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Spotify is hosting its own awards show
Spotify has announced that it will host its own awards show, called the Spotify Awards, that will provide "a true reflection of what fans are listening to," the company wrote. The event will be broadcast live on Turner Latin America from Mexico City, which Spotify described as the streaming capital of the world, ahead of even New York City, London and Paris.
The West Coast is finally getting an earthquake early warning system
On September 19th, 1985, Mexico City was devastated by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed as many as 30,000 people and leveled buildings across the city, including the 12-story Hospital Juárez, one of the oldest hospital institutions in Mexico. In response, the government set about creating the world's first earthquake warning system. One that, when an 8.1 tremblor set in on the city September 7th of this year, and a second 7.1 less than two weeks later, saved potentially tens of thousands of lives by giving them more than a minute's notice to head to safety. So why doesn't America have one along its Pacific coast as well? Turns out we almost do.
Raids in Mexico seize 28,800 pirated games
There's a gritty side to Mexico's booming game industry, shown today as the ESA celebrated the efforts of Mexican law enforcement. 500 officers from the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) and the Agencia Federal de Investigacion (AFI) teamed up to knock on a few doors down in Mexico City's 'notorious' Tepito district. By the end of the day, four pirate hideouts and three booty stashes were raided, netting roughly 290 DVD/CD burners, 28,800 illegal copies of games and more than 900,000 game cover inserts."Mexico is an important market for ESA members due to the enormous popularity of entertainment software," said Ric Hirsch, senior vice president for Intellectual Property Enforcement at the ESA. "Unfortunately, Mexico also has an alarmingly high rate of game software piracy that by our estimates reaches 88%." Sounds like those federales have a few more doors to knock on.
Mexico City looking into citywide WiFi
Mexico has already dipped its feet into the wide world of expansive internet access before, but now Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is looking into hooking the 8.7 million residents of Mexico City up with citywide WiFi. The plan seems to focus on connecting "schools, government offices, and the city's thousands of surveillance cameras," but wide open wireless internet would certainly elicit smiles from anyone actually able to take advantage of it. Interestingly, it was said that the city government is "giving this project the highest priority," which presumably means that the backlog of free Xbox consoles must be runnin' thin. No word just yet on when the city can look forward to unlimited WiFi, but considering that Mr. Ebrard just signed an agreement with China's ZTE to get things moving, we'd say things are well on their way.
Gangs get games for guns
Apparently figuring that drug runners would rather shoot a virtual gun than a real one, Mexico City authorities have started a program allowing gun owners in the crime-riddled Tepito area to trade in their firearms for game systems. Reuters reports that a high-powered machine gun will net a $756 computer, while turning in a smaller gun earns an Xbox (presumably a 360, though the article is unclear) or cash.Organizers reportedly took in 17 guns on the first day -- a relative blip in a region afflicted with 2,000 drug-related killing last year, but still a good start. Here's hoping these criminals find the idea of virtual violence much more engrossing than real world carnage.Previously: GRAW 2 to be seized by Mexican state gov't
Mexico and Colombia welcome the 360
The Xbox 360 launch was delayed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, which prompted us to wonder whether or not the early February launch in both Mexico and Colombia was still on schedule. The photoset on Flickr confirms that things indeed went down last Thursday. Held at a lounge in Mexico City, decorated with Xbox 360 images, game kiosks, and, uh, launch party booth babes. Hopefully the consoles will prove successful in Mexico and Colombia; Asia Pacific gamers will be none too happy to hear about 360s sitting on store shelves.[Via Gamerscore Blog]
