We haven’t updated the site in a while and, for this, I apologize. The reality of the situation is that we don’t get paid to do this, and have hard real life things get in the way. Moving to a new location–away from everyone we knew–has been hard on both Arthur and I in different ways. We’re both adjusting to our new work loads and social lives, trying to figure out where we’re heading, both professionally and personally. Let me make one thing clear to you though:

The site is not dead.

There, now that we have that cleared up…

What I can tell you–assuming someone out there is reading this–is that the site is going to change. We probably won’t update it but a few times a week, but our content will hopefully make up for that. I want to keep this blog around as a venue to give my own insights into gaming. I don’t, however, want this site to be in any way, shape, or form, comparable to a news blog like Kotaku or Destructoid. This is just a place to give our opinions or thoughts about games and gaming culture–nothing more.

So hopefully you–our very, very few faithful readers–will come back and read what we have to say and like it.

Chufmoney

1up’s Mark Whiting has written up a nice little story about how PC games only make up 14% of all the units sold in 2007, according to the NPD. So, what does all this mean? As Mark says, it means PC gaming has to change in order to survive. He also correctly points out that the NPD numbers do not cover sales of digitally distributed media–such as Valve’s Steam–so the reality is that the 14% of the NPD totals that PC gaming took up was solely retail box copies. It is actually quite difficult to tell what state PC gaming is really in.

However, one thing has been made remarkably clear this last year: piracy is hurting PC gaming…badly. Crysis has only sold 87,000 units to date, yet I remember hearing around the 1up offices that it had an absurd amount of seeds on various BitTorrent sites; Call of Duty 4 on PC has also suffered from lots of piracy.

PC gaming needs to change. Whether it is a change that focuses on making all games solely available through digital distribution, or by offering games for free and then selling additional content or advanced subscriptions–see the March 2008 GFW #16 to see an example of the latter–PC games have to find a way to increase their profit margin. Perhaps it could be done through making games less complex, and focusing on making games that need less powerful hardware…I guess I really don’t know.

I sincerely doubt that PC gaming is ever going to “die,” but I think that it needs a new direction to regain momentum.

Chufmoney

Finally the PSP is getting functionality that actually makes it stand out in ways that the DS doesn’t. Here is a list of improvements/add-ons, that are coming soon for the PSP:

1. Skype support (for PSP Slim only): VOIP support for the PSP will hit in the next few weeks. PSP owners will be able to call and receive calls from landlines and cellphones for an additional charge. It will come as a firmware update, but will apparently only be accessible for Slim owners. Sony points towards a memory difference between the two versions of the handheld as the cause.
2. PSP GPS: Sony is officially showcasing a PSP GPS system at the 2008 CES. GPS has been available in Japan, but is now going to come to other countries as well. Users will be able to download city guides, see real time 2D and 3D maps, as well as get driving directions. No pricing has been released at this time, but it is still awesome to see the potential use of the PSP as more of a powerful handheld device.
3. Blu-ray to PSP move download: Sony has been showcasing the PSP’s ability to download a lower-res version of a Blu-Ray movie through the PS3. This makes me actually kinda want some Blu-Ray movies….

Dunno about you, but all these PSP additions make me happy to own the system. I am not happy that I won’t be able to use Skype–though I don’t know how much I actually would have used it, but I still wish I had the option. Maybe I’ll just sell the phat PSP to Aegies…

Anyways, combine these new features with games like God of War: Chains of Olympus, and I think the PSP has a good year ahead of it.

Chufmoney

With the year’s end dwindling down, every website in the hood are collecting the “Best of” and the “Most awesome” award. I, strangely, am not on any of those list. But NextGen has the Top 10 Blunders of 2007, with such hits as “Game Over Gerstmann” at number four and “Surprise! Zombies” at number seven. Number one, you ask? The Red Rings of the Death!

With a year’s headstart and exclusive hits like Gears of War, Microsoft started 2007 looking every bit the confident market leader they’d longed to be since 2001. Beneath that sanguine exterior, however, lurked a horrible, horrible truth: “Things break.”

No argument here. Everyone on the EatSleepGame staff has suffered the Red Rings, and I know for a fact that 95% of my friends have. Sure, you can send it in, but who the fuck wants to do that? The real problem will be when Microsoft’s next console ships, and everyone acts like it’ll explode any moment.

[via NextGen]

Jayslacks