Project Natal’s killer app may not be a videogame, Naughty Dog co-founder and current social game startup Monkey Gods’ Chief Monkey Jason Rubin believes. It’s more about the interface, he says, and how it works into the rest of our living room setup.

“Things like Natal are going to revolutionize far more than gaming. I think putting Natal in the Xbox gives the Xbox an opportunity to become a lot more than just a game machine and I think there are things you can do outside of gaming that will justify buying the Natal. I firmly believe that if Microsoft plays its cards right that they could sell far more Xboxes next generation … they could sell it to people that don’t play ,” Rubin said on the latest episode of Bonus Round.

“The amazing thing about Natal is that never before has a piece of hardware hooked up to your television been able to recognize you and who you are, had information about you and what you like, and been able to hear your voice and understand your voice.

“And the capabilities that come out of that I believe go far beyond and that the killer app for it — and all these things need something that catches people’s attention — surprisingly, we may find out that it’s not specifically a game. It’s not whacking balls against the wall. It will be the interface and what it allows you to do to all the other things hooked up to your tv.

“I’m a firm believer now, after playing around with Natal, that Natal and things like it are going to revolutionize our den.

“Once you have that interface and the ability to hook this up to your den, Natal will give you reasons to love it that aren’t . Not calling as bad, will be good too, but the killer app may not be a game.”

Former DICE CEO Fredrik Liljegren voiced some strong opinions regarding the Wii in a recent interview with Gaming Union. When asked, Liljegren stated he would only develop a game for the Wii if he believed the game would be “an absolute home run.”

“Because the Wii, to me, I would describe it as a Virus, that doesn’t stick…,” he said of Nintendo’s flagship system. “The people that only own the Wii, ask that consumer how often they use their machine. They just don’t use it, it was cool, but they’re not gamers, so they put it away.”

Liljegren, who was also one of DICE’s co-founders, also called the Wii a “toy” and something that is not a dedicated entertainment device. Clearly, the man thinks of the Wii as little more than a novelty, a viewpoint held by many of the hardcore gaming community.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
One editor nearly finds his own “game over” screen, but games bring him back.

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PopCap’s Plant vs Zombies has become the highest grossing launch on iPhone and iPod Touch to date, having sold over 300,000 units in its first nine days on sale.

Selling at $2.99, the PC game adaptation grossed over $1 million during its opening week and a half. It went to number one in the App Store chart within 24 hours, remaining there until yeserday.

“Plants vs Zombies is our latest major franchise to make the jump to iPhone, and from the early customer and critical feedback it appears to be a great adaptation of the game,” said Andrew Stein, director of mobile business development at PopCap.

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Videogame consoles should be sold with parental controls switched on in an effort to curb exposure to the sexualisation of young people and violent content, according to a new report published today by the Home Office.

The Sexualisation of Young People Review, by Dr Linda Papadopoulos, was commissioned last year by Jacqui Smith, the then home secretary, as part of the Home Office’s plans to address violence against women and girls.

The report looked at video, music videos, social networks, magazines and other media, and suggested that as well as tighter restrictions to access content, corporations and the reporting media have a duty to act responsibly to reduce young people’s exposure to sexual and violent media.

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Former developers from Sony and SEGA have combined to create a new studio in California called Judobaby.

The studio’s first title – a family game for the Wii – has been in stealth development for a year, and the fledgling company has said that work on it is now nearing completion.

Judobaby’s management team is comprised of president and CEO Dan Mueller, a 15-year industry veteran formerly of Sony, who has worked on The Mark of Kri and ATV: Off Road Fury, among other titles; and CTO Richard Anderson, also formerly of Sony and also SEGA.

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EA is to expand its Salt Lake City development team with former members of EA Redwood Shores’ Sims Studio.

An unspecified number of Sims Studio employees will make the move, reports Gamasutra. A statement from EA said the company was still looking to fill various “critical leadership” positions.

“We’re truly thrilled to expand into Salt Lake City and what is becoming a growing and dynamic videogame development scene,” said Ben Bell, former executive producer on The Sims 3, who is one of the EA employees set to move to the Utah studio.

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High Street retailer GAME has confirmed that it is to close 43 stores at the cost of 247 jobs in the UK.

The company will shut 12 GAME stores, six tation businesses and all 25 concessions in Debenhams stores. Sales over the Christmas period were down 18 per cent, and the firm announced last month that further consolidation would but 80 jobs in the tation business at risk.

“The majority of the identified sites are located close to another one of our stores, and we will help each customer affected by a closure to transfer to their nearest store as well as our online offerings,” said GAME in a statement to Industry.biz.

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If the strength of feeling displayed on forums and websites is a good measure of consumer sentiment (and I’m not implying even for a second that it actually is), Nintendo is a company in gamers’ black books right now. The stunning success of the Wii and the DS in reaching out to new audiences who have never played before is viewed in the Internet’s darkest corners as a betrayal of core gamers, an abandonment of traditional to be replaced with brightly-coloured, “waggle controlled” abominations.

The reality, of course, is somewhat different. Only this week, Nintendo announced dates for a line-up of Wii titles which should please any long-term fan of the company’s output – Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M and Sin & Punishment 2 being key highlights for the hardcore audience. Many of the top sellers on the console are which appeal broadly to upstream and downstream gamers alike – Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros, Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Galaxy all appear in the console’s top ten.

Viewed dispassionately, it’s hard to see the Wii as the scourge which angry gamers claim it to be. It’s unlikely to be the only console that an upstream gamer owns – but as a second machine, sitting alongside an Xbox 360 or a PS3, it’s absolutely ideal, while for more casual gamers, young families and so on, it’s the ideal machine to sit alone under their TV. Hence, presumably, the machine’s sales – which remain almost as high as the 360 and PS3 combined, and almost 20 million units higher than the mighty PS2 was at the same point in its lifespan.

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EVE Online developer CCP has confirmed to Industry.biz that it has opened a new studio in Newcastle, UK.

The company is currently recruiting for a number of positions in Gateshead, with some engineer roles specifically looking for console experience. The outfit will work on “current and future” console projects, according to CCP.

Although best-known for massively multiplayer game EVE Online, the developer is also working on its first console project, EVE spin-off DUST 514, a first-person multiplayer shooter.

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