Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber made an appearance at the Nintendo World store in New York City’s Rockefeller Center to help celebrate the launch of Wii Sports Resort. Justin performed three songs live from his album My World. After an acoustic set of ‘Lonely Girl,’ ‘One Time’ and ‘Favorite Girl’ he participated in a game session with lucky fans!

If there is one thing you can always expect from the gaming world, it’s the unexpected. The games industry has really broadened the appeal of video games in recent years. This is not more apparent than at launch parties for games where many unexpected celebrities show their support for games. Who would have thought that Geoffrey Rush would be one such celebrity? Rush attended the Xbox 360 “Halo 3″ sneak preview in Los Angeles. It just goes to show that video games really are for everyone.

Poppy Montgomery won a uniquely decorated Nintendo DS with her bid of ,500 which went to charity.

Nintendo held an auction at the Sundance Film Festival for rare one-of-a-kind decorated Nintendo DS handheld game units. Celebrities were invited to place their bids in the silent auction to support their favorite charities with bid matches by Nintendo for each of the winning bidders. The winners were Jay Mohr (with a bid of $10,000!), Poppy Montgomery (with a bid of $2,500), and Alan Cumming (with a winning bid of $1,500). Mohr’s chosen charity was St. Jude’s Children‘s Research Hospital (Memphis, TN). Cumming and Montgomery both chose Tsunami Disaster Relief as their charity benefactor.

Not only has Michelle Rodriguez starred in a movie based on a video game (Resident Evil), and performed voice-overs for three video games (True Crime: Streets of LA, Driv3r, and Halo 2), but she is also an avid gamer and has been for quite some time. In a recent interview the celebrity admitted that she actually plays games too! She reported she has enjoyed playing SOCOM, Metal Gear Solid, Rainbow Six 3, Soul Blade and Tekken!

The Sundance Film Festival is about more than just films these days. People go to the famous fest to party, to promote, and to generally have fun. At the Motorola Late Night Lounge at the Sundance Film Festival celebrities got to get their game on with the Nintendo Wii. Tara Reid showed up and played after getting to grips with the wiimote.

Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters jams on the drums while playing Rock Band at Microsoft's Style Studio at the Grammy awards

For the Grammy awards, Microsoft invited celebrities to drop by the Style Studio to have a little fun and jam on Rock Band for the Xbox 360. One of the celebrities who accepted the invitation was Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. For Xbox Live users who have always wanted to rock out with Hawkins they had the rare opportunity to do so by playing along during the event as a part of their game with Fame sessions.

Donny Osmond and his sons Christopher and Brandon stopped by the Justin Timberlake and Friends Xbox 360 Celebrity Charity Gift Lounge at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The Osmond boys couldn’t resist jumping in for a quick game of Lips and chose to sing Rihanna’s Umbrella. It looks like singing runs in the family. Could this be the start of a whole new Osmond group act? Only time will tell…

Tiger Woods celebrates his score after playing PGA Tour 09 on the Xbox 360

Gillette and EA Sports teamed up to host the Champions of Gaming Finals in Orlando, Florida where pro gamers could play pro athletes in games featuring their own (the pro athletes) likenesses. Tiger woods participated by playing a quick match of PGA Tour 09. Woods fared the best out of his celebrity counterparts and celebrated his tie score with opponent Steven Ward from Australia. The intense match proved to be serious fun for both competitors.

One of the more popular features of Xbox Live is their “Game with Fame” sessions which allow average everyday users to play games live against their favorite celebrity personalities. At the E3 convention in Los Angeles actress Jenny McCarthy joined the long list of celebrities that have participated by playing a few games of  Marble Blast Ultra. McCarthy seemed to enjoy herself and at times appeared very focused and determined.