Games Toaster

NOTE: Old content being picked up as new

Google News and other sites have picked up some of our old news as new.

UPDATE: This looks like it is happening again for different reasons – on request, Google News changed the RSS news feed they use to obtain our news. The new feed is located at http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/rss.xml

In order to make our news archive more accessible, Games Toaster is currently expanding the list of categories tags on our news archive; for every new category created a new page is automatically created for the category, apparently because of this Google News and other sites have found our archived news items and listed them as current news – we apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The beast that is Google News picked up at least one new category “e3_2005” at /games_toaster/e3_2005/, this looks to be causing the most redirects.

The most notable other site which has linked to our archive is the Inquirer, who kindly picked up our news article on ‘Streaming music over Live may breach laws’. This article was however published last May; we list the date of publication at the end of articles. We would like to extend our apologies for any inconvenience caused to the Inquirer, and their readers.

Before proceeding with more tags we will publish highly visible banners on this sites side panels which should be seen on any page of this site.

This clarification has been added to all recently created tags, and should appear at the top of the relevant pages.

A photograph of games art?

Games Toaster just thought we might as well share  this piece of games-related art we spotted while in LA for E3, and this wasn’t in the LACC, or LACMA, but on Venice Beach… 

Our Gamedevelopers.ie E3 article

We should have mention this before - Games Toaster’s article on E3, with a focus on the activities of Irish companies, was published on Gd.ie some time ago…

Xbox 360: Streaming music over Live may breach laws

At E3 last week Games Toaster was shown an Xbox Live demonstration which showed the planned function of allowing users to stream their music over Live to other players while playing multiplayer games.

The streamed music could come directly from the senders digital music player or PC, it would be heard by other 360 Live players, but would not be saved on the receiver’s consoles. At the demo Games Toaster was assured this would not breach any copyright or broadcast law, because the music would not be saved.

However, when we contacted the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), while stressing his comments were not a legal opinion, Brendan Griffin Director of Finance & Broadcast Licensing at the IRMO told us "My initial reaction is yes", and unlike Microsoft stance at E3 saying it just like playing music to your friends, the IRMO added “playing music over the net between individuals is a public performance of the work and usage would have to be licensed. It would not be like playing music in your home”.

Eurogamer.net slams Xbox 360 plans and marketing jargon

Eurogamer, the site who claim to be the most popular multi-format computer games site in the UK, have criticized Microsoft’s 360 plans, saying they were lacking, and labeling most of the was said at the Xbox press conference last night as rubbish.

Their article ‘Xbox 360 fails to convince in LA’ goes into territory most games journalists and publications – even professionals – would never dare to venture into, in what is seen as a heavily PR-controlled media sector.

In at least some hardcore gaming circles in Ireland and the UK, Eurogamer are highly respected and trusted, their sister business orientated site GamesIndustry.biz have similar respect within the games industry worldwide.