consumer-electronics-show posts

While not nearly as big as E3 for the gaming industry, the annual Consumer Electronics Show can be a place for some interesting gaming related product announcements. The previous show, for example, had the debut of Alienware's popular M11x gaming PC laptop and the announcement of a motion sensing PC game controller from Razer (which as of this writing has yet to be released).

The 2011 edition of CES will be held in Las Vegas on January 6-11 and the show will once again have its own game-based section called the CES Gaming Showcase. AMD, Intel, Logitech, Microsoft and others will have gaming related exhibits at the show. And for you console gamers out there Nintendo will also be exhibiting at CES 2011. This will be the first time that Nintendo has come to CES in 16 years.

[Via email press release]

A few months ago, the Consumer Electronics Show was trying to promote the fact that their annual massive gadget fest was going to have a bigger PC game presesne for its 2010 edition. Now that CES 2010 is officially over the truth has come out. While there were a few interesting PC game related announcements and reveals, CES won't be replacing E3 or PAX in our minds anytime soon.

Still there were enough interesting hardware gadget announcements and PC gaming reveals this past week that we decided to go back and give our opinions on what was shown at the show. While we didn't attend ourselves our sister sites like Joystiq and Engadget did get a chance to look at a ton of stuff at CES. As you can see there were several hardware reveals, the first public look at a long awaited MMO and a product that, well, we pretty much pegged from the start as a non-starter.

Click on the image above to continue reading PC Gaming at CES 2010

The Consumer Electronics Show for 2010 hasn't officially started yet but the oddball PC gaming peripherals that are always a part of the trade show are already announcing their presence. A company called IGUGU has just announced their new product called the Gamecore which they claim will allow most PC games to be played on your big screen TV while you sit on the couch.

The set up has a wireless keyboard combined with a wireless Xbox 360-looking gamepad-QWERTY keyboard for the actual playing of PC games console style. The system will have two options for actually connecting the PC to the TV; a VGA-based wired system for short range or a wireless long range system with two transmitter/receiver boxes for a range of up to 200 feet. IGUGU claims all this will be made available in the first quarter of 2010 for a mere $79. Quite frankly we have our doubts about the veracity of these claims and indeed of the company itself. Honestly, this smells like another Phantom Entertainment deal.

The Consumer Electronics Show is usually not a major showcase for PC games but that may be changing with the 2010 installment. The massive trade show, to be held in Las Vegas on January 7-10, 2010, announced today that their gaming exhibit area will expand by 50 percent compared to last year.

Even more interesting is that exhibitors for the gaming area will include Microsoft's Games For Windows program which means the show could be the showcase for upcoming Games For Windows titles. In addition the non-profit group the PC Gaming Alliance is sponsoring the exhibit hall's PC Gaming TechZone. Finally the show will apparently show off Lego Universe, the long-in-development MMO from NetDevil. So far the game has yet to make a public appearance so CES 2010 could be the game's coming out party.

The Consumer Electronics Show is supposed to be all about the positives; new products, parties, big display booths, etc. PC periheral company. However, some major companies are tempering their announcements with bad news due to the current economic crisis. Logitech is a perfect example of this new theme.

This morning the peripheral maker announced a number of gaming PC products they were showing at CES including the G19 keyboard with a color LCD screen for game and PC stats and even video and pictures. It's due out in March for $199.99. The company also announced the the G35 headset with features like "voice morphing" to make you sound like a "cyborg, giant, mutant, space squirrel, troll and alien". It's also due in March for $129.99. Finally there's the G9x mouse, a revamped version of the earlier G9 mouse that increases its maximum DPI to 5000. It's due in April for $99.99. All of the new products join the previously launched G13 gameboard.

However, the company also announced late on Monday that it has pulled its previous predictions for 2009 sales due to the current economic situation. Logitech also announced plans to restructure the company which unfortunately includes reducing its work force by 15 percent. The company has over 7,000 workers worldwide.

The first big event of 2009 is next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and if you happen to be in the area on Friday, January 9, Capcom could be inviting you and a guest to their big CES party at the Planet Hollywood hotel on the Strip.

Capcom's blog site states that they will invite at least 25 people (each with one guest) to the event where they will get to see demos of many of Capcom's 2009 titles including Bionic Commando, Dark Void and Street Fighter IV. There's no word if Capcom will bring the PC versions of those games to the event but you never know. And hey, there's going to be free food and drinks so there's at least two big reasons to get an invite.