Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
| The video game industry has gone from a mole hill to a mountain in no time flat, Chris DiMarco is your Sherpa as you endeavor to scale Mount “Everquest”

Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency

Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...

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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction

In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...

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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call

Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...

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IGEL Advances Future of Work

IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...

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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN

Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...

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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War

Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...

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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise

Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...

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Nintendo May Be On To Something

February 3, 2014

Admittedly, this generation of the console wars has not been kind to Nintendo. The Wii U has been regularly underperforming. Put against the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, the Wii U is barely even in the same sport, let alone the same ballpark. But there may be some hope for the Nintendo brand, and it's looking to the next generation of consoles to save the day...as well as the next generation of handhelds.

That right there should spark a little interest in the gaming community.

Microsoft Puts Money Where Its Mouth Is In New Trade-In Offer

January 30, 2014

An exciting new idea has emerged from the halls of Redmond, and this is going to be unusual for a few reasons. For the next month, Microsoft is planning to pay a bounty on old gaming systems, which in turn can be used to pay for a new Xbox One system. There are several caveats to this deal, of course, including some that are surprisingly unique.

The offer, essentially, goes like this: those who bring in an Xbox 360, in either regular or slim flavors, can get up to $100 in store credit at Microsoft retail outlets. But here's where things start to get interesting.

Is Amazon About To Eat Microsoft's Lunch?

January 29, 2014

That's a funny question, make no mistake, and it's got an answer that may not prove to be very funny at all for Microsoft. For us, however, it should be a bit of great news as it should spark competition between Microsoft and Amazon and give rise to several new and useful features for us to enjoy. But the point remains that Amazon may have just pulled off a masterstroke and done the job that Microsoft is still seeking to do...for now.

Earlier today, more specific word emerged about the Amazon console, that was suggested to be in the works since last year, but was delayed at the last minute to this year instead. Powered by Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm and set to take advantage of a wide swath of Amazon's overall offerings, from music to movies to, of course, video games, the little console was set to hit shelves for under $300 and was demonstrated with games from both the Android and the iOS libraries.

Is Nintendo's Past the Secret to Its Future?

January 28, 2014

It's been bantered around quite a bit lately, about just what Nintendo “should do.” It's faced with impressive losses, and losing a lot of ground in the newest round of the console wars, thanks to increasing competition from rivals Microsoft and Sony. But what exactly Nintendo “should do” in terms of gaining that ground back and making up some losses is unclear to most everyone, though everyone has a least a few ideas. Including a few from yours truly, which this piece will go after.


I've heard a lot about Nintendo leasing out its characters, and that's not a bad idea. Mario on the Xbox One wouldn't be such a bad thing, nor any of Nintendo's other amazing IP.

The VRcade: Is There A Future In The Arcade?

January 27, 2014

Let's face it, kids. The arcade is mostly a dead prospect these days. Oh, sure, there are still examples of the concept around; every so often you'll find a place still devoted to keeping the old machines alive, or even a handful of new ones still coming out. I just saw an absolutely spectacular Aliens: Armageddon shooting game where the controller was a reasonably close replica of a M41A pulse rifle.

Product Placement, YouTube, And the Win-Win For Gamers

January 23, 2014

The idea of paying for promotional consideration in online videos these days has become something of a cause celebre, particularly in recent days. No matter what side of the issue one lands on—and there's plenty of room for debate here—there are some critical points that bear considering before really establishing a stance on the idea of paying content creators for consideration in video of any sort.

Essentially, it could be described that some game companies—notably Microsoft and Electronic Arts—were offering a kind of product placement arrangement with YouTube video creators, with the unexpected difference that the creators were asked not to note the relationship that had been established, something that led some to wonder if the companies, or the YouTube creators, could be cited under Federal Trade Commission guidelines that discussed this kind of thing. But with the FTC's Betsy Lordan recently coming out to say that the guidelines were “not legally enforceable,” and following that up with “there are no monetary penalties or penalties of any kind associated with them”, that sort of took a lot of wind out of the sails of the concept that this might somehow be wrong.

However, while the guidelines have zero teeth, Lordan further explained that the guides were written to provide something of an early-warning mechanism related to actual law with actual penalties. The FTC would, essentially, act to notify a company that actually was violating guidelines that could lead to legal problems, which would give the company in question an opportunity to make changes that keep said company out of legal trouble.

That being said, I don't have a problem with paid promotional opportunities.





DayZ's Creator Would Rather You Not Buy DayZ Yet

January 22, 2014

Of all the counter-intuitive statements one might hear in a typical day, “please don't buy my game” from a game developer has to be one of the strangest. But that's exactly what's going on with Dean Hall, creator of DayZ, who's actively telling people not to buy DayZ just yet. The reasons, oddly enough, make perfect sense.

Hall is expressing the belief that players should hold off a bit, let him and his team go through the game and fix some of the game's bugs, of which at last report there were several. But Hall also wants to add more features to the game, a development most anyone can get behind.

The Secret To PC Gaming's Growth? BRICs and Steam.

January 21, 2014

It may sound almost impossibly cryptic, but according to new reports, the secret to PC gaming success is going to be a combination of bricks and steam. That sounds like an odd combination, but the report from the International Data Corporation makes it a lot clearer.

More specifically, the steam in this case is the Steam gaming platform, home to absolutely staggering deals on a regular basis. The bricks, meanwhile, are the so-called BRIC nations, that combination of Brazil, Russia, India and China that represents some of the biggest possibilities in developing markets the world over. Though the BRIC nations' exact impact as market growth drivers is somewhat suspect--it didn't take long for it to start being questioned after it first emerged on the scene--it's easy to see why these nations are getting a lot of attention these days thanks to a combination of impressive natural resources and huge populations.

But the two factors together, according to the International Data Corporation, are likely to help fuel a firestorm of growth in the sector.



What Is It About Rust?

January 20, 2014

I've been hearing quite a bit about the game known as “Rust” lately, and this little game—which recently started making sales—is actually landing on the market in high style. It's been showing up in webcomics, it's been talked about all over, and a whole lot of people are playing this. So what is it that's driving the interest? It's a question worth asking, especially considering how big the user base is.

“Rust” is, essentially, a kind of refined version of “Minecraft” that has much better graphics and some increased emphasis on multiplayer.

Are Steam Sales Doing More Harm Than Good?

January 16, 2014

Just yesterday we noted some big impact for Steam, and noted how it was drawing in a whole lot of gaming fans from all around the world with incredible bargains released on a fairly regular basis. But one point being raised by a game developer is that the amazing Steam sales that come around may be, ultimately, doing more harm to gamers than good.

Jason Rohrer, who developed “The Castle Doctrine,” a massively multiplayer online game focused on burglary, put up a blog post describing a set of unintended consequences that may lead to the ultimate detriment of gamers. Rohrer notes that sales like Steam's, which feature incredible markdowns, do draw attention, but draw the attention away from a launch date, instead convincing gamers to wait until a game is released at a steep discount before buying.
While many gamers are eager to get the newest game right when it comes out, there's always that percentage of gamers who look at the situation, realize that there will be a discount somewhere, and instead choose to hold out until that day has arrived.


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