Microsoft Corp. is bringing its video-game expertise to the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 line, an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Xbox 360 as the software maker tries to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Microsoft says a dedicated group inside of Microsoft Game Studios will develop video games for Windows phones, help outside game publishers and scout out small, independent game makers. Video game companies will be able to use the same tools to make a game for a Windows phone or for the Xbox 360 console.

The company is also announcing a preliminary lineup of games that will be available when the phones go on sale during the holidays. The list includes popular Xbox 360 console games such as “Halo Waypoint,” “Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst” and “Guitar Hero 5,” as well as newcomers including “ilomilo,” a puzzle game in which players try to unite cute little cartoon critters separated by increasingly tricky paths and mazes.

Microsoft Corp will begin selling its “Kinect” motion-sensing game system on November 4, before the crucial holiday season, hoping to lure new and casual players to the Xbox and steal a march on rivals Nintendo Co Ltd and Sony Corp.

The world’s largest software vendor, which has ambitions of making its Xbox 360 not just a gaming device but a hub of home video and Web entertainment, will also begin selling a smaller, same-priced version of the console this week.

Microsoft would not say how much Kinect — which plugs into Xboxes and lets players control games with body and hand gestures — will sell for, though analysts’ estimates range from $50 to $200. Executives said 15 titles, including one from Ubisoft, will be available at the time of launch.

Hackers have planted viruses in video games for smartphones running on Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system, according to a firm that specializes in securing mobile devices.

The games — 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art — are available on sites that provide legitimate software for mobile devices, according to John Hering, CEO of San Francisco-based security firm Lookout.

Those games are bundled with malicious software that automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, sometimes ringing up hundreds of dollars in charges in a single month.

Lord of the Rings Online will become a free-to-play game this fall as its new owner launches a major upgrade.

The move is another validation of the free-to-play business model, where gamers can play for free and pay real money for virtual goods such as better weapons or decorative gear for their game characters. The business model has been popular in Asia but only recently took off in the U.S. This move shows the pressure is building on game publishers to shift to the new business model or face declining audiences.

A new study has shown that brain training games do little to exercise the grey matter.

Millions of people who have been prodding away at their Nintendo DS portable consoles, smug in the knowledge that they are giving their brains a proper work-out, might have to rethink how they are going to stop the contents of their skulls turning into mush.

The experiment, saw more than 11,000 people using the games for six weeks as part of the broadcaster’s annoyingly upbeat science slot Bang Goes the Theory.

The participants were subjected to a barrage of cognitive test before and after the experiment but the study found that they showed no improvement when compared to a control group which just buggered about on the Internet.

Clive Ballard, director of Alzheimer’s Society, told the BBC, “This evidence could change the way we look at brain training games and shows staying active, by taking a walk for example, is a better use of our time.”

Nintendo Co plans to launch a new model of its DS handheld game console that allows users to play three-dimensional (3D) games without using special glasses, aiming to reinvigorate demand for the five year old machine.

The Japanese company said the new portable player, tentatively named “Nintendo 3DS,” will be able to play titles created for previous DS models and will be launched in the financial year starting in April.

During the keynote presentation at TechEd Middle East in Dubai, Microsoft’s Eric Rudder played the same Indiana Jones-ish game on a Windows computer, a Windows Phone 7 phone, and an Xbox 360. Gaming is about to get real ubiquitous.

Not only is the game itself playable on all three platforms, but the session is maintained when you move from device to device: if you’re playing on your Xbox and have to run out the door, you’ll be on the same level when you fire it up on your Windows Phone 7 Series phone. Basically, you’ll never have an excuse not to be gaming.

Microsoft has announced it will soon no longer support the original Xbox console on its Live online service.

From 15 April, Microsoft will “discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games”, according to the software giant’s Major Nelson blog.

The decision will also impact Xbox 360 owners - specifically, those who play old Xbox games on their second-gen consoles over Xbox Live.

On Friday, George Hotz, best known for cracking Apple’s iPhone, said he had managed to hack the PlayStation 3 after five weeks of work with ‘very simple hardware cleverly applied, and some not so simple software.’ Days later, he has now released the exploit, saying in a blog post that he wanted to see what others could do with it.

‘Hopefully, this will ignite the PS3 scene, and you will organize and figure out how to use this to do practical things, like the iPhone when jailbreaks were first released,’ he wrote. ‘I have a life to get back to and can’t keep working on this all day and night.

Source: Slashdot

There’s an interesting patent application from Google (GOOG) that was published earlier this month titled Web-Based System for Generation of Interactive Games Based on Digital Videos. Filed February 19, 2009 and published earlier this month, it describes a way to provide “the collaborative generation of interactive features for digital videos, and in particular to interactive video annotations enabling control of video playback locations and creation of interactive games.” And when you read through the description, it becomes clear that the games could be built atop videos submitted to a hosting site, which makes it sound as though Google plans to extend YouTube site into an associated gaming site

A 14-year-old boy’s mother had enough with her son’s gaming over the weekend. After turning off the console hoping he would stop gaming, she called police to ask for their help in solving her son’s “addiction.”

Angela Mejia had enough with her son’s gaming when she found him playing Grand Theft Auto at 2:30 a.m. She told him to go to sleep, but he refused.

“Sometimes I want to run away, too,” Mejia told the Boston Herald. “I have support from my church, but I’m alone. I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way.”

After unplugging her son’s game console, she decided to call 911. Police came to Mejia’s home and coaxed the boy into going to sleep.

Hit video game “Spore” is set to evolve onto the big screen as an animated movie, entertainment press reported Friday.

Daily Variety said Twentieth Century Fox was developing the film with video game publisher Electronic Arts. “Ice Age” film-maker Chris Wedge is set to direct, Variety reported.

“From every perspective — visually, thematically and comedically — the world of ‘Spore’ provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen,” Wedge was quoted as saying.

More than 65 million creatures have been created by players since “Spore” was released.