada Not Getting Rock Band Until After Christmas?

Joystiq is reporting that Canada may have to wait until 28 December for Rock Band - past Christmas and Boxing Day. Best Buy Canada and Future Shop both have the 28 December release date. Kotakuite Josh K. also pointed us to the Rock Band forums where cranky Canadians are sounded off over the potential wait and extra cost. Now, online retailers have been and will continue to be wrong about this sort of stuff before, so I guess our Canadian friends will just have to wait and see whether they're actually getting shafted on a release date or not.

Rumor: Rock Band Canadian release pushed back past Christmas, Boxing Day [Joystiq]