Taking Stock: The Gibson-Goldstein Index
Blizzard Fans
Christmas comes early for the Blizz faithful as BlizzCon 08 kicks off. Expect lots more about Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft this weekend. Keep up with our BlizzCon 08 coverage for the latest.
Storage Solutions
The perennial PC gamer's problem of "more disk space needed" hits home consoles hard as Microsoft tackles fitting the New Xbox Experience onto Xbox 360 systems without hard drives. Plus, at the end of last week Nintendo announced a simple, intuitive solution that should have come with the Wii out of the box.
Bleszinski
The Gears of War 2 creative director and celebrity game designer enraged his fans over a piracy comment, only to reassure us that he'll always love the PC. Take that, Mac Guy.
Gamers in Bed
Well, they're up for a while ....just not for long.
Street Fighter IV
Seriously, it's really good. Take that and add Japanese schoolgirls, and, well, maybe we've found a cure that doesn't involve Viagra ordered online.
Teamwork
Shacknews dug up eleven games with co-op coming out this year and five more on the horizon. Who needs team-building retreats and ropes courses when there's zombies to escape from?
The Rumor Tag
Sure, a new BioWare MMO that might be Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is tantalizing, but then the Rumor tag had to go and grab Wii HD and Xbox 360 Blu-Ray once again. Sigh.
"A lot of people want to compare it to the Miis but ... if you talk to Mark [Whitten, Xbox Live general manager], he'll say his inspiration came more from [World of] WarCraft and seeing how dedicated people get to their characters."
Xbox marketing director Albert Penello, confronting criticism that the Xbox 360 Avatars were Mii copycats.
"These men [with non-psychological premature ejaculation] have very quick reflexes. They may be excellent at playing tennis or computer games."
Sexual psychotherapist Paula Hall, really messing things up for gamers.
":("
Shacknews founder Steve Gibson, in response to Paula Hall.
"It's a huge stamp of approval for a major company to come in and say they believe in the online games ad market."
Mochi Media chief executive Jameson Hsu on Google's entry into in-game advertising.
"[Digital distribution is] a nice added business model, but it's not something that's going to take over retail game sales."
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime on digitally-distributed games for the Nintendo DSi handheld announced last week.
