Gaming doesn’t stop for the holidays, but this column does. This will be the last rundown of weekly gaming news from me here until January 3. Let’s see how snarky I can make it without pissing off Santa at this late hour.
The latest in a series of “THQ has problems” stories from this year, the makers of the Saints Row games has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yet says they will continue to do business as usual, remaining “confident” in the various game titles they have in the pipeline.
Personally, I think someone with the means could pick up THQ and Hostess and create my lifelong dream of a Twinkie video game. Why not? Twinkie the Kid rocks.
Achievement Unlocked: 10G – THQ’s Christmas bonuses this year consisted of 100 free iOS downloads of WWE WrestleFest.
Nintendo TVii launches
The latest in Nintendo’s effort to add two lower-case I’s to the end of everything launched on the Wii U just in time for Christmas, but without some of the features originally promised for it, which are now due in 2013.
Props to Nintendo for ensuring further product confusion among grandparents and mother-in-laws at Christmas gatherings by adding this feature now.
Achievement Unlocked: 20G – “So how do I have to wave it to watch Andy Griffith?”
Perhaps the aforementioned TVii could help track the people who pulled up in a semi-truck in Seattle and stole entire pallets of Nintendo Wii U consoles, a heist with a price tag of $2.1 million according to a Kotaku report.
A little extreme, really. Normal people just wait in line on the streets of New York City for a month during a hurricane and snowstorm.
Achievement Unlocked: 30G – Thief will be 1,500 years old by the time he loads software updates on each console.
It’s getting thin out there
Proof positive this week that anything will sell as Christmas draws near, as I saw my local Target finally selling a copy of NBA Baller Beats. The electronics employee confirmed to me that it was the first one they’ve sold.
I only mention it here as my Twitter joke about it caused an exchange between myself and someone connected to the game. Required me to double dip.
Achievement Unlocked: 40G – There are more copies of the game in your profile pic than under people’s Christmas trees, pally.
The mainstream media goes postal on gaming again
In the wake of the tragic school shootings in Newton, CT last week, the mainstrea media has once again brought up video games as a scapegoat.
Once again, games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Mass Effect 3 have people with bad hairpieces claiming all over our TVs that people “train to kill” on these games.
After all, we can’t possibly have other problems in the world that can cause a person to choose to commit such a terrible act. The economy is thriving, right? Our educational system is top notch! Our health care system not only allows for a person with obvious mental health issues to find treatment but to easily afford it as well!
The odds were pretty damn high that a 24-year-old male was a video gamer. By that logic, CNN and Fox News could also tie in shoes and a toothbrush as having influenced the guy.
How about the noble idea of blaming the shooter, eh? The “influences of violent video games” is not the change we’ve seen in the past 40 years that is the issue here. What’s changed is that, at least in the eyes of the media and pundits, there is no longer any personal accountability. If a person does something terrible, off they go trying to figure out “what caused them to do this” instead of saying “the person who did this chose to be a rat bastard” or something of the kind.
Pull your heads out of your ass, mainstream media. Video games are not the cause of the world’s evils. Show some responsibility in your reporting for once.
Achievement Unlocked: 5,000,000G – And if you aren’t down with that, I got two words for ya. Merry Christmas!
Peace out until 2013.
Patrick Scott Patterson – who has written 91 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Patrick Scott Patterson is a Video game personality & historian who has been gaming since 1981. He contributes two weekly columns for The Jace Hall Show: "This Week In Video Game History" and "This Week in Gaming News".

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