AOL Wants Parents to Be Smarter about Games

By Geoff Duncan Published July 25, 2014

AOL Wants Parents to Be Smarter about Games

In recent weeks, AOL has been better known for shutting down operations than starting up new ones (what with Xdrive, AOL Pictures, and BlueString all going dark), but today the company has announced the launch of PlaySavvy.com, a site designed to help parents keep informed about the world of PC and console games…and what exactly their kids might be getting into when they buy an innocent-sounding title like Skull Grinder VII: The Exsanguination. The site aims to offer parents information so they can make informed choices about buying games for their kids, along with reviews and how-to articles to help parents select games appropriate for both their households and their children.

“Playing video games is one of the top pastimes for children these days, almost more than watching TV,” said PlaySavvy’s editor in chief Libe Goad, in a statement. “We created AOL PlaySavvy to help parents navigate through all the gaming information out there in order to decide what’s appropriate for their children. In addition, PlaySavvy provides advertisers the opportunity to reach this targeted user base by creating appealing campaigns around the content.”

Recommended Videos

Oh, right. Parents? When you visit PlaySavvy.com, AOL is going to try to sell you some video games, OK?

PlaySavvy.com features articles on how to select content-appropriate games for children, along with game reviews, a “real-time” Q&A section where visitors can ask questions and get responses from a panel of real-life parents, along with a Gaming 101 section that helps parents find things like game ratings, kid-friendly Web sites, and a basic overview of current gaming consoles.

PlaySavvy.com is a followup to AOL’s new SafetyClicks.com, which offers tools and information for parents to help keep their kids safer online.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

All upcoming Xbox Series X games: 2024, 2025, and beyond

Emmerich Voss holds an artifact in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The Xbox Series X and Series S have now been out for over four years, bringing better resolution, higher frame rates, and ray tracing to gamers around the world. And the best upcoming video games continue to show off all those bells and whistles in fun, new experiences.

If you're eager to find out what Microsoft has in store for the years ahead, we've rounded up every game confirmed so far, including new offerings, franchise installments, and ports of existing titles. We're looking beyond the first-party projects here to encompass all the great games coming to this powerful piece of gaming hardware. Maybe some of them will end up being among the best games on Xbox Series X.
Upcoming Xbox Series X games 2024
The games listed below either have 100% confirmed release dates or solid release windows that we expect them to hit in 2024. Any games with more ambiguous release windows will be listed below the confirmed releases.

Gaming

Sony commits to single-player games in wake of Concord failure

Astro Bot dresses up as Kratos.

Sony is not giving up on single-player games despite investing a lot into live-service games over the past few years, with plans to release at least one "major" single-player game every year "from next fiscal year onwards."

The company released its Q2 2024 financial report on Friday, and there was a lot of good news for the video game division despite the high-profile failure of live-service title Concord. Earlier this year. The hero shooter only wracked up a few hundred players on Steam at launch -- only 697 concurrent users at peak, according to SteamDB. Sony Interactive Entertainment took the game offline two weeks after launch before eventually sunsetting it and shutting down developer Firewalk Studios.

Gaming

3 new PS Plus games to play this weekend (November 8-10)

Key art for Death Note Killer Within.

Earlier this week, November's batch of three new PlayStation Plus Essential titles dropped. Between now and December 2, PS Plus subscribers of all tiers can redeem these games for free. It's a good batch of titles, too. We not only have a brand new Death Note game launching onto the service, but also an enjoyable all-ages racing game and an exhilarating horror action title. If you're a PS Plus subscriber wondering what to play this weekend, any of these Essential monthly games can offer up a good time.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo - February 2022 Official Showcase | PS5

Ghostwire: Tokyo is the highest-profile PS Plus Essential game of the month. Tango Gameworks released this as a PS5 exclusive shortly after Microsoft acquired it. In the two-and-a-half years since its release, Tango brought Ghostwire: Tokyo to Xbox, released Hi-Fi Rush, got shut down by Microsoft, and was then revived by Krafton. That makes it fascinating to revisit Ghostwire: Tokyo now and see the last horror-infused swing the studio took before all of those wild things happened to it. Ghostwire: Tokyo is an entertaining supernatural action game where players fight Japanese demons with magic, and it's a worthy download for any PS Plus subscriber.