In addition to providing a bus full of playable DSi units, the press release says that the Mobile Tour bus is "interactive." If this means they let you honk the bus's horn, awesome. If they're just talking about the DSi being interactive, lame.

The press release continues:

With help from on-site Nintendo ambassadors, consumers can use Nintendo DSi to take and manipulate photos, tweak sound recordings and enjoy a wide variety of games. Visitors can print their original souvenir photos on the bus or store them online and download them from home.

Wonder if and how much they'll charge for that?

If you're in Chicago this weekend and plan on hitting the festival, look for the DSi tour bus at Roscoe and Leavitt, near the Four Treys Car Show.

[Image Cred]

The idea was to pack the pier's Crystal Gardens with Xbox 360s and let people play games on the system to their heart's content. They also decided to run a Guitar Hero World Tour tournament. Well, that was the idea at least.

Tristan and I decided to swing by the event to see what it looked like. First disappointment: The organizers decided to charge $5 a head for play time. I was told at the gate that for $5 Tristan could play as much as he wanted all day long. Sure, charging for Xbox 360 playtime seems a little absurd, especially when it doesn't include entry in the tournament, but I bit.

Once we started to wander around though, I was unhappy to discover that the Game On event had a grand total of 11 Xbox 360s. That's 11 consoles for the entirety of Chicago to play on as long as they wanted. Fortunately, very few people were there, so Tristan was able to snag a machine.

The first game he wanted to play was unavailable because someone had parked on it and looked like they would be there for the day. Since the machines all had one game on them, and were organized by rating, he was forced to play some Tennis title. He would have tried a different game, but the Xbox 360 was displaying a read disc error, so they were down to ten machines.

Oh and three of those working ten machines were put aside for the Guitar Hero Tournament.

I'm fairly certain Microsoft had nothing to do with this event, but if I were them I'd make sure that any events using their console isn't so poorly organized, it can't help but leave a bad taste in gamers' mouths.

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo will hit McCormick Place's Lakeside Center on April 16, 2010, a three-day geek-out that will feature "artists, creators and celebrities from Hollywood, TV , comics, books, video games, toys, anime, manga and all other applicable aspects of the popular arts," according to Reed Exhibitions' Lance Fensterman. Yay! Video games!

The New York Comic Con hits the Big Apple this weekend, with the corporately unrelated San Diego Comic-Con dorking it up in July. The CCEE will reflect "the essence of Chicago," which I won't attempt to determine, as the whole of my knowledge of the city has been learned from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Chicago's Comic & Entertainment Expo will have to compete with another new convention, as Penny Arcade's PAX starts a Boston chapter next year as well.

We'd expect to see a decent amount of video game related content at all of these cons, with the new Chicago event seeing some love from developers and publishers, such as Midway, Volition, Day 1 and High Voltage Software, who call the city home.

Chicago lands 2010 comic book show [Chicago Tribune - thanks, Justin!]

Sorry Harmonix, but the four decade old band has filed trademarks with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a number of Horn Hero derivatives, including "Chicago Horn Hero," "Horn Hero By Chicago" and "Horn Heroes By Chicago." That's right, no one will be making brass video game controllers or "downloadable software for use with video game controllers" without proper sign-off from the Illinois-based band.

We'd think that's a hint that we won't see Chicago hits like "You're the Inspiration" and "Saturday In the Park" in future Rock Band or Guitar Hero games, but you never can tell. But if any publishers are looking to expand their current music game demographic, you know who to get in touch with.

Chicago Horn Hero [USPTO]

Take-Two had invested some $300,000 in advertising for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game prior to its release. With the holiday season upon us and the release of the PC version imminent, now's not such a bad time to get Niko Bellic's face out there.

According to the report from Chicago Breaking News, the CTA voted to ban M-rated video game ads on its buses and stations, ensuring that this sort of marketing nightmare never happens again.

'Grand Theft Auto' ads return to CTA [Chicago Breaking News] [Image]

Back in April, Chicago saw a headline-grabbing wave of violence — close to 40 shootings, seven of them fatal, 13 of the casualties school age. Around that time the GTA ads went up on city buses, like they were in other cities, per a $300,000 contract between Take-Two and the city. Because local television's business model depends heavily on the exploitation of others' fear and misery for profit, Fox News Chicago called up a bunch of chickenshit pols and huffed about the appropriateness of the ads. So they were taken down. Take-Two then sued for breach of contract.

I'm not sure what the terms of the deal are but maybe this'll teach someone to show a little spine next time some blow-dried shit-for-brains TV reporter waves a microphone in their face.

Take-Two Nearing GTA IV Ad Settlement with Chicago Bus Company [GamePolitics]

The remainder of Fox's report becomes muddled. In the intro, we cannot tell if they are blaming the shootings on the ads or just claiming that the ads are in poor taste. (They never, in fact, mention when the ads actually went up.) We'd say Fox buried the lead, but we're not so certain there was any lead to bury.

The piece continues grasping for a story, this time through the political hypocrisy of IL governor Rod Blagojevich, who had once spoken against Grand Theft Auto San Andreas advertisements publicly. And then, to demonstrate how we should/could feel about this story (other than confusion?), the viewer is treated to a series of man on the street interviews. Finally, we find that CTA has made no comment on the situation but will be pulling the ads (we can assume only because Fox was doing the story).

After viewing the clip, we realized that the headline above the video is simply "Violent Video Game Ads on The CTA." But that headline, while appearing innocuous at first glance, is as intentionally misleading as Fox's video. Is Fox calling the "video game" itself violent or the "video game ads" violent? You can't tell...which seems to be precisely the point.

We'd say to check out the video for yourself, but we'd hate to see Fox News Chicago make the ad revenue. Crecente had an interesting feature a while back on a similar GTA ad controversy if you feel the need to click something.

Violent Video Game Ads on The CTA [Fox via GamePolitics]

A source has also leaked me with the surprisingly honest memo sent to EA employees from Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games. In it he says:

"Within the EA Games Label, we are committed to running each franchise and facility as a city/state, teams with unique creative identities as well as responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability....Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn't been able to meet that standard....Closing EA Chicago is the toughest decision I've made in my career - one that in no way reflects on the talent and dedication of the people who work there."

Read the full memo from EA after the jump...

FROM FRANK GIBEAU Today we are announcing the closure of our studio in Chicago. This is a difficult decision but we are convinced it's the right thing to do for the future of the Games Label and EA.

Within the EA Games Label, we are committed to running each franchise and facility as a city/state, teams with unique creative identities as well as responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability. We recognize that games require large investments and extended development cycles. We're willing to take risks, make long-term investments, and to support teams and individuals between launches. But each team is responsible for staying on a reasonable path to profitability. Sticking to that strategy is what gives us the financial resources and flexibility to take risks on new projects.

Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn't been able to meet that standard. The location has grown dramatically in the past three years while revenue from the games developed there has not. The number of employees has grown from 49 in 2004 to 146 people currently in the new facility in downtown Chicago. As it stands, EA Chicago has no expectation of hitting our profitability targets until FY2011 or later.

Closing EA Chicago is the toughest decision I've made in my career - one that in no way reflects on the talent and dedication of the people who work there. I've enjoyed their games and consider GM Kudo Tsunoda to be one of the best creative minds in our industry. The people impacted by this decision will be treated fairly - we're offering relocation opportunities to many and there will be outplacement assistance and severance for all eligible employees.

I know this decision will be unsettling to many beyond those who work in Chicago. It's important that you understand that we are willing to take creative risks and make long-term investments in people and projects. But the city/state philosophy demands that every project be committed to delivering a reasonable expectation of profitability. It's a performance commitment that binds us together and ensures we have the resources we need to invest back into our people and creative output.

Finally, when EA announced our quarterly earnings last week, John and Warren referenced facility closures. We had planned to include Chicago in that communication but a personal tragedy in the studio - the death of a colleague - resulted in our delaying the announcement out of respect for his family and friends. I apologize for any confusion or concern that caused.

I think you'll find that in addition to tackling some serious challenges, we are making great progress on our business. Consumers have responded well to our new IP and quality scores are tracking up. We are proud of our recent hits, such as Skate and the success we have made in making a solid game with The Simpsons. And we're looking forward to breakout hits like Need For Speed Pro Street, Rockband, Burnout Paradise, Battlefield Bad Company, Army of Two, Crysis, and more in the future with Mass Effect and Mercenaries 2 World in Flames.

We're definitely headed in the right direction.

Frank

Just heard from some friends still working at EA Chicago that the studio is being closed. A company meeting to announce this is going on right now. Also, the Def Jam Icon sequel is canceled. No word on who will be finishing the Marvel fighting game. Roughly 170 people work at EA Chicago now.

As of right now, some employees seem to be locked out while others are in the midst of a meeting. And while we assume that at least some of those 170 employees will be shuffled around EA, we've written EA for confirmation and more details.

So at this moment the news is still technically a rumor, but it's looking fairly solid nonetheless.

As a Wii Ambassador, Chicago's Endangered Gamer gets cool schwag like an Onyx DS Lite and a cardboard Wii controller signed by Nintendo honcho Reggie. And better yet, he's giving awat two invites for the big Wii Party in Chicago. The Endangered Gamer writes:

I'll be having a contest for the final 2 invites for the Wii Party here in chicago. It's not like i don't have friends to invite, but i've gotten so many emails and requests on this blog and elsewhere that i figure i might as well give the chance for a Hardcore Nintendo Fanboy in Chicago to attend, and the only thing he or she will need to do is..........Prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to myself and 2 other friends of mine that he/she deserves to go. Now, I'm not going to accept cash, or anything in exchange for this opportunity, all i want is a show of love for Nintendo.

Three words: Full body tattoo. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Endangered Gamer]