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Investor’s Big Stake in Take-Two Reignites Buyout Chatter
The notorious investor Carl Icahn disclosed late this week he owns more than 11 percent of Take-Two’s shares, a stake large enough to restart talk that the publisher faces a buyout. In an SEC filing, Icahn declared his ownership of more than nine million shares, worth $70.6 million, and included his opinion that Take-Two’s shares…
By Owen Good -
Ubi Trademarks “Ghost Recon Future Soldier”
No details other than what’s on the USPTO’s web site. Ubisoft filed it on Monday and the mark covers video games, so you know Ubi’s not getting into the lunchbox or breakfast cereal business. Although a Ghost Recon lunchbox would be kind of badass, now that I think about it. And Ghost Recon cereal? Tasty.…
By Owen Good -
Games Watchdog Looks Back Before Turning Out the Lights
As reported earlier, the National Institute on Media and the Family, whose key funding dried up in a terrible economy, is closing. Founder Dave Walsh talked with the Associated Press, and reflected on his organization’s influence in the industry. “Ten years ago, a kid 10 years old could walk into any store in America and…
By Owen Good -
Blank N64 Cartridge Challenges Your Manhood [Updated]
Meanwhile, in the make-believe land of eBayia, someone’s auctioning a “mysteriously blank Nintendo 64 cartridge” – promising only that the game works and doesn’t suck. “Are you man enough to buy a label-less N64 game?” No, but Saxton Hale is! “Yes, this game is missing its labels, leaving the games identity indiscernible. However, everything else…
By Owen Good -
Is ‘WiiRelax’ the Vitality Sensor’s Debut Title?
In April, an Italian company announced “Wii Relax.” Siliconera notes that, not only is that company’s product site gone, Nintendo has now trademarked “WiiRelax” in Europe. Maybe they muscled in on the name after seeing I had shrewdly registered “WiiSittingOnOne’sAss.” The trademark filing Siliconera found is good in PAL territories. Naturally, one immediately thinks of…
By Owen Good -
Let’s Tap — to Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. is meant for tap-dancing, and I don’t mean on a Goomba’s head. Here’s Brentalfloss’s college buddy, C.K. Edwards – he appears in Billy Elliot on Broadway – whose dancing makes the theme sound all the more vaudeville. “Did you notice around :49 his tapping actually shook change off my desk and onto my…
By Owen Good -
The Saboteur is Le Patched, But Will Need un Autre, Soon
The Saboteur‘s PC version had big problems out of the box – something like 9 out of 10 ATI-equipped systems couldn’t make it work properly. The remnants of Pandemic have rolled a patch, but be sure to read it carefully. While the 13.8MB patch should fix the ATI issues, Electronic Arts wants you to accept…
By Owen Good -
The FPS: Where Freedom isn’t Free
As game designers become more like film directors, the paths they lay out for players becomes increasingly scripted and, frankly, downright restricted. Still the illusion of freedom persists in this genre. The blog One Dimensional Man deconstructs this kind of design, and comes up with another illusion – the illusion that the game isn’t linear,…
By Owen Good -
Microsoft Patents the Exercise Guilt Trip
Microsoft’s filed a patent that would make avatars more realistic and less idealized, with the point of getting your husky ass out to exercise if what you’re seeing in the dashboard is a more realistic presentation of yourself. “Avatar Individualized By Physical Characteristic,” is what Microsoft is claiming. “Linking the avatar to a physical characteristic…
By Owen Good -
The 2010 Video Game Bowl — and Playoff — Spectacular
Do you want a college football playoff? Do you love the tradition of a New Year’s Day packed with A-list bowls? You can have both, as shown by Stick Jockey’s video game simulation of a 16-team tournament – and 27 bowls. Warning: This is a very long column. There are more than 40 games described…
By Owen Good -
Weekend Coupons: Hardware Store
Weekend Coupons is noticing a definite swing toward console deals and bundles as the holiday shopping season wears on. Might want to consider snapping them up this week, as they’re certain not to last much past Christmas. Hardware • Amazon is going used-car-dealer nuts with the prices on Xbox 360s. The arcade is $179; the…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Originals: The Year We Make Contact
With less than 17 shopping days till 2010, Kotaku oriented its eyes to the future and this week’s report toward what you can expect from it. But we still had plenty of time for news of the present. Kotaku Talk Radio Columns Well Played: A Surprise Education Stick Jockey: Not the Bottom of the Ninth,…
By Owen Good -
NBA Live 10 DLC? It Must be the Shoes.
Do you know what’s in the free DLC EA Sports just rolled for NBA Live 10? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? About a zillion new varieties of Nike, adidas and Converse for your hoopsters’ hooves EA Sports’ blog promises the same package is on the way “very soon” for PlayStation 3.…
By Owen Good -
Mass Effect 3 Will End Story Arc
Mass Effect 3 is no secret; BioWare’s said for some time this is a trilogy. But we can expect that that sequel will be the final chapter – to this story arc, anyway. Shacknews reports that Casey Hudson, the series’ project director, told a press event in Edmonton that, “‘Mass Effect 3’ will be easier…
By Owen Good -
Electronic Arts Looks South for New Development Center
Electronic Arts is taking a serious look at the land of grits and fatback for a development center that could employ up to 300 people. Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., are in the running, along with Louisiana. EA’s Jeff Brown confirmed to the Atlanta Business Chronicle that the publisher is considering the Peach State for a…
By Owen Good -
High Moon Clears Up All This Gears of War Talk About Transformers
Images of the upcoming Transformers: War for Cybertron have stoked chatter that it will draw heavily on Gears of War motifs. Transformers World 2005 got a talk with Matt Tieger of High Moon Studios and put the question to him. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that we are using the…
By Owen Good -
NHL 2K’s Absence from Take-Two Report May Mean Its End
Take-Two’s quarterly report yesterday included a list of “key titles announced to date for the remainder of fiscal 2010.” It didn’t include NHL 2K11, which some are taking as the death of that franchise. The list did mention MLB 2K10 and NBA 2K11, so we know this isn’t just a sports thing. Comments from 2K…
By Owen Good
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