GameStop announced today that "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores". AAFES, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, is responsible for commercial sales on military posts and often includes outside vendors such as GameStop.

Based on the language reported by Kotaku, it appears that the request actually came from AAFES and is simply being honored by GameStop. From the email to GameStop employees earlier today, "GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter."
Read More

The latest Extra Credits video, as seen on The Escapist, takes on the Schwarzenegger vs EMA Supreme Court case, offering a rather complete overview  for those who might not be totally up to speed on what this action could mean for gamers.

Thanks Andrew!

By all accounts, Canada is now the third largest home to videogame developers in the world, a realization that Capcom’s Keiji Inafune attributes to both favorable tax breaks and the populace’s work ethic.

Speaking to NowGamer, Inafune, who produced Dead Rising 2 and is head of R&D for the Japanese publisher, noted that Canada was “getting very important now,” before conveying his opinion as to why that might be.

“There are lots of background reasons for it, tax relief and government policies and so on and so forth, but from the developers point of view, Canada is part of North America so you can sort of [include it as] North American,” he stated.

Inafune continued:

But compared to Americans, Canadians are a bit... more serious, if you like. Also, compared to big cities such as Los Angeles, it's also a little bit cheaper. So they've got potential to be at the epicentre of videogame development. Read More

It’s been awhile since we checked in on the Netflix/GameFly legal battle, but the rental firms are still duking it out.

To recap quickly, GameFly filed a complaint against the United States Postal Service last year, alleging that the USPS gave Netflix preferential treatment by manually processing their discs, while GameFly mailers were relegated to sorting machines, where discs were routinely crushed or maimed.

Now, as detailed by Home Media Magazine, in a filing from Netflix, the rental firm claims that GameFly is simply attempting to “gain for free” what Netflix obtained after significant market research. NetFlix wrote, “Instead of investing the time and resources that Netflix has in reducing its costs … GameFly is attempting to get reduced postage costs … so they can get the economic equivalent of what Netflix has achieved on its [disc] breakage reduction.”
Read More

The FCC's decision actually goes quite a bit further than simply terminating a free broadband plan. The decision comes from a proposed rulemaking plan that would have opened up the AWS-3 spectrum of radio waves for broadband internet access, at a cost of an estimated $2 billion.

This open spectrum would have primarily gone to a tech startup, M2Z Networks, and at one point was under consideration for "filtering" of "family friendly content": anything that would be "unsuitable for a five-year old" would have been filtered out. 

Ignoring the obvious First Amendment issues involved in such a plan, the concept simply doesn't jibe with the FCC's purported stance on Net Neutrality, among other things. In fact it seems to go directly against the requirements the FCC themselves had originally proposed: Read More

Researchers from the University of Barcelona have created a way to transfer actual human physiological telemetry from an active participant to an on-screen avatar.

Using a variety of sensors and wireless devices, parameters such as heart rate, respiration and “the galvanic (electric) skin response” are transferred immediately to a virtual character, which, in the case of the researcher’s demo, is sitting in a virtual waiting room (pictured).

It was described further that, “The heart rate is reflected in the movement of the character's feet; respiration in the rising of their chest (exaggerated movements so that it can be noticed); and the galvanic skin response in the more or less reddish colour of the face.”
Read More

The student arm of Basij, Iran’s paramilitary volunteer militia, has released a pair of new games that center on “crimes” of the “Zionist” Israeli regime.

One such game is called Assault on Freedom Convoy, which concerns the May 31st Israeli commando raid on activists trying to slip though a Gaza naval blockade. That action left nine Turkish activists dead. According to the Times of India, the game was described by Basijis as bringing to light the “crimes of the Zionist regime during the attack on the flotilla.”

The second game is called Devil Den 2, but no description of the game was offered.

Mohammad Reza Jokar, billed as the head of the Basij student organization, explained the use of games as a political tool, saying, “The young generation must find out about the Zionist regime and since video games enjoy large audiences, they were unveiled ahead of Quds Day.”
Read More

Quinn Pitcock, the almost 300-pound defensive tackle attempting a comeback with the Seattle Seahawks following a bout of depression-induced (and self-diagnosed) videogame addiction, has survived the first round of cuts with his NFL team and racked up four tackles in the Seahawk’s first three preseason games.

Pitcock also opened up to the Dayton Daily News (he attended Ohio State University) about his trouble with videogames, labeling Call of Duty as his game of choice. Pitcock indicated that on a “typical day,” he would wake up at 3 PM and then play until 6 or 7 AM the next day.

Playing as Randy the Random 1, Pitcock said, “First-person shooter games were my thing. I was ranked at one point 55th in the world.” Read More

Denver police are on the hunt for two men that stole $1,200 worth of video games from an area Ultimate Electronics store. The men were caught by surveillance cameras taking turns distracting the employees at the store; while one would grab the attention of clerks, the other would pocket the video games.

The theft happened on Aug. 10 at 11:15 a.m. Surveillance pictures also captured the get-away car. Police are asking anyone that knows about the crime to contact them through Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867). If your tip helps catch the two men you could be eligible for a cash reward, which you can then use to buy some videogames. Oh and you can also call in a tip anonymously.

According to a new report from DFC Intelligence, the market for English based free-to-play games will grow from $250 million in 2009 to $2 billion by 2015. DFC Intelligence says that growth will be attributed to broadband adoption and consumer comfort with buy digital content. Further, DFC Intelligence says that, by the end of 2010, English free-to-play games will have 128 million registered users.

"For many Korean companies the market in North America has not taken off nearly as fast as they expected,” said DFC analyst Insun Yoon. “Much of this can be attributed to the immature infrastructure and a lack of established payment and service mechanisms. The good news is that this is starting to change and consumers are starting to realize that the game play of top high-end F2P games can be quite sophisticated." Read More

For the last four years the FCC has been kicking around the idea of a coast-to-coast free wireless service. The idea came through a proposal from M2Z Networks, who would build out the project over the next decade, and pay five percent of its annual revenue to the United States Treasury in return. But today M2Z announced that the FCC has told the company that the commission was "dropping the concept."

FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman tried to explain why the commission passed on MZ2's proposal:

"We gave careful and thorough consideration to the proposal, but ultimately determined that this was not the best policy outcome," Ruth Milkman, chief of the FCC's Wireless Bureau told Ars Technica. "We remain vigilant in our efforts to facilitate the universal deployment and adoption of broadband, especially through the much-needed reform to the Universal Service Fund."

MZ2 CEO John Muleta fired back: Read More

While Sony may have the makers of the X3Jailbreak under an injunction in Australia (at least until this Friday), a homebrew alternative has already found its way on the Internet. The open source alternative called PSGroove has been released and - unlike an earlier version of the software - it doesn't contain certain features that could be used for piracy.

Of course, with certain features removed, users might not be as keen on using this solution as a replacement for X3Jailbreak. For starters, PSGroove doesn't allow re-routing of Blu-ray traffic to either the internal hard drive or an external device, which means that playing a backup copy of a game or movie is not possible.

So if doesn't allow you to play backup copies or games and movies, many may wonder what its usefulness is. Read More

LucasArts confirmed that today that it had let some of its staff go - a response to an earlier rumor that it had fired 30 percent of its staff. In a statement to multiple publications a LucasArts representative said that it was reorganizing its development teams to address the "needs of the internal studio."

The LucasArts representative would not discuss the actual number of employees let go or which departments they were cut from. Full and brief statement from LucasArts below:

"LucasArts is reorganizing its teams to better address the needs of the internal studio. Unfortunately, this means adjusting staffing. LucasArts continues to be committed to creating a first-class internal studio – and to fostering relationships with trusted external partners – in order to deliver quality games that amaze and inspire fans."

We'll have more on this story as it develops. Source: GamePro

Decatur, Georgia-based Paste Magazine has fired the bulk of its employees and is closing its print publication, according to an Associated Press report and several tweets from former employees. Paste Editor-in-chief Josh Jackson told the AP Wednesday that the print magazine will keep its website, but will no longer send print copies to its 200,000+ subscribers. Nine employees were let go on Tuesday afternoon. Three employees - including EIC Jackson - will help keep the website running for the time being.

Paste Magazine is best known for its thoughtful writing on the music industry, indie artists and a variety of mediums including books, television, movies and video games. The website gets 1 million unique visitors each month, according to Jackson.

Last year the magazine asked its readers to donate money to help it survive a downturn in advertising revenue, drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The donations did help the company stay open, but Jackson says that the company simply "ran out of fumes." Read More

Rhode Island Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio (pictured) is now attempting to block the $75 million loan used to lure Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios from Massachusetts.

Caprio, who is also the state’s General Treasurer, has expressed tepid uncertainty about the deal all along, calling for the state’s Economic Development Corporation to modify the loan and questioning the bond structure that will finance it. Read More