Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

It’s Official – Playing Games Can Cause Disease

While callouses may be common and even badges of honour for those that spend a lot of their time playing games, and even the occasional open wound for those that played the original Mario Party, there have never been any particular afflictions that would be classified as diseases when it comes to overuse of the controller. That all changes now, as the British Journal of Dermatology has dubbed a new skin disease associated with heavy use of game controllers as Playstation palmar hidradenitis. A girl in Switzerland had presented with painful sores on the palms of her hands with no prior conditions or particular known cause. When it was revealed that she spent a significant amount of time with games and was taken away from her console, the sores disappeared and a headline friendly disease was born. The disorder was linked to excessive sweating, similar to conditions when heavy physical activity is mixed with soggy feet. The article infers that this is a physical symptom of video game addiction, but in their response Sony made sure to note that they had never had a complaint of this nature before.

The name for the condition is obviously a grab for attention, some big press in the same way they associate acute tendinitis as Wiitis because of the wild swinging that is often shown as the public image of the Nintendo Wii fanatic. Given the unique set of circumstances that it appears in, it does seem warranted to have this disorder mentioned as it doesn’t seem there are many other conditions that could cause this effect other than a series of long gaming sessions. Having sweaty palms during play is something that does affect a number of people in the world, so it is not impossible that something like athlete’s foot hand might pop up, especially considering the amount of people that are out there playing. Symptom of video game addiction, though? Perhaps not.

DSi coming to North America this April

After much speculation about when the latest iteration of the popular DS handheld system would make its way outside of Japan, Nintendo has announced that this April the consumers of North America can look forward to getting their portables with camera included. At a higher than expected price of $199.95 (CDN), the new design gives you a few minor tweaks, but some major ones like the aforementioned digital camera inclusion, as well as integration with an online Nintendo DS store. Similar to WiiWare this will be a digital download service for games and other goodies right to your handheld system. The DSi also allows you to watch video and play music (in the AAC format) and is a bit smaller at the expense of the GBA slot removal. The system will be coming out on April 5th, and will launch aside the title Rhythm Heaven, so there is a lot to look forward to coming up this spring.

The most frightening thing about the release of the DSi in North America is seeing how it sells and is marketed. The DS Lite is still a massive seller in the country, and has a relatively safe price point of around $130 give or take. With the new iteration it is rivaling the PSP for a price point, and considering the games it will play will be identical (save for the fact it has no more compatibility with Guitar Hero On Tour or GBA games) I’m not sure it will be as easy of a sell that many people would assume. It does come with a good feature set, and is clearly a step-up from the current DS, but perhaps not enough to warrant a massive exodus on the same scale that the DS Lite was to its predecessor. There do still exist a select few out there without DS Lite systems, or some that even may still have the original DS (present company included) that may be interested in updating with all the new features and the promise of an online store.

Braid to appear on Mac and Steam

It was announced not too long ago that Jonathan Blow’s Braid would be making its way over to the PC platform. A bit of controversy surrounded this announcement initially, as Blow had priced the game above what was original offered on Xbox Live, but later recanted and brought the once $20 price down to $15. On the heels of that announcement there have been a few revelations regarding the availability of said title on the PC, including the fact that it will also be available on the Mac platform. It was a big shock, and a cool announcement that will bring one of the most critical acclaimed games of last year to a very different audience to that of the Xbox Live crowd. The other link that I will use to support this article is one that states that Valve is bring Braid to their Steam platform, meaning that the game is available through just about every channel and platform the computer crowd might want.

It hasn’t quite made its way over to any other consoles, and it has never been discussed that it will, it’s good to see the game coming around to just about everything else at this point. From the comments that Blow has made about the price on the PC version, it seems that he did make his money back for the creation of the game, which was something a lot of people who pushed the game were hoping to see. The two man project has been talked about and celebrated quite enough, but it was an important victory to see something so well received perform well in terms of sales, as well. And now that Mac users and Steam officiants alike can look forward to traversing through the various time puzzles, more people will get exposed to some unique concepts and beautiful art style that may inspire someone to go out and do something similar.