Here’s a roundup of today’s news found elsewhere on the internet:

Microsoft: Project Natal to replace remote controls (bluesnews) - The forthcoming Project Natal motion control technology could replace the television remote control in the future, automatically scheduling content according to the people in a room, according to comments made by Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten.

Speaking at the Streaming Media West show, as reported by Yahoo! Tech, Whitten described the increasing number of video applications - which includes Netflix in the US and Sky Player in the UK - on the Xbox 360 as the "biggest surprise" of his job.

Whitten also predicted that the increasing range and number of sources for video content required a new, easier to use controller than the traditional remote control - and that Project Natal was well placed to take over this role.

"With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel," Whitten said. "With the power of my voice I can start a movie."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bans (bluesnews) - Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweets a warning to those cheating in the PC edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that the banhammer is about to fall: “Top men are on it. In fact, the Steam ban hammer is coming down on about 2,500 confirmed MW2 cheaters on PC today.”

CrimeCraft Aus Ban (bluesnews) - Refused-Classification.com reports that CrimeCraft is the latest game to be refused classification in Australia, making Vogster Entertainment's MMOG illegal to sell or play there. They look at the ESRB's "M" rating for the game and surmise the reason for the Aussie ban is violence.

Dumbest VG PR moments (VGChartz) - The old saying is that “there is no such thing as bad press”. While quite possibly true some of these situations do little more than make the parent company either foolish or idiotic. Here are what I believe to be quite possibly the dumbest public relations mishaps of recent memory in relations to the videogame industry. These are in no particular order.

Capcom’s Dead Body Parts: For the release of Resident Evil 5 Capcom tried to emulate a trick used by the producers of the Batman Film: The Dark Knight. The Batman idea was to distribute joker cards all over a few cities to get folks excited about the movie; Capcom chose body parts instead. The publicity stunt went wrong for two reasons: many folks took the body parts and simply kept them for some bizarre reason, or even worse, mistook them for real ones and contacted the authorities.

All I Want For Christmas is a PSP: After a successful viral campaign for Halo, a lot of other folks were crazy to not at least try it out. Imagine that a company exec doesn’t really know how to pull off a viral campaign, and you may end up with a travesty like the following:



Goat Feast for God of War: A few years ago in the buildup to the European release of God of War II Sony had a great idea: “let’s throw a depraved God of War Party!” During the party a freshly decapitated goat was hauled in and party-goers were treated to the still warm goat intestines as a feast. The intestines, which were cooked, had been placed back into the goat, as if it was a huge party platter. There was even a contest to see who could eat the most meat, and the grizzly remains of the animal were showcased as a centerpiece. This would have gone unnoticed except the pictures were tossed into their very own OFFICIAL magazine.

Via Kotaku, see the complete list here.

Desert Bus Charity Shatters $100K Goal (kotaku) - Desert Bus for Hope, the fund drive dedicated to playing the world's most boring game, ever, logged more than five days behind the wheel and raised a staggering $132,568.94, more than 88 percent over last year's total.

The marathon, a project of the comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun benefiting the Child's Play charity, kicked off on Nov. 20; the final numbers were announced Friday after much rejoicing. And sleep.

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Haha. Hahahahaha!!! All I want for Christmas is my PSP. ****ing epic! Hahahahaha.

Only ONE entry from Acclaim on the worst PR list?

Acclaim deserves (and apparently HAS) a list all of its own:

http://www.prstunts.co.uk/Acclaim.htm

And adding to that BMX XXX was a horrible move in every way, I just don't recall any particular PR stunts associated with it.

Also sad to see the lack of mentioning "True to life feudal Japan... this GIANT ENEMY CRAB... Innovative new gameplay - hit the bosses weakspot for massive damage" from the PS3 launch.