Video Games Live adding smaller venues in 2012, help bring it to your town

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 20th 2012 5:00PM

Video Games Live will celebrate nearly a decade of success in 2012 by heading "off the grid" and hitting up smaller venues and towns across the globe.

"We continually receive thousands of emails a year from families and gamers who would love to experience our show, but find it hard to travel to major cities and have to deal with travel expenses, overnight stays, getting the kids out of school, etc. and we would like to try to accommodate as many people as possible to share in the experience," said Video Games Live creator and executive producer Tommy Tallarico.

That accommodation starts on the VGL site by signing up for the Video Games Live Mailing List (it's along the right column) and noting your city/state/country details. The top 10 cities with the most sign-ups will be announced next month and added to the 2012/2013 tour.

We contacted Tallarico to make sure there wasn't some regional restriction in the fine print on where the show would travel. He replied, "It's for the entire world!"

Also, audience members in those 10 locations will receive a free poster, program and Video Games Live album. So, get signed up with your Hotmail account you haven't used since 2007 and get VGL to your town! Also, bonus points to the tiny village in Venezuela that gets the orchestra to show up. VIDEO GAMES LIVE: "OFF THE GRID" TOUR - COMING TO A SMALL TOWN NEAR YOU!

"Help Bring Video Games Live to Your Area" Contest!

MARCH 19, 2012 – LOS ANGELES, CA - Since its first performance to over 11,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, Video Games Live has been breaking attendance records and selling out shows in major metropolitan cities around the world for over 7 years. And to help celebrate 2012 as being its 10th year in business, Video Games Live wants to travel "off the grid" and will be performing shows not only in the big city arenas, theatres and stadiums throughout the world... but to other smaller venues and towns as well.

Video Games Live Creator/Executive Producer and famed video game composer Tommy Tallarico explains, "We continually receive thousands of e-mails a year from families and gamers who would love to experience our show, but find it hard to travel to major cities and have to deal with travel expenses, overnight stays, getting the kids out of school, etc. and we would like to try to accommodate as many people as possible to share in the experience." He goes on to say that, "Our goal from the beginning has always been to show the world how culturally significant and artistic video games have become. I wanted to create a show for everyone whether you're a gamer or not. We always keep our ticket prices as low as possible so everyone can come out and experience what we have to offer... in some locations this year due to certain sponsorships the ticket prices are as low as $5 each!"

By performing in both large city theatres/arenas as well as small towns, Video Games Live will increase its yearly touring number which is already between 40 and 50 performances a year. There will be little to no change in the actual show experience except for the fact that the stages and screens may be slightly smaller to accommodate the smaller town venues. Tommy proclaims "We LOVE playing some of the older and classic theatres because it's a much more up close and personal experience. You can really feel and hear every word from the crowd. It works GREAT for our show and the way we always include the audience interactively."

In order to start planning the smaller area performances for the 2012/2013 season Video Games Live is asking for help from the fans. Sign up to the Video Games Live Mailing List at www.videogameslive.com and make sure to include city/state/country information along with the games you would like to hear (which will be used to create the setlist for that show). Or simply e-mail your information to info@videogameslive.com. A list of the top 10 cities will be released next month and will be added to the 2012/2013 tour. Each audience member of the 10 cities chosen will receive a free poster, program and Video Games Live album download when they attend the show.

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Nielsen: Streaming usage on consoles is up, adding to total console usage

by Mike Schramm on Dec 15th 2011 1:00PM

Nielsen reports that usage of video streaming services like Hulu and Netflix on video game consoles has risen strongly over the last year. Xbox users stream video about 14 percent of the time on their consoles, PS3 users stream 15 percent of the time, and Wii users spend 33 percent of their time watching streaming video. As you can see in the chart above, that's a sizable gain all around from the 2010 figures.

Additionally, time spent on all of these consoles is generally up from year to year, which Nielsen says suggests is adding to the time users spending with their consoles (rather than taking away from time spent gaming online or doing other things). There are a few likely reasons for that: All of the consoles have increased their libraries and streaming selections over the past year, the apps that run this streaming video have been updated for access and usability, and web connections continue to get better as broadband access becomes even more prevalent.

Nielsen promises a full writeup of consumer entertainment choices and time spent in the full 2011 report, due out early next year.

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EA Sports opening up shop in Austin; EA adding 300 jobs across Sports, Games, and more [update]

by JC Fletcher on Jul 18th 2011 1:09PM

We first heard inklings of this deal last month, but it's as official as can be now, having just been proclaimed by EA execs and Texas governor Rick Perry at EA's BioWare Austin campus: Electronic Arts is establishing a new EA Sports operation in Austin, TX.

"We're going to be adding 300 jobs to our operations here in Austin," EA's Frank Gibeau said -- half full-time, half contract. EA Sports COO Daryl Holt revealed that it will build a new team in Austin to support the teams in Florida and British Columbia, focusing on HD platforms and then expanding to "emerging" markets. The announcement was highlighted by a video of a Texas A&M-uniformed Rick Perry in NCAA Football 2012.

Update: The 300 jobs aren't entirely focused on EA Sports. EA Games president Frank Gibeau told me that the jobs would be distributed between EA Sports, EA Games, as well as IT and finance -- with EA Sports being the only new department to move into the two EA buildings currently occupied by BioWare.

EA Sports COO Daryl Holt told Joystiq "I think we'll probably start this first year somewhere around 30-35, just to get the team up and moving, just so they can start building features and working on HD platform development." He said the team could grow "exponentially, however we want," into new IP and "live services." EA has yet to decide which franchises to put the new Austin team onto.

"We're not going to disrupt what's currently going on," Holt said of the existing studios in Tiburon and Burnaby. "Orlando's expanding, Burnaby's expanding, EA's growing," he said, and moving into the sports-happy state of Texas is part of that growth. It will "absolutely not" replace any of the existing studios, which will "remain core to us." "They're growing as well," Holt clarified. "There's job openings and job postings in Florida in Vancouver."

Right now, the growth in Austin is open-ended, "but it's not something that's going to be open-ended while we recruit the team, because we want to recruit the right talent."

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PEGI defends We Dare rating, Ubisoft adding parental warning sticker

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 7th 2011 1:10PM

The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) rating board is defending its "PEGI 12" rating for the controversial We Dare, stating that the board considers the content of the game for a rating, not the context. Cubed3 has the organization's statement, which notes the game was rated PEGI 12 because "it contains mild swearing, minor assault on a human-like character and words/activities that amount to obvious sexual innuendo, explicit sexual descriptions or images and sexual posturing."

Ubisoft reiterated that the game is "intended for mature audiences," as evidenced by the game's ad campaign. The company also plans to add a "Parental Discretion Advised" sticker to the box, advising parents of the "potential sensitive nature of the game content." If you've got kids, best to keep this game in the locked nightstand drawer with the other... unmentionables.

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Adding new mii on seperate wii games

Adding new mii on seperate wii games I am elderly so please be patient..I am trying to add other mii people to my wii game so we can play the same game. I have the mii people in my parade but cannot figure out how to get the new mii figure/people able to participate in playing the games with me. I would appreciate any help and thank you.

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Adding new mii on seperate wii games

Adding new mii on seperate wii games I am elderly so please be patient..I am trying to add other mii people to my wii game so we can play the same game. I have the mii people in my parade but cannot figure out how to get the new mii figure/people able to participate in playing the games with me. I would appreciate any help and thank you.

View the original article here

Adding new mii on seperate wii games

Adding new mii on seperate wii games I am elderly so please be patient..I am trying to add other mii people to my wii game so we can play the same game. I have the mii people in my parade but cannot figure out how to get the new mii figure/people able to participate in playing the games with me. I would appreciate any help and thank you.

View the original article here