MOVIE THEATERS FOR GAMING

CINEGAMES: MOVIE THEATERS FOR GAMING

Screw the Toshiba headsets, this setup involves entire modified movie theaters in Spain (video is not in English, but it's worth it to see what this looks like). Enrique Martinez worked with Yelmo Cineplex in spending more than $390,000 to bring this projector paradise to life. Charging just four dollars for a ticket, 50 gamers each get to sit down and play video games with the following extra entertainment:

"Fog, low smoke, black light, flashing green lasers, high-definition digital projectors, vibrating seats, game pads and dozens of 17 inch, or 43 centimeter, screens attached to individual chairs. And naturally, there's buttered popcorn."

Basically, LAN party + rave = $$$. And it's slowly spreading - theaters in Germany and Toronto tested the concept recently, and with the help of TimePlay's theater network system, there are even plans to bring it to USA and "allow moviegoers to play 15 to 20 minutes of interactive, ad-sponsored games before the start of movies." No more shitty movie previews! Suddenly eight dollar movie tickets sound totally reasonable and I actually want to get to the show before it starts.

They're approaching the idea wisely though, they've prepared for all age audiences. Not only are games like Battlefield 1942 working already (you can see it in action in the video), but they're also bringing basic games like Bingo to the silver screen. Yelmo is even working on using the setup for educational and senior citizen projects, so hopefully in a few years they'll be able to take the world by cinematic storm. I honestly don't care though - give me Pac-Man with a room full of real A.I. ghosts chasing me, and I'll be pumping out Hamiltons all day like I was at the world's most expensive arcade. Happy Feet? More like happy hands, I haven't even played this yet and I'm addicted.

the ESRB understands...

From Next-Gen: Following up on online want ads, Entertainment Software Rating Board boss Patricia Vance tells Next-Gen that the ESRB is moving from part-time to full-time game raters, a switch that she says will help produce more consistent ratings. Vance elaborated, “Having full-time raters will allow for each [rater] to have greater experience actually reviewing content and recommending ratings, given the increased amount of time each one would spend doing it. This would provide each rater with a greater sense of historical parity for ratings, not to mention helping them to be more attuned to pertinent content and how it should be considered from a ratings standpoint.” You know what? I think it's fair to say that the ESRB has pulled its head out of its ass. In the last six months, they've partnered with some of their political opponents, they've partnered with the PTA, they've increased emphasis on point of purchase displays, and in general they've stopped saying that underage consumers buying inappropriate content is someone else's problem. With this announcement, they've stopped pretending that the method being used to rate games wasn't a problem. Look. Gaming in the U.S. was a 12.5 billion dollar business last year. It's big boy business now. You can't depend on volunteer raters playing a game for an hour, or totally rely on the people who made the game to tell you about all the "objectionable" content. That's just not a logically sound process. The new process may not be perfect, but it definitely sounds like an improvement. Well done. posted by Bill Harris;#;#

CompUSA has confirmed it will be closing about half of its U.S. stores

CompUSA has confirmed it will be closing about half of its U.S. stores, 126 in total. The closings will happen over the next three months as inventory is shifted around to the best-situated and best-performing locations. CEO Roman Ross said:

Based on changing conditions in the consumer retail electronics markets, the company identified the need to close and sell stores with low performance or non-strategic, old store layouts and locations faced with market saturation.

Translation: "the fact that you can get just about anything we sell online, without having to deal with any of our condescending, less-than helpful staff members is rendering our physical locations obsolete, so we're closing them." I do feel for the folks that are going to be out of work, but the last time I was in a CompUSA, the sales drone asked me if I was looking for the Bed, Bath, and Beyond next door, so I can't say I'm all that sorry to see them go.

Closures Will Affect 50% of CompUSA Stores [Next-Gen]