Anyone remember Linden Lab? How about its game, Second Life? Well, it was the talk of the middle of the last decade (and winner of a 2008 Emmy award), and it’s making moves again. It’s just announced the acquisition of …

More than 5 million people have been playing with virtual building blocks in Minecraft. This summer, they’ll get the opportunity to manually assemble 480 physical pieces with LEGO Minecraft Micro World. The $34.99 toy set comes with four customizable vignettes …

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the best-selling anything ever,  is now free on Steam until Sunday afternoon.

With roughly 10 trillion copies sold (one for every man, child, and amoeba to ever walk the Earth), you’re probably wondering why …

Japanese newspaper Nikkei is reporting that developers are abandoning PlayStation Vita projects in favor of the Nintendo 3DS. (Nikkei was also the first to break the news that Sony appointed Kazuo Hirai as CEO, which Sony denied and then later …

Nintendo’s Wii game console gained some significant ground as a streaming video set-top box with the announcement of a new Hulu Plus channel launching today.

While the Wii does have a channel that allows you to browse the internet, Hulu’s …

VideoGameDesignSchools.org has crafted a slick infographic detailing Valve’s conquest of the digital distribution market.

It should come as no surprise that Steam is doing well, but this infographic puts in perspective just how much better Valve’s PC gaming digital storefront …

The Sony PlayStation Vita goes on sale in stores next week, but the folks at iFixit have already torn one apart to figure out what’s inside.

If the device takes off, then the teardown will give a clue as to …

Peanut Labs is launching its Crowdvibe site today to allow anyone to create quick polls or market research surveys with large numbers of respondents in a variety of targeted markets.

Crowdvibe (at the site Crowdvi.be) taps Peanut Labs’ network of …

Kabam made its mark in social games on Facebook, but the company is rapidly diversifying away from the social network as it pursues fans of hardcore social games.

Kevin Chou, chief executive of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company, said in …

The National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAVGTR, pronounced "navigator") announced its list of nominees for their 2012 NAVGTR video game awards. Voice actors Tom Sizemore and Tara Platt were on hand to present the nominations.

The organization plans to have a panel of game journalists and other industry folks debate the list and predict the winners during the PAX East festival this April. It will announce the winners shortly afterwards.

And the nominees are...

In a blog post Wednesday, Mojang noted that they’ll be creating a new game in 60 hours starting Friday, Feb. 17, with the proceeds going to charity. Even more interesting, the development will be streamed live through the Humble Indie …

Tim Schafer has changed the rules for funding major game projects. Now he is making good on his promise to communicate status updates directly to his fan base.

After collecting more than $1.8 million in crowd-sourced Kickstarter funding for a …

Super Stardust HD saved the PlayStation Network at a time when Sony’s downloadable lineup was severely lacking. The dual-stick shooter gave Xbox Live Arcade’s beloved Geometry Wars a run for its money and managed to bring some fresh elements to …

EA Sports didn’t just drop a year number from the PlayStation Vita version of FIFA Soccer, a title that’s hugely important for the franchise’s success in portable form. While the developer made some omissions to simplify the intricacies of the …

We’ve been hearing for some time that Microsoft is aiming to make developing apps across Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 dead simple, but it’s another thing entirely to see that in action.

Rick Walrond, developer of the Windows Phone …

Digital Chocolate is launching its new social game Gangs of Boomtown as an exclusive title for Google+. The title is the third that Digital Chocolate, the game company headed by Trip Hawkins, has made for Google’s social network. But it …

Join Dean Takahashi as he does an interview with Zaw Thet on Spreecast today at 2:30 pm. Zaw and Dean will talk about what it’s like to be a veteran tech writer in Silicon Valley.

Dean is the lead writer …

Lumines was developed by Q Entertainment, a Japanese game studio founded by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mind behind Space Channel 5, Rez, and more recently, Child of Eden. Music is in the studio’s blood, and exploring innovative synergies between sound and …

With Valentines Day over, it’s time to get back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Activision Blizzard is launching a new map this month dubbed Overwatch, a multi-floor battle that takes place 70 floors up in a skyscraper.

The …

French video game publisher Ubisoft reported today that it shipped more than 13 million dance games and 7 million copies of Assassin’s Creed Revelations during its third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31.

For the quarter, revenue was 652 million euros, …