Games

Sony's PlayStation 4 is a major step forward for the games industry, according to an Electronic Arts executive.

Speaking yesterday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, EA Chief Technical Officer Rajat Taneja said that the PlayStation 4 has "8 to 10 times the power" of current-generation consoles, making it a "gigantic leap for the industry."

Polygon, a PlayStation news site, attended the event and reported on Taneja's comments.

Sony unveiled its PlayStation 4 last week. The company said the console will offer a gaming experience superior to current-generation devices, thanks to … Read more

The headline on stories regarding a new Harris Poll survey would seem to say it all: "58 percent of adults blame games for violent behavior."

But that doesn't address what those adults are doing about it. Dig into the Harris survey and you'll see the answer is not very clear. About one third of the 2,278 U.S. adults interviewed said they allow their children to play any sort of video game, violent or not. About two in five say they know little or nothing about game ratings, though 66 percent say they do, in … Read more

Five senior members of the Zynga Boston office, which the gaming company closed in October, have picked up the pieces and started anew.

Senior members of the Zynga Boston team announced today that their new mobile-gaming studio, Proletariat, is open for business. To commemorate the launch, the company announced its first title, Letter Rush.

According to Proletariat, Letter Rush will launch next week for the iPhone and iPad. The title will provide arcade-like gameplay on "the classic word-find mechanic." The title will support both single- and multiplayer gaming.

Zynga, which has been going through its fair share of … Read more

A new Harris Poll survey has found that 58 percent of adult Americans believe video games are a contributing factor to violent behavior in teenagers.

In addition, 38 percent of survey respondents said they were unaware of the ratings service provided by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). On top of this, 33 percent of adults queried said they allow their children to play whatever they want.

Harris culled the data from interviews of 2,278 U.S. adults. Venturebeat obtained the results of the independent survey, which Harris ran without funding from outside corporations or interests. … Read more

Nintendo's Wii Mini is on its way to the U.K.

The company announced today that it'll start selling the smaller Wii on March 22. It did not divulge any price details. Nintendo unveiled the Wii Mini last year, and at the time said that the $100 device would be available only in Canada.

The Wii Mini, which is a smaller, redesigned version of Nintendo's original Wii, allows gamers to play over 1,200 Wii titles. However, the console does not support backward compatibility with GameCube games. The original Wii, on the other hand, supports GameCube titles. … Read more

From "Minority Report" to the Kinect, we've been on a tech quest for touchless gesture control that frees us from the shackles of mice and old-style controllers. We want to get in on the action and use movement to command our digital devices.

Myo from Thalmic Labs takes that gesture-control desire and builds it into an armband you wear on your forearm.

The Myo uses a combination of motion sensors and muscle activity sensors to track gestures. When you snap your fingers, wave your hand, or point your finger, it translates that movement into a gesture based on the muscles used. An ARM processor and rechargeable batteries power the armband, which communicates with devices using Bluetooth low energy. … Read more

At long last, the PlayStation 4 is arriving Sort of. It's been announced, but the announcement left fans with a lot of questions, like "How much will it cost?" and "What on earth does it actually look like?"

As sketchy as the details are, you can already hear the sound of gamers saving up bucks to buy the new machine when it comes out, supposedly later this year. We're also hearing some concerns resulting from unanswered questions and the news that the new console won't be natively compatible with all those PlayStation 3 games you already sunk a ton of money into.… Read more

Jimmy Fallon was the first person since Sony's PlayStation event earlier this week to publicly take one of the console's games for a spin.

Sony last night brought the PlayStation 4 to "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," allowing the host to briefly play Killzone: Shadow Fall. His time on the new PlayStation 4 controller -- which was detailed ad nauseam -- was short-lived. One of Fallon's guests also had the chance to play Killzone, but that, too, was a quick experience.

Interestingly, the person from the Killzone team who was playing the title had no … Read more

Sony's portable PlayStation Vita will not get a price cut in the U.S., despite hopes for such a move.

Speaking to reporters today, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said that no price drop is coming for the Vita in the U.S., according to Polygon, which was in attendance at that discussion. Yoshida reportedly told those at the interview that Sony's recently announced decision to cut the price of the Vita in Japan had nothing to do with sales and everything to do with exchange rates.

Sony announced recently that it was cutting the price of … Read more