Hasta La Gadget!

Just in time for the holiday season, GameStop is launching 80 new stores that will be focused only on games for young kids. The franchise is calling the stores GameStop Kids, and all 80 locations are expected to be open by November 15. The first store opens today at the Grapevine Mills Mall in Grapevine, TX.

Obviously, buying gifts for kids is big business during Christmas time, and GameStop is taking full advantage of that with its GameStop Kids stores by featuring E-rated games, as well as a bevy of game-related toys, accessories and collectibles. It’s a perfect store for parents to browse without having to take the effort to skip all of the M-rated titles.

GameStop CEO Paul Raines says that the company’s new kid-centric stores are “really a way for [them] to take share away from people who are in the toy business and have an expanded assortment, and show people how to drive kids to new experiences, new products or an expanded assortment of existing products like Skylanders and Angry Birds.”

Other than Skylanders and Angry Birds, GameStop Kids will feature games and items from Minecraft and Star Wars, but the company didn’t mention any other titles. However, we’re assuming most E-rated games that they already feature in their stores will be available in GameStop Kids locations, as well as an overall improved selection of kids games over GameStop’s current stores.

[via Dallas Business Journal]

GameStop to launch new GameStop Kids stores is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s been several months since we were told that a new SimCity game would be on its way. Back in March, EA and Maxis announced that a SimCity reboot would be heading to gamers in 2013, but after numerous teasers and a 9-minute-long walkthrough video, it’s confirmed that the game will launch on March 5 in the US and three days later across the pond.

Originally we were told that the game would get a February release window, so it seems that its been delayed slightly, but an early March release shouldn’t be anything to complain about. The announcement came from SimCity’s official Twitter account, where they mentioned all “mayors” to mark their calendars for March 5, and for March 8 for Europeans.

SimCity will be running in the new Glassbox engine, which Maxis built in-house to give the game more realistic simulations thanks to micro-level AI for all objects in the game, big and small. EA hasn’t announced any pricing details yet, but the game will be available through EA’s Origin service and through traditional DVD format for both Mac and PC.

The last we looked at the gameplay of SimCity was earlier this month when Maxis posted up a 9-minute video demonstrating the game’s graphics and features. To say the least, we were stunned by the detail of the game, and the graphics were extremely lifelike. Gameplay itself is similar to past SimCity titles, so most gamers shouldn’t have a problem getting back into the SimCity groove.

[via Eurogamer]

SimCity arriving March 5 in US, March 8 in Europe is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There are keyboards, and then there are Mad Catz keyboards… and now, the company’s constructed a new pro peripheral to rest your wrists on — the S.T.R.I.K.E. 5. Just like the other mission control center we saw a few months ago, it features a modular design allowing various layouts, high-performance keys with customized backlighting, and 21 programmable macro buttons. The main difference here is the touchscreen component of the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 has been substituted for the “E.Y.E. OLED Command Module,” which is used for easy access to keyboard functions, quick-launch triggers, and can display respawn timers for coordinating those second-specific attacks. Cash-strapped pros will be pleased to hear the S.T.R.I.K.E. 5 is cheaper than its predecessor, and you can head to the source link to sacrifice $200 on a pre-order now. Mad Catz won’t tell us what alien race is supplying the keyboards, nor an exact shipping date — all we know is that they’re expected “very soon.”

Continue reading Mad Catz announces the S.T.R.I.K.E. 5 keyboard for pro gamers, pre-order now for $200

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Mad Catz announces the S.T.R.I.K.E. 5 keyboard for pro gamers, pre-order now for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While a lot of people may think that social gaming is slowly dying away, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello thinks the contrary. He says that social gaming isn’t dying, but rather evolving. Riccitiello was more specific in his answer, stating that the concept of social gaming is overhyped, but the speculation that it’s dying is exaggerated.

EA’s CEO spoke today at App Conference in San Jose, CA and brought up some of the issues of social gaming. He mentioned that big social-gaming companies like Zynga weren’t as great as they were made out to be a while ago, but it’s really not as bad now as people are saying. Riccitiello said that “the companies that are now suffering will have another day.”

Here’s where it gets a little bit interesting. Riccitiello brought up what makes a social game great, and it’s not the social aspect of it as much as it is just offering a truly solid experience. Gamers will turn their heads to social games that focus mostly just on viral marketing that involves spamming your friends with different game requests. To this, Riccitiello mentioned that “consumers won’t pay for crap.”

Riccitiello also noted that not all social games are bad, and many of them actually focus on user experience over viral marketing. He mentioned Dragonvale as one example, and of course EA’s own Tapped Out, which is based on The Simpsons cartoon. These games prove that free-to-play social games don’t have to be basic experiences.

[via AllThingsD]

EA CEO says social gaming isn’t dying is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve been with T-Mobile or AT&T in the past and miss your ability to add Google Play purchases to your carrier bill each month now that you’re on Verizon, you’ll be glad to know that they’ll be joining the party too quite soon. A confirmation of this update to the Google Play store as well as Verizon’s connection to it has come through today via Google Play’s official twitter account, complete with a date range for the roll out. If you’re on Verizon you’ll be able to add digital purchases to your normal carrier bill starting soon – within the next few weeks, in fact!

The notification lets us know that Google play will be adding Verizon to their roster of digital billing connections with apps, music, “and more” quite soon. We’re not sure at the moment if this means that books and movies / TV shows are off the table at the moment – more likely it’s just due to the 140 character limit on a Tweet with the other two categories simply implied.

According to a leak discovered by Droid Life, there may be a $25 USD a month limit to your carrier billing when the program launches. This amount may go up as Verizon decides whether or not customers are in danger of spending their whole life’s savings each week – as is the situation when you’ve got downloads that very much appear to be free, but certainly are not. This update will have all four of the top carriers in the USA added to the carrier billing roster.

Have a peek at the timeline below of other recent updates to the Google Play universe. Google is intending on keeping up with the rest of the digital universe with sales of books, magazines, TV shows, movies, music, apps, and games for some time into the future. Keep your eyes peeled for more additions to the way you can keep up with Google’s stores, too!

Verizon carrier billing coming to Google Play is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.