Stephen Totilo Leaving MTV News

Stephen Totilo is leaving MTV Multiplayer blog and joining Kotaku (that according to Joystiq). Totilo, who is the heart and soul of the blog in my estimation, issued the following statement today:

“It is with no regrets and much pride in what we’ve accomplished at MTV Multiplayer, that I am leaving MTV News this Friday after a wonderful four-year run.

Since I started working at MTV News in May of 2005, I worked every day of it in service to the readers and the audience, both the one MTV News had and the one I hoped it could attain. Today’s the day I, sort of, say goodbye.

I covered video games for four years as I hoped gamers who cared about games would want them to be covered. I’m proud of the hundreds of stories I’ve reported and written for MTV News and the gaming blog we founded two years ago, the one you’re reading right now. I’m equally proud of the hundreds of other stories I’ve worked on with MTV News’ talented editors, producers, correspondents and, most especially, my fellow bloggers at MTV Multiplayer.”

This now leaves Tracey John to mind the store, now that Totilo has decided to leave the popular blog; Patrick Klepek was let go last month. Hindsight really is 20/20, MTV Multiplayer. You know what i’m saying. We wish All of the aforementioned class acts bright and wonderful futures covering video games.

GameStop’s Possible Sleight of Hand

Is the country’s largest retailer of video games playing a sleight of hand game with used and new games and possibly violating laws in multiple states? This story on Kotaku sheds some light on some questionable policies that throw fuel on the fire about used game sales and their detriment to the games industry as a whole.

The report points to GameStop’s “check-out” policy, which basically allows employees to “take home” new products. The problem is that these products get opened and are considered used by most standards. So what does GameStop do with those products? According to the report they resell them anyways as new products under what multiple anonymous GameStop employees have called unplayed display copies. Unplayed displayed copies are disc taken out of the packaging so they can be displayed safely without the fear of the product being stolen off the shelf. If you have ever been to a video game store, you already know that this is a common practice.

So the problem is that you have all these used games that are not marked down for a discount but are sold as brand new or display units.

GameStop didn’t have a lot to say about this policy:

“We do not comment on corporate policies that are competitive in nature,” said Chris Olivera, vice president of corporate communications, in a statement to Kotaku. “As your questions relate to company training, operations and discounting practices, I would not be able to provide feedback.”

The point of all this? If GameStop is allowing this practice to happen at all of its stores nationwide, they may be engaging in large scale deceptive advertising or marketing. That is a matter for the Federal Trade Commission to decide.

We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.

E3 Blog - Uncle Crispy: The Live from L.A. Edition

We’re here. Well, I’m here. And Gus is here. Fudge? He’s out. Came down with a mysterious virus that makes people bear an uncanny resemblance to Don “They massacred my boy” Corleone.

Keefer? As of Sunday at 3, he’s still in the wind, stuck in the Atlanta airport in some kind of airline hell. Hopefully there’s an Au Bon Pain within six feet of him that will help to ease his pain.

The hotel still feels deserted. But no doubt that will change within a matter of hours. (The front desk clerked said that they’re sold out through the week.) My room, per E3/GDC tradition, smells like there’s a poop hidden somewhere in it. I’ve looked around the place. Even under the bed.

No poop.

You know, you get to a certain age and you feel like you deserve to stay in the kind of hotel where you don’t have to play the “Find The Poop Game.” It’s really not funny anymore.

Gus and I walked over to the Convention Center, picked up our badges, and ran into Michael McWertor from Kotaku (thanked him for their love last week on our 10 People piece) and Abbie Heppe of X-Play. I asked her if she’d ever made the mistake of referring to Morgan Webb as Morgan Freeman. Abbie said: “No. But I will now.”

So far the Convention Center seems pretty sedate. The familiar E3 logo is plastered everywhere… But remember the old days when we had fifty-foot giant-assed Spider-mans crawling on the outside of the building? E3, with its noise, and giant banners, and overexcited journalists running around, honestly, scared the shit out of me my first year here. The trademark circus atmosphere is gone now. It’s like that one fun uncle you have, who would always play with you, and tickle you practically to the edge of insanity, but who’s now no longer fun since he entered AA.

E3 hasn’t even started yet, and already it feels upstaged by the set up that’s going on for the ESPY Awards across the street. Hell, it feels upstaged by the ramshackle street fair/banana stand /flea market operation that’s going on in a nearby parking lot.

Call it…Wee3.

Posted Sunday 3:30 P.M.