Turner's GameTap Shutters Editorial, Boots Staff

GameTap, the on-demand game portal owned by Turner Broadcasting, is closing the books on its editorial division to focus solely on games, according to a community post by content vice president Ricardo Sanchez.

Sources have confirmed to Wired that all staff members not involved in developing game content will be laid off beginning in June. GameTap's editorial division has been operational for less than a year, and Sanchez said that "while we have been very happy with the work done by our editorial and video teams, we’ve made a decision to focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalog."

"As a result, we will be restructuring the site to focus exclusively on gameplay."

Sanchez's full statement follows the jump:

Wii Fit: Innovation in Gaming or Marketing?

I'm on the road again today with my wife, son and two dogs. Trish is driving us back from El Paso, Texas to Denver. I spent a longish weekend visiting my mom and step-dad and since I'm going to be reviewing Wii Fit soon for Kotaku, I decided to bring along my Wii and a copy of the game.

Shortly after setting it up my step-dad wandered into the room to see what was going on. My son was hammering away at the Ski Jump mini game and it wasn't long until he wanted to give it a try. My step-dad, you may recall, is the one who fell asleep watching me play Grand Theft Auto IV. It's an understatement to say that gaming isn't his thing. But after about 15 minutes with the game he went to go get my mom. I think she'd really like this, he said.

Turns out she did. She likes it so much that I left my Wii Fit with them, but only after they promised to buy a Wii once they could locate one. Even more surprising, my wife, someone who doesn't like to talk about games or watch me game, let alone play games, actually stepped onto the Balance Board to give it a try and said she wanted to "check it out" in more depth when we got home. Chills, it gave me chills.

We talk about innovation in a number of ways in the game industry, some of which are very far off in the grand scheme of things: erudite discussions of game play, biomechanics, tailoring an experience to each individual. We have the less esoteric, more realistic discussions of what can be done with games now, and that sort of 'innovation,' I think, is really more a discussion of games 'growing up' and heading into more mature territory. Perhaps some of these debates are being cast in the wrong terms, or at least, there are multiple avenues of discussion to be explored.

What defines 'maturity'? I think the entertainment industry is somewhat hampered by defining works that include sex or violence or rough language as having 'mature themes': clearly there is an age component ('Should 10 year olds be watching this stuff?'), but it's overly simplistic at best. In my media collections, I have works I consider thematically "mature" in the ratings game sort of way, and the works that are mature in a different way. The ones that play with preconceived notions of the way things are or should be; the ones that deconstruct the traditional, reconstitute it as something new; most importantly, the ones that can be read on a number of levels.

What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3

I've long been mulling over exactly how a theoretical Diablo III should look...for years now. You see, Diablo is a 2D franchise entering a 3D world. And its graphical style, as trivial and superficial as the topic may seem, will affect the way the game feels to play (which many have probably noticed in 3D Diablo clones like Dungeon Runners that feel distinctly less satisfying).

But after reading that King of Fighers XII was completely hand drawn, the answer to updating a 2D isometric game suddenly felt obvious—just draw it out.

How Long Until DLC Adopts The Rental System?

With larger hard drives and faster bandwidth, a future in which players are downloading a majority of new releases isn't all that unimaginable since eliminating a retail middle man could make the prospect very enticing for publishers and developers. But what about the sexier aspects to this digital model? With such a digital infrastucture, these oft-prophecized downloadable purchases only scratch the surface.

What if publishers could counteract the Blockbusters/GameFlys of the world by offering digital rentals, and taking the idea a step further, stick it to GameStop resales by offering a simple system in which gamers could trade or sell their games online?

Why Isn't CES Filling E3's Gaping, Festering Hole?

Open World vs. Real World, And My Feelings on the Burnout Paradise Demo

I am a lazy bastard. And maybe it's for this reason, among a slew of others I'm sure, that I enjoy playing games so much. Run around and play football? Too sweaty, I'll load Madden. Steal cars and beat up prostitutes? Too much work scrubbing the blood stains, just give me GTA.

The real world is a pain in the ass. It involves traffic, cleaning gutters and lines at the grocery store. And often gaming is effective because it streamlines the experience of life, like a movie, just giving us the best parts, the frosty tops of cupcakes without the dry bottoms. That's why when I loaded Burnout Paradise and found a large, beautiful world just waiting for my destructive domination, I was let down.

Why Doesn't Xbox LIVE Have Age Matching?

Super Mario Galaxy Japanese Retail Copy

Well sort of...

The opinion piece written by Rathika Suresh for The Australian only mentions gaming at the beginning to lump it together with computer games, educational applications and the Internet. It goes on to argue that computers, and those things he linked to them like gaming, are here to stay; and that they play an "integral and growing role in education, work and communications, and the sooner a child becomes comfortable with this technology, the better."

He says the important thing is that you keep an eye on the content they access using the internet, computers and gaming systems. I whole-heartedly agree. He also points out that according to Early Childhood Australia, parents and caretakers should "guard against exposing children to software applications that use stereotypes relating to gender or culture." Also a good point, at least for young children who are still forming opinions and developing ideas.

The piece wraps up by calling for Australian ICT professionals to develop programs, tools and services that use that technology to expand a child's horizons beyond their personal experiences. I'd like to add game developers to that list. It might not be a big money maker, but it's an important part of being a good corporate citizen. That's why I also get so excited when I see things like the PS3's Folding at Home project or Microsoft's university level indie development programs.

Preschoolers need computer access [The Australian]

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EA Punishes Spanish Site For Negative Comments

Life on a Train

E3 Needs to Change, But How?

AP Stylebook Gets Game (Boy)