Going against the grain of the current interest with in-game advertising, Wild Tangent founder and CEO Alex St John apparently is no longer a believer. Wild Tangent, one of the firsts of in-game advertising, now feels its a mistake to interrupt a game while somebody is playing it and that injecting ads into a game is no longer a "bright idea or where the market opportunity is." Mostly this feeling is coming from not having a tangible way to actually track ad units and there is no real way to measure their effect. This has caused Wild Tangent to completely change their business model which they say is remarkably simple. That model is advertising that supports gaming on a per play basis, where users decide if they want to spend their own money or have a company such as Coca Cola pay for their session. Wild Tangent's ad revenues went up 400 per cent the minute they switched to this model in 2007.

Since the introduction of WiiWare we've decided to include any release they have in with the Classic Virtual Console releases. This week for the classics we have yet another game I've never heard of. Making me wonder if I actually had an NES. City Connection you might need to show some Id to play with its tobacco reference.  And NeoGeo? Really? haha The kid that owned a NeoGeo was the same kid on the block that had red hair and always got hurt playing touch football. For full title descriptions click more.

Dr. Mario Online Rx (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points)

Family Table Tennis (Aksys Games, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points)

City Connection (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, Tobacco Reference, 500 Wii Points)

Metal Slug (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen - Blood, Violence, 900 Wii Points) [ more.. ]

Above is the steering wheel of the Ferrari F2008. The 23 visible buttons and switches we can see control one of the most advanced pieces of machinery in the world, a F1 race car. I certainly get a sense that these steering wheels have been influenced by gaming controllers. Check out an extensive gallery here. [oobject]

If James Cameron has anything to say about it, you'll look even nerdier in front of your TV in the very near future. Perhaps a few of you have heard of a little/absolutely mind boggling gigantic film called Avatar. For those of you that aren't nerding out and reading chud or slashfilm everyday, Avatar is James Cameron's new feature film that is going to be almost all motion capture CGI work. As always there is going to be a movie tie in with gaming and judging by the track record of movies that they make into games...it will probably be horrid. But get this! It will be horrid in 3D! Per Slashfilm: James Cameron revealed at the Microsoft Advance 08 that the Avatar game will come with 3D glasses and that" If you play Avatar on a 50 inch monitor, you're in the game."

Keep your fingers crossed for alien on alien on human sex (aahs) folks.

Head over to Slashfilm for the full skinny.

The day of reckoning is upon us! Video games have become artifcially intelligent and they are using their new found individuality to call us fat. Wii Fit is releasing this week. So hop on your Segway and head down to Gamestop and get judged by the skinny pimples at the front desk. Also, 4 Color Rebellion has a great article on the Wii Fit. Click here to check it out, and book mark the page.

Sony has announced a line up of titles set to launch over the remainder of 2008 and early 2009 exclusively for PS3, PSP, and the Playstation Network. A mix of original concepts as well as franchise mainstays, the upcoming list of software includes more than 15 games across all PlayStation platforms. The folks over at Sony have been excited lately with the PS3's "momentum" it's been picking up in the early part of this year. Does selling more consoles in Germany count as "momentum?" I'm not knocking the Playstation I've always been a fan and still am...but come on they did kinda screw the pooch out of the gate. Either way, I'm sure they'll be fine. Here is the list of games for 2008 / early 2009, that we here at 8bit will never see, because we can't afford what Germany apparently can. For full descriptions of the titles check out the the press release.

• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 - PSP (June 3, 2008 / E for "Everyone")
• Secret Agent Clank™ - PSP (June 17, 2008 / E10+ for "Everyone 10+")
• wipEout HD - PSN (Summer 2008 / Rated E10+)
• Elefunk - PSN (Summer 2008 / E for "Everyone")
• PixelJunk Eden - PSN (Summer 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• SIREN: Blood Curse - PSN (Summer 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation - PS3 (Sep 16, 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• LittleBigPlanet - PS3 (October 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• NBA 09 - PS3, PSP, PS2 (Fall 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• About BUZZ! Quiz TV - PS3 (Fall 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• BUZZ! Master Quiz - PSP (Fall 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift - PS3 (Fall 2008 / Not Yet Rated)
• Resistance 2 – PS3 (Fall 08 / Not Yet Rated)
• Killzone 2 - PS3 (February 2009 / Not Yet Rated)

I don't know Russian ( a little help please, Katie? ), but it isn't really necessary to see the value of printing scenes involving Mario, the princess, and some very perturbed looking mushrooms on your POS sedan. More pics of the goodness here. [Jalopnik]

The Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, just signed the Entertainment Industry Investment Act. In layman's terms it means that Georgia is offering a 20% tax credit to multimedia being produced in Georgia and surprisingly this legislation includes video games. Developers and producers can receive an additional 10% credit if they include an animated Georgia logo within the product. All of this and it still doesn't stop Georgia from sucking, try again Sonny.

I'm not going to waste time going through all the mind blowing stats of the above pictured machinary. It's fucking amazing. Read all about it here. Neither of us can afford one. [Gizmodo]

It's an interesting question and luckily for us Slate is there to tackle it. Enjoy.

[8bit] DOES NOT ENDORSE the above piece of gaming crap, the Xtensor Gamer Hand Exerciser. Words like biomechanical and isometric will not convince us that shit like this isn't meant for that loser back in school who always stood in the corner during recess with a runny nose. It's for weenies.

In a move that shocked autistic children everywhere, Activision has released pictures of their new drum kit for Guitar Hero. That's right kiddies, Activision is once again riding on the coat tales of Harmonix. The drum kit has (gasp) symbols! In related news, I poached this information from Kotaku, and they poached it from Destructoid's forums who intern poached it from Game Informer.

All of baseball has been immortalized in cartoon form and everyone comes out looking like precious moments figurines. MLB PP 2008 will feature ten game modes and role-playing story modes (for that small percentage of people who love sports and second life). Uhh...well guess I shouldn't knock it until I try it, but I'm not taking Varitek out to the mall to go shopping. 

For those of you who don't know, Solid Snake is a sell out. Apparently a commercial, for Regain 24 a Japanese energy drink, came out featuring Solid Snake. Now Konami has released news of an in-game iPod. Through this you can change the games music and download new tracks. Other, real world, items featured in Metal Gear Solid 4 will include: Two Triumph bikes (Bonneville T100 and Speed Triple), a Ga-Ko alarm clock and a Sony Ericsson W62S cell phone. I have no problem with game advertising, if done tastefully. However, this is pushing the envelope. Just hope to see a discounted price with all the cash Konami is shelling in through these sponsors. Ya right.

Oh Snap! Time to dust off that sweet Horde Orc costume and grab a ticket, while they still last! Dates are set for October 10-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center, CA. I wont be attending, due to incident at the dry cleaners involving my chain mail and battleaxe.