The Digital Home

(Credit: Nintendo)

Whenever I read a Sony or Microsoft press release or meet with company representatives, they're quick to point out that Nintendo's Wii console isn't a competitor. Why? They claim it's because the Wii does gaming differently and is more of a "casual" platform than a "true" gaming console.

It didn't get any better Monday when Microsoft sent a press release detailing the Xbox 360's performance on Black Friday. According to the company, its console sales "were on pace to beat previous years, outselling the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and estimating a 25 percent increase from Xbox 360 Black Friday sales figures from 2007."

Microsoft even worked Europe into its gloat session by detailing how well the Xbox 360 performs across the continent: "Xbox 360 sales have also surged worldwide since the September price drop, outselling the PlayStation 3 week over week across Europe."

Did you happen to see anything missing in those two statements? Was it a mention of Sony? Nope. Was it a mention of the Playstation 3? Not a chance. Was it the Wii and Nintendo? Show her what she's won: a Wii!

The 50-inch 1080p Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U can be ordered from Amazon for just $1,881.

(Credit: Amazon)

I normally don't shop on Black Friday, but this year I'm making an exception.

No, it's not because I'm moving into new digs and I need to furnish the place with shiny, new tech (I do), or that I'm addicted to buying tech goodies (I am). Instead, I'm shopping this Black Friday for two main reasons: prices are much lower than they were last Black Friday and--call me a patriot or a fool--I want to do what I can to help businesses and the economy.

Prices this year are outstanding. A 32-inch Sony LCD HDTV can be picked up at Circuit City for just $499, and the beautiful 50-inch 1080p Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U can be ordered from Amazon for just $1,881. Some of the low-end GPS models from TomTom and others can be purchased for under $100 this year and notebooks from HP, Dell, and even Apple are discounted Friday.

I can't remember any other year in recent memory where so many high-quality products could be purchased at such discounted prices. GPS devices for under $100? A high-end Panasonic plasma for under $2,000? A Sony LCD for just $499? Are you kidding me?

This year, it's too tough to pass up.

Google Chrome is a great browser. Firefox is too, but it doesn't compare to Google's alternative.

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EPISODE 42

The National Institute on Media and the Family, a media watchdog group that has spent considerable time taking the gaming industry to task for continually churning out violent titles, turned its attention to parents recently. It gave parents an "Incomplete" grade in its annual report card Tuesday. According to the group, parents aren't paying enough attention to ESRB ratings and don't have any interest in using parental controls.

The study poses an interesting question: "Are parents doing enough to protect their children from violent video games?" The answer, though, isn't simple.

On one hand, we can say that parents haven't done enough to educate themselves about video games since Mortal Kombat and Doom became household names on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers have focused their attention on monitoring retailers and imposing strict regulations on developers, in the hope that these actions will help parents who want to keep their children away from violent titles.

But how much control does a parent really have? They can't be expected to watch their children 24 hours each day, nor can they control a child's activity when he or she is at a friend's house where the parents do allow violent video games to be played.

For years, I've seen watchdog groups attack the video game industry for "intentionally marketing to children" and "not doing enough to stop the sale of violent video games to children." And yet, during all those years when the industry was getting hit from all sides, I never heard one group specifically target parents until now.

Now that the NIMF has finally set its sights on parents, does this mean it's time for more parents to take notice and realize that the decisions they make related to violent video games in the home have a major impact on the development of their child?

Absolutely.

Violent video games don't make children more violent. Is it that hard to understand?

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Blockbuster has finally joined the group of companies that have entered the movie set-top box arena with the release of the 2Wire MediaPoint player. For a limited time, the device will be offered for free with the advance rental of 25 films for $99.

Sounds interesting, right? Think again. Vudu already offers the same basic service and the Apple TV allows users to download films directly to the device without a problem. But most importantly, Netflix is bringing its own streaming service to a slew of devices, like the Roku Netflix box and the Xbox 360. The Roku box has been available for months.

And now, as Blockbuster and its brick-and-mortar business feels the pressure from Netflix's mail-order business and countless streaming offerings across the Web, the company is just breaking into the set-top box market?

Call me crazy, but if you're an executive at a company that is clinging to the past and trying desperately to turn a business around that has been hammered from all sides by competitors that offer a more compelling service, wouldn't you want to be first to the market?

Twitter made the right decision by not accepting the Facebook deal. It's as simple as that.

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Although video game revenue is at its highest level in history, most researchers believe the industry is "recession-proof," and there are more gamers across the globe than ever before, not everything is so blissful for the video game industry.

According to the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research institute, just 4 percent of games that go into production will turn a profit and only 20 percent of titles that make it to store shelves will achieve profitability.

That shouldn't surprise us. When I look at the video game industry and the countless number of titles that I fire up on my consoles, it's not hard to see why the industry is struggling to develop profitable games: too many titles are the same basic game in a different box with different characters.

How many first-person shooters and sports games need to flop before the industry realizes that although shooters are the highest-grossing titles and sports games perform well thanks to EA, it's time they stop wasting their time with more of the same and start moving towards better titles that offer something unique?

Resistance 2 is here and I take a look at it in my latest Digital Home video.

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