Apple recently held another keynote on the subject of iPods and their mobile platforms. This of course included all ranges of their hardware, from the iPod nano to the iPod Touch, and of course, the iPhone. I picked up on the news from the keynote on one of those liveblog things (heard of them?), and found this particular graphic of interest. I'm an iPhone owner, but I can't help but feel like there might be something wrong with the information here.

For the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast we are looking back on why it failed. With SEGA it could be any number of reasons, but we narrowed it down to the top five.

5. Perfect Launch

With games like Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, and Hydro Thunder and a price point of $199 the 09/09/1999 launch of the Sega Dreamcast was an amazing success. At the time it was the most successful console launch in North American history. The hype was undeniable and everybody wanted to be friends with the guy on the block that had one. Third parties were stoked when the console sold 500,000 units in the first two weeks. Certainly, this speedy start could only lead to good things for Sega and the Dreamcast.

Gamers have grown up. Not many can argue that these days, but some may rightfully debate with you on the maturity levels of many. With age, gamers secure default levels of responsibility, lifestyle standards, and priorities. When a game fails to live up to those standards, some --- er many become disillusioned with the process and often fall prey to rationalizing why or how the games have somehow failed them.

This isn’t the reality of the situation though…and we all know it, whether we wish to believe it or not.

The truth of the matter is that games are growing up at a much slower pace than our generations are. The downside of this is that many will fall as tragic prey to what I just described above, those lifestyle rationalizations. The upside however, is that with generations such as my own ('the eighties babies'), you get a automatic diversification of design. Since we’re constantly tugging for things such as clarity, shorter lengths, and a more stringently placed ‘price2play’ ratio (e.g. a game’s rough quality in tandem with its price). This could be seen as a bit of an extreme stance when compared to the average teen or even preteen that has the time and/or spoils to pour into their games still.

Avid gamers know that one of the more interesting things video games has going for it is it's passionate community.  Gamers are both loyal and critical, vocal and reserved, optimistic and cynical; as hobbyists we can bring entire companies down with our collective buying power, yet at the same time celebrate and promote companies to Fortune 500 status.

Such is the power of the modern gamer.  With the advent of the internet, today's "hardcore" gamer is anything but quiet, and this modern gamer can take many different forms and shapes.  Oftentimes they are commenting on articles or posting in forums, but don't think that they can't take the form of some of the internets more harmful conspirators.

There is a fairly significant amount of skepticism surrounding Mercury Steam’s working title, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The Belmont clan (among others) have literally defined a genre of side scrolling adventuring along with Ms. Samus Aran. These titles blend a subtle mixture of platforming, adventuring, and modest RPG elements to form what many refer to as ‘Metroidvania’; an enshrined category of games that many won’t protest if it is simply re-skinned (no offense intended, Shadow Complex).

Reading a recent interview done with Dave Cox (Producer of Lords of Shadow) has led me to believe that, while there is still much to be concerned over, a weight has been lifted. Why? Well…