Free Pong Shirt With Purchase Of Select Atari Game
If you purchase a select Atari game at Best Buy, you’ll recieve a free Pong T-shirt. The select Atari games start at $4.99, and shipping is $3.98 for one game and the T-shirt. A list of games eligible for this promotion can be seen here. There’s no saying how long this offer will last, so you’d best hurry!
Your Early Holiday Video-Game Gift Guide
Joy to Joystiq, the holiday gift guide has come! Here is the early list to give you a head’s up on a lot things that the kids will love this Christmas, but be sure to check back for our Official List in a few weeks.
+ Gamespot features a console specific list and is the most comprehensive gaming gift guide we’ve found. Their top game picks include RE4 (GC), Civilization IV (PC), Forza Motorsport (Xbox), God of War (PS2), Advance Wars (DS), Burnout Legends (PSP), and Nintendogs (DS).
+ Barnes & Noble contains their top picks on games from all platforms. We’re not quite sure about their logic since it’s a hodge podge of random games.
+ CNET has the goods broken down by affordable, midrange, and expensive prices. Toping the list are the GameCube, GBA, Micro, Xbox, DS, PS2, and ironically, the N-Gage. Looks like they just picked everything.
+ Gamestop’s guide is console specific citing top selling games. See also the now sister company EB Games guide as well.
My wishlist is a bit more convoluted than these, but they do a great job relating the most appealing trends and fashion in the age of electronic gaming.
Game Developers’ Conference: Free Giga Pass or Scholarship?
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is now accepting applications for their 2006 Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) Scholarship Program. To be considered for the scholarship, students first need to join the IGDA as a student member at the cost of $30 a year. Once you’ve become a member, simply fill out a basic form and write a few short essays (100 words or less) on several questions–it could earn you a fully paid ticket to the Conference beginning March 20th, 2006.
This is a must-do for any serious gamer whose prospects in life are in the gaming industry. The conference is one of the most prestigious in the world, boasting educational lectures and hordes of fun on the side.
However, there is another way to attend the conference for free. Even though this alternative will most assuredly demand that you work to the sweat, I can assure you that it does not in fact involve prostituting yourself. First of all, apply to be one of the hundred or so Conference Associates (CAs). As a CA, it is your duty to spend 20 hours during the entire conference doing grunt work (think guarding doors, managing lines, stuffing goodie bags, entering information into databases, and other menial tasks). And what do you get for all this work? Quite a bundle:
+ The program’s managers (Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie) run a really tight ship. You’ll learn a lot from them.
+ Lunch and breakfast Monday through Friday are included
+ CAs receive full Giga pass privileges ($1325 value) when not on-duty
+ Access to all events and parties including the IGF and Game Developers Choice Awards (part of the Giga pass)
+ Reduced hotel costs by sharing rooms with other CAs
[via Joystiq]
PS2 Price Drop?
CNN writes that “Sony could slash the price of the PS2, currently $150, perhaps to $100, making the $400 Xbox 360 seem less attractive. Sony says it has no immediate plans to lower pricing for either the PS2 or the PSP, but after the holidays, who knows?”
Will Sony make the Holiday price cut? If they choose to do so, will it succeed in slowing the Xbox 360’s enormous momentum? The assumption of this article is that gamers will be more willing to forgo $100 for a dated console than plunk down the $400 for a next-gen console. I doubt consumers will be that stingy over the Christmas shopping season.
Black Friday At Best-Buy
Black Friday, the “Holy Day” among tech-enthusiasts, is the day following Thanksgiving (Nov. 26). Many retailers, notably Best Buy, CompUSA, and Walmart, are purported to be selling their wares at massive discounts. At Best Buy, the discounts will be plentiful; World of Warcraft will be going for a meager $24.99, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Xbox) for $9.99, Call of Duty 2 (PC) for $24.99, and the top-notch ATI Radeon x700 Pro 256MB AGP/PCI Video Card for just $99.99. Just so you don’t get the wrong impression, the sales transcend the realm of video-gaming. The TV Series Seinfeld, 24, Chappelle’s Show, Arrested Development, and Sex in the City are all priced at $19.99 a box or less! Check out all the deals here.
