Wisconsin will implement a 5 percent sales tax on “digital goods” starting October 1, reports The Spectator. The tax is expected to raise $10.9 million over the next two years; meanwhile, the state currently has a $6 billion budget deficit. That’s like trying to melt an iceberg by licking it.

The tax will affect music, movies, digital books, ringtones, games and DLC — no mention of porn (but that’s streamed now anyway, not really “downloaded”). Wisconsin isn’t pure evil, though, it did begin offering a 25 percent tax break to game developers last year. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have: the facts of life.

Wisconsin placing 5% tax on downloaded games, items originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Food and drink are a recurring theme in the Yakuza series of games. As we stated in our hands-on of the Japanese Yakuza 3 demo, you can eat and drink to your hearts delight in the game world, though it does nothing for your real-world stomach. Now here’s something that will…and it will probably go to your head, too.

The Yakuza 3 marketing blitz has already given us some nice ramen to eat, and now there’s branded sake to wash it down. Sega and the Seifuku Distillery have partnered up to sell these bottles of sake. Get Awamori for $11 or Plum Wine for $16. Siliconera states that Ryu ga Gotoku label sake will be in stores starting tomorrow.

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Activision announced that they will be releasing videogames based on the popular Bakugan toys and animated series in 2009. Bakugan will be getting the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 treatment this fall.

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The new videos on the Japanese DR:CTYD website (seen by selecting chapters 5 and 6) feature something I didn’t think I’d ever see in a video game; a man playing fetch with zombie poodles by chucking saw blades at their heads. The poor tiny dead things really get into it, too! It’s cute, gross, sad and funny all at the same time.

Other highlights include some creative uses for corn oil, Frank blowing away tons of zombies with a wide variety of weapons, and the introduction of Otis’s new side-kick; a guy named Greg who can apparently teleport you to the gun shop any time you want. Sure it’s weird, but given how the game will involve a lot more gun play than the original, it makes sense.

That’s not all the DR:CTYD news for the night! Over at Joystiq.Nintendo, there’s a story on the game’s new “sniper mode”; a series of stand alone target practice exercises that involve shooting red parrots (but not blue parrots), zombies (but not the people they’re munching on) and zombies in servebot masks (but not the almost identical looking humans hanging out next to the zombies, also wearing servebot masks).

Crap, I just realized this will probably be the last news I post about DR:CTYD before it comes out early next week. News about a controversial down-port/remake of a 360 game that people hate to see come to the Wii, I’LL MISS YOU!!!

Hey, anyone got any Dead Space: Extraction news lying around that I can post?

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Filed under: Politics

If you’ve ever wondered what the Entertainment Consumers Association actually does, here’s your answer — in an attempt to combat a proposed tax on digitally distributed content and games in a number of says, the ECA is mobilizing its troops in an “action campaign” against these taxes. Specifically, the group will be rallying its members in Washington, Mississippi and New York to protest DLC tax bills that are currently working their way through their respective state legislatures.

In an email to ECA members residing in Washington state, the organization’s redundantly named president, Hal Halpin, pointed out the unconsidered negative effects of such a tax, saying it will “suppress consumption, which will cause layoffs at effected businesses, including the video game industry, which employs many Washington residents.” We can’t wait to see what protest tactics the ECA employs in Microsoft’s home state — folk music? Cosplay? We’re betting on rampant property destruction — after all, it’s not a Washington protest until you bust up a few Starbucks.

ECA leading ‘action campaign’ against proposed digital distribution tax originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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