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May 29th, 2012, 00:57 Posted By: wraggster
The practise of putting post-release DLC on disc and requiring customers to pay to unlock it is “plain greed”, according to Michael Pachter.
The subject hit the limelight earlier this month when Capcom admitted to including DLC for Street Fighter X Tekken on the disc.
“It’s just plain greed – it’s that simple,” he said on the lasts edition of PachAttack, as transcribed by VG247.
“A few years ago, we didn’t see DLC for typically six months after a game launch and I think it was Red Dead Redemption, but I think Take Two kind of pioneered and launched DLC like a month after the original title and it was super successful. Now you’re seeing a lot more guys do it yet.
“I think that DLC has been so successful that publishers are trying to get a jumpstart and if you put it on the disc, it allows them to unlock it when they feel like it.”
Capcom has subsequently gone on to re-evaluate the practise.
Pachter added that, were a consumer to find a way of accessing DLC content hidden away on a disc, they would probably be safe from any legal repercussions.
“The stuff on the disc, some gamers feel entitled to because they bought the disc, so they should have a right to anything that’s on the disc. And that’s a dicey one,” he added.
“You actually do own the disc and I think, theoretically, if you could crack the code on the DLC, you probably would be allowed to access it without paying. And I’m not even sure that’s stealing because you did, in fact, buy the disc. That’s about as close as you can get to legal piracy.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/on-di...n-greed/096772
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May 28th, 2012, 21:52 Posted By: wraggster
A unique remote control car that can be used to play a PC game hits shelves in July, courtesy of Revell.
The Revellutions range of RC toys will feature interchangeable parts, water resistant shells and a USB cable that connects them to a PC. Consumers can also use the car's remote control to play a 'trendy RC game' on the Revellutions website.
The Dust Rider model will be priced at around £69.99 and accessories will cost from £4.99 to £11.99 RRP.
Revell's UK country manager Thomas Randrup told ToyNews: “The first signs from the launch at Nuremberg have been very positive. There's a great expectation from the trade and from ourselves, as it is our own development.
“You won't find anything else in the toy industry quite like it.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/intro...troller/096789
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May 27th, 2012, 22:16 Posted By: wraggster
E3 organiser ESA has hit back at those who say the show has become irrelevant.
Detractors have claimed the annual event is out-dated since its primary focus is on the struggling boxed games market.
But the ESA says the appearance of Zynga and GREE at this year’s showcase is evidence of an event that is very much in time with today’s games industry.
“I disagree with broad declarations that a show which hasn’t occurred yet is irrelevant,” said ESA’s industry affairs SVP Rich Taylor.
“Folks haven’t even seen what’s going to take place. The fact that Zynga and GREE are going to be there is reflective of a show that is very much relevant. These firms are talking specifically about mobile and social.”
ESA sends a survey out after each E3 in a bid to ensure it continues to meet the demands of its attendees.
“There isn’t a better amplify for new games than E3. What happens in LA will be heard around the globe and echo around for the months to follow,” adds Taylor.
“If E3 was losing relevancy we’d be having a fire sale on exhibit space, but it is the opposite, we are packed to the gills. I think it’s going to be one of the strongest shows we’ve had in a long time.
“The industry will change and we will change with it.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/esa-b...critics/096691
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May 27th, 2012, 22:11 Posted By: wraggster
When the trade clicked open its Monday morning UKIE charts update this week, the big story was the data that wasn’t listed.
Max Payne may be a worthy No.1. But with a three day head start and a passionately connected PC audience Blizzard’s Diablo III was undoubtedly the ‘real’ No.1 thanks to combined digital and physical sales.
Next Friday this story will take a twist as Rockstar releases the game across the likes of Steam, Gamersgate and Gamefly. This will help it catch up with Blizzard no doubt.
The two games jostling for top spot, however, is just a dramatic side effect. The real impact is how the titles’ publishers will be once again reminded of the digital/physical data debate.
Max Payne and Diablo both being No.1 and No.2 from various points of view highlights a long-foreseen flaw in the official charts. As you can see below left, GfK is the first to acknowledge this. We’ll have more insight from them next week.
In the meantime, understand this. When Blizzard and Rockstar Games – two of the most revered and creatively calculating studios – wake up to how crucial this issue is, the rest of the industry should follow. And fast.
NO?LESSONS?LEARNED?FROM?Q4 CRUSH
Responses to last week’s cover story calling for a better spread of release dates included one soapbox pundit attempting to debunk genuine and deep-rooted concerns retailers have about the market.
To recap: there’s too much stuff coming out in a very short window in Q4.
Since we went to press, some big games have been shifted to Q1 2013. A few say this proves the industry is learning its lesson already.
But that’s not the case. If the grand planners behind these games had any foresight, the likes of BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Devil May Cry and others wouldn’t have been Q4 releases in the first place.
These games and others ambitiously wanted to be ready for Christmas – no doubt to fulfil publisher’s too-high expectations about Q4 spending. But they simply weren’t ready, a regular mistake developers make.
No matter what industry spectators say, those deep in the business know best: some habits are going to die
hard for boxed games publishers.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/opini...history/096697
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May 26th, 2012, 23:48 Posted By: wraggster
Taiwanese manufacturer Via Technologies has unveiled the APC, an Android-based 'pocket PC' to rival the Raspberry Pi.
Like the Pi, APC is designed to connect to a TV/monitor. Unlike the Pi, which runs GNU/Linux system software, the APC features a custom build of Android.
“APC brings the familiarity and convenience of Android to the PC at a $49 (£31) price point that will open up exciting new markets and applications,” said Richard Brown, VP of marketing, VIA Technologies. “Like a bicycle for your mind, APC will enable more people than ever before to explore the vast online universe.”
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...erry-pi/028386
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May 24th, 2012, 21:59 Posted By: wraggster
Let's be honest -- the first time we saw the Microsoft Surface in action, we all dreamt of getting our grubby fingers on our very own unit. Five years later, we're no closer to the dream of a touchscreen coffee tablet in every living room. Templeman Automation, thankfully, shares that dream. Earlier this month, we caught word of the company's Playsurface, a Kickstarter project aimed at bringing low cost touchscreen computing to the tabletops of eager early adopters who just can't quite justify the $8,000 price tag on Microsoft's similarly named product.
We were excited at the prospect of finally getting to play with the product when TechCrunch opened up the gates to the hardware portion of its Disrupt conference. Unfortunately, as we quickly found out, things wouldn't be quite so easy -- the show was held at Pier 94, a space with overabundant natural light courtesy of rows and rows of skylights. As it turns out, the sun doesn't play too well with the infrared light that helps power Playsurface's touchscreen functionality. The table's creators were nice enough to pop by our offices to let us take the living room gadget for a test drive.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/p...ands-on-video/
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May 24th, 2012, 21:51 Posted By: wraggster
Another year, another cramped convention centre in Los Angeles playing host to the console business and its hangers on. It's loud, it's over-the-top, but does it still speak for the games industry as we know it in 2012? Is it a stubborn throwback to the days when consoles ruled the Earth, a show that reluctantly acknowledges the growth in mobile, tablet and online gaming but makes no bones about the preference for a publisher pissing contest? Or is it a show slowly changing with the times, like the creaking console businesses gradually facing a digital, portable future?
The E3 spectacle reverberates through the games business in June every year, but is it still representative and relevant to an industry that has changed almost entirely since the start of the current console cycle? Here, in our latest roundtable, GamesIndustry International's writers drape press passes over their shoulders and wade through the halls of the LA Convention Centre…
James Brightman
"E3 is beginning to feel a bit like a dinosaur, a relic of a past golden age"
James Brightman
The games industry has changed dramatically since the first E3 Expo in 1995, put together by the Interactive Digital Software Association (now the Entertainment Software Association). Why, then, hasn't the annual trade fair evolved with it? The world of consoles isn't the only game in town in 2012, and yet only a handful of exhibitors at E3 are purely social/mobile focused. Truth be told, E3 is beginning to feel a bit like a dinosaur, a relic of a past golden age.
That's not to say that consoles are dead, and that E3 is fundamentally useless. E3 still serves its purpose as the grand spectacle that it is, drawing huge attention to the industry for a few days each year, and preparing journalists, retailers and retail buyers for the upcoming holiday season. But the fact is that it's misrepresenting what the games industry actually is today. Whereas GDC appears to be broadening its scope and shining a spotlight on social and mobile companies, E3 almost seems to be doing the opposite. Like an ostrich with its head plunged into the sand, the ESA seems oblivious to this.
David Radd
 The painful on-stage scripted banter is enough to make you cringe yourself inside out.
E3 is still a very important event to the AAA gaming industry. When it was running in a diminished form for a couple of years, it left a hole where a lot of positive mainstream media coverage usually emerged from. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft benefit hugely from the attention on their press conferences and it's still the best place for people in the games industry to meet and hash out business.
However, E3 has not done a good job of representing the entirety of what gaming is these days. Indie, mobile and social titles are hugely underrepresented. Also, the importance of the event has been diminished by major publishers making announcements at other times of the year. Since they no longer have to represent themselves to a large number of buyers (the true reason E3 was created) they show off games on their own timetable and often at their own events. Finally, other major industry events, sort of "mini-E3s" have stolen some of the thunder of E3 (like Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, PAX and the Eurogamer Expo) allowing publishers to have multiple touchpoints with consumers and not try to cram all their major announcements in one week in June.
E3 still represents a part of the gaming market worth billions of dollars, and it's value in the intangibles for that part of the industry is such that it will likely still occur for the rest of the decade. However, the event faces obsolescence if it doesn't include much more than the largest, most expensive titles in an industry about so much more than retail these days.
Ben Strauss
I'm still iffy on why there seems to be continued discussion on the 'end of E3' as we know it. The lineup this year from all three big publishers, all three manufacturers and a goodly amount of PC and mobile developers look pretty darn impressive. I mean sure, the landscape is continuing to change, but for companies to blow off E3? That's for Valve and Blizzard to do. For everyone else, this is the Super Bowl (and Valve and Blizzard only show up when they intend to steal the show).
E3 is just going to see old hands leave and new talent come in, and on different platforms. More attention will eventually be paid to mobile titles, less (if any) attention to an utterly useless middle-market. This isn't about a drastic change - this is about ebb and flow. This talk comes up at the end of each generation it seems, and I don't see this being another early '80s scenario for gaming. Next year will more than likely kill any of this discussion.
Steve Peterson
The answer is contained within the question; once you find it necessary to ask if E3 is still relevant, it is apparent that it's not as relevant as it was. More precisely, E3 is both more relevant and less relevant than it once was.
E3 is more relevant to publishers of console games, who are facing the fourth year of a declining market and the most perilous hardware transition in 20+ years. E3 is their best chance to draw attention to their products and boost their company image to the mainstream media; it's the one event of the year where mainstream media really pays attention to games. Each publisher will work hard to get a larger share in a shrinking pond, while wondering if new consoles will bring in more customers or just the current ones.
"E3 is a red carpet for the big three platform holders and other publishers to strut their stuff and give the community an idea of where the year is headed"
Mike Williams
E3 is less relevant in the expanded view of the gaming industry, which now includes the fast-growing areas of mobile, social, online, streamed games, and a variety new business models, including free-to-play, virtual goods, subscription, ad-supported and others. Digitally distributed content will outstrip physical content in revenue in the near future. There are billion-dollar game companies who don't even care what happens at E3, since it doesn't affect their part of the game business.
Mike Williams
E3 is still relevant. It stands as a monument to pomp and circumstance for the industry, and a red carpet for the big three platform holders and other publishers to strut their stuff and give the community an idea of where the year is headed.
Is the show slow to change? Of course, but so are other large events. GDC Online, focused primarily on mobile and social titles, only started in 2010. Even the consumer-focused PAX just recently started to have a considerable indie game presence. The events will shift with the landscape. I don't think there will ever be a significant social presence at the show, but that's just because there's no ramping hype for those games. E3 is all about the pre-release hype.
 The Saint's Row bikini car wash. A high lowbrow point of E3 2011.
Certain studios like Valve and Blizzard will continue to skip the show. Some European developers will focus their efforts on Gamescom or Eurogamer Expo, like many Japanese developers already do with Tokyo Game Show. Mobile platform holders like Apple and Google will continue to do their own thing.
It's an ongoing evolution and I think E3 will stay in its place as long as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are running the console show. So we'll see where this new generation of consoles takes us before calling for the death of their biggest showcase.
John Benyamine
I go to two shows every year: E3 and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. After doing this for over a decade, I always arrive at the same conclusions.
GDC is the games industry's barometer. It is a way to measure what's hot in gaming right now, and where we see the industry headed in the next year or two. In the past few years, attending the show and listening in on key sessions and lectures foretold the rise of mobile and social gaming, the risks involved in big budget console titles, and the increasing influence of the independent gaming scene.
On the other hand, E3 gives me a sense of the bullishness and attitude of the video game companies that make up the vast majority of the show floor. Unfortunately, the value of that analysis seems dampened by hollow stories about booth babes being banned from the show, moving to a small venue in an airport hangar in Santa Monica, or displayed in the swarming South Hall.
"As Gree continues its expansion, is it so inconceivable that it could be the biggest booth at E3 within the next couple of years?"
Dan Pearson
In recent years, publishers have reacted with an increasing number of pre-E3 events reminiscent of an insultingly-long pre-game show before the big football match. This is a necessary use of everyone's time as now anyone with a passing connection to the word "game" is given access to the crowded show floor where games struggle to capture center stage.
At the end of over a decade of covering the show, I still love E3 for its over-the-top pomp and Vegas-like thrills, and I'll go every year they put it on. Unfortunately, it doesn't make up for the fact that the show is just a great after-party to the press events that happen earlier in the week.
Dan Pearson
I think that, like the console business and many of the major publishers themselves, E3 has shown all the signs of classic 'supertanker syndrome'. Vast, expensive and highly specialised, E3 has taken too long to redirect its course, allowing more nimble competitors like Gamescom to steal a march on markets like mobile and social.
The show obviously has a hugely symbiotic relationship with AAA development. As Mike points out, E3 is a circus, a parade day for the huge marketing budgets of the platform holders and the likes of Activision, EA and Ubisoft to wow and dazzle audiences and buyers, and to get their names and products a spot on the evening news without having the word "shooting" attached.
 Real journalists don't have time to run around the show floor Hoovering up free tat.
It does this brilliantly. I don't know of any games journalist who doesn't experience at least a little shiver of anticipation when watching the platform holders' presentations. Rumours are confirmed or obliterated in those brief hours, games announced, headlines written. Years with hardware reveals generate insane amounts of copy, even when those announcements leave everyone a little bemused. Every year, it's the most fact-intensive period in any game journo's calendar. It's exhausting, even when you're covering it remotely.
Despite all that, the gaps in E3's remit are beginning to show. For what is still essentially a trade show, powered by and run for the areas of the industry which are making money, E3 has a shocking lack of social and mobile coverage. That's partly because those industries haven't fully engaged with these events yet, but they're certainly starting to.
Earlier this year, Yoshikazu Tanaka, CEO of Japanese social/mobile behemoth Gree, told me that his company had the largest stand at TGS, a smaller and less glitzy show than E3, but one which has historically been similarly focused on AAA console development. As Gree continues its expansion Westwards, acquiring companies and talent at an incredible rate, is it so inconceivable that it could be the biggest booth at E3 within the next couple of years?
Rachel Weber
Full disclosure, I've never actually been to E3. I've watched others pack up their dictaphones and notebooks and tweet about the plane food, but I've always been back in the office with a take away and a can of Red Bull watching the live streams of conferences, or filtering the news from the million website and blogs. And I've never felt like I've missed anything from a press point of view. Any of the big announcements will be broadcast live to the world, some of that might even get leaked before anyone has even checked into their LA hotel room. E3 is a reflection of its triple-A subject matter, big, expensive, and slow to react.
"E3 is a spring break party populated by fresh-faced fanboys and an old boys' network. It's the least exciting part of the industry with the loudest voice"
Matt Martin
It's just not like the old days when you actually had to be there, with your (s******) pen and paper, filing copy the next day. As for big interviews, most of the big publishers will now happily set up interviews a few weeks before, send over screenshots, videos, then just stamp them when a big fat embargo. They get their coverage, and the VIP gets to actually leave the booth to eat, pee, maybe even sleep. THQ aren't spending $1 million on a booth this year, but a UK showcase last week means they won't be short on game coverage.
The real value of those shows is now, and perhaps always was, what business people like to call Face Time. For journalists it's getting drunk with someone at an after party and hearing secrets you shouldn't, getting the gossip from bored PRs at the booth. Getting that tired studio head when he's just bored enough of regurgitating press releases to actually say something he shouldn't. For developers and publishers it's much the same, meeting and greeting, being seen at the show, showing shareholders that "WE'RE FINE, EVERYTHING IS FINE! LOOK AT OUR GIANT STAND."
Is that worth millions of dollars to publishers? The floorplan says yes for now, but with an industry that's more and more about indie developers, more and more about dealing directly with consumers, and faced with a playground of events such as GDC, Tokyo Game Show, Gamescom, PAX and the Eurogamer Expo, the old circus really needs to up its game to justify its ticket price.
Matt Martin
I love the spectacle and ridiculousness of it all, from the booth babes to the booming systems, and I think it's absolutely vital that the games industry uses a whole week to stand up and shout about itself as loudly as possible. But I also know E3 isn't really what the games business has been about for some time. This is the week when the rest of the entertainment and tech industries are really paying attention, and E3 should be the chance for the industry to celebrate what it is, thump its chest and be proud of its achievements.
 Activision's party at the Staples Centre in 2010 costs tens of millions, pulling bands like NERD and Soundgarden out of retirement.
E3 doesn't represent the games industry anymore, or at least it doesn't represent the most exciting parts of the business - the growth, the new attitudes, the evolution. Console software and hardware is tired, limping along with incremental updates. Games are a rehash, services are ubiquitous. E3 is preaching to the converted. Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and the third party publishers are telling their peers how important they are while those embracing the new games economy - mobile, social, digital - are talking to an entirely new audience of consumers and businesses that are inspired and receptive to new forms of entertainment and delivery.
E3 is a spring break party populated by fresh-faced fanboys and an old boys' network. It's the least exciting part of the industry with the loudest voice. It's still a good party, but that's one hell of a bar bill to wake up to. And if you're just watching Los Angeles for new console announcements and sequels to a favourite game, you're missing out on the progression towards an entirely new games industry growing across the globe.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...still-relevant
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May 24th, 2012, 20:07 Posted By: wraggster
Namco Bandai's My Little Sister Can't Possibly Be This Cute Portable Can't Possibly Continue debuted at number one in this week's Japanese charts.
My Little Sister knocks last weeks chart topper, Mario Party 9, to number two, while Atlus' Persona 2 Eternal Punishment enters at number three.
Brothers Conflict Passion Pink was the only other new entry in the top ten, setting up stall at number five.
01. My Little Sister Can't Possibly Be This Cute Portable Can't Possibly Continue (Namco Bandai)
02. Mario Party 9 (Nintendo)
03. Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (Atlus)
04. Fire Emblem Awakening (Nintendo)
05. Brothers Conflict Passion Pink (Idea Factory)
06. Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo)
07. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo)
08. Monster Hunter 3G (Capcom)
09. Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City (Capcom)
10. Kid Icarus Uprising (Nintendo)
http://www.edge-online.com/news/my-l...s-japan-charts
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May 24th, 2012, 20:05 Posted By: wraggster
VIA Technologies, ostensibly in an attempt to compete with the Raspberry Pi (if you can believe all those bloggers out there), is releasing a tiny single board computercalled the APC Android PC. The VIA website for the APC is down, so just searchGoogle News for all the details.
The specs are somewhat similar to the Raspberry Pi – HDMI out, Ethernet, SD card, and a few USB ports – but that’s about where the similarities end. The APC runs a version of Android 2.3 customized for mouse and keyboard input where the RasPi runs Linux. The APC can only display 720p video (compared to the RasPi’s 1080p), and doesn’t have GPIO pins that can be used with Arduino shields.
We’re pretty sure VIA is going after the media center PC market here with a low-power board that can easily stream movies or a season of TV shows over a network. At $50, we’re sure the APC will find a home in a few homebrew devices, MAME machines, and carputers.
If anything, this only portends a whole bunch of single-board ARM/Linux computers riding on the coat tails of the RasPi. That’s awesome no matter how you look at it.
If a $50 Android board doesn’t whet your whistle, VIA also released a Mini-ITX board with 12 hardware serial ports. Hardware serial ports are getting rare nowadays despite how useful they are for embedded applications. 12 (with riser cards, natch) serial ports seems overkill, but we’re sure some Hackaday reader has been looking for this board for a while now.
http://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/apc-a...-raspberry-pi/
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May 24th, 2012, 19:58 Posted By: wraggster
Last year, Eric Schmidt slammed British computer science teaching, saying the UK was wasting its computing heritage — since then, the Government has agreed to re-examine how the subject is taught. 'Rebooting computer science education is not straightforward,' Schmidt said. 'Scrapping the existing curriculum was a good first step — the equivalent of pulling the plug out of the wall. The question is now how to power up.' To help, Schmidt has now promised funding from Google to train 100 teachers as well as give classrooms Raspberry Pis, via charity Teach First.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05...for-uk-schools
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May 23rd, 2012, 23:04 Posted By: wraggster
Technology company Leap Motion has launched what it claims to be the world's most accurate motion control device.
The company says its Leap is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market "at any price point" and isn't just "a game system that roughly maps your hand movements".
The device can distinguish 3D hand and individual finger movements down to an accuracy of 1/100th of a millimetre, and can be easily used with other objects - such as a pencil, or as the video below demonstrates, chop sticks.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/leap...ion-controller
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May 22nd, 2012, 12:24 Posted By: wraggster
If using almost any surface as an instrument to drop some beats is out of the question, Dream Cheeky's iDrum might be a decent second choice. The rechargeable, seven-piece drum kit connects to any iDevice running iOS 5 or higher via Bluetooth and rings up at $70. Despite a roughly 9.5- by 12-inch form factor that doesn't exactly look bomb-proof, Dream Cheeky assures us that it "can withstand a right good smashing." That hardware pairs with the free Sound System app so you can release your inner Timbaland by tapping along with pre-recorded songs or creating, recording and playing back your own jam sessions. And, if you need a break from working in your beat laboratory, the company plans to release Dream Cheeky Arcade apps so you can get your game on. If you're itching to break into a digital drum solo, you can pre-order now and expect to see it ship to your abode on May 31. In the meantime, a video of the iDrum in action awaits you after the break.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/21/i...or-70-dollars/
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May 22nd, 2012, 12:24 Posted By: wraggster
Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, we're pretty sure you've heard about the Raspberry Pi by now -- a $25 credit-card sized PC that brings ARM/Linux to the Arduino form factor. As a refresher, the system features a 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with an ARM11 CPU, a Videocore 4 GPU (which handles HD H.264 video and OpenGL ES 2.0) and 256MB RAM. The board includes an SD card slot, HDMI output, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio socket, micro-USB power connector and GPIO header. Model A ($25) comes with one USB port, while Model B ($35) provides two USB ports and a 100BaseT Ethernet socket. Debian is recommended, but Raspberry Pi can run most ARM-compatible 32-bit OSes.
This past weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we ran into Eben Upton, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and took the opportunity to spend some quality time with a production board and to discuss this incredible PC. We touched upon the origins of the system (inspired by the BBC Micro, one of the ARM founders' projects), Moore's law, the wonders of simple computers and upcoming products / ideas -- including Adafruit's Pi Plate and Raspberry Pi's prototype camera add-on. On the subject of availability, the company expects that "there will be approximately 200,000 units in the field by the end of June". Take a look at our hands-on gallery below and our video interview after the break.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/21/r...maker-faire-v/
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May 22nd, 2012, 12:19 Posted By: wraggster
The iCade Arcade Cabinet famously began life as an April Fool's joke, pulling the video game equivalent of Pinocchio by transforming in a real salable product. The $100 arcade machine-shaped iPad enclosure / controller hit the sweet spot between functionality and retro gaming nostalgia, proving successful enough that Ion found itself with a solid reason to expand the line. Notable amongst the new arrivals are the iCade Core, which offers up the same feature set as the original iCade in a more portable joystick form, and the iCade Mobile, a re-imagining of the product as an oversized iPhone case. The Core carries the same price tag as its predecessor, while the Mobile clocks in at $20 less. So, are these additions worthy of the iCade name? Or would the line have been better served as a one-off? Insert a coin and find out after the break.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/21/i...e-core-review/
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May 22nd, 2012, 00:23 Posted By: wraggster
In a no-holds barred interview amidst Diablo III’s ‘always-on DRM’ storm, the developer of The Witcher 2 has blasted the use of digital rights management.
“Let me dispel the myth about DRM protecting anything. The truth is it does not work. It’s as simple as that,” CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwinski told Forbes. “The technology which is supposed to protect games against illegal copying is cracked within hours of the release of every single game. So, that’s wasted money and development just to implement it.
“But that’s not the worst part. DRM, in most cases, requires users to enter serial numbers, validate his or her machine, and be connected to the internet while they authenticate – and possibly even when they play the game they bought.
“Quite often the DRM slows the game down, as the wrapper around the executable file is constantly checking if the game is being legally used or not. That is a lot the legal users have to put up with, while the illegal users who downloaded the pirated version have a clean – and way more functional – game.
“It seems crazy, but that’s how it really works. So if you are asking me how do I see the future of DRM in games, well, I do not see any future for DRM at all.”
Iwinski has evidence, too. He expected the DRM-free version of The Witcher 2 available on GOG.com – a retailer whose business is built on the principal of DRM-free gaming – to suffer a crippling piracy rate.
It didn’t. In fact, the game was left largely untouched.
“We were expecting to see the GOG.com version pirated right after it was released, as it was a real no-brainer,” he confessed. “Practically anyone could have downloaded it from GOG.com and released it on the illegal sites right away, but this did not happen.
“My guess is, that releasing an unprotected game is not the real deal, you have to crack it to gain respect and be able to write, “cracked by XYZ.” How would “not cracked by XYZ, as there was nothing to crack” sound? A bit silly, wouldn’t it? The illegal scene is pretty much about the game and the glory: who will be the first to deliver the game, who is the best and smartest cracker.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/cd-pr...ot-work/096361
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May 21st, 2012, 01:42 Posted By: wraggster
Coincidence or not, it was a warning to console makers of things to come. While the old games industry gathered in LA for its annual E3 pissing contest, a loud message was sounding 350 miles to the north.Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which just happened to overlap with the biggest week in the games industry's calendar, also just happened to feature a games-heavy keynote.Nine months earlier, Steve Jobs had unleashed both barrels against handheld rivals, declaring iPod Touch, with a sneaky fudge, "the number one portable games player in the world", boasting that it "outsells Nintendo and Sony handhelds combined".Last June, Apple had a different target in its sights. "iOS5 is the most popular games platform on the planet," the company bragged, jubilantly noting that Game Center sign-ups had shot past 50 million in nine months - an impressive figure when put against the 31 million that Microsoft had managed to coax onto Xbox Live in eight years.This was executive willy-waving of the type Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo had been doing in each others' faces for years through the pantomime medium of E3 conference season. But the new kid had its own stage.And it foreshadowed, if the ceaseless rumours are to be believed, the next big scrap between Apple and the console makers: the battle for the living room.Suggestions of a smart TV from Apple have been rife since Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Isaacson, reported the late leader's revelation: "I finally cracked it".This "integrated television set" would be "completely easy to use", Jobs said, "seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud", and have "the simplest user interface you could imagine".There's not been a single peep out of the company officially since, obviously, on whether an Apple-made TV exists or not, but that hasn't stopped the tech press reporting on it almost daily. The latest twist came with the gossip that Apple was set to acquire Loewe, a posh TV maker in Germany. Loewe moved to rubbish the report, but the rumours rolled on regardless. 'I finally cracked it,' the late Steve Jobs reportedly said of an Apple produced Smart TV. We may be able to see that solution for ourselves soon.
For the purposes of this article I'm going to ignore the boring debate over whether Apple definitely is or definitely isn't making a TV - mostly because no-one outside of those directly involved (or not) seems to have a clue - and assume there is no smoke without fire. Because I want to consider what an "iTV" would mean for gaming and how it might threaten the businesses of the companies that make those beloved boxes beneath our current sets.When it comes to user-friendliness, existing smart TVs are a bewildering mess in dire need of an iRevolution. I have no complaints about the picture quality of my Sonia Bravia 3DTV. Similarly, while the 'smart' interface on it for connected services is about as well-designed as a restaurant website, I can - and do - live without it quite happily, with five separate boxes plugged into it that do that stuff much better anyway.Nevertheless, the impenetrably over-complicated remote is like a '60s vision of the future made by Blue Peter. And I don't need to see it for real to know how incredible it would be to control a TV with an iPhone and an iPad. And games, too? You betcha. We can of course already glimpse how this would work today by streaming an iPad via Airplay onto a flatscreen using Apple TV.The pressing concern for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, though, is not that an iTV would be able to offer - or even seek to offer - comparable experiences to those possible on dedicated gaming systems. It's that, in the fight for eyeballs and digits, Apple will wade in and take over another established market, fatally limiting the growth potential of the next generation of games boxes at the very moment they are casting out their entertainment nets ever-wider."An iPad plus iTV combination is not exactly a million miles away from what Nintendo is pitching with its tablet-based WiiU."
It spells potential trouble for Nintendo because an iPad plus iTV combination is not exactly a million miles away from what the Japanese company is pitching with its tablet-based WiiU. And of all the console manufacturers, Nintendo has struggled most in expanding its entertainment offering online and beyond gaming.As the reinvigorated, post-Super Mario and Mario Kart 3DS shows, great games can still go a long way, but it's hard to overstate the importance of the firm's E3 conference after last year's botched WiiU reveal. And the sudden emergence of Apple - already going for the throat in handheld - as a living room rival piles on the pressure.With the mainstream seemingly slowly shifting away from gaming-only devices, Nintendo seems least well-prepared for a skirmish on those terms. But at the same time - and until we know more about WiiU - it seems the least exposed to it of the three console makers.Sony, like Nintendo, has been hit hard by smartphones in the handheld space, with Vita in desperate need of an E3-assisted second wind. Dire financials across Sony Corp. highlighted the existing fragility of its TV business against the likes of Samsung. And having had its portable music player department clobbered by Apple, it's unlikely to welcome the possibility of an iTV with anything other than dread.PlayStation 3 has largely trailed Xbox 360 throughout this generation on the connected services it offers beyond gaming. Awkward attempts to spread the XMB across Sony TVs and consoles, meanwhile, would look even less clever alongside a seamlessly integrated iDevice-to-iTV network.But in its extensive funding of risky indie projects via Santa Monica Studio, and its staunch support for fresh triple-A IP at this stage in the PS3's life, its commitment to core gamers remains undiminished, auguring well for PS4 content and gamers' expectations.How important is that? Let's look at Microsoft. Superficially, the US company ought to feel most confident of its chances in the next-gen living room. The big news came in March, when it was revealed that more people use Xbox 360 to watch online entertainment than online gaming.This was the Redmond company's masterplan all along - gaming was only ever a fig leaf to disguise its true ambition to be the entertainment hub of the home. Any lingering doubts over that were put to rest by recent hardcore-unfriendly innovations such as the casual-chasing, never-quite-working-properly Kinect, the ad-soaked, game-demoting Metro dashboard, and the culling of its popular, internally-produced Inside Xbox video content. Apple TV, in unison with an iPad, shows just what an iTV could be capable of.
A key concern for Microsoft is that it never saw Apple coming. Nor did anyone else. When Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii launched, there was no such thing as an iPhone and no App Store. Last week Angry Birds passed 1 billion downloads. The gaming world is not what it was - despite the best attempts of next month's increasingly anachronistic, dinosaur's playground at the LA Convention Centre to pretend otherwise.I've no doubt the next Xbox will have the eye-popping specs to wow the hardcore - even if self-interested Epic doesn't think it does yet - but it's hard to shake the creeping sense of disregard for the loyal gaming audience that made Xbox a success, which risks backfiring as it all too nakedly and greedily chases its entertainment dream.Piss off your audience enough and they'll just go elsewhere next time. Or, at least, play wait-and-see when early adoption could be so crucial.The subscription model Microsoft's trialing with 360 may be part of the answer, with the potential to massively reduce day one outlay on the next generation. Either way, these are exciting but uncertain times for the console business as everyone tries to figure out, after decades slavishly following the same cyclical blueprint, what on earth it's supposed to look like in the future."When Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii launched, there was no such thing as an iPhone and no App Store. Last week Angry Birds passed 1 billion downloads."
If anything at all is clear, another £425 machine - PlayStation 3's UK launch price - surely cannot be a successful part of it.Which bring us back to Apple. A dedicated TV would presumably carry a premium price tag, and people don't update TVs as they do phones or even computers. But it's futile speculating about pricing models for something no-one is certain even exists yet. More relevantly, the merest idea of iTV brings into sharp relief the issues facing the traditional console biz as it prepares for the next generation.But what of gaming on an Apple television? The problem with all the guesswork surrounding the possibility - including this piece - is that assumptions are based on how Apple might mash-up existing ideas and technologies. There's a very good chance it's got something amazing in the works no-one else has considered.Either way, an iOS-powered, App Store-fuelled, Siri-and-Facetime-enabled, iPhone-and-iPad-controlled contraption seems a sensible, basic expectation.For gamers, there's little excitement in the idea of playing Angry Birds on a bigger screen. What is exciting are the new possibilities it would open up for imaginative game designers, with a big screen, streaming all sorts of content, now linked to the small one in our hands.As with smartphones, it was never a question of one form of gaming replacing another. A beautifully simple touchscreen game can perfectly co-exist with a beautifully complex console game.It's not an either/or issue for games even if it is for some gamers. No, the question for console makers is: can their next devices perfectly co-exist with each others' - and Apple's?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...nsole-business
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May 21st, 2012, 01:18 Posted By: wraggster
While the main thing that would make Raspberry Pi's diminutive $25 / $35 Linux setups better would be if we could get our hands on them faster, the team behind it is already working on improvements like this prototype camera seen above. The add-on is slated to ship later this year and plugs into the CSI pins left exposed right in the middle of each unit. According to the accompanying blog post, the specs may be downgraded from the prototype's 14MP sensor to keep things affordable, although there's no word on an exact price yet. Possible applications include robotics and home automation, but until the hackers get their hands on them you'll have to settle for one pic from the Pi's POV after the break and a few more at the source linked below.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/19/r...camera-add-on/
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