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Foxconn’s Latest In Suicide Prevention? Hiring “Mature” Workers
To combat its recent rash of suicides, Foxconn has installed safety nets, nixed suicide compensation, raised wages and even considered moving factories to China’s interior and increasing automation on the assembly line. The company’s latest brainstorm? Foxconn is looking at hiring more mature workers. This comes as last week a 22-year-old female worker fell to…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 9, 2010 -
Hey, Gimme That, You Big … Ape
At the San Francisco Zoo yesterday, photographer Christina Spicuzza captured five pictures of gorillas playing around with a DSi XL. They later touched a monolith and used the handheld to slay an eohippus. I kid! I kid! The story here goes that a kid dropped his DSi XL into the primates’ enclosure, and the larger…
By Owen Good Published August 7, 2010 -
ReviewsFace Pilot Review: The Video Game That Only Plays Well On My Toilet
Just when I was ready to call the first hang-gliding video game that I’ve ever controlled with my face a modern-day torture rack, I discovered it plays well in the second-most comfortable location of my home. You are reading the review of a game that only the bravest should buy. Face Pilot: Fly With Your…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 6, 2010 -
And Another Foxconn Worker Dies
Foxconn is famous for two things: Manufacturing electronics (the PS3, the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and the iPhone) and having employees that commit suicide. This year, 12 Foxconn workers have taken their own lives. A 22-year-old female worker from Jiangsu Province has fallen to her death this week at the company’s Kunshan factory. Foxconn…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2010 -
Kid Icarus’ Pit “Feels Like A New Character”
Masahiro Sakurai of Smash Bros. fame is currently hard at work on a 3D version of Kid Icarus. His version of Kid Icarus’s protagonist Pit, he says, “feels like a new character”. Here’s why. “One thing I can talk about is that Pit uses a lot of weapons and this is a very important aspect…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2010 -
The 8-bit Version of DJ Hero Comes Complete With Chiptune Mashups
The man responsible for the 8-bit version of zombie shooter Left 4 Dead has turned his “de-make” skills to another recent franchise—Activision’s DJ Hero. Pixel Force: DJ Hero, as it’s known, is musically true to its 80s roots. The chiptune mash up you hear in the first trailer for Eric Ruth’s latest retro creation blends…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 5, 2010 -
Deep Inside Xbox 360 Kinect and Why It’s the Future of Microsoft
Kinect is more than an Xbox 360 peripheral, it’s the future of Microsoft, or at least a very possible one. It’s the beginning of Microsoft’s plans for natural user interfaces, the step beyond the thing you’re staring at right now. *** Kinect is as much a product of serendipity as anything else. When Microsoft hired…
matt buchanan & Joel Johnson Published August 5, 2010 -
Smash Bros. Creator: Once You Go 3D, It’s Hard To Go Back To 2D
Masahiro Sakurai, the man behind Smash Bros., is now the man behind Nintendo 3DS game Kid Icarus Uprising. Is it his first 3D game? “Yes this is indeed my first 3D game but I have a feeling that it’s going to be hard to go back [to 2D],” Sakurai tells the Official Nintendo Magazine. According…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 5, 2010 -
You Row, I’ll Game
As seen in Hakodate, Japan by HitBit.
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 5, 2010 -
Let’s Watch A Pokemon: Black And White Commercial
Nintendo’s fifth generation of Pocket Monsters, subtitled Black and White, will be released next month in Japan. The game will feature wall-to-wall new Pokemon. It will also make use of the DSi’s camera, so you can wave at the other nearby players. No, the game doesn’t actually send out a glowing blue ring when it…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 5, 2010 -
Nintendo Lets You Paint Happy Little Trees On Your DS This Fall
Want to use your Nintendo DS as a virtual canvas on which to paint, a virtual art studio in which to learn? Good, because Nintendo of America will release Art Academy for the DS this October. Nintendo will be bundling the formerly DSiWare-only apps Art Academy: First Semester and Art Academy: Second Semester, throwing in…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 4, 2010 -
Of Course Nintendo Is Making The Wii’s Successor
Nintendo does not stop. The company has stated this on numerous occasions that it continues developing hardware. Meaning? Meaning right now Nintendo is working on new hardware. Right now! “We are of course studying and developing the next console to Wii,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said at a recent investors meeting. “However, there is a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 4, 2010 -
Play Mario…With Your EYES
The kids (and grown-ups) at Waterloo Labs in Austin, Texas have come up with a way for us to play video games with nothing but our eyes Blink, look left and look right replace things like press A and push left. Sure, it looks a little janky at first. And also looks slightly useless. But…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 4, 2010 -
Dancing Into The Video Game Business
Until last summer, 27-year-old choreographer Chase Brock didn’t know much about video games. Now he’s responsible for one of the best-selling Wii games in Britain. Broadway has been kind to Brock, but Ubisoft’s Dance on Broadway has been kinder still. Last year the young artist’s agent got him together with Longtail Studios, the developers of…
By Mike Fahey Published August 3, 2010 -
Wii Assist: Wii Can Make A Difference!
Attack of the Show‘s “Viewer Army” showcased engineering students from the University of Delaware who are attempting to help the disabled effectively use computers with the help of Nintendo Wii hardware. Us nerds can make a difference! With the help of a hacked Wii remote, some glasses that have been fashioned with infrared sources and…
Angelito Yambao Jr. Published August 3, 2010 -
Does Capcom Have Nintendo 3DS Release Plans For This Year?
Nope. At this year’s E3 gaming expo, Capcom showed off two still-in-development Nintendo 3DS games: Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and the tentatively titled Resident Evil: Revelations. Don’t look for them to be hitting your local game shop anytime soon, though. At a recent investors meeting, Capcom was asked whether it planned to release…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 3, 2010 -
The Nintendo Download: It’s Not BlazBlue, It’s BlayzBloo
Aksys plays it fast and loose with the names in this week’s Nintendo Download, with BlayzBloo: Super Melee Action Battle Royale for the DSi and Deer Captor, a game where you “capture” animals with guns and crossbows. I suppose Aksys is showing its range, but I suspect the DSiWare BlayzBloo: Super Melee Action Battle Royale,…
By Mike Fahey Published August 2, 2010 -
How Consoles Can Leave A Company Vulnerable To Hackers
At the Defcon security conference in Vegas last week, a pair of hackers have shown that the humble Nintendo Wii can leave large companies vulnerable to attack. How? Well, because many companies like to have a Wii in the office for downtime, that’s how. Seems a lot of offices know that controls need to be…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2010 -
Is Nintendo Missing Out On Developing Markets?
In an investor Q&A published on Nintendo’s website, president Satoru Iwata explains why Nintendo does not officially release games or systems in developing nations (think Latin America, India, South-East Asia, Africa, etc). And he seems to be missing something. “It is true that not only those in Japan and the other developed countries in North…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2010