Gamers around the world are snapping up a new device that promises to give them an edge on competitors by boosting their gaming focus. It is certainly easy to see the appeal of being able to improve your…
Tomodachi Life: make friends, fall in love but stay straight.
BagoGames
Nintendo is facing a storm of criticism over its decision not to allow gamers to play as gay characters and form same-sex relationships in the life-simulation game Tomodachi Life. There has been disquiet…
The Automated Planet Finder is hunting planets all by itself.
Laurie Hatch
People around the world are being invited to learn how to hunt for planets, using two new online apps devised by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin and UC Santa Cruz. The apps use data from…
Come on old chap, let’s get you a nice cup of tea and a bourbon cream.
smademedia
As early as 2009, Keiji Inafune, then head of R&D at games company Capcom saw the writing on the wall. “Japan is over. We’re done. Our game industry is finished,” he warned. And the 2014 BAFTA Games…
The Last of Us is as gripping as many of the films you’ll see in the cinema.
PlayStation Europe
Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, actresses and directors are, by now, finalising their outfits and having their manicures in preparation for the impending Oscars ceremony on 2 March. It’s considerably…
From iPads to Xboxes, the modern child has a vast array of electronic media to help alleviate boredom, pass the time and play online games. Parents may often wonder about the impact such activities can…
The bird that just won’t die. But can you live without it?
Flappy Bird, a deceptively simple gaming app, has been withdrawn by its creator Dong Nguyen because it is too “addictive”. His decision appears to have sparked a frenzy among fans who are reportedly so…
Console games have been banned in China for 14 years, but a relaxation of the restrictions could be a boon for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
EPA/Ym Yik
The relaxation of a ban on the sale of video game consoles in China has opened up an enormous market for the three big console manufacturers. The sudden opening has already precipitated a surge in Nintendo’s…
The face that launched a thousand games.
Hawaii Kawaii
The death of Hiroshi Yamauchi marks the end of an extraordinary career that spanned 53 years, during which the Nintendo president not only changed a company but left his mark on the very nature of the…
Illegal downloading has become a free-for-all.
Josh Russell
Data released by Ofcom yesterday show that internet users who illegally download films, music or games actually spend more money on legal downloads than those who always play by the rules. Online piracy…
Government funding can be poorly targeted.
PlayStation Europe
The UK government’s Technology Strategy Board has announced (and not for the first time) that it’s putting its weight behind the creative media sector, this time by way of a competition designed to encourage…
A game of two halves: publishing performance can improve services but could also affect who surgeons choose to take on.
PA/Gareth Fuller
Gwyn Bevan, London School of Economics and Political Science
Data on hospital performance often shows a wide variation and this poses the question of whether it should be available to the public or kept confidential. The government wants more transparency and announced…
True change requires that our perspectives are altered from within.
Ferran
Is racism a matter of perspective gone wrong? And, if so, how can we fix it? A new study in Consciousness and Cognition demonstrates technology may be able to offer part of the solution: donning the skin…
After many months of rumours, speculation and discussion on the next offering of Microsoft’s gaming console, details of the new Xbox have finally been revealed. Christened Xbox One, it is to be their third…
Is online gaming the next billion-dollar industry? The state of New Jersey is betting on it.
www.shutterstock.com
In the recent Hollywood science-fiction epic, Cloud Atlas, based on David Mitchell’s sprawling novel, the capitalist dystopia of Neo Seoul in 2144 is depicted as part of a world state called Unanimity…
Sony CEO Andrew House launching the PlayStation 4 last month - will it change the face of gaming?
EPA/Peter Foley
Sony fired its salvo in the next-generation console wars with last month’s announcement of the PlayStation 4, set to be released later this year. But the hardware specifications of the new console – placed…
The fact a pleasurable behaviour is done to excess does not necessarily mean it’s an addiction.
PhotoCatcher
I am a Warcraft widow, an affectionate term given to those who have “lost” a partner to World of Warcraft (WoW) as a result of excessive game-playing. I have first-hand experience of the way games such…
People have always sent each other letters, but now they can be worth “triple words”.
Brandice Schnabel
They are everywhere: people in cafés or supermarket queues, staring at their smartphones with determined concentration, occasionally shuffling yellow tiles of letters to use all of them in a killer move…