In case you missed it, the tech world was held captive by Amazon today as it announced a family of new Kindle products. The most anticipated of the lot was the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s first tablet that incorporates Amazon’s best services such as its bookstore, Amazon Cloud, Amazon Prime and the Amazon Appstore. Given its $199 price tag, there’s a good chance it could be the ideal tablet to handle lightweight gaming.

This week is a good week to sign into Sony PlayStation Home if you haven’t already.

Today (June 2, 2009) and throughout the E3 Conference players are being awarded free items for their avatars as well as sneak peeks at upcoming games at the Presentation Podium. Between interviews with publishers and developers of PlayStation games Sony is flashing codes that will unlock freebies.

Today’s broadcast featured a sneak peek of upcoming game Heavy Rain by Sony Computer Entertainment so I went on YouTube to find the trailer for a closer look. Not exactly the one shown at E3 but this video will show you how gorgeous the game looks, check it out:

Gaia Online and MTV will host Red Carpet Party with exclusive music videos and more starting at 9 p.m., May 31, 2009.

Through MTV’s Virtual Hollywood on Gaia, subscribers Gaians can view exclusive videos, vote on their favorite award nominee and win a virtual pair of MTV shades for their avatars…

It’s been about a month since the epic closure of Electronic Gaming Monthly/the gutting of 1Up.com. You’ve heard of it, of course, if you spend any time at all reading gaming sites, but I’ll reiterate: 1Up was awesome, they had great editorial and a stable of truly excellent video/audio content. But their parent company (Ziff Davis) was bankrupt, and they sold the site to UGO (a Hearst property), and in the ensuing kerfluffle, most of the staff was laid off, the magazine was dead, and most of the audio/video shows were canned. Outrage ensued.

Well, here we are a month later.

Now this is exciting news. Dan “Shoe” Hsu, he of Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1Up fame, is off working on a mysterious new project, along with a slew of other EGM/1Up favorite editors. From Shoe/Crispin Boyer’s Sore Thumbs blog…

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of Rebel FM, one of the very first spin-off podcasts from ex 1Up radio personalities. Now, there’s a second podcast from a few other folks who made the radio component of 1Up so special – The Geekbox. Starring Starring Ryan Scott, Karen Chu, Andrew Fitch, Greg Ford, Ryan Higgins, more »

Man, what a week to go on vacation. I returned back to the states yesterday, all rested from a nice little tropical getaway, and what do I find – that my favorite magazine of all time has been abruptly canned, along with a huge portion of the network that it was part of. I know that everyone has heard about the demise of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and about the massive firing of 1Up Network staff (among them, most of the people responsible for the phenomenal podcasts and video content on the site), a result of the network being bought by UGO (part of the Hearst company).

When I last spoke with Zach Wigal, founder of Gamers Outreach Foundation, he was just finishing up a Halo 3 tournament in January to raise funds for his community.

I caught up with Wigala few weeks ago and learned he has just earned the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award.

Wigal said he only became aware of the program a few months ago after doing an interview with Chris Erickson of 360StyleCast podcast and added that…

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) hosted a panel discussion at the BAFTA venue in London earlier this week (October 9, 2008) during which a series of church and charity leaders discussed the ways in which video games can be a “force for good in today’s society.”

Mike Royal, the national director of the Lighthouse Group (a charity that specializes in helping young people who have been, or are at risk of being excluded from the school system), noted that games are useful in educating children about “boundaries” and the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

Martin Houghton-Brown, The Children’s Society’s deputy director of new business, explains that children in the United Kingdom now see gaming as a…

Starting December 6, 2007, game fanatics worldwide will be able to watch the highly anticipated Championship Gaming Series. The nine-day event will be broadcasted on television via DirecTV in the US; BSkyB’s Sky One, Sky Two and Sky HD in England; ESPN STAR in Asia; SKY in Mexico and Brazil; DirecTV throughout the rest of more »