A new lawsuit might finally give people the answer they've been searching for (cash) when asked why they waste so much time playing FarmVille.
News Blips:
A Minnesota woman files a class-action lawsuit against Zynga for sharing private user data. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that several Facebook games, including Zynga's FarmVille, were collecting personal user information and sharing it with advertisers. The lawsuit is seeking monetary relief for users whose data was shared, as well as measures to prevent further privacy issues. Kassra Nassiri, co-lead attorney for the lawsuit, said, "Companies large and small need to learn to follow through on their privacy promises or risk having consumers decide that it is simply not worth it to use their services." We should amend the saying "noting is free" to include "not even FarmVille." [PR Newswire]
A study indicates a majority of gamers are willing to wear glasses to play 3D video games. According to the U-Decide Initiative, a research group focused on 3D entertainment, 80 percent of gamers are interested in playing 3D titles even with glasses, while 92 percent are interested only without glasses. This contradicts a previous survey that found 46 percent of consumers do not want to wear glasses to experience 3D entertainment. How are we going to wear 3D glasses, a headset, and prescription glasses all at the same time? Someone should invent a 3D monocle!
Phil Spencer, corporate vice president for Microsoft Game Studios, says 3D technology isn't accessible enough. "As an entertainment company, we're trying to do things that millions of people can go enjoy today," Spencer said. He also implied that Microsoft doesn't have the corporate obligation to push 3D TVs onto consumers like Sony does as a manufacturer of both game systems and televisions. Good thing Sony doesn't own a fast food chain. Otherwise they'd be trying to sell us Smell-o-Vision too. [CNN]
Capcom is urging fans to speak up so it can justify bringing Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney to audiences outside of Japan. Level-5, the developers behind the Layton series, announced the crossover with Capcom's Ace Attorney series earlier this week at its Vision conference. The title is currently scheduled for Japan only, but the Capcom Unity blog is asking fans to leave comments asking for the game to be translated and released elsewhere. It may be a thinly-veiled attempt at increasing hype and the number of Capcom Unity members, but that's no reason to risk missing out on the best crossover since Reese invented the peanut butter cup.
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