Xbox 360 owners will be able to access Last.fm to varying degrees whether they have a Gold or Silver account, but full ad-free access will require a premium Last.fm subscription.
That's according to Christina DeRosa from Xbox Live, who told Joystiq that Silver users will get some form of time-limited access with video advertising, while Gold users will get unlimited ad-supported access. DeRosa said Microsoft was considering "a trial period of three hours a month" for Silver users.
Those prepared to pony up for the full shebang, however, will get ad-free access "and will also have more sophisticated personalisation features, like Loved Tracks".
A regular Last.fm account is also free, but a full subscription goes for GBP 3 per month. Microsoft announced at E3 that the service will be introduced along with Twitter and Facebook support this autumn.
We heard way back at CES that a GSM Pre was in the works, but not until now have we heard who exactly in the world would be using it. According to confirmation received by T3, Palm is gearing up to disclose the whos, whats and wheres behind the UK launch next week, meaning that we've got seven days (give or take) to twiddle our thumbs until we know which carrier (O2 or Vodafone, most likely), how much and when it'll be available for purchase. We know it's agonizing, but at least you've a time frame to circle in your Trapper Keeper now, right?
You're not still running Windows 7 Beta are you? Tsk tsk, better get your RC build before your system starts spontaneously shutting down every 2 hours. As Microsoft has warned repeatedly, Windows 7 Beta builds will begin bi-hourly shutdowns starting on July 1st in a bid to move you over to the latest release candidate. RC user will suffer the same treatment starting March 1st, 2010 on the way to a June 1st expiration -- well after the October 22nd launch date of Windows 7 to retail. This concludes this Engadget public service announcement, your regularly scheduled snarkiness will return in a moment.
It's one thing to bury something like developer mode -- a mode that the average Pre user will never need -- behind a cute-but-exhausting throwback Konami code, but it's quite another to hide useful stuff that way. A PreCentral tipster discovered that entering "RocknRollHax" on the keyboard (and yes, capitalization is important here) while in the email app enables the previously missing capability to use it in landscape mode; presumably Palm hid it from end users because they thought it was too buggy or weird for mainstream use, but it certainly works alright for us. Worst part is that the code needs to be re-entered each and every time the email app starts, so you'd better really want it -- but at least you don't have to root to get it.
If you're familiar with the emulation scene (and let's be honest, you are reading Engadget), then you know the name ZodTTD -- the brain behind some of the best jailbroken emus for the iPhone, including variations on the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and most importantly... the TurboGrafx-16. Now the master-hacker has brought his goods to the Pre, cooking up a version of psx4all on the Palm device, with the aforementioned GBA and TG16 ports on the way! Interestingly, he reports that the performance on the Pre is actually better than that of the iPhone 3GS, and of course he's hacked access to the keyboard, allowing for (more) proper control of games. There are still kinks that are being worked out (sound emulation, screen scaling, etc.), but it looks like we can expect big things in the near future. We at Engadget know everyone will rest a bit easier tonight knowing that real gaming on the Pre is at hand.
Your fancy new iPhone OS 3.0 starting to look a bit long in the tooth? Heads up, Apple's now sending out the beta OS 3.1 and its SDK to the developer community to finagle with. We're still looking to see what's been changed here, so for now, if you're someone who needs the Latest and Greatest and happens to have the right access, download away!
Update: Still tinkering, but we've seen a new "Save a Copy" option for 3G S video editing that lets you retain the original film while saving an edited clip (picture after the break, thanks Kevin), as well as some reports of MMS being activated, but it seems to stall before actually being sent out over AT&T's network.
We haven't heard much about the PS3 slim since E3, but that doesn't mean it's been entirely quiet out there -- the hot rumor today is that Sony's signed manufacturing agreements with both Foxconn and Pegatron to build the revised model in time for July delivery. That much we believe, since it's been backed up by a couple different credible reports, but here's where it gets totally insane: there's a suggestion that the slim will be the last PS3 model of this generation, and that a next-gen console based on Sony's motion controller is due in spring 2010. We don't buy that at all, since the PS3 is just entering its prime and Sony was clear that the motion controller was for the existing console, so we think this rumor is getting garbled down the wire -- it's far more likely that the slim is being prepped for an August launch to coincide with those rumored price cuts, and that new PS3 bundles that include the motion controller are set to drop next year. That's just our take on the matter, though -- we'll see how things shake out.
Veteran gaming man Dave Perry has shown off his OnLive-rivalling, cloud gaming service called Gaikai in a new video that is drawing a lot of attention. As you can see from the video, Perry plays World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Mario Kart 64, Spore and more — all running on a bog-standard computer through the Gaikai website, itself running in a normal version of Firefox."
More details about the service are available at Perry's website. He spoke about Gaikai in an interview a few months ago, and he seems confident that this will work better than OnLive (which we've discussed in the past).
EA has kick-flipped over a bunch of details for the upcoming Skate 2 DLC, which is based on "the largest pursed event in the history of professional skateboarding".
The DLC will set you back 240 Microsoft Points, or a couple of quid.
"Skate 2 has been embraced by the gaming and skateboarding community across the globe, making it the perfect stage for the Maloof Money Cup's videogame debut," said Joe Maloof, President of Maloof Companies. "Now players everywhere can experience the world's greatest skateboarding championship and revel in the high-stakes excitement of the competition for themselves."
Sentencing will take place this week in the first federal cyber bullying case in the US which was brought to trial after a teenage girl took her own life.
Lori Drew, 50, pretended to be a boy on the MySpace website to befriend Megan Meier, who hanged herself after the virtual friendship ended.
A California judge postponed sentencing until 2 July to review testimony from two witnesses.
Ms Drew's landmark case concerning internet law made worldwide headlines.
Megan, a neighbour of Ms Drew's in St Louis, Missouri, and a former friend of her daughter, took her own life in October 2006.
The court was told that Megan killed herself after receiving several cruel messages from a fictitious 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.
One post said the world would be better off without her.
Prosecutors said that Ms Drew and several others created the fake online page on MySpace, the social networking site, to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter after they had fallen out.
"Bad law"
Ms Drew was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which is normally used against computer hackers. Prosecutors were unable to find any existing laws within the state of Missouri under which she could be tried.
They had alleged that Ms Drew had violated MySpace's terms of service by using false information to set up an account so she and others could "harass, abuse or harm" Megan Meier.
Drew's trial was the first legal case in the US relating to cyber-bullying
The case was tried in California where MySpace is headquartered.
Last November a jury found Ms Drew guilty of three minor counts of violating MySpace's terms of use, but cleared her of the more serious charges that carried a maximum of 20 years in jail.
"There is a saying in the law that hard cases make bad law and that compelling facts lead courts and prosecutors to pursue cases that are ill advised and that's what we have seen right here with this case," said Andrew Grossman, who is a senior legal analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research institute.
"What happened to Megan is truly a tragedy and no one wishes to downplay that. Ms Drew didn't do anything that was against the law. She did some things that were unkind, that were rude and not becoming of an adult but not against the law.
"The messages she sent were not criminal had she said them face to face or on the phone. She did not threaten harm or violence. The prosecutors have twisted the law and that should concern everyone who uses the internet," Mr Grossman told BBC News.
"Serious crime"
In the aftermath of the Megan Meier case a number of states and communities drew up cyber bullying laws.
This includes Megan's home state of Missouri where it is now a crime punishable by a fine of up to $500 (£300) or 90 days in jail, to harass someone over the internet.
Efforts are also underway to pass a federal law. California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez is behind the Megan Meier Cyber bullying Prevention Act which has been referred to a judiciary committee for legal review.
A recent study said over 40% of children have been bullied online
This law aims to make it a crime punishable by a fine or up to two years of prison to communicate online with "the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person."
"We need to make new laws in response to these new crimes. Sexting and textual harassment are only a couple of new tactics used by bullies who don't think they'll get caught because there are no bystanders in cyberspace," said Ms Sanchez in an email to the BBC.
"What they need to know is that cyber bullying is a serious crime, and is no less harmful than in-person threats, stalking, and harassment.
"If federal law recognises this new form of bullying, police and prosecutors will be better equipped and educated to deal with this problem. Prosecutors, more importantly, will then have the ability to punish this behaviour in court," said Ms Sanchez.
Some legal experts worry about a law that specifically targets online behaviour.
"These types of matters are better decided in sober moments where they are not driven by a single set of facts," said Professor John Palfrey of the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
"One of the big questions we have to grapple with is whether or not bullying done online makes us feel any differently than bullying in the old fashioned way. If it doesn't then its not clear we need a new law in this context.
"Generally speaking it's a bad idea to make cyber specific laws. We don't need a cyber law for stealing, we have a law for theft. We don't need a cyber law for fraud, we have basic laws for that. And the question now should be do we want to outlaw bullying and not just cyber bullying?" questioned Professor Palfrey.
"Devastating"
The US National Crime Prevention Council in a report last year found that 43% of teens are exposed to cyber bullying in one form or another yet only one in 10 kids told their parents.
"Cyber bullying can have such a devastating effect on our young people from depression to falling grades and low self esteem. This case shows however that cyber bullying is not something that just young people commit but we as adults can also be at fault," said the council's Michelle Boykin.
"The issue of how you deal with cyber bullying from a legislative perspective is a tough one and we are glad people are looking at the issue seriously."
Cati said she was a victim of cyber-bullying for nearly three years
Cyber bullying was just one of the topics covered by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, a group of 29 internet businesses, non-profit organisations, academics and technology companies.
The body was set up by the Attorneys General and chaired by Professor Palfrey.
He told the BBC he believed this is an "extremely important case" and that "one of the challenges with cyber bullying is that there has been a sharp increase over the years. The big question on the data is whether there is actually an increase of bullying across the board.
"The difference with cyber bullying over regular bullying is that its recorded and it's not just someone saying something on the playground."
Support website
15 year old Catherine 'Cati' Grant was a victim of cyber bullying from the age of twelve. The cause she said was a misunderstanding with a friend who accused Cati of stealing something.
"She sent me mean messages on MySpace and blamed me for things I didn't do. After a while I got really sad and worried about what people thought of me."
In the end Cati said the bullying stopped when the other girl went to the school principal. He told her to stay away from Cati or "suffer the consequences."
That experience, coupled with the death of Megan Meier, prompted Cati to take action.
She set up a website for teens to get help, support and advice and is planning a tour across America to raise awareness about internet safety and join one million teens together against cyber bullying.
"Megan's death was one of the reasons I set up my website. It was just so shocking and upsetting and I want to do what I can to prevent cyber bullying in general and help teenagers who feel they have no where to turn to," Ms Grant told BBC News.
We see so many flash drives around these parts, it is truly, truly hard for any to distinguish themselves in our eyes. These ones? Well, we'll admit it: we have a giant soft spot for their massive noggins. Not the first Star Wars flash drives we've seen -- this newest set store up to 2GB per drive -- which isn't anything to throw a party over, but they're really cute, right? The set, which includes Darth Vader, Yoda (look at his toes!), a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett, will be available starting in October for $25 each.
If you have children that play on the popular virtual world game Neopets, you might want to warn them of a social engineering scam gleefully targeting 12-year-old kids. Neopets users looking for rare items are sent private messages from the scammers, who direct them to sites hosting keyloggers & trojans. They then use the infected PC as a means to get to data the parents might have stored there, be it credit card details, Paypal accounts or online banking. Seeing the screenshots of some of these people talking about putting these children into botnets is just unbelievable — if ever you wanted proof that people up to no good online will go to any lengths to get their hands on some money (or even just feel good about outsmarting a 12-year-old), here it is.
It's been a few months since we last checked in on how the Blu-Ray group was doing in their fight against piracy. In December 2008, a new generation of BD+ programs had stopped both SlySoft AnyDVD HD and the open source effort at Doom9. At the start of January, SlySoft released an update that could handle the new BD+ programs, meaning that Blu-Ray discs could not be decrypted for a period of time about the same length as SlySoft's worst case scenario. The BD+ retaliation was swift, but largely ineffective, consisting of a unique program for every Blu-Ray master. Users had to upload log files to SlySoft for every new movie/region. They would then support that unique variant in their next update, usually released a few days later. Despite that, the open source effort never did manage to progress beyond the Winter 2008 programs and is currently stalled completely; SlySoft is the only group remaining. This situation remained for several months, but starting around the same time as Paramount joined Fox in licensing BD+, a new set of programs came out which have once again made Blu-Ray discs unrippable. There are currently 19 movies that cannot be decrypted. It appears neither side is able to decisively gain the upper hand, but one thing seems clear — only full-time, for-profit professionals are able to consistently beat BD+.
Despite a bump or two along the way, it seemed that compulsory ID cards were a done deal in the UK. Now, the Financial Times is reporting that the scheme has been shelved. Unfortunately, it seems that this was more a matter of convenience than of concern for citizens' privacy.
The Telegraph reports that dozens of users of the recently released iPhone 3GS have reported overheating issues, with some iPhone owners unable to pick up the device because the handset gets so hot to the touch, while others say the casing turns pink with the heat. 'I am definitely experiencing issues with the iPhone running warm and quick battery life lost,' writes Tom Goldstein on one discussion board. 'The phone seems to warm up almost immediately if I am doing anything that pulls data over the network.' Some users have said the device has been too hot to put to their ear while making a phone call, and others say the overheating seems to occur when owners are using the iPhone's mapping software, which uses the handset's built-in GPS technology. Melissa J. Perenson writes at PC World: 'I became aware the handset had become very hot. Very, very hot — not just on the back, but the entire length of the front face, too.' Some gadget experts believe faulty batteries could be the cause of overheating and poor battery life. 'My guess is there's going to be a whole lot of batteries affected because these [iPhones] are from very large production runs,' said Aaron Vronko, who fixes iPods and iPhones. 'If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands [of device], if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more.
Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows XP a year ago today, no longer selling new copies in most venues. Yet according to a report from InfoWorld, various downgrade paths to XP are keeping the operating system very much alive, particularly among businesses. In fact, despite Microsoft trumpeting Vista as the most successful version of Windows ever sold, more than half of business PCs have subsequently downgraded Vista-based machines to XP, according to data provided by community-based performance-monitoring network of PCs. Microsoft recently planned to further limit the ability to downgrade to XP now that Windows 7 is in the pipeline, but backlash against the licensing scheme prompted the company to change course, extending downgrade rights on new PCs from April 2010 to April 2011
A release issued back in May unveiling 'Countdown To A Healty Body - Active Health With Carol Vorderman' stated that Active Health could sync with Wii Fit. Nintendo's let us know that it won't, it was a mistake.
The original release explained that the DS title will link up with Wii Fit. Turns out, it won't.
"Active Health allows you to input any exercise completed on Wii Fit into your personal activity log but the two systems do not directly sync with one another," Nintendo has explained.
Active Health With Carol Vorderman is due to be released on August 7. We're sure you're gutted.
A release issued back in May unveiling 'Countdown To A Healty Body - Active Health With Carol Vorderman' stated that Active Health could sync with Wii Fit. Nintendo's let us know that it won't, it was a mistake.
The original release explained that the DS title will link up with Wii Fit. Turns out, it won't.
"Active Health allows you to input any exercise completed on Wii Fit into your personal activity log but the two systems do not directly sync with one another," Nintendo has explained.
Active Health With Carol Vorderman is due to be released on August 7. We're sure you're gutted.
That's up from 106 million units this year, according to new research from Juniper.
The market for smartphones with an open OS will be driven, predictably, by the app store craze, according to the new report.
Overall, Juniper says 60 per cent of the current mobile OS market is based on open source software.
However, Juniper says the key is not whether the OS is open-source, but whether it's easy for a developer to design an application and make money from that effort.
The report says: "The combined changes of Apple's open route to the market and LiMo, OHA and Symbian's open-source OS approach have generated a tidal wave-like effect which even the economic downturn has been unable to reverse."
"There is a clear warning for device manufacturers - the choice of OS is now critical and market share will, to a large extent, follow application development. The unexpected side effect however will be a shift in the balance of power towards application developers and end users - they will begin to play the tune."
This is the first gameplay footage of FIFA 10, EA's next footy effort packing all of that juicy new tech it talked about early last month.
It's only a short trailer, apparently all actual gameplay footage, and it looks really bloody nice. Slow motion slide tackles, furry grass and realistic ball physics are all present and correct.
According to EA it "features core gameplay refinements based on responsiveness and intelligence, plus a completely overhauled Manager Mode that includes more than 50 major improvements."
If you thought Apple’s price plans were steep, you haven’t seen anything yet
Gadget lovers looking to legally get their hands on an Apple iPhone 3GS but not wanting to commit themselves to O2 have been given a lifeline by online retail giant Play.com – though if you thought Apple’s prices were steep, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Raven Software has released the minimum system specs for Wolfenstein on PC via a post on its official forums.
So, here they are:
Software Requirements:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)
Hardware Requirements:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer
Wolfenstein is out for Xbox 360, PC and PS3 in August.
It’s news that will be greeted with nothing less than total delight from its hordes of fans – 505 Games has captured the rights to publish a video game based on cherished film licence Grease.
The game, which is being developed by UK outfit Zoe Mode, is being produced in conjunction with Paramount Digital Entertainment (who will also co-publish the title) and will allow players to sing and dance alongside Danny and Sandy using motion controls, microphones and the DS’ touch screen.
“We are really excited about working with Paramount Digital Entertainment to turn this world famous film into a video game for the very first time,” 505 MD Ian Howe stated.
“Working with such a well known and much loved brand is a great opportunity and we believe the collaboration further strengthens 505 Games’ entertainment portfolio.”
Paramount Digital Entertainment’s senior VP of video games John Kavanagh added:
“Paramount Digital Entertainment is pleased to be working with 505 Games to develop Grease. Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance and have fun with a party-style game.”
It’s news that will be greeted with nothing less than total delight from its hordes of fans – 505 Games has captured the rights to publish a video game based on cherished film licence Grease.
The game, which is being developed by UK outfit Zoe Mode, is being produced in conjunction with Paramount Digital Entertainment (who will also co-publish the title) and will allow players to sing and dance alongside Danny and Sandy using motion controls, microphones and the DS’ touch screen.
“We are really excited about working with Paramount Digital Entertainment to turn this world famous film into a video game for the very first time,” 505 MD Ian Howe stated.
“Working with such a well known and much loved brand is a great opportunity and we believe the collaboration further strengthens 505 Games’ entertainment portfolio.”
Paramount Digital Entertainment’s senior VP of video games John Kavanagh added:
“Paramount Digital Entertainment is pleased to be working with 505 Games to develop Grease. Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance and have fun with a party-style game.”
Sega has said that there's a real opportunity for the publisher to make a "land grab" in the newly emerging motion controller space, ahead of rival companies.
According to European development MD Gary Dunn, the company already has extensive gestural gaming experience through its success on Nintendo's Wii, which can quickly be built upon for new products for Sony's PlayStation 3 wand and Microsoft's Project Natal.
"Being the largest third-party publisher on Wii we obviously have good gestural experience so for us I can see an opportunity to get a land grab on some of our competitors by taking our head start in gestural gaming and evolving it," said Dunn in an exclusive interview published today.
"I was blown away by it, both systems offer us so many opportunities to do great things with videogames," said Dunn of the competing technology unveiled at E3 for the first time this year.
"I immediately now want to make another Virtua Tennis. There's so many games and possibilities. I want to go away and lock myself in a dark room with some of our cleverest chaps and see what we can do with it. We've got to look in different directions to almost throw history away and it requires a whole new way of thinking. We've got to ask what can we do with this, because completely different genres of games could open up."
Dunn sees two immediate opportunities – apply the motion technology to existing franchises and genres, or throw out the rule book and build products from scratch for the systems.
But he also noted that along with three home consoles comes three separate motion control technologies, increasing workload and requiring new development solutions.
"It's going to be an issue but it comes down to how we deal with it. It's too early to say what those issues might be.
"There are two possible routes. You can opt to design a system around commonality so you have efficiency when you grow out your game design across platforms, or you can develop a different development process for each system," he concluded.
Sega has said that there's a real opportunity for the publisher to make a "land grab" in the newly emerging motion controller space, ahead of rival companies.
According to European development MD Gary Dunn, the company already has extensive gestural gaming experience through its success on Nintendo's Wii, which can quickly be built upon for new products for Sony's PlayStation 3 wand and Microsoft's Project Natal.
"Being the largest third-party publisher on Wii we obviously have good gestural experience so for us I can see an opportunity to get a land grab on some of our competitors by taking our head start in gestural gaming and evolving it," said Dunn in an exclusive interview published today.
"I was blown away by it, both systems offer us so many opportunities to do great things with videogames," said Dunn of the competing technology unveiled at E3 for the first time this year.
"I immediately now want to make another Virtua Tennis. There's so many games and possibilities. I want to go away and lock myself in a dark room with some of our cleverest chaps and see what we can do with it. We've got to look in different directions to almost throw history away and it requires a whole new way of thinking. We've got to ask what can we do with this, because completely different genres of games could open up."
Dunn sees two immediate opportunities – apply the motion technology to existing franchises and genres, or throw out the rule book and build products from scratch for the systems.
But he also noted that along with three home consoles comes three separate motion control technologies, increasing workload and requiring new development solutions.
"It's going to be an issue but it comes down to how we deal with it. It's too early to say what those issues might be.
"There are two possible routes. You can opt to design a system around commonality so you have efficiency when you grow out your game design across platforms, or you can develop a different development process for each system," he concluded.
Wii Sports Resort has sold 353,827 units in its first four days on sale in Japan. The Nintendo game, which comes bundled with the new Wii MotionPlus add-on, was released on June 25.
The sales figures, reported by Famitsu and translated by Kotaku, put the game just behind Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl which shifted 608,000 and 816,000 units respectively during the same period, making it the third fastest-selling Wii game in the region.
Wii Sports Resort - Nintendo's long-expected follow-up to Wii Sports - was announced at E3 last year. It will be released in the West in late July.
Taiwanese website UDN is reporting that Sony has signed production contracts to begin manufacturing a new model 'PS3 Slim'.
Companies Foxconn and Pegatron are working towards delivery of the remodelled system for July, says the report, translated by Engadget.
Earlier this week, a report suggested that Sony will introduce a slim PlayStation 3 this August, along with price cuts on low-end hardware.
The PS3 Slim is expected to be a redesigned, smaller home console, with only marginal technical changes, similar to cosmetic changes made to the PlayStation 2 and the PSP Slim & Lite.
Xbox Live advertisers will soon be able to create interactive campaigns for multiple Microsoft formats, as the company plans to bring Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) specifications for rich media technologies - including its own Silverlight software - to services within the year.
The move will enable companies to build advertising campaigns for four different formats - desktop, television, mobile phone and Microsoft's touch platform Surface - meaning advertisers can spend less time re-purposing campaigns across multiple platforms.
"We are just starting to scratch the surface of what's possible," Sean Alexander, director at Microsoft's advertising business group told MediaPost. "As a marketeer, your job is to build an emotional connection with the brand, no matter the platform."
Silverlight is a cross-platform technology that Microsoft developed in response to the popular Adobe Flash format, and Silverlight-powered media on Xbox 360 would have the same appearance as ads viewed on a web browser, be capable of delivering 1080p HD and 5.1 surround sound direct to the console.
According to Alexander, the move will allow agencies to focus on creative expression rather than the underpinnings of technology. The biggest challenge however, will be in developing the tools and "jump starting resources" using Silverlight and other rich media platforms to make the best of them when building campaigns for the Xbox.
Make no mistake: The Zacuto Zgrip iPhone Pro is completely ridiculous. I mean, it's a $300 iPhone handgrip. But pro video shooters—should they be shooting iPhone 3GS video for some strange reason—will appreciate all the options.
Industry veteran Ian Livingstone has warned that 2009 will be an all or nothing year for publishers, as new releases either climb high in the charts or completely sink at retail.
Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, the life president of Eidos said that publishers are pumping more money into developing and marketing bankable franchises, leaving smaller titles choked on store shelves.
"A lot of titles have already hit the shelves and there is a deluge planned for Christmas, but I think 2009 will be remembered as the year of 'roast duck or no dinner'," he said in an interview published today. "Big ticket titles continue to sell well but many of the smaller titles will probably disappoint their owners."
"There's a glut of product and in a discerning market there is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster," he added.
"I think we'll continue to see more production resources going into fewer titles supported by even bigger marketing budgets. Publishers are continuing to raise the investment bar, ensuring the mega-franchises will rule."
UK retailer ShopTo has told our sister site Eurogamer.net that Activision has tagged DJ Hero with a suggested retail price of GBP 107.99.
The retailer will actually be pricing the game and peripheral for GBP 94.85, although that's still a significant mark-up on Activision's Guitar Hero title in the UK, which launched for GBP 70 with peripheral.
DJ Hero will only cost US consumers USD 120, according to GameStop - which translates to around GBP 73.
HMV, which offers DJ Hero for GBP 99.99, told Eurogamer it is "going with its own price on this". Other local retailers are yet to set a firm price.
Last week, Activision CEO Mike Griffiths told GamesIndustry.biz that he considers DJ Hero to be a key title in expanding the business in European regions.
Most of the news about USB 3.0—the finalization of the spec, the first drivers, the first controller—doesn't tell us much about when we'll actually get to see a product hit stores. The answer? According to Nikkei, before 2010.
Social gaming company Playfish today celebrated 100 million installed games, just 18 months after it was founded.
The company has released seven titles in total, which include Pet Society, Geo Challenge and Bowling Buddies, each designed to be playable by friends over social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo and on internet connected devices like the iPhone.
"When we founded Playfish, our goal was to change the way the world plays games by creating experiences that are social and connected between friends," said Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale. "Reaching 100 million installs in such a short time is clear proof of social gaming’s popularity and how loyal, enthusiastic and deeply engaged the Playfish community is."
Playfish's games currently boast more than 30 million active monthly players with its biggest success, My Pet Society, attracting 12 million people every month.
Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells has promised another Uncharted: Among Thieves multiplayer demo before the game's autumn launch - a date for which we'll have "very soon".
"Yes, we're going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves," said Wells during a live chat on the US PlayStation blog. "The exact timing isn't finalised yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don't think you'll have any problem getting in this one."
And there is still plenty left to test, as Wells said many more competitive and co-operative multiplayer modes will make the final cut.
"We haven't announced all of the multiplayer modes yet, but I can tell you that you have several more competitive modes than we tested in the beta and at least two more co-operative modes (that are actually some of my favourites)," he said.
"We also have variations on all the competitive modes that focus on specific kinds of weapons," added Wells, name-dropping the Cinema mode that allows match-recordings to be stored, uploaded and shared.
On top of the multiplayer, Wells revealed that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will feature a longer single-player campaign than Drake's Fortune, which we thought was excellent anyway.
"The single-player campaign is definitely going to be longer than Uncharted: Drake's Fortune," offered Wells. "We have over 90 minutes of cinematics alone!"
And, added Wells, "We were very conscious to make sure that Uncharted 2 was a standalone experience. There is no expectation that you played the first game to enjoy the second." Although, he said, there will be some returning characters to meet such as Elena and Sully.
Naughty Dog's movie approach to making Uncharted resulted in the announcement of a big-screen adaptation last week. This will be lead by Marvel bosses Avi and Ari Arad.
"We're really excited about the development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as a movie," said creative director Amy Hennig. "We've been working with Arad Productions for the last year-and-a-half or so, and couldn't be happier about their enthusiasm for the project."
Konami plans to release Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement on PSN and XBLA this winter.
This is a revival and prequel to the turn-based tactical RPG series that began years ago on PSone - 1997, if you're asking. The story follows Tobias Martin, a young man caught in the middle of a war. He and his friends fight for peace, apparently, and revenge - but have an uphill struggle ahead of them.
Flames of Judgement will have better presentation and a more accessible interface, plus multiple endings and a deep character customisation portion, which develops certain skills the more they are used, says Konami.
Konami plans to release Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement on PSN and XBLA this winter.
This is a revival and prequel to the turn-based tactical RPG series that began years ago on PSone - 1997, if you're asking. The story follows Tobias Martin, a young man caught in the middle of a war. He and his friends fight for peace, apparently, and revenge - but have an uphill struggle ahead of them.
Flames of Judgement will have better presentation and a more accessible interface, plus multiple endings and a deep character customisation portion, which develops certain skills the more they are used, says Konami.
If your Xbox 360 fell victim to the E74 error and you paid Microsoft for the repair, you should have received a refund check back from the company by today. If you paid for a repair and have yet to receive a check, you'll need to follow up with Microsoft before the hard deadline of November 1, 2009. After that ... well, you're just going to have to eat it.
The E74 error was placed under a similar warranty to that of the Xbox 360's "Red Ring of Death," after data revealed it was another widespread defect for the console.
For once, a Japanese publisher has managed to create a teaser site without having the identity of the new game revealed by Famitsu scans before the official unveiling. Because Jump scans revealed it first.
The Jump scan shows the same dragon-riding artwork found on the teaser site, with two more characters than the site currently shows, revealing a party of four. Final Fantasy Gaiden: The Four Warriors of Light (not related to the Game Boy Final Fantasy Adventure, known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) is an original turn-based Final Fantasy RPG for DS, in the same style as the recent Final Fantasy DS remakes.
The scan refers to a "four-person party adventure," but we can't tell if that means multiplayer or if it's just a reference to parties controlled by a single player. According to IGN, the main character is a boy who must rescue a princess from a witch.
The battle system is a familiar turn-based, menu-driven system, with what appears to be the addition of a sort of action points: each character's status includes a certain number of yellow dots, and each action seems to have a dot next to it, indicating a cost. Final Fantasy Gaiden will be out this fall in Japan, and we wouldn't be too surprised to see it in North America the following summer for $40.
A Kingdom for Keflings developer NinjaBee will add Xbox Live Avatar support to Band of Bugs on 8th July.
This allows players to be themselves throughout the single-player campaign and during the Spider Hunter multiplayer mode.
NinjaBee also revealed a Tales of Kaloki expansion for Band of Bugs. But rather than bugs, this pits spaceships against each other in an urban environment. The spaceships have different abilities to the bugs. Yes way.
Tales of Kaloki will cost 240 Microsoft Points (GBP 2 / EUR 2.80) and, rather evidently, takes inspiration from NinjaBee's other XBLA game Outpost Kaloki X.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Blizzard's game design chief Rob Pardo has argued that it makes more sense to build a game with the hardcore gamer in mind first, and then improve its accessibility later.
"It's not really any different for StarCraft than it is for World of Warcraft, Warcraft III or Diablo, to be honest," Pardo said. "We really try to serve both audiences.
"One of the ways we do that is that we build for the depth first - for the hardcore first... Then, what we do gradually once we have that basic game - which is really fun to all of us, because a lot of the people here are pretty hardcore - then we really start trying to make the game more and more accessible."
It's easier to design for more casual players, Pardo explained, and therefore easier to add those features to a strong hardcore design than the other way around.
"The reason we build the game in that order is because you can easily come up with game design concepts or ideas or mechanics that are shallow and designed for a more casual, broad-market gamer - they're not going to put fifty-five hundred hours into a game, right? But we really want to make sure that we build in those features that have a lot of depth and a lot of replayability first, because we can always make that stuff much more accessible for someone that's not going to put in the same amount of hours."
Elsewhere in an interview covering the current development of StarCraft II and Blizzard's design philosophy in general, Pardo reveals that Blizzard similarly - and contrary to the way many other studios work - builds and tests multiplayer components before developing the single-player side of its games, and prioritises having a playable version of a game up and running over creating detailed design documents.
"We very much believe in not making a mammoth design document and then just having a team make that to spec and shipping the game," Pardo said, and added that "I think that if you want to have a great multiplayer game and have a great single-player game, you should build the multiplayer first.
"The challenge a lot of console games have is that they think about the single-player, they build that game, and then they try to tack the multiplayer on at the end - which I don't think is ever going to be very successful."
Famitsu scans have revealed the God Eater project whose title was trademarked by Namco Bandai a couple of months ago. It's a multiplayer action game for PSP that appears aimed at the Monster Hunter market (which, let's be honest, every Japanese developer probably should be trying to do on the PSP). God Eater trades out the fantasy setting of Monster Hunter for a more futuristic, industrial venue. It features a mix of mythical creatures and big, robotic monsters.
According to Siliconera, God Eater will be out this fall in Japan. The existence of that US trademark suggests that the company will be releasing it here as well.
Remember the rumored Wii version of Brütal Legend? It was rumored that EA planned to release a Wii version of the game, developed by someone other than Double Fine. The very mention of the project made Tim Schafer uncomfortable.
According to Destructoid, that Wii release, which we don't even know was real to start with, has been canceled. "Word has it that quality assurance testers who moved from Electronic Arts to Double Fine were recently let go," Destructoid notes, "after the demise of the project left their services unnecessary."
Whether the game was real and canceled or never existed at all, the net effect would seem to be the same: no Brütal Legend game on Wii. If it really was so bad that EA decided to cancel the project, we can only feel grateful that the company didn't subject Wii fans to the kind of embarrassment we had to endure whenever a screenshot of the Wii Dead Rising came out.
In Seek 'n Spell you use the iPhone 3G's built in GPS to run around the real world gathering letters that you can use to score points with big words you spell out.
The game has you pick a big open space, than uses GPS to create a satellite map of your location. The game then spreads virtual letters across the map that you have to run to to gather up and add to your virtual tray of letters.
The letters are then used to spell out words for points.
The game recently won an award for Best Use of Technology in the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival in New York. To celebrate, the developers have dropped the price of the App down to 99 cents from July 2 to July 6.
"We are honored that the Come Out & Play Festival recognized Seek ‘n Spell for its innovative use of the iPhone and GPS technology," said Dan Walton, co-founder of The Retronyms. "We felt that Independence Day weekend would be a perfect time to celebrate with our fans by offering a holiday discount. Seek ‘n Spell is a great game to play with family and friends during picnics, barbecues, or any other outdoor festivity."
Among the many fascinating (and not so fascinating) takeaways from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter's recent and massive industry report are revelations about the current console adoption rate. As much as the Wii has seemingly penetrated previously untapped demographics (see grandma's now defunct bridge club) and ostensibly raised console adoption rates to new highs, the current generation is practically dead even with the last one when comparing the two generation's first four calendar years on the market. That is, from 2005 (when Xbox 360 launched in late November) through 2008, the current generation of consoles (Wii, PS3 and 360) combined for approximately 78 million unit sales, according to Wedbush Morgan estimates. Comparatively, from 2000 (the year PS2 launched) through 2003, the previous generation (GameCube, PS2 and Xbox) combined for 78–79 million unit sales. However, in this pivotal fifth year, Wedbush Morgan predicts the current adoption rate will begin to pull ahead of the previous rate.
With an October release just around the corner, Turn 10 is taking the time to slowly reveal the cars and tracks featured in Forza Motorsport 3. Today's details come from the Japanese region, with news that Forza 3 will feature the legendary Suzuka Circuit -- known as one of the most "dangerous motorsport race tracks in Japan" -- the Tsukuba Circuit and the Twin Ring Motegi, home of the Indy Japan 300.
Also revealed in today's press release were 17 of the game's 400 vehicles, featuring standard production cars like the 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR and 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi, as well as race models from Nissan and Toyota. A full list of the rides revealed today -- which Turn 10 promises is just a 'slice' of Japanese content -- can be found after the break. Brace your faces, racing fans, as Turn 10 trickles out more details for the upcoming racing sim in the coming months
What better way to celebrate Independence Day weekend than sitting inside an air-conditioned house gathering twice the normal experience points in Gears of War 2?
With Title Update 4 dropping just in time for America to celebrate its independence from British tyranny, which seems a bit silly now that we look back, now is the perfect time to hold a double experience weekend in Gears of War 2. Executive producer Rod Fergusen agrees.
Starting Friday morning you'll be receiving double XP as well as a 500 XP bonus awarded to the winning team. And to give a little extra bang to Horde we're bringing the Ticker squad (a group of Tickers that all spawn at the same time) into full effect. They'll be showing up a lot more throughout all the waves of Horde and they've completely infested every 10th wave with nothing but Tickers. So if you've been having trouble with Bloodmounts, this weekend is a good time to get your Horde on and get further than ever before. And don't forget that TU4 will give you experience for every wave you beat.
Normally when Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter whips out his crystal ball and starts getting the vapors, he doesn't have time to turn on his minirecorder and take down the futurespeak channeled through his body. Luckily for us (and you!), he not only recorded it this time, but also wrote it down in the form of the 2009 Interactive Industry Report! We delved through the beast of a document this afternoon and found an interesting segment regarding the Nintendo Wii relying on "slower adoption rates of current generation technology" (read as: high-def displays) to help boost sales.
Pachter writes on page nine of the report, "The global recession served to benefit Nintendo at its competitors' expense," referencing Microsoft and Sony as having slower console sales this generation due to HDTV functionality built into the systems. He argues that consumers who might purchase the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 are more likely to buy the Wii not only because of the lower price point, but because of the subsequent HDTV purchase price. "Expect most consumers to defer purchasing a PS3 or an Xbox 360 until they have purchased an HD monitor," Pachter explains. Though we're not convinced that the same folks who would be purchasing an Xbox 360 or a PS3 would be running out to buy a Nintendo Wii in every case, we digress.
Rune Factory is probably one of my favourite games of all time. I loved the hell out of the first one and I’m still pouring as much time into Frontier as I can. Neverland Co. and Natsume seemed to have invested a lot into making sure the characters were varied and fun, and that is one of the reasons the original cast is so memorable.
Unfortunately, Rune Factory 2 didn’t quite grab me the way the first one did. Maybe it was because it wasn’t as much of an improvement as I hoped it would be. But certainly, the main reason was that I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more than a couple hours with Kyle, the ever-blushing shota protagonist of the sequel.
I think making sure that the character you play as appeals to as wide an audience of people as possible, visually, is important. Raguna looked and acted believable. He wasn’t OLD by any means, but he was old enough to be convincing as someone who would grow into an experienced farmer, get married and look after a family.
Kyle? Not so much.
And now, we have the protagonist of Rune Factory 3, revealed in this morning’s issue of Famitsu. Now, don’t get me wrong; I was…and still am perhaps…excited for this game.
I don’t have anything against effeminate characters. I’ve played and loved enough Square Enix games, but this…this…manwoman…with his fringe (is that what it’s called?) and bangs and hairband is a bit too much.
This is the guy you’re supposed to be. Whatever the hell happened to preserving a sense of believability?
Oh, RF3 is about 80% complete and will release this year in Japan. This could be XSEED’s upcoming DS reveal, considering Frontier was published by them. The protagonist can transform into some sort of a…were-woolie. The main girl is very reminiscent of Mist and another one looks a little bit like a female Laharl.
I’m going to go sulk in bed now. I’d appreciate it if someone could tell me if I’m overreacting here. The only other time I can recall flipping out like this is when Nintendo made Retro Studios give Samus that horrendous anime makeover for Metroid Prime 2.
Chunsoft’s is porting their critically acclaimed sound novel 428: Fusasareta Shibuya de to the PlayStation 3 and PSP. In 428 players are locked in Shibuya and switch characters to solve a mystery behind a kidnapping.
Famitsu broke the news about the port, which is scheduled to come out in Japan this September. 428 was first released on the Wii in December 2008. This isn’t the first sound novel port from Chunsoft. Last year, the PlayStation 3 game Imabikisou and its creepy eye was ported to the Wii.
The most interesting detail about the port is Sega isn’t handling it. Sega published Imabikisou and the Wii version of 428 in Japan. Spike, notable for the Way of the Samurai games and handling 2K Sports titles in Japan, will publish 428 on PlayStation platforms.
Since Sega isn’t involved there’s a small very small chance 428 could get localized as a downloadable PSP or PlayStation 3 game. Capcom, UFO Interactive, and Atlus are some of the publishers that localized Spike’s games for North America. Atlus also has a relationship with Chunsoft from Shiren the Wanderer.
Chunsoft’s is porting their critically acclaimed sound novel 428: Fusasareta Shibuya de to the PlayStation 3 and PSP. In 428 players are locked in Shibuya and switch characters to solve a mystery behind a kidnapping.
Famitsu broke the news about the port, which is scheduled to come out in Japan this September. 428 was first released on the Wii in December 2008. This isn’t the first sound novel port from Chunsoft. Last year, the PlayStation 3 game Imabikisou and its creepy eye was ported to the Wii.
The most interesting detail about the port is Sega isn’t handling it. Sega published Imabikisou and the Wii version of 428 in Japan. Spike, notable for the Way of the Samurai games and handling 2K Sports titles in Japan, will publish 428 on PlayStation platforms.
Since Sega isn’t involved there’s a small very small chance 428 could get localized as a downloadable PSP or PlayStation 3 game. Capcom, UFO Interactive, and Atlus are some of the publishers that localized Spike’s games for North America. Atlus also has a relationship with Chunsoft from Shiren the Wanderer.
Although Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, predicts PS2 will become somewhat irrelevant in 2009, he doesn't discount the combined strength of the PlayStation brand. He remains optimistic for the entire PlayStation family as he expects "software sales for Sony consoles to account for 31% of all game software sold worldwide."
Pachter indicated in Wedbush's annual Interactive Industry Report that, while the numbers have been dwindling for PS2, overall worldwide software sales for PS3 titles have more than doubled within the last year. In 2008, 62.4 million units of PS3 software titles have been sold -- a huge step up from the 29.6 million units sold in 2007. The momentum of this growth will carry into 2009, according to Pachter, who believes PS3 and PSP titles (the latter of which only saw a 15% increase in worldwide sales last year) will pick up PS2's slack.
PS3 titles will be the top sellers, despite the fact that Pachter predicts Sony won't "secure significant third party exclusivity" as it continues "to focus its internal development efforts on blockbuster games." It's interesting to note, in light of another report, this strategy hasn't really worked out for Sony.
Although Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, predicts PS2 will become somewhat irrelevant in 2009, he doesn't discount the combined strength of the PlayStation brand. He remains optimistic for the entire PlayStation family as he expects "software sales for Sony consoles to account for 31% of all game software sold worldwide."
Pachter indicated in Wedbush's annual Interactive Industry Report that, while the numbers have been dwindling for PS2, overall worldwide software sales for PS3 titles have more than doubled within the last year. In 2008, 62.4 million units of PS3 software titles have been sold -- a huge step up from the 29.6 million units sold in 2007. The momentum of this growth will carry into 2009, according to Pachter, who believes PS3 and PSP titles (the latter of which only saw a 15% increase in worldwide sales last year) will pick up PS2's slack.
PS3 titles will be the top sellers, despite the fact that Pachter predicts Sony won't "secure significant third party exclusivity" as it continues "to focus its internal development efforts on blockbuster games." It's interesting to note, in light of another report, this strategy hasn't really worked out for Sony.
Namco Bandai shined some light on how Nintendo DSi enhanced games work with screenshots from Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars. Plug the game into a DSi and you get more menu options.
The screenshot on the left is what you see if you play Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars on a Nintendo DS. On the right you have the Nintendo DSi main menu, which includes the QR code option. The DSi’s camera can be used to read QR codes, which are kind of like barcodes for cell phones. QR codes give idol masters access to extra items. So far, Namco Bandai has not announced any plans for paid downloadable content for Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars. Maybe, they’re making Idolm@ster trading cards with QR codes.
- downgrade Xbox360 (production before August 2007 and non-HDMI)
- switch between the kernel on your Xbox360 and the kernel on Cygnos360 V2 (for example for region-code switching or switching to homebrew/exploitable kernel)
- no lifting of CE-pin or cutting of traces neccessary
- protect your data by storing offline information on the Cygnos360 V2 NAND-flash and avoid banning (dirty-NAND concept)
- directly downgrade on the Cygnos360 V2 NAND-flash
- easy quicksolder installation of Cygnos360 V2
- Cygnos360 V2 firmware can be up- and downgraded to any version in the field
- built from high quality components
- downgrading takes 1h15m on average on a middle-class PC
- reading from and writing to flash takes less than a minute each
- easy to use
- a reliable solution for downgrading (Xenon mainboards)
- run Linux (Xenon mainboards)
- read and flash your Xbox360 and Cygnos360 V2 NAND-flash in less than one minute
- Infectus is no longer needed for any of the functions
After much testing Xecuter have designed and perfected the exact specifications for the X-Clamp fix. Each screw has been designed to fit perfectly with the original RROD heatsink pads. Fitting this new version of the X-Clamp fix, which includes all tools needed - as well as a full tube of high quality heat silicon paste - along with the specially formulated heatsink pads, this fix has become the defacto solution in repairing the majority of the RROD (red Ring Of Death) Xbox 360.
In tests this kit fixes 98 percent of Xbox 360 consoles !!!
This kit is very easy to install and includes enough parts for 1 Xbox360. This kit also includes the screwdrivers (Torx 10 and Torx8), a specially designed X-Clamp and a tube of high quality Heat Silicon Compound.
espite the fact that the PS2 saw a sizable price cut just three months ago, Michael Pachter is claiming that the system is nearing the point of complete insignificance. In Wedbush's "2009 Interactive Industry Report," Pachter explains that he expects "PS2 software sales to decline sufficiently (around 64%) to be almost irrelevant to overall software sales growth, with PS2 software comprising less than 4% of overall software sales in 2009."
Sony's probably not ready to give up on its most cost-efficient console, but as history has prov
No, it's okay. You can read that again. According to a report released by Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, the company was given a demo of streaming game service OnLive this past March. Pachter states that latency between the user and OnLive's servers is supposed to be no more than 80 milliseconds, while the games he demoed were running at 25 milliseconds. While Pachter isn't certain if OnLive will "dominate any time soon" he believes that the micro console's video conferencing feature "will likely attract widespread demand." (Wait, it plays Crysis like a gaming PC and it's video conferencing that will sell this thing?)
Pachter states that OnLive should appeal to families that have yet to buy into the current generation of consoles, especially if the service is priced right. The sweet spot, apparently, is right around $5 a month. A higher price could be met with "consumer resistance," says Pachter. Furthermore, Pachter is already predicting that OnLive may not last long as a standalone service, suggesting that it might be purchased by another company and offered as "part of an expanded service offering."
For example, Microsoft could purchase the company to further expand the Xbox as an entertainment hub -- Pachter notes Microsoft's previous acquisition of WebTV, which was co-founded by OnLive CEO Steve Perlman. That's assuming neither Apple nor Verizon beat Microsoft to the punch, of course.
It's too early for us to say if any of this will come to pass -- we're not analysts, after all -- but we were certainly impressed with our own OnLive experience. Still, until we can plug OnLive into our internet and play Crysis for ourselves, we're a bit skeptical. That's okay though, because we're supposed to be.
Renegade Kid is apparently working on a kid-friendly platformer for the DS while it develops a sequel to Dementium. The developer showed IGN that its other new project is Maximillian and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds. Players will use a water pack (think Mario Sunshine) to double-jump chasms of doom and squirt the baddies to death.
Renegade Kid plans to push its already impressive technical knowledge with the DS even further with Mudds. The developer doesn't know if it'll go the retail route or check out DSIware, and there isn't so much as an inkling of a release window. Check out a video of the game after the break.
Some people in the video game industry predict the mobile games business could eventually grow to topple the handheld gaming market, Wedbush Morgan disagrees. In its July industry report, analyst Michael Pachter estimates the mobile games industry is currently closer to $2 billion and, even with expected growth, the market may only expand to $4-6 billion in the next three to five years.
In a section titled "Mobile Phone Games are a Fad," Pachter explains that, while 1 billion iPhone applications have been downloaded across 31 million Apple products sold, "it is not evident that more than 20% of these downloads are games." Suggesting the iTunes App Store has generated "under $400 million in game downloads" in its first year. Pachter does predict the mobile game industry will grow at 25% per year for a few years, but will eventually fall as competing devices enter the market.
The report also calls Electronic Arts' emphasis on mobile games "misplaced." EA Mobile has grown steadily over the last few years, but the report estimates the mobile games division is -- along with that of competitors Gameloft and GLU Mobile -- "barely profitable."
According to the report, finger pointing in Apple's camp should directed toward the "open forum" structure of the store and Apple's business model. Apple runs the game download service for an estimated 30% fee, leaving 70% to the game's publisher, the report claims. The section on mobile games goes on to conclude that handheld systems, like the new PSP Go, will "maintain its niche, without significant cannibalization" from the mobile games industry.
Geo Stelar and the rest of the gang are back in an all new adventure. How can Geo Stelar and his friends fight with the threat of “Meteor G” closing in on Earth?
Moreover, what power can Mega Man harness by using the “Noise Change” system which controls the power of “Noise”?
Mega Man Star Force® 3 blends a unique formula of RPG exploration elements with fast-paced action.
As players travel and battle between coexisting worlds, the physical world and the virtual Wave World, they will encounter enemies in the virtual Wave World, battling them on three-by-five battle grids with their Battle Card deck.
Mega Man Star Force® 3 also adds a new feature called “Rezon,” which allow players to fill in profiles about battles and their team name/symbol.
Get the Black Ace version if you are the speed attack type and get the Red Joker for powerhouse player characters.
features
Harness a variety of weapons from various pistols to heavy-caliber cannons and machine guns. Every accurate shot increases your concentration, which allows you to unleash deadly shooting modes when outnumbered and even deadlier ones when the brothers work together
Choose to embody Ray or Thomas, each with a distinctive gameplay style (close or long range), specific abilities (lasso, dynamite, etc.) and arsenal of deadly weapons (dual guns, long-range carbine, etc.). Take advantage of each of their strengths and join in the fiercest fights imaginable
The McCall brothers face a renegade Apache Chief, a greedy Mexican bandit, and a vindictive Colonel, all driven by greed with moral disregard. Enjoy a wide variety of situations, using horses, canoes and wagons to explore the open natural landscapes of the mythical Wild West and its legendary period
Gunslingers, bandits and marshals struggle online for the bounty. Multiple characters are unlocked for team-based objective modes or the straightforward team deathmatch. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood introduces a Bounty system, which sees players increase the bounty on their head with more kills. Get rid of the deadliest among you to increase your bank roll!
description
Call of Juarez™: Bound in Blood, is the prequel to the Wild West action shooter Call of Juarez. As the McCall brothers, players enter a doomed quest for the legendary Gold of Juarez leading them from a ravaged Georgia during the Civil War to the Aztec ruins of Mexico. They make their lawless trail into the wildest West ever depicted, using their gunslinging skills and killing all of those that stand before them. But when the brothers face lust, their bond of blood feels thinner than ever…
features
Harness a variety of weapons from various pistols to heavy-caliber cannons and machine guns. Every accurate shot increases your concentration, which allows you to unleash deadly shooting modes when outnumbered and even deadlier ones when the brothers work together
Choose to embody Ray or Thomas, each with a distinctive gameplay style (close or long range), specific abilities (lasso, dynamite, etc.) and arsenal of deadly weapons (dual guns, long-range carbine, etc.). Take advantage of each of their strengths and join in the fiercest fights imaginable
The McCall brothers face a renegade Apache Chief, a greedy Mexican bandit, and a vindictive Colonel, all driven by greed with moral disregard. Enjoy a wide variety of situations, using horses, canoes and wagons to explore the open natural landscapes of the mythical Wild West and its legendary period
Gunslingers, bandits and marshals struggle online for the bounty. Multiple characters are unlocked for team-based objective modes or the straightforward team deathmatch. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood introduces a Bounty system, which sees players increase the bounty on their head with more kills. Get rid of the deadliest among you to increase your bank roll!
description
Call of Juarez™: Bound in Blood, is the prequel to the Wild West action shooter Call of Juarez. As the McCall brothers, players enter a doomed quest for the legendary Gold of Juarez leading them from a ravaged Georgia during the Civil War to the Aztec ruins of Mexico. They make their lawless trail into the wildest West ever depicted, using their gunslinging skills and killing all of those that stand before them. But when the brothers face lust, their bond of blood feels thinner than ever…
features
Harness a variety of weapons from various pistols to heavy-caliber cannons and machine guns. Every accurate shot increases your concentration, which allows you to unleash deadly shooting modes when outnumbered and even deadlier ones when the brothers work together
Choose to embody Ray or Thomas, each with a distinctive gameplay style (close or long range), specific abilities (lasso, dynamite, etc.) and arsenal of deadly weapons (dual guns, long-range carbine, etc.). Take advantage of each of their strengths and join in the fiercest fights imaginable
The McCall brothers face a renegade Apache Chief, a greedy Mexican bandit, and a vindictive Colonel, all driven by greed with moral disregard. Enjoy a wide variety of situations, using horses, canoes and wagons to explore the open natural landscapes of the mythical Wild West and its legendary period
Gunslingers, bandits and marshals struggle online for the bounty. Multiple characters are unlocked for team-based objective modes or the straightforward team deathmatch. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood introduces a Bounty system, which sees players increase the bounty on their head with more kills. Get rid of the deadliest among you to increase your bank roll!
description
Call of Juarez™: Bound in Blood, is the prequel to the Wild West action shooter Call of Juarez. As the McCall brothers, players enter a doomed quest for the legendary Gold of Juarez leading them from a ravaged Georgia during the Civil War to the Aztec ruins of Mexico. They make their lawless trail into the wildest West ever depicted, using their gunslinging skills and killing all of those that stand before them. But when the brothers face lust, their bond of blood feels thinner than ever…
In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was.
Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching.
Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts.
He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
See Harry and friends in action before the movie hits the cinema. The Half Blood Prince is available on multiple platforms:
Xbox360™
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 64.90
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 64.90
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo™ Wii
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince JPN US$ 48.90
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince US US$ 44.90
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince ASIA US$ 42.90
PC Game
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (DVD-ROM) US US$ 34.90
In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was.
Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching.
Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts.
He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
See Harry and friends in action before the movie hits the cinema.
description
Liberty City Stories:
There are a million stories in Liberty City. This one changes everything. Once a trusted wise guy in the Leone crime family, Toni Cipriani was forced into hiding after killing a made man. Now he's back and it's time for things to be put right.
The streets of Liberty City are in turmoil. Warring mafiosi vie for control as the town begins to self-destruct under waves of political corruption, organized crime, drug trafficking and union strikes. No one can be trusted as Toni tries to clean up the mess of the city's chaotic underworld. Deranged hit men, morally depraved tycoons, cynical politicians and his own mother stand in his way as Toni tries to bring the city under Leone control.
Forced to fight for his life in an odyssey that will shake Liberty City to its foundations, Toni must use any means necessary to secure his place in the leadership of the Leone family in a town up for grabs.
Vice City Stories:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is a new game in the Grand Theft Auto series with an entirely new storyline, new missions and gameplay. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories features the interactive, open environment of Vice City with professional voice talent, a diverse soundtrack and high production values that have become trademarks of this landmark series.
EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 is truly the Return of the Champ. Building off EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3, one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed games to come out at the onset of the Xbox 360 hardware launches, EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 promises to be equally as ground-breaking and revolutionary. With an all new gameplay engine, truly unique and differentiated boxer styles, and the most impressive boxer roster ever including the return of the legendary Iron Mike Tyson, EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 takes video game boxing and fighting to an entirely new level.
features
For the first time ever, play as 6 of your favorite characters from the Ice Age movies
Explore the all-new Dinosaur World!
Compete with your friends and family in fun multiplayer mini-games!
description
Join Ice Age's unlikely herd of prehistoric pals for their most exciting adventure yet!
Embark on a rescue mission across melting snow to the mysterious Dinosaur World - an all new, fur-raising jungle of carnivorous plants, lush foliage and fierce dinosaurs!
EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 is truly the Return of the Champ. Building off EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3, one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed games to come out at the onset of the Playstation 3 hardware launches, EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 promises to be equally as ground-breaking and revolutionary. With an all new gameplay engine, truly unique and differentiated boxer styles, and the most impressive boxer roster ever including the return of the legendary Iron Mike Tyson, EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 takes video game boxing and fighting to an entirely new level.
features
For the first time ever, play as 6 of your favorite characters from the Ice Age movies
Explore the all-new Dinosaur World!
Compete with your friends and family in fun multiplayer mini-games!
description
Join Ice Age's unlikely herd of prehistoric pals for their most exciting adventure yet!
Embark on a rescue mission across melting snow to the mysterious Dinosaur World - an all new, fur-raising jungle of carnivorous plants, lush foliage and fierce dinosaurs!
Overlord II is the sequel to the hit warped fantasy action adventure that had players being delightfully despotic. In Overlord II, a new Overlord and a more powerful army of Minions take on an entire empire in a truly epic adventure, inspired by the rise of the Roman Empire. As the Glorious Empire conquers kingdoms and destroys any sign of magic it finds, it's time to go Minion Maximus and send in the horde.
The Minions return smarter, deadlier (and funnier) and are ready to fight in large scale battles that will see their wild pack mentality squaring up to the organised legions of the Glorious Empire. As ever, they'll do anything and everything the Overlord commands of them, especially now that they can run ravage and wreck buildings and scenery. They've also learn to ride: In Overlord II Minions will be able to mount up and ride wolves and other magical creatures around the landscape and take them into battle, making our band of merry fighters faster and fiercer than ever before.
I got a little time to check out frontend menu systems for the A320. As always, the way to go is reuse existing open source software, and I came up with two candidates: gmenu2x and gp2xmb. If you know some other, please let me know.
You may recall that one of the first quick ports I did when I got linux running on the A320 was gmenu2x. I did that using the huge glibc and other stuff from the Ingenic toolchain, but this time I wanted to do it the right way: using an uclibc toolchain.
I quickly went over OpenEmbedded and settled with buildroot. It's the tool by the uclibc guys and has a nice kernel like configure menu to which I'm used. I succesfully built the toolchain, and I recommend using buildroot for compiling just the toolchain and some basic libraries. For bigger or specialized libraries (like SDL), I recommend configuring and building manually using the just built toolchain. I'll be testing this toolchain in the following days and release a new uclibc based rootfs.
These are the porting results:
gmenu2x: unable to get the latest stable version working in linux nor in the A320. The svn code compiled and sort of worked both in linux and in the A320 but despite the icons seems to be loaded they're not shown on screen. Didn't go any further because I do not intend to debug the gmenu2x code.
gp2xmb: got the svn code working almos right from the start, both in linux and in the A320. The sound is choppy in both cases, which leads me to believe it's not a problem of the kernel sound driver (reminder: still using the buggy and ugly OSS driver).
Personally I prefer gp2xmb. There's quite a lot of work to be done to adapt to the A320 (plus the sound problem), but the code seems quite clean and well structured. Check out the video:
Note: it should be only the second half, but for some reasong I could not edit it without breaking further the audio sync (in which you can notice it's choppy), sorry. You see how I reset dingux using POWER+START+SELECT, boot into the original firmware, power off, power on and get a bit too late to select dingux thus booting again into original firmware, etc. Notice that in the latest dual-boot release you can press SELECT to boot dingux anytime while the dingux splash screen is show, that is, you actually need not to power on while pressing SELECT.
Runik has posted news concerning his Sega Saturn Emulator for Windows:
As I was converting different VDP2 modes to the new cache, I came across testing the game 3 Dirty Dwarves. This game got a strange problem since version 0.32, as main player characters weren't being diplayed on screen : you could move around, see bullets fired, or punch the villains, but that was it. You could only guess your position by the scrolling moves.
At first I thought it was related to the DSP, as some games use it to do some sprite calculations, but after a quick check that wasn't the case.
Some more tracing lead me to some unmapped memory access (which wasn't logged for some reason), and reading through the SH2 hardware manual gave me the aswers I was looking for : the SH2 has an internal cache (4KB of data, and 1KB of addresses), which can be configured to be used as a 4 ways cache (all the data cache is used as instructions / data cache), a 2 ways cache (the first half is used as a high speed RAM, and the other one as regular cache), or completely disabled (4KB used as high speed RAM).
After adding this 4KB area to the memory map of the emulator, bingo ! The sprites are displayed
If you want to be the envy of everyone in your neighborhood, be sure to be seen around in your beautiful new ScummVM T-shirt. Designed with the cooperation of the ScummVM team, this understated and elegant item will truly show off your adventure game leanings to the initiated. Plus, combobreaker.com are donating to the ScummVM project for each one sold!
While we're on the subject of helping ScummVM, please vote for your favorite point-and-click adventure game engine interpreter in the Sourceforge Community Choice Awards. Thanks to all the people that nominated us, we've made it through to the final round. If you click the link, ScummVM will be pre-selected in the Best Project for Gamers category, and you can go on and choose your favorite open-source projects in the other categories.
A belated May 2009 issue of Commodore Free has been released.
Contents:
* News
* RGCD Cartridge reviews
* The Kidal Legacy
* DOS65
* Interview with DOS65 creator
* Introduction to CPM
* CPM Operating system
* Worlds greatest menu
* CCC UK Forum post cbm 128
* Introduction to C programming
Tantric has released a new version of his Dos Emulator for the Wii:
Features
USB Keyboard and mouse support.
Wiimote pointer support.
SD/USB mounting.
Most DOS games are playable.
Instructions
You need a Wii Remote and a USB keyboard.
The C: drive will automatically be mounted to sd:/DOSBox/ if loaded from apps/dosbox-wii/. Otherwise, the directory the dol is loaded from will be mounted as C, and sd:/DOSBox as D (if present). The Z: driver is a virtual drive that is part of DOSBox.
Other drives can be mounted using the MOUNT command. Prefix sd: for an SD card, and usb: for a USB drive. The Wii's DVD drive and network folders can't be mounted at this time.
The configuration file is loaded from the directory the dol is located in (if present) and sd:/DOSBox/dosbox.conf otherwise. This file will be created automatically after you start DOSBox. Please edit it with a text editor to choose settings appropriate for each game.
Press the Home button, type "exit", press Ctrl+F9, or press Reset (on the console) to exit.
0.73.02 - July 1, 2009
Upgraded DOSBox engine to latest SVN
Fixed lockup when only using the Wiimote (no attachments connected)
Compiled with latest libogc and SDL Wii
Pickle has released a new version of his Gameboy Emulator for the Wiz:
Features a number of new scalers such as Notaz's gpsp interpolation scaler, scale2x filter modes.
Supports internal overlocking at wiz speeds.
Sound is still a bit rough (if anyone wants to take a look, feel free as im stumped)
Pickle has updated the port of Gmenu2Xfor the Wiz:
GMenu2X is a very very good alternative frontend for the wiz. It supports overclocking, sound volume setting, touchscreen, etc. GMenu2X allows you to create direct links for your games & applications so that you can directly launch them without having to browse through all the filesystem manually, resulting in a better user experience.
Gmenu2x is no longer beta
I finished adding clock and battery support for the wiz version.
The clockspeed is capped at 900 Mhz. The default clock for applications is at 550 Mhz.
It is changeable in all situations by 10 mhz.
Im not confident that the battery monitoring is accurate. I added the wiz's battery device but left the battery levels the same as the gp2x. Im assuming GPH left it the same, which they usually do.
I've worked for a few hours today, trying to let the user add levels directly from FAT, and I've finally done it! It's pretty much self-explanatory when you look through the folders, but I'll give a quick explaination.
When you convert a background with PAGfx, you get some .bin files as well. This is what we'll need, though, first, let's look at how a level folder is laid out:
Code:
Level folder structure
.../levels
->[levelname]
-> StageBG
-> CollisionMap
-> BackBG
-> MidBG
- config.iniStageBG: required.
CollisionMap: required:
BackBG: Optional, this goes at the very back of the level, so it should represent something in the distance
MidBG: About halfway between the stage and the back background. Can be used for clouds or something.
config.ini: This is the heart of the entire level, here, you specify the width, height, any modifiers, and you also place the objects/enemies in the stage. It should look a bit like this:
Code:
;Level configuration file
[Level]
width = 1424
height = 256
gravity = 1200 ;The gravity (max velocity) of the objects. Default is 1000.
music = jumper.mp3 ;Music, located in .../music/
;Width and height only apply to StageBG and CollisionMap
[Scrolling]
midscroll = -128 ;Scrolling of the middle background... eg, clouds moving
backscroll = 0 ;Scrolling of the back background
[Object2]
x = 164
y = -64
class = 2
flip = -1 ;The direction that the AI moves in (-1 or 1)
[Object3]
...
;You can have as many objects as you need....
Like I said before, when converting the backgrounds with PAGfx, you get some .bin files, named *_Tiles.bin and such. To use the backgrounds in your level, place the files in their respective folders, then rename them all to tiles.bin, info.bin, etc.
I'll document this much better later, but I'm tired and hungry
The Alpha DevTeam releases the first version of Alpha Tris, homebrew-developed game that simulates the LUA popular TicTacToe game, which is the classic Tic Tac Toe.
More to follow.
Changelog v1.0:
Quote:
• A 'graphical user interface simple and intuitive
• A menu that includes the functions:
- New Game / Start a new game
- Options / Allows you to change the pointer and the background
- Loans / Show creators dell'Homebrew
- Turn off PSP / PSP Turns off the
- Exit / Back to the XMB
Hello lilmnm From Team Red Phoenix (TPR) here with a bug fix for DayPR that caused you to not be able to exit out of the pop up Keyboard Sorry for the Bug that shouldnt have happened in the first place.
-=To Fix=-
just copy this new prx to your seplugins folder and over write the old one.
Thanx to zidapi for letting me know about this bug right away!
Despite the "mod" title, I recoded a pretty good portion of the actual "engine" per se, what loads the cheats, what applies the cheats, what saves, and so on, rather than just editing the looks and calling it my own.
It also uses a custom malloc set that, even though it's a kernel module, it uses user space for saving cheats, which there is an abundance of, as opposed to the 4 or so mb of kernel ram.
I also removed the search, decoder, and browser as usually it's unused, and a huge chunk of memory.
I don't have any screenshots on hand, and there's no readme. If you need a readme, it works the same exact way as NitePR, except it loads infinitely quicker, and when you save it rids of all your foolish little comments that wreak havoc on the memory and it saves the addresses in "%X" as opposed to "%08lX", thus it can take up to 14 bytes out of every line of cheating, and with that, I had to recode the loader, which instead of
If you wanna screenshot it, go for it. I just put this out there so people who want HUGE databases for those small offline games can whack away instead of being limited to ~30kb.
It's the only one of it's kind, and probably the most extensively modified, rather than a couple changed colors, which I didn't even bother with.
Yeah, we're all been-there-done-that with portable SNESs these days, but we've never seen it done like this. Marshall posted his creation, dubbed the "SUPERTENDO," to Ben Heck's forums, which seems to imply (along with the looks) that he took some queues from similar designs already floating around those parts. What really sets this one apart, however, is the vacuum-formed chassis and the instant "make me an offer" move to a sale -- being owned by a major faceless media conglomerate ourselves, we like to see a guy who's out for a buck. A quick hands-on Video is after the break.
A few days after blocking PlayStation 3 users, Hulu has yet to respond to questions concerning the change which has only helped to fuel rumors it is related to the Microsoft ad campaign currently featured on the site, but that seems less likely now that we've confirmed it also began blocking the Flash-enabled Skyfire browser on Windows Mobile devices at the same time. Whatever the cause is, if you prefer a homegrown hack over something like PlayOn or TVersity, Eric over at ypass.net has put together a simple enough walkthrough for creating an "unblockable" workaround by setting up a locally connected PC running Linux or Windows with the freely available Squid proxy server software that will make your PS3 look like appear as a PC running a Firefox (or whatever you prefer) browser to any website that asks. Of course, just like the other solutions your computer will need to stay running to keep you connected, but we figure it's a small price to pay for enjoying relatively low res Flash video running on an HDTV.
Ready for even more rumors about Windows Mobile 7 and Microsoft's mysterious "Pink" smartphone project? Good, cause we've got a few -- and the first is potentially huge. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says her best understanding of "Pink" is now that it's a Microsoft-branded phone running a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile 7, developed by what's left of the Danger team and targeted at the Sidekick market. Yep, Microsoft-branded -- as in, the exact thing Microsoft has been denying for ages now. What's more, Redmond wouldn't be letting third parties use this new UI -- Pink would be manufactured only by Sharp or Motorola, who've made Sidekicks in the past. It all makes sense, even if it does feel a bit like MS is knifing its partners in the back -- companies like HTC and Samsung have been equally aggressive in layering their own UIs like TouchFLO 3D and TouchWiz on top of WinMo, but it's another thing entirely to compete against Microsoft itself, especially now that AdWeek says Microsoft's selected an agency to develop a Pink ad campaign. Yeah, things are starting to get a little wild -- we haven't even mentioned the open questions of whether the Zune HD is running Tegra because it's based on Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, or whether Pink will launch on Verizon, or whether Zune will appear on other phones, or... you get the idea. Hey Microsoft -- you want to clear any of this up by shipping some products?
Unwired View uncovered three new iPhone patents that promise to turn everything from calling grandma on her birthday to turning off your phone in a movie theater into gloriously mindless activities
Blizzard has announced that they will be dropping LAN support for Starcraft II , citing piracy and quality concerns. Instead, all multiplayer games will be hosted through their new Battle.net service. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this move, but wasn't LAN play how the original Starcraft became popular? Blizzard said, 'More people on Battle.net means ... even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. ... We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better
A few new Harry Potter construction pictures can be found at Florida Thrills. Meanwhile one of our sources claims to have gotten an up-close look inside one of the Hogwarts building doors and reports that all they could really see installed so far inside the building was ride track on the ground and several large curved projection screens.
The number of people visiting Twitter increased 22-fold in the last twelve months, according to an internet monitoring company.
According to Hitwise, the site is now the fifth most viewed social networking site compared with the 84th last year.
Ninety-three per cent of Twitter's growth has happened in 2009.
Director of Research at Hitwise Robin Goad said: "If people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications were included, numbers could be higher."
Another measure of Twitter's popularity is its jump in the overall internet rankings.
Last year it was the 969th most visited site on the web. It's now the 38th most visited website.
Events like the protests in Iran have gone global via Twitter
Twitter is popular with celebrities like Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry.
"If anything, the service is even more popular than our numbers imply," said Robin Goad.
"We are only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website.
"If people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications like Twitterific or Tweetdeck were included, the numbers could be even higher.
"Media coverage of the site has escalated significantly this year and high profile celebrity endorsements likes Ashton Kutcher have come rolling in."
Micro-blogging site Twitter has also had a major impact on so-called 'citizen journalism', when members of the public use the site to break major news stories or updates such as the terror attacks in Mumbai or the recent protests in Iran.
But the social networking website still has some work to do to catch the likes of MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.
The number of people using Facebook has risen above the 20 million mark this year in the UK and 200 million around the world.
Telltale Games has released a clip from Tales of Monkey Island, coming to Wii and PC later this year. See it here.
"It's a peek at the first few moments of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter One, 'Launch of the Screaming Narwhal'. You might notice that it includes an sample of some of the inventory-item-combining action you'll face while playing," says the dev.
On many levels the recent iPhone 3GS was a modest upgrade from the existing 3G model, but a tech demo from Flight Control developer Firemint has proven just how much additional grunt is offered by the device’s beefed up innards.
A post on the Firemint blog explained: “Real Racing has up to six cars on the track at any one time. Since the game uses a high fidelity physics engine, adding cars is a good test for pushing the hardware.
“We started our tech demo with eight cars on the track, then 10, 12, 16 and 20, and the 3GS still didn't break a sweat. We finally stopped when we got to 40 cars on the track at the same time, still with no perceptible drop in frame rate.
“We think the results are mind blowing.”
There aren’t currently any plans to bring an enhanced 3GS version of the critically acclaimed 3D racing title to the 3GS, but with some developers hinting at such a move in the future, don’t rule it out.
Universal Music has pledged its back catalogue to a new karaoke game set to challenge SingStar. CasualGaming.biz's sister site MCV has revealed that French label Mindscape will publish U-Sing in time for Christmas across the UK and Europe.
The firm has previously signed distribution deals with UK publishers for releases in the territory – such as its deal with Koch for Deal Or No Deal and Golden Balls games, plus the upcoming Coronation Street title.
However, MCV reveals that U-Sing will be independently published by Mindscape following the deal with Universal.
A Mindscape spokesperson told MCV: “U-Sing will offer the whole family the chance to sing the hits of Universal Music – from the biggest known classics through to the latest trendy tunes.
“Each country will have its own list of most popular local and international artists.”
The U-Sing brand will become a full series in future, with each game offering different game modes and Voxler voice recognition technology.
They will be marketed in France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux and Australia and will eventually become available on all platforms.
Artists such as Amy Winehouse, Black Eyed Peas, Girls Aloud, Paul Weller and Lady GaGa are on Universal’s books – but U-Sing’s song line-up is yet to be confirmed.
The title appears to fit with Universal’s ‘U’ re-branding. Its UK website was last year renamed to Umusic.co.uk.
Platform holder was simply waiting for digital market to mature, says head of product planning
Sony had planned to release a 'network centric' model of the PSP ever since the beginning, according to an interview on website GameBusiness.jp.
In an interview with the head of SCE's product planning division, Naoya Matsui, it has been revealed that the company was simply waiting for the digital pipeline to reach a mature-enough state to sustain such a device.
"We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," says Matsui. "But if we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferral of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as 'Media Go'.
"We wanted to release it when the delivery of digital content was on par with the delivery of physical media. Thats what we've been working on these past two years. We'll be selling the PSPgo alongside the existing PSP models, because it's a product targeted at those people who are more accustomed to digital content."
The current-gen UK console install base has hit 24.2 million units, according to data released by Chart-Track.
Wii comfortably leads the way in the UK with 5.4 million units sold as of June 27, 2009. Xbox 360 sales are currently at 3.9 million while PS3 sales sit at 2.2 million, says Chart-Track.
On the handheld front DS sales are approaching ten million units and in comparison PSP has shipped 3.3 million units so far.
Nintendo's still winning then. Full data follows:
DS - 9.4 million (including 300,000 DSi sales)
Wii - 5.4 million
Xbox 360 - 3.9 million
PSP - 3.3 million
PS3 - 2.2 million
Actual real life DJ hero, Grandmaster Flash, has told Rolling Stone that DJ Hero will be the "most popular thing to do in gaming on the planet."
The old skool DJ has been involved with the game for over a year now and has contributed in all areas from mixes, voiceovers to type of language to use. We hope it's in English.
The confirmed track list has also grown:
David Bowie - "Lets Dance" vs. KRS-1 - "Jack Of Spades"
Nirvana - "All Apologies" vs. Rick James - "Give It To Me"
Zombies - "Time Of The Season" vs. Chuck Brown - "Bustin Loose"
Grandmaster Flash - "Here Comes My DJ" vs. Gary Numan - "Cars"
Herbie Hancock - "Rockit" vs. N.E.R.D. - "Lapdance"
Jay Z - "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" vs. Eminem - "My Name Is"
Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" vs. Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc"
Dizzee Rascal - "Fix Up, Look Sharp' vs. Justice - "Genesis"
Gwen Stefani - "Hollaback Girl' vs. Rick James - "Give It To Me"
Jurassic 5 - "Jayou" vs. Herbie Hancock - "Rockit"
Tears for Fears - "Shout' vs. Eric Prydz - "Pjanoo (Radio Edit)"
Black Eyed Peas - "Boom Boom Pow' vs. Benni Benassi - "Satisfaction"
Beastie Boys - "Sabotage" vs. Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
If you're mad about Grandmaster Flash, then you might like to throw OXM a few questions as they'll be interviewing him soon.
Picture the scene: you've been working at Nintendo in Japan for 10 years. You've worked both as a programmer and as a designer on titles as ubiquitous as Wii Play and Wii Fit. So what do you do?
You quit the company in order to start a website dedicated to user-generated pictures of action figures, of course.
According to an article on ITmedia, Motoi Okayama, 33, is a self-confessed internet addict - "to the point where people wondered when I was able to sleep", he said - and was growing disillusioned with the fact that his job at Nintendo didn't give him the opportunity to work with the internet.
"Thinking about my 10 years at Nintendo, I started to get impatient, that there were these things I wanted to do. The fact that I didn't get to have an influence on the internet disappointed me. Nintendo has a very strong family-orientated brand, and I felt certain resistance to being able to start up any new online services.
"Nintendo doesn't have any projects relating to the internet, and it'll never pull out completely from packaged goods. It just seemed the next step."
The website, FG, was launched nine months ago, and now features 18,000 members. And it's not the last he plans to create, either: "Because I've come late to the net business scene, I want to try all sorts of weird things, and keep on creating new services."
In 1994, Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum patented a technology that allowed users to communicate live while playing the same game in separate locations.
Specifically, the patent in question is for an "apparatus and method for electrically connecting remotely located videogames," reports Patent Arcade.
Eight years later Microsoft released Xbox Live, while Sony launched an online gaming service for PS2.
In the suit - originally filed against the hardware makers in August 2004 - the plaintiffs alleged that both systems' voice and data communications technology infringed on their patent. They sought a permanent injunction and damages.
Sony settled its suit in April 2009, leaving Microsoft as the sole remaining defendant.
3D video games won’t be mass market for at least another five years, Data Design Interactive has told MCV.
The casual games specialist is to launch one of the first 3D video games, Battle Rage: The Robot Wars – which comes with 3D glasses – ahead of Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Avatar movie tie-in.
However, the firm’s CEO Stewart Green has said that although 3D is a key development for games, it won’t be a mainstream phenomenon until 3D TVs become better established.
“3D is a big enhancement to the player’s environment, and as now it is part of our development system we will support it in future titles,” commented Green.
“But it will not be common practice until the mass market has 3D TV, which is not going to happen until perhaps five years from now.
“With a huge output of casual games, we are probably not thought of as innovators, but casual games are what the public wanted, and we have continued to provide the public with what something they want to buy. 3D is a huge seller this year with 12 3D films being released.”
DDI has also been experimenting with other new technology, including Wii MotionPlus and Wii Speak.
“Our development system is rapid and reliable; we managed to publish 20 games in just ten months. No other developer or publisher could achieve this,” added Green. “With such a quick and easy development process, it is not a lot of work for us to implement new hardware and release innovative titles.”
The current generation of games consoles could struggle to deliver the types of game experiences the majority of gamers want and end up as niche products within a couple of years, according to Playfish chief executive Kristian Segerstrale.
As the demand for social games distributed via Facebook and other social networking sites grows, he predicts that incompatible, prohibitively expensive games consoles could fail to compete with the more accessible and connected experiences online services can deliver.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Segerstrale said: "I think that games consoles - while they might be an important part of the industry now - might become niche in the next couple of years. It's not at all clear if it even makes sense to deliver this type of gaming on a home console."
While Microsoft's move to market the Xbox 360 as a social entertainment experience is a step in the right direction, ultimately the platform cannot compete with PC and other internet connected portable devices, he predicts.
"The challenge is, no matter how social you try to make a console not everybody has one. Not all your real world friends will have the same console as you do. No matter how social you make it you will only reach, if you like, vertically. You will only reach your friends who have an Xbox 360."
Going on to discuss EA's entry into the social gaming market, Segerstrale was positive about the publisher's involvement, saying a big presence in the market by them will lead to higher quality experiences for users.
"They clearly believe, much as we believe, that games are becoming services and that retail distribution for games will decline quite rapidly from here onwards. And I think that the most important thing for social games is to ensure the quality of the end user experience."
"The only threat that I see to the industry is that in the search for early profit and maximising early results for companies, companies will act overly aggressively in how they try to monetise users, which is not good for anybody," he added.
Microsoft has responded to concerns over a recent announcement it would be bringing Silverlight adverts to its Live service, saying the adverts won't interfere with the gaming experience for users.
Xbox Live's Larry Hryb posted on his Major Nelson blog about the move, reassuring gamers that Microsoft intends to enhance the service with its adverts, not interfere with it. . "I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we're bringing Silverlight ads to LIVE in the future," he said.
"I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the Live community."
Microsoft recently spoke about its plans to bring interactive ad campaigns that are compatible with a range of its services, included Live, via Silverlight - software that produces similar results to Adobe Flash. It said that this technology would create the same appearance on the games console as ads viewed on a web browser.
However, Hyrb stresses these ads will become an organic part of the dashboard, comparing them to some of the NXE slots produced in the past.
"No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like Shibuya Crossing," he writes in his post. "That's just not good for anyone."
An authority on the trade in virtual items and currencies has discredited claims earlier this week that the Chinese government had banned gold farming.
On his ICTs for Development blog, Professor Richard Heeks of Manchester University interprets the move as an attempt to restrict the use of virtual currencies - used widely in Chinese internet portals - to buy real goods and services, particularly gambling. In fact, that's the opposite of gold trading, which is the use of real currency to buy virtual goods and services.
"This is a government restriction on the use of the quasi-Paypal-like currencies (mainly QQ coins) that are used extensively in China to pay for virtual game stuff. As announced they can now only be used to pay for virtual stuff, and you can't buy real things with them as game companies were allowing to happen, nor can you gamble," said Heeks.
"This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; it's the mirror image. And it's not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And it's not about buying/selling in-game items. And it's not about the power-levelling of avatars. Bottom line: it's not about gold farming."
Zynga's online title Mafia Wars is being played by over four million users every day, claims the company.
The game is playable over Facebook, Tagged, Yahoo and Myspace, and has most recently been ported to the iPhone as a free App.
"Mafia Wars is on its way to becoming a cult classic," commented Bill Mooney, executive producer of MMO Studios at Zynga.
According to Zynga, use of the game has doubled in the past three months. Zynga has 12 million daily users across its games, which include Vampires Bloodlust, Pirates and FarmVille.
To celebrate the milestone and one year of live play, Zynga is now offering a new destination in-game to users, along with new items and upgrades.
"We have the most dedicated and loyal players who have made the game a hit and we want to thank them by extending the game in a dynamic destination that makes the game unique and challenging," added Mooney.
2K Sports has shifted two million units worldwide of its most recent NBA title, NBA 2K9, according to sales figures released by the publisher today.
2K9, the most recent title in the 2K basketball series, was released onto PS3, Xbox 360 and PS2 platforms in October last year. A sequel - NBA 2K10 - had already been announced for multiple platforms, including Wii, later this year, but 2K also announced today the release of NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition for PS3 and Xbox 360.
The limited edition title will be restricted to 30,000 copies and is to come in special packaging with exclusive in-game items, a special commemorative video celebrating ten years of NBA 2K and access to a special VIP 'Gold Room' over Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. It will be released, alongside NBA 2K10, in North America in the autumn
"NBA 2K is the premier basketball video game franchise for serious players, deeply rooted in rich and pure authenticity that real hoop heads get, which is why we've been the favourite NBA simulation for so long," said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. "We've always been very proud of how we engage our fans on a community level, and NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition is our way of giving back to all those that have supported us along the way."
Take-Two and Rockstar are expected to release two brand new downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV in fiscal 2010, and release GTA V the following financial year.
That's according to analyst Todd Mitchell, who told GamesIndustry.biz that following the release of Xbox 360 exclusives The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two all-new episodes are due – possibly across both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.
"I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case," said Mitchell, of Kaufman Bros. Equity Research.
Mitchell also stated that he's expecting Grand Theft Auto V to be released in the 2011 financial year, and there's also the possibility of a new GTA title for the PlayStation 2 next year.
"Coming out of E3 there was no commitment to a new Grand Theft Auto, and I think that's because of Rockstar's track record with delivering on time," said Mitchell.
"Of the three, I'm least confident in saying for sure there will be a new GTA for PlayStation 2, but the track record shows that PSP titles have been repositioned [on PS2]," he said, referring to the recent announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP.
Despite all the talk of Rockstar's biggest franchise, Kaufman Bros. has upgraded Take-Two to a 'buy' rating because the publisher is demonstrating that it no longer needs to rely on GTA to score blockbuster hits.
Newly announced Rockstar title Agent will be released in 2010, said the company, along with an as-yet unannounced title from 2K Games
"We believe Take-Two has a solid line-up for fiscal 2010 even without a GTA V release," noted Kaufman Bros.
"Our outlook includes expected strong sell-through of Bioshock 2, and the release of two 'AAA' titles, each from Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption and Agent) and 2K Games (Mafia II and TBD), reiterations of 2K Sports and 2K Play's annual line-ups, an expected GTA title for the PS2, expected strong sell-through of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP, and new GTA DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
"We now look for the release of GTA V in fiscal 2011, and believe IP introduced in fiscal 2010 can be turned into iterative franchises that will improve Take-Two's long-term earnings profile by lessening its dependence on GTA," said the firm.
Mitchell added: "What we're saying is Take-Two is now becoming a proper company rather than a one hit wonder. After GTA V in 2011, they can come back with more franchises and not be forced to rely on that every other year," he said.
Kaufman Bros. expects fiscal 2010 revenue for Take-Two to hit USD 1.3 billion, and USD 1.6 billion in 2011 with a GTA V release.
"Now that this shoe has dropped, and a case can be made for solid profitability in fiscal 2010 without GTA V, and the follow-on of higher earnings in fiscal 2011 with a GTA V release, we believe the investment case for Take-Two has improved and investors can begin to get more constructive with the name."
Take-Two and Rockstar are expected to release two brand new downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV in fiscal 2010, and release GTA V the following financial year.
That's according to analyst Todd Mitchell, who told GamesIndustry.biz that following the release of Xbox 360 exclusives The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two all-new episodes are due – possibly across both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.
"I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case," said Mitchell, of Kaufman Bros. Equity Research.
Mitchell also stated that he's expecting Grand Theft Auto V to be released in the 2011 financial year, and there's also the possibility of a new GTA title for the PlayStation 2 next year.
"Coming out of E3 there was no commitment to a new Grand Theft Auto, and I think that's because of Rockstar's track record with delivering on time," said Mitchell.
"Of the three, I'm least confident in saying for sure there will be a new GTA for PlayStation 2, but the track record shows that PSP titles have been repositioned [on PS2]," he said, referring to the recent announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP.
Despite all the talk of Rockstar's biggest franchise, Kaufman Bros. has upgraded Take-Two to a 'buy' rating because the publisher is demonstrating that it no longer needs to rely on GTA to score blockbuster hits.
Newly announced Rockstar title Agent will be released in 2010, said the company, along with an as-yet unannounced title from 2K Games
"We believe Take-Two has a solid line-up for fiscal 2010 even without a GTA V release," noted Kaufman Bros.
"Our outlook includes expected strong sell-through of Bioshock 2, and the release of two 'AAA' titles, each from Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption and Agent) and 2K Games (Mafia II and TBD), reiterations of 2K Sports and 2K Play's annual line-ups, an expected GTA title for the PS2, expected strong sell-through of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP, and new GTA DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
"We now look for the release of GTA V in fiscal 2011, and believe IP introduced in fiscal 2010 can be turned into iterative franchises that will improve Take-Two's long-term earnings profile by lessening its dependence on GTA," said the firm.
Mitchell added: "What we're saying is Take-Two is now becoming a proper company rather than a one hit wonder. After GTA V in 2011, they can come back with more franchises and not be forced to rely on that every other year," he said.
Kaufman Bros. expects fiscal 2010 revenue for Take-Two to hit USD 1.3 billion, and USD 1.6 billion in 2011 with a GTA V release.
"Now that this shoe has dropped, and a case can be made for solid profitability in fiscal 2010 without GTA V, and the follow-on of higher earnings in fiscal 2011 with a GTA V release, we believe the investment case for Take-Two has improved and investors can begin to get more constructive with the name."
Blizzard has filed three trademark registrations for the name Cataclysm, covering computer game software, online gaming services, and various related merchandising. The eagle-eyed superannuation made the spot.
Blizzard is known to have two unannounced games in the works, including its next MMO. But the title might also belong to the next World of Warcraft expansion, which some believe will be revealed at the BlizzCon fan convention in August.
BlizzPlanet notes that the word Cataclysm is thematically close to the Maelstrom, which in Warcraft lore is a huge, permanent storm in the seas of Azeroth created by a disastrous event in history known as the Sundering. Blizzard has said before that the Maelstrom is part of its future plans for World of Warcraft content, and WOW-watchers tip it as the most likely subject of the next expansion.
A couple of days ago, I noted on the Digital Foundry Twitter feed that enterprising coders had found a way to make the PlayStation 3 significantly outperform the Blu-ray spec by enabling video playback of 1080p material at 60 frames per second. The average Blu-ray movie runs at 24FPS while the system's 1080i conformity gives it a notional top-end of 30FPS. But PlayStation 3 goes way beyond that, seemingly without breaking a sweat. The story kicks off with the release of the Sanyo HD2000 camera. Capable of recording 1080p60 video directly into MP4 files, enterprising souls on the Doom9 video forum set about getting clips from this camera to play on standalone BD players, despite the fact there was little hope of it actually working. However, for a while now hackers have been working on reverse-engineering the AVCHD format – the consumer-level sibling to full Blu-ray used by a multitude of HD video cameras. Coder "DeanK", author of the MultiAVCHD authoring tool found that with some effort, clips from the Sanyo camera would work within his tool when played back on PS3. Seeing as my company creates a 1080p60 capable capture system, this proved to be intriguing for me, especially seeing as we can produce this exquisite level of video, but have no consumer-level platform on which to play it! The PS3 XMB held some promise, but despite some efforts at 1080p60 encodes to promote WipEout HD, actual picture quality was distinctly mediocre and higher-end encoding would cause plenty of hiccups. Using DeanK's tools, I found that the PS3's Blu-ray/AVCHD decoder had a clear performance edge over the XMB, allowing for smoother playback of more ambitious files.
The encoding required is somewhat specialist and I had to get it done out of house, but regardless, there's now a downloadable demo you can try for yourself – assuming you have a 1080p screen of course. So, if you have 857MB of bandwidth to spare, go here, download, unzip and copy to a USB flash drive (burning to optical disc won't work without patching some files) making sure that the AVCHD folder is on the root of the drive. Put the drive into the PS3, click on the AVCHD icon on the XMB in the video section, sit back and watch Capcom's excellent Devil May Cry 4 intro play out at native 1080p running at 60 frames per second. The video itself was captured by our TrueHD system hooked up to an i7 PC with a top-of-the-line NVIDIA GTX295, allowing us to run the game effortlessly with all settings maxed out. For content producers eyeing up PS3 for further Blu-ray defying tasks, it has to be stated that there are limitations. Some of the key techniques h264 implements to exact maximum quality use way too much processing power to be effective running at 60FPS in this extreme resolution. At the same time, the AVCHD and Blu-ray standards have inherent limitations in themselves compared to the full unfettered power of the core compression technology. Bottom line: you need to throw a lot more bandwidth at the problem to maintain picture quality, and in the case of pristine game video, you need a ton more compared to the average "real life" camera shot. Even the download here could do with a fair bit more bandwidth to match the original capture. Regardless though, it remains the case that for PS3 to be able to do this at all is an excellent achievement, and brings home a hugely important factor about the console's long term future. In the fullness of a time, a smaller, slimmer PS3 will be one hell of a powerful – and hopefully cheap – media player, also capable of playing some damn good games too. With DivX adopting the Matroska (MKV) file format for its HD files, realistically it's only a matter of time before PS3 offers native support, making the console invaluable for playing just about any kind of media thrown its way.
If you subscribe to Nintendo Power, the latest issue should be arriving at your house very soon, and Aeropause has the scoop on some details on Nintendo's upcoming line-up from the issue. Most important to folks reading this text is likely what Miyamoto had to say regarding the new Legend of Zelda game announced back at E3: "I don't think it's going to be that radically different." But, what about the theory that the girl being the Master Sword? Surely that is the plan for the game, and surely that is radically different!
And, in typical Nintendo fashion, that's all Miyamoto had to say. He left us hanging to speculate, and we're sure most will be able to turn this appetizer of a quote into a five-course meal. Have at it in the comments below!
Microsoft's Larry Hryb has played down suggestions that the addition of Silverlight advertising to Xbox Live this year will transform the dashboard "into something that looks like Shibuya Crossing".
The addition of Silverlight support to the Xbox Live ad blocks will enable advertisers to reuse ad 'creatives' across various media, but after a report on Monday provoked concern among the Xbox faithful, Hryb posted on his blog telling people they "don't need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard".
"One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the Live community," he wrote.
"Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we've done with some of the [New Xbox Experience] slots in the past. No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like like Shibuya Crossing. That's just not good for anyone."
Judging by the original report, it's more likely that Silverlight will be used to add whizzes and bangs to existing advertising boxes.
SEGA has announced another adaptation of Japanese anime Bleach for DS, although strategy RPG will be the genre, rather than fighting, and the author and creator of the cartoon, Tite Kubo, will supervise.
He'll help create Bleach: The 3rd Phantom's entirely new and exclusive storyline, which has both familiar and never-before-seen characters you can chat to using an interactive dialogue system.
Experience from fighting - that old RPG staple - also features, as do upgradable abilities and powers. Bleach: The 3rd Phantom requires a mixture of these to overcome different situations. The main characters the Soul Reaper twins, for example, take different approaches but can combine to unleash ultimate moves.
You'll explore an isometric world but fight in 2D. And two friends can fight each other using Wi-Fi.
Bleach: The 3rd Phantom is due for release early next year.
Voice-activated exercise specialist VPT Technologies has been spotted trademarking the names Fitness Hero and Workout Hero.
Siliconera laid eyes on the patent, which mentions "a web-based videogame system to connect all users in a safe and secure global network".
Phrases like "align the various markets" and "synergistic" are thrown in almost for fun.
Activision has had immense success with Guitar Hero, which has lead to spin-offs of Hero-related rhythm titles. DJ Hero arrives on its wave of marketing-powered excitement this autumn.
Gearbox appears to want a piece of the Hero pie as well, having recently trademarked a quartet of familiar sounding names: War Hero, World War II Hero, Modern War Hero and Brothers In Arms War Hero.
N+ developer Metanet has shown the first video of its next physics-ruled project, Robotology. The studio also revealed N+ to be next week's half-price Xbox Live Arcade game.
The Robotology clip depicts a wireframe humanoid dropping onto and sliding down a ramp along with two balls: one small, one large. The points of interest are the biped's natural interaction with the 2D environment and objects, plus the ability to change direction without breaking any of the physics laws - a process Metanet calls "morphing".
"It's just a simple demonstration of how robots in the 2D world will change direction in a physically-valid way; typically this sort of movement is faked, or relies on movement in 3D," explains Metanet on its blog.
"We wanted to try something different. Since our goal is for all movement to be physically-based, we needed a solution which would allow robots to change direction while their movement remained valid in the 2D flatland simulation. This way, any external constraints (such as grappling hooks) that are interacting with a robot will continue to behave normally, with no popping or other glitches as the robot changes facing direction."
Metanet says the "good news" of this long and arduous task was the realisation that morphing could be used for "much more than simply changing the facing direction of robots"; shape-shifting, the developer writes, is possible.
"We're still not sure how far in that direction we want to go though, there are enough technical challenges as it is, but it sure would be cool," the developer writes.
Metanet has spent three years working on Robotology, a game described as a cross between Super Mario Galaxy, Shadow of the Colossus and Umihara Kawase.
And while no actual gameplay has been seen, we can safely expect robots - big robots - and grappling hooks to play a part.
Sony is testing the water on various ideas for PlayStation Home, in a survey that asks, among other things, whether you would like to see stand-up comedy as a type of streaming media for the theatre area.
There's talk of the PlayStation Home space within PlayStation Home and what should be there, which hurts our brain, plus priority ratings for content like video sharing, music sharing and viewable Trophy collections - features PS Home was built around.
A full roundup of features can be found on Triplechat (pointed out by Joystiq)
Some of the more interesting ideas are game-launching and full-length feature films, as well as collectable statues and figurines.
Three teens swiped a neighbors Wii and enlisted the help of a mother to pawn the stolen loot.
Joshua Carter (18), Patrick Early (16) and Derrick Henson (13) have all been arrested on felony charges for stealing a neighbor's Wii. According to Early, his mother, 41-year-old Maxine Law, helped them unload the console at a local pawn shop — even though she knew it was stolen.
The Florida state attorney's office is looking into the matter, and Orlando's WFTV reports that it is possible that Maxine Law could be charged with dealing in stolen property and contributing to the delinquency of minors. You'd think that someone named Law would know better.
The days of people whining "where are my old-timey games on the PSN?" appear well and truly over. You've got Final Fantasy VII, you've got Metal Gear Solid, and soon you'll be getting a ton of Capcom classics as well.
Tomorrow, for example, Capcom will be releasing the "Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed", which includes:
• 1941: Counter Attack
• Avengers
• Bionic Commando
• Black Tiger
• Block Block
• Captain Commando
• Final Fight
• Forgotten Worlds
• Last Duel
• Legendary Wings
• Magic Sword
• Mega Twins
• Quiz and Dragons
• Section Z
• Side Arms: Hyper Dyne
• The Speed Rumbler
• Street Fighter
• Strider
• Three Wonders
• Varth
Then later in the year, there'll be this mix of PS1 and PSP re-releases:
• Mega Man Powered Up
• Dino Crisis
• Power Stone Collection
• Mega Man Maverick Hunter X
• Resident Evil 2
• Darkstalkers
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
The days of people whining "where are my old-timey games on the PSN?" appear well and truly over. You've got Final Fantasy VII, you've got Metal Gear Solid, and soon you'll be getting a ton of Capcom classics as well.
Tomorrow, for example, Capcom will be releasing the "Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed", which includes:
• 1941: Counter Attack
• Avengers
• Bionic Commando
• Black Tiger
• Block Block
• Captain Commando
• Final Fight
• Forgotten Worlds
• Last Duel
• Legendary Wings
• Magic Sword
• Mega Twins
• Quiz and Dragons
• Section Z
• Side Arms: Hyper Dyne
• The Speed Rumbler
• Street Fighter
• Strider
• Three Wonders
• Varth
Then later in the year, there'll be this mix of PS1 and PSP re-releases:
• Mega Man Powered Up
• Dino Crisis
• Power Stone Collection
• Mega Man Maverick Hunter X
• Resident Evil 2
• Darkstalkers
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan is funding first party titles and they commissioned Yeck Entertainment for PSP and PlayStation 3 work.
Specific details about the titles are scarce, but an interview with Impress Watch reveals the genres. The PSP game is a casual title and the PS3 title is an online game.
Yeck Entertainment’s work includes Legends of Glory (pictured), a MMO with player vs. monster and player vs. player combat for PCs, and Cubee Cubee, a tilt controlled iPhone puzzle game.
Gaming in Taiwan is quite different from Japan and North America where PCs and free online RPGs dominate the market. There is a console scene, but its much smaller — even smaller than South Korea. While a local PSP or PS3 game could expand Sony’s market share in Taiwan, I think this project will expand beyond Sony Computer Entertainment Asia even though SCEJ and SCEA are not involved with its development. Taiwan’s console market just isn’t big enough to justify localized games yet.
Awesome news for No More Heroes fans: creator Suda 51 told Edge that he wants to continue the series. "I really want to make NMH a big franchise," he said, "and with this second episode have bigger success."
Slightly less awesome news for certain No More Heroes fans: if the series does continue past Desperate Struggle, it probably won't be on the Wii. "I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii," Suda said. "To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we've done everything we can with it now."
Recent comments from Suda suggest that he's looking toward the Natal-enhanced Xbox 360 for at least one future project -- and No More Heroes was originally planned as a 360 game. Perhaps he's realized that charging Travis Touchdown's beam saber could be made even more embarrassing without a Wiimote prop.
In any case, it may be a bummer for Wii-only gamers, but at least if No More Heroes comes out on one of the other consoles, the "hardcore" types will be able to admit it's wonderful without having to say something nice about the Wii.
Marvelous Entertainment backed the Wii in a big way with new series like Little King’s Story, No More Heroes, Arc Rise Fantasia, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. However, sales of these games in Japan (Little King’s Story excluded, of course, since it’s only out in Europe) haven’t been stellar.
In a financial presentation Marvelous has a new plan for their rich library of properties. First, is moving into multi-platform PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 development. I can confirm that Rainy Woods, Marvelous’ first title specifically made for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, is still in development. Their other strategy is porting some of their Wii titles to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Arc Rise Fantasia aren’t heavy on motion control so I imagine these would be prime candidates to port. I’d welcome ports of either of these games too since more people would get to play them.
Enough about me. Which Marvelous games would you like to see on high definition consoles? I’ll start counting the votes for No More Heroes and No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle…
Marvelous Entertainment backed the Wii in a big way with new series like Little King’s Story, No More Heroes, Arc Rise Fantasia, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. However, sales of these games in Japan (Little King’s Story excluded, of course, since it’s only out in Europe) haven’t been stellar.
In a financial presentation Marvelous has a new plan for their rich library of properties. First, is moving into multi-platform PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 development. I can confirm that Rainy Woods, Marvelous’ first title specifically made for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, is still in development. Their other strategy is porting some of their Wii titles to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Arc Rise Fantasia aren’t heavy on motion control so I imagine these would be prime candidates to port. I’d welcome ports of either of these games too since more people would get to play them.
Enough about me. Which Marvelous games would you like to see on high definition consoles? I’ll start counting the votes for No More Heroes and No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle…
The sound is a bit "scratchy". It's because I just replaced AUDIO_U8 with AUDIO_S16, without converting it.
I'm not a programmer, so I don't know how to do this. I would be glad to get some help on that matter.
But well, at least that fixes the "freeze on quit" problem.
And if you can't stand the dodgy sound, try running Waternet first. It should temporarily fix it
I'm releasing dmenu 0.1 as a test release. Please give your feedback. It's compiled and tested on ezelkow1's rootfs. Source is also attached here. You can compile your own if you want.
To automatically start it when Lingux boots up, simply add these 2 lines to the end of /etc/init.d/rcS, (assuming you are using ezelkow1's rootfs, and you have unpacked dmenu to /root)
Code: Select all
export SDL_NOMOUSE=1
cd /root; ./dmenu&
In the main menu screen, use arrow keys to navigate menu items, 'A' key to run.
If the menu item is configured to have file selector (I have configured snes9x as a sample to show this function), a file list will be shown after you pressed 'A' key. You can navigate and chose the file to be passed as an argument to the program. In this case, you can chose the rom file name to be passed to snes9x.
File explorer can be used to run any program on your dingoo. Currently it does not check whether the file is executable. If you select any non-executable file and press 'A', dmenu will attampt to run it, prints an error message and returns immediately.
If you want to add more programs to dmenu, take a look at dmenu.cfg. It should be pretty easy to figure out. Ask here if you have any question.
I'm using the stock dingoo wallpaper and icons as place holder for the moment. If anyone is interested to contribute a set of wallpaper and icons to be used as dmenu default, please let me know. I'd prefer the default to be consistent and minimalist in style, similar to the stock dingoo icons.
batman52 made an interesting comment in the previous post: WiFi.
Indeed, much to my surprise there are miniSDIO WiFi cards on the market. The JZ4740 docs says that the SD/MMC controller supports SDIO, so in theory it should be possible to add WiFi to the A320.
Of course this is a long shot and there are much more important things yet to get working, but just imagine the possibilities... I just have to give it a try. I think it is worth investing some of the donated money in purchasing one of these cards. What do you think?.
A couple of days ago kat5200 was updated. It emulates the Atari 5200 and 8-bit line of computers on Windows or Linux. Also note that there's a new homepage for this emulator, but builds are still available at the Google Code page.
Here's what's new in kat5200 0.6.2:
Fixed keypad button 1 not working at all
Fixed Player 2 always using defaults stick configuration
Fixed issue with Input Config where initially selected control was not saved
Changed Player 2 default configuration (use 's' for down)
Changed Default Sensitivity setting to 96 (Galaxian with digital input)
Changed Windows version to use User's AppData directory to store files
Note:
When using the Windows installer, the user will be asked whether to overwrite their configuration. The Sensitivity and Player 2 default updates will not occur if the user keeps their current configuration. Please update your Input settings manually if you need these particular updates.
Atari's slow collapse continues with the loss of the company's most lucrative franchise. No, not Ghostbusters -- it's Dragon Ball, which has produced approximately a billion video games so far. The franchise will now go back to Namco Bandai, the original Japanese publisher of the series. According to a statement by Namco Bandai, the agreement will run for five years beginning in January 2010 and will supersede any existing publishing rights. In addition, Namco Bandai will publish the upcoming Dragon Ball: Raging Blast game for Xbox 360 and PS3, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for Wii, and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for DS all this year.
The loss of the Dragon Ball franchise is perhaps the greatest evidence of the financial challenges that face Atari. Earlier this year, the company pulled out of E3, sold its European publishing division, and even sold exclusivity rights for Ghostbusters, all presumably for a small cash influx. With Phil Harrison recently stepping down from his position at the company, it's clear that Atari will see even more troubled times ahead
Realore, a developer of such hits as Farm Mania and Jane's Hotel, announced the release of its brand-new time managment game Jane's Zoo. Jane is back again! This time well-known lady decides to save the extinct wild animals. You have a chance to help her in organizing asylums for the animals all over the world and taking care of them.
At the very beginning Jane pays attention on a great disaster on our planet. While her traveling around the world she sees a lot of factories and plants that cause water and air pollution. Pour wild animals die in such a horrible living conditions. Jane can't stand it and she will do anything to stop destroying our planet! And you have a unique chance to help her in this fine business!
Jane's Zoo game is divided into 3 main parts so you will travel to Europe, Asia and Africa. Each place has its own climate, animals and traditions so you'll have to be careful! Jane won't let you down and help in any situation. By the way, helping animals is not as boring as you may think: unique wild animals, baby animals (watch them growing!), different weather conditions, fascinating mini-games etc.
Feel the atmosphere of the wild nature and spirit of freedom with Jane's Zoo! Now Jane decides to save the extinct wild animals. You have a chance to help her in organizing asylums for the animals all over the world and taking care of them.
Download Jane's Zoo for free on PC, soon it will be also available Mac.
Rare animals and wild nature in general are in your hands now! Help Jane and save the world! Think of the future today with this fascinating colorful Jane's Zoo game!
Meridian4 is thrilled to announce that their addictive, physics-based puzzle game; Chains from 2DEngine.com is now available on digital distribution channels including Steam, Impulse and others.
Chains is a part of Meridian4's 5 year anniversary specials and is currently available for 50% off on Steam and is included as part of their Complete Pack with 14 other games. Chains will be available on other channels in the coming weeks. For more information, visit www.meridian4.com/games/chains/index.html
About Chains
Chains is a challenging puzzle game with a unique feel and distinctive vector graphics style. The object of the game is simple - to link adjacent bubbles of the same color into chains. As you progress through the physics-driven stages it becomes increasingly more challenging and players' speed, strategy and skill will be put to the test.
Chains is the first commercial title produced entirely with 2DEngine.com's proprietary engine and was also an official IGF entrant.
20 levels each focusing on action, strategy or flow
Physics-driven gameplay
3 difficulty modes
Colorblind option
Up to 15 player profiles
Unique art direction with beautiful vector graphics
Bohemia Interactive, creators of award winning military simulator games Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and ArmA: Combat Operations and IDEA Games announced today the release of the first of a series of video diaries for ARMA II: this one focused on the game's basic controls.
The eagerly anticipated sandbox PC military shooter ARMA II, was recently released across Europe and will soon be available at retail in North America for all who want to visit the post-soviet republic of Chernarus and enjoy the many fantastic features of this monumental war simulator.
As part of a continuous commitment to ARMA II's dedicated fan community, Bohemia Interactive has created a series of developer diaries to be published online, starting July 1st. Jan Prazak Bohemia's PR manager explains the basic controls of ARMA II, shown using comprehensive video footage captured in-game.
"Our games can be mistakenly understood as difficult to play in terms of game mechanics and control if the player isn't properly introduced to these functions up front," said Jan Prazak. "Our intention is to explain the default settings and introduce the more casual player to the game mechanics of ARMA II. The main goal of these videos is to reveal the depth of the game and describe in an easy-to-understand way how fun it really is to play ARMA II and enjoy one of the most sophisticated military simulator on market."
ARMA II offers the ultimate realistic combat simulation experience in a modern day setting. With unprecedented freedom of movement, actions and tactics, the game allows players to immerse themselves in battle as never seen before.
Do you want to fight eye to eye with enemies on the lush, open battlefield, do you want to take advantage by strafing enemy position in aircraft, do you want to crush enemy lines in a tank? Then join the duty in ARMA II, this ultimate military simulator, and get a taste of what it takes to be a soldier in a modern warfare conflict!
Deep Silver Inc., a publisher of interactive entertainment software and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Media, announced today that Risen will make its international debut on October 2, 2009. The new RPG from Piranha Bytes, the developers of Gothic, has already entered Beta phase. Risen will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC.
"We're excited to be able to announce the release date for Risen this far in advance," said Cathy Tische, VP Sales and Marketing for Deep Silver. "We've been in beta for a few weeks now and are focusing on stamping out the remaining bugs and optimizing gameplay."
The contents of Risen are already "code complete," and all voiceovers have been recorded. A total of three quality assurance teams are working on the game - one directly at Piranha Bytes, one at Deep Silver, plus an additional external studio.
About Risen:
This epic role playing game is set in a medieval world on a volcanic Mediterranean island, The "Risen" story unfolds over four chapters and will offer multiple ways to develop the story by his own actions and decisions. An innovative and intuitive user control interface will support both casual and hardcore gamers. With full world streaming support, the player will have a seamless experience while playing in a fully simulated game world with authentic characters.
Alawar Entertainment, one of the world's leading publishers of casual games, today released "Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light." The hidden object adventure game is a sequel to "Magic Encyclopedia: First Story", a popular release set in a world of fantasy and enchantment.
Players join Katrina and her brother as they travel across the world and through time to save their professor from the curse of the werewolf. The gameplay involves finding the hidden pieces of important items and reassembling the objects to solve challenging puzzles.
"Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light" takes players on a captivating and unpredictable journey across four continents. The game features dazzling hand-drawn graphics, 32 challenging levels, 18 mini-games and over 1,500 objects to find.
Kirill Plotnikov, vice president of publishing at Alawar, says "Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light" is a deeply satisfying game experience with extraordinary artwork. "We worked hard to create an exceptional visual experience for players. Our artists drew each location and object by hand, giving the game a warm and charming feel. After all, true creativity is always an act of magic."
With the release of "Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light" also comes the announcement that Alawar has begun production on "Magic Encyclopedia 3." The third game in the continuing series is on target to be released in 2009.
Eidos Interactive Ltd, creator of some of the world's leading videogame properties, today announced two new download packs shipping in July for Battlestations: Pacific, giving gamers new units and maps for tailor-made battles.
Featuring six new units and 18 new pieces of nose art, the Mustang Pack allows players to customise their battles in both single and multiplayer modes. Amongst the units, players can take to the skies in the legendary US P-51 Mustang bomber escort, a late entry to the Pacific campaign but one which made its mark in Europe as a deadly force; or control the seas with the US Navy's Alaska Class, giving the upper hand with a large and heavily armed 'cruiser killer'; or the Super Yamato Class, a huge behemoth of a ship which, had it left the drawing board, would have outclassed the Yamato in every way with the potential to be the most powerful battleship in history.
The Carrier Battles Map Pack gives gamers four new maps, playable across all five multiplayer modes. Take part in a clash of carriers at Midway, do battle at dawn in the mist of the Philippine Islands, experience the fury of Kamikaze attacks in the rocky islands of the Leyte Gulf and take control of your forces amongst the mountain peaks and glacial waters of the icy Aleutian Islands.
The Mustang Pack, priced at 160 points, and the Carrier Battles Map Pack, priced at 800 points, will be available to download on Marketplace from July 2nd and July 23rd respectively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows LIVE. Battlestations: Pacific is rated ESRB "T" for Teen in North America and PEGI 12+ in Europe.
Happy 4th of July! To help celebrate our nation's birthday, the developers at Maxis have created two holiday-themed missions from the latest video game, Spore Galactic Adventures. The adventures, entitled 'How a Bill Becomes Law' and 'Kaboom!,' are both available for download today at www.spore.com. Both missions, created with the Adventure Creator tool in Spore Galactic Adventures, allows for infinite creative possibilities!
'How a Bill Becomes a Law'- The Spoffit species are in trouble and you need to pass legislation to save them! A fun twist on a civics lesson and inspired by the 1970s TV show Schoolhouse Rock, you must lobby, ultimately turning a bill into a law.
'Kaboom!'- It's time for a Fourth of July celebration! The picnic is all set up, the fire's ready for s'mores, but there's a problem with the fireworks display. Can you help the Independence Day picnic go off with a BANG?
Spore Galactic Adventures, the expansion to the critically-acclaimed game Spore, is designed to expand the Spore universe. Spore Galactic Adventures delivers hilarious new adventures to players who aspire to become their own space captain, beam down to strange new planets, create customized adventures and take their favorite Spore creature from zero to galactic hero!
With the Adventure Creator, gamers are able to realize their most outlandish, challenging and fun adventure fantasies (like 'Kaboom!' and 'How a Bill Becomes a Law') by creating personalized missions. This easy-to-use tool gives players the ability to not only create, but play and share missions with friends online at www.spore.com. With more than 105 million creations available in the Sporepedia, the Spore library of user-generated content for use in players' missions, the only limit is their imaginations!
Check out 'Kaboom!', 'How a Bill Becomes a Law' and more than 30,000 missions in Spore Galactic Adventures at www.spore.com/sporepedia!
Today Ubisoft announced it will be publishing Heroes Over Europe, a flight combat game designed for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, and Windows-based PC. The sequel to Heroes of the Pacific, the World War II flight combat game, Heroes Over Europe builds on the game's impressive legacy with intense dogfights, a highly detailed realistic visual presentation and even more online options.
"We are pleased to be bringing Heroes Over Europe to retailers worldwide," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft. "The action-packed gameplay and realistic imagery in Heroes Over Europe will help bring some of history's most exciting air battles to life for an experience that gamers will enjoy."
Developed by Transmission Games in Melbourne, Australia, and powered by an all-new engine, Heroes Over Europe is set to raise the bar for flight combat games with the all new "Ace Kill" close combat action, four online modes supporting up to 16 players and fully customizable aircrafts with localized damage. Visually, the game takes no prisoners with meticulously rendered environments including faithful recreations of London, Berlin and the French Alps, and ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics.
Heroes Over Europe is scheduled for worldwide release in September 2009. For more information about Heroes Over Europe, please visit: http://www.heroesovereurope.com
Today Ubisoft announced it will be publishing Heroes Over Europe, a flight combat game designed for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, and Windows-based PC. The sequel to Heroes of the Pacific, the World War II flight combat game, Heroes Over Europe builds on the game's impressive legacy with intense dogfights, a highly detailed realistic visual presentation and even more online options.
"We are pleased to be bringing Heroes Over Europe to retailers worldwide," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft. "The action-packed gameplay and realistic imagery in Heroes Over Europe will help bring some of history's most exciting air battles to life for an experience that gamers will enjoy."
Developed by Transmission Games in Melbourne, Australia, and powered by an all-new engine, Heroes Over Europe is set to raise the bar for flight combat games with the all new "Ace Kill" close combat action, four online modes supporting up to 16 players and fully customizable aircrafts with localized damage. Visually, the game takes no prisoners with meticulously rendered environments including faithful recreations of London, Berlin and the French Alps, and ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics.
Heroes Over Europe is scheduled for worldwide release in September 2009. For more information about Heroes Over Europe, please visit: http://www.heroesovereurope.com
Ever wonder what it would be like to shoot enemies while floating through space? Futuremark is willing to give you that opportunity as a beta tester of their upcoming multiplayer first person shooter Shattered Horizon. Set after a mining accident that throws tons of rocky debris into near-Earth space from the moon, players will fight in zero gravity environments. "Playing a multiplayer FPS in zero gravity offers gameplay possibilities that simply cannot be found in conventional shooters," said Antti Summala, Lead Game Designer at Futuremark. "I invite every gamer looking for an FPS that offers something new and different to sign up for our beta test."
The Beta is available to PC owners that are 18 and older from North America and Europe. Players must have a dual core processor that runs Windows Vista, have a DirectX 10 graphics card, Steam account and broadband connection. If you're interested, you can sign up for the beta at the Shattered Horizon website.
With the casual game market for women one of the driving forces behind the tremendous expansion of video games into the mainstream, Her Interactive, the designer, developer and distributor of the award-winning Nancy Drew PC games, today announced the second title in its hit Nancy Drew Dossier series, Resorting to Danger. Available for online download and retail purchase this August, Resorting to Danger follows the winning formula of its predecessor by integrating easily accessible gameplay with a captivating mystery.
As Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive, explains: "Our games have such resonance with women of all ages due to the sense of empowerment they feel from being as brilliant as Nancy Drew?. We believe the traits that define Nancy – gutsy, intelligent, independent – are imparted to players on a very subtle level and ultimately act to increase self-esteem and instill confidence. So with all the games that are 'good for you' like fitness games and brain games, we're glad we can offer a game that's good for the soul."
In Resorting to Danger, players assume the role of Nancy Drew as she sets out to foil a prankster bent on sabotaging the Redondo Spa. The Redondo Spa is a sanctuary to the rich and famous and with clients' retreats in jeopardy, Nancy goes undercover as a general assistant to unearth clues, interview suspects and solve daunting puzzles in order to determine who is planting bombs at the spa. With six alternate endings, players can tackle Resorting to Danger again and again from different approaches and scenarios.
Nancy Drew Dossier is a next-generation casual game series that combines a seek-and-find mechanic with a new level of compelling story-driven gameplay involving detective work, sophisticated interaction with clues and characters, brain-teasing puzzles, and arcade mini-games. Playing from the point of Nancy Drew, players find hidden clues and use their strengths of observation, deduction, and problem-solving to uncover culprits and schemes in a heavily story-driven plot.
Resorting to Danger will be available this August at retailers nationwide and for download online at www.HerInteractive.com for a suggested retail price of $19.99.
Sakhr Software, a company known for it's expertise in English to Arabic (and vice-versa) speech translation is all set to release an iPhone app!
This upcoming application, developed by Sakhr Mobile and Dial Directions (a company acquired by Sakhr Mobile sometime back) offers really freaky neat speech translation from English to Arabic (and vice-versa), unlike many services which are a total mess even for the text translation - Google do you hear that? It scans the Arabic words and then simply translates them. Small phrases like "The prime minister will form a new government" (holy crap) can be pretty easily translated.
The app obviously has great use for the government but it can help the end consumer to a real great extent as well! In fact, Sakhr has already been providing this service to U.S. Department of Defense, U.S.
Nokia has just released a v11 firmware update for the Nokia N97. Changes include USB detection error fix, widget support fixes and enhancements, UI transition error fixes, thumbnail generation performance increase, Mail for Exchange fixes, and general stability and performance fixes.
GoogaSync from Synble Oy is an extensive bi-directional synchronization solution for syncing your personal Google Calendar or hosted Google Apps calendar with your Symbian mobile phone. Supports all standard events, multiple calendars (BETA), appointments, recurring events, all-day events, birthdays and alarms. Secure and really easy to use, includes scheduled synchronization which keeps your calendars always automatically in sync.
Enjoy the freedom of wireless webcam with your mobile phone camera. WWIGO by Motvik stands for Webcam Wherever I Go. It converts every cameraphone into a webcam for desktop. WWIGO consists of two software components: mobile component that resides on phone and streams video to PC, and PC component that receives video over Bluetooth or WiFi.
Nokia Beta Labs have released new, completely rewritten Java Runtimes 2.0 for Nokia S60 5th Edition. (5800, N97) smartphones, providing performance improvements and functionality enhancements (e.g. one-click installation, animation during application starting). From now on Java development will be carried out independently and new versions will be available via the "Software Update" application assuring that you can update your phone once new version has been released. Download the new Runtime from Nokia Beta Labs.
FingerPrint Scanner for 5800 & N97 by ThinkChange simulates uses your fingerprint to unlock your phone, just for fun. Trick your friends into believing that your touchscreen phone really has a finger print sensor ;-)
PhoneBAK GPS by BAK2u is an integrated solution ('Anti-theft', 'GPS Tracking' and 'Emergency') that lets users locate their friends, classmates, vehicles or family members to know their whereabouts. PhoneBAK GPS lets the parents see the location of their children mobile phones, employers to track their vehicles and also the whereabout of employees (journalists, agents etc) when carrying out their work. The "Antitheft" function immediately sends all details about the "new owner" to you once the SIM card has been replaced and is also capable of remotely performing hard reset or data wipout on your request. The "SOS Alert" funtion lets you 'single-tap' quick dial in an emergency to a configurable telephone number and also send out the latest GPS location to a pre-defined email address.
As promised, the 0.9.1 release is now out. It is somewhat faster than 0.9, the core is around 30-40% faster, and MMU performance is nearly an order of magnitude better, but rendering performance is still holding things back overall. There’s also (finally) preliminary VMU support for anyone who cares about that - you can attach them in the controller settings panel.
As always, it’s available from the download page, release notes are here. And to make things even easier for Debian users, there’s now an apt repository available - just add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
Next version we’ll try and attack the rendering performance problem…
What’s New
Lots of core performance improvements, especially in the MMU
VMU support (memory card only)
GDB remote debugging support
Quick-save states
LIRC driver
Now uses the ~/.lxdream directory (by default) to store runtime data
Audio + input drivers are now built as plugins
NES/Dendy/GBA/GB/Lynx/PC Engine/PC-FX/Wonderswan emulator has been updated recently. Changes:
- Various sound output bugs have been fixed, primarily affecting non-Windows platforms.
- Various endianness related bugs were fixed, including a severe GBA save state bug on big-endian platforms.
- Having more than 2 of the same "type" of joystick/gamepad should no longer cause problems with hash collisions internally.
- A few PCE CD and PC-FX CDROM emulation bugs were fixed, concerning the position of the lead-out track, and the length of the last track when loading multi-track CUE/BIN rips.
- Various code issues causing compiler problems were fixed.
The JPCSP Team have released a new version of the PSP Emulator for Windows written in Java:
Heres whats new:
- Added basic GE capture support, tested on cube sample. Until we record persistent GE state (texture on/off, etc) for best results replay captures in the same game it was recorded in.
- Fixed a refresh bug. Open menu trick should no longer be needed (click on File menu, it overlaps the display area and forces it to redraw, sometimes making something appear).
- fixed wait umd stat.
Nintendo's puzzle-solving, riddle-spouting hero Professor Layton is known for his ability to perplex and bewilder, but his latest announcement may be his most brainteasing ever -- he's been invited to mix it up in Smash Bros.
Before you get too excited, though, calm yourself and re-lower your expectations. It seems that it's nothing more than a gag, and not a real confirmation of his addition to the fighting series' roster or a new Smash Bros. game in development.
This all came to light courtesy of Twitter, where Nintendo has set up a regularly updated page for the character under the name TopHatProfessor. Through several "tweets" issued throughout each day, the good Professor reflects on life, offers advice on how to be more gentlemanly and delivers riddles that he then invites his Twittering followers to answer through direct messages back to him.
It all seems to be for the purpose of drawing attention to the upcoming August release of the newest game in the DS series, Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box. But the top hat hero certainly got a bit of extra attention yesterday, when he began to imply that he'd been asked to join the Smash Bros. lineup. His first tweet on the topic was this:
I received an invitation this morning to something called the "Grand Smash Brothers Tournament". Does anyone know anything about it?
If you have ever played Mario Paint for the SNES, then you have probably played the Gnat Attack game (also known as Coffee Break). My game is a spinoff of this, created for the Wii. I took many creative liberties with it, including redoing all of the sound effects with my brother and my girlfriend, and switching up the game modes just a bit.
There are two main game modes, the "Classic" mode, which is level based much like the original. There is also a "Swarm" mode which features endless enemies.
Changelog
V1.3 - 07/01/09
Classic mode supports 2 players now.
An options menu has been added to select graphics mode and toggle music/sfx.
Swarm mode uses new swatter graphics.
Screen shots can be taken by pressing the 1 button at any time.
Pressing the 2 button brings up a help screen.
Pressing plus during gameplay pauses game.
Added border during gameplay.
Quirky has released a new version of Bunjalloo a few hours ago, heres the release notes:
Bunjalloo is a web browser for the Nintendo DS. It is free software under and active development. Already Bunjalloo can display simple pages, follow links and view images.
Changelog
Changes 0.7.4:
Fixed freezing after only a few page loads ( Issue 97 )
Changes 0.7.3:
A new NDS banner bitmap by Sam Goldfield
Add new scrolling method - just hold and drag, sort of
Page up and down now scroll just 1 screen
Fix for linked image following a text link, which caused an unclickable text link
Fix crash caused by bad HTML entities
Fix memory leak when unzipping files
Fix for some rarer types of PNG image
Disable button shortcuts when keyboard is visible
Remove automatic DLDI patching of unzipped NDS files
Update to devkitPro r26 and libpng 1.2.37
AntonioND has released a new version of 3D Engine for the DS:
Hello!
This is a 3D engine, which aim is to make easier the procces of making a 3D game for the DS
Characteristics:
-Loader of models and textures from FAT.
-Dual 3D, as easy as normal 3D.
-Can load BMPs of 8, 16, and 24 bits and convert them into textures.
-Hardware-accelerated effects like fog and toon shading.
-You can take screenshots of both screens in dual 3D mode or the 3D screen in normal 3D mode.
-Animated model support, models are drawn using linear interpolation.
-2D over 3D system.
-Very basic physics engine.
-API functions.
-2D text in 3D mode, any character size allowed.
-More things...
TODO:
-Improve physics engine.
-You can ask me for the things you would like to see.
As announced a few days ago, was finally released from GENyUS and his team to update the B Custom Firmware 5.50GEN. I remember that is only compatible with PSP-1000 and PSP-2000 (TA-088v3 excluded).
More to follow.
.: Install:.:
- Copy the 5.50-folder-update ġenb in PSP / GAME
- Start the application
.: Changelog:.:
• Fixed the bug that prevented disabling the VSH Menu
• The SELECT button can now start the VSH menu, the Recovery, or anything. The choice may be in recovery through the appropriate option
• Off the M33 network update
• The game Evangelion: Jo is now launched successfully
• The options Pandorizzazione are both in that the VSH Recovery Menu
• Three new features in VSH Menu: Shutdown Device (turn off the console), Make Pandora Battery, Battery Make Normal
• Option Flash1 Format: added a check that prevents you to format the Flash1 via VSH
A modified version of bookr based on the latest source code on www.sf.net.
Bookr-Mod 2009-07-01
============
* More CFWs supported and bugs fixed
* Support for Custom Firmware 5.50 and PSP3000 with HEN
* Some small bugs have been fixed.
Bookr-Mod 2009-06-23
============
* Support much more PDFs (with large images, JPEG2000, JBIG2, AES-encrpted, etc.)
* Support PDF Outlines
* Unicode support in PDF, PDF Outlines and file chooser.
* Some new options to control scroll speed of d-pad and analog stick.
* A simple thumbnail to indicate current position in page.
* Zoom in to specified width and position.
* Bug fixes.
Installation
============
create a new folder named bookr in ms0:/PSP/GAME or ms0:/PSP/GAMExxx, and then put both EBOOT.PBP and data.fnt in it.
Full changelog is here if you can read Chinese.
[b]Notes[b]
============
Thanks to the authors of original bookr and the authors of all the libraries/code used in this homebrew - fitz/mupdf,
freetype, jasper, jbig2dec, libdjvu, code for decryption of AES from Sumatrapdf, code for MS FAT access from XReader, etc.
Please report issues/bugs to 2525275@gmail.com if you have any problems when using it.
Widespread naivety on the true value of social network integration, says Mika
The game industry fails to understand the core properties and potential of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
That was the view offered by Mike Mika, an industry veteran of twenty years having been involved in over 120 game projects.
“In boardrooms across the world, people are using Facebook and Twitter as a buzzword rather than really understanding why they work so well and what they offer to enhance a game,” he told Develop in an interview published today.
“In the last three years, people have been pitching the same thing: Post highscores on Facebook or Twitter for a viral reaction that increases your potential user base. This is well and good, but it hasn't made anyone rich yet (Well, not many people rich).”
Mika currently stands as head of development at Other Ocean, developer of XBLA title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the iPhone version of Sega’s Super Monkey Ball. He’s also worked at iPhone specialist dev ngmoco.
“In many ways, the games industry is waking up to what the web has offered for so long,” he added, “and in doing so, it's following some of the classic misconceptions. Just being where the action is doesn't make you succeed. You need to integrate, understand, dissect. There's no magic bullet.”
Activision's passed laong us internet folk two new DJ Hero videos, showing oldschool mix man Grandmaster Flash at the decks.
The publisher's also responded to retail rumours that the music effort will carry a rather large RRP of £108.
"We don't comment on our product pricing strategies, however, we believe that DJ Hero will provide tremendous value for our consumers by delivering an all-new interactive music experience with over 100 individual songs that are highlighted in over 80 unique mixes, a wide variety of music from some of the biggest artists including Jay-Z, Eminem, Benny Benassi, Gwen Stefani and Black Eyed Peas among others," a spokesperson told CVG.
A partial track list for the music effort emerged yesterday. Take a look, it's got Beastie Boys, Dizzee Rascal and all sorts.
Social networking tool increases its gaming footprint with two major new backers
Revolutionary social networking tool Twitter is to get in-game support in two of MMO’s biggest names – Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Cryptic’s upcoming Champions Online.
Offworld reports that new add-on TweetCraft will allow WoW players to send and receive Tweets in-game and upload screenshots using Twitpic. It will also allow gamers to auto-Tweet when they log in to the game.
Developer Cryptic has also confirmed Twitter support in its upcoming title, with a statement on the official blog explaining:
“We’re really excited to get in-game tweet testing out to our beta players. This feature is in initial testing stages and will most likely have issues. Beta players, please keep in mind that you are still under an NDA while testing this feature.”
Twitter took pride of place centre stage at last month’s E3, where Microsoft announced that a client for the service will be heading to Xbox 360 later this year.
Twitter also played a significant role in the E3 hype machine, with many companies using the social network to spread early word of their big news.
A sequel to Rolando, one of the big software successes that helped establish the iPhone as a serious gaming platform, has finally arrived on Apple’s App Store digital distribution portal.
Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid boasts the same striking visuals as its predecessor (and Sony’s LocoRoco, for that matter) courtesy of pop illustrator Mikko Walamies and includes a score from break-beat artist Mr. Scruff. 46 levels are included, as is support for Ngmoco’s Plus+ network.
“Ngmoco is excited about this amazing sequel to Rolando,” Ngmoco’s founder and CEO Neil Young stated.
“It's bigger, bolder and more beautiful than ever with huge additions to Rolando’s signature gameplay that fans and newcomers alike are going to love.
“Developed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, Rolando 2 is a classic example of just how deep, polished and meaningful pocket-sized games can be when they embrace the unique capabilities of these powerful devices.”
Earlier in the week Ngmoco bowed to fan pressure and reinstated the original Rolando to the App Store having previously withdrawn it to promote the then pending sequel.
The firm recently acquired the services of former Sega of America president Simon Jeffery to head up its new publishing arm. Rolando 2 is available to download right now for £5.99 (or $9.99 in the US).
Vendor offers advice for keeping its latest devices cool
Since the release of the iPhone 3GS numerous reports of overheating have sprung up across the internet.
Although Apple is yet to acknowledge the reports as accurate, it has created a webpage that advises users on how to keep the device cool.
The site advises users to operate the iPhone in temperatures between zero and 35 degrees centigrade, while the device should be stored in temperatures ranging from -20 to 45 degrees.
It also points out the range of industry safety standards that the device meets.
Motion control mania continues as a new patent from Sony shows the firm's experiments with a scanning system that lets players use everyday objects to control their games (quiet at the back).
According to the recently published patent, a camera (presumably the PS Eye) scans an object in by having the user rotate it to essentially show it to the PS3 from different angles. This is then mapped into the game and its movements tracked by the camera.
Illustrations show a user holding a U-shaped object, but it explains that this could otherwise be any everyday object including, but not limited to, a mug, books or bottles. Other pictures show a person using baseball bats, a golf club and other objects. Good luck to ornaments and pets if Sony launches this.
Siliconera has the pictures.
Also, we notice in the pictures that the camera appears to be wireless - new PS Eyes, anyone?
Sony at E3 showed off new motion controllers that use the PS Eye to accurately track illuminated orbs on the end of the baton-like units.
Space trading game Eve Online has suffered a virtual version of the credit crunch.
One of the game's biggest financial institutions lost a significant chunk of its deposits as a huge theft started a run on the bank.
One of the bank's controllers stole about 200bn kredits and swapped them for real world cash of £3,115.
As news of the theft spread, many of the bank's customers rushed to remove their virtual cash.
Space scandal
The theft from EBank took place in early June but only now have details emerged about the amount of money stolen and why it was taken.
The theft was carried out by EBank's chief executive, a player known as Ricdic, now known to be a 27-year-old Australian who works in the technology industry. His full identity has not been revealed save that his first name is Richard.
The stolen kredits amounted to 8% of the 2.6tn that Ebank had in its virtual vaults.
"Basically this character was one of the people who had been running EBank for a while. He took a bunch of (virtual) money out of the bank, and traded it away for real money," Ned Coker, of Icelandic company CCP which runs Eve, told the Reuters news agency.
Eve Online has about 300,000 players all of whom inhabit the same online universe. The game revolves around trade, mining asteroids and the efforts of different player-controlled corporations to take control of swathes of virtual space.
It has now emerged that Ricdic used the cash to put down a deposit on a house and to pay medical bills.
"I'm not proud of it at all, that's why I didn't brag about it," Ricdic told Reuters. "But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path based on the same situation."
Ricdic has now been thrown out of the game as trading in-game cash for real money is against Eve Online's terms and conditions.
The rules governing play within Eve would not have sanctioned Ricdic if he had simply stolen the cash and used it in the game, nor if he had bought kredits with real dollars.
The scandal is not the first to play out in Eve Online. In early 2009 one of the game's biggest corporations, called Band of Brothers, was brought down by industrial espionage.
Price drop to YEN 3,990 scheduled for August 27th
Rockstar’s next-gen opus Grand Theft Auto IV is getting the budget treatment in Japan with news that the Capcom published title is to be ushered in to the PlayStation Best discount range.
Kotaku reports that that the new version will be released on August 27th and will cost YEN 3,900 – around £24.
The GTA series, which alongside titles such as Halo is in many ways the very essence of Western gaming, has never traditionally performed well in the East.
However, GTAIV was the title that seemed to reverse that trend. Upon its release last October it managed to outpace rival debutant LittleBigPlanet, with sales bettering Sony’s title by a ratio of 3:1.
It seems Universal Studios has won the highly sought-after movie rights to the 1979 Atari game Asteroids. Disney's Matthew Lopez will be writing the adaptation, having previously worked on the scripts for Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Race to Witch Mountain. The NY Times is skeptical about Hollywood's ability to do right by the 30-year-old game, already imagining what a director like Michael Bay would do with it: "In this $300 million, three-and-a-half hour spectacle, loud and expensive computer simulations of large boulders crashing into one another are briefly interrupted by the hilarious antics of Chip and Gravel, two living rocks with gold teeth who speak in hip-hop slang, and the nonstop shouting of John Turturro."
As the latest in his Game Design Essentials series for Gamasutra, writer John Harris examines 10 games from the Western computer RPG (CRPG) tradition and 10 from the Japanese console RPG (JRPG) tradition, to figure out what exactly makes them tick. From the entry on Nethack: 'Gaining experience is supposed to carry the risk of harm and failure. Without that risk, gaining power becomes a foregone conclusion. It has reached the point where the mere act of spending time playing [most RPGs] appears to give players the right to have their characters become more powerful. The obstacles that provide experience become simply an arbitrary wall to scale before more power is granted; this, in a nutshell, is the type of play that has brought us grind, where the journey is simple and boring and the destination is something to be raced to. Nethack and many other roguelikes do feature experience gain, but it doesn't feel like grind. It doesn't because much of the time the player is gaining experience, he is in danger of sudden, catastrophic failure. When you're frequently a heartbeat away from death, it's difficult to become bored.' Harris' Game Design series has previously spanned subjects from mysterious games to open world games, unusual control schemes and difficult games."
Here we are then. This week's Xbox Live highlights include ten tons of Battlestations nose cones, Worms 2 on Xbox Live Arcade and some Tiger Woods DLC.
Elsewhere on Marketplace is the lovely-looking fighter, King of Fighters '98: Ultimate March and erm, some Dynasty Warriors 6 goods. If you bought it.
Here's the list:
XBOX LIVE ARCADE
Worms 2: Armageddon (800 MS Points)
King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match (800 MS Points)
DLC
Epitaph Punk Track Pack, Guitar Hero: WT (440 MS Points)
Mustang Pack, Battlestations: Pacific (560 MS Points)
Kempo Armor Set, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (Free)
Artemis Armor Set, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (Free)
Royal Armor Set, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (Free)
Queen Armor Set, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (Free)
Spyglass Hill Course, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10 (600 MS Points)
The Predator Course, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10 (600 MS Points)
Serco Games Research now PlayableGames
London-based game testing group Serco Games Research has rebranded itself PlayableGames to reflect how “user testing can help to improve the game experience for players and, as a result, title sales and customer satisfaction.”
PlayableGames recently worked with Sony and Sucker Punch in providing user-experience feedback for the recently released action title infamous.
“Playable games are what the market wants, and the new name highlights how our proven approach to user testing can make games more engaging and playable,” said Ben Weedon, manager of PlayableGames.
Think about Wikipedia, what some consider the most complete general survey of human knowledge we have at the moment. Now imagine squeezing it down to fit comfortably on an 8GB iPhone. Sound daunting? Well, that's just what Patrick Collison's Encyclopedia iPhone application does. App Store purchasers of Collison's open source application can browse and search the full text of Wikipedia when stuck in a plane, or trapped in the middle of nowhere (or, as defined by AT&T coverage...)"
Classic DOOM and DSL Linux Desktop inside your Java-enabled browser! The latest JPC, the fast 100% Java x86 PC emulator, is now available with online demos and downloads. JPC is open source and is the most secure way of running x86 software ever — 2 layers (applet sandbox, JPC sandbox) of independently validated security make it the world's most secure means of isolating x86 software. Visit the website to try out some classic games and play around with Linux all within your web browser. Refresh = reboot
Pwn2Own winner Charlie Miller has revealed an SMS vulnerability that could provide hackers with root access to the iPhone. Malicious code sent by SMS to run on the phone could include commands to monitor location using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a DDoS attack or botnet, Miller said. Miller did not provide detailed description of the SMS vulnerability, citing an agreement with Apple, which is working to fix the vulnerability in advance of Black Hat, where Miller plans to discuss the attack in greater detail. 'SMS is a great vector to attack the iPhone,' Miller said, as SMS can send binary code that the iPhone processes without user interaction. Sequences can be sent to the phone as multiple messages that are automatically reassembled, thereby surpassing individual SMS message limits of 140 bytes.
CEO of the newly-formed publisher Tecmo Koei, Kenji Matsubara, has said he "would welcome a price cut for PS3", and has made his request known to Sony in past meetings.
"Whenever I discuss this with Sony reps I always ask them: 'Please cut the price', but I don't have a clear view on Sony's situation," Matsubara told CVG during an interview.
"Yes, from a publisher's point of view we would welcome a price cut for PS3, and we are waiting, definitely," he added.
"It's definitely a way of boosting the PS3 market, but it's Sony's strategy and I don't know their cost structure. Sony introduced cutting-edge technology in the PS3, that's why people in the industry accept that the PS3 cost is so high, but we'd welcome a price cut."
As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know, Paper Toss has been a source of mixed emotions for me in recent days. It’s provided joy, in that I’ve discovered it, loved it and basked in its zero cost glory. But by the same token, the inability to put it down has been a genuine cause of domestic strife.
Paper Toss is nothing more than a basic velocity game, requiring players to ‘flick’ paper balls into a bin. The complicating factor comes from a desk fan, the position and strength of which varies from try to try.
Players must adjust the trajectory of their toss according to the side and strength of the fan each go. Its power is represented by a number between 0.01 and 6.49. This isn’t a problem when there’s little power, but as soon as the speed ramps up, predicting the correct arc of the flick becomes a very delicate affair.
Easy mode is fairly simply to master, but venture onto Medium or even, god forbid, Hard mode and the challenge increases considerably. On the toughest setting even the most subtle changes in wind power require incredibly precise adjustments to conquer.
Paper Toss is one of those games that really comes into its own when you’re in the zone. Some days it just doesn’t click, and you find yourself missing fairly simple throws. Get your brain into gear though and start chaining dozens of successful throws together, though, and the addiction factor cranks up considerably.
This is ‘one more go’ factor heaven, and the ability to upload high scores to leaderboards just adds an extra layer of crack-like addictiveness to an already awesome package.
But the thing that elevates Paper Toss into the realms of brilliance is the fact that’s absolutely free. The number of quality 59p, £1.19 and £1.99 titles available on the App Store already makes many £39.99 console titles hang their head in shame, but the fact that something as good as Paper Toss is available for nothing at all asks serious questions of current retail models.
And the reason it’s free? There’s a link to download £1.19 app Ragdoll Blaster (which is alright) on the game’s main scream.
Developer Backflip Studios has stated its intention to start charging for the game soon, and whilst it almost seems wrong to deprive it of some well-deserved revenue, you’d be foolish not to download this before it does.
September 4th is the day that Square Enix’s PSP outing arrives in PAL territories
The long-awaited arrival of Final Fantasy XIII may still be some way off, but fans of Square Enix’s popular series will be able to get their teeth stuck into a brand new outing in the shape of Dissidia Final Fantasy this September.
The PSP-only title boasts the largest ever cast in a FF game, bringing together some of the most popular characters from the series’ rich history in an unusual one-on-one fighting game.
A limited edition collector’s version will also be available at launch, including a soundtrack CD, 48 page hardback artwork book, Brady Games miniguide and two lithograph prints .
“With so many favourite heroes and villains contained in one game, Dissidia Final Fantasy is certainly going to appeal to fans of the series,” Square Enix’s president and chief executive officer John Yamamoto stated.
“The action-packed experience is a real showcase for the PSP and is set to become an instant classic on the system.”
Those worried that Dissidia Final Fantasy would follow in the footsteps of FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus, which received an exceptionally harsh critical reception, should take comfort in the incredibly positive talk emerging from Japan, where the game has already been released.
Dissidia Final Fantasy will be released on September
The social networking site Facebook has come under fire for planned changes to its privacy settings.
It wants to "simplify" the process so users only have to set them once, instead of for each individual feature.
Facebook says the change will help people share more information with one another.
However, critics argue the new set up could lead to members being persuaded to share too many personal details - their date of birth for example.
Tom Royal is from Computeractive magazine.
He said: "I'm a little bit worried about the settings recommended by Facebook because as far as I can see it's actually sharing quite a lot of information with quite a few people.
"That's not something we'd advise people to do. We'd very much recommend people choose the 'limited' option instead.
'One size fits all'
"For example, just your date of birth can be a security question for lots of internet applications."
Facebook argues a 'one size fits all' approach will make things more straightforward for users.
"The effect of more and more settings has made controlling privacy on Facebook too complicated," according to the site's chief privacy officer Chris Kelly.
It's also phasing out regional networks like London and Manchester because Kelly says "they don't adequately reflect a world where people choose the audience they want to share with".
The number of people using Facebook has risen above the 20 million mark this year in the UK.
It is the most popular social networking site in the world, with 200 million members globally.
David Amor of Buzz developer Relentless believes that the unexplored casual genre will deliver radical new IP that will sell tens of millions.
Speaking to Develop in an interview published today, Amor drew on the phenomenal success of certain casual IPs, adding that the winning formula is not likely to go away.
“I think that casual games remain an untapped genre; I’ve worked in more traditional genres for years and years before saying “right, let’s make games for other people”, and I don’t think we’re anywhere near discovering how many games can be made to satisfy that audience,” he said.
“Guitar Hero did well, Buzz did well, SingStar did well, Wii Fit did well; this isn’t the end of that.”
“There are games, currently un-thought of in the casual genre, that will sell tens of millions. I’d rather have a business in that category rather than more established ones to be honest with you.”
Here's an awesome seven minutes of actual-us-playing-in-game-footage recorded from the Left 4 Dead 2 press demo we hammered yesterday.
The footage has us showing up less skilful Journalists in one of the second game's about-to-become-legendary finales.
As you will see, the conclusions are no longer about simply defending a corner until help arrives. Instead this final act has us battling the horde across a massive bridge, in a desperate attempt to reach the military chopper at the end.
You'll see new characters, new weapons, zombie dismemberment and one of the new special infected, the 'charger', in action.
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