Who is Ben Mauro?

one of Ben Mauro’s settings for BioShock 2one of Ben Mauro’s unique settings for 2 K Games’ BioShock 2

Like many of you, Ben is a BioShock fan. But his obsession with the game goes far beyond sitting behind his PC or Xbox 360. As part of an architecture course, Ben designed six pieces of “organic” art for BioShock 2.  

Not only did he create the art depicting scenes of the underwater city environment but now there is buzz that 2K Games will pick up his artwork and incorporate it into the next version of the game.

Ripten is reporting that the community manger for 2K Games contacted them to say they “really loved” the artwork first posted by the site March 3rd .

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WALMART Looks Into the Gaming Future

Walmart? Who shops at Walmart for state of the art gaming stuff?

Well, pretty soon it may be me and YOU, as Walmart corporate has allowed its key buyers to blog information they obtain from consumer electronics shows.

Now you can preview the newest games, gadgets and gotta have techno toys at their new blog.

BUT before you click away, here are some of the up-and-coming trends in the market as put forth by Tifanie Van Laar the Walmart game buyer.

Expect Packaging to Matter – We spoke with quite a few folks about their publishing. It is time for our industry to mature and take more responsibility. Look at movies and music and some of the efforts they have undertaken. No need for heavy plastic packages that really are way overbuilt. We challenged quite a few suppliers on this front. We can, and must do better.

Expect More Street Dated Releases – Here too, we have much to learn from our brethren in music and movies. You know that Tuesday is the day for big releases in movies and music. Even smaller releases are out on Tuesday. With some of the marketing and development costs makers are talking about, there is no need to just ship date these titles. A street date serves as a call to action for the consumer. Hey, if I were spending $10 MILLION on just marketing a title, I would want a street date. Only one retailer does not want street dates, the other retailers want them. Seems that less than 30% of the industry is trying to have it their way. It just does not make sense to the industry or the consumer.
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