Pre-owned is Good For The Game Industry

One of leading video games retailer, GAME has provided arguments for the hated pre-owned buyers by game developers.

GAME CEO Ian Shepherd said, "I think, through conversations with developers and platform owners, that there is a growing realization that a healthy pre-owned marketplace is good for the whole industry".

"It has made the mint marketplace more affordable and has kept people in that marketplace", he said. "There has been endless debate over pre-owned versus mint, but my view is that a healthy pre-owned and trade-in marketplace - which we are largely the people who are involved in driving - is good for the whole industry."

Unfortunately there are still many developers who are not happy with the pre-owned market, such as THQ and EA, which requires players online to use an online pass.

One thing that is interesting, retail store GAME is trying a new feature in their store, which is pre-order pre-owned games.

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Buy PC, get free Xbox 360

Microsoft offers the Xbox 360 bonus for American students when making a purchase of a PC. The promotion will be effective starting May 22, 2011. Microsoft announced this at the Windows Team Blog site. Of course, there will be separate terms and conditions that apply to it.

Promotion is limited to the purchase of a PC powered by Windows 7 operating system with a minimum price of $ 699. If you make a purchase online through Microsoft, Dell, or HP's site, you must use e-mail addresses ending in ".edu" to be able to meet the purchase transaction arranged by the promotion. Another alternative is to include student ID number when making a purchase directly into the retail store.By following the terms and conditions, then Microsoft will give away an Xbox 360 with 4GB hard drive to the buyer. This promotion will last until 3 September 2011, and is limited to U.S. Microsoft plans to expand this promotion to France and Canada.

A 4GB Xbox 360 is currently worth $199.99, so this is a pretty good chance to pick up a new PC.

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Special iPad Game For Cats

Manufacturers of special food for cats, Friskies issued a special game for cats to iPad platform. There are three games that are provided, Cat Fishing, Tasty Treasures Hunt and Party Mix-Up. All games are available in GamesForCats.com and can be downloaded for free. In addition to iPad, these games can also be played with Android tablets.

Watch the video below and see the funny reactions from these cats 'gamers'!

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Fight pirates, the U.S. Navy Recruit Gamer

WASHINGTON - In order to anticipate incidents of hijacking ships as Somali pirates who carried out some time ago, the United States Navy plans to invite gamers to participate in an online game that simulates the incident.

Office of Naval Research (ONR) hope this step can filter the thousands of ideas of society in the fight against the pirates, instead of just relying on the traditional way with a discussing military strategy in the office of the Pentagon.

"This approach is made ​​to come up with ideas and potential solutions to the problem and our biggest challenge," said Lawrence Schuette as Director of Innovation ONR, told AFP.

"Pirates in the African region is an old problem that must be faced. We chose this topic for the beginning of the game scenario," he added.

The plan, 1000 ONR will only recruit players to participate in this project. However, unexpectedly, approximately 9,000 people enrolled in the project, so that ONR should postpone the implementation date to a month.

The Navy hopes this project can bring in the experts not only from the military field, but also include academics, politicians to technology specialists.

"The hope is, through the collective intelligence and knowledge of many people we can hold a conversation about the problems of geopolitical weight and get a solution that it never occurred to us,"said Schuette.

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