Game Circle

Kotaku.com made a post earlier about current generation educational games. With Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America’s vice president of Corporate Affairs; John Koller, director of hardware marketing, SCEA; and XNA General Manager Boyd Multerer.

Do you think educational games are a good fit for your console either via a standard disc title or downloadable title?
Kaigler
The response of consumers to games like Brain Age for Nintendo DS demonstrated to the entire industry that games with an educational theme were viable. Brain Age remains a top seller, which tells us people are hungry for different kinds of entertainment, including those that stimulate your brain. We have already seen Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree for the Wii console. Wii is a good fit for educational games because the pointing and motion-sensing abilities of the Wii Remote controller allow for more dynamic inputs than simply pressing a button.

Koller
Consoles and handhelds can be a great platform for educational games because they leverage advanced technology while providing an interface that’s intuitive to users. Teens and younger children in particular are familiar with how to interact with games on these systems, so whether it’s for entertainment or education, consoles and handhelds are a natural fit. As far as the medium, both disc and downloadable titles would be appropriate.

Multerer
As part of the XNA team, I don't want to speculate as to the overall strategy of the console. What I can tell you is that with Xbox LIVE Community Games, we're opening the floodgates to the community to create any type of game they want to see on Xbox 360, including educational games. What we've seen through programs like Imagine Cup, Dream-Build-Play, Games for Change and the Community Games beta is that developers are interested in making games that are educational and socially responsible, and we're now giving them a forum to do that and reach millions for the first time on any console.

When Xbox LIVE Community Games launches as part of the new Xbox Experience this holiday, we fully expect to see fun titles that span the entire spectrum of gaming. That means we'll see games that intentionally have an educational focus like "City Rain," "Future Flow" and "Clean Up" which were all created by teams of university students to teach concepts of environmental sustainability.

You can read the rest at Kotaku.com.

Wii Fit is more of an exercise program than of a game. it’s rather something that most people would consider playing in short periods a day. A recent poll, however, shows that out of 1000 Japanese gamers 64% are already giving up on the product.

I guess it had it coming! But knowing Japanese people, maybe they have something better in mind?

read more | digg story

McKool Smith, PC today announced that a federal court has upheld a $21 million patent infringement verdict in favor of Anascape against Nintendo of America. Judge Ron Clark of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied Nintendo's motion for a reduced verdict, ruling that the jury's award is supported by the evidence.

The jury had found that various Nintendo controllers, such as the GameCube controller, Wavebird and Wii Remote, infringed Anascape's patents.

"We appreciate the Court's thoughtful consideration in upholding the jury's decision,"

says Doug Cawley, principal at McKool Smith and lead counsel for Anascape.

"Although not a giant corporation like Nintendo, Anascape has every right to protect its technology."

Everyone seems to be on Nintendo's neck these days :( I hope they don't get anymore lawsuits.

A weird bit of news cropped up the other day that revealed how a lawsuit had been filed against Nintendo and then quickly withdrawn. The suit came from Morgan Creek Productions, who claimed Nintendo had used copyrighted music from their 1993 film True Romance a few years back in a commercial for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. So why was the whole lawsuit dropped in a matter of days? Simply put, Nintendo really did have permission to use the music, according a statement from them:

A lawsuit filed by Morgan Creek Productions, Inc. against Nintendo of America was recently dismissed. The lawsuit alleged copyright infringement by Nintendo for its use of the song “You’re So Cool” in a Nintendo GameCube television commercial produced by advertising agency Leo Burnett USA, Inc. In response to the lawsuit, provided Leo Burnett Morgan Creek Productions with a copy of a music license entered into between Leo Burnett USA, on behalf of Nintendo of America and Morgan Creek, for licensing of the song. The lawsuit was dismissed by Morgan Creek Productions the following day.

I guess somebody wasn't doing their work right! Hmm, it'd be safe to assume someone's a$$ is getting fired!

 ~Kotaku