April Fools' Day in the games industry, News from GamePro

The games industry seems to love April Fools' Day. This year has been no exception so far, with news of everything from sexy motion control games to casual-gaming microwaves doing the rounds.

If you follow any games journalists on Twitter, you would have undoubtedly seen a lot of complaining, curmudgeonliness and cynicism this morning. The reason for this is simple: April Fools' Day is a massive pain in the backside for the games press -- real stories struggle to get noticed amidst nonsense churned out by developers, publishers and manufacturers looking to play a few childish pranks on everyone. To prove this fact once and for all, this morning's News Flashes have contained a mixture of real and spurious headlines. All of them are from genuine, usually reputable sources -- just not all of them are true. Which ones do you think got the most views?

If you guessed that it was the fake stories that got the most hits, even first thing in the morning, you'd be absolutely right -- almost without exception. For example, within minutes of posting the clearly nonsensical news thatthe Kama Sutra was coming to motion control peripherals, over a hundred people had checked it out. X-Rated Studios' nonexistent creative director Edmund Rechtion (very funny) must be delighted at the interest his"pass-the-pad"interpretation of the ancient Hindu text has generated. That, or sex reallydoessell.

PopCap's announcement of its touchscreen microwave that comes pre-loaded with a copy of Bejeweled and 167MB of storage capacity came up closely behind the Kama Sutra story. PopCap took the bold step ofpublishing the fake press release on their siteas well as promoting it onTwitter. As ridiculous an idea as it sounds, how often have you whipped out a handheld to play a quick round of Bejeweled Blitz whilst something's nuking in the microwave? So perhaps it's not such a silly idea after all. Get on that, PopCap.

Blizzard and 1up surely tie for the sheer amount of effort that was put into their own pranks. Blizzard's announcement of theKinect-compatible StarCraft: Motion Overdriveis well up to the standard and production values of their usual efforts, and it's nice to see an April Fool from them that isn't specifically World of Warcraft-related. 1up, meanwhile, gave an exclusive (and convincing)video sneak peek at Halo Dance Central.

Some members of the press may find jokes like this irritating and frustrating, but developers, publishers, PR companies and the public seem to enjoy them every year. It's a chance for them to have a bit of fun at the expense of gullible people. And sometimes there's more truth in silly pranks than everyone thinks -- need I remind you of the secret"cow level"in Blizzard's Diablo II? This began as an Internet rumor around the time of the first game, spiralled rapidly out of control and eventually ended up becoming true.

Don't count on Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo approving that Kama Sutra game any time soon. I'd pay good money for a PopCap microwave, though.

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