Gaming’s big wigs hope to wow at E3 - The Globe and Mail

At this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles more than 120 companies and 40,000 industry pros and media will descend on the three-day trade show, the biggest industry-only event in the game world (no punters allowed), which officially begins Tuesday.More Related to this StoryNintendo adds a social network to new Wii U consoleHardcore gamers shrug off Wii U hype: surveyNintendo says Wii U to launch before 2012 holiday seasonThe show’s excitement comes from hardware and previously un-announced game reveals. Historically, E3 has served as a platform for major announcements, particularly those regarding new video game consoles and handheld systems.All eyes will be on Nintendo to see how the company plans to recover after plummeting sales of its current Wii console. The Japanese game giant led the last innovation cycle with record-breaking sales out of the gate, but has since ceded the top hardware spot to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 while posting a $461.2-million loss for fiscal 2011. It may be impossible for the Wii U to live up to its predecessor's early success, but crucial factors – including the price of the system and its high-tech, tablet-like controller, as well as launch window software – will be likely be revealed at Nintendo's E3 press conference Tuesday morning.“But E3 is more than just a marketing opportunity for game companies,” said Julien Lavoie of Entertainment Software Association of Canada. “Companies converge to talk about various aspects of the industry and work out deals. A lot of business is done at E3. No other forum is as important.”This year’s show is taking place during a transition period for the global game industry, which American research firm DFC Intelligence estimates will generate lace front wigs approximately $78.5-billion in revenue in 2012. Growth areas are shifting from the sale of boxed console and portable games sold in stores to the distribution of games and extra game content downloaded via console, social, mobile and PC gaming networks, especially those based in fast-rising Asian markets.The growing popularity of social games in particular will be reflected at this year’s E3. Zynga, which owns the popular Facebook game FarmVille and boasts 200-million active users worldwide, will have a large pavilion on the show floor, as will GREE, Japan’s largest social and gaming network.Third-party game makers will fill the majority of the show floor, including Ubisoft, which operates two world-class studios in Canada.“This year’s event is particularly significant for us on many levels,” said Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat. ”The Ubisoft booth at E3 will highlight the incredible talent of our Canadian production studios, who are leading the development of highly-anticipated games such as Assassin’s Creed III, Far Cry 3, and Marvel Avengers: Battle full lace wigs for Earth.”In Canada, sales of physical games from both brick-and-mortar and online stores declined, even though overall revenue to the gaming sector grew by four per cent and the total volume of game units moved increased by 46 per cent over the last six months, according to market analysis firm NPD Group. That’s thanks largely to an upsurge in downloadable free-to-play and demo games, as well as additional paid content for titles consumers have already purchased.But one transition we’re unlikely to witness is either Microsoft or Sony announcing their next generation consoles. Microsoft is set to kick off pre-show events with an E3 media conference Monday morning, but with the continued success of its motion-sensing Kinect peripheral pushing the seven-year-old Xbox 360 to the top of NPD’s hardware sales charts for 14 straight months, the American company is more likely to focus on software, including the highly anticipated Halo 4.Similarly, Sony’s rumoured PlayStation 4 will likely remain under wraps at this year’s show. The Japanese company is instead chinese hair expected to centre its attention on new software and features coming to its PlayStation 3 console, as well as the recently launched PlayStation Vita handheld system.By the numbers:$74.5-billion -- Global game industry revenue (sales of software, consoles, and dedicated portable gaming devices) in 2011 (Source: DFC Intelligence)$78.5-billion -- Estimated global game industry revenue in 2012 (Source: DFC Intelligence)$89.6-billion -- Estimated annual global game industry revenue by 2016 (Source: DFC Intelligence)77.6 million -- Games “acquired” (through physical or digital channels) by Canadians in last six months: (Source: NPD Group)4% -- Growth in Canadian game market over the last six months: (Source: NPD Group)7% -- Decline in new physical game sales in Canada during the last six months: (Source: NPD Group)143% -- Increase in paid downloaded add-on content in Canada over the last six months: (Source: NPD Group)47 % -- Share of current-generation console sales by the industry-leading Xbox 360 sold 236,000 units in the United States in April(Source: NPD Group)More Related to this StoryNintendo dips a toe in digital distribution for new games

Cindy Crawford Sizzles in String Bikini - StyleList

What's the hottest thing to wear if you were one of the world's biggest models in the 90s? Apparently a purple bikini. First 40-year-old Helena Christensen hit the beach in a lavender shade (see the gallery below), and then 43-year-old Cindy Crawford showed off her killer figure in this plum purple suit. If Crawford's latest shoot for Allure left you wondering (or hoping!) about the role of Photoshop in creating her to-die-for figure, these latest shots confirm the mom of two doesn't need any help from the art department. Not that she's totally perfect mind you. "I think I look pretty good for 43. But I don't look the way I did when I was 23," she told Allure. "So if Star magazine or whatever wants to print a picture of me on the beach from the back, at the worst possible angle, and say that I have cellulite, I'm like, guess what? I do, and I never said I didn't." We'll have to take her word on that because we checked a lot of angles and couldn't find any proof! For more gorgeous celebs in itsy bitsy Hair weaving bikinis check out the gallery below. Sexy Stars in their 60s Vacationing with her husband on Saint Barths, 62-year-old Soap star Susan Lucci showed off her fabulous bod in this itsy-bitsy green bikini. Do you love Lucci? See her strut her stuff on the Heart Truth catwalk. INFphoto The one and only Grace Jones took to the stage at Camden's Roundhouse in London and wowed the crowed with both performance and her bod! Now 60-years-old, the former model and Andy Warhol muse still has to die for legs and a sense of style all her own. Ben Yacobi / WENN.com Once the princess of punk, Debbie Harry, at 63, is now the embodiment of Baby Boom chic. Of course, no matter how (um) old she gets, the Blondie front-woman will still rock out and will never give up her signature yellow mane. Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images Taking a dip during her Hawaiian vacation Goldie Hawn looked sexy and much younger than her 63 years. Fame Pictures Helen Mirren has played a royal so often that she could probably take over for a real one, but she apparently hasn't got a bit of the Queen's stuffiness. The Academy Award-winner has been everyone from a naked housewife (in "Calendar Girls") to a tough-as-nails detective (in "Prime Suspect"), and even at 63, is confident enough to let herself be photographed in a teeny red bathing suit. starsurf / Splash News Don't call her granny, gray-haired or anything that even hints that she's something less than fab. At 69, Tina Turner still has a great growl, glorious gams and gyrations that Weaving hair could kill. And the singer shown during her 50th Anniversary tour at Madison Square Garden is not alone. Click on for more stars who just keep on rollin' well into their 60s. It's hard to say if Mia Farrow is better known as an actress (everything from "Rosemary's Baby" to a baker's dozen Woody Allen films) or her spectacular romances (marriages to Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, and a fabulously sordid split with Allen). Still, at 63, the single mother-of-14 shown at Hong Kong International Airport is so burrowed in humanitarian work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an activist against the genocide in Darfur, that Time named her one of 2008's 100 most influential people. Andrew Ross , AFP/Getty Images The most successful female recording artist ever 18 No. 1 hits in the U.S., 70 Top-10 hits since 1964 the 64-year-old Diana Ross is still supremely cool. In 2007, she had the finalists on "American Idol" rocking Remy hair her songs. In 2008, she not only captured a BET Lifetime Achievement Award presented by her five kids and Stevie Wonder but she also headlined at Radio City Music Hall in "Divas with Heart." Larry Marano, Getty Images She was immortalized as the delicately beautiful Lara in the 1965 romance, "Dr. Zhivago," and in the nearly 45 years since, Julie Christie shown here at the 2008 Academy Awards -- has clearly lost none of her allure. The It-girl of her generation, she's kept a lower profile in recent years, making only a handful of movies 2005's "Away From Her" won raves for her haunting portrait of a woman lost to Alzheimers and in 2007, at 66, marrying for the first time. Lester Cohen, Getty Images Ever since she appeared in "One Million Years B.C." clad in a ripped-to-tatters bikini, Raquel Welch has been the embodiment of raw sexiness. And, at 68, it doesn't look like she's lost her groove. These days, though, she wears suits more than bikinis, running a business that's included everything from fitness videos to wig collections to QVC jewelry. She's even served as a face for MAC's "Beauty Icons" line. Tony Barson, WireImage