Fill your back catalog at GameStop

So this is kind of cool.

GameStop is doing "Buy 2, Get 1 Free Sale" on all used games and accessories (you can use coupon code GSB2G1 if you're ordering online).

If you have an Edge Card, you get an extra 10% off. What makes this particularly cool is if you're not inappropriately fixated on "next-gen" graphics, there are a bunch of original Xbox, Gameboy Advance, GameCube, etc. titles you can get for peanuts, that all play on their now-gen successors.

For example, print out the Xbox backwards compatibility list (from Xbox.com, once it's back online), and pick up things like Project Snowblind for $2.49, Hunter: The Reckoning (a personal fav) for $2.99, etc. (if you're looking online, I just sorted used Xbox games by price). And this is all before discounts.

Of course, the discount applies to current-gen games too, so it makes GameStop's not-discounted-enough titles more palatable, if you're looking for new or recent titles.

(I'm not affiliated with or paid by GameStop / EBGames. ;-)

Circuit City and other game deals

Lotta good stuff listed on this week's deals posting from CheapAssGamer.com

Google Lively AGDC keynote quick notes

Kevin is Largely on the content side.

120 content developers registered. Will be opened to everyone soon.

Opening up the API will happen "soon".

Talked about getting content from "Max or Maya or Flash or SketchUp".

Formed separate company as content team for Lively.

Have seen a user-created plug-in for international use (implied Japan/by-di).

Envision Peer-to-peer transactions.

"We're going to open up animation tool. Dcc will be "Max and Maya and Sketch-Up".

Adam in Austin for AGDC

Starting today, I'll be in Austin for a week for the Austin Game Developers Conference (the conference proper starts next week).

It's hopefully going to be wicked busy, but you can track me via Twitter and Brightkite.

I'd like to meet up with you if we can.

Of course, this is all pending Hurricane Ike (especially since I connect through Houston this morning).

http://twitter.com/adamcrei
http://brightkite.com/people/adamcrei/

Deals, deals, deals ...

I'm curious to see how the Xbox 360 price drops change the retail landscape (or not), with the $199 Arcade version the cheapest now-gen console on the market. Dunno if Nintendo will follow suit, but Sony's already said they don't feel the need to drop their price.

In case you were wondering, here's the new official retail price breakout for the U.S. (Japan may get a similar price drop, but the UK, not so much):

• Xbox 360 Arcade ($199.99, no hard drive)
• Xbox 360 Pro (Core?) ($299.99, 60GB)
• Xbox 360 Elite ($399.99, 120GB)

So, are there better or worse places to buy the newly priced 360s? Yeah -- Circuit City, who's giving away a 1600 Xbox Live points card with the purchase of any Xbox. Cheaper new consoles and a $20 XBL card? (I think Microsoft uses new math.)

While you're at Circuit City, you can also pick up any of 3 titles for $15 bucks (new): Ghost Recon 2: Advanced Warfighter, Saints Row, or the excellent, everyone-should-play, Dead Rising. Or you can get wireless controllers for five bucks off.

There are even rumors that Call of Duty 4 will be $29.99 at Circuit City the following week of the 14th (if this is the GotY edition, pick ... it... up), and Gears of War (for PC) will be $14.99.

I'm probably being really unfair to other retailers and platforms, but those are the only things that jumped out for me this weekend.

Gamebryo / EGT updates

Just a few quick updates on the toy job front.

Forbidden Terror on Station Z, our "Zombies on Rails Shooter in Space" gameplay / tech demo from GDC08 is now available to the masses, via Emergent.net. You, Joe Gamer, equipped with at least a middling PC and an Xbox 360 controller, can download and play this nice little time-suck. Evaluators and licensees can actually download the full source code, crack it open, and play around -- on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii (assuming you're licensed for those platforms).

I'll actually be in Austin for the Austin GDC (as will a bunch o' EGT folks), and I (and a co-worker) will be presenting a case study for the demo Monday at 3 p.m.:

"Zombies Ate Our Dogfood (and Drank Our Kool-Aid®)"

We'll be playing and deconstructing the demo. Dunno which (Any? All?) platforms I'll be bringing for play, but it promises to be an engaging chat

(In the schedule, this is probably listed as "Zombie Survival Seminar: A Case Study on Short Timelines, Limited Resources and Achieving Big Results.")

On the conference front, EGT had a strong showing at Leipzig, and licensee Larian Studios had a strong showing of sequel Divine Divinity 2: Ego Draconis ("I the Dragon").

Speaking of strong showings, Gamebryo-powered MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, has gone gold and announced a September 18 ship date. (For those liking the behind the scenes side of things, be sure to check out the production podcasts.)

Continuing the MMO news, another title with Gamebryo under the hood, Wizard101, went live today. Calling it a "'Tween MMO" is probably a bit underselling, and I'm intrigued by this almost all-ages MMO, and the steps the team has taken to make it a safe, fun, engaging online experience.

Also, Hidden Path Entertainment's Defense Grid: The Awakening, was well received at last week's Penny Arcade Expo. This looks to be a fun tower defense implementation, and is already looking visually spiffy.


On the partner technology front, EGT released an updated Audiokinetic Wwise integration (version 1.0.5, which supports Gamebryo 2.5.0.1 (for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360) or Gamebryo 2.3.0.102 (for Wii) and Wwise 2008.3).

We also released an Umbra (hardware-accelerated occlusion culling) integration (v1.1.0) for Gamebryo 2.3.0.5 (available from and supported via Umbra). The Gamebryo 2.5 version of the integration is still in development and will be announced down the road.

Other than that, I'm heads down as the producer for our GDC09 demo. We're doing things quite a bit different for next year, so as a Product Manager, I've got to make some decisions as to if / when / how I'm going to tease demo info out. More to come.

UPDATED: Added mention of Gamebryo-powered Defense Grid: The Awakening from Hidden Path Entertainment, which was received very well at PAX.