Blog Posts by Chris Morris

PSP Go - Sony [Note: this is an update to an earlier article.]

The PSP Go is PSP Gone.

After a flurry of rumors Tuesday, Sony has confirmed that the PSP Go's life is coming to an end. The company plans to stop production of the handheld device that relies solely on downloadable content, opting instead to focus on the upcoming NGP - Next Generation Portable.

Sony Computer Entertainment, in a statement to the Japanese website AV Watch, confirmed whispers that it was ceasing production of the PSP Go. The company will continue to sell its remaining inventory, but once those are gone, the system will disappear. They've even slapped 'shipment ended' tags on PSP Go hardware at the official Sony Playstation

Trouble brewing for Madden It's too early to know whether the infamous Madden Curse will hit this year's cover athlete, but if the wave of recent troubles related to the football franchise is any indication, the hex might be working its mojo on Electronic Arts itself.

Already concerned with how the seemingly unavoidable lockout of the real NFL season will affect sales of the upcoming Madden 12, the company has seen a number of key personnel depart Madden maker EA Tiburon in the past few days, which raises some questions about what fans can expect in 2013.

Ian Cummings, creative director of the Madden series, announced his departure via a recent blog post, ending an 11-year tenure with the company.

In the post, he

World’s biggest Pac-Man underway

Most of the time, Pac-Man is limited to a strict diet of 240 dots per level -- but this is the era of supersizing. And the little yellow guy is going on a high-calorie diet.

Namco-Bandai and Microsoft, along with Soap Creative, have released a new, free-to-play version of the arcade classic that links hundreds of user-created mazes together, effectively creating the world's largest game of
Pac-Man.

The idea's pretty simple. In the original Pac-Man, escaping through one of the side tunnels warped you to the other side of the screen, which often gave you breathing room to escape from Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. In the new version, using one of those tunnels
takes you to an entirely

The Original Wii Prototype The Wii has never been the workhorse console of this generation.

To keep it affordable and attractive to a mass market audience, Nintendo eschewed high definition graphics and, for the most part,
online play when it was introduced. Five years later, though, it's showing its age. And if online reports are to be believed, the company is ready to pull the curtain back on its next console system.

While several outlets have speculated about a new console from Nintendo, Game Informer (which is owned by retail king GameStop) reported Thursday that multiple sources have confirmed Nintendo plans to announce its Wii successor at the E3 game convention in June, if not before.

The system, which may

A Solid Start The launch of the 3DS was a certifiable hit -- but not a grand slam.

According to data released by sales tracking group NPD, the first-week sales of Nintendo's new handheld system beat out the first-week sales of its predecessor, the DS, thanks to a price tag that was $100 higher. Unfortunately, that price tag also might have kept some from buying it: just under 400,000 3DS units were sold in its first week, about 100,000 units short of the original DS when it launched in November of 2004.

The 3DS did motivate shoppers to buy more software than they did at the DS launch, with Capcom's Super Street Fighter IV 3D leading the pack. But that sales achievement was dwarfed by a pair of DS

Link to the 3D Rescue Nintendo is pulling out a couple of big guns in the second quarter to boost its bottom line.

After months of hedging, the company has at last firmed up a launch date for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. The eagerly anticipated 3DS remake of the classic title -- still considered among the best of all time -- will hit store shelves on June 19.

Not to be left out, Wii owners will finally see a new big first-party game for the system on June 13 with Wii Play: Motion, a sequel to the sixth best selling game in the
industry's history.

Wii Play, like Wii Sports and several other successful titles for the system, is a collection of mini-games (12 this time) geared for casual players.

Tiger Masters the Game The latest version of Electronic Arts' annual Tiger Woods franchise downplays the golf superstar in a big way. As it turns out, those
changes might have earned the publisher a hole in one.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters has proven to be the
fastest moving in the series' history. EA says the game -- the 14th installment
in the long-running golf sim -- sold 225,000 copies in its first week.

That new bar comes despite the fact that Tiger's face is nowhere to be seen on this year's box -- and branding for The Masters far overshadows any mention of his name.

This is the first year Tiger has not explicitly fronted his own game, but EA has said
previously that players should not insinuate

World of Warcraft - Blizzard What's better: Reality or fantasy? A growing movement argues that the correct answer is "both."

The concept is called "gamification," a fairly
dorky term that basically means using gameplay techniques to make everyday
activities more fun -- which, in turn, boosts people's motivation for getting things done.

And, whether you realize it or not, you may already be a convert.

Like to check in on FourSquare? Unlocked any achievements on
Facebook? Have you ever found yourself obsessively refreshing Groupon, hoping
enough people sign up for a deal to make it live? Congratulations: You've been
gamified.

The idea of gamification has been around forever. Parents
have been incentivizing children to