Video

Talk about whistling past the graveyard.

An Australian video game designer has caused a major uproar Down Under with his creation of a game based on the Virginia Tech massacre.

Called V-Tech Rampage, the game has several levels of "stealth and murder," reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

But what really is causing the kerfuffle--as if the game itself wasn't in bad enough taste--is that its designer, Ryan Lambourn, says he will take the game down from his Web site only if the public comes up with a $2,000 payoff.

For another grand, he'll apologize.

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I got to take a sneak peak at a new video broadcasting service that opened its doors to a select few this morning. Mogulus is a live video broadcasting service the likes of uStream.tv, but with a twist: Multiple people can work on live video feeds at the same time. Each user can create their own branded channel, and fill it up with video content either from their hard drives or pulled in from YouTube. Each contributor can also command the broadcast using their Web cam, complete with customizable over-the-shoulder graphic overlays and a scrolling CNN-style news ticker. The result is a live blogging experience that's visually stimulating to the viewer, and completely customizable for the amateur content producer.

Mogulus is giving its producers two ways to share content--either embedding the live feed, or linking to their own custom URL. All public channels go into a listing for live feeds a la Kyte.tv, so casual users looking to tune into things that are live or interesting will be able to browse through and find something they like.

Managing broadcasts in Mogulus is handled completely inside of a Flash-based application. Content is clumped together in small management units called "storyboards," which can be inserted into any broadcast almost like video playlists. Producers queue up content, mix and match the order of video clips, and can break in at any time to broadcast live from their Web cam. Power users have a lot to play with, as it actually feels like a professional video-editing app with a ton of options for tweaking and fine-tuning.

Mogulus plans to roll out its service with two models, one free and one paid. The free version requires inserting a short advertisement for every 10 minutes of broadcasting, while the pro version lets producers go ad-free in exchange for paying a fee for every gigabyte of bandwidth transferred. My hunch is that many casual users will be OK with the advertisement model, with what Mogulus is tentatively planning to keep at around 10 seconds per ad.

More on Mogulus as it leaves private beta. Until then you can sign up and check out an explanatory video here. More screenshots of the interface after the jump.

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Nintendo is giving fanboy filmmakers a chance to shine, with its Short Cuts Showcase contest. Grab a camcorder (or animation software) and produce a Nintendo-themed video, then submit it to the contest site by June 6. The three best videos will be screened at Rockefeller Center's film showcase, June 19-22. The creator of the top-rated video will receive $10,000 and a trip to New York City for the screening, a meeting Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Haktoff, plus a Nintendo Wii, a DS Lite, and games for both systems. The second and third place winners will get a … Read more

MySpace will soon launch more than a dozen branded video channels, featuring content from big names like the National Geographic group, The New York Times, and Reuters. Users will be able to access the video content on branded content microsites similar to YouTube's partner channels with the BBC, NBC, and CBS. MySpace is allowing content providers to customize their content interface, with special backgrounds and color schemes. Expect something similar to Trailer Park, which MySpace launched last month.

The new service will tie in to MySpace's current videos platform, although there's no word yet on whether or … Read more

Matt Mullenweg is officially the CEO of Automattic. Please note the double "t"--as in "Matt." But he's really the guy who brought WordPress to the world and oxygen to the blogosphere.

You can see the first half of this Webware interview here. Matt explains why WordPress is open source but his antispam kismet isn't. He discloses the catalytic role his mother played in his software development. And he talks about blogging in places where the government is out to get you. The second part of the interview will be available online soon.

CBS figures if they can't get Web viewers to come to them, they'll go to the viewers.

The network is preparing a new strategy for online video that involves syndicating content across as many as 10 different Web sites ranging from Time Warner Inc.'s AOL to Joost, The Wall Street Journal reported.

That's a big shift from its earlier strategy of posting everything to its own Web site and hoping viewers would head there. CBS executives now say that that plan was "arrogant," with one telling the paper "We can't expect consumers … Read more

TechCrunch is reporting that Jossip is reporting (in other words, it's still a rumor) that the web video show Wallstrip has been acquired by CBS News for $5 million.

According to Jossip, which says that an official announcement will likely come from CBS on Monday, "part of the deal involves host Lindsay Campbell being the next Amanda Congdon: frontin' for CBS' web initiatives." Congdon, former host of the video blog Rocketboom, now works as a correspondent for ABC News. If the CBS News acquisition rumor is true, however, it'd be a different scenario; Congdon resigned from … Read more

With the popularity of YouTube, the ubiquity of fast broadband connections and the fact that many people are watching TV programming on their computers, it's clear that online video advertising is getting hot. One of the latest companies to emerge in this space is Adap.tv, a start-up based in San Mateo, Calif., founded by Amir Ashkenazi, the co-founder of Shopping.com (which was purchased by eBay in 2005).

On Monday, the company is launching its service, which analyzes the content of video clips and displays ads--text links on top of the video near the bottom--in real-time. For instance, … Read more

For fans of the hit Halo video game franchise, San Francisco is the place to be Friday. That's because Microsoft is hosting a hands-on press event where invitees will be able to play the game (click here for screenshots) for the first time.

Microsoft said it wouldn't be making any announcements at the event, but those in attendance will have a chance to get an advance look at the game before the company opens up its beta on May 16.