cbs posts

Diagnosis Murder game announced (and no we are not kidding)

by John Callaham Nov 3rd 2009 @ 9:00PM

Ok, we can see the appeal of a Murder, She Wrote game for a few people out there. The show lasted a long time on CBS and the character of Jessica Fletcher is almost iconic. But we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and that line was crossed today with the announcement of a Diagnosis Murder PC game.

For those of you who are under 50 (most of you) this CBS show ran almost under the radar for several years with Dick Van Dyke as a doctor who loved to solve murders. It also gave employement to his son Barry Van Dyke who played his son in the show. Merscom is developing this title as a "hidden object" style mystery-adventure game for release in early 2010. So what's next? Jake and The Fatman?

More CBS shows are on the way to the casual game space, by the way, including a previously announced Ghost Whisperer title (due in early 2010) and a recently announced Criminal Minds game, (due in late 2010). Both games are being developed by Legacy Interactive.

Filed under: Adventure, Casual

Cond� Nast buys Ars Technica

by John Callaham May 20th 2008 @ 10:30AM

Last week, the big huge CBS Corporation announced it was buying web media company CNet Networks (owners of Gamespot among other gaming web sites) for $1.8 billion. Now comes word of yet another smaller, yet similar business deal, as privately owned Condé Nast has acquired the tech and gaming oriented web site Ars Technica for a undisclosed sum.

Ars Technica has been online for close to 10 years and is certainly one of the best tech oriented web site but it also covers gaming extensively with its own section devoted to gaming news and features. According to a news post on the web site this new Condé Nast purchase will not affect the current editorial team; they will remain an independently run site. In fact this new move will allow them to expand and grow. Condé Nast, who may be familiar to some of you as a major magazine publisher, also owns a lot of web sites such as Wired.com and reddit.com.

Filed under: Biz

CBS bids $1.8 billion for CNET Networks

by James Murff May 15th 2008 @ 5:30PM

After the whole Kane & Lynch fiasco, who takes CNET seriously anymore? CBS does, apparently. In a press release today, the media giant announced that they were offering $11.50 for each outstanding share in CNET, or $1.8 billion in total. CNET owns their own gaming media giant, with GameSpot, GameRankings, Metacritic, and Download.com ranking some of the most popular sites around. The CNET Board of Directors has approved the merger and urges all shareholders to accept the offer for their shares.

The most interesting part to us, however, is the fact that in the release, CBS does not utter the word "games" at all. Apparently, the words "games" or "videogames" are taboo to a multi-national multimedia corporation like CBS. However, "entertainment" is a perfectly fine way to refer to it, even though it could mean books, movies, games, music, or even sports. Can't we at least get an "interactive"?

Filed under: Biz