Blisper

By Chris Olds | Editor

Wizard magazine, the leading publication dedicated to comic books, has ceased publication after 20 years and a digital magazine will be launched in its place.

The first issue of Wizard arrived in July 1991. Its final edition is the one on shelves now as the magazine’s staff was reportedly let go today. A digital magazine will be forthcoming from Wizard World Inc., a company that went public on Monday.

Wizard’s parent company had branched out to publish other magazines — ToyFare, for example — and promote comic book shows through the years while the scope of its flagship magazine had grown to include more than just comic books.

On Monday, Wizard founder Gareb Shamus, who is CEO of Wizard World Inc., announced that its Comic Con Tour will hit 12 cities this year and unveiled its plan to launch a digital magazine called Wizard World in February. That magazine will focus on pop culture via content on comic books, toys and more.

“This is a very exciting day for Wizard World and the industries it serves,” said Shamus in a news release. “Having the Tour produced by a public company provides additional opportunities to expand and grow the Tour. The new digital magazine Wizard World will give consumers the content they want in a magazine format with which they are familiar, but distributed in a form that is always available at any time on any device. It is a natural evolution for us in this market.”

via Beckett.com – Multisport Card News, Reviews and Videos.

It looks like it’s turning into the year of the next-gen gaming handhelds, now that Sony’s rumored PSP2 is expected to be announced on Thursday, right on the heels of the Nintendo 3DS event last week. Though it’s not a surprise that sooner or later a new PSP would emerge, the real question is whether it can recapture any of its lost market share.

It’s an interesting time for the venerable and somewhat struggling handheld game market. Smartphones and low-priced apps have become a more popular gaming platform for many. What makes a PSP2 any better than the PSP that came before it, or its failed attempt at a redesign, the PSP Go? And will it possibly be a smartphone as well? So far, here are the top rumors out there about the PSP2.

via Rounding up the PSP2 rumors so far | Crave – CNET.

 Big Games of 2011: The Man Behind DC Universe Online | GamerLive.TV

According to the GameStop website, the release dates of Batman: Arkham City and inFAMOUS 2 have been revealed. This is, however, neither confirmed or debunked leaving these rumors true.

via VIDEO GAMES: Possible Release Dates for Batman: Arkham City and inFAMOUS 2?.

Sony PSP2 Reportedly As Powerful As Playstation 3, And It’s Portable « AtomStack.

Microsoft officially kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last night in Las Vegas with their keynote address. During the hour long presentation Microsoft CEO, Steve Balmer, shed some light on just how popular Microsoft’s Kinect is. Originally estimated to sell around 5 Million units during the holiday season, Microsoft unveiled they actually sold 8 million units in the first sixty days of the device’s existence. Quite impressive.

But what does that actually mean for you – the gamer?

via Co-Optimus – Kinect Sells 8 Million, Fable 3 Coming to Windows Phone and Other CES News.

Dreamcast Collection Coming to Xbox 360 – SlashGear.

EA is giving Xbox Live gamers quite the sale this week. From January 18 to 24, EA is discounting a variety of game add-ons and Arcade games at half-off. Even EA’s recently released Microbot is getting the 50% treatment! Check out the full list of discounts after the break.

via PSA: EA half-off sale begins this week on Xbox Live | Joystiq.

Q: What’s most important right now for Microsoft in terms of your new product launches?

A: If you want to know where is the consumer heat, the things that people want to get their hands on…
via Maria Bartiromo interviews Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer – USATODAY.com.

For the most part, Wii versions of classic franchises retain very little from the games they are based on. Sure, they may feature familiar characters and themes, but the settings and game play are often wildly different.

Then there is “Donkey Kong Country Returns,” a game that, graphical upgrades aside, looks and feels like it could have easily slipped into the SNES library. It is a breath of fresh air.

via Old is new again in “Donkey Kong Country Returns” – PUC Chronicle.

Despite a poor economy leading to poorer sales than the company was used too, Nintendo has announced that it still ended up with the best selling gaming systems of 2010 according to numbers from the NPD Group. The Wii was the best selling game console for the year with 7 million units sold in2010. Not bad at all.

Likewise, the DS was the best selling portable with 8.5 million sold in 2010. Nintendo had great sales during the holiday season, with some impressive sales numbers in December to help it along.

Nintendo moved 2.5 million DS consoles and 2.3 million Wii consoles in December.

via Nintendo had best Portable and Home Console sales for 2010 – SlipperyBrick.com.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a very important man. He created a whole slew of iconic games like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and many more. He probably has better things to do than respond to fan letters.

Not necessarily.

Read the rest of the article via Mario’s Creator Doesn’t Have A Super Nintendo.

via World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Review (PC) – Reviews – Gaming Union.

Almost anyone who is familiar with gaming knows what World of Warcraft is, either through personal experience or otherwise. It’s impossible not to have, the game is everywhere and in just about everything; but for gamers familiar with WoW (and Blizzard’s) history, Cataclysm represents something a little different from most expansions. Cataclysm has promised to change everything in Warcraft, from the world design, to the game mechanics that many fans have criticized for a few years now as easy and ‘watered down’ from the game’s original ‘vanilla’ release.

Super Mario Bros. X: Mario Fangasm – Technabob.

Want to know how well you fare in video games? Well, researchers say they need look no further than a specific region of your brain – basal ganglia.

Psychology professors at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have said that they could now predict with ‘unprecedented accuracy’ a person’s skills at video games and other complex tasks by analysing the activity in a certain area of their brains.

via Brain images can predict your video game performance.

For the past few holiday shopping seasons, the Nintendo Wii has been one of the most popular video game consoles available. You can expect the same this year, as well. Nintendo has lowered the price of their Wii console for the first time ever, so now is the best time yet to purchase one. This year, brisk sales are again expected for the family oriented game system as it takes a price cut for the first time ever, allowing buyers to save more cash for Wii video games! Listed below are five of our most anticipated games scheduled to be released during the 2009 holiday season.

via Call Of Duty For Wii | Game Collector.

We parents and teachers owe Mario an apology. Yes, that Mario – the red-suited plumber who jumps on turtles and is empowered by mushrooms.

via Bryan Lindsey: Videogames can be teaching assistants | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Opinion: Viewpoints.

This week, DC Universe Online hits the market in an effort to let gamers live out their fantasy of being a super-hero, or even a villain. In the game’s first version, you have a choice to play solo, or go on-line and play with groups of gamers as you live out your dreams in DC land.

Players will have options of characters, with Batman, Spiderman, Lex Luther, and the Joker among others.

Players can experience visceral combat where they control every action the character makes. The fight sequences will give players a very intense and unparalleled experience in MMO games.

Players will also embark on story-driven adventures made possible through the writing of DC writers Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman, and others. Famous comic book artist Jim Lee created the new world and his vision is very creative.

If your a gamer who like DC comics, this game will blow you away. The time and effort is first rate and let’s hope it doesn’t take too long for the second edition to hit the market.

via DC Universe Online Hits The Video Game Market | Gather.

While there’s no official release date or news on an actual product, the Sony PSP2 rumors and specs continue online. Just recently, several sites offered glimpses of what the new portable game system could look like, as well as what features it may have in store for video game enthusiasts.

via Sony PSP2 News – Rumors and Specs for New… | Gather.

While Hollywood cashes in on the past, why doesn’t the video game industry do the same? There are a slew of radio heroes of yesteryear that would make amazing video game adaptations. They’re all just waiting there for someone to scoop them up and put them to good use, so let’s take a look at our favorite radio heroes translated to the joystick and mouse crowd. Sadly, there isn’t a Jack Benny: The Game title on this list, even though he’s my favorite radio star. But there’s a lot of science fiction and gunslinging, so read on!

via The Green Hornet Inspires: Radio Heroes of Yesteryear That Need Video Games – G4tv.com.

Merv Griffin Entertainment and Pac-Man game maker Namco Bandai Games America have teamed up to develop an unscripted Reality TV series based on the hugely popular video game Pac-Man, according to Deadline.

The Pac-Man reality series is envisioned as a “big, crazy Wipeout-type event with a lot of energy. To take what Pac-Man is and bring it to life, to bring what is essentially the world’s biggest game of tag to television.”

The new series marks the game’s first major foray into TV.

Sources: Deadline

via Pac-Man Reality TV Series in the Works – MovieWeb.com.

via Disney’s Epic Mickey video game sells 1.3 million copies in first month | Company Town | Los Angeles Times.

Walt Disney Co.’s gambit of placing one of its most valuable characters at the center of a dark video game epic has reaped dividends.

Epic Mickey ranked among the top-selling console games in December, according to figures released by the NPD Group. Disney sold 1.3 million units, said people familiar with the data.

Breaking the 1-million unit barrier is significant, given that Epic Mickey was limited to a single video game system, the Nintendo Wii. And that console has proven challenging for independent game developers, who are increasingly gravitating to more powerful systems that are more popular among young, male gamers — Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.