On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 7-to-2 majority opinion against a California law that banned the sale of violent video games to children in the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, says that video games “qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium.” The First Amendment essentially provides those protected by the U.S. Constitution with the right to freedom of expression, and in this instance, video games are a way to communicate ideas.

The California law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent video games to minors under the age of 18, with violent video games defined as “killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.” Retailers who violated the act would have been fined up to $1,000 per infraction. The video game law was originally signed by then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October of 2005 but was blocked by a federal judge, whose decision was upheld by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The state of California appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn those decisions in May of 2009.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer dissented from the Supreme Court’s ruling. Thomas said that the view at the time when the Bill of Rights was originally amended “does not include a right to speak to minors (or a right of minors to access speech) without going through the minors’ parents or guardians,” and Breyer wrote, “California’s law imposes no more than a modest restriction on expression. The statute prevents no one from playing a video game, it prevents no adult from buying a video game, and it prevents no child or adolescent from obtaining a game provided a parent is willing to help.”

The Supreme Court ruling, however, is a huge win for the video game industry which makes $10.5 billion in domestic annual sales. The computer and video game industry are represented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the United States, with members including Disney Interactive Studios, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Corp, and Sony Computer Entertainment America. Michael D. Gallagher, the president and CEO of the ESA stated, “Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what we have always known–that free speech protections apply every bit as much to video games as they do to other forms of creative expression like books, movies and music… The Court declared forcefully that content-based restrictions on games are unconstitutional; and that parents, not government bureaucrats, have the right to decide what is appropriate for their children.”

The Supreme Court’s decision will most likely put an end to all the expensive litigation by individual states to ban the sale of violent video games to minors, and undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of children who have been patiently waiting to kill some nazi zombies.

Photo by BlackSpider-Man via DeviantArt

On Tuesday, Sony unveiled its next-generation portable gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Sony President of Consumer Products, Kazuo Hirai, said that the PlayStation Vita will “revolutionize the portable entertainment experience.” As the heavily hyped successor to the PSP, the device looks like it will actually live up to the high standards that Sony has already set for its upcoming product.

The PlayStation Vita will feature a high-resolution, 5-inch multi-touch OLED touchscreen, 6-axis motion sensors, dual analog sticks, rear touch pad, dual front and back mounted cameras, built-in GPS, and will run on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 Processor. Even more impressive, Sony announced that the Vita will give users the ability to enjoy continuous, uninterrupted gameplay by allowing for cross-platform play with compatible games on the PlayStation 3. According to Sony, there are over 80 titles already in development, and the company showed off the capabilities of the system with some of the top-tiered titles like a Diablo-like RPG game called Ruin.

Last but definitely not least, Sony revealed that the PlayStation Vita will start at the low price of $249 for the Wi-Fi only version and $299 for the 3G model, which AT&T will be the exclusive service provider for – much to the chagrin of the audience who openly booed the announcement. Price-wise, this means that the PlayStation Vita will be in direct competition to the Nintendo 3DS, which can’t really be considered in the same arena of portable gaming once the Vita is released later this year, just in time for the holiday season.

Photo via PlayStation

After 22 grueling days of outage, gamers and users throughout the world can finally reconnect to the PlayStation Network after Sony carried out a phased restoration process. Although PlayStation store access won’t be restored until later, PSN’s reactivation restores online multiplayer and chat functions, friends list and trophy comparison functionality, PlayStation Home, and services like Hulu, Netflix, and MLB.tv. Once logging in, PSN users will be required to update to the latest 3.61 firmware and change their account passwords. Details about changing your password are provided below from the PlayStation Blog:

“If using a PS3, your password can only be changed on your own PS3 (or a PS3 on which your PSN account was activated), as an added layer of security. If you have never downloaded any content using your account on the system, an email will be sent to the registered sign-in ID (email address) associated with your account when you first attempt to sign-in to PSN. This e-mail will contain a link that will enable you to change your password. In this email, click on the link and follow the instructions to change your password. Once you have changed your password you can sign-in to your account using your new password.”

Down for over 3 weeks after hackers breached the network’s security, Sony had to rebuild the entire PlayStation Network with more advanced security technology, encryption, firewalls, and early-warning systems. The outage affected over 77 million users worldwide and, even worse, the security breach may have allowed for the hackers to steal personal credit and debit card information from over 24 million user accounts.

Kazuo Hirai, Sony Corporation’s Executive Deputy President, released a video statement on the PlayStation Blog providing more detailed information on the restoration of the PlayStation Network and the new security features being implemented.

To compensate for the long outage and compromise of account information, Sony is offering 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus service, which provides exclusive access to certain games and beta trials. To those users who are already subscribed to the PlayStation Plus service, an additional 30 days will be added for free. Sony Online Entertainment subscribers will also receive a special Welcome Back Program upon return.

At this point though, how many PSN users will even want to return to the network after the massive failure that Sony just dealt with?

Wii! Nintendo announced earlier this week that the successor to the popular Wii gaming console will be launched sometime after March of 2012. Although the Wii was already cheaper than its rival consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo lowered the price of the gaming system even further from $199 to $169 on April 18th. Details and a playable model of the successor to the Wii console will be released at this year’s E3 Expo (held from June 7th to June 9th) where the computer and video game industries showcase their latest and greatest to fans and the media.

The broad appeal of the Wii to friends and family, the use of Motion Controllers with built-in accelerometers instead of the traditional gaming controller, and Nintendo’s throwback to developing games that were actually fun to play made the system the most successful console release of its generation, selling over 86 million units compared to the 53 million units sold of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and 49.5 million units sold for the Sony PlayStation 3.

There are many rumors flying around about what the Wii 2 has to offer, but one thing is for certain: Nintendo always brings gaming to another level.

Official Press Release

April 25, 2011

To whom it may concern:

Re: Wii’s Successor System

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

 

 

Photo by Vlad Savov via Engadget