According to respected developer and Wildtangent Boss, Alex St. John, video game consoles will be “extinct” by 2020. Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle, St. John went on to say:

“We are looking at the last generation of consoles right now. I am going to predict to you that the PS3, the Wii and the Xbox are the last generation of consoles that you either see or that anybody regards as successful in the market.”

Apparently, Sony and Microsoft will no longer see the value of investing billions of dollars in consoles for little return, while Nintendo’s attempt at revolutionising the market with innovative controls was compared to the dying arcade industry, trying the same trick in order to attract gamers back to the arcades.

St. John claimed more people are going to move to playing, and developing, games for the PC because the monetisation models are more advanced, such as the availability of micro-transactions, free-to-play advertising models and the ability to sell games digitally, direct to the consumer.

Fighting words indeed. I guess the boss of an online gaming network would say that…

Source: blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com

According to Greenpeace Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 all test positive for various hazardous chemicals.

Although the ‘Playing Dirty’ analysis reported that hazardous chemicals and materials were detected in the consoles, it also pointed out that each manufacturer had “avoided or reduced uses of individual hazardous substances in certain materials within their consoles.”

The Group commented “if manufacturers only looked at each other’s products, they’d quickly see ways of replacing their own dirty components with toxic-free materials.”

“A greener, cleaner game console is possible. There’s no excuse for playing dirty.”

Empire Interactive first published the original version of Pipe Mania, developed by The Assembly Line for the Amiga, in 1989. The game was ported to many different platforms by LucasFilm Games including the Commodore 64, Atari ST, Game Boy and NES. It went on to sell over 4 million units sold worldwide, making it one of the most successful puzzle games ever launched.

Pipe Mania will be released on the Nintendo DS, Wii, PSP, PS2 and Xbox Live Arcade this year. It’s simplicity makes it accessible to all ages, lay down a pre-ordained set of pipes on a tiled grid to keep the Flooze moving without spilling it. The new version features expanded game modes, new themes, new play mechanics as well as new pieces to challenge gamers of all ages and skills.

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