EEG News

Federal Judge Blocks California Violent Vidgame Law

That's unconstitutional dammit, and I can prove it!

Just when it appeared that the California Violent Video Game Act was going to become law on New Year's Day someone had to ruin the fun. At first everything looked legal eagle until Judge Ronald Whyte remembered something yesterday: the Constitution. Apparently, if you read to the end there's some amendments. Wouldn't you know it, the very first one has gotten in the way.

From GamePolitics.com:

An informed source told GP Judge Whyte held that games are protected by First Amendment, children have First Amendment rights, and the concept of "strict scrutiny" applies. The source also told GP that the judge believes the video game industry is likely to prevail on its claim that the law violates the First Amendment. The state's requirement of labeling violent games is also held likely to be unconstitutional.

Interestingly, deviating from previous rulings, Judge Whyte found that California's law is not impermissibly vague. The judge indicated that Postal II is covered while Full Spectrum Warrior is not.

The VSDA, whom has been fighting the bill, got a little jab in there too.

Bo Andersen, President of the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA), reacting to the preliminary injunction, said, "VSDA frankly takes no pleasure in this decision. The injunction was inevitable, as is a final ruling that the law is unconstitutional. It is indeed unfortunate that the state of California has wasted precious taxpayer dollars in pursuing this legislation, when the outcome is so predictable: This law will never go into effect... It is time for legislators to move beyond the rhetoric uttered in support of passage of such censorial legislation."

California legislature, you just got served.

Holiday Vidgame Sales Slump

From Ben Fritz at Variety:

Industry biggie Electronic Arts warned Tuesday that its holiday-quarter sales will decline by as much as a "mid-teens percentage" from the low end of guidance. Also on Tuesday, midsized publisher Midway Games, owned by Sumner Redstone, announced it is laying off 8%-11% of its workforce.

Moves come a week after Activision, one of the top publishers behind EA, also cut its guidance.

Industryites are blaming the shortfall in part on slower-than-expected sales of Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console and Sony's PSP handheld vidgame player.

But they're also admitting gamers are simply not as interested in 2005's titles. "The lineup of products this year is arguably not as compelling," said EA topper  Larry Probst.

HP OKs HD-DVD

There can be only one.

Hewlett-Packard announced they will support HD-DVD technology, no longer backing Blu-Ray exclusively.

From GamesIndustry.biz:

HP had requested that the Blu-Ray Disc Association commit to including two features already locked down for HD-DVD - Mandatory Managed Copy, which allows consumers to legally copy video content, and iHD, said to offer greater interactivity and ensure "a more compelling user experience when recording HDTV programs." Although the Blu-Ray camp agreed to adopt MMC, iHD has not been approved.

Call me paranoid, but a “compelling user experience” while recording programs sounds suspiciously vague.

EGM Editor Wags Finger At Game Journalists

Dan Hsu, editor of gaming rag Electronic Gaming Monthly, wrote an editorial on 1-up.com accusing competing magazines of selling their cover and editorial space to the highest bidder.  Of course, few would charge gaming journalism of being a virtuous trade. The industry is still in its infancy and largely doesn’t follow a code of ethics most forms of journalism tries (tries!) to follow.  Read the ed here along with replies from other gaming journalists.

Variety Has Got Some Reviews

Variety has some new movie-based video game reviews for the enjoyment of all.  Now now, don’t bother thanking us.  You are just too gracious.  Stop it, you’ll give us a big head.  Check out if The Matrix: Path of Neo is worth a stroll down (oh ho ho, did you see what I did there?) and the review of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (written by yours truly). Variety also has a nice story on Hollywood sim The Movies taking some Internet limelight.

Microsoft: No Next-Gen DVD Player Will Be Added To 360

Microsoft shot down the speculation that future iterations of the Xbox 360 will include HD-DVD functionality. IGN has the scoop.

"Microsoft, in both America and Japan, has not announced anything regarding the possibility of a next generation DVD drive being placed in the Xbox 360," a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. "There are currently no plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with a next generation DVD player."

IGN seems unsure about the news because statements have been made before from Microsoft execs regarding the possibility of HD-DVD in future 360s. Perhaps it will depend on how well the HD-DVD format fares when the real showdown with Blu-ray begins.

November Sales Down 18% Despite 360 Release

Market watch group NPD Funworld released data (after quickly retracting the first data release showing an increase in sales) showing an 18 percent year-on-year drop in games sales in November.  Software sales totaled $696 million this month compared to the $849 million sold in the same period last year.  Sales did rise 91 percent from October, but the number is still dismal considering the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 during the holiday season.

Speculation points to a lack of interest in current generation titles in anticipation of next generation combined with Microsofts inability to meet demand for its new console.

Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility Update Released, Breaks Halo 2

Whoops!

Last night Microsoft bowed an updated list of backwards-compatible games available for the Xbox 360 coinciding with a downloadable update available on Xbox Live. Most prominent in the new list was the popular Tom Clancy-inspired series such as Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell, which were auspiciously missing from the games that originally made the cut

The update was quickly recalled however, due to a slight technicality. Namely, it broke Xbox megahit Halo 2. Gamespot is there to point and laugh.

California Game Violence Law Argued Today

Send in Phoenix Wright!

The federal court will hear arguments today from Entertainment Software Association and the Video Software Dealers Association, which will attempt to block the California Video Game Violence Law from taking effect Jan. 1.

The law will  make selling violent video games to minors in California illegal.

Man Sues Microsoft for 360 Crashes

We didn't start the fire.

The Xbox 360 is a pretty hot console. That's the trouble.

Reports are abuzz on the internet of Xbox 360 systems crashing due to overheating issues in the central processor and the systems ginormous power supply.  Microsoft doesn't seem worried saying that the problem is in a "very, very small fraction of the total shipment."

One man in particular is obviously unamused by his brand-spanking new console crashing.

Gamesindustry.biz has the scoop.

In a class action lawsuit filed against the Redmond giant at the Illinois federal court, Robert Buyers of Chicago is seeking undisclosed damages, court costs and a recall of the newly launched console. It is unclear at this stage how many other consumers have joined Byers in the action.

If you are among those lucky enough to nab a 360 before supplies ran out, it is recommended you move your console away from your boxes of oily rags and tissue and fireworks collection.

'Dungeon Siege' Trailer Out

The trailer for the Dungeon Siege movie has shown up on the distributor's website.  You can check it out directly here.

Apparently Uwe Boll's latest attempt to make a watchable movie will split into two approximately 105-minute parts.  That's a lot of movie about a game that didn't have a plot.

Roger Ebert: Vidgames Aren't Art

Roger Ebert

Earlier this week I touched on my opinion that video games are an art form.  I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the other side of the argument.  For that, let's go to Roger Ebert in is weekly "Answer Man" column:

Q. I was saddened to read that you consider video games an inherently inferior medium to film and literature, despite your admitted lack of familiarity with the great works of the medium. This strikes me as especially perplexing, given how receptive you have been in the past to other oft-maligned media such as comic books and animation. Was not film itself once a new field of art? Did it not also take decades for its academic respectability to be recognized?

There are already countless serious studies on game theory and criticism available, including Mark S. Meadows' Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative, Nick Montfort's Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan's First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, and Mark J.P. Wolf's The Medium of the Video Game, to name a few.

I hold out hope that you will take the time to broaden your experience with games beyond the trashy, artless "adaptations" that pollute our movie theaters, and let you discover the true wonder of this emerging medium, just as you have so passionately helped me to appreciate the greatness of many wonderful films.

Andrew Davis, St. Cloud, Minn.

A. Yours is the most civil of countless messages I have received after writing that I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. 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.

I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.

Politicians Target Video Games

With Iraq a beacon of safety and freedom and poverty and disease all but a unhappy memory at home, senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman have unveiled their plans to have the government step in and make sure children aren’t buying M-rated video games.

We’ll use Variety as our source because I’m shameless like that:

“We are not interested in censoring video (games) meant for adult entertainment, but we do want to ensure that these video (games) are not purchased by minors," Sen. Lieberman said in a statement. Vidgame publishers and retailers responded that education and voluntary enforcement are the only solutions to the problem and noted the irony of the government using ESRB ratings while condemning the industry for not doing enough.

"While we are gratified that (Sen. Clinton) holds the ESRB in such high regard that her bill would give these ratings the force of law," said ESA prexyprexy Doug Lowenstein, "the courts have made clear that giving a private party governmental powers is unconstitutional."

The bill would fine retailers that sell M or AO games to tykes. It would also, according to the senators' summary, authorize an annual analysis to "ensure that the ESRB ratings system accurately reflects the content in each game and that the ratings system does not change significantly over time."

It's a good idea to keep children away from violent video games, but the government should not step in like this.  The bill is an unprecidented governent restrict on a entertainment medium. Let me ask you this, why should a store be forced by law to check the age of a child buying a video game when there is no restriction from that same child from buying an NC-17 movie?  Where is the evidence that video games are somehow more insidious to children than movies, books, television, newspapers, plays and radio?

Is there any evidence that this is a pressing need in our country?  This is another case of politicians riding the wave of a controversy to get a little more spotlight.