The charts are back - and this time they are digital

December 3rd, 2015, 22:09 Posted By: wraggster

At last! The UK games industry has some digital download charts.
UKIE has signed agreements with leading providers of mobile and digital sales data, and MCV will be printing the results.
Analytics firm Reflection will offer UK mobile sales charts, which will be distributed by UKIE alongside the boxed charts every Monday.
Meanwhile, New York-based SuperData will provide digital console sales information every month, including a dedicated UK report.
GfK Chart-Track’s physical listings will also return to MCV.
MCV dropped its weekly and monthly charts sections as part of our Digital Counts initiative, which campaigned for more transparency around how well games are selling via download platforms such as Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, iOS and Google Play.
“Access to data is of the highest importance to the sector, as well as to UKIE as a trade body, so that we can act appropriately on behalf of the industry that we represent,” said UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist. “Whilst it is notoriously difficult to track digital data, these measures will bring us closer to being able to judge the successes of our industry, and continue to grow using clear information about our games market.”
SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen added: “Getting a full picture of the market, that includes categories like free-to-play MMOs and digital console, will be key to the UK industry’s domestic and international success. Certainly, it’s a big effort providing transparency to such a fragmented market and I’m proud to say we’ve done a good job over the past years by tracking the monthly spending of 383,528 digital gamers in the UK. Teaming up with UKIE allows us to extend the depth of our coverage and fulfil the ambition of providing a clear picture of the digital games market.”
On the state of the mobile sector, Reflection boss Gustav Leksell said: “The market is quite immature in a way. The fact that this type of data is not readily available attests to that. This sector only goes back to 2007, but we are seeing it mature, and the next step is developers finding out how to sell their apps.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/the-c...igital/0159873

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November charts: Call of Duty, Fallout and Battlefront cause blockbuster month for th

December 3rd, 2015, 22:09 Posted By: wraggster

November proved to be a major month for the UK games industry, driven by a trio of major launches - Call of Duty, Fallout and Star Wars Battlefront.
Activision’s military shooter sold over 1m units in just over a week.
The game is part of the Black Ops line of titles, which is the most popular of the Call of Duty sub-brands. If you look at the SuperData October console digital charts, which includes revenue generated from DLC, microtransactions and full game downloads, you’ll see Black Ops II is still in the Top Ten - almost three years since its launch in November 2012. (Note: SuperData’s charts run from the start of October until October 31st, whereas Chart-Track’s data ran from October 25th to November 21st.)
There were eight new games in the Top Ten. Bethesda’s Fallout 4 shifted half a million units in its first week - although sales have slowed since.
Star Wars Battlefront from EA was only on sale for three days when this data was collected, but still managed third place.
There are a number of Microsoft-backed Xbox One games in the charts. Halo 5: Guardians debuted at No.5, while Rise of the Tomb Raider (which was released on Xbox 360 as well) managed No.10. Fallout 4 also had marketing support from Microsoft. The result was that Xbox One had a much stronger month in terms of software market share, although it wasn’t enough to knock PS4 off its perch.
A lack of Nintendo titles meant that the platform holder lost software market share this month. However, improvement in hardware sales saw the likes of Splatoon, Mario Kart 8 and (remarkably) Mario Kart 7 return to the Top 40 - these games were bundled with Wii U and 3DS consoles.
Although we have introduced digital console revenue to our analysis for the first time, we still lack PC figures. This means that Football Manager 2016 only reached No.18 in the boxed charts. Sega says that 82 per cent of the game’s sales were digital, so the title may have made the Top Ten. We’ll never know for sure.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/novem...dustry/0159874

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Over 300,000 consoles sold during Black Friday week in the UK

December 3rd, 2015, 22:07 Posted By: wraggster

315,000 games consoles were sold during the Black Friday week.
UK retailers told MCV that it was PS4 that was the best-selling machine, with around 139,000 consoles sold. But it was very close between Sony and Microsoft, with Xbox One shifting almost 134,000 units.
Note that these figures run from Sunday, November 22nd to Saturday, November 28th. So Sunday and Cyber Monday figures are not included.

PS4 and Xbox One were both heavily discounted over Black Friday weekend. An Xbox One with Rare Replay and Ori and the Blind Forest retailed for as low as £220, and refurbished PS4s were selling for below £200 on Amazon.

PS4 sales are up 28.6 per cent over last year’s Black Friday, while Xbox One sales are up 23.3 per cent.

It’s a good result after what has been a relatively slow year for hardware sales. However, these numbers are not quite as high as some of the industry’s more lofty estimations.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/over-...the-uk/0159898

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C.H.I.P. vs Pi Zero: Which Sub-$10 Computer Is Better?

November 30th, 2015, 21:11 Posted By: wraggster

Make Magazine weighs in on an issue that's suddenly relevant in a world where less than $10 can buy a new, (nominally) complete computer. Which one makes most sense? Both the $9 C.H.I.P and the newest, stripped-down Raspberry Pi model have pluses and minuses, but to make either one actually useful takes some additional hardware; at their low prices, it's not surprising that neither one comes with so much as a case. The two make different trade-offs, despite being just a few dollars apart in ticket price. C.H.I.P. comes with built-in storage that rPi lacks, for instance, but the newest Pi, like its forebears, has built in HDMI output. Make's upshot?The cost of owning either a C.H.I.P. or a Pi is a bit more money than the retail cost of the boards. Peripherals such as a power cable, keyboard, mouse, and monitor are necessary to accomplish any computer task on either of the devices. But it turns out the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero costs significantly more to operate than the Next Thing Co. C.H.I.P.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...uter-is-better

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Imagination not necessary with this helicarrier bed

November 30th, 2015, 21:02 Posted By: wraggster

We think we have another dad-of-the-year award to give out. When [Andy’s] five-year-old son won a Raspberry Pi 2 and needed a new bed, they decided to build the ultimate bed. It’s loosely based on the Helicarrier from S.H.I.E.L.D. and it’s packed with so much tech, you barely need to imagine anything to have fun with it.
It looks pretty simple from the outside, until you realize that the detailed little hatch on the side is actually a keypad secure entry automatic sliding door. Controlled by the Raspberry Pi, recordings of [JARVIS’] voice speak to you as you enter the belly of the ship, er, bed.
Inside are glowing display cases featuring some of his son’s favorite Marvel superhero’s equipment — ready for use. But what’s really cool is the command console.
The terminal is expertly crafted to look like something out of the movies, and with the Raspberry Pi 2, his son can play with it and fight off the bad guys. There’s even a sentry turret with camera on the outside, controlled from inside the bed.

https://hackaday.com/2015/11/24/imag...licarrier-bed/

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Transmitting tee vee from a pi

November 30th, 2015, 21:00 Posted By: wraggster

Want to set up your own television station? This hack might help: [Jan Panteltje] has worked out how to turn a Raspberry Pi into a DVB-S transmitter. DVB-S is a TV transmission standard originally created for satellite broadcasts, but Hams also use it to send video on the amateur bands. What [Jan] did was to use software on the Pi to encode the video into the transport stream, which is then fed out to the home-made transmitter that modulates the data into a DVB-S signal. [Jan] has successfully tested the system with a direct connection, feeding the output of the transmitter into a DVB-S decoder card that could read the data and decode the video signal. To create a real broadcast signal, the next step would be to feed the output of the signal into an amplifier and larger transmitter that broadcast the signal.

https://hackaday.com/2015/11/27/tran...vee-from-a-pi/

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First raspberry pi zero hack – piggy-back wifi.

November 30th, 2015, 20:59 Posted By: wraggster

And we have the first Raspberry Pi Zero hack! In less than 72 hours from the official release announcement [Shintaro] attached an Edimax WiFi USB Adapter directly to the USB solder pads on the Pi Zero. He couldn’t bear to disturb the small dimensions of the Pi Zero by using the USB On-the-Go (OTG). The OTG is needed to convert the micro-USB connector on the board to a full USB-A connector.
The case was removed from the Edimax and the device and Zero wrapped in Kapton to insulate the exposed solder points. Power was taken from the PP1 and PP6 points on the back of the board. These are the unregulated inputs from the USB power so should be used with caution. Some cheap USB power supplies can put out more that 5 volts when first connected and that might let the smoke out of a device.

The data wires were connected to PP22 and PP23, also on the back, and behind the USB data connector. Since USB is a differential signal these wires were carefully kept of equal length to avoid distorting the signal.
An SD card was created and edited on a Raspberry Pi B 2 to set the WiFi credentials. Inserted into the Zero it booted fine and started up the WiFi network connection.
Congratulations, [Shintaro] for the first Hackaday Raspberry Pi Zero hack. Is that a Hack-a-Zero-Day hack?


https://hackaday.com/2015/11/28/firs...ggy-back-wifi/

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Raspi led panel library is nyan-tastic

November 30th, 2015, 20:58 Posted By: wraggster

Quick–in a pinch, let’s have ourselves a giant RGB LED Matrix! As marvelous as it sounds, it’s pretty easy to forget that there’s a battle to be won against picking the right parts, debugging drivers, and sorting out our spaghetti wiring. Rest assured, [Hzeller] has done all of the heavy-lifting for us with a Raspberry Pi RGB LED Matrix Implementation that scales to multiple panels and runs on any Pi model to date!
Offering 24-bit color at about 100 Hz for up to a grand total of 36 panels, [Hzeller’s] library is no slouch. The library enables customization of your panel arrangements, and a separate project (also [Hzeller’s] handiwork) makes this setup compatible with the pixel-pusher protocol as a network device.
It’s certainly true that many of us have a thing for these displays, so you might ask: “have we seen this before? What’s all the fuss?” Like the others, the final product is a sight to behold, but [hzeller] and his implementation stands strong because of his phenomenal response to answering the question: how? In fact, almost more impressive is his comprehensive online documentation. Inside, [hzeller] details various hardware configurations for a custom number of panels or a particular flavor of Pi that drives them. He also provides references for pinout quirks and provides out-of-the-box software demos to ensure that anyone can bring this project to life. If a poorly-written or non-existent READMEs have made you shy away from building on an open-source project, fear not. From pinout quirks and out-of-the-box software demos, [hzeller] has covered all the bases and given us a project that folks of all levels of hacking.
Perhaps the best part of this project is the span of the audience that can take something away from it. If you’re a seasoned Linux junkie, dive into the source code to get a good feel of mechanics of how [hzeller] pushes this project onto a single core in a Raspi-2 configuration. If you’re new to digital electronics, let this project be your moment to pick up a Pi, a panel (or four), and run, knowing that [hzeller’s] README is the only tome you’ll need to light up the night.
We had the honor of soaking up some Nyan-Cat rainbows with a live demo at this year’s SuperCon.

https://hackaday.com/2015/11/29/rasp...s-nyan-tastic/

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Digital game revenue up in October as FIFA 16 pitches in - Superdata

November 30th, 2015, 20:49 Posted By: wraggster

Nearly all digital game segments experienced a year-over-year rise in revenue last month, Superdata reports.
The analysis firm revealed digital sales were up 7 per cent for October compared to the same period last year, adding that the stretch brought in the highest monthly revenue of the year to this point.
"With the exception of pay-to-play MMOs, all segments managed to grow their revenue," Superdata CEO Joost van Dreunen said. "Digital console revenues rose 14 percent year-over-year to $375 million, driven in particular by a spending increase in North America. The growing install base for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One drove digital console earnings by 41 percent."
FIFA 16 was the best-selling console title for the month in terms of digital offerings, and that's largely due to the game's Ultimate Team card packs. According to Superdata, over half of digital revenue for the month was generated from DLC.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/digit...erdata/0159564

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Star Wars Battlefront stays on target at top of Japanese charts

November 30th, 2015, 20:48 Posted By: wraggster

The latest Star Wars game has unsurprisingly shot to the top of the Japanese retail rankings in its debut week.
EA’s return to the Battlefront series sold in excess of 100,000 units on PS4 during its first week on sale, outpacing the combined efforts of fellow newcomer Atelier Sophie: Fushigi na Hon no Renkinjutsushi on Vita and PS4. That game claimed the second and third places on the podium, respectively, according to the latest data from Famitsu.
Omega Labyrinth, another Vita title, swiped the fourth spot.
Meanwhile, the Game Director’s Edition of Sword Art Online debuted at number six, while the final new release to make the Top Ten – Vita effort Girl Friend Beta: Kimi to Sugosu Natsuyasumi – charted one spot lower.
Last week’s number one, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, fell to number five in its second week as sales fell by more than 130,000.
Wii U shooter Splatoon climbed two places week-on-week to rest at eight, sales rising by almost 4,000 units.
Over in the hardware rankings, the New 3DS XL closed the gap on PS4, which has topped the charts in recent weeks.
PS4 remained the best-selling console of the week, with the New 3DS XL behind by only around 500 units – compared to the 16,000 sales gap the previous week.
Here is the software Top Ten for the week ending November 22nd:

1. Star Wars Battlefront (EA) PS4 – 107,168 (New)
2. Atelier Sophie: Fushigi na Hon no Renkinjutsushi (Koei Tecmo) Vita – 28,350 (New)
3. Atelier Sophie: Fushigi na Hon no Renkinjutsushi (Koei Tecmo) PS4 – 28,261 (New)
4. Omega Labyrinth (D3) Vita – 24,894 (New)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Sony) PS4 – 22,615
6. Sword Art Online: Game Director's Edition (Bandai Namco) PS4 – 22,530 (New)
7. Girl Friend Beta: Kimi to Sugosu Natsuyasumi (Bandai Namco) Vita – 15,327 (New)
8. Splatoon (Nintendo) Wii U – 13,797
9. Disney Magical World 2 (Bandai Namco) 3DS – 13,362
10. Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Akaneko-dan / Shiroinu-tai (Level 5) 3DS –13,347

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FIFA and COD favourites to take Christmas No.1

November 30th, 2015, 20:45 Posted By: wraggster

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is currently the bookies’ favourite to be this year’s Christmas No.1.
Activision’s shooter currently has the highest odds, coming in at 6/4 from both Ladbrokes and William Hill, while Paddy Power gives Black Ops III an 11/8 chance of being the top game this Christmas.
FIFA 16 is currently the betting firms’ second favourite, with odds of 2/1, 3/1 and 6/4 from Ladbrokes, William Hill and Paddy Power, respectively.
Star Wars Battlefront and Fallout 4 are the third and fourth favourites to take the top spot this Christmas.
There are no Xbox One or Wii U exclusives among the titles tipped to top the charts, but PS4 exclusive Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection is given a 33/1 shot at Ladbrokes and 40/1 at William Hill.
Check out the full odds below:


LADBROKES:
Call of Duty: Black Ops III – 6/4
FIFA 16 – 2/1
Star Wars Battlefront – 3/1
Fallout 4 – 8/1
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – 10/1
Guitar Hero Live – 12/1
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – 16/1
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 – 25/1
Grand Theft Auto V – 25/1
Destiny – 33/1
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection – 33/1

WILLIAM HILL:
Call of Duty: Black Ops III – 6/4
FIFA 16 – 3/1
Star Wars Battlefront – 7/2
Fallout 4 – 6/1
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – 12/1
Guitar Hero Live – 16/1
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – 20/1
Destiny – 33/1
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 – 33/1
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection – 40/1
Grand Theft Auto V – 50/1

PADDY POWER:

Call of Duty: Black Ops III – 11/8
FIFA 16 – 6/4
Star Wars Battlefront – 5/2
Fallout 4 – 14/1
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – 20/1
Grand Theft Auto V – 25/1

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/fifa-...s-no-1/0159659

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Can Japanese games rule again in the West?

November 30th, 2015, 20:43 Posted By: wraggster

Name a hit games franchise from the 1980s or ‘90s and it’s bound to be a Japanese creation: Mario, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Pokémon, Pac-Man.
Recall one from after 2000 and it’s instead likely to be a product of the West: Halo, Call of Duty, Angry Birds, Minecraft, Assassin’s Creed.
It’s an anecdotal sign of Japan’s falling presence in the Western games market, reinforced by cold statistics; you’ll find no Japanese IP in the Top 20 best-selling games of 2014 in the UK. The highest-charting effort from the region was Super Smash Bros in 28th place.
That’s a far cry from the biggest-selling titles of the 1990s, where 15 of the Top 20 games were Japanese.
“There’s been a lot of ink spilled about why the popularity of Japanese games has fallen over the last decade,” muses Mark MacDonald, executive director for Tokyo-based localisation firm 8-4.
“It’s a combination of a lot of factors: one of the big ones is that the West actually got good at developing games and was better at making titles for its own market.
“There’s also been a shift to genres that are just being done better in America – less character-focused, platform and action games are waning and Japan has traditionally been strong in those.”

"Japanese developers are trying to make games for America and failing."

Mark MacDonald, 8-4

From the launch of the NES in 1986, Japanese games set the stage for the Western games industry, defining what gaming was for almost two decades.
But the 3D era of the PlayStation heralded the emergence of shooters and action games as key sectors in the UK and US – a trend that Japan struggled to keep up with, despite its best efforts.
“Back in the day, Japan made games for Japan and they were the best games, so the West ate them up,” recalls MacDonald. “Now you have the market getting bigger in America, so Japanese developers are trying to make games for America and failing.
“Whenever Japan has tried to outright make a Gears of War clone or a Halo-type game, and tick off the boxes of what a successful Western title is, those kinds of games have not succeeded. It’s not playing to its strengths – it’s just trying to do what someone else already does better.”
Nobuo Tomita, producer at Japanese developer Access Games, says that this genre divide makes it hard for many Japanese firms to strike a chord with Western gamers outside of a niche audience.
“We come from different backgrounds, so it’s difficult to fill both gaps,” he observes. “But looking back on the history of game culture, we’ve acquired fans who have gotten used to the artistry and appearance of our games. If we can keep drawing them in to enjoy the various artistries behind our games, then we’ll see positive results.”



Alan Costa is PR and marketing manager at NIS America, the Western arm of Japanese publisher Nippon Ichi Software. He retorts that players outside of Japan can still be enticed to try something different from the proven game types in the West.
“The key is offering new experiences,” he advises. “A lot of the success of Japanese games in the 1990s was because they offered something very new or least different in terms of story, character development and gameplay for most Western players. Nowadays, we are seeing Japanese gamers enjoying the likes of Call of Duty and GTA for the same reason.
“People who love games will give the benefit of the doubt to a well–made game, even if it seems like it wouldn’t be something up their alley at first blush.”
Costa points out that more esoteric types of Japanese game have found a passionate following in the West.
“We are seeing the previously thought-of ‘Japan-only’ visual novel genre really take off,” he says. “This trend will continue in the future, with more games of the purely story-driven, minimal gameplay type being brought over.”
MacDonald offers examples of games that have combined the innovative aspects of Japanese development with the mainstream appeal of Western genres.
“What's interesting about Metal Gear Solid is how happy people are to not have a game that is maybe not one person's vision, but is way more influenced by one person than most Western games are allowed to be these days,” he posits. “It's almost like counter-programming; there's a danger that you would lose that stuff trying to copy the West.
“Splatoon is another interesting example. You could, if you had a passing glance at that game, be like: ‘Somebody at Nintendo said they must make a competitive third-person shooter.' But it doesn't feel that way – it feels very much the game that those guys wanted to make, they just grew up in a world where Call of Duty has been popular for the last ten years and that's affected them passively. It's uniquely different. It's not a game that would've been made anywhere else but at Nintendo and in Japan.”

"Japanese publishers are just starting to warm up to the idea of PC ports, and that is simply because one cannot argue with the staggering success of titles on certain PC gaming platforms."

Alan Costa, NIS America

The birthplace of the modern games console, Japan has traditionally relegated PC to the sideline of its games industry.
Yet, recent years have seen Japanese firms transition to platforms such as Steam; long-running franchises such as Dead or Alive, Disgaea and Tales of have all come to PC in the West for the first time in an effort to capture a bigger user base.
“Digital downloads are just now helping to open up the Western market for Japanese games,” says MacDonald. “Sega did Valkyria Chronicles on Steam. It’s a genre that makes sense for PC; it has the anime look and hadn’t previously escaped its small console niche. It did extremely well. The Dark Souls series is another one you can point to that’s been really big on PC; ten or even five years ago, that wouldn’t have happened.”
He adds that Japanese developers have seen success on crowdfunding platforms thanks to the concentrated PC audience:
“A lot of the big Japanese Kickstarters – Mighty No.9, Bloodstained, La-Mulana – are PC-based because the dev costs are low, the overhead on dealing with submissions and things like that are also low, and you have this big potential foreign market.”
MacDonald continues by saying that the lower cost of digital encourages Western players to take a risk on more obscure Japanese efforts.
“Digital games have proved that you don’t have to sell things for $60,” he enthuses. “So that weird idea that didn’t make sense as a $50 game before can just be put out for $20.”
Tomita similarly praises PC’s digital-focused marketplace as a boon for Japanese studios looking to expand their audience without the cost of physical retail.
“It isn’t that Japan hasn’t looked seriously at the PC market so far, it’s simply that console games have always had the larger user base,” he says. “When digital became a main means of distribution, the PC user count finally became clear to us and Japanese developers finally acquired the right environment to publish titles independently.
“One of the merits of PC is that creators can freely sell their products in both domestic and foreign markets. It’s still difficult to sell something no matter how many users there are but, since it isn’t extremely expensive to give it a try, the wide entrance is another important reason why people select it.”
Costa agrees: “Japanese publishers are just starting to warm up to the idea of PC ports, and that is simply because one cannot argue with the staggering success of titles on certain PC gaming platforms. The key, now, is for Japanese developers to treat the platform with respect and release high quality content that has been optimised for it.”
While PC may be a key platform in the UK and US, MacDonald says that the extra work involved may be off-putting for developers approaching the market for the first time.
“The market is still not big in Japan, so you're dealing with the problem where you're making games for an audience that is outside of your wheelhouse and that you might not necessarily understand,” he warns.
“The other thing hindering PC in Japan is the lack of indie games. Download games and indie games just haven't taken off in Japan the way they have elsewhere in the world, especially in the West. The amount of people that still buy their games physical, new from a retailer is still very high.”



Western consumers often consider Japan as a market full of weird and wacky titles. It’s little wonder – you’re unlikely to find a game where you can play as a mosquito (Mister Mosquito), a stretchy worm-human hybrid (Noby Noby Boy) or date pigeons (Hatoful Boyfriend) anywhere else.
The rise of the indie scene in the West has sparked a similar explosion in uniquely quirky titles, from a fizzy drink simulator (Soda Drinker Pro) to a title where you play as a slice of bread (I Am Bread).
Although Western players may be more accepting of virtual oddities, Tomita believes that the sheer number of these indie titles remains a challenge for any game – but adds that Japanese developers won’t be deterred by the shifting market.
“The struggle for existence is becoming harsher,” he laments. “Still, the spirit of unique Japanese games is ubiquitous, so we will continue making games and move even further into the realms of innovation.”
Costa adds his belief that the Western indie market hasn’t made it easier for new Japanese titles to strike it big, but may have reignited interest in the region’s past output.
“While the influence of classic Japanese games on the current indie scene is undeniable, I’m not sure there has been any noticeable effect on how Japanese games are perceived in the West at the moment,” he explains.
“This is partially because it is still too early with too few quality titles released, but I hope the effect will be that younger generations of gamers try out the classics.”


http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/can-j...e-west/0159710

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This Raspberry Pi handheld wants to be every gadget in the world

November 30th, 2015, 20:29 Posted By: wraggster


Chances are, you've already got a versatile computer in your pocket -- smartphones play music, record video, play games and more -- but what if it was smaller, open source and completely hackable? Then you'd have something like the Poco "supercomputer," a portable media device with the footprint of a credit card and the heart of a Raspberry Pi.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/25/t...-in-the-world/

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You partly have Eric Schmidt to thank for the new $5 Raspberry Pi

November 30th, 2015, 20:23 Posted By: wraggster

While many of you were supposed to be eating turkey on Thursday, you were instead geeking out over Raspberry PI's newest computer, the Zero: a pint-sized module that costs just $5. But according to a new interview, that $5 computer was originally supposed to cost around $60 -- and you have partly have Google's Eric Schmidt to thank for that reduced price. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton admitted that the follow-up to the original $35 Pi was originally going to be a more powerful model, whose higher-performing internals would have put the price somewhere between $50 and $60.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/28/r...-eric-schmidt/

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Ben Heck's controller mods tutorial

November 30th, 2015, 20:22 Posted By: wraggster

For a while now Ben and Felix have been making and selling single handed accessibility controllers. In this episode Ben will tear down the XBox One gamepad and show you how to do mods of your own, from the pin-outs to the connections for the directional pads. Visit The Ben Heck Show community on element14 for links to the build files, suggest projects and sync up with The Ben Heck Show team!

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/28/b...mods-tutorial/

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Xbox One Or PlayStation 4?

November 23rd, 2015, 22:10 Posted By: wraggster

I'm looking at getting the kids a new gaming console for Christmas this year. I'm stuck trying to decide between getting an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4. I'm really wary on the PlayStation because of the 5 PS2s with broken optical drives sitting in my garage; none lasted more than two years. On the other hand, I'm also wary of buying a Microsoft product; I'm a Linux user for life after getting tired of their crappy operating system. I've also considered getting a gaming PC, whether Linux or Windows, but it's more expensive and game reviews show most are not as good as a dedicated game console. The kids want Fallout 4, and I want Star Wars Battlefront and any version ofGran Turismo. We currently have a Nintendo Wii and a crappy gaming PC with some Steam games. So, which gaming console should I get that will last a long time?

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Inferno os on raspberry pi

November 23rd, 2015, 21:58 Posted By: wraggster

Unix isn’t the only operating system that came out of Bell Labs. In an effort to decouple hardware from user interfaces over a network, Bell also developed an OS named Plan 9 (named after the famously bad Ed Wood movie). While Plan 9 is still in use, it never got the momentum that Unix did. In 1996, Bell Labs (now AT&T) decided to shift its focus to Inferno, an operating system that was meant to challenge Java as a cross-platform virtual machine environment. Now LynxLine Labs has ported Inferno to the Raspberry Pi.
Not only did they do the work, they documented it in 26 labs if you want to follow along. Or, you can just head over to the project page and get the results along with updates (judging from the commit log, the project is under active development).

https://hackaday.com/2015/11/22/infe...-raspberry-pi/

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Battlefront shoots to No.1, has biggest ever UK launch for a Star Wars game

November 23rd, 2015, 21:52 Posted By: wraggster

Star Wars Battlefront debuts at the top spot in the UK charts and has the fourth biggest week of any game this year.
The online-only shooter has the biggest launch for a Star Wars game, selling more than 117 per cent more units in its first week than previous record holder, 2008's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Chart-Track also says that it is the fast-selling non-sequel PlayStation 4 title ever, selling more than Destiny at launch. The title also sold considerably more on PlayStation 4 than it did Xbox. 59 per cent of Week One sales were for the PS4; 39 per cent on Xbox One while two per cent were on PC.
Black Ops III holds tight at second place in spite of a 50 per cent drop in sales, while last week’s No.1, Fallout 4, drops to third place as sales decline 80 per cent.
FIFA 16 rises one place to No.4 as sales increase 14 per cent week-over-week, while Rise of the Tomb Raider falls to fifth position with only a 37 per cent drop in sales.
Below is the software Top Ten for the week ending November 21st:
1. Star Wars: Battlefront, EA
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Activision Blizzard
3. Fallout 4, Bethesda
4. FIFA 16, EA
5. Rise of the Tomb Raider, Square Enix
6. LEGO Dimensions, Warner Bros
7. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Ubisoft
8. Minecraft: Story Mode, Telltale Games
9. WWE 2K16, 2K Games
10. Need for Speed, EA

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/battl...s-game/0159481

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Analyst predicts 70m VR headset sales by the end of 2017

November 23rd, 2015, 21:51 Posted By: wraggster

The jury remains out on the real market potential of virtual reality but analyst Superdata thinks it’s going to be a BIG hit.
VG247 reports that the company has predicted that a whopping 70m VR headsets will have been purchased by the end of 2017. This represents around $8.8bn in VR hardware revenue and $6.1bn in software sales.
It believes a massive 31 per cent of US console gamers will pick up a PlayStation VR and 18 per cent of PC gamers will but an Oculus Rift.
“Initially, affordable smartphone devices will drive the bulk of sales as consumers first explore virtual reality before committing to the more expensive platforms,” SuperData’s director of research Stephanie Llamas said.
“After this first wave, however, it will be especially console gamers that will spur growth of high-end VR devices.”
The consumer VR phenomenon kicked off last week with the official US launch of the $99 Samsung Gear VR. The first half of next year will see a flurry of activity in the market with Valve’s HTC Vive, Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation VR all due for release.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/analy...f-2017/0159489

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Samsung's consumer Gear VR is available now for $99

November 23rd, 2015, 21:43 Posted By: wraggster


We knew it was coming, but now it's finally here. Samsung's newly improved virtual reality headset, the Gear VR, is launching today in the US for $99. This iteration of the Gear VR is, without a doubt, the most consumer-ready VR headset to date. One of its downsides is that it only works with Samsung's latest smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge+ -- but that's great news for people who own handsets. As you may recall, Samsung's Gear VR is powered by Oculus software, and services like Hulu have already announced compatibility with the device. If you're Stateside, you can grab the Gear VR now from retailers including Amazon and Best Buy. As for worldwide availability, an Oculus spokesperson says that will be announced "soon."

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016OFYGXQ

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