Oswald and Mickey say: Watch your back!

The long-awaited Art of Video Games exhibition opened Friday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibit runs through September.

Handheld video game consoles have really made a name for themselves in the past few years. In fact, Nintendo’s DS and Game Boy Advance sales combined with Sony’s PSP sales have totaled over 303 million worldwide. Compare that to 220 million combined sales for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3, and you’ll see that handhelds are a huge part of the video game scene.
But that’s not all. In the United States, we currently have more active cell phones than people. Yes, that’s right, more cell phones than citizens. …

Enjoy Ryan Biggs’ recent report and photos from The History of Video Game Consoles exhibit at the Arizona Pop Culture Experience — it may be your only chance to see the stuff on display. That’s because today we’re getting word the collectibles have been pulled.
Jonathan Simon of the Arizona geek culture blog Lightning Octopus reports that the donors have pulled their contributions, just days after Nerdvana was among a group of media invited to tour the exhibit.
We’ll have more info when it becomes available.
UPDATE: Social marketing agency Pink Media, which …

Ryan Biggs: Recently, I was invited to attend a show and tell of extreme magnitude at the Arizona Popular Culture Experience in the Desert Ridge Marketplace. Within this collection is a new exhibit: The History of Video Game Consoles.

Ken Levine, the creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games who had been scheduled to talk about the making of BioShock II in early March at Mesa Community College, will not be presenting until mid- to late-April at the earliest.
According to the college’s Keith Anderson, the trouble nailing Levine down involves the impending release of BioShock Infinite, the third entry in the groundbreaking video game series, for which Levine is the lead game designer.
The lecture was part of MCC’s ongoing program “Video Games as a Force and Art Form:  Teaching, …

Penny Arcade, the long-running webcomic about gaming and gamers, is no stranger to branching out. They’ve got the charity Child’s Play, the annual gaming convention Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and have even produced a couple of games of their own. Now the site is adding long-form video games journalism to its list of offerings.
In the first week, Penny Arcade Report senior editor Ben Kuchera has presented in-depth looks at BioWare’s expanding empire, Kickstarter sensation Double Fine and a controversial exploration of the culture of sexual harassment in fighting game circles …

The upcoming Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum plans to debut with guns blazing, which includes industry big gun Hideo Kojima speaking as a part of their three-day GameFest kickoff for the exhibition in March.
The museum officially confirmed via press release on Tuesday that the noted Metal Gear Solid series director will be speaking on March 17 in his own “A Conversation With Hideo Kojima” panel. The panel will be free to attend but registration will be limited.
Coordinators for the event are also giving fans …

Would you pay even more for the latest must-have electronics if it meant better wages and working conditions for their manufacturers?