Video Game Sales 2007
3 Comments
Posted on January 25th, 2008 by
If you read or watched or listened to any news reports during the holiday season you undoubtedly heard that video games were at the top of the heap in terms of ‘most wanted gift items’ … well, aside from 60″ LCD TV’s for everyone’s bedroom. But looking over the latest sales numbers including data through the end of 2007 is simply staggering in terms of the volume of systems sold by the 5 currently shipping ‘next gen’ handhelds and consoles. more…
Son of Godzilla!
Posted on January 25th, 2008 by
Godzilla Unleashed from Atari is a mediocre game in what is sadly a mediocre series. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun, especially with a 5-year old! It brings me back. My Aunt Bev, bless her for it, took me to see, in the theater, Godzilla vs. Megalon. I must have been 4 or 5 years old myself and I was awed. It began a real love of Godzilla movies that lasted long into my childhood. Despite that mediocrity the love is back, because my son thinks Godzilla is super cool!
Parents Television Council Is Confused
Posted on January 25th, 2008 by
From Dennis McCauley’s GamePolitics (which is owned by the ECA, a pro videogame lobby) writes: “Recent word that the Entertainment Software Association would begin making political contributions on behalf of the video game industry brought a sharp response from watchdog group the Parents Television Council. Within days of the ESA announcement, PTC president Tim Winter issued a statement essentially threatening that his organization would target any elected official who “cashed a check” from the ESA”
Meanwhile the American Beef Association weighed in on organic vegetables, the RIAA started complaining about movies, PeTA began attacking big tobacco, and the MPAA started lobbying against guns. Who knows what the NRA is doing at this point….
10 Attacks on Videogames in 2007
Posted on January 24th, 2008 by
A gamer calling himself Recoton2007 has compiled a video of the top 10 attacks from the mainstream media regarding videogames in 2007 (taken from GameTrailers.com). It showcases why we do what we do and why it’s important. Go ahead and watch the video while I comment on them one by one. I can’t seem to embed this video, so please come back after clicking the link.
bad economics for kids
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by
So the Sierra Club and others in New Mexico wants to push an initiative called “Leave No Child Inside”. That is fantastic! I love the idea of an initiative that will build a love of the outdoors and of an active lifestyle for an increasingly sedentary – and overweight – population. So where does the money come from? A 1% tax on video games, TV’s and associated hardware. Oh. In other words, we are going to incentivize young kids by taxing their parents. Huh?
Really, I’m Okay!
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by
Hey there,
Look, everything I said in that post about the eBay fundraiser is 100% true but I seem to have scared a lot of people needlessly (sorry mom!). It’s not good, it’s annoying, but you know what? It was a million times worse NOT KNOWING what was happening. That’s why I casually wrote things like “internal bleeding” and “wire in my pectoral” and “procedure” because to me, this is good news! It means this problem IS NOT life threatening, that this problem will be solved soon enough, and it means I get to lose the wires in my sternum (which I’m not really comfortable with even if they were behaving). The fund raiser is in case there are medical bills, but will probably be used to show my kids a really good time because they’ve been worried. So, I’m sorry I scared you. I’m okay and I’ll be fine. You people are awesome!
GamerDad at Large! – CommonSense Media Edition
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by
CommonSense Media was the first website to come out and compete directly with GamerDad.com. Compete isn’t exactly the right word. Their board is a who’s who of child advocates and they seem well financed. Hey, they’re a charity. I’m a charity too, but that’s not my legal status… I just don’t make a whole lot of money. Since I’ve been working for them for over a year now, I won’t pick and link each review. Instead, there’s a catch-all link. So go here and browse away! more…
txa1265’s Worst Crap I Played in 2007
Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by
When you play through over 200 games in a single year you are bound to see both peaks and valleys. I will talk plenty about the peaks in a separate article – and I had considered including these stinkers there, but they really deserve to be lambasted without messing up the beauty of the excellent games released this year. Note that this isn’t just about low score – though almost all of these scored badly. I also hate plenty of other games for other reasons … and features attached to certain games. And other stuff. But that is a different story … so on to the lousy games!
I have limited myself to ten games … because I found more than twenty games that I had rated lower than 2 / 5 (40%) in the last year. So I left out things like Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade (PC) and SWAT: Target Liberty (PSP), which were just lousy games and instead things in similar genres that were truly egregious. I have also added a special award for a game that wasn’t terrible, but …
GamerDad at Large! – WhatTheyPlay Edition
Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by
No, I haven’t grown to giant size. I’ve just been freelancing recently. Here’s just one of the outlets: WhatTheyPlay.com is a new website that pretty much mirrors GamerDad’s mission and much of our approach (imitation = sincerest form of flattery, etc) to a tee. The main differences are… they have money, and they clearly learned from our (and CommonSense Media’s) mistakes. But GamerDad.com has something WhatTheyPlay doesn’t. Me! Since we weren’t able to reach an agreement to hire me on their staff or for GamerDad to fold into their website (we’re staying independent folks!) they’ve hired me to do some work for them. An “Ask GamerDad” column is coming soon. But for now, here’s a big batch of pure uncut content reviews for your reading pleasure:
GamerDad Health Update + eBay Fund-Raiser
Posted on January 21st, 2008 by
Hello,
Here’s the gist. I’m 37 years old. I run GamerDad.com and I’ve been in the videogame business as a pundit for over 10 years. I had a massive heart attack in September.
The fund raiser my wife organized back then paid the bills and then some. But now the metal wiring that was used to hold my rib cage together is starting too…. move. It’s scraping the muscles in my chest and causing internal bleeding and that bleeding is pooling around my lungs and triggering asthma. My lungs are clear, but it feels like I have pneumonia and its felt like that for over two weeks now. I’m tired of it but it can’t be removed safely for another month. I’m burning through pain pills.
Anyway, this has incurred some new costs. I’m sure the bulk, maybe all, of it will be taken care of by insurance but my family could still use some cheering up. That’s why I combed through some of the cool swag I’ve got, among other stuff, and decided to do this simple fund raiser:
more…
