Have you ever dreamed about working on a video game? We got some time this week to talk to a local independent game developer, Hidden Path, about what they've been working on lately, and they also shared some inside knowledge about what it's really like to work in the industry! Read on to get the details from founder and CEO Jeff Pobst. more ›

People were lining up over a day in advance to get into the awesome launch party for Microsoft's latest offering in their critically acclaimed Halo franchise, Halo: Reach. The event gave rabid Halo fans the chance to playtest the game and count down to the midnight launch together in the futuristic comfort of a hazy, laser-filled auditorium at Seattle's Experience Music Project. While the fans fragged each other at one of the many stations set up to demo the title, this Seattlest snuck in behind enemy lines to get some exclusive time with two of the key people behind the game: Bonnie Ross, the general manager for the Halo franchise, and Josh Holmes, the studio creative director and the visionary behind the Halo: Reach experience. more ›

Mario and Luigi seem to be having a tough economic level to get through, as their coin count and the rest of U.S. video game industry sales have been slipping. The beginning of 2009 looked promising, until March when sales were down 17 percent from last year--which happened to be a big year for local game companies--proving the once booming game world is not immune to the recession or those sneaky Goombas. Eyes are on the falling shares, but no reset button needed--just yet--for local companies, as Nintendo's Wii leads console sales with 601,000 units sold, while Capcom's horror shooter "Resident Evil 5" is a best-selling game for the Xbox 360. more ›

Seattlest has to hand it to the Obama campaign for the way they've been spending their enormous amount of campaign cash. Yesterday, it was well-circulated that they're advertising in X-Box video games (the first candidate to ever do such a thing) to reach the kind of people who play NASCAR, hockey, and baseball games. Smart! Then, this morning, we headed over to their new taxcut calculator to tinker around with it. more ›

Non-gamers tended to scoff when the release of Halo 3 for the Xbox was labeled as "the most important entertainment event of the year" or whatever, but perhaps this will make them reconsider. The game has already inspired music! more ›

Rockstar Seattlest commenter (ex; you're dead to us, Jake) 8bitjake had the scoop earlier this week for those that were paying attention. He got an email from a friend at the Eastside game studio Bungie: more ›

We knew that last winter's windstorm was a boon to salesmen of propane and propane accessories, but now it seems like it gave a little nudge to young lovers as well. Apparently there was a "baby boomlet" this September, nine months following the storm and mass power outages. This is always the cool part about big weather events: they bring people together. My roof is fucked up, my neighbor's roof is fucked up--we can set aside the fact that he brings his dog over to crap on our lawn and he can temporarily forget that our non-starting car has been collecting leaves on the curb directly in front of his house for some six months. There are shingles everywhere! Let's have a little solidarity over that! Who cares that they're mostly his and he's never going to come around and clear them out of our bushes! The same holds true inside the house. The generator only puts out enough wattage to run the space heater, the plasma and the wine fridge so there's no question about whether the Xbox is going to get any play tonight. That's a recipe for love. more ›

Remember the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind, the album that made the band—and the word "grunge"—a household name? A naked baby, swimming blithely in pristine water, reaches for a dollar bill—a dollar bill that's on a large fish hook. The image is memorable for its ironic, dangerous, clear message. Courtney Love didn't catch the meaning. Director AJ Schnack does. more ›

Microsoft has apparently caught on to the fact that everyone and their little brothers have been modifying old school Xboxes with expanded disk capacity and a home-brew chip to turn them into media centers. Today Redmond announced the Xbox 360 Elite that claims "a bigger hard drive, better high-definition video support." more ›

--Notable Project Runway personnel who have not yet signed a contract for the show's fourth season: Tim Gunn. more ›

When the Zune marketing team was formed at Microsoft they probably had a bunch of meetings with the Xbox guys and, well, every other product marketing team in Redmond. There is precedence for Microsoft delivering a product into a crowded marketplace with a clear stand-out, and Xbox/Playstation isn't the only instance of the company having success there. But with the iPod it's a hell of a problem, iPod being the defacto term for portable music player and all. The Kleenex, Band Aid and Q-tip of portable electronics (or the walkman of our age) is the iPod. It's a long uphill road from there. more ›

Can't get enough voting? Ready to combine the excitement of electoral politics with the thrill of holiday shopping and add a soupcon of cool hunting? Head on over to Amazon Customers Vote and vote! vote! vote! (once per week) for one of four deals. Your candidates? 1) An Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for $39.99, down from $49.99 2) A Bell Metropolis Bike Helmet for $74.99 (down -- or up, we guess -- from $73.99) 3)... more ›

--Shaun Alexander won't play next week in a key divisional game against the Rams. more ›

-Green Tortoise Hostel's time is up. Who won the dead pool on that block going condo? more ›

Police attribute an arson in the Central District last night to a fight over an XBox. From KIRO: more ›

Microsoft announced the purchase today of the game developer Lionhead Studios for a sum that can only be described as "undisclosed." Lionhead created "Populous", "Black & White" and "Black & White II"and has sold a great many copies of "Fable" for the Xbox which was probably the draw for the Microsoft Game Studios purchaser. Peter Molyneux has been the resident rock star at Lionhead for a long time. more ›

-Yep, Seattlest will be all about the fine livin' in '06. Minimum wage in Washington is going up 28 cents on January, 1, to $7.63 an hour. more ›

Oh were we ever excited about December 1st. more ›

Eastside software magnates Microsoft have been taking public hits recently as they attempted to sue an executive into staying put in his Redmond office, but it looks like the poor soul's successfully escaped to Google. It doesn't take a courtroom drama for Seattle to know what the tone has been like at Microsoft lately - We can hear the chair throwing echoing over the water and our friends and loved ones who reverse commute to the campus have been wearing plastic smiles for weeks. This excludes the Xbox 360 people who at least get to do something cool while they bleed money. more ›

Something has been brought to Seattlest's attention that we think deserves some pointing and laughing. The n00bs over at Redmond.com have published a handy little primer for parents wishing to communicate better with their kids. more ›