Gaming's hot news

The biggest game news this week was: 1) Nintendo's forthcoming Revolution console's new official name, "Wii" (pronounced "we," Reuters reports), and 2) Microsoft acquiring a startup videogame ad agency in New York for somewhere between $200 million and $400 million. The 80-employee Massive Inc., places ads for clients like Coke and Honda in online games, the Wall Street Journal reports. With that news, Viacom's $102 million deal to acquire Xfire Inc., "a startup that operates an instant-messaging service" for game chat, and News Corp.'s $650 million acquisition of IGN, which runs game zine Web sites, we're seeing serious signs that online gaming is moving into the media mainstream. For gamers themselves, the top story is probably the cancellation of "the most lucrative tournament in computer gaming," as the BBC reported it, seen as a huge setback for pro gaming. Last year "the World Tour organised by the Cyberathlete Professional League gave away $1m in prizes to pro-gamers at 10 events held around the globe," the BBC added.

Then there's the brainy-games trend. In PeaceMaker, developed by two grad student at Carnegie Mellon U., players fight for peace and in the process learn about "the complex choices facing leaders in the Middle East," CNN reports. It's not just a shooter game, though it simulates "the violence and political turbulence of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. In another example, "Nintendo has sold nearly 5 million copies of its three Nintendo DS brain training games since the series launched in Japan a year ago," the BBC reports. They're designed by "one of the country's top brain researchers," the BBC adds. On the console side of gaming, CNN offers a "sneak peek" of that part of E3, the videogame industry's annual trade show that begins May 10.