Weekend Box Office Round Up: 3.31.14

(Note: This only accounts for U.S box office results and U.S totals, World Wide income is not included)

1. Noah-44 Million(1st week)

2. Divergent-26.5 million(2nd week) 95 million total

3. Muppets Most Wanted-11.3 Million(2nd week) 33 million total

4. Mr.Peabody & Sherman-9.5 Million(4th week)-94 million total

5. Gods Not Dead-9 million(2nd week) 22 million total

6. The Grand Budapest Hotel-8.8 million(3rd week) 24 million total

7. Sabotage-5.3 million(1st week) 

8. Need For Speed-4.33 million(3rd week) 37 million total

9. 300: Rise Of An Empire-4.3 million(4th week) 101 million total

10. Non-Stop-4 Million(5th week) 85 million total

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Game News: New Xbox Head Confirmed

(The New Head Of Xbox, Phil Spencer) 

Phil Spencer has been confirmed to be the new head of Microsoft's Xbox division. Replacing Marc Whitten, who served as Xbox corporate VP before departing recently.

Phil Spencer explained exactly what his role in the company would be moving forward:

"I will now be leading the Xbox, Xbox Live, and creative teams including Xbox Music, Xbox Video and Microsoft Studios as we deliver the next generation of games and entertainment. Combining these teams will strengthen the connection between some of the world’s most innovative creators and those building the Xbox itself. I am incredibly proud of the talented Xbox employees around the world and believe, like they do, in the power of technology to bring games and entertainment to life across console, PC, tablet and mobile devices."

"The growth of the Xbox community, with over 80 million Xbox owners around the world, is built on the foundation of exclusive franchises, new and original IP and the world’s most popular cross-platform games. Games and gamers have always been at the core of Xbox and the core of my work - and gaming will be our core as we take Xbox forward."

"This past year has been a growth experience both for me and for the entire Xbox team. We've taken feedback, made our products better and renewed our focus on what is most important, our customer.  Our mission is to build a world-class team, work hard to meet the high expectations of a passionate fan base, create the best games and entertainment and drive technical innovation. As we continue forward, this renewed focus and mission will be a foundational part of how I lead the Xbox program."

Spencer's promotion came from new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He explained his reasons  for promoting Spencer "Combining all our software, gaming and content assets across the Xbox team under a single leader and aligning with the OSG team will help ensure we continue to do great work across the Xbox business, and bring more of the magic of Xbox to all form factors, including tablets, PCs and phones."

E3 is going to be interesting this year. I'm hoping we'll see some new, exciting innovative ideas from Microsoft during the press conference. I don't think MS needs a drastic change of direction, however there are quite a few practices that i'd like them to reject. Such as loading your game with micro-transactions. We pay 60$ for our games. They aren't free to play. So don't do it. Ever. 

  I'm also starting to wonder if MS is actually going to get into the VR business. After all Facebook just bought into it, and Sony has project Morpheus. 

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War In The Court, Nintendo's Reign Challenge(Game History Final Written Piece)

(Back in February I had a class called Game History. For part of my final assignment in the class I had to write a short piece based on the information we learned in the class. I choose to write about Nintendo's legal problems during the 80's. Just two really high profile cases that ended up impacting the game industry. Part of the assingment was to make a blog post about it. Which I did under a diffrent account. However, now I'm going to be sharing it publicly with you, my readers. Just for the fun of it!. Tell me your thoughts about the piece in the comment section if you'd like!)

      During the late 80’s and early 90’s Nintendo dominated the gaming industry. Being dubbed the “King Of Video Gaming”. Of course once you are on top, others will attempt to challenge your rule, question the legitimacy of it or even try to trick the system to gain a leg up over their competitors. This fight however, doesn't happen on some battlefield; no it happens right on our home turf, our country’s court rooms.

 Yes during Nintendo’s reign many companies launched several lawsuits against the company. The most notable ones include: Atari Games Corporation vs. Nintendo of America and Lewis Galoob Toys vs. Nintendo 

Of America

      Atari and Nintendo going to war sounds like a really bad plot to a cheesy 80’s B movie. However, this  case was intense. Atari just wanted to make more than just five games for the NES. You see, Nintendo had in place a policy that would prevent developers and publishers to make more than five games for the system. This policy was enforced by a chip that was built into the machine. A chip called 10NES.

Atari tried to reverse engineer the chip but failed and what do you do when you fail at reverse engineering a chip? You break the law. Atari, contacted the Copyright office, and asked to see the copyright on Nintendo’s 10Nes Code. They pretended to be Nintendo. The nerve, am I right? Anyway, Nintendo won this fight, with the courts ruling that Atari had infringed on Nintendo’s copyright. They won this war but there were more to go.

   Lewis Galoob Toys inc. made an add-on for the NES called the Game Genie. this add-on allowed users to use game cheats that allowed them to easily beat a game on that system. This made Nintendo quite upset and decided to threaten them with lawsuit. Well Galoob decided to take them up on that offer and declared that they were not infringing on Nintendo's  copyright. This was a fight Nintendo could not win. Finally after a year of back and forth the judge ruled in favor of Galoob, stating that game genie did not infringe on their  rights. As you can see now we still have mods to this day, and this case set a precedent to protect them

   This is just a small section of amount of law-suits Nintendo had to face while in their prime. There were some victories and there were a few loses. Nintendo’s domination led to some pretty vicious claims from other companies. Including Atari, who believed they had created a shortage of game cartridges on purpose to control the market. There accusations that they bullied companies out of business and created a monopoly on the game industry. Things you would expect from jealous individuals. Despite all of this controversy and potentially damaging rumors, the company still remains.

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Plans For Week 20

Here's the break down for next week:

Monday:

News Posts

Weekend Box Office Round Up

Tuesday:

News Posts

Blu-Ray Release Watch

Movie Release Watch

Video Game Release Watch

Wednesday: 

News Posts

Video Game Review Round Up

Thursday:

News Posts

Movie Review Round Up

Friday:

News Posts

Video Of The Week

Weekly Round Up

                                                                 Plans For Next Week

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Round Up Of Week 19

Monday:

Second X-Men Trailer: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/movie-news-x-men-days-of-future-past.html

Diablo III Heading To PS4 and Possibly Xbox One: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/game-news-diablo-3-is-heading-to-ps4.html

Weekend Box Office Round Up: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/weekend-box-office-round-up-32414.html

Tuesday:

Blu-Ray Release Watch: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/blu-ray-release-watch-32514.html

Movie Release Watch: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/movie-release-watch-32514.html

Video Game Release Watch: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/video-game-release-watch-32514.html

Wednesday:

None

Thursday:

Video Game Review Round Up: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/video-game-review-round-up-32714.html

Movie Review Round Up: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/movie-review-round-up-32714.html

Friday:

Video Blog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdZhNa0RBRM&list=UUdxi4wUgzCPzVnuD9u_gASg

Video Of The Week: http://theviolentsoundblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/video-of-week-32814.html

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Video Of The Week: 3.28.14

This week's Video Of The Week goes to Rev 3 Game's latest episode of Address The Sess. Now Adam Sessler is like a gaming rock star to me. I've watched his work when I was younger, and I'm glad he made the jump to the internet sphere. I find he has a very intelligent look on the gaming industry and he has a very likable personality.

Okay that's enough geeking out. The reason why I selected this video because it's one of the best series for in depth gaming discussion, not just by journalists but real gamers who consume games regularly. There's a lot of great discussion in this video and if you happen to enjoy it please check out the other Address The Sess episodes. There's a new one every other Wednesday.

I hope you enjoy the video!

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Video Blog: March 28th

Here it is, the latest video blog for this month. There's actually quite a bit of topics I discuss in this video so it has a longer running time then the previous Video Blogs.y 

If you've noticed, I'll be uploading my Video Blogs to the ViolentSound YouTube channel from now on. This way I'll be able to avoid having to rush or put a time limit on myself.  Blogger has a file upload limit of about 100 MB. I've been able to get away with uploading the previous videos because they were relatively short. However, once things start getting news heavy I'll most likely go over the limit and would have to upload them to YouTube anyway. 

So, I'm going to start making this a habit now. Every last Friday of the month I will upload a new video blog to YouTube at around Midnight. Then I'll write a post about it later on in the day. 

Once again, Blogger's in-app video hosting sucks, and can' find my uploaded video, Heres the link for the video down below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdZhNa0RBRM

Thanks for watching! and you can see the next video blog on Friday! April 25th

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Movie Review Round Up: 3.27.14

Noah-PG-13

Reviews:

Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-noah-20140327,0,7798831.column

The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/noah-movie-review-russell-crowe-in-a-slightly-different-take-on-the-biblical-story/2014/03/26/26e70446-b12a-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html

Screen Crush: http://screencrush.com/noah-review/

Sabotage-R

Trailer:

The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/sabotage/review/691592

Variety: http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-sabotage-1201148726/

Courier Journal: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/movies/2014/03/26/movie-review-sabotage/6924495/

The Raid 2-R

Reviews:

Entertainment Weekly: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20800407,00.html

The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/23/5337264/the-raid-2-review

NY Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/raid-2-blumenthal-movie-reviews-article-1.1735701

Breathe In-R

Reviews:

The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/18/breathe-in-review

Indie Wire: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/sundance-review-drake-doremus-breathe-in-with-felicity-jones-guy-pearce-amy-ryan-20130120

Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2369480/Breathe-In-review-Not-happens-does-happens-beautifully.html

Cesar Chavez-PG-13

Reviews:

SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Cesar-Chavez-review-Inspiring-man-uninspired-5354314.php

Austin Chronicle: http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/sxsw/2014-03-11/sxsw-film-review-cesar-chavez/

The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/cesar-chavez-review

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Video Game Review Round Up: 3.27.14

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (PS3)

Reviews:

Dracula's Cave: http://draculascave.co/2013/10/29/review-blazblue-chronophantasma-import/

Arcade Sushi: http://arcadesushi.com/blazblue-chronophantasma-import-review/

Todd Hunter Report: http://toddhunterreport.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/blazblue-chrono-phantasma-bbcp-import-review/

Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts (Xbox 360, PS3)

Reviews:

None at the time of this posts

Cut The Rope: Triple Treat (3DS)

Reviews:

None at this time 

Deception IV: Blood Ties (PS3, PS Vita)

Reviews:

Destructiod: http://www.destructoid.com/review-deception-iv-blood-ties-272064.phtml

Game Informer: http://www.gameinformer.com/themes/blogs/generic/post.aspx?WeblogApp=playstation_vita&y=2014&m=03&d=25&WeblogPostName=deception-iv-review&GroupKeys=games/deception_iv_blood_ties/

PushSquare: http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/psvita/deception_iv_blood_ties

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PC, Mac)

Reviews:

Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2014/03/25/diablo-3-reaper-of-souls-review-through-the-fire-and-flames/

Game Spot: http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/diablo-3-reaper-of-souls-review/1900-6415713/

Destructoid: http://www.destructoid.com/review-diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-272063.phtml

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends (PS3)

Reviews:

Games Radar: http://www.gamesradar.com/dynasty-warriors-8-xtreme-legends-complete-review/

PushSquare: http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/psvita/dynasty_warriors_8_xtreme_legends_complete_edition

God Is A Geek: http://www.godisageek.com/2014/03/dynasty-warriors-8-extreme-legends-review/

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (3DS)

Reviews:

IGN: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/21/professor-layton-vs-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-review

Euro-Gamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-18-professor-layton-vs-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-review

Edge-Online: http://www.edge-online.com/review/professor-layton-vs-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-review/

Smite (PC) 

Game Informer: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/smite/b/pc/archive/2014/03/25/smite_2d00_review.aspx

Destructoid: http://www.destructoid.com/smite-is-definitely-worth-your-time-260758.phtml

MMORPG: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/642/view/reviews/load/316/SMITE-Quick-Flashy-with-Great-Combat.html

Warhammer 40K: Storm of Vengeance (PC)

Reviews:

None at the time of this posts

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Video Game Release Watch: 3.25.14

1.BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (PS3)

Trailer:

2.Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts (Xbox 360, PS3)

Trailer:

3.Cut The Rope: Triple Treat (3DS)

Trailer:

4.Deception IV: Blood Ties (PS3, PS Vita)

Trailer:

5.Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PC, Mac)

Trailer:

6.Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends (PS3)

Trailer:

7.Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (3DS) 

Trailer:

8.Smite (PC) 

Trailer:

                                         9.Warhammer 40K: Storm of Vengeance (PC)

Trailer:

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Movie Release Watch: 3.25.14

All Movies in this list will be released on Friday, March 28th

1.Noah-PG-13

Trailer:

2.Sabotage-R

Trailer:

3.The Raid-R

Trailer:

4.Breathe In-R

Trailer:

5.Cesar Chavez-PG-13

Trailer:

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