Is this TV sport for Mercenaries 2 the best game commercial of the year?

Time's Lev Grossman thinks so...

...most [video game commercials] are forgettable. What do you want, they're ads. But sometimes you see one that just rips off your head and thrusts its awesomeness down your neck. I'm thinking of the "Mad World" spot for Gears of War, for example.

 

But check out this one. I don't have any special interest in playing Mercenaries 2.... I caught this ad while I was watching clips on adultswim.com, and dang. It's the white-boy rap-singing video-game jingle of the summer...

Kotaku reports that Microsoft and the Xbox 360 are waving the video game flag at this week's Democratic National Convention.

Denver-based Kotaku EIC Brian Crecente popped over to the DNC and discovered that Microsoft lobbyists had set up a booth featuring 360s running MLB2K8 during Tuesday's events at Coors Field. Exec Fred Humphries told Crecente:

Where better to talk about families and games then in the living room. We're here to highlight the family settings for the Xbox 360 and talk about ratings. Education is so important when it comes to the Xbox. We are here to tell people about Play Smart, Play Safe... We fully support parents talking to kids.

MS will be making a similar appearance at the upcoming Republican National Convention. As GamePolitics reported last week, Microsoft is partnering with Rock the Vote to help drive voter registration through Xbox Live.

Stop playing Too Human for a few minutes and make yourself a player in November's presidential election instead.

Beginning next Monday, Xbox Live subscribers can register to vote while using the popular online gaming service.

The innovative feature comes as the result a partnership between Microsoft and Rock the Vote. XBL voter registration will go live just as the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Denver. In a press release, Microsoft describes the surprising move:

A leading gaming and entertainment platform just became a leading platform for change. Microsoft Corp. and Rock the Vote today announced a groundbreaking partnership that will allow Xbox 360 owners to register to vote, participate in presidential polls and voice their opinions to the presidential candidates.

Of the unprecedented partnership with XBL, Rock the Vote's Heather Smith commented:

Xbox is a natural partner to help us reach out to youth voters. To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there's no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE.

Xbox will be on hand at both conventions to promote the Rock the Vote partnership.

Via: Marketwatch

UPDATE: Voter registration will apparently not be finalized through XBL. Rock the Vote will apparently need to mail potential registrants a packet to complete.

By the way, you can link to Rock the Vote from GamePolitics via the link in our right sidebar. We're about three years ahead of XBL in implementing this...

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer details the murder of Xbox 360 developer Melissa Batten, 36, shot to death by her estranged husband before he took his own life on July 29th.

Seattle TV station KING-5 has a video report.  Kotaku offers some background on Melissa:

A Harvard-educated lawyer, [Batten] was a Software Development Engineer in Test for Microsoft, supporting Rare on its 360 titles work. She had worked for Microsoft since 2002, earning credits in Halo 3 and Gears of War... Earlier, as a lawyer, she had been a public defender for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.) Public Defender's Office.

 

Her husband, Joseph Batten, was also 36. He had also worked for Microsoft but most recently worked for Wizards of the Coast, publisher of hobby games such as Magic: the Gathering. Melissa had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 21. Another news story describes Joseph Batten as obsessive and verbally abusive, and when she learned he had obtained a handgun, she sought the protection order.

Eerily, Melissa is seen in the Coin-Op.TV video at left discussing the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts at the recent E3 Expo in Los Angeles, just days before she sought a court order against her husband.

The Entertainment Software Association announced yesterday that more than 90,000 units of its charity game pack (left) were sold since last November, raising better than $2.6 million for child-oriented programs.

The campaign is managed by the ESA Foundation, described in the press release as "the computer and video game industry’s philanthropic arm."

Remarking on the success of the charity pack, which included Xbox 360 titles donated by their publishers, ESA CEO Michael Gallagher said:

The entertainment software industry places a priority on giving back to our communities, with a special focus on helping our young people. I’m proud that together with our partners, the ESA Foundation raised a record amount for a variety of worthy causes. We also thank Microsoft Corporation, the main publisher, and the retailers who sold this tremendously successful game pack.

• Web Wise Kids
• Work, Achievement, Values & Education Inc. (WAVE)
• Hopelabs
• Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
• Computers for Youth

Games for Change has issued a press release announcing the winners of the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge.

The announcement came at the Louvre in Paris.

Each of the entries was created using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio software. The winners are:

1. CityRain from Mother Gaia Studio in Brazil
2. Future Flow from Belgium’s Drunk Puppy
3. CleanUp from the South Korean team Gomz

Suzanne Seggerman, President and Co-founder of Games for Change, commented:

What’s most exciting about this game contest is that not only are the brightest young people from around the world engaged in creating these new games, they are also laying the foundation for a new genre – socially-responsible video games. And this is where it all begins.

Games for Change bills itself as "the primary non-profit behind the new movement using video games to promote social change." The organization teamed up with Microsoft to offer the game design contest  based on environmental themes.

Sales of new console systems have slowed, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury-News.

While 25 million Wii's, PlayStation 3's and Xbox 360's have been sold in the U.S. over the past 30 months, it seems that most of the buyers are upgrading from older systems or adding a second, or even third, game system. Console-less homes are mostly remaining that way. Said David Klein of Los Angeles-based research firm Centris:

We're looking at very slow growth.

What does this mean for the game biz? It's not good news, writes reporter Mike Antonucci:

The implications for the game industry, whose challenges include rising development costs, are sweeping. An expansion of the game audience offers continued revenue growth, or at least a hedge against a spending slowdown by existing fans...

 

[But]  ...word-of-mouth enthusiasm [for this generation of consoles] may not be translating into much real expansion...

Concerns over sexual predators lurking in online gaming venues are highlighted in a pair of reports.

USA Today interviewed investigators in Michigan and Arizona about the issue. Lt. Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police told the paper:

Child predators are migrating from traditional methods to alternate media. They are going to places where children are.

Meanwhile, Lt. Jessica Farnsworth, head of the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said her unit has seized a number of Xbox systems during investigations. She credited Microsoft with providing training to law enforcement personnel on how to extract messages and other data from the consoles.

Philadelphia's CBS-3 interviewed an investigator with the New Jersey State Police. Detective Cy Bleistine told the station:

We have kids growing up in computer age that are leaps and bounds ahead of the adults and as the parental controls come out, they find ways around them.

Last week GamePolitics reported on the prosecution of an alleged predator who abducted a victim he met through World of Warcraft. 

The San Jose Mercury-News reports that ESA CEO Michael Gallagher (left) has received a vote of confidence from Microsoft entertainment exec Robbie Bach:

"Mike's doing a great job. . . . I think he was the right hire; I think he was a good hire," Bach said. "But he's had to deal with a lot of change all at once, so that just makes his job harder than it probably needs to be."

 

Bach said he interpreted the withdrawals of Activision and Vivendi as largely a side effect of the distractions of their pending merger. But given their importance, he also noted, "Certainly we have to assess the impact of not having them as dues-paying members. That does have an impact."

Bach is Microsoft's representative to the ESA's board of directors, and was chairman when Gallagher was hired in May, 2007. Gallagher and Bach share a connection of sorts with the George W. Bush administration. Prior to joining the ESA, Gallagher worked as an Assistant Secretary of Commerce, while Bach was a contributor to Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.

Bach's vote of confidence follows questions about Gallagher's leadership of the game publishers group in recent weeks. As GamePolitics has reported, four member companies (Activision, Vivendi, LucasArts and id) have dropped out since the beginning of May.

GP: Bach's vote of confidence would be more meaningful if it were echoed by the entire ESA board.