Just weeks after the rental giant announced an expanded dedication for Blu-ray and even tried selling HDTVs in a test location in Dallas, now the firm is attempting to boost profits by digging into the surging video game market. Presumably in hopes that rental junkies and casual gaming fans alike will actually venture into Blockbuster in order to buy their next Wii, DS, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, the outfit has announced a new focus that will push the retail video game / game hardware aspect in all of its US-based corporate-owned stores. This includes consoles, a more fleshed out array of games and all the accessories your wallet can handle. Heck, it's even offering up an exclusive 40GB PS3 bundle ($499.99) with the Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray Disc, a PS3 remote, Transformers (the game) and a rental card giving purchasers a free PS3 game / BD rental per week for 12 weeks. Color us completely enthralled.

[Via Joystiq, image courtesy of Portfolio]

We're not gonna read too much into this just yet, but when everyone's favorite fruit-flavored consumer electronics company files to protect its trademark as it relates to a wide range of gaming devices, well, we feel you'd want to know. The USPTO sleuths over at Trademork just gave us the heads up on this recently-filed application from Cupertino, which requests protection of the word "APPLE" for products that classify as "toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games." And come to think of it, we did see Apple file for a videogame-related patent not too long ago, so who knows: perhaps the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV will soon have even more friends among the company's ever-expanding non-PC ecosystem. Then again, we've heard this rumor in one form or another countless times before, and right now pining for a resurrected Gizmondo is already giving us enough headaches.

[Via Trademork]

It takes a lot to differentiate a given vacuum cleaner in today's high-tech world of Dysons and Roombas, so kudos to Samsung for attempting to appeal to the gaming crowd by designing a model shaped like a popular Xbox character. The Silencio SC9540 packs in all the high-end features you'd expect from a TV manufacturer making vacuums -- cyclonic suction, HEPA filter, super-special silver nanoparticle coating -- yet really stands out due to its rather striking resemblance to that dude from the Halo games. Samsung's Master Chief vacuum cleaner: Kills dirt. Dead. With a plasma rifle.

[Via Slashgear]

Proving that children and the elderly are not the only groups seeing benefits from Nintendo's Wii, a study on a small group of surgeons who had practiced gaming with a modified controller showed them to achieve significantly more improvement on a standard simulator procedure than did a corresponding group of control subjects. Study author Kanav Kahol worked with Dr. Marshall Smith of the Banner Health hospital chain to build a special Wiimote attachment (read: broken golf club add on + laparoscopic probe) that eight surgical residents used to play Marble Mania and the full suite of Wii Play games. The gamers were then pitted against eight of their less-fortunate colleagues in a computer-simulated laparoscopic procedure, and managed to attain 48% higher scores, on average, than the non-gamers. Unfortunately, games involving broader motions such as tennis or boxing are said to be less suitable for this sort of training, make a total liar out of your doctor the next time you catch him "honing up on the latest techniques" by playing Wii Golf.

[Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal]

As if playing Rock Band wasn't one of the greatest group gaming experiences to come along in years, it appears that a new accessory is set to amp up the fun even more by bringing an "interactive light and smoke stage show" to your already thrashing performances. Apparently you can already pre-order this so-called Rock Band Stage Kit from GameStop for 100 bucks, although they've since pulled the box image from the product page, so you'll have to rely on the screencap above to see what you're paying all that money for. Ships on June 23rd, according to the retailer's site, giving us plenty of time to install a proper stage and stadium seating in our game room.

[Via Technabob]

This isn't the first time we've seen video games and VR in particular applied to medicine, but this is certainly the boldest claim we've heard yet. According some research done on chronic pain sufferers up at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, test subjects who were playing VR games were more comfortable than participants who were on pain meds alone. That might sound like a no brainer, but the researchers are saying that video games apparently have the potential of providing a safe, partial alternative to addictive medicine, boring counseling and lame-sauce physical therapy. Sounds like a miracle cure, but who are we to argue with Canada's finest?

[Via DailyTech]

It looks like Intel has some fairly big ideas of its own about the future of video games, at least if some comments Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner recently made to BusinessWeek are any indication. As the magazine reports, he said that Intel imagines that "some future generation of [Nintendo's] Wii won't have hand controllers," adding that, in their place, you'd "just set up the cameras around the room and wave your hand like you're playing tennis." Naturally, that mythical system would also be based on Intel processors (specifically, ones that can perform more than 1 trillion calculations per second), which Intel has apparently already talked to some unspecified video game console makers about using. No word if they've had any takers, of course, though we suspect at least some of them may be a little hesitant about the prospect of folks flailing their entire body around the room instead of just a controller.

[Via Joystiq]

Since we tend to concentrate on hardware on this little blog, you may not have realized that there's a rather seminal event occurring on the software side of things that has gamers pretty giddy, namely the release of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. And what better way to display your fandom than with a Master Chief Mimobot USB 2.0 flash drive from Mimoco, a 1GB ($50), 2GB ($70), or 4GB ($110) piece limited to 5,000 units (3,000 each for the Red and Blue Spartan editions, pictured after the break) and pre-loaded with all sorts of swag sure to fill the emptiness in your life once you've completed the trilogy. Pre-orders have already started, so if you missed out on the last batch of space odyssey-themed paraphernalia, you'll probably wanna reserve one well before the official October 18th release at E for All.

[Via Gearlog]

[via Unwired View]

Read - Patent 1
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In what's probably the appropriate legal move given the situation -- but what will probably not earn the company any warm fuzzies -- Microsoft is asking the U.S. Central Court for Central Illinois to dismiss that wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of young Wade Kline, arguing that "misuse or abuse" of the family Xbox was the cause of the deadly blaze. Specifically, Redmond claims that the suit, which also names Wal-mart and and an anonymous power-supply maker, lacks merit because the Klines "knowingly, willingly, intentionally, and voluntarily exposed themselves to said danger and assumed the risk of incident, injuries, losses, and damages" -- though it's not really clear what "danger" they're referring to. Besides looking to clear its good name, Microsoft also wants the now house-less family to cover its likely-steep legal costs, which probably won't do much to win back the Klines as return customers. We'll keep you posted as the case progresses.

A brand new US study in the vein of "wasn't that already completely obvious?" has revealed that boys and girls who play video games on school days do less homework and reading than those straight edge kids who swear off the stuff altogether. Boys average 30 percent less time spent studying, while girls drop off 34 percent. The good news is that video games didn't negatively impact quality family time or get in the way of sports and other such activities. Is that so? Apparently WoW players were not represented in this poll, most likely because they couldn't be bothered to put that raid on hold to answer a few questions. Speaking of... we'll be right back... after we do something very important and serious.

If you've been thinking lately that your video game habit is getting a bit excessive, don't worry. According to reports this week, doctors backed away from a proposal that would have designated certain types of video gaming as a mental disorder (similar to alcoholism or gambling addiction) -- so you can rest easy knowing that whatever it is that you're doing to yourself probably isn't that big of a deal. We attempted to speak to two avid gamers concerning the decision, but one was busy fighting Razorgore the Untamed in WoW, and the other claimed that he didn't have a problem and could quit whenever he wanted.

Wall mounted video games are totally de rigeur these days, so it's a shame that the only way to get your hands on anything other than Pong, is to get your hands dirty and put it together yourself. In the case of the Picture Frame Tetris, it took nine guys several hours of work to put together 240 LED buttons into one huge array. So, what're all the buttons for? Well, if you press a button to the left or right of the currently falling brick, then it'll move in that direction. Similarly, you touch the top row of buttons to rotate the brick, and the bottom row to drop it instantaneously. (To us and our Gameboy damaged hands, it sounds like a lot of work to play as well as build.) If you want to get your hands digits on the Picture Frame Tetris, you'll have to check it out at the Maker Faire at San Mateo Fairgrounds in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alternatively, you could plunk down $1500 for a 16x16 board of interactive LED buttons, which would give you more than enough LEDs for a Tetris, but without the extras needed to play Tetris on your wall. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to enjoy the construction as much as the game in order to motivate yourself to make one.

It looks like the long wait is over for Guitar Hero fans impatient to get their thrash on with the currently Hero-less PlayStation 3, as a new USB adapter from Pelican promises to succeed where others have floundered and enable controllers from both PlayStation 2 versions to work on the newest console. As you may recall, the compatibility problem arises from the guitars' lack of the PS button required to start PSone and PS2 games on the PS3; Pelican's adapter addresses this issue by sporting a PS button of its own, along with three LEDs to indicate whether the unit is in regular, Guitar Hero left, or Guitar Hero right mode. Sounds pretty snazzy, and if it works as promised, may allow you to finally retire the old PS2 once and for all.

[Via Joystiq]

It looks like Microsoft has decided to return some of its record-breaking profits back to the consumer in the form of a free Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit for Elite owners -- although some will look at this gesture as less of a gift (being that it could have just been included in the box with all Elites) and more of a hassle to get a one-time-use product that already comes bundled with the standalone 120GB drive. Interested parties can grab the necessary form by following the Read link, but you'll need the serial numbers of both 360s to qualify, so if you were just looking for a free cable to tie up your pets or friends, you're out of luck. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Joystiq, thanks Josh F.]