Uh-oh! I hope our friends from Left4Friends didn't catch this. PAX sources are now reporting that they do have a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus (commonly but misleadingly known as Swine Flu) from their recently-concluded Washington event.

Another action-packed week for QJ with QuickPeek 88. Price cuts happened, hardware sales charts came out with their results, and developers and publishers alike came out once again from their magical gaming factories to hawk their wares at the PAX 2009 event held in Washington. You don't wanna miss this trip so jump right in to this week's QJ QuickPeek edition after the jump.

The average age of a gamer is starting to edge higher. Gamers are also less healthy and more depressed than those who don't partake in our particular brand of entertainment. That's what a CDC survey suggests, at least.

Heads up, Wii owners. A new first-person shooter will be heading down Nintendo's alley in a couple of months as High Voltage Software and Sega's The Conduit moves from its vague Summer 2009 release date to a much more precise June 23 launch.

   

Given that Nintendo of America (NoA) president Reggie Fils-Aime is quite the high-profile public figure, we were wondering how hard it would be to get the man's autograph. Pretty darned easy it seems, at least according to Lutherjw over at the N+ site.

As the self-confessed autograph collector narrated, he had sent a letter to the Regginator via NoA's address at Redmond, Washington, on April 7. The letter included an explanation of how he (Lutherjw) came to know about Nintendo,how much he loved playing their games, along with a polite request that Reggie would send him back the enclosed photo, signed.

Two weeks  later (April 21), Lutherjw received a brown envelope in his mail, which contained three items: 1.The Reggie photo, signed; 2. A Zelda pin; 3. A hand-written memo, which read:

Joel,
Thanks for the support and enjoy the luck pin. Zelda is one of my favorites, hopefully its one of yours.
Reggie

Like we said, we didn't think it'd be this easy to approach Reggie. Lutherjw further announced that Miyamoto's next - we hope the man's up for more fan visits. Guys interested in sending their own request letters are advised to read Lutherjw's explanation on how to write  a proper letter to Nintendo - first impressions last, after all. We'll let you know in case Miyamoto-san proves to be equally accessible.

 

Erik Bethke, known for his participation in the development of classic franchises as Starfleet Command, has been selected as one of 80 speakers to tackle issues at the 2007 Online Game Development Conference, as stated in an official press release. The 2007 OGDC will take place in Seattle, Washington starting May 10, 2007.

Bethke, while being one of those responsible for putting out Interplay's Starfleet Command 1 and expansion Neutral Zone, SFC II: Empires at War, SFC: Orion Pirates and Starfleet Command 3, can also be attributed to the controversial and utterly unique classic I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream from CyberDreams.

As current CEO for GoPets Ltd., the people behind GoPets and its online 3D virtual pet community, Bethke is expected to take the podium on May 11, Friday, to tackle current and relevant issues as placed by the 2007 OGDC agenda that was revealed recently.

OGDC director Peter Freese was honored to have added a man of Bethke's reputation and caliber to the list of speakers. He also assures that Bethke's knowledge and experience will be successfully endowed upon the attendees of the conference.  The 2007 OGDC is currently organized by the Evergreen Events and is co-sponsored by Seoul-based GoPets Ltd.

Heads up, happy people; more corporate-talk today, concerning one of our most loved (loved to hate by some...) game developer/publisher in the industry. In light of their on-going management shuffling and scuffling, Take-Two Interactive has just announced that their (now ex-) Chief Financial Officer Karl Winters has opted to resign from the company.

To fill in for Karl Winters in the meantime, Take-Two has announced a temporary CFO: Lainie Goldstein. She was previously the second man (second woman, to be exact) next to Winters, as the company's Senior VP of Finance. She'll act as interim CFO while a more permanent one is still to be decided. Never heard of her?

Well, she's been working for the company since 2003, and she's got quite a résumé under her belt The Press Release from Take-Two introduces us to Ms. Goldstein who is...

a CPA with over 15 years of financial and business experience in the software, entertainment, retail and apparel industries, including more than 8 years overseeing the finance function of publicly traded companies...

She previous held positions at Nautica Enterprises and Grant Thornton, with a BS degree in Accounting from AU Washington. If that's not enough to give her some credit, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder is optimistic of Goldstein's contribution to the company and talks of Winters' resignation:

Karl oversaw finance at Take-Two during challenging times for the Company. We thank Karl for his years of service to Take-Two. He was instrumental in assembling a highly competent financial team that will serve us well in the future. We appreciate Karl's hard work and his continued support during the transition.

We have been welcomed by the extremely talented and hard working Take-Two corporate staff. We are impressed with Lainie and are confident that her financial acumen and knowledge of Take-Two's business will greatly assist us during this transition. I look forward to working closely with Lainie as we continue to address Take-Two's challenges aggressively and swiftly so that employees can focus on building the Company's bright future.

The Vancouver Film School in cooperation with Evergreen events will hold a day long lecture and seminar session called "Career Discovery: Games" on March 24 in Bellevue, Washington to teach interested students the keys to getting in and making it big in the game industry.

The event aims to cater to everyone who seeks the path to a career in one of the most sought-after industries in this day and age. Evergreen and VFS are pulling out all the stops to gather necessary funding in order to support even those students who cannot afford the fee for the learning experience.

The VFS is committed to making things happen in order to help deserving learners get aboard the interactive entertainment business. "VFS is excited to be working with Evergreen Events and the Career Discovery group as an AAA scholarship sponsor. We're eager to support the development of the future creative minds in the video game industry," said Stephen Webster, School Director for VFS.

The event aims to draw in middle-and high school students who have the genuine interest and raw drive to be in the line of work where they show passion. Registration is at US$ 25. Visit www.evergreenevent.org for all the details if you want to sign up.

If you haven't had enough of the weird things Twilight Princess has to offer fans of the game, here's something new. Of course, it made much more sense on President's Day, but what the heck.

Zelda Dimension's Overlooked Things for the week involves taking a trip to Hyrule Market. If you enter Jovani's house and check out his wall, you may just stumble upon the image of a well-known American President.

Which American President, you might ask? Well, it's a toss-up between Jefferson and Washington, but it certainly isn't Clinton or Bush. Still, that's a pretty intriguing real-world reference there.

 

Instead of talking about death and destruction and the callousness and emptiness of some sad human souls, let's focus on something bright and cheery for news today. Something even better than Ponies and Kittens: customer service done right!

Saska recounts the story of her three-month old Wii, which, as is customary in these types of stories, wasn't working properly. Luckily for her, she was able to get in contact with Nintendo's customer service rep, who not only did some quick thinking about Saska location to the CSR's position, but also offered to fix their broken console in thirty minutes if she could come up to their offices in Washington, D.C. It gets even better:

In those 25 minutes, they'd transferred all of my Miis, friends, and saved games from the old console to a new one. She logged on to make sure my 500 points transferred to the shopping channel. She sent me out with a $0.00 invoice showing a warranty replacement of my Wii and a reset of the warranty clock, meaning the Wii I took home has 15 months of coverage from today, even though I bought my original one almost 3 months ago.

It seems unbelievable, but the pictures we're showing here are of the actual place she went to with her son, complete with demo stations and a sweet Ninty display. In any case, definitely read the link. It's a great story that speaks of stellar customer service and a motherly opinion on a monolithic gaming company.