Game Intelligence for Monday, June 2nd

Today: Guy shreds 7 lbs on Wii Fit, GameStop throttling games industry, movies less rule-y than sports in game adaptations, EGM refuses to review MGS4, Microsoft and Netflix deal cinched.

Guy Shreds 7 lbs on Wii Fit

Is Wii Fit a fitness center gateway platform? Who knows, but this guy claims he lost 7 lbs after 30 minutes a day playing for a week.

GameStop Throttling Games Industry?

GameStop makes 50 cents on the dollar for used games, compared to just 21 cents for new ones. Man, that's about 7 cents more for new games than we used to make when I managed one. Anyway. Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield takes aim at the largest games retailer in the U.S., calling for a push toward online distribution to "get content into the hands of consumers without giving a third party a big piece of the pie."

Movies Less Rule-y Than Sports in Game Adaptations?

Games theorist Ian Bogost and I share an interest in game adaptation, though I'm more into boardgames-to-wargames than Bogost's focus on coin-ops to consoles. In any case, Bogost considered the issue last Wednesday as it relates to translating sports (you know, real sports, as in the kind typically played outdoors) to home consoles. The only quibble I have is his attempt to distinguish film from sports and suggestion that the latter's based less on rules than narrative. In fact, they're both generated from complex rulesets which process reflectively as narrative. Sports games (again, the non-electronic kind) just seem "rule-ier" because the high-level mechanics are more immediately identifiable by the audience (the actually important difference is that the outcome of a game is constantly in "play," or at least we hope that's the case). But even movies require viewers to be aware of and submissive to certain high-level rules. Pick up a copy of Film Theory: An Introduction and see if you agree with me or Bogost after putting it down again.

EGM Refuses to Review MGS4

Did you hear EGM scrapped its review of MGS4? I know! I guess they had a good reason. You know, little thing about Konami putting shackles on what they could and couldn't cover? I'm reviewing it for PC World and have been handed no such ultimatum (though I've also been handed no review copy). But if what EGM's saying is true for all the print guys…I mean seriously Konami?

Microsoft and Netflix Deal Cinched?

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter claims a Microsoft/Netflix deal is done. I guess we'll see how Microsoft plans to sneak terabyte-sized hard drives (or larger) into our Xbox 360s to accommodate all that high-def content shortly?

Re-Play

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Comments

I'm glad to see EGM taking a stand against these publishers and their unrealistic demands. First the whole UbiSoft debacle and now Konami. As an EGM subscriber, I'm glad to see they continue to protect their credibilty. I wouldn't be reading their magazine if I didn't trust the honesty of the reviewers.

steveo73

June 02, 2008

12:32 PM PT

boo gamestop. well, at least their game trade program.
and boo konami. MGS4 better be worth it.

internet speed and memory better catch up with the HD trend.

chosendragon

June 02, 2008

2:34 PM PT