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Sony Online Entertainment

SOE Awards First G.I.R.L. Scholarship

Sony Online Entertainment has announced the first ever Gamers In Real Life (G.I.R.L.) design contest scholarship winner. Nearly 100 applicants submitted their video game concept art and essays for the contest, which kicked off in early April, and from those entries Julia Brasil of San Francisco was chosen to win a $10,000 scholarship at The Art Institute of California and a paid internship at Sony Online Entertainment.

“I am shocked and overjoyed to be the first G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipient,” said Brasil. “I’m really looking forward to my internship with SOE, and getting some hands-on experience at such a well-known company. It’s such a great opportunity.”

Shocked, Julia? You need to believe in yourself. Dreams really do come true; you're living proof.

More »

12:20 PM on Tue Jul 8 2008
By Mike Fahey
5,840 views, 63 comments

learning is fun

More on the Playstation-edu Initiative

We mentioned the new Sony Playstation-edu initiative when it was announced; now, Senior Manager of Developer Support at SCEA Mark Danks explains a bit more about the program and it's goals (and the cost). If colleges and universities enter into this sort of relationship with Sony, they will have lovely legal language to follow, but can get access to PS2 and PSP dev kits for $2,000 and $1,500 a pop, respectively: More »

2:30 PM on Sat Jun 21 2008
By Maggie Greene
4,786 views, 28 comments

learning is fun

Sony Trains Future Engineers With PlayStation-edu

Sony is always on the prowl for engineers and programmers with a familiarity with their hardware, but they haven't exactly made it easy to get your hands on a development kit in the past. That all changes now as SCEA introduces the PlayStation-edu program, which focuses on familiarizing you engineers and programmers with the PlayStation hardware.

Qualifying institutions (college level and above) will be given a chance to purchase PSP and PlayStation 2 development kits complete with the hardware, dev software, and SDK, along with demo codes and samples so teachers can illustrate how the hardware works to students. The goal here is to generate a fresh crop of college graduates armed with the knowledge they need to create on SCEA hardware.

Interested parties can hit the link below for contact information, and if you are currently in a game programming or computer architecture class, start bugging the hell out of your professor so you too can get your hands on a PlayStation 2 with the word TOOL on the side in big letters.

PlayStation-edu [The Official PlayStation Blog]

1:00 PM on Fri Jun 6 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,684 views, 70 comments

learning

New Leapfrog Handhelds Go Online

Leapfrog, makers of tech-based educational games, has announced two new products today. They are updating the GBAesque Leapster learning system with the new Leapster2 ($70), while also unrolling a new product called the Didj Custom Gaming System ($90). Both systems represent a new initiative for the company to connect child learning with online functionality. While the Leapster2 brings simpler functions like online rewards, the Didj allows parents to track what their kids are playing and coordinate gameplay with schoolwork. It's not a DS redesign, but these systems are pretty neat all the same. Both will be available this summer—just in time to keep those pests out of the dangerous, carcinogenic sun where they belong.

Leapfrog Store [Leapfrog via I4U]

12:20 PM on Tue Feb 5 2008
By Mark Wilson
1,227 views, 25 comments

Latest by RawSteelUT: You know, I don't think I've ever seen a Leapster outside of a Wal-Mart demo kiosk... Well, one of my nephews had one when he was WAY little, but they've since moved on to the DS. more »

impressions

Left Brain Right Brain Surprisingly Brainless

The success of Brain Age on the Nintendo DS had one very immediate effect on the handheld gaming scene, in that any game with the word Brain in the title and simplistic mini-games was bound to get a green light, whether it deserved it or not. Majesco's Left Brain Right Brain (Use Both Hands - Train Both Sides) teeters precariously between these two classifications. On one hand (ha!) it is a nifty little time-waster that is quite interesting conceptually - using drills to train your off hand to function as well as your dominant one. On the other hand the game boils down to 15 relatively boring mini-games and a simple progress tracking mechanism that are hardly worth $20 of your hard-earned monies. More »

9:30 AM on Mon Dec 31 2007
By Mike Fahey
3,375 views, 34 comments

Latest by cindersphere: Majesco license psychonauts 2 please. more »

clips

Spanish For Everyone - Act III

Oh come the hell on now! This cannot be real! Shawn bids adios to the talking bull, who seems to have accepted the inevitabilty of his own demise. As whoever is driving the truck belonging to his grandfather leaves him in a dangerous part of town at night, yet another stranger offers him a ride. Jeeps are cool!

8:40 AM on Wed Nov 7 2007
By Mike Fahey
3,296 views, 75 comments

education

Learning With Pokemon

For years Pokemon has been leaching away effectiveness from the learning process for school children around the country, so it's about time they gave something back. The National Institute of Aerospace and Nortel LearniT have teamed up with Nintendo to offer free, Pokemon-themed lesson plans to aid elementary and middle school teachers in capturing all of their students' attention. There are a wide variety of subjects available, from space travel to universal expansion, all featuring that distinctive Pokemon flavor.
"We're honored to have our characters take what sometimes may seem like dry topics and help make them come alive for students," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "The collaboration provides an opportunity for children to learn 21st century science using 21st century tools with characters they're familiar with."

More »

8:20 AM on Wed Nov 7 2007
By Mike Fahey
2,275 views, 61 comments

Latest by n/a: In no particular order You wrote "It cannot really be called science if it begins from an unwavering bias" and you are quite correct Science is the study of natural phenomena and scientists study these phenomena through using the scientific method 1. Observation of more »

research

Gamers, Our Brains Are Limited To Tracking Eight Objects At Once

At some level, no matter how many hours we dedicate to honing our...craft, if you will...our skills will always be limited by hardware based limitations. And by hardware we mean brain matter, not Cell processors. Researchers long believed that human perception was limited to tracking four moving objects at one time. But a new study, challenging participants to follow 16 dots moving at a very slow pace on a computer screen, found that participants were able to track up to eight objects at once (or double what we previously thought possible). There are limitations, of course. More »

11:40 AM on Thu Nov 1 2007
By Mark Wilson
12,159 views, 75 comments

Latest by n/a: Ditto on the 4 at 15. Where was the 8 point tracking test? more »

learning

The Wii Inspires Students To Care Where They Live

David Brantley is a teacher at Cumberland Elementary. An otherwise normal guy, Brentley is the first school teacher in his district (and many others we suspect) to realize that the Wii's forecast and news globe could be a great learning tool in the classroom, engaging students more than traditional maps. As Brantley puts it:

We do everything that's traditionally done...But as soon as we've done a little bit and they know it, we can turn around and make it a game and have fun.
The investment for a Wii is just $250, which even under tight school budgets, is probably not much less attainable than a new standard globe. And speaking from personal experience, even though I know my geography as well as the next guy, the Wii's news mapping puts stories in a context I otherwise don't fully process. Now if it were only efficient enough to use in blogging...

Game system lowers learning curve at Cumberland [journal&courier]
[image]


4:00 AM on Fri Oct 5 2007
By Mark Wilson
2,825 views, 12 comments

Latest by n/a: I like the idea. It seems like it would get a kids attention, but it's all about cost. Hey, now maybe this is a hardcore teacher that buys everything for his classes out of his paycheck each week. Buying a more »

learning

Read Books On Your DS! (...hooray?)

Genius Sonority has teamed up with a Japanese publishing company Chukei to release Bunagku Zenshuu, a collection of 100 e-books you can read on your DS. Once you are done reading said 100 books, you can download more literature via WiFi. The catch that absolutely destroys the concept? The content is abridged.

The (game?) will be released October 18th with new content coming as soon as November. We're not certain that the DS screen is easy enough on the eyes for extended reading sessions, but we do fully realize that the DS can be held like a book—like a freakin' smartypants book! So we're sure it's a great idea.

The DS turned into an e-Book reader [siliconera]

11:40 AM on Tue Oct 2 2007
By Mark Wilson
2,460 views, 30 comments

learning is fun

You Too Can Say "Fils-Aime" Correctly

Fils-Aime. That's pretty easy to write. But to pronounce? Tricky. It's not "Phils-Aim" or "Phils-Amy." It's "Fee-Suh-May." Crud, I always thought it was "Fez-Amee" and probably even call him that. To his face. So, everyone, let's practice! One, two, three, "Fee-Suh-May." More »

10:00 PM on Mon Oct 1 2007
By Brian Ashcraft
4,531 views, 53 comments

education

LA Kids Learning Via Video Games

Now I have another reason to want to go back to school besides really cheap little rectangular pizzas. Starting today, children in schools across Los Angeles County will be playing video games in class...or more specifically as class. PlaySmart is a unique education program created by non-profit organization Star Inc. that uses video games to teach children skills like problem solving, objective thinking, literacy, and jumping on turtles. The program takes games like DDR, Mario Kart, and the Pokemon card game and twists them into tools for teaching PE, team building, and positive gamesmanship, whatever that means, noobs. Hell, if I had DDR in gym class I wouldn't have had to wear that fake cast every day. Check out the program's website for more details on this innovative merging of games and education. More »

10:20 AM on Mon Oct 1 2007
By Mike Fahey
1,548 views, 18 comments

Latest by n/a: You'll never have to go without rectangular pizza again. Behold Nardone Bros! more »

nintendo

Nintendo Backing Handheld Learning Conference

In a pairing that is totally out of the blue, Nintendo is sponsoring next month's Handheld Learning Conference and Exhibition, taking place next month in London (Oct. 10-12). This is the conference's third year running, and as its name would imply, the focus is on the application of everything from cell phones to the DS in educational settings. It's nothing new, but the use of new-fangled technology is gaining more traction in educational settings: More »

2:00 PM on Sat Sep 22 2007
By Maggie Greene
953 views, 6 comments

clips

How To Pronounce Ubisoft

Stephen Totilo over at the new and improved MTV Multiplayer Blog has just launched the first in a series of MTV Multiplayer's Pronunciation Guides. To launch the new extremely helpful and indeed educational series, we learn how to pronounce Ubisoft once and for all, with the help of Art Director Alexandre Amancio, Creative Director Clint Hocking, and Producer Louis-Pierre Pharand. My only suggestion is that they splice the "The More You Know" sequence at the end of each guide, and maybe settle the bet Crecente and I have going on how to pronounce his last name once and for all in a future episode.

How To Pronounce... "Ubisoft" (The Official Explanation) [MTV Multiplayer]

4:30 PM on Mon Sep 17 2007
By Mike Fahey
4,289 views, 50 comments

Latest by kftgr: @edgarhuntly It won't follow ubiquitous' syllable stress pattern because there's a different number of syllables. For Ryu, Rye-you is definitely not the way to say it. Rye-you would be written as Raiyu anyway. The correct pronunciation would be Ree-you more »

selling like hotcakes

10 Million DS Lites Sold in Japan

According to Famitsu, the DS Lite passed the 10 million units sold mark in Japan during the past month. The handheld sold 702,843...wait *recounts* sorry, 702,844 units in April, nearly two and a half times it's closest rival, the Nintendo Wii. I suppose that isn't really a rivalry. That's a pizza party at the Nintendo offices, that's what that is. More »

10:20 AM on Thu May 10 2007
By Mike Fahey
1,812 views, 27 comments

videogames

This Day in Gaming, May 4th

1999: Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for GBC in Japan. It's a port of the original SMB with a few changes, including a world map, and a few omissions, including minus world. Sure it was a glitch, but it was sort of a charming glitch. More like a beauty mark than a mole.

2004: Koei releases Samurai Warriors for PS2 in Japan. I was tempted to say something snarky about Koei and samurai games...but when Nintendo rereleases some titles they get a 10/10 from IGN. Mark Wilson More »

1:00 PM on Fri May 4 2007
By Mark Wilson
742 views, 17 comments

Latest by KamiNoYadoru: SMBDX: The best version of the classic? So much added goodness, the only problem was that it was on the 8-bit piece of crap GBC. So many great games for that garbage system. more »

videogames

This Day in Gaming, May 3rd

2001: Microsoft acquires Ensemble Studios, creators of Age of Empires. Microsoft is that guy—you know, the guy who is like, "I love the food here, so I'll buy your restaurant." And that restaurant is McDonald's. More »

1:00 PM on Thu May 3 2007
By Mark Wilson
821 views, 21 comments

those people don't look like they're learning anything

Gallery: Big Brain Academy Wii Degree Screenshots


I think I'm sold on Big Brain Academy for the Wii. The cutest thing about the game for the DS was Sergeant Slug or whatever the heck his name was, and even then, he was only cute on the box. Everything else in the game was actually quite fugly. Well not this time. The newest screenshots coming out for Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree have been Nintendo-fied in that familiar fruity-pastel, candy goodness, and it doesn't matter if I fail every test, at least I'll be happy doing it (this time). Tons more screens in the gallery! Kim Phu More »

11:40 AM on Fri Apr 27 2007
By Kim Phu
1,385 views, 28 comments

Latest by toysmaniac: this game is a must for wii players http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-5vmf-49-en-15-big+brai... more »

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