Technology - Video Games

NEW YORK - Online video company Tudou Holdings Ltd. is planning to offer an undetermined number of American depository shares in an initial public offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday. Full Story »

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp stepped up its legal battle with Motorola Inc on Tuesday, as the software company accused the phone maker of charging excessive royalties on network technology used in Microsoft's Xbox game system. Full Story »

It's coming up roses for Call of Duty Black Ops, to hear most people tell it the morning of its release. Activision's newest first-person arsenal of ballistic bloodletting launched at midnight, ostensibly assuaging tens of thousands of franchise devotees who'd pre-ordered the game. GameStop alone held some 4,408 stores open. Three of those near me, in a modestly populated city, tallied more than 1,000 copies reserved. Full Story »

ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games plan to bring Infinity Blade to Apple’s iOS devices. The action-adventure role-playing game will be the first mobile game powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 technology. Previously available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 is world-renowned for its toolset and cutting-edge graphics. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc shares rose more than 5 percent on Monday, ahead of Tuesday's release of "Call of Duty: Black Ops." Full Story »

BEL AIR, Md. - Authorities in northeast Maryland say robbers have stolen more than 100 copies of the highly anticipated "Call of Duty: Black Ops" video game, which doesn't go on sale until Tuesday. Full Story »

Last week, Sony announced that more than 1 million PlayStation Move units have been shipped in North America. That's a pretty solid start for Sony's take on motion-controlled gaming, a category that is getting plenty of attention this holiday season. After all, with PlayStation Move, Sony faces competition from Nintendo's best-selling Wii and from Microsoft's just-launched Xbox Kinect. Full Story »

Video game violence hit a little too close to home last weekend, as armed robbers in Baltimore held up a video game store and ran off with 100 unreleased copies of the combat-themed Call of Duty: Black Ops video game. Full Story »

MONTREAL (AFP) - The commercial tsunami unleashed by the iPhone has served as a launch pad for the videogame industry in Montreal, which hopes to seize on the success of Apple's smartphone. Full Story »

This week in gaming was more about the platform than the games themselves. Microsoft released its long-awaited Kinect motion controller for the Xbox 360. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Looking to debunk a report that Microsoft's new motion-sensing video game controller might be racist, Consumer Reports says it found no evidence that Kinect has problems recognizing users with darker skin. Full Story »

Microsoft's Kinect motion controller for Xbox 360 has been out in the wild for 24 hours and what a bumpy ride it's been so far. Before most stores had even opened their doors Wednesday morning there were reports that Kinect was having problems with its facial recognition technology. Later, Microsoft got a little testy when someone put a $2000 hacker's bounty on the device, worries about availability appear to be overblown, and Kinect was torn apart to reveal the $150 device's innards. Here's a look at Kinect's first 24 hours. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, boosted by strong sales of "StarCraft II" and cost containment, and the video game publisher's typically conservative forecast for the holiday quarter failed to spook investors. Full Story »

NEW YORK (AFP) - Robust sales of "Call of Duty," "World of Warcraft" and "StarCraft II" powered videogame maker Activision Blizzard to better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday. Full Story »

THE QUARTER: Video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. more than tripled its third-quarter net income, and its adjusted results easily surpassed its previous forecast and Wall Street's expectations. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Continued strong demand for the latest "Call of Duty," "StarCraft" and "World of Warcraft" video games helped more than triple Activision Blizzard Inc.'s third-quarter net income and pushed overall results well above Wall Street's expectations. Full Story »

NEW YORK (AFP) - Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 motion-sensing controller Kinect on Thursday with a Times Square extravaganza and high hopes for the device that lets people play videogames using body movements. Full Story »

Microsoft is pulling out all the creative stops for the launch of Kinect for Xbox 360. On Wednesday night, New York City's Times Square hosted a star-studded party for the Thursday launch of the much-anticipated controller-free gaming experience. The Kinect is now available at more than 30,000 retail stores. Full Story »