Yeah, I’ve heard of that.

Today while I was shopping for new video games, I stopped by one of the most popular video game retail stores, GameStop. I went into the store with a specific game on mind, L.A. Noire. I walked into the store where I was greeted by a very friendly employee. He welcomed me, asked what I was looking for, and asked what kind of games I like to play. I told him that I was a fan of survival horror even though I was well aware of L.A. Noire not being of that genre. The employee then began to tell me about various survival horror games that were going to be released soon. Of the games he listed, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and the re-release of Resident Evil 4 for the Xbox 360. I informed him that I was already well aware of those games since I was subscriber to GameInformer Magazine. But once I told him that I already knew the details of the game he proceeded to tell me what the games where about. So I was stuck there not knowing what to tell the guy, and had to suffer through a long explanation of something I was already aware of. After he gave was done talking the only thing I could respond with was, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that.” I ended up leaving the store without buying anything. Not because of the employee. I had discovered that this particular store was selling L.A. Noire for a higher price is all. I have noticed that whenever I go into these stores the employees are always so anxious to tell me about new games that are coming out, and despite the fact that I told them I was already aware of the game. It would seem as if the reasoning for it is because they WANT you to buy something from the store. Now I’m not saying that this is a bad marketing scheme. I’ve actually had quite a few good conversations with employees of the store. It’s just amusing to me that they always do that. But when I think about it, it has to be pretty fun getting to tell people all about the new games that are coming out, so I can’t really blame them for wanting to stop me and talk to me.

Sony’s New “Michael” Ad Has Gamers Amazed

Several days ago Sony released a new ad that had tons of diehard PS3 fans in awe. A quick summary of the ad shows several different video game characters in an old tavern saluting a person by the name of “Michael”. It’s a great way of showing how much Sony appreciates their loyal customers. I have been a Sony user since I was 7 with my first video game console, the Playstation. Even with the recent PSN hacking Sony has kept millions of people using their products. Despite the fact that Sony offers the Playstation Network for free to millions of people they gave away a ton of freebies in a Welcome Back Program after the hacking was resolved. Seeing this ad is almost like a personal thank you to the players. It’s also fun to see how many video game characters you can spot? Go on ahead and give it a try. See this amazing ad below:

A Quick History of Video Games

Computerized gaming roots back to the 1950’s with some simple computer games that were similar to table tennis or shooting airplane targets. In 1977, the Atari was released that would soon take gaming to a whole new level. It was the first console that had plug in cartridges that game in a variety of different video games. The first game to be released was Pong. It was similar to the table tennis game involved in the 50’s.

As time went on gaming branched out into various arcade games such as PAC-MAN, Frogger, and Street Fighter, as well as many others. As technology grew people were able to bring some of these classics into their home through purchasing other consoles. While their have been a great number of consoles created and sold to gamers the most popular are as follows:

• Nintendo Entertainment System (October 1985)
• Sega Genesis (August 1989)
• Sony Playstation (September 1995)
• Sony Playstation 2 (October 2000)
• Nintendo GameCube (November 2001)
• Microsoft Xbox (November 2001)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 (May 2005)
• Sony Playstation 3 (November 2006)
• Nintendo Wii (November 2006)

Here is a weekly overview of video game hardware sales:

So with the constant in gaming technology what will the future offer us? What will be the next console to be released and which of the major gaming companies will release it first? Only time will tell.