Nostalgic for the Old Ways of Gaming? Experience It in a New and Modern Way

Feeling nostalgic for the older ways of gaming? Experience the past, but with modern technology. Gamers will love the simplicity of this wireless gamepad, inspired by the classic Super Nintendo gamepad. They’ll also love the versatility, as this gamepad lets you play your favorite games on iOS, Android, Mac OS X, and Windows.

The ergonomic feel and responsiveness are perfect for playing classic arcade and console games. Plus, it’s wireless, so move around to your heart’s content. As an added bonus, you can use the included Bluetooth dongle to play wirelessly on the NES Classic Edition.

This gamepad gives you the nostalgic look of retro gaming with today’s technology. The 8BitDo SFC30 Bluetooth Controller and NES Classic Bluetooth Receiver Bundle is yours for just $39.99 (USD) – 23% off the regular price.

Nintendo makes Wii Mini official: currently exclusive to Canada, launches December 7th for $100

Nintendo makes Wii Mini official exclusive to Canada, launches December 7th for $100

That was quick. Scarcely two hours after Best Buy spoiled the party, Nintendo is launching the Wii Mini. The crimson console is billed as a Canada-exclusive for now -- we're reaching out to confirm if and when it might go elsewhere -- and is clearly meant to catch those families that find the Wii U (or even a regular Wii) too pricey. To get there, though, they'll have to make some big sacrifices. The Wii Mini cuts out both GameCube compatibility (seen in some regular Wii variants) and, more importantly, internet access; unfortunately, this won't be your budget Netflix box. Still, when gamers in the Great White North can pick one up on December 7th for $100, it might be the ideal fit for that TV in the basement or the occasional party.

Continue reading Nintendo makes Wii Mini official: currently exclusive to Canada, launches December 7th for $100

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PlayStation Store redesign goes live in Australia, Europe and New Zealand with a rocky start

PlayStation Store redesign goes live in Australia, Europe and New Zealand with a rocky start

Sony vowed a long (long, long) overdue PlayStation Store remake starting this week, and it delivered just that today with launches in Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. As promised, the PS3 shop's cleaner design scales more elegantly from standard to high definition, brings more intelligent searching and makes it easier to find everything related to a given game. We still wouldn't be too eager to dive in just yet, as there's been hiccups early on -- the sheer amount of traffic has reportedly brought the new store to a crawl, on top of teething issues with adding funds and recognizing PlayStation Plus memberships. Sony has promised fixes, but we're suddenly not feeling so bad about having to wait for that October 23rd North American launch.

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PlayStation Store redesign goes live in Australia, Europe and New Zealand with a rocky start originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rovio and CERN teaming up on education: hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time

Rovio and CERN teaming up on education hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time

The last time CERN and an angry bird met, it didn't end so well: the Large Hadron Collider overheated after a feathered creature reportedly dropped its breakfast on outdoor machinery. Things should go much more smoothly this time around, with CERN and Rovio partnering on an educational initiative that will be unveiled in full at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 12th. Although the two are shy on just what's entailed beyond the presence of some Angry Birds material at the event, the union will mark the start of Rovio's learning brand and likely represent more in the long run than another Angry Birds Space tie-in. We're mostly wondering if subatomic physics research will explain why we still can't three-star some levels in a physics-based game.

Continue reading Rovio and CERN teaming up on education: hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time

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Rovio and CERN teaming up on education: hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tritton Kunai headset ships to chatty PS3 and PS Vita gamers

Tritton Kunai headset ships to chatty PS3 and PS Vita gamers

There are plenty of gaming headsets, but only so many specifically tuned to the PlayStation audience that aren't made by Sony itself. Mad Catz' Tritton label has just shipped a version of its Kunai wired headset optimized for both the PS3 and the PS Vita that might redress that (admittedly minor) deficit. About the only real customization for Vita owners is the option for a shorter 3-foot cord, but PS3 owners can plug in through USB and adjust voice volume independently from the gunshots and explosions. Regardless of which game console the Kunai links to, there's a modest 25Hz to 20KHz headphone frequency range and few frills aside from a detachable boom microphone. Tritton is mostly counting on the price to lure us in, which just might work -- at $60, berating players in-game with a Kunai will cost as much as one of the games themselves.

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Tritton Kunai headset ships to chatty PS3 and PS Vita gamers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft CEO Ballmer braces us for a ‘fundamental shift’ in strategy with more Microsoft-designed devices

Microsoft CEO Ballmer braces shareholders for a 'fundamental shift,' more of its own devices in the future

Microsoft's Surface tablets could already be considered warning shots across the bow, signalling that a change in strategy was underway. For anyone who was in doubt, however, CEO Steve Ballmer has clearly spelled out in a shareholder letter that Microsoft now sees its own devices as crucial to the company as anything else. There's a "fundamental shift" in how the Redmond-based crew works, he says, and investors should expect that Microsoft will periodically make "specific devices for specific purposes" (like Surface or the Xbox) that show off services in the best light possible. Ballmer adds that plans in the long run focus on new device types and learning interfaces. The message is ostensibly a rosy one for the company's future, but there's also a subtext for hardware makers that have complained about competing against their OS partner: get used to it. Ballmer sees Microsoft-designed hardware like Surface as complementary to what third parties do, and his company isn't about to reverse course anytime soon.

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Microsoft CEO Ballmer braces us for a 'fundamental shift' in strategy with more Microsoft-designed devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Verge  |  sourceMicrosoft  | Email this | Comments

Nielsen says game consoles get men to use TV more: hurray, we think

Nielsen says game console use gets men to use TV more hurray, we think

We're not sure if we should always cheer figures that reflect sedentary behavior. Still, chalk one up for greater (if superficial) gender equality. Nielsen finds that, as of this past March, men who owned a modern game console like the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or Wii were using their TVs almost as much as women: while males in the broader population typically spend 37 fewer minutes in front of the big screen every day than females, that gap shrank to a negligible 11 minutes when console use came into play. Unfortunately, the agency doesn't say just what's getting men to tune in for that much longer. Gaming is the most likely culprit, but a raft of streaming video options could have some of those refined couch potatoes watching Hulu or Netflix instead of playing one more round of Gears of War. If consoles have people of all genders spending more time together, we're in favor of it; given that men still spend over twice as much time on consoles as women, though, it's clear there's still a bridge to cross if we want more of a balance in the kinds of TV activity we enjoy.

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Nielsen says game consoles get men to use TV more: hurray, we think originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix Coreonline offers top-tier games on the web for free — if you feed the ad meter

Hitman Blood Money

It's not hard to see that offering high-quality games through the cloud has its pitfalls, not the least of which is getting customers to pay. Square Enix may have licked that last problem through its new Coreonline web gaming service. Players can still pony up for the full-priced games or even single levels if they want unfettered access, but the cleverness comes through Coreonline's parking meter approach to ad-supported free play: the more ads you watch and the longer they run, the longer you'll get to play without spending a single coin. As our colleagues at Joystiq found out, however, the current level of OS support is inconsistent. Windows gamers can use Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer to start playing, but their Mac-owning friends have to lean on Chrome for some games and can't even consider running the marquee title, Hitman: Blood Money. Square Enix's library of eligible games will start expanding in October; while there's no guarantee the Final Fantasy series or many other dream games will make it to the roster, Coreonline's approach might just be viable enough to spare us a few raids on the bargain bins.

Continue reading Square Enix Coreonline offers top-tier games on the web for free -- if you feed the ad meter

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Square Enix Coreonline offers top-tier games on the web for free -- if you feed the ad meter originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony rules out PS Vita price cut in 2012, works to lower the price later

PS Vita Japanese

It's time to get realistic about the prospects of a PlayStation Vita price drop. Sony Worldwide Studios' head Shuhei Yoshida dampened the fires of speculation at GamesCom this week by telling Eurogamer that it was simply "too early" to slash the price on the gaming handheld -- it was only just launched this year for every active region beyond Japan, after all. That's not to say Sony is determined to keep the PS Vita at $249 forever. Much like what it did for the PS3, the company is working to bring down the price by streamlining part costs. The cuts might be necessary given the mismatch between the warm reception to the quad-core, OLED-packing hardware and the actual sales; Sony would "like to see more uptake" than what's been seen to date, according to Yoshida. In the meantime, we'll have to be content with bundles like the European LittleBigPlanet combo if we want to eke out a little more value at the game store counter.

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Sony rules out PS Vita price cut in 2012, works to lower the price later originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica  |  sourceEurogamer  | Email this | Comments

Sony rules out PS Vita price cut in 2012, works to lower the price later

PS Vita Japanese

It's time to get realistic about the prospects of a PlayStation Vita price drop. Sony Worldwide Studios' head Shuhei Yoshida dampened the fires of speculation at GamesCom this week by telling Eurogamer that it was simply "too early" to slash the price on the gaming handheld -- it was only just launched this year for every active region beyond Japan, after all. That's not to say Sony is determined to keep the PS Vita at $249 forever. Much like what it did for the PS3, the company is working to bring down the price by streamlining part costs. The cuts might be necessary given the mismatch between the warm reception to the quad-core, OLED-packing hardware and the actual sales; Sony would "like to see more uptake" than what's been seen to date, according to Yoshida. In the meantime, we'll have to be content with bundles like the European LittleBigPlanet combo if we want to eke out a little more value at the game store counter.

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Sony rules out PS Vita price cut in 2012, works to lower the price later originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica, Joystiq  |  sourceEurogamer  | Email this | Comments