Linden Labs founder and CEO Philip Rosedale is stepping down. The Second Life developer will seek a CEO with more management and operational expertise. Rosedale will stay on as chairman of the company’s board. Even though SL has been the victim of hype machine backlash, the company says that no crisis has lead to Rosedale stepping down. What’s more, the company added that an IPO was under consideration. Says the Linden founder: I will be 100% involved and fulltime at Linden Lab. Second Life is my life’s work, and I am not going anywhere.
Because at some developers you hafta work with dicks, but at Linden Labs you get to work with flying dicks. Rosedale Stepping Down [BBC]
People only seem fussed over the scores from one Japanese mag: Famitsu. And while they’re not the most reliable barometer for a title’s quality (for long-running franchises like Final Fantasy, you can forget about a fanbase-annoying score), it’s still somewhat interesting seeing how they felt 2007′s games shaped up. After the jump are the 25 games with the highest scores, and before you jump, know this: four editors review the games and score them out of 10, with the listed score being the total out of a possible 40. Try not to let the number of 360 games SHOCK YOU.
Every Sunday in Akihabara, it happens. Girls in maid outfits (and other costumes) sing, dance and stand in the Akiba streets and sidewalks. Some of them attract some crowds, some of them attract large crowds. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is starting to crackdown for “safety” reasons in accordance with traffic laws. “I have no real understanding of what standards they’re using to drive the maids off the streets. I could understand if they were dressed in schoolgirls’ swimsuits or costumes that flash a lot of skin, but maid outfits are nothing like that”, says economic analyst and Akiba lover Takuro Morinaga. Thing is, it’s not just maids.
Take this past weekend, for example. “Singer” and swimsuit model Asuka Sawamoto (link slightly NSFW) showed up in Akihabara, wearing a very short skirt and a pair of red underpants. Sawamoto proceeded to stand on the sidewalk and flash all of nerdom, which mobbed and took photo after photo. All this so Sawamoto could promote a live concert. Guess she succeeded! She also succeeded in giving the grounds for this police crackdown more weight. Good for her.
Hit the jump for the Dead Rising version of this pic that Luke was kind enough to PhotoShop for shits and giggles.
Big fan of snaking in Mario Kart? Brace for disappointment. Nintendo have finally called an end to the trick, with the upcoming Mario Kart Wii’s cornering speed boosts to be determined by how long you can hold a powerslide, not how quickly you can waggle from left to right. From the British Official Nintendo mag’s review of the game: The second big difference (in Mario Kart Wii compared to the rest of the series) is the removal of snaking. Ever since the N64 game, practically every Mario Kart game has included the ability to get a speed boost by waggling the controls left and right as you powerslide. This has finally been scrapped, and now your speed boost is determined by how long you can hold the slide.
Always figured it was half a step shy of cheating, so it’s good to see it gone. Snaking removed from Mario Kart Wii [ONM UK, via Go Nintendo]
Hey! If some dude can make musical instruments out of fresh produce, then damn skippy that the some other dude can make Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges into harmonica. There’s a photo walk through (complete with screwing and sanding), should you be interested in blowing into your copy of Tecmo Bowl and getting it to play… music.
Hit the jump for a YouTube clip of it in action.
Europe’s delay in getting Smash Bros Brawl is causing great amounts of distress. So it’s good to know that amidst all the wailing and teeth-gnashing, somebody can see the funny side of it all. Above is a shot of the game’s product page from the online store of British supermarket chain Tesco. Obviously not a release date that’s come from Nintendo themselves, but hey, the way things are going it may not end up being too far off the mark! Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Tesco, via Nintencast]
Erotic games really have the most imaginative in-store displays. No, really. Just check out this one for adult PC title Tsuri Baka ~ Gakuen Taikou! Jyoshikousei Tsuriage Adobencha— ~ (“Fishing Fool ~ Academy Antagonism! Schoolgirl Lifting Adventure ~”). The display features a hook, fishing line and a skirt. “Please try fishing” is also written in English. Okay, we will. But after the jump! Oh yes, we will.
Today’s piece of inane trivia is brought to you by Warhawk, the little online game that could. Turns out that over the past week or so the game registered it’s 500,000th ranked player (it’s at 510,927 at time of writing). That’s not the number of people who’ve bought and/or played the game, just those who played a game on a ranked server. When you consider the profile of the game and the install base of the PS3 (especially at the time it was released), those are some impressive numbers. Warhawk Statistics [Warhawk, via VG247]
Western games are really starting to come into their own. No wonder some think that Japan’s place in the gaming sun has set. Japan-based-Capcom producer Ben Judd disagrees! While his Bionic Commando title is being developed by a buncha Swedes, he hasn’t given up on The Land of the Rising Sun. According to Judd:
Unexpected, this. Apparently Acer, makers of desktops and laptop PCs, are poised to enter the games hardware market. No, really. German site Gamestar are reporting that the company’s senior vice president, James T. Wong, cited the closed, proprietary nature of consoles as the inspiration for Acer’s move, as he announced their plans to create an open-standard, PC-based “games machine”. Not much more than that to go on at the moment, so until there’s something a little more concrete – and a with a little less “why in God’s name would you do that?” – let’s call this one a rumour and get on with our days. Spielekonsole geplant [Gamestar, thanks Jim!]
