Gamers Evolved

Anyone who is playing Halo 3 or any other type of shoot ‘em up game may want to consider donning the red color if you hope to win. A new study is being conducted to show that red will always (or almost always) beat out blue in online shooter games.

The study – which will be published in the Cyberpsychology & Behavior Journal – tracked 1500 matches in Unreal Tournament in 2004. The game splits players into two different teams – the red and blue teams. There is nothing different between the two teams except that they are two different colors. This means that there should be no advantage over the other when playing.

LucasArts has made plans to fire close to 100 more employees and to shut down internal development after it has shipped off Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. A source says that the company will be adding to the 75-100 employees that were fired last week and will return to outsourcing many of their projects to other studios.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was the first internally developed title since they released the Republic Commando in 2005. They were going to use it to mark the return to producing games within their own home – but that plan seemed to have backfired.

Microsoft is working together with Companions in Courage Foundation (CiC) to help deliver hundreds of the Xbox 360 consoles to children’s hospitals all over the country. The first set of consoles were released in late April at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York, the Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, and the Children’s Hospital in Orange Country, California.

In a CiC press release Microsoft President of Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach, said:

Sony’s PSP is popular – but last year it always seemed to be trailing behind Nintendo’s DS. Sony has finally had enough and is teaming up with Skype to improve the PSP by adding an internet phone feature.

By downloading Skype’s software, which is expected to become available as early as this month, PSP users can make free Web-based phone calls with other PSP users and the users of PCs equipped with Skype software. Unfortunately the new service won’t be available to those of you with a current model. If you really want the service than you are going to have to go out and buy the new model that is set to come out in September.

I’m sure by now most have heard about the loss of Jeff Gerstmann – who was fired from GameSpot only last week. Rumors are flying around the internet that he was fired for giving a negative and low scores. When asked to change it he refused so they fired him. Whether that is true or not hasn’t been confirmed – but that doesn’t seem to stop people from blowing up and getting furious with Gamespot.

Many fans of Gerstmann have commented their anger to Gamespot and have demanded an explanation. They have even gone so far as to boycott the site and cancel their subscription. A recorded 500 customers have already cancelled and more seem to be coming.