Games and entertainment

Zynga puts PetVille and more out to pasture

Say goodbye to PetVille, FishFille, Mafia Wars 2, and a slew of other games from the folks at Zynga.

The video game studio has reluctantly pulled the plug on 11 of its gaming titles, as detailed by blog site TechCrunch.

The list of casualities encompass some of the company's most popular games, most of which were playable online through Facebook and a few that were available as iOS or Android apps.

PetVille - Shut down as of yesterday. Mafia Wars 2 - Shut down to new players as of yesterday. FishVille - Shut down December 5th. Vampire Wars - … Read more

Ouya game consoles now on their way to developers

Developers who ordered an Ouya game console should soon find one in front of their doors.

The folks at Oyua confirmed today that 1,200 developer consoles have been shipped and should reach eager buyers in the next few days.

Created this past year, Ouya is an attempt to bring gaming back to your TV. Designed to hook up to your television, the Ouya console plans to be home to a platform of Android-based games built by interested developers.

The console itself is the brainchild of Julie Uhrman, a video game industry veteran who wanted to lay the groundwork for … Read more

Hulu chief asks bosses for $200M in funding -- WSJ

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has asked his corporate overlords for twice as much cash as last year to fund the company's growth strategy, a new report claims.

Kilar has petitioned Hulu owners Walt Disney, Comcast, and News Corp. for $200 million for 2013 to be used for acquiring more programming and expanding the company's reach around the world, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the talks. Last year, Kilar asked for about half of that figure.

According to the Journal's sources, a decision hasn't been made yet … Read more

New York A.G. removes 2,100 sex offenders from online games

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been able to remove more than 2,100 registered sex offenders from popular online games, his office announced today.

The registered sex offenders have been kicked out of a host of games from developers Gaia Online, NCSoft, and THQ, among others, as part of the attorney general's Operation: Game Over, an initiative designed to remove registered sex offenders from video games that might have children playing them.

"The Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century, and we must ensure that online video game platforms do not become a digital … Read more

YouTube looks back at 2012 with eye on Sandy, Syria

YouTube has revealed which news stories riveted the video-watching masses during 2012.

As part of its year in review, YouTube noted that Superstorm Sandy was a popular, if sobering, topic on the site this year, with 39,000 hurricane-related videos showing up on the video site in just one week. A video of an exploding substation caused by the storm topped 4 million views in just 24 hours.

Moving to the U.S. presidential election, YouTube revealed that videos tagged "Obama" or "Romney" were viewed 2.7 billion times and that the candidates' debates nabbed 27 … Read more

Yahoo, Jack Black's production firm ink deal on new Web series

Yahoo Screen is getting a new Web series in the spring.

Electric Dynamite Productions, a production company owned by actor Jack Black, has inked a deal with Shine America to deliver a Web-based comedy series named "Ghost Ghirls" to Yahoo Screen, the companies announced today. Shine America is best known as the production company behind popular shows, "The Biggest Loser" and MasterChef," among several others.

Yahoo Screen is the online company's Web-based video portal. The company offers online videos from third parties, as well as original comedy programming, like "Burning Love" and &… Read more

Sony begins testing online Entertainment Network Store

Sony has started testing a new online marketplace to buy games, movies, and television shows.

The Sony Entertainment Network Store popped up on the Web today and was discovered by Eurogamer. For now, the marketplace appears to only be available to customers outside the U.S. When folks go to the site and choose a country and language, a U.S. option is not available.

Sony has not formally announced the marketplace, but in a comment on a blog posted to the EU PlayStation site, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe blog manager Fred Dutton said the company is "testing a … Read more

Apple's streaming music service could debut in 2013 -- analyst

Apple could soon take on Pandora and Spotify directly, market-research firm BTIG Research writes in a new report.

The firm today predicts that Apple will launch a streaming-music service at some point in 2013. The research outfit, which says that it came to the conclusion after holding interviews with industry executives, said Apple's iTunes 11 launch yesterday is only further proof the service is coming.

BTIG pointed to the addition of a "Radio" option in the horizontal bar in iTunes 11, saying that while the current offering of stations "is unappealing to most consumers today, we … Read more

Zynga shares down 6 percent after Facebook deal amendment

Zynga, the embattled social-gaming company, has watched its shares fall as investors get the first chance to react to a modified contract the company signed with Facebook.

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, the amended agreement between the companies no longer requires Zynga to display Facebook ads on its site, use Facebook Credits, or develop titles only for the social network's platform. In exchange, Zynga won't be allowed to promote its games inside other titles it has developed that people are playing on the social network.

The news was apparently bad news for … Read more