Blizzard Cuts Jobs

Blizzard has a lot going on this year, developing Diablo III, Starcraft II, and the new WoW expansion.  However, Blizzard announced today about 600 employees will be cut. Despite these cuts, upcoming releases are not expected to be impacted.  “The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development.”  These cuts won�... more.

When I first heard that Syndicate was being remade into a first person shooter this year, my heart sunk into my stomach. Why would someone want to take a hatchet to this classic original title? Fans of the original Bullfrog Productions isometric style game will be surely disappointed to hear that the remake has very little of the unique style of gameplay which so attracted hordes of gamers in t... more.

It happened today, on the way back from a career fair…a thought flashed across my mind, leaving me to wonder the enormity of the future of games and how the industry’s future will shape into something so much larger than analysts can currently predict. The career fair was filled “green” organizations.  In fact, some were there just to promote an idea – their company’s mission for b... more.

If you keep up with gaming news, you know by now that BlizzCon 2012 was cancelled.  Blizzard attributes the cancellation to a lack of announcements/demos for 2012 and to dedicating work on upcoming games (Diablo III, new expansion for Warcraft, and Starcraft II).  Tens of thousands of fans journey out yearly to BlizzCon in Anaheim, California, paying $175 for entrance plus a truckload on fan pro... more.

In the intro of my second article for KitGuru, I wrote: Every kid (even those aged 40+) wants to build new, unique worlds where they can let their imaginations go wild.  Don’t you remember the days of building forts out of couch cushions, empires out of LEGO’s?  This free play experience has been loosely emulated in games like Age of Empires and The Sims, building up your empire and resource... more.

Newspapers, critics, and scientists can never seem to make up their minds about video games.  Do video games cause obesity, or can they have a positive impact on your health and the health of the elderly? Do video games promote or in fact prevent violent behavior? Is there any educational merit among video games for children, or are they harmful for child development?  As video games are shiftin... more.

I hesitate to post this article since there are already so many horrible stereotypes about Americans, and this piece of news reaches an entirely new level of insanity.  Before long, a new spin will be put on social gaming…The Pentagon itself is spending massive amounts of money ($32 million!) for universities, researchers, and game companies to develop games for casual players to test US weapon... more.

Yes, you read the title correctly.  There are indeed video games that improve mental health for the older generation.  So get out the pocketbook and start buying video games for your grandparents! The study was done by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine to determine the impact of interactive exercise games.  Turns out these games improve brain function, protecting from cognitive imp... more.

I know the title of this article may seem farfetched.  For years, videogames have received enormous criticism for being too violent and resulting in increased violence among gamers.  Swarms of articles questioned the effects of video games.  Concerned parents closely followed research attributing gaming to violence.  Could the stigma against video games finally be reaching an end? A vas... more.

People and their world records.  Can you imagine forgoing sleep to play a video game for over 70 hours straight?!!  George Leutz is currently in the midst of attempting to beat a 28-year-old world record for Q*Bert and is already over 24 hours into the challenge.  It is his third attempt so far. George Leutz is playing Q*Bert at Richie Knucklez’ arcade in Flemington, New Jersey.  You can ... more.