Saving English Pub Industry with Consoles

Amidst economic recession, high alcohol tax, and smoking ban in public places, many English pubs were losing their costumers. The ingenious solution? Put consoles (Nintendo Wii is a particular favorite for social-oriented gaming) with some party games and let your visitors play it for free. A few pubs who have done so were starting to see positive results.

Tracey said the Wii nights have helped put more bums on barstools. “We can get anything from 20 to 40 people depending on the night and when in the month it falls,” he said. “It's another reason for people to come out and have a few drinks.”

[Can Wii save our pubs?]

Super Bowl XLIII champion according to Madden 09

Outfitting their newest Madden NFL game with latest rosters and statistics, EA Sports published their annual tradition of predicting Super Bowl outcome by pitting the two final teams in AI-versus-AI match. So who's the winner?

According to the award-winning video game, the Pittsburgh Steelers will win an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title in a tightly contested game against the Arizona Cardinals, by a final score of 28-24. Holding off a fourth quarter comeback by the Cardinals, the Steelers bring the Vince Lombardi trophy back to the Steel City for the second time in the past four years and for a sixth time in franchise history, setting an NFL record.

[EA Sports predicts Super Bowl XLIII champion using Madden 09]

Football Video Games Makes You Smarter in Football Knowledge?

Commissioned by Electronic Arts (the publisher of Madden NFL games), University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center surveyed 15,000 American football fans about their knowledge on football rules and strategies vis-a-vis their football videogaming behavior. And can you believe it that football fans who play Madden NFL -compared to non-gaming fans- were 54 percent more knowledgeable in assessing game situations and 28 percent better in knowing the rules of the game.

Even though the survey seems to be strictly correlational, EA executives quickly spun it out as the benefits of playing their annual iteration of Madden NFL. Looks like 'correlation is causation' in EALand...

[Playing Video Games Good For You?]

Learn Your Video Game Regulations

An interesting piece from a video game researcher in Gamasutra: The current issue in internet and video game regulations in USA and around the world (the author specifically mentioned China and Korea). What are some of the (surprisingly) draconian US laws that exist and have been enforced relentlessly? How do other countries' lawmakers and gamers shape their video game legislation, and how can America learn from them? From censorship, piracy, to addiction issues, this article has too much juicy bits to be simply quoted or paraphrased. You definitely want to read this in its entirety.

[Video Game Regulation: Where We Are Now]

Videogame is A Big Business in Australia

With a stunning 47-percent growth amidst global financial crisis, videogame industry in Australia raked $ 1.96 billion in sales, making it the hottest entertainment industry of the year; in comparison, the movie industry recorded $ 946 million in box office sales and $ 1.4 billion in DVD sales. Who's the hero? According to The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, they should be very thankful to family-friendly games and console like the Nintendo Wii. It's no surpise then that 8 of the 10 top-selling games of 2008 in Australia are Wii games.

"Gaming in general, but in particular family gaming, offers much better re-playability than other forms of entertainment such as DVDs or going to the movies," IEAA chief executive officer Ron Curry said.

[$2bn in sales a high score for games]