Microsoft finally fixes 360 DRM bug

There are a few different reasons you might not be playing on the same Xbox 360 system that you originally bought. You might have upgraded to an Elite system for the bigger hard drive and black HDMI. More likely, your original system died and you were forced to have it replaced. Gamers who received new systems were in for an unpleasant surprise when they redownloaded their Arcade games or hooked up their old hard drive: the games they paid for would only work when connected to the Internet. No network connection, and they all reverted to demo versions. Microsoft has just released a tool that allows you to move those licenses over to a new console, but the question remains: what took so long? (link)

Legit game purchases:1 Pirated: 20

The other critique outside Crytek was the fact that the PC industry is really, at the moment, I would say the most intensely pirated market ever. It’s crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now. For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that’s a big shame for the PC industry. I hope with Warhead I hope we improve the situation, but at the same time it may have an impact on [our] PC exclusivity in the future.
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But at the end of the day, I think our message is if you’re a PC gamer, and you really want to respect the platform, then you should stop pirating. We will see less and less games appearing on the PC, or less and less games pushing the boundaries of PC gaming. Or, in other words, speaking in terms of PC exclusivity, we would only consider full PC exclusives–if the situation continues like this or gets worse–I think we would only consider PC exclusive titles that are either online or multiplayer and no more single-player. (link)

Game legislation, government wasting your tax money

Trying to pass legislation that impacts how games can be sold or what has to be put on them is a popular and expensive way of sending the message that you’re concerned about the issues that affect the youth of today. Although every law attempted has gone down in flames, and has cost taxpayers at least $1 million through the years, politicians continue to line up to give it a go. The newest bill is A11717, proposed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, and it has already passed through the New York State Assembly. Now it’s on to the State Senate. It’s a familiar story, but in this case the New York government is asking for things the industry is already doing.

The legislation would require game consoles to include parental locks for mature content but, while this sounds good on paper, every current-generation console already has parental controls. Not only that, but the ESRB has done a great job of getting the word out on how to use said controls. The bill also wants to force games to show their ESRB ratings on the cover of the title, which is also something that is done industry-wide. Every game sold at retail has the ESRB rating on the front cover, with more detailed information on what content the game includes on the back of the box. Given that industry compliance on showing the ratings on games is already at 100 percent, it’s unclear what the law would achieve. (link)

WiiFit latest rehab therapy

Injured athletes may find themselves playing Nintendo’s Wii Fit as part of their rehabilitation.

This and other fitness-oriented video games have “great potential” for core strengthening and rehabilitation and may boost compliance with rehabilitation exercises, Sue Stanley-Green, a professor of athletic training at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, told Reuters Health.

“We are looking to incorporate Wii Fit into the athletic training room as far as rehabilitation, for example, on post-operative knees and ankles,” she noted in a telephone interview.

Fitness video games that have the user perform lower-body balance and weight-shifting activities could help patients with weight-bearing rehabilitation after an injury or surgery. (link)

Consoles testing ground of PC gaming

With Crytek claiming its going to start developing games for consoles, only to then announce a PC exclusive, people have been talking about whether there will be more PC-only games released in the future. While there may technically be more PCs in the homes of consumers, the number of consoles is growing, and your 360 or PS3 is much better at playing games than your average home computer, an argument Roy Taylor, NVIDIA’s VP of Content Business Development, can’t ignore. He sees a trend in gaming: titles begin life on consoles, and are then improved for the PC.

“In the past, PC gaming development meant pandering to the lowest common denominator—which meant some poor integrated graphics,” Taylor told Eurogamer. “Today, developing a PC game means starting at a console, and console graphics are way above integrated graphics. That means the baseline is getting better. Now we’re going to add to that version additional features, additional content, to make the PC version even better.” (link)