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			    <title>Gaming | Seek4News.com</title> 
				<link>http://seek4news.com/gaming</link> 
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			<title>Nintendo partners with Best Buy so you can play unreleased Wii U games in store during E3 (video)</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/nintendo-partners-with-best-buy-so-you-can-play-unreleased-wii-u-games-in-store-during-e3-video</link>
			<description><![CDATA[

There&#039;s nothing more frustrating than watching a product or service get announced, then having to wait an age to try it out. Nintendo hears that, and has announced via Nintendo Direct, that during E3 week, Best Buy will have playable demos of as-yet released Wii U games in 100 stores across the US and Canada. Given that no one was likely expecting any new hardware from the firm, it&#039;s clear the gaming stalwart is looking for other ways to stir-up some interest. There&#039;s no mention of titles, so we&#039;re left to assume they&#039;d be the games announced at the show. Either way, scratch out that week in June to make sure you find out first hand. Scrub right to the end of the video past the break to see the announcement for yourself.
Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo
Comments
Via: Joystiq]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 04:25:02 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Madden 25 Anniversary Edition includes NFL Sunday Ticket, exclusive to Amazon</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/madden-25-anniversary-edition-includes-nfl-sunday-ticket-exclusive-to-amazon</link>
			<description><![CDATA[

Virtual football enthusiasts excited for Madden 25 (it&#039;s technically Madden 2014 marking 25 years of the franchise) may want to head over to Amazon if they&#039;re serious about watching actual NFL games. The online retailer has an exclusive Anniversary Edition of the game up for pre-order, which comes bundled with a 17-week pass for both Madden Ultimate Team cards and computer and mobile access to NFL Sunday Ticket. On top of getting all the 2013 regular season&#039;s out-of-market matches, DirecTV subscribers can also snag a $10-a-month discount on the TV version (normally $225) for one year with a pro bono MAX upgrade. Joystiq notes that only 100,000 copies are up for grabs, split evenly between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. All it takes to get in on the action starting August 27th is $100 -- $40 more than the standard edition, which can net you up to $400 in total savings on the services. Hit up the source link if you&#039;re ready to secure your copy.
Filed under: Gaming, HD
Comments
Via: Joystiq
Source: Amazon]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 02:05:01 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>What Games Are: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Xbox?</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/what-games-are-cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-xbox</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Tadhg Kelly is a veteran game designer, creator of leading game design blog What Games Are and creative director of Jawfish Games. You can follow him on Twitter here.
One of the memories that sticks with me most about the launch of the Xbox 360 was a silly analogy about inhaling. I can’t remember who said it, but the general idea was that it had a concave body to convey breathing in, perhaps a precursor to exclaiming joy. It was as daft as it sounds, but for a while there the 360 was indeed a breath of fresh air.
Xbox 360 had a lot going for it, from online connectivity to a much simpler architecture that developers preferred over the PlayStation 3. In its first few years it maintained the position of being a very games-focused console. Xbox 360 was the home of indie games, for example, and digital distribution. It widely popularized the notion of achievements.
But three, maybe four, years ago Microsoft started to push bigger ideas. It left a lot of the gamer-ish stuff behind and redesigned the console’s dashboard toward a media focus. Over a series of updates, Xbox slowly went Metro, became about Netflix, avatars and Kinect. Most of these innovations didn’t stick so well, and the cost they incurred was significant. Xbox 360 went from being a clear proposition to a complex and all-over-the-place machine.
Many Kinects were sold, but few people actually used them for long. Many channels of TV content were brought into the fold, but finding room for them essentially killed its indie games market and lost a lot of credibility with that group. Ultimately, the successes of these divergences were generally mute. (18 billion hours of video sounds like a big deal until you break it down per unit over a year.)
This is the problem with long hardware cycles (Xbox 360 is 8 years old). Lacking annualized releases of better technology (for some reason the console industry still believes it has to carry on this way), the platform story grows old after a couple of years, leading to the urge to accessorize. Often in so doing it loses itself in the ensuing cruft, and then needs a big reset. All of which leads up to Tuesday’s news: the big event in Redmond to unveil the next Xbox. And boy does the company need it to go well.
Perception-wise, Microsoft has had a bad couple of years. Windows Phone may have won a number of plaudits for its looks, but nobody really went for it. Windows 8 sold a ton of copies, but most users sort of hate it. Surface had a glitzy launch, but people are still buying iPads. That leaves Xbox as Microsoft’s one remaining big consumer push. This one has to go right, or lots of talking heads will start to ask if there’s any market that Microsoft can get right any more.
The reason the company has had a lot of these issues, I think, is that it’s bad at listening. Microsoft consistently gets lost in grand visions, visions that only it can afford to develop, and produces super-complicated propositions that nobody loves. All those years spend trying to convince the public about Windows Live services. All that time spent trying to bring us around to using Bing. All that wasted effort trying to unify user interfaces with Metro (which at its heart is just a bit broken, as has been said over and over) and who really cares? Grand visions that lose the plot are Microsoft’s forte.
Yet, gaming folks are pretty excited about the next Xbox. Will it feature new horsepower? Guaranteed. Will it have Kinect baked into the box itself? Probably, but they don’t care. Will it require an Internet connection? Maybe, and they’re not sure what they think about that. Will it have lots of content partnerships? Undoubtedly. Will it copy Sony’s idea of a Share button on the joypad? Perhaps. Will there be a Halo game on it? You know it.
Will it actually be anything fundamentally different, though? It doesn’t sound like it, but that may not be a bad thing. There is often an assumption in tech blog circles that the audience wants permanent revolution, but often it doesn’t. Often it just wants the thing that it knows works, and if that thing gets that job right then it’s happy. The console gaming audience generally doesn’t want consoles to do anything fundamentally different. It tends to embrace features that are additive to its core desires, like online multiplayer or achievements, but all it wants are big TV games with joypads and mad graphics. Everything else is optional.
There are maybe 150 million console gamers around the world, judging by platform sales over the last few generations, and they love their expensive splashy videogames. They’ve never particularly cared for the frilly extras, like avatars, but that doesn’t stop them buying in. They like that their consoles have ESPN on them, but those are not crucial purchase decisions. They’re not convergence customers in the way that some PowerPoint deck in the depths of Redmond probably drew a few years ago to justify unified interfaces, but again they don’t mind as long as it’s not going to get in the way of playing Dishonored. For those people, the next Xbox is exciting because of the prospect of an even more-lavish Call of Duty and an even more-next-generation Skyrim. All they really want is a box that they believe can deliver that experience.
The risk for Microsoft is if it screws that message up.
When videogame platforms live too long, their platform holder often loses sight of its core competency. When the PlayStation 2 was over it had explored so many areas of the market that it was impossible to convey all of them in one coherent story. Sony tried, with the PlayStation 3, but the result was so confused that developers only really heard “it’s over-complicated” while consumers heard “it’s $599 for Ridge Racer.” This is a business built on razors-and-blades thinking.
A similar thing is happening to Nintendo with the Wii U. The Wii was a wonderfully simple device with a couple of very smart accessories (like the Wii Fit) and a raft of dumb ones. By the time the Wii U came around Nintendo seemed to have lost its sense of focus that drove Wii, instead releasing a very confusing machine. Now it’s paying the price.
The biggest risk for the next Xbox is if Microsoft departs so far from its core audience that the audience feels turned off. If the company comes out only talking about transmedia, television tie-ins, movies on demand, instant messaging, Internet Explorer, phone syncing, emailing from your couch, holographic avatars, Spotify subscriptions, Twitter integration, Facebook integration and party gaming then I fear for Xbox’s survival. The gamers will ask “Yes, but, where’s the games Steve?”
At its heart, the next Xbox needs to simply be about the games the games the games. Will Microsoft actually listen this time?
   
     
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			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 16:05:01 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Microsoft talks next-gen Xbox reveal, &#039;tonnes&#039; of Xbox exclusives to be announced at E3</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/microsoft-talks-nextgen-xbox-reveal-tonnes-of-xbox-exclusives-to-be-announced-at-e3</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Microsoft has discussed its plans for next Tuesday&#039;s Xbox Reveal event, confirming that next week&#039;s announcement will be about &quot;laying the foundation&quot; and taking an &quot;inside look at the making of the new [Xbox] platform and the team that&#039;s brought it to life,&quot; before revealing &quot;tonnes of exclusives&quot; at next month&#039;s E3.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 13:20:00 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>The Last of Us will debut &#039;play while it downloads&#039; feature on the PS3</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/the-last-of-us-will-debut-play-while-it-downloads-feature-on-the-ps3</link>
			<description><![CDATA[

Even though we don&#039;t yet know what the PlayStation 4 looks like or how much it will cost, one of the many details revealed at Sony&#039;s February event was that games will be playable even as they download. Now it turns out we won&#039;t have to wait for the new hardware to experience that feature on a console -- Steam, for example, does this on PCs with some games -- as The Last of Us leaders Bruce Straley and Neil Druckman told Game Informer the PS3 game will be available as a download the same day it arrives on discs, and is playable once the transfer is 50 percent complete. There&#039;s no word whether other developers will have access to the &quot;magic&quot; Naughty Dog worked out with Sony to make it happen, but as least there will be as little delay as possible before you begin exploring its post-apocalyptic landscape June 14th.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony
Comments
Via: Joystiq
Source: Game Informer]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 10:30:00 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>EA Sports software engineer slams Wii U on Twitter</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/ea-sports-software-engineer-slams-wii-u-on-twitter</link>
			<description><![CDATA[EA Sports senior software engineer Bob Summerwill calls the Wii U &quot;crap&quot;, &quot;Less powerful than an Xbox 360&quot;, and more through Twitter comments.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 04:10:01 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Nintendo is taking a grassroots approach to E3 by bringing games to the masses</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/nintendo-is-taking-a-grassroots-approach-to-e3-by-bringing-games-to-the-masses</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Nintendo announced this morning that several of its unreleased Wii U games will be playable at 100 Best Buy stores across the U.S. and Canada during the week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June.E3 is gaming&#039;s biggest event, but these days Nintendo is more interested in interacting directly with fans.That&#039;s evident in the company&#039;s Nintendo Direct videos, a series of live streamed presentations that anyone can watch online.Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced the partnership with Best Buy during today&#039;s Nintendo Direct.Stomping the middle manFils-Aime did not reveal what games will be playable at Best Buy stores, and it&#039;s unknown what new games Nintendo will be showing off at E3.&quot;This year we&#039;re making E3 for the people,&quot; he said. &quot;We want to make sure you get the chance to try our games as well.&quot;The Mario maker announced in April that it will not hold a traditional press conference during the expo, instead hosting more low-key demos for press.With Nintendo game demos coming to Best Buy stores as well, it seems press and fans will be getting the same E3 experience for once, at least where Nintendo is concerned.During today&#039;s Nintendo Direct video Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata revealed new games like Sonic: Lost World and Mario &amp; Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games as well as release dates for The Wonderful 101 and Super Luigi U.    ]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 03:05:01 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Streaming Porn Service Coming To Next XBox</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/streaming-porn-service-coming-to-next-xbox</link>
			<description><![CDATA[SugarDVD, the adult video service that began streaming onto consoles last year, has confirmed that it will be available on the new Xbox.

We all had a good giggle last year when SugarDVD launched its streaming porn service for the PlayStation 3, but I also predicted at the time that it would be a hit nonetheless. And although I don&#039;t have hard numbers to back it up, the fact that it&#039;s still available on the PS3 (and the Xbox 360, Wii U, Ouya, iPad, Android and other platforms) speaks for itself, as does the announcement that it&#039;ll be coming on the new Xbox, set to be revealed to the world on May 21.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 01:10:01 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Nintendo is bringing its E3 games to the masses</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/nintendo-is-bringing-its-e3-games-to-the-masses</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Nintendo announced this morning that several of its unreleased Wii U games will be playable at 100 Best Buy stores across the U.S. and Canada during the week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June.E3 is gaming&#039;s biggest event, but these days Nintendo is more interested in interacting directly with fans.That&#039;s evident in the company&#039;s Nintendo Direct videos, a series of live streamed presentations that anyone can watch online.Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced the partnership with Best Buy during today&#039;s Nintendo Direct.Stomping the middle manFils-Aime did not reveal what games will be playable at Best Buy stores, and it&#039;s unknown what new games Nintendo will be showing off at E3.&quot;This year we&#039;re making E3 for the people,&quot; he said. &quot;We want to make sure you get the chance to try our games as well.&quot;The Mario maker announced in April that it will not hold a traditional press conference during the expo, instead hosting more low-key demos for press.With Nintendo game demos coming to Best Buy stores as well, it seems press and fans will be getting the same E3 experience for once, at least where Nintendo is concerned.During today&#039;s Nintendo Direct video Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata revealed new games like Sonic: Lost World and Mario &amp; Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games as well as release dates for The Wonderful 101 and Super Luigi U.    ]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 20:05:00 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Blip: Apple&#039;s hook up with Bang With Friends is over</title>
			<link>http://seek4news.com/news/blip-apples-hook-up-with-bang-with-friends-is-over</link>
			<description><![CDATA[&quot;Anonymously find friends who are down for the night!&quot; reads the Bang With Friends mobile app description on Google Play. &quot;Your friends will never know you&#039;re interested unless they are too!&quot;While the Android version of the Facebook-based, bang-finding application is bumping and grinding, today Apple reportedly yanked it from its iOS App Store. Even after taking some of the naughty out of the name by rechristening it &quot;BWF,&quot; it looks as though Apple still wasn&#039;t down to keep the party going. It&#039;s not quite clear why Apple ended the relationship, but the Bang With Friends website confidently states &quot;Be right back - We&#039;re working with Apple to get BWF back into the App Store shortly.&quot; God&#039;s speed, BWF. YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7YE9gWSyNg&amp;feature=player_embeddedMore blips!Our news nugget blips will never leave you high and dry. Xbox Wire goes live ahead of new consoleAlohomora! Secret Mac function can only be unlocked with Harry Potter spellEA calls quits on Online Pass system    ]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 20:05:00 CDT</pubDate>
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