Of course that little estimate is found at the bottom of a story that is headlined “Games to outsell music, video”. The story leads off by saying UK sales of games will outstrip music and video combined this year. Later on in the story someone points out that the video gaming sales figures include hardware while the video and music figures don’t.

The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online," says Malcolm Pinkerton of Verdict Research.

It is online sales of CDs and DVDs that have grown rapidly, rather than digital downloads, which still only account for around 4% of music and video sales.

In contrast, video games spending has enjoyed explosive growth, with the launch of major new titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV and FIFA 08, and the Nintendo Wii continuing to broaden the appeal of games.

The story wraps up by pointing out that major British retailers like HMV and Zavvi are changing their store layouts, cutting back on the space they give music and using it for MP3 players, books, clothing and, yes, even video games.

Games to Outsell Music, Video [BBC]

The decline, found in both the United States and Japan, appears to have begun in the 1980s and 1990s, the period of rapid growth of video games, they said.

The bad news is that many of these games are pretty much now loss leaders to get people to buy into the video game with little originality or creativity. Witness the large number of new and useless CCGs based on recent video games, included in the packaging or given away at conventions.

This is the subject matter that Turner tackles in her recent rant/article on The Times website. Although her article is titled "Xbox is crack for Kids" she mostly complains about general media and technology and how to (or not to) regulate "screen time" for her kids and how this is a seemingly impossible task. She saves her most venomous words for video games which she attacks with vehemence in the last paragraph:

Once, such kids would be the playground outcasts, but no longer. Mine are. Because, unlike the TV-hating parents, I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s. These are Satan's Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains. And they play them - beepety-beep - on journeys, over family meals, any minute in which they find themselves unamused.

And their parents never seem to say, hey, this is the bit where you pick up a book. Or game over, kids: get an inner life.

Several Times readers were quick to come forward and refute Turner's claims and point out that within her article she even states that "I don't have the resolve for all this." How can someone complain of the negative effects of media on their children when they admit that they can't be bothered to make the effort to control it themselves? Times reader Marcus hit the nail right on the head with his comment:

Ahhh videogames. The source of all evil. Again. I'm guessing Janice you've never ever played one. I regulate my kids TV time very strictly - about 4 hours a week presently. But I let them play Super Mario Galaxy (as part of that time). It is a joyous, wondrous world of colour and fun and inspires them to draw pictures, write stories and play 'Mario' outside. So what exactly is the problem with that?

The problem you have by the sounds of it, is that you are laying blame at the door of the easiest scapegoat and not your own deficiencies as a parent.

It's the age old saga, parents complaining about something they just don't understand and heaven knows they aren't going to try. The whole piece just reeks of someone who discovered too late that if you are going to try and regiment your kid's media time, it has to be done from the beginning. You can't just decide this would be a good idea after eight to ten years and then only half heartedly try to enforce it. Just like the never ending debate over video game violence, the problem of too much media time for kids lies squarely on the doorstep of the parents. The onus, Miss Turner, is on you.

Xbox is crack for kids [The Times]
[Thanks, zany_ninja]

• "First you need to understand that there's boxes." (Referring to the consoles.)
• "The controller actually controls it."
• "Most games just use one or two buttons."
• "It's as easy as hooking up a CD player to your TV."

Continuing video games' slow takeover of the world, the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts is going to be offering a seminar on machinima. The class is being created in an effort to bring film and game students together to work on a common project.

CTIN 464, Game Studies Seminar. In this 2 unit class we will develop machinima. This is a perfect cross-division class for film and game students to work together. We will play games, watch films, and discuss the possibilities of machinima as an art form. Documentary machinima will be encouraged, and all topics are fair game, including projects about games. The history of machinima is short, and its full potential is yet to be realized- by aspiring media students.

Machinima being studied and created in a college setting... I never thought I'd see the day. At this rate it shouldn't be too long before we see Harvard offering classes likeHow To Quickly Level Up Your Warcraft Character and Goldfarming 101. Flynn De Marco

[Thanks, Sean]

Make the jump for a full explanation of the video from AllGames.com. Flynn De Marco

[via: Destructoid]

FROM ALLGAMES.COM
NOTES: This was produced for game developer DAVID PERRY. It had to be two minutes and thirty seconds long, for an audience of non-gamers, and was to show what games might look like 5 years from now. Thus why some pre-rendered PS3 videos, and cut scenes were used. We will be doing a series of these in the future, check back.

A short trip through the evolution of video games. From pixel to polygons, atari to HD, this is a visual ride through various video game genres as they evolved with new technology and talent from game developers.
The clip was produced for a presentation made by game developer David Perry at the prestigious TED Conference in Marin County. www.ted.com

Playboy editor Scott Alexander tells Dean Takahasi from The Mercury News why the men's magazine has been moving into gaming for the past three years. From the article:

Alexander says he has been trying to inject video game culture into the magazine, and he notes that Hugh Hefner has always been a gamer and he has a high-profile game room with pinball machines and what not in the game room at the mansion. The Playboy Mansion video game debuted some time ago and sold particularly well in Europe. Alexander says that the demographics for video games are a good match with the average Playboy reader. The average gamer, he notes, is 32 years old.

With politicians constantly complaining about "adult content" in video games, it's time that the masses realize: Video games aren't really for children. And they shouldn't pretend to be, either. Brian Ashcraft

Playboy Likes Games, Boobs [Mercury News, via Gay Gamer]

Television? That's just something we use to play games, so it's obvious where we pitch our tent. And people who write about TV, well, they like watching it. Or they should! Regardless, welcome Guardian TV critic Charlie Brooker to our camp. He confesses:

After all, speaking in my guise as a so-called TV critic, I can confi dently state that games are markedly better than television... Furthermore, as a medium, TV encourages you to switch off your brain and slowly coagulate on the sofa. Video games force you to stay alert... You control them. They start and stop when you like. There's no continuity announcer jabbering over the credits. Your intelligence is rarely insulted, but regularly challenged.

Word. Brooker goes on to say any Mario platformer has more "innovation" and "sheer joy" than what most TV series achieve in their entire life-span. And claims that Half-Life 2 is ten times more exciting than the best episode of 24, which he loves. Perhaps, it's about time Charlie Brooker stopped covering TV and started writing more about games, no? Brian Ashcraft

Brooker Loves Them Games [Guardian Games Blog]

Bunching your face up into a ball, fine. Leaving your mouth gapping open, passable. But doing strange crap with your tongue? No thanks. Some photographer took photos of people playing video games "to reveal a hidden part of their character." Neat, in a creepy way. Brian Ashcraft

Looks At These Faces [Mr Toldedano via Wonderland]

At the Austin Games Conference, game designer Raph Koster says that television isn't become kinda like gaming, but is flat out ripping it off. Koster points out:

We now have television shows with Easter eggs. In fact, they're putting Easter eggs in the commercials. Our best tricks are getting stolen.

And they have been getting stolen for a while. Now, they're just getting more stolen. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Wonderland]

A comic book dude. A sci-fi writer. And a baseball pitcher. All three have joined forces to create "industry-changing games." Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, author R.A. Salvatore and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling have formed Green Monster Games, named after the huge left field wall at Fenway Park. Schilling is a diehard MMORPG player and has appeared at EverQuest conventions. Details are scant, but McFarlane will be the company's lead artist, Salvatore will be creative director and Schilling will be Schilling. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Gamasutra] Thanks, Chilly!

For Chris Crawford, gaming is now lifeless. Somewhat of a pundit, Crawford worked as a game designer at Atari until 1984 and also penned the classic The Art of Computer Game Design. Gamasutra has a provoking interview with the former designer as he talks pushing the form and reaching new players. Crawford says:

Has anybody noticed that we don't appeal to the general public? Has anybody thought that perhaps it might be a good thing? In fact, the industry has talked about reaching out to a broader audience for decades, but the industry is not willing to do anything about it. As long as you keep recycling the same product you're going to have the same markets.

Before every fanboy lurking in the peanut gallery starts posting comments defending sequels, new consoles, rebranding or whatever, do read the rest of the interview. While I certainly don't agree with everything he says, I admire Crawford's desire to turn everything on its ear. Now, whether or not that is a good thing... Brian Ashcraft

Full Interview Here

Floundering G4TV's identity crisis continues as the cable network is trading games for dudes. Its new slogan is "We Get Guys." Not sure if they mean "get" as in "understand" or "get" as in "purchase" or "go after." Proving that the network doesn't get much of anything, it recently applied for trademark protection of this phrase. No, really.

G4 Continues To Lose Game Cred [Kotaku]
More Here [trivial TV]

CNN reports that a high school shooting in Riverton, Kansas was prevented by a warning on MySpace.com. The message mentioned April 20th, which is Hitler's birthday and Columbine's anniversary.

"The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets," said Riverton police officer.

While a woman in North Carolina chatted with one of the suspects Wednesday night, she learned details about the shooting, which she reported to the authorities. Four of the teens were arrested at their homes, while the fifth was cuffed at school.

All of them were ages 16-18. In the one suspect's room, they found guns, ammo and knives, while texts on firearms were found in school lockers. Authorities are debating whether to charge four of the underage suspects as adults.

Fine job of reporting AP, right up to:

"I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising," he [the Sheriff] said. He also said investigators had learned the suspects were computer buffs who liked violent video games.

These kids definitely have problems, but why is gaming even mentioned? One of these kids had knives, guns and ammo in his bedroom. Shouldn't the cops be more concerned about that. A video game hasn't ever killed anyone.

CNN's Reprinting Of The Associated Press Story [CNN] Thanks, Jay!

William Vitka over at CBS's GameCore has an ambitiously fascinating piece up on gaming and storytelling. He puts forth the question of whether or not video games will ever have a Citizen Kane moment. "My first response is to ask whether the analogy is the right one," Henry Jenkins of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tells Vitka. "If the question is, 'Will video games become a serious art form in their own right?' I think the answer is inevitably yes."

Graphic novelist Warren Ellis is less optimistic, saying, "Great storytelling begins and ends with the storyteller, not the physics engine or the rendering," he says." It could be argued that great storytelling and rendering are not mutually exclusive. The same could be said of CGI and storytelling in film. "But let's be straight," Ellis says. "You're not going to get anything on the level of Kane in video games until someone somewhere pays an honest-to-God writer to sit in a room and create a story themselves that they are passionate about telling through game play and visual narrative."

Once again, the validity of such a comparison is brought forth. Vitka writes that the problem of discussing video games and stories is that "we have never had a storytelling medium like video games." Jamil Moledina, director of the Game Developers Conference, concedes and says, "Game playing represents the hybrid of both aspects of storytelling, where the audience is empowered to self-propagate the storytelling creation and enjoyment. This stimulates their own creativity and gives them the experience of controlling their destiny." And that is what makes a good video game.

Full Piece Here [GameCore]

Remember this? The lucky child and pretty much every video game ever printed. RedWolf over at VintageComputing was able to track down the owner and conducted a short email Q&A. "He's a bit reclusive (answering only 10 of 17 questions asked)," writes Red "and not exactly a master at typing the English language (I've had to clean up his answers quite a bit)." Huh, the greatest video game collector evar is not the greatest grammaritarian evar. Imagine that. (Is grammaritarian even a word?)

Vintage Computing and Gaming: What do you do for a living? Videogamecollector: Collect video games, for now.

VC&G: About how many games do you have in your collection? Have you ever counted all of them precisely?
VGC: I'm not sure if I really want to know.

VC&G: What has driven you to collect so many games?
VGC: It seems to be the rush of finding something I don't have. Or you can call it my addiction.

VC&G: Is the young boy in your collection pictures your son? If so, what does he think of your collection and video games in general? Do you ever let him play any of your games?
VGC: Yes, my son plays games. He has a few hundred games in his room that he plays.

A few hundred?! Notice how the Video Game Collector just tosses that out so casually.

Full Interview Here [VintageComputing]

You'll appear even smarter when you quote the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience which "shows [that] the elderly lose the ability to power up brain regions, such as the frontal lobe, needed to focus on a task", an area that video game experience helps develop.

Or drop this reference from the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, which states that "video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests".

That oughta shut 'em up!

Better living through video games?

A few weeks ago, the plight of a kid who wanted a PSP surfaced on the Internet. People donated and voila, the kid has one now. Boing Boing put up some pictures of the kid and his new digital best friend. All is now right in the world.

Junior Gets His PSP! [Boing Boing]
Internet Buys Kid a PSP

Boing Boing has a link up about a kid who was so obsessed with getting a PSP that he drew pictures of it, read the strategy guides for the games, did everything he could to live the PSP-lifestyle (at age nine) aside from actually owning the system. The blog over at Hoopty Rides passed around the e-collection plate and landed the nine-year-old Jose the PSP.

Corporate Art Collection [Hooptyrides]
9-year-old's drawings of the PSP he craves [Boing Boing]

Jesse over at Human Inbox emailed to point out this scan (see image) from the Independent on Sunday. Originally up over at You Haven't Lived, the text from the article pretty much tells the story.

Cocaine is Better for You Than Video Games [Human Inbox]
Ye Gods [You Haven't Lived]

Keith Stuart of The Guardian wonders if all of this "Next Gen" talk is getting out of hand. After all, some of this year's biggest games Zelda, MGS4 and Vision Gran Turismo are all sequels to long-standing franchises. Stuart's not impressed.

Neither am I, frankly. However the direction that the games' market has gone (the rising costs of development) it makes risk-taking in game design far too financially taxing and forces developers who want to, and have the creative desire to do more, to work on sequels. Is there a way for developers to make the games they want to make and still have publishers be happy with the revenue? New IP rarely sells as well as established IP, but relying too hard on existing franchises isn't going to bring anything new and exciting to the table, either, is it? Any solutions from the Kotaku peanut gallery?

Love the New Consoles, Shame About the Games [The Guardian]

A GamesRadar poll found out that gamers prefer brand new games to purchasing pre-owned games. For me, I prefer brand new games with the new-car smell. Do you know what I mean?

80% of Gamers Prefer New to Used Software [GamesRadar]

An article in the National Post talks about the alternate ending in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie as a type of director's cut. It's an interesting idea, especially when you consider games are getting more and more like films. Just look at the reissues of Ninja Gaiden Black and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, aren't they essentially special edition DVDs?

Are Games the New Director's Cuts? [National Post]

News from Tina Wood's blog confirms that G4TV.com has been cancelled by the "gaming" network. The cast will be filming their last episode on Friday and then moving on. Must've been love, but it's over now.

G4TV.com ... No Longer [Tina Wood's Blog]

Henry Jenkins, director of comparitive studies at MIT and games scholar extraordinaire, has written an essay debunking eight myths about video games. Among the myths Jenkins busts like a watermelon at a Gallagher show, "Children are the Primary Market for Video Games," "Scientific Evidence Links Violent Gameplay With Youth Aggression" and my personal favorite, "The Availability of Video Games Has Led to an Epidemic of Youth Violence."

The Video Game Revolution: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked [PBS]

Wired has an article up that pegs video games as the training ground for dealing with global disasters. No, this doesn't mean players running around like Gordon Freeman shooting the bejesus out of aliens. Instead, video games can be used as tools to teach health workers and first response teams how to react to crisis. From the piece: "Players learn how to set up MASH sites, evaluate patients and dispense drugs. They also are trained to distribute medications to health-care sites and notify the public, instructing people on what to do — without instilling panic."

Sounds pretty helpful - I hope we never have to see if it works.

Games Tackle Disaster Training [Wired]

The country's largest portal site Yahoo Japan just released 2005's top requested searches from their search engine. The results were broken down into several categories. Here are the highlights:

GAMING
1. Hangame
2. Final Fantasy
3. YuGiOh
4. Pokemon
5. Dragon Ball

ANIME & MANGA
1. Gundam
2. Naurto
3. Gokusen
4. Bleach
5. NANA

OVERALL
1. 2channel (Japanese web forum)
2. Google
3. Rakuten (online shopping)
4. goo (portal)
5. Amazon

Full Results Here [Yahoo] via Anime News Network

One-time Humongous Entertainment and Hulabee publisher Shelley Day is headed to prison for defrauding a Seattle bank of $1.5 million, according to Next Generation. Day worked on Monkey Island 2 and Super Boulder Dash. Now she'll be working on license plates.

Game Boss Shelley Day Jailed [Next Generation]

After writing the most dramatic lede in the game journalism history, scribe John Leland get his NY Times piece on video games and art moving in the right direction. The piece's thrust and best observation is found in the following: "Are they like movies, projecting the vision of an auteur like Mr. Spielberg or Peter Jackson, who recently collaborated in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie? Or are they more like the song 'Frankie and Johnny,' which is performed in different ways by many people, and in which the art lies in the sum of performances?"

Leland points to graphics moving in more realistic directions as a path for comparison between film and game. The piece's second half tilts away from the video game as art perspective and focuses on the need for a change in game development, something I've come across in numerous postings on the web and in different meetings with developers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Henry Jenkins points at a need for a "garage band aesthetic" in game creation. Realistically, games are so expensive to make, it's hard for developers to take a $10 million leap of faith on a game that might totally tank. Something's gotta give.

The Gamer as Artiste [The New York Times]

Curmudgeon Gamer is looking at "Story Vs. Choice in Konami Games," and it's pretty interesting. Author JVM picks different points in Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Silent Hill where gamer-made choices change the path to the game's ending. MGS is the simplest, with the Ocelot event determine if you're walking out with Meryl or Otacon. Curmudgeon is going to dissect Castlevania and Silent Hill next, keep checking back.

Story vs. Choice in Konami Games (Part 1) [Curmudgeon Gamer]

In this week's Answer Man column, Sun-Times scribe Roger Ebert takes on a kiss ass respectful reader on video games being inferior to movies and literature. Ebert's reasoning: "There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control."

You can, dear readers, see the flaw in this logic, right? More after the jump.

Why Did Chicken Cross Genders [Chicago Sun-Times]

Ebert is correct in saying that "by their nature [video games] require player choices," - games do require player choice and those choices often drive the game's narrative. Now, the authorial intent of a film is pretty strict. Barring various interpretations, a movie is made with a purpose, a message and it is a singularized experience. The film is a monologue, it talks at the viewer, there is no dialog.

Conversely, video games are a dialog with input and output on the part of both user and game. But, does the push-pull of interactivity negate the "authorial intent" of the work? Ebert says it does. But what about multi-narrative stories, where choice changes the outcome? Dynamic stories where your input as a gamer changes the output from the game? These changes, these dynamic shifts, were authored by developers. You, as the gamer just happen to have a front row seat to direct the action. Evolving storylines are more compelling than static, non-interactive media. Ebert overlooked the role of the developer and didn't factor in that each pathway taken in a video game is one the developers already expected you to take. And as a result they were prepared.

A superb bit over at MTV looks at the rising cost of video games. Yes, the $60 price point for games is something we've been talking about for months, but to the average consumer it's probably crept up on them. MTV's Stephen Totilo speaks with Gears of War dev Cliff Bleszinski (among others) on the rising cost of games and CliffyB has his own thoughts on the future of video games: "I would kill to have a [top-quality] game that's jam-packed with an amazing story and amazing moments and four hours long and costs 20 bucks."

When I was in middle school, a long-ass game was what I wanted, but now, I'd rather having something short and sweet. Four great hours is better than fourteen good hours with some great moments.

Next-Generation Xbox Games Might Eat Up Your Next Paycheck [MTV News]

It's an interesting, albeit short, look at game journalism and the craft of slack. My favorite quote from the piece is from developer Wyatt Cheng, "Ironically, I'm only having fun when I'm working hard. Every so often I get into these "lazy slumps" where I spend the whole day reading blogs, reading game reviews, talking with co-workers, IM'ing or checking the WoW forums. It's easy, it's lazy, and it's terrible."

I know the feeling, Wyatt.

Blogged Out: Journalism and the Art of Slacking [Gamasutra]

The grail of culture that is The New York Times has a piece up about video game educational programs and their increasing size in higher education. Proverbial video game bad guy Electronic Arts is actually one of the companies really pushing growth in this industry, according to the bit. It's a trap! I kid.

Thanks Nick!

Video Games Are Their Major, Don't Call Them Slackers [New York Times, Registration Required]

MSNBC and the Today Show have a piece up about the games people liked to play at their "one-of-a-kind arcade at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle." The top five games from the arcade?
Burnout Revenge
Super Mario Strikers
Mario Superstar Baseball
Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix
Play 2

Where's the "Al Roker's Favorite Games" feature? Seriously.

Check Out Our Top-Rated Video Games for Kids [MSNBC]

Mend socks? Help old ladies get home in the rain? Prevent people from spitting in public. That's right comrades, red China's developing a computer game that'll help you be a good mindless serf. Called Chinese Hero Registry, the game hopes to learn players from evil capitalistic titles.

Man, China, yer gonna hafta do better than that. Stuff like this is the reason why young Chinese are playing foreign games.

Red China's Gaming [Game Politics] Thanks CB!

Game Politics found a German study that suggests video games can be addicting. Showing gamers pictures of video games, alcoholic beverages and neutral images, researchers study the participants' reactions to the three types of images. The result: game images yielded stronger reactions than the other two. Over at Game Politics, the editor mused, "Does gaming make people less interested in alcohol?" Hey, I laughed.

Gamer Brain Waves Mimic Substance Abuse, German Study Says [Game Politics]
Study: Computer Games Can Lead to Addiction [Deutsche Welle]

Attention Deficit Disorder? Try Video Games [ZDNet]

Just browsing the title at The Guardian's Game Blog, I figured this would be about games that drain your time, pull you away from family, friends, whatever (so, more or less a story on World of Warcraft). I couldn't have been more wrong.

Instead, Aleks Krotoski is looking at games "that dangle the carrot so temptingly before your eyes that loading them up guarantees you'll find yourself with eyes bleeding unable to leave the flickering blue screen at three o'clock in the morning."

Sounds like WoW for me, but it's not on the list. Click over and check it out.