Keith Stuart

Another week, another public-relations cluster bomb for Sony. The company has been accused of "desecration" by the Church of England thanks to the appearance of Manchester Cathedral in the PlayStation 3 shooter <i>Resistance: Fall of Man</i>, and is facing possible legal action.

On May 12, the <i>Guardian</i> reported on Google’s plans to psychologically profile online gamers and then hawk the information to advertisers. The company has filed patents for a technology that analyses the tactics we use in games like <i>World of Warcraft</i> and <i>Quake</i>, so that in-game ads can be individually doctored to the player.

Video games, by their very nature, are considered disposable commodities. Today’s cutting-edge masterpiece is tomorrow’s laughable relic, and even those few titles that maintain their appeal can easily be picked up in bumper nostalgia packs like Sega’s recent, and in my opinion unmissable, <i>Mega Drive Collection</i> on PlayStation Portable.

For years, video-game watchers have complained that there is no mainstream channel for independently produced games. Xbox Live Arcade and now the PlayStation 3’s E-Distribution Initiative have shifted the industry mindset, with Microsoft and Sony actively courting the indie development scene.

A games drought is coming. Xbox 360 owners in the United Kingdom will get <i>Crackdown</i> this week then nothing much until the likes of <i>Mass Effect</i>, <i>Bioshock</i> and, of course, <i>Halo 3</i>. Wii fans have <i>Mario</i> and <i>Metroid</i> titles to look forward to in the distant future.