Of 1254 participants (53% female, 47% male), only 80 reported playing no electronic games in the previous 6 months. Of 1126 children who listed frequently played game titles, almost half (48.8%) played at least one violent (mature-rated) game regularly (67.9% of boys and 29.2% of girls). One third of boys and 10.7% of girls play games nearly every day; only 1 in 20 plays often or always with a parent. Playing M-rated games is positively correlated (p < .001) with being male, frequent game play, playing with strangers over the Internet, having a game system and computer in one’s bedroom, and using games to manage anger.

The virtual world for kids 6-14 launched in Canada in 2005 and claims 700,000-plus paying members; subscriptions run about $6 or $58 a year. The site also makes money from virtual goods and other online merchandise sold through the site.

Founders Lane Merrifield, Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe will join Disney and remain the senior execs responsible directly for Club Penguin. Former Disneyland employee Merriefield, now the CEO, will be an EVP of the Walt Disney Internet Group reporting to WDIG president Steve Wadsworth. The founders are the only shareholders; each stands to make $115 million.

The combination of Disney and Club Penguin made sense all along but Disney seemed to be more inclined toward growing its own communities-Toontown (2003), Disney Fairies (launched in 2007 with a game coming in 2008), the upcoming Pirates-in house. Iger said the company is still committed to that strategy and thinks it will be successful but sees in Club Penguin a successful standalone business. With the exception of changing the name to include Disney and supporting the company, Iger promised: "Club Penguin is going to continue to exist as is... The experience will not change at all. It will continue to evolve." Iger added: "We really don't intend to get in the way of that or do anything by virtue of the way we own it."

Boys who play video games on school days spend 30 percent less time reading and girls spend 34 percent less time doing homework than those who do not play such games, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

But they said video games do not appear to interfere significantly with time spent with family and friends.

"Gamers did spend less time reading and doing homework. But they didn't spend less time interacting with their parents or their friends, nor did they spend less time in sports or active leisure activities," said Hope Cummings of the University of Michigan, whose study appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The study comes as U.S. doctors voice growing concern about the long-term effects of video games.

CBBC, the channel for 7-12 year olds, said it would allow digitally literate children the access to characters and resources they had come to expect.

Users would be able to build an online presence, known as an avatar, then create and share content.

Bosses said CBBC World would not have the financial aspects of other online worlds such as Second Life.

A spokesman said: "This kind of cross-platform broadcasting is becoming the norm for people who have been born into the digital world.

"This is the first property that we've ever created that has this comprehensive of an approach from the start," said Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios.

The characters in "Viva Pinata" are animals inspired by Latin American papier-mache figures, called pinatas, which are stuffed with candy and baubles and then broken by blindfolded, bat-wielding children.

The Saturday-morning animated "Viva Pinata" television series is set for a fall U.S. premier on Fox's 4Kids TV, the producer of television shows such as "Pokemon," "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Microsoft's Rare is responsible for the concept and the video game, which will be available exclusively on its next-generation Xbox 360 in time for the year-end holidays. Rare's other video games include "Perfect Dark Zero," a mature-rated shooting game for the Xbox 360.

Game players move their feet on a special mat to correspond to arrows that scroll on the TV screen. The player must tap the same symbols on the mat at just the right time to do well.

The game is not meant to replace physical education and health classes. Rather, it is one more option that may appeal to students who often dislike other sports.

"If we can get children to change their behavior at a young age they hopefully will grow up to be healthy, active adults, which would have a positive effect on health care costs," said Carl Callison with Mountain State Blue Cross.

West Virginia is consistently among the top three states for obesity, with about a third of its residents considered obese and even more overweight, according to the state Bureau of Public Health.

"I would like to create a playground for children," he said. "A normal playground is flat but I want an undulating one, with bumps."

At first glance, this seems a strange ambition for a game designer. But Mr Takahashi has a degree in sculpture and Katamari is all about a tactile world.

And he believes children should spend more time in the physical world and less time wrapped up in the virtual world of games.

London Zoo is part of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), a charity devoted to conservation and education. "We are pleased to be associating with Mindscape with the Zoo Vet game. We feel it is original and informative and works in harmony with London Zoo and it's visitors", remarked Caroline George, of London Zoo. "Our team have worked through the game and feel it offers a comprehensive and educational way of teaching youngsters about animals", she added.

Anyway, this rather lengthy prelude leads me to Wild Earth, an African safari adventure, developed by Seattle based Super X Studios, and set to be published in Europe by Digital Jesters later this year. Here players must wander the African Serengeti National Park taking photographs of wild animals while exploring the lusciously detailed environments. The game features "accurate and beautifully recreated wildlife" and simulated weather conditions, as well as specific assignments like night-time wildlife tracking. Apparently Wild Earth has also been developed as a "motion simulator thrill ride" and installed in several locations worldwide, including the Philadelphia and San Diego zoos.

Here's the thing: at no point do you shoot the animals with a gun. You don't even kung fu poachers to death.

The menacing Block-O who dreams of conquering the universe leaves his planet, Planet Cube, in search of his next target. Unexpectedly, Block-O discovers that the inhabitants of Earth like to give out gifts. Once the gifts are received, gift boxes are usually thrown away. Misinterpreting the gift box as his beloved kind, Block-O resentfully dispatches troops to invade Earth to win justice for his fellow cubes.