In a move that is sure to disappoint many sports gamers, EA and the NFL have agreed to extend their exclusive deal to make NFL licensed games till 2012. EA’s Peter Moore assures gamedaily that it was the NFL who sought this deal, not EA.

The NFL lives in a world where it feels above the common ideals of competition and innovation. As a monopoly itself, it is exempt from many of the rules and regulations that the rest of corporate America must adhere to with congressional oversight supposedly keeping it in line. Somewhere in all of this, however, the NFL decided that having competition in the video game market, where several publishers would have to seriously innovate in order to succeed, was less important than raking in a huge amount of cash up front.

In the end, the consumer pays the price for these actions. The NFL and EA both get paid, while the sports fan consumer is relegated to pay $60 for what ends up being a roster refresh. Without innovation, the Madden franchise has stagnated, and true sports fans are stuck.

Thanksgiving’s over, and you know what that means: Christmas has started! Well, it feels that way, anyway… it’s a bit odd how much power Big Marketing has over the seasons.

Regardless, it’s never too early to start being awesome. This year’s Child’s Play has begun! For those who don’t know (and really, for shame) Child’s play is a Charity started by those fabulous Penny Arcade gents back in 2003.

In short, several hospital across several countries have wish lists set up through Amazon.com. You, the awesome gamer, by a game or toy from this list, and then, through the magic of post, is whisked to the hospital you chose, where it is then available for the children. In general, games and systems are available for use by everyone, whereas toys are often given to a child to keep. How awesome? So awesome!

So please, if you can, do your part! Let’s show God and karma and Jack Thompson what we’re really made of!

Apparently the good folks over at IBM have patented a method in which movie rentals can be made cheaper by inserting 2-3 unskippable commercials into the disc. Now.. inform me if I’m wrong but isn’t the reason for buying or renting movies at home to watch them uninterrupted? So for a buck or two less you can have your movie but be subjected to interruptions by advertisements for products we could care less about. It stinks, I think it’s terrible idea as I myself find myself wanted to chew on glass trying to watch a movie on Sci-Fi channel where they show the same 4 commercials over and over again, sometimes more time is spent on commercials then the film they heavily edited. Fun stuff, particularly if the “fine” people who make Extenze or Girls Gone Wild get on the bandwagon… I think I’ll stick with paying $3.99 for an uninterrupted movie experience. Lets just hope this is entirely optional and not forced down our throats.

[Via Ars Technica]

Peter Moore of Microsoft has a nice interview with Mike Antonucci of Mercury News where he answers many of the questions we have on our minds in Xbox 360 land.  Concerning the problem of dead 360s, he stresses that you focus on how they’re dealing with customers, not focusing on the faulty hardware.  He says he feels comfortable about Microsoft’s position on the controller front, and says that Bill Gates himself has discussed the possibilities of throwing the massive power of the 360 into some philanthropic direction such as Folding@Home.  He certainly leaves open the possibility:

“Then if we truly believe that we can in some way marshall the resources of a much larger installed base of Xbox 360 owners, with a processer that’s of equal power to the PS3, then you have my have my commitment that we’ll look at that. And if we believe we can add value to solving a gnarly problem such as the medical problems and the health problems that Folding@home seems to be doing, then we’ll certainly look at that very strongly.”

Let’s hope this really becomes a possibility!

This video of our favorite Microsoft spokesman and the lead singer of Kiss is really funny… you just have to see it for yourself.

Major Nelson: So did you play video games on the bus, what were you doing on the bus?

Gene Simmons: The girlfriend.

Major Nelson: Great! Excellent! So when you weren’t doing that what were you doing on the bus?

Gene Simmons: Um, honest to God, trying to mount as many moving objects as I could.

A role model for us all.

Ever since the release of Chex Quest (a Chex themed total conversion on the Doom Engine) in boxes of cereal, corporate promotions and gaming have been an interesting mix. The prospect of free games with only having to put up with shameless plugs is an interesting idea. Toyota is said to be releasing a FREE XBLA game this summer, no exact release date but who doesn’t like free things?

The most recent approch to this were the not so free but extremely cheap Burger King games. I myself really enjoyed this somewhat creative approach to advertising a product, hell Scott Topic might not share my sentiment but Sneak King was hilarious. As long as there is an incentive to put the money into such promotions we may see even more “Advertainment” games and the relatively easy avenues of digital distribution make it a viable source for delivering them. The negative aspect of this would be the relative quality of these games; what I don’t want to see is “Unlock this Achievement and win a free ring tone!” What they need to make is a FPS where I can totally destroy people with a Automatic French Fry Cannon, what could be funnier? You listening BK games?

With the PS3 launching in Europe, Microsoft has kicked up their assault in a few creative ways, and I for one, think it’s awesome.

First we have CVG, a UK site who Microsoft sent a stack of beer and a note saying “What would you purchase for £146?” which just so happens to be the price difference between a PS3 and a Xbox 360.

Then, over at the French launch of the PS3, Microsoft rented a boat to float by the PS3 launch party! Great work Microsoft!

What do I mean by Turbo? I mean Turbo Graphx 16! In the April issue of Game Pro, the editors had a little sit down with John Lee, the Director of Marketing for Hudson Entertainment. When asked if any of these classics would make the jump to the 360 he said:

“Thats the big question we at Hudson are carefully evaluating. Some of these games are selling beyond our expectations today… a revival of some much-loved games may be happening soon.”

Does this mean that the 360 crowd will get some Bonk action? I sure hope so! We could see Devil Crush, Bonk’s Adventure and several of the other current Hudson TG-16 games currently being enjoyed on the Wii in the XBLA Market Place which is an exciting prospect indeed.

If you missed the three budget games Burger King released late last year, fear not. You no longer have to scour eBay to live your creepy food distribution fantasies, as the Burger King online store is now selling the titles for $3.99 a piece, or $10.99 for the set of three. Here’s the quick rundown, in case you missed it.

• Sneak King - This title features you as the Burger King in a Spinter-Cell-esque environment where you stealthily sneak behind hungry people and feed them various Burger King treats. The camera, however, is perhaps the worst I’ve ever experienced in a game. Seriously guys, release an update to allow you to reverse the camera axis… it is a dealbreaker for me. It’s a clever concept and it’s creepingly funny for a few minutes. 3/10
• Pocketbike Racer - The King and various other BK characters ride little motorcycles around various tracks in a terribly minimalistic cart racer. The game is buggy, as I constantly am falling threw cracks in the floor. The tracks are uninspired, with little direction, making it easy to get lost and off pace. It does have a bare-bones Xbox Live function, allowing you to play online with some friends, but I doubt you’ll want to. This is my least favorite BK game. And that’s saying something. 2/10
• Big Bumpin - This game is hit or miss, but it has the strongest graphics and gameplay of any of the BK games. Some of the game modes, especially the standard bumping game, can be a lot of fun with other humans. I have had at least a couple late nights having fun with this game on Live. If you manage to find 4 friends who want to play this, you’ll have a much better experience than if you have any CPU players. They’re just dreadful. Although half the time the load screens are longer than the game, I give this one a 4/10.

Back in my day, I had to stomach day after day of Burger King food in order to get these games, so take advantage of the BK Game sans BK food offer available at the BK Store.

Activision announced today that they have licensed the Unreal Engine 3 by Epic for use in a future action game. They join Sony, Electronic Arts and SquareEnix as Unreal Engine users. Seems like the majorly impressive Gears of War graphics have made some people notice.