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Banning Of Popular Video Games |
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Brazil bans popular video games seen to incite violence
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Brazil this week imposed a ban on popular role-playing computer games "Counter-Strike" and "EverQuest," claiming they incited violence and were "harmful to consumers' health."
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The federal prohibition on the sale of the games was being applied across the country, the official consumer protection agency in the central state of Goias said on its website Thursday.
Both games allow players, typically teenage boys, to connect online to fantasy worlds where they interact with other players, form groups and carry out joint missions usually involving combat.
"Counter-Strike," a first-person-view shoot-'em-upper based on the motor powering the popular "Half-Life" game, requires participants to choose a role as either a masked terrorist or an anti-terrorist officer before going forth with an ever-sophisticated array of weapons.
An adapted version in Brazil permitted players to take on the perspective of either a police officer or a narcotrafficker in Rio de Janeiro's infamously crime-ridden slums.
"EverQuest" is a swords-and-spells game in the mold of "Lord of the Rings" in which human or elvish or other imaginary characters go on joint adventures to gain treasure and increase their avatar's abilities.
Both began in 1999 and have since developed huge worldwide followings.
Some psychologists have described them as addictive as drugs. A few players have turned professional, earning money from powerful characters they sell, or from the auction of hard-to-win virtual items.
The ban was ordered in October 2007 by a Brazilian federal court, but was not immediately implemented.
The judge, Carlos Alberto Simoes, ruled that the games encouraged "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security." |
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http://netkushi.com/blogs/blogs/ramsatya/ |
| Posted by Reddy on 2008-01-21 at 07:09:18
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Japan to get cellphone 'sommeliers': official
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is to start licensing cellphone "sommeliers" to guide consumers through complicated functions as mobile telephones become ever more advanced, an official said Monday.
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The communications ministry said it was planning to support a private-sector plan to launch an exam to license specialists who sell cellphones.
"We hope they would be able to explain complicated functions and charge systems to consumers, much like wine sommeliers guiding you," a ministry official said.
The ministry also hopes the cellphone experts would remind parents of the risks of letting their children use Internet-capable cellphones and recommend installing filters to block access to harmful websites, he said.
The private sector will administer the exam and the government does not plan to restrict who can sell cellphones, he said.
Japan has one of the world's most advanced mobile telephone networks, with the vast majority using third-generation handsets that allow high-speed Internet access and other advanced functions.
The number of cellphone subscriptions topped 100 million in Japan at the end of December against the nation's total population of 127 million, according to industry data.
While about one-third of Japanese primary school students aged 7-12 years use cellphones, by the time they get to high school the figure shoots up to 96 percent, the government said in a survey released last month |
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www.netkushi.com/blogs/ramsatya |
| Posted by Reddy on 2008-01-20 at 04:58:40
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US Video Game Sales Soar To Record 17.9 Billion Dollars |
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US video game sales soar to record 17.9 billion dollars
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - US video game industry sales rocketed to a record high 17.9 billion dollars in 2007, with Nintendo reigning as champion of the console battle with Microsoft and Sony, according to research group NPD.
US sales of video game consoles, software and accessories rose "an astounding" 43 percent, with each category reaching a new "personal best," NPD reported.
Nintendo DS handheld game devices and Wii consoles were the top hardware sellers, ranking first and second respectively. The Japanese company's gadgets accounted for 52 percent of the video game devices sold in the United States.
"Nintendo has certainly been the belle of the hardware ball," NPD analyst Anita Frazier told AFP on Friday.
"The DS has driven portable gaming to a new level, and for the second year in a row, the DS has been the top-selling hardware platform."
Nearly 8.5 million Nintendo DS devices were sold in the United States last year, while buyers snatched up approximately 6.3 million Wii game consoles.
"By the end of 2007 we were sold out of virtually all hardware, and much of our stock of software and accessories was sold out as well," said Cammie Dunaway, the executive vice president of marketing at Nintendo of America.
"And that momentum continues here in the early weeks of 2008."
Sony sold 3.97 million PS2 consoles and 2.56 million of its newer PS3 consoles in the United States in 2007, NPD reported.
Microsoft last year sold 4.62 million Xbox 360 consoles, which debuted in the market in November of 2005, a year before Wii and PS3 were released.
Video game hardware sales were boosted by the fact that it was the first full year that the Wii and PS3 consoles were on the market.
Daunting prices on PS3 consoles and the speed with which Wii models vanished from store shelves made Sony's previous-generation PlayStation 2 a "fall-back" for buyers, according to NPD.
Sony trimmed PS3 prices last year in the face of floundering sales blamed on its high cost and a dearth of coveted games for the consoles.
"Both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 realized strong month-over-month hardware sales increases," Frazier said.
Frazier predicts that the video game industry will continue to flourish in the United States this year, but not at the stellar rate of growth seen in 2007.
"I expect to see 2008 increase over 2007, with more growth, proportionately, coming from software sales," Frazier said, adding that the competing consoles feature online game services that make money from subscriptions and downloads.
"While we will continue to see strong hardware sales, particularly if prices come down again, the spotlight now turns from hardware to software."
Xbox 360 sales surged with help from the releases of highly-coveted games such as "Halo 3," which is tailored exclusively for Microsoft's consoles.
Analysts maintain that the availability of fun, well-crafted gaming software is a key factor influencing console purchases.
"The 360 in particular seems to have benefited from a killer slate of hardware-acquisition-driving content including Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed and Halo 3," Frazier said.
Approximately 8.64 billion dollars was spent in the United States on game software for consoles and portable devices, according to NPD.
"Halo 3" was the top video game title, with 4.8 million copies sold.
Activision's "Guitar Hero" game in which competitors score points by playing along to rock music on guitar-like controllers raked in 820 million dollars, a new one-year record for video game franchise sales in the United States.
But Nintendo's "Mario Brothers" holds the throne as top-selling franchise of all time.
"Mario was the second-best selling video games property for the year and remains the historically best-selling property in the video games industry," Frazier said. |
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www.netkushi.com/blogs/ramsatya |
| Posted by Reddy on 2008-01-20 at 04:37:42
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