NBC/Universal will be joining the over 10,000 movies and television shows currently available on Xbox Live Marketplace, as they're releasing content today. Television shows like Monk, The Office and Battlestar Galactica will be available on the service from NBC, and Universal will contribute films like 12 Monkeys, The Bourne Supremacy, The Mummy, The Chronicles of Riddick.

If you find yourself in the mood to pay to watch G4's gamer-oriented line of television programming, you can now scratch that puzzling itch on the Xbox Live Marketplace, where several of the network's original television programs have been made available for download. These programs include Attack of the Show, snowboard documentary series The Block, and animated comedy series Code Monkeys (which includes a free sneak preview of the show's second season).

Oddly enough, X-Play is not one of the shows featured on Microsoft's service, despite the fact that the daily half-hour Sess-fest is one of the highest rated programs on the network. A shame, too -- we would actually dish out some Microsoft buckz to avoid wading through the countless reruns of Fastlane, Cops, Cheaters, and other "gamer-oriented" programs to watch the oft-renamed program. Alas, we must continue to suffer the seemingly limitless douchebaggery of Joey Greco.

Some sharp eyes have spotted an interesting blip in a recent PlayStation 3 video, "What you Need." If you take look at the picture above (click for a higher-resolution shot), you can clearly see a section of the PS Store for television channels, including NBC, HBO, The CW, Cartoon Network (listed twice), MTV, Discovery Channel and others.

Television content from these channels are also currently available via Xbox Live Marketplace. Is this just a mockup from an overzealous ad firm, or a hint at an impending announcement? With E3 just around the corner, we'll likely know soon enough. Video embedded after the break.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Last year's inexplicable granting of an Emmy Award to practically every game system ever invented apparently went so well that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) decided to dip its toes into gaming again this year. Last night's Engineering Emmy Awards ceremony at CES included a bevy of awards for "Engineering & Technology for Creation and Implementation of Video Games and Platforms." Just trips off the tongue, doesn't it?

The most notable winner was Nintendo, which got a coveted "game controller innovation" Emmy for its Wii and DS systems (because, really, why narrow it down to one? Since when have awards been about exclusivity?). Nintendo won a similar award for the NES d-pad last year, and used the repeat performance to talk up "even more exciting control innovations from Nintendo in 2008," such as Wii Balance Board and the Wii Wheel, in a press release. Color us skeptical that either of these will have the impact of the d-pad, but still ...

The other game-related awards given were notable mainly for their expansive view of video game history. Recent games like Second Life and World of Warcraft shared billing in their wins with classics like Quake and Pinball Construction Set in this year's awards. That's cool and all, but ATAS really showed its old-school gamer cred by giving a "Handheld Game Device Display Screen Innovation" award to the Atari Lynx, of all things. Way to keep up with the times, TV industry. Hey, how about, at our next awards show, we return the favor by giving special awards to All in The Family and "Color TV," the latter for "outstanding use of color in a cathode ray tube device." Wouldn't you all feel special then?

We'd also like to call out "The Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use of Commercial Advertising on Stand-Alone Broadband Devices (Personal Computers)," which should win its own award for "most amazingly specific award category in the history of mankind."

A complete list of 2007's game-related Emmy's below the break.

Nintendo has apparently taken "too many" pre-orders for its official DS TV Tuner, which launches in Japan this Friday. Over 4 million pre-orders for the device have been made, a number that surprises even Nintendo, as they had not formally announced the pre-order program.

The Nintendo DS TV Tuner picks up the Japan-only "1seg" broadcast service. The device will retail for 6,800 Yen (approximately $62 USD), making it a rather pricey DS accessory that a lot of people seem to want.
No word yet if Nintendo plans on releasing any similar device here or in Europe.

[Via CVG]

Writers -- the unsung heroes of television detective work! Sprinkling logic crumbs throughout the investigation and frequently bending reality to ensure those pesky crooks get captured, the behind-the-scenes scribes are the ones doing the real dirty work. Witness the investigative team of NBC "Life" being given a bona fide boon in the improbable decision of a drug dealer to hide incriminating files inside his console, which we're helpfully informed is "just a hard drive with games on it." Accessing the evidence requires an embarrassing plot device yanked straight from the zeitgeist: The detectives must dramatically reach "Level 10" in Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, preferably with the aid of a stealth gurrrl gamer.

[Thanks, Hashbrown_Hunter]

Unlike in previous years, Madden is not nominated for "Game of the Year," so already you know it's more credible. BioShock, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, and Halo 3 appear on the list, making up the usual suspects that'll be appearing on many an outlet's GOTY ballots, but some more unexpected titles might be crashing the party -- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Puzzle Quest: Challenge the Warlords, and Portal. One question though: why remove the Best Song category the one year there's a video game song worth celebrating?

For a full list of the nominees, would you kindly peer past the break?

If you were too busy playing Guitar Hero in your underwear on Monday, you may have missed the announcement that tonight's episode of South Park will feature the rhythm game prominently in the storyline. For those of you who just can't wait those last few hours, a Comedy Central press release reveals some more details about the impending rift between Stan and Kyle, and a short video preview shows the pair looking like total goobers while trying to look cool playing the game.

In fact, the false cockiness brought on by Guitar Hero was a major motivation for the production team. On his South Park Studios Production blog, Production Assistant Mike McMahan asks us to imagine "some jerk trying to impress the ladies with his badass skills banging out Coldplay as hard as he can." By playing Guitar Hero, McMahan says, "We're even worse than that loser, because we're pretending to be him, all the while tapping our feet and clicking our fingers with the same proud idiocy that the real-life jerk performs with." On behalf of all those proud idiots, we have just one thing to say to that ... Ouch!

We'll be liveblogging the episode right here on this very site, so come back here around 10 PM EST if you'd like some nerdy game discussion with your animated prime time TV.

Scottish chef celeb Gordon Ramsey, best known in reality television circles for his discerning palate and foul mouth, will soon be fronting a game based on his TV show Hell's Kitchen, which sees groups of up and coming cooks vying for Ramsey's love and affection while being reminded of all the reasons why they suck.

The TV tie-in is currently in development for "all major platforms" at Ludia, whose only other claim to fame appears to be a still-in-development PC adaption of The Price is Right game show. Credentials, it's what's for dinner.

According to Ludia founder and CEO Alex Thabet, the Hell's Kitchen game will feature "the fun of the kitchen boot camp experience," meaning we expect that players will have to endure Ramsey screaming bleeped-out profanities while describing their culinary efforts as "baby vomit." The game, which will also include a number of Ramsey's favorite recipes, is expected to ship in 2008 in order to coincide with the debut of the fourth season of Hell's Kitchen.

Fans of serious games and/or snarky conservative satires should tune in to Comedy Central's The Colbert Report tonight, as faux-Republican Steven Colbert will be talking with Ian Bogost, game designer and author of the recently-released Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames.

According to Bogost's blog, he'll be talking about his book, and his company of the same name, which has been producing news-oriented games for the New York Times' online Times Select section. The Colbert Report airs tonight at 11:30 PM EST. Who's gonna post the YouTube video? Anyone?

Updated the time; thanks to everyone who corrected this.

One of the first computer-animated TV programs, ReBoot, is about to get a second chance at life. Sure, even in 1994 the show was a bit campy and featured thin plots and bad voice acting, but look how shiny everything was! Now Rainmaker Animation is getting ready to "relaunch the brand in a new way" by releasing a series of three feature-length episodes.

The interesting bit is that we, potential viewers, help sculpt the plot. Five undiscovered writers were recruited by Rainmaker to prepare separate pitches for a new ReBoot storyline. These will be posted on the Zeros 2 Heroes website where visitors can work with each production team to help refine their ideas and later vote to choose their favorite pitch. "When it comes to long-standing genre entertainment properties, the fans are the real experts.", says Zeros 2 Heroes president Matt Toner.

Not a bad idea. Fans know what they want to see, and this way Rainmaker will ensure nearly everyone is satisfied. And if the ReBoot reboot tanks, fans can only get angry at themselves.

[Via Ain't It Cool News]

Despite a strong showing at E3, Sony unleashed an additional volley of announcements at today's PlayStation Premier event in Tokyo, which IGN has been covering. In addition to a handful of games, Sony also announced a 1seg TV Tuner that attaches to the PSP's USB port. Since it's 1seg – a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan – we can't expect to see it over here, but we can always hope for a technologically inferior Western counterpart.

As if that wasn't limiting enough, the 1seg Tuner will only be compatible with the new PSP Lite redesign. So, when Japanese gamers pick up a Tuner on September 20th for ¥6980 (about $57), they'll also need to grab the new PSP conveniently released on the same day for ¥19,800 ($162). Then they can watch cat videos all day long , we guess ...

[Via Engadget]

Our expectations for G4 television aren't particularly high, but we admit to having thought for a moment that their new video game-oriented cartoon show Code Monkeys would at least be entertaining. Between having a theme song by geek folkster Jonathan Coulton and cameos from the likes of Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell, and David Jaffe, there was hope that G4 could deliver something actually watchable. It isn't.

Edgy video site Break.com is hosting the pilot episode of Code Monkeys, which will premiere on G4's cable network on July 11th. The show, which uses an "8-bit" animation style, focuses on two video game programmers working at a company called Gameavision in the 80s. Peppered with crude drug humor, pop culture references, and bizarre video game-isms, Code Monkeys is oddly reminiscent of the film Grandma's Boy, and that's not meant as a compliment.

Those with the time and brain cells to kill can check out the entire 20-minute pilot episode here. Everyone else can take a peak at the NSFW preview after the jump. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Microsoft has purchased 15 million shares in Sichuan, China-based Changhong Electric Co., valued at 94 million yuan (about US $12 million). That's just one percent off the company, according to the Taipei Times.

Said Microsoft spokesman in Beijing Roger Chen, the two companies will explore "a wide range of scenarios for digital entertainment needs ... The project focuses on in-home network digital entertainment -- how to connect PCs, TVs and the Internet to provide this digital entertainment experience."

The first thought that comes to our mind is the Xbox 360, Microsoft's most prominent living room entertainment device, and potentially is related to their IPTV service. No concrete details have been given about the project, so consider this all speculation at the moment.

If you've been watching G4 lately (and if so, may we ask why?) you've probably seen a couple thousand 30-second spots promoting a mysterious, retro-stylized game company called GameAVision. The viral marketing got even weirder yesterday with an e-mailed press release that touts the two advertised games, Crosswalk and Bar Fight, as "featur[ing] movable character, sound, and several exciting colors." The ads and the release both direct players to the GameAVision web site, which includes some unplayable, Atari 2600-style Flash games and some amusing help wanted ads, among other things.

What's going on here? Turns out the cryptic campaign is for an upcoming animated series that G4 commissioned last year. According to the October 2006 press release, the show will feature "Dave and Jerry, two video-game programmers whose lives are turned upside down when GameAVision, the freewheeling company at which they've spent their whole careers, is purchased by Bob Larrity, a crazed Texan businessman who knows nothing about video games except that they 'sell good.'"

The premise actually sounds interesting, and the involvement of Minoriteam creator Adam de La Pena is encouraging. It's also nice to see G4 filling its schedule with some new, vaguely game-related programming instead of more reruns of Cops or something. Here's hoping the show lives up to its promise.