This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
K'nex — a Lego-like company — had a contest for their Mario Kart Wii-licensed products, and the entry prize was either a Mario or Luigi K'nex piece. If you received a Mario piece in the mail, then you won some sort of prize pack. If your parcel contained Luigi, then that signified that you were a loser. I think this is a sad commentary on the relationship between these brothers.
News Blips:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a first-person shooter for Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade. CS: GO will, according to Valve, “expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched.” It seems that the company is less concerned about competing with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with this game and more focused on bringing the CS experience to a wider audience. As long as the Xbox Live version features evil little bastards screaming racial epithets, I’ll feel right at home. The aforementioned wider audience will get their hands on the game starting at PAX Prime in a few weeks, and the game will launch in early 2012.
Minecraft developer Mojang has crafted the first ever MineCon, and tickets are on sale now. A Minecraft convention in Las Vegas you say? Sounds like big trouble. You’re going to need plenty of video-game advice before this thing is over. As your News Blips guy, I advise you to rent a very fast car with no top, and you better have $99.99 for the ticket. Don’t forget to make time for the seminars, the costume exhibition, and the building contests. You should probably pack some Acapulco shirts and get the hell to Las Vegas for at least 48 hours from November 18-19. This is the indie-game dream in action. We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way to the end.
The retail copy of Battlefield 3 for PC will require the installation of Origin. EA’s new online store is pulling a Steam in that it is forcing players to install the service to play the publisher’s most anticipated game. Fans weren’t happy when Valve tried this with Half-Life 2, and they aren’t happy now that EA is doing the same thing with their latest Battlefield. The difference is that Steam eventually grew into an essential service for PC gamers, and Origin is still best known as the reason some of EA’s most popular games are missing from Valve’s digital-distribution service. In the end, Origin could provide a valuable experience to consumers, but many Battlefield fans see it now as nothing more than an inconvenience. [GamePro]
Retail video-game sales have their worst month since 2006. July 2011 saw a year-over-year decline of 26 percent. NPD analyst Anita Frazier did let some light shine through the storm cloud: Overall game sales for 2011 are only down 4 percent…so it could be worse. While retailers may be suffering from some slow-down, the digital aspect of the market is showing remarkable growth. By the end of the year, digital sales should more than make up for the gap left by retail. It looks like the inevitable march of progress has never been more inevitable.
Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com