CGW - Oct. 26 - ESRB Goes Digital

by Wonacott Communications

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) is the not-for-profit watchdog of the video games industry in North America, tasked with assigning ratings to all video games to help consumers make informed purchases (rewind to news of 10 year olds playing Grand Theft Auto if you need to remember why this is important). Now the ESRB is finally catching up to the digital distribution age by expanding it to cover Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network, Vita, 3DS, Windows 8 and other digital aggregators. Most importantly, it will now flag games that share locations, share user info and have online user interactions, which hopefully will put an end to surprise Facebook updates. Seriously though, it's great the ESRB is finally catching up.

Korea turns the tables on US gamers with the news thatFiraxis/Take-Two Games is working with Korean developer XLGames to build a Civilization MMO. Considering that Civilization (currently in its fifth iteration stateside) is a game I would ask to be buried with, I would claw and fight to be able to play a persistent massively multiplayer online version of it. Not sure how a turn-based game will work as an MMO, but as the article says, they're building it from the ground up. So. Jealous.

In a sad bit of "end of an era" news, Comcast just let slip that long-running video game industry mainstays "Attack of the Show" and "X-Play" will be shuttered in G4's upcoming makeover in 2013. If you were a fan of those shows, they will be rotating in "celebrity" guest-hosts like Michael Ian Black (Comedy Central's "Stella") and Paul Scheer (FX's "The League"), so be sure to watch it as the shows end their runs in December.

Check out the links below for more news from the world of online gaming in this edition of the CGW, and have a great weekend! 

The Industry
Brasil Game Show: 100,000 Gamers Can't Be Wrong
PAX Australia confirmed for Melbourne in 2013, 2014
ESRB Expands Ratings to Digital Games
Independent Games Festival 2013 has Way Too Many Entries

The Players
Brathwaite and Hall Kill Kickstarter RPG Project
Bigpoint Cuts 120 Jobs, CEO Leaves Role
Layoffs and Closures at Zynga as Company Struggles to Save Money
United States Judge Dismisses Majority of PSN Class-Action Lawsuit
Electronic Arts Wii U Games Require Origin Account for Online Play
Square Enix Becomes First Publicly Confirmed Unreal Engine 4 Licensee
New CEO for Ngmoco as Founders Move On
Gree Spends $173 Million to Snatch up Mobile Card Game Dev
Zynga Posts Loss of $52.7 Million in Q3
GameStop Kids Stores Opening in 80 Locations

The Entertainment
Halo 4 Microsoft's Most Expensive Game
Star Citizen Crosses $2 Million Goal
Assassin's Creed III Breaks Ubisoft's Preorder Records
Civilization MMO Coming to Asia
Dance Central 3 DLC to Include "Gangnam Style," "Call Me Maybe" and More
Test Your Trivia and Linguistic Acumen with Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune

The Technologies
Moga Mobile Gaming System Hits Retail with Titles from Gameloft, Atari
PlayStation 3 Hacked Again
iPad Mini Hits Nov. 2 for $330
More than 250,000 on GameStop Wii U Waitlist
Windows 8 Arrives Amid Serious Concerns from PC Game Devs

Upcoming Events
G-Star, Busan, Korea, Nov. 8-11
Digital Hollywood, New York, Nov. 15-16
CES, Las Vegas, Jan. 8-11, 2013
DICE Summit, Las Vegas, Feb. 5-8, 2013
SXSW, Austin, March 8-17, 2013
GDC, San Francisco, March 25-29, 2013