Microsoft Sells Off Its IPTV Business, Turns TV Focus to Xbox

Microsoft will sell its IPTV platform, Mediaroom, to Ericsson, and focus all of its consumer TV strategy on its Xbox division, the companysaid this morning in a statement. “With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox,” the company said. Originally announced as far back as 2007, Mediaroom brought cable television…

The PlayStation 3’s Really Good 2013 Line-Up Is No Fluke

I don’t know what the term is for what happens to a console in the year its successor console comes out. What is it, a lame duck session? That’s not quite right, because a system like the PS2 winds up getting support well after the year the PS3 comes out. The PS2 simply isn’t Sony’s…

The Drunken Dovahbear Of Skyrim Still Can’t Find Its Peace

After drinking too much honey mead, Skyrim‘s most ambitious bear has to rocket jump (with a dragon shout, obviously) through a mountain of enemies to earn his rest in the third part of the superb Dovahbear animation series by Bowz The previous parts are awesome as well, and there’s even a mod out there based…

Still consumed with determining which company is America’s worst, The Consumerist takes issue with EA’s assertion that they’re really not that rotten. Consumerist charges EA with shifting blame

A while back, we talked briefly about the ambitious Grimlands, a post-apocalyptic free to play MMORPG-shooter in the vein of Fallout. Well, it has found its way to Kickstarter. The Poland-based team is asking for a whopping $650,000 to finalize the game.

How That New Pokémon Is Like Frieza from Dragon Ball

Over the weekend, a new Pocket Monster was revealed. The character seemed familiar. However, that’s not because it looks like a new form of the Pokémon character Mewtwo. There’s another reason. The new Pokémon looks like Frieza, the villain in Dragon Ball. And the resemblance isn’t only in that purplish color scheme. On Japanese bulletin…

In China, You Can Pay Women To Play Video Games With You

In many parts of Asia, there is a job called “beer companion”. It’s exactly as its name implies. Young women working for a bar or a beer company dress in relatively skimpy outfits to drink with and to entertain bar guests. It’s already hit the West, but this seems this type of service is now…

Chinese University Students Turn Swear Term Into Game of “Where’s Waldo?”

Chinese is an interesting language. It has close to 5000 years of history, but modern Chinese has loads of really quirky terms that don’t really mean much taken at face value. However sometimes these strange terms can be taken literally and have fun effects. The Chinese phrase “Search? Search, your sister!” (找你妹！) normally translates to…

Laughably Bad Errors In Chinese TV Spotted By Netizens

Chinese television for the most part is pretty bad. Chock full ‘o’ rules and regulations by ridiculous State Organs, Chinese TV producers are still able to produce TV shows. However despite the producers’ best efforts, Chinese ‘netizens’ are still able to pick up inconsistencies and errors in production. First spotted on Chinese Twitter-like Sina Weibo,…

It’s That Time of Year Again. Time for Giant, Spiritual Dicks.

Every spring, like clockwork, the Kanamara Matsuri is held in Kawasaki, Japan. People flock to the Shinto fertility festival, which honors enormous phalluses like the one above. And no, it’s not actually pixelated. Note: This article contains content that some readers might find offensive. Not every Shinto shrine has fertility festivals or honors giant dongs.…

Kadokawa Games, the Japanese publisher behind the upcoming Killer is Dead, has trademarked “Demon Gaze” in the US. You may recall that Demon Gaze is the name of a rather good dungeon crawler for the PS Vita. [via Siliconera]

One Piece and Dragon Ball Z Collide in this TV Special

A week ago, the new movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods hit theaters across Japan. But that is not the only Dragon Ball-related thing to happen. This last Sunday, Dragon Ball Z returned to TV as part of the Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special!! And, as…

As our pals at Gawker point out, China wants someone to calm down. But it isn’t saying whom. Whoever could it be? Hrm…

Cosplay Mob Immortalized in New Anime

In the past, the Tokyo Game Show relegated cosplay to the corridors between the main convention center hallways (the upcoming TGS, apparently, will be different). Those corridors were always packed with cosplayers—and people. Sometimes things could get a little scary when cosplayers were surrounded. A little? Make that very. The below photo is apparently from…

Here’s the first trailer for Project Versus J J-Stars Victory VS, the latest Shonen Jump crossover fighting game to grace our consoles. It has been described as the “ultimate Jump game” and, well, it sure does look the part. J-Stars Victory VS is coming out in Japan sometime in 2013 for the PS3 and the…

Japanese Teens Are Now Playing Fake Quidditch

Well, that escalated quickly. First, Japanese schoolgirls started uploading photos of faux Dragon Ball moves. Then, Westerners replied with Star Wars style Force Grips. And now? Japanese schoolboys, it seems, are now uploading photos of imaginary Quidditch games. Quidditch, of course, is the broomstick-based team sport from the Harry Potter books. Why “imaginary”? There already…

The Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings II, which I like very much, has been updated. More wars, more stuff, more good times. Get it here

Indie platformer The Other Brothers, which is pretty good, was quietly released on iOS last week. You should check it out (it’s coming to PC soon).

An Upsetting Collection Of Dead Nintendo Hardware

Writer and student Dennis Pham has, with a stomach of iron, catalogued a collection of images of Nintendo hardware – and games – that are dead. Broken. Torn. Smashed. Whatever, you name it, this batch of gore porn has it all. It is not for the faint-hearted. Indeed, if you work in the tech industry…

Skyrim Gets 100 New (Unofficial) Achievements, For The Obsessive-Compulsive Among You

Achieve That! is a mod for Skyrim that, as you’ve probably picked up from the headline, adds 109 new achievements to the game, in case you’ve racked up all the existing ones already. What’s neat here is that they’re actually really cool; way cooler than Skyrim’s fairly boring official ones. Most of them reward you…