BandwidthCamp

Kotaku has the low down on Nintendo firing an employee for blogger, not that the person was blogging nicely to begin with.

Promotion for Halo 3.

Variety got the details on what Chris Di Cesare, Xbox director of product marketing, did to make Halo the biggest grossing video game in history.

This time, Microsoft has ramped up its ad efforts across the board to top the $125 million earned in the first day of release by the first “Halo” sequel, developed by Bungie Studios.

Comedy Central kicks off the effort Saturday with “Fully Loaded,” a series of two-minute interstitials hosted by “Mad TV” cast member Bobby Lee and airing throughout the night on the cabler.

They were taped at a celeb-filled “Halo 3″ party at the Venetian Hotel’s Tao Beach nightclub in Las Vegas timed around MTV’s Video Music Awards and the unveiling of “Halo” star Master Chief at the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

On Monday, Spike TV’s “Game Head” vidgame show will host a live feed from the “Halo 3″ launch event at Best Buy’s flagship store in New York City, breaking into a broadcast of James Bond actioner “GoldenEye” throughout the night.

I’m not a Halo fan, but I do love the marketing and risk Microsoft took when it came to marketing this franchise. Ryan Mugford, Director of Worldwide Business Management, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corporation is giving a keynote on Thursday at Media Strategy Forum. This week will be Halo week as everything has been leading up to today’s launch.

Update: AdAge has a run down for one of the ads used in Halo.

Update 2: Wal-Mart Canada Matches U.S. Halo 3 Pricing. Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar is indicating she expects Halo 3 to ship 4.2 million copies into the retail channel by month’s end.

Montreal Tech Watch is reporting that MindHabits has just won the Telefilm Great Canadian Video Game Competition. I first posted about the competition here.

MindHabits produces computer software designed to help people reduce their stress levels and boost their self-confidence, using games that automatically retrain the way the mind responds to social stress. This patent pending technology is the result of a decade of research by scientists at McGill University, one of the world’s top medical research centers. The software – based on the emerging science of social intelligence – helps you practice the mind habit of focusing on positive social feedback, which in turn reduces stress levels and improves self-confidence.

Montreal is really showing why they are becoming the top video game hot spot in Canada. Vancouver may have more studios, but the quality of games isn’t the same as Montreal. Put another way, Montreal produces more video games that I’m interested in, both as a player and from a marketing point.

GameSpot has launched a Facebook app My Console. As of today, the app has a users base of 51 daily active users, which is 6% of total install base. Might be a good branding idea for GameSpot, we’ll see how the app goes over the long haul.

Codemasters has pulled a series of TV ads for Colin McRae: Dirt out of respect for the late driver’s family. According to a spokesperson for the company:

With consideration to and in agreement with McRae’s family, there was a stop put on the TV ads that were planned to run on Sky channels at the weekend and through this week.

Check out the mini story at GamesIndustry.biz.