In a normal class certification hearing, the plaintiffs revealed an email between Nvidia senior VP of marketing, Dan Vivoli, and ATI’s president and COO, Dave Orton, which points to inflated prices and collusion. It reads: “I really think we should work harder together on the marketing front. As you and I have talked about, even though we are competitors, we have the common goal of making our category a well positioned, respected playing field. $5 and $8 stocks are a result of no respect.”
While Nvidia’s supremacy has been clear over the last year, this email-gone-public is a huge blow to both videocard companies. Presiding judge Aslup stated the class certification will be further investigated.
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VoodooPC, longtime hardcore gaming company renowned for high-end desktops and laptops was recently shifted by parent company HP into a more refined role. The Envy 133 laptop is thinner than the Apple Airbook at its thickest point and is meant to be elegant yet powerful, and has a wide range of features to support it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Omen is a powerful to the point of absurdity.
The radical change from simply a gaming PC manufacturer to a mixture of super-hardcore desktops and expensively capable laptops was remarkable at the time, but understandable. Compared to its competition, VoodooPC was not performing well enough. Yet merging it with HP’s current consumer PC unit seems to be the end of VoodooPC as it were, and a reintroduction to HP’s gaming PC besides the Blackbird 002.
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One of the later adopters to gaming PC’s, Gateway has ended its brief run of customisable PC’s, gaming and otherwise. One of the first PC manufacturer’s to use online customisation, Gateway’s recent purchase by Acer, who relies heavily on selling products through resellers, will now only offer their designed platforms and will not allow for customisation.
While most users will not have a problem with this, gaming aficionados interested in Gateway’s machines may be unsatisfied with the parts given. Even the higher-end FX541XT uses the 8800GT in SLI, and there is no option to upgrade to a 9000 series card.

In a recent interview with IGN, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli says the vast majority of PC gamers pirate their games. He gives enormous figures of 15:1 to 20:1, which may or may not be true, at least for Crytek. However, as an industry, this number seems too large, yet reports of pirating Crysis specifically are numerous; not to play, but to test machines to see if they will run it.
Asked about online verification, Yerli stated that there will always be some way to crack the game or go around the system, and if not other problems can occur. The recent Mass Effect PC dilemma may hold back sales for publisher EA, but as of press time reports were not available for sales numbers.

The Novint Falcon is a novel user interface that functions as a mouse, but with the added bonus of 3D functionality and force feedback. Using three motorized arms connected to a ball held in player’s hands, the Falcon has been fighting players for the last year in the States, picking up gusto as a viable gaming peripheral. Things are picking up steam too, since Valve will now support the Falcon with a healthy selection of its games, including The Orange Box, Counter-Strike: Source, the Half-Life 2 series, Team Fortress 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead.

It must be because of how similar the Falcon’s look to something Aperture Science would make. The resemblance is uncanny…perhaps it was fate.

Valve’s ‘head paunch-o’ Gabe Newell said, “Recently we’ve seen how new interfaces have changed gaming. The Falcon adds a new level of interaction for PC gaming, adding compelling force feedback while maintaining controls as accurate as a mouse, and now the millions of Steam gamers will have the chance to play, feeling this new type of experience.”

In an unexpected move towards action against videogames, the UK government published a plan to make videogames safer for children: reclassify games over a four month period to better help children and their parents properly understand what games they can and cannot play. You can find Gameindustry.biz’s angle here.
As some of you may be aware this plan was recommended by Dr. Byron in the Byron Review, but according to EA’s VP and General Manager for the UK, Ireland and Nordic regions, this will make delays in games reaching store shelves. Will citizens and game developers/publishers step up and denounce this plan? Should they? Let us know what you think…