Gearfuse

In preparation for the tremendous Christmas rush, EA Sports has taken it upon themselves to open a pair of stores, one in San Francisco, one in Boston, dedicated to only one game: EA Sports Active.

Sure, the demand for Active is so exceedingly high that normal retail outlets are sure to be bombarded with a stampede of eager EA maniacs… really, it requires its own storefront? And not only one… but two? And are there actually people in there that aren’t employees? Who are these people?

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Why search for your own employees when there’s a world of other people’s work staring you right in the face. Microsoft isn’t only stealing Apple’s retail business model. Word on the street is that they’ve been lurking around Apple stores for employees.

Microsoft has been hunting down Apple retail store managers, promising higher salaries and paid moving expenses. But managers might not have to move too far if previous reports are true. Apparently the Microsoft stores won’t be too far away from current Apple stores. But, the big question is, will they sell toilets?

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In a move to compete with Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft today did a blitzkrieg of announcements involving the Xbox 360. Dubbed ‘Project Natal’, the next step for the Xbox 360 will involve a full-body controller that senses a player’s motion. Think of the failed Sega Genesis peripheral, the Activator, except done right. It uses a camera to capture motion made by the player and converts it into 3-D movement in the game.

Microsoft also added full retail games to Xbox Live that are available for download. Nothing special here, considering that Sony has been doing this on the PS3 for a while now. Nonetheless, it’s a welcome addition.

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Good news! Walmart isn’t just for hicks and drug addicts anymore! Now gamers can actually get excited about their parents dragging them to everyone’s favorite discount retailer. 77 stores in the Northeast US have received these nifty trade-in kiosks. You trade in your games and the value is put on your credit card a few days later. I wonder if the prices are competitive enough to go against Gamestop. If anyone can shake the market up a little, its Walmart.

Have you used one of these? What was it like? Let us know.

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GameStop, with its icy grip on the retail video game industry, has a new competitor coming up the pipelines. No, Funcoland isn’t making a comeback but rather Best Buy is trying out a trial program that lets customers trade in used video games for store credit. As Brian Crecente of Kotaku points out, this is a fantastic time to be in the used video game industry. No kid or adult has $60 to plop down on a next-gen game nowadays, save for Killzone 2.

I think this is a great move for Best Buy. It’ll force GameStop to become more competitive and will lower prices on used titles even further. Let’s see how Best Buy plays this out…

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We’ve been following the Circuit City bankruptcy very closely. Yesterday, we showed you some of the liquidation “deals” that readers posted around the Internet. Nothing spectacular there, but even less spectacular is Circuit City’s official website. It has no online store now and just announces the closing of all its stores, bankruptcy proceedings and other legal jib-jab. After 60 years, Circuit City is done and all that’s left is for Best Buy to continue raking in the profits.

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Technologizer’s Harry McCracken was brave enough to stop by his local Circuit City in California to see what all the fuss was about regarding the company’s liquidation process. Inside, he found mediocre deals on mediocre equipment. No surprise there. Harry speculated that as the shelves become more bare, the discounts will increase. We agree.

Still, I think it’s worth checking out a Circuit City if you live near one. Chances are the manager will be more than happy to bargain with you if you’re picking up enough goodies. After the jump, photos showcasing the death of an electronics retailer.

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Woke up to this cartoon on Tumblr. It’s so, so true, especially after my cousin received $75 in iTunes Gift Cards for Xmas. I mean, who really buys new music? Apps, apps, apps!

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When it comes to netbooks, a Linux operating system drops the price down significantly as opposed to it’s more pricey XP counterpart. As anyone who has ever worked in retail knows: consumers are cheap. Very cheap. It’s no surprise that when they see the price tag of a Linux-based netbook they buy it without thinking twice. They quickly find that they aren’t getting quite what they expected (Windows).

“They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.” said MSI’s Director of Sales Andy Tung.

As for myself, I would’ve purchased my Acer with Linux had I found one that fit my specifications. Linux boots up faster and is less prone to some of the nasty bugs on the Internet that are geared towards XP. Plus, any person who knows computers and has touched computers that run on anything other than Windows knows: Microsoft operating systems are haggard. Don’t believe me? Try Vista.

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Right now, in a time where the economy is complete shit and corporate raiding is nothing new, Samsung is trying to buy SanDisk, one of the largest manufacturers of flash memory. SanDisk is being resistant, so what’s a troubled company to do? In this case, SanDisk decided to launch SlotMusic, a microSD card equipped with a full album’s worth of songs from a major label recording artist. These “albums” will be available in stores like Best Buy and WalMart, ensuring they’ll collect dust for years to come.

You must remember, dear reader, that no one buys CDs anymore, let alone some fucked up microSD format. Only 29 albums will be launching with SlotMusic, making selection very limited. Om Malik has a hell of a point when he brings up that this is exactly like MiniDisk. Except that was the 1990s and everything was cool in the ’90s.

I love the above image from the SlotMusic website. I had no idea the iPod/Zune had microSD slots! Oh wait…

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