60% of retailers have started sales already due to festive spending concerns

December 16th, 2013, 21:54 Posted By: wraggster

The public’s increasing propensity to leave their festive shopping late has sent retail into a pre-Christmas sale panic.
That’s according to PricewaterhouseCoopers which, according to The Telegraph, says that six in ten High Street stores have already kicked off their post-Christmas sales.
On average, these stores have cut a whopping 42 per cent off their prices – that’s up from the average 36 per cent cut seen last year.
Former Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose has even said that “a “game of chicken is going on between stores and customers, who believed they would benefit from lower prices if they waited”.
Toy Retailers Association boss Gary Grant added: “November was one of the toughest markets I can remember for many, many years. I think a lot of people have been leaving it later.
“There have been significantly more promotions, and a lot more unplanned promotions. Typically, you see 25 per cent off board games, but people are also doing 20 per cent off “stunts” on other things, and some key lines are discounted by 40 per cent.
“I don’t think consumers have ever had such a competitively priced Christmas.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/60-of...ncerns/0125877

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Wii Nunchuck-Controlled Tetris on a Raspberry Pi

December 16th, 2013, 21:20 Posted By: wraggster


[Vince] teaches an Embedded Systems class at the University of Maine, and some of his students were working on video games for their finals. He decided to “test the hardware” that the students were using by putting two 8×8 displays, one 4×7 segment display, and a Wii Nunchuck on the I2C bus. He then wrote a version of Tetris that accepts trigger presses and accelerometer input for control. Judging by the video (embedded after the break), the Raspberry Pi runs the game without issue. The bus is, of course, more than capable of handling everything.
Unfortunately, [Vincent] had some trouble getting the controls just right. Sometimes dropping a piece can cause the next to drop too quickly, and the accelerometer control seems a bit too sensitive. We imagine using the joystick for rotation and adding some strategic pauses in the game could help. He graciously released the source code for the project, so maybe we’ll see some embracing and extending in the near future.

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/14/wii-n...-raspberry-pi/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Raspberry Pi Wall Calendar

December 16th, 2013, 21:17 Posted By: wraggster


Do you let Google know every aspect of your personal and social life? Do you have a spare LCD monitor kicking around? Why not make your own Raspberry Pi Wall Calendar?
[Alex] recently bought his first home (congratulations!), which happened to have a TV wall mount in the kitchen. Personally, we don’t think TVs belong in the kitchen, and neither did [Alex]. Not wanting to tear the mount out of the wall (and thus require home renovations too soon), he devised a clever solution: why not make a digital calendar?
[Alex] connected a Raspberry Pi model B to the LCD monitor, which provides convenient access to his Google Calendar. His Instructable is both meticulous and approachable, so novice hackers should have no trouble replicating this build. The only improvement we can think to suggest is substituting a touchscreen LCD, which would allow him to interact with the schedule.
Whether you “let” Google know about your life— or it just knows—this is certainly a handy hack for the 21st century home!

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/15/raspb...wall-calendar/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Want a FPGA Board For Your Raspberry Pi Or Beagle Bone?

December 16th, 2013, 21:02 Posted By: wraggster

Hot topics for the maker community are things such as embedded vision, bitcoin mining, autonomous vehicle control, Arduino, Open Hardware, software defined radio, small ARM/Linux boards and reconfigurable computing, A current Kickstarter project, LOGi FPGA, is touching all these bases. Funding has been reached after just a day, and Kicktraqcurrently has it projected to reach over $133,000. As a long time FPGA enthusiast I'm very interested to see what will happen when a thousand keen users get together to explore programmable logic.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...or-beagle-bone

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

New consoles can't save software from 24% decline, but industry sales rise

December 14th, 2013, 00:15 Posted By: wraggster

NPD report reveals the biggest Nov ever for hardware in US; BF4, Call of Duty not enough to spike game sales
The NPD Group has released its report for the month of November (covering US point-of-sale data from November 3-30) and the good news is that total industry sales did increase by seven percent to $2.74 billion. Hardware sales rocketed up 58 percent, as you might expect with next-gen system launches, to $1.327 billion. The accessories category, which typically gets a lift from new hardware as people buy extra controllers and other items, also jumped 17 percent to $327.4 million. The downside, however, is that even with top-tier AAA games like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4, software took a 24 percent dip year-over-year, generating sales of $1.1 billion (including PC and portables).
NPD analyst Liam Callahan noted that November 2013 was actually the best November ever for hardware sales in the US. "With the introduction of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, coupled with positive sales for the Nintendo 3DS, sales in November 2013 marked the best November for hardware sales on record," he explained.
And while the focus has been on PS4 and Xbox One, Nintendo's 3DS portable has been performing quite well. "Supported by strong content throughout the year, including this month's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Nintendo 3DS hardware unit sales have increased by 15 percent year-to-date through November," said Callahan.
All games on the top 10 selling software chart below are sold across several platforms, so it's unclear what portion of say, Call of Duty, was sold on the new consoles compared to the old.




http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...try-sales-rise

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Xbox One, PS4 drive DLC sales up 41% in November

December 14th, 2013, 00:14 Posted By: wraggster

Digital game sales grew 25% overall, according to SuperData Research
The NPD Group will release its monthly report for the US games business this afternoon, but that won't reflect the digital sales picture. According to SuperData Research, as reported by our sister site the [a]list daily, the digital games market grew 25 percent year-over-year to more than $1 billion.
The digital focus of the newly introduced Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles likely pushed a portion of the consumer base in the direction of digital purchases, the firm noted. "Several big franchises released on the same day as the next gen consoles. In particular Call of Duty: Ghosts, which generally launches two months later, was now immediately available via digital download on Xbox Marketplace and PSN. Similarly, Need for Speed Rivals and the late-October release of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and Battlefield 4 drove overall sales. We expect this trend to continue for the remainder of the year," the company said.
DLC sales in particular spiked 41 percent on PC and consoles combined, growing to $325 million for the month.
The other digital segments, such as mobile and social, grew by just a few percentage points while the free-to-play MMO category dropped by 17 percent for the month. For more, check out the report on the [a]list daily.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...nt-in-november

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Raspi Notifies You Of Space Station Passes

December 13th, 2013, 23:59 Posted By: wraggster


A few months years ago, [Liam] funded a Kickstarter for a small desk toy that would tell him when the International Space Station was overhead. [Liam] got a little tired of waiting,so he decided to build his own with a Raspberry Pi and an astronomical computation Python library.
The impressive part of this build is computing where an orbiting object is in the sky given the ISS’ orbital elements. For this, [Liam] is using PiEphem, a library that can compute the positions of the sun, moon, planets, asteroids, and Earth-orbiting satellites given a location and a time. Since the ISS orbital elements change every so often, his software is set up to download an update every week or so.
[Liam] developed a few versions of his space station detector, each with a different display. The simplest uses a few LEDs, either through a LedBorg, Blinkstick, or PiGlow to serve as a notification of when the ISS is overhead. Two more complicated versions use an LCD display or LED matrix to signal when the next ISS pass will occur.

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/13/raspi...tation-passes/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Touchscreen violence is still relatively new, but why are developers wary

December 13th, 2013, 22:57 Posted By: wraggster

This month I have mainly been shooting vast quantities of men in the face. That would make it a perfectly ordinary month were it not for the fact that I’ve been doing so on two portable electronic devices that a decade ago would have seemed like futuristic sci-fi mockups for a high-budget movie. The contrast between the two games is instructive – the one that is a really good face-shooter, Killzone: Mercenary on Vita, is a summing-up of the past, while the one that’s less satisfying, Call Of Duty: Strike Team on iPad, has more to say about the future.Killzone is the kind of gorgeously polished extrusion of the military-entertainment complex that might well have been the system-selling grail if it had been available for Vita’s launch. But it’s a standard twin-stick FPS with a few uses of the touchscreen, mainly to make up for not having enough shoulder buttons. And most observers would be surprised if – Nvidia Shield aside – this weren’t the last generation of mainstream dedicated handheld videogame consoles. (That is, unless Nintendo pursues its current fascinating strategy to its logical conclusion, following the 2DS with a 1DS; its games would be exclusively one-dimensional, taking place along lines of zero width.)The future of handheld videogames is surely on phones and tablets, which is why Call Of Duty: Strike Team seems more relevant to the form’s continuing evolution. It fails to solve the well-known problems of a stick- and mouseless FPS, but it is still intriguing for what it implies about the nascent digital grammar of touchscreen murdering.An early cutscene in Strike Team sees one of your soldiers casually stabbing a rogue physicist through the hand, pinning it to the desk with his combat knife in order to get the grumpy scientist to talk. It’s the kind of blithely casual torture beat that has long been a COD staple. But this is only in a cutscene. The stealth stabbings in the game proper are accomplished as in any console game: by pressing an action button. Yet here we are on a touchscreen tablet, where creators are constantly looking for innovative applications of gestures. There’s an obvious option they are eschewing.Why not let the player swipe a knife across an enemy’s exposed throat, guiding the blade all the way through its fatal motion, perhaps with some tasteful blood spatter on the lens of the virtual camera? It seems like a perfectly iPad-ish way to accomplish virtual wetwork. Yet Strike Team comes over all coy in this respect. Nor did the makers of Killzone: Mercenary offer such a gruesome control option, though they came closer before turning back: melee kills are accomplished by touchscreen swiping, but only in a QTE way (swipe-follow the big arrow that overlays your enemy).I’m quite sure creators have thought about this and decided that such an option would be too disgusting. The valuable intimacy of touchscreen control (so well exploited in The Room) would become a horrifying intimacy if we were slicing into enemy flesh. Swiping across glass to open a fictional jugular would still be an example of the potent amplification of input, but there would also be a powerful emotional dissonance between the player’s physical action of stroking (a sensuous, exploratory touch) and the violent result. So developers fall back to virtual buttons or shape-matching. Personally, I don’t blame them. But it shows that we are in an interesting ethical-aesthetic moment. The touch-control paradigm evidently could enable a new golden age of interactive torture porn, yet everyone seems to have tacitly agreed that to pursue such a route would be wrong.But the USP of Strike Team is that the enemy doesn’t even have to be in your face in the first place. Switch to drone view and you get a top-down RTS perspective. Not only is the game more fun and tactically interesting to play this way, but the vantage point is enjoyably aestheticising: suddenly my finger strokes are causing delightful blue or red pathmarkers to shine forth from my toy soldiers. I am a drone-riding deity, and my fingertip emits a spark of electricity that causes human beings far below to become animated and conform absolutely to my will.This is a far more serene application of touch controls, even though the result is still brutal death. Just as a modern UAV would have seemed like a thunderbolt-dealing Thor if transplanted to premodern times, the drone view of Strike Team turns the player into a god whose invisible touch is law. That’s a less intense expression of superiority than slashing a soldier’s throat, but a more satisfying vista of absolute power.What Strike Team teaches us by implication, then, is this: an increased level of mimetic parallelism between touchscreen controls and close-quarters gore-splattering seems unacceptable. So, surprisingly, the future of portable warmongering might end up being more like its 2D past and about the cerebral general directing operations from afar. If that means another Advance Wars some day, I won’t complain.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...ull-potential/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Sony and Microsoft squabble over November sales figures

December 13th, 2013, 22:34 Posted By: wraggster

PS4 boasts biggest sales, Xbox One is 'fastest selling' after latest NPD figures
Both Sony and Microsoft are using the latest round of NPD figures to claim their respective consoles outsold the other in North America.
The somewhat comical back-and-forth over sales figures picks up where it left off with Microsoft announcing that it had sold two million units of the new Xbox One since launch 18 days ago.
Sony, by comparison, sold 2.1 million PS4s in 16 days after launch – only two of which included European sales.
This isn't nearly as one-sided as it looks since Sony has still technically reached more markets than Microsoft (32 to 13) but this only means the console manufacturers are doing their best to bend the data in their favor.
"PlayStation 4 sales in North America and worldwide have been incredibly strong since launch, culminating in PS4 being recognized as the largest console launch in history,”said Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton.
“In North America alone, more than one million PS4 units were sold in only 24 hours and we're pleased NPD has reported that PS4 was the top selling next gen platform for both hardware and software in November. We are humbled by the passion and excitement demonstrated by gamers for PS4. Demand continues to overwhelm supply, but we're working hard to get PS4 units into the hands of customers throughout the holiday season."
Tweets from Microsoft's fan-favorite marketer Larry Hryb – better known as Major Nelson – pointed to the same figures to say that the Xbox One was the faster selling of the two consoles at 101,000 units per day in North America.
It's tough to say if either company actually has an edge at this point, but what is certain is that Microsoft doesn't have the same North American dominance over Sony it enjoyed last generation.
Since both consoles are sold out at many locations it might be each company's supply chain that determines the winner in the opening months of the console war.
On the other hand, software and service sales should be the dominant factor in showing a financial winner – and that news will have to wait until Microsoft and Sony release their sales figures for the quarter.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/s...igures/0187281

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Raspberry Pi Foundation hopes to give everyone a slice of Pi

December 13th, 2013, 21:50 Posted By: wraggster

The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charity behind the £20 Raspberry Pi computer, hopes to give everyone its mini PC this Christmas – from budding child programmers to mature enthusiasts.
“Christmas last year was great – they make a great Christmas gift as a high-end stocking filler,” CEO of the foundation Eben Upton told PCR.
“We sold a lot to grandmothers – we found that they buy educational tools quite often. But there’s also a sense that it won’t just be brought as an educational tool – it will also get brought as a toy for adults. It’s a great geek gift."
“Hopefully this Christmas is as good – and any money that we make we can obviously put back into the charity.”
The Pi is a credit-card sized computer that includes USB and HDMI ports and runs on a custom Linux-based operating system that includes the programming software Scratch.
The computer was developed as an attempt to allow children to learn to program on a budget, and Upton added that he hoped to make the device less daunting to novice programmers, including children.
“This Christmas we’ve spent time grinding off the performance issues. Compared to last year, you’d hardly recognise it as the same piece of hardware,” he explained.
“We’re [also] making it easier to get involved for people who are just getting started using Pi – particularly children – who don’t have access to someone who has programming experience, in order to broaden the appeal of the device and eliminate those learning curves.”
Upton expressed optimism about the growth of the DIY tech market, and said that competition wasn’t a concern.
“The more people come and do stuff in this space, the bigger the market gets,” he said.
“[But] it’s going to be a while before people start fighting over this market, because the market is growing so rapidly and everyone bringing something to the market is bringing something new.”
The foundation plans to make an even bigger push into the education sector, including working with the Government as it prepares a more tech-heavy curriculum that includes programming alongside emerging technology such as 3D printing.
“We’ve got a big program going on to produce education teaching material, and that’s a big part of making the device easier to get to grips with,” Upton commented.
“We’re also trying to educate the Government about the importance of the maker scene for adults and the economic activity that’s coming out of the scene in the UK now."
“My favourite is always the high altitude ballooning,” Upton continued, on the many uses of the Pi he had seen.
“People put the Pi onto weather balloons, send them 40km up and take pictures. Back in August we dropped a teddy bear, beating [record-breaking Red Bull Stratos jumper] Felix Baumgartner’s jump by 30 metres."
“Those activities can be really inspiring. The balloon is a great example because it was done by adults, but then we see High School kids doing it. We originally saw the Pi as a platform to teach kids about computing, but those kinds of engagement speak to an aspect of the mission that we had really not considered before.”

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...e-of-pi/032728

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

PlayStation 4 outsells the Xbox One in US retail

December 13th, 2013, 21:15 Posted By: wraggster

The PlayStation 4 sold more than the Xbox One in US retail, according to stat-tracking group NPD.Unsurprisingly, more PS4 software was sold as well. This was the expected outcome given that the PS4 launched on 15th November in the US, whereas the Xbox One didn't come out until the 22nd.The PS4 is the most successful console launch in the world, having sold 2.1 million units in North America and Europe in its first two weeks on store shelves according to analyst company DFC. The Wii came in second with 1.6 million units moved between North America and Japan.Xbox One also did well, with Microsoft claiming it sold over two million units worldwide thus far. 909,132 of those were in the US during its first nine days on the market. That's over 101K sold a day on average, which makes it the fastest selling console in the US. Microsoft noted that it sold roughly three times what the Xbox 360 did at launch and owners picked up an average of 2.1 games per console.As far as software sales go, the top 10 selling titles for US retail were as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U)
2. Battlefield 4 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
3. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U)
4. Madden NFL 25 (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
5. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Xbox 360, PS3)
6. NBA 2K14 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
7. Skylanders: SWAP Force (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS)
8. Just Dance 2014 (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Wii)
9. Disney Infinity (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, 3DS)
10. FIFA 14 (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Vita)

Bear in mind that NPD's figures don't include digital sales or games sold as part of a hardware bundle.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...e-in-us-retail

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Oculus Rift gets shedload of cash to help polish consumer headset

December 13th, 2013, 20:44 Posted By: wraggster

Oculus VR will have a very merry Christmas indeed after it raised $75 million to help complete the consumer version of the Rift headset.Venture capital backer Andreessen Horowitz stumped the majority of the cash. Co-founder Marc Andreessen, who joins the Oculus board, said: "We believe Oculus will not only alter the gaming landscape but will redefine fundamental human experiences in areas such as film, education, architecture, and design."Other investors include Spark Capital, Matrix Partners and Formation|8.Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe added: "Over the past 16 months, we've grown from a start-up to a company whose virtual reality headset is poised to change the way we play, work and communicate."40,000 developers and enthusiasts, as well as a number of great partners, have joined our cause and helped us bring the seemingly impossible to life. This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc Andreessen, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy."Oculus began life after it raised an impressive $2.4 million through crowd-funding website Kickstarter. It then raised another $16 million in a Series A funding round. Over 40,000 development kits have been sold. The consumer version is still without a release date.Technical whiz John Carmack recently left Doom developer id Software to become Oculus VR chief technical officer."The games industry is well past the point where more pixels, texels, flops, and frames displayed on the same fixed screens are really changing the experiences that players get," he said."I could say the same about other digital experiences as well. What will revolutionise gaming, and interactive content in general, is putting people inside the digital world. That is our goal at Oculus, and this Series B will help us get there."The funding comes as Sony prepares to enter the VR headset market with its own rival device for PlayStation 4. Expect more on that next year.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...nsumer-headset

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

$12,000 24-carat gold Nikon camera up for sale on eBay

December 13th, 2013, 00:33 Posted By: wraggster

A 24-carat gold camera previously only available in Japan has been posted for sale on eBay.
The Nikon FA Gold is one of 2,000 limited edition gold-plated models released in commemoration of winning the 1984 ‘Camera Grand Prix’ prize, according to Nikon’s description.
The special version of the FA replaces previously silver-coloured parts with 24-carat gold plating, and the original leather cover with lizard skin.
Hosted on eBay for $12,000 (£7,320) – with the price currently $4,800 (£2,900) as part of eBay’s sale on film cameras – the seller claims that the film camera has never been used before and is one of the rarest film cameras available.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=121213746623

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

World's first Cherry MX RGB keyboard to launch at CES 2014

December 13th, 2013, 00:30 Posted By: wraggster

Corsair is teaming up with Cherry to bring gamers the world’s first Cherry MX RGB-based mechanical gaming keyboard.
Cherry has enhanced its leading keyboard range with RGB technology. SMD LEDs illuminate key symbols in specially designed keycaps using the MX RGB switch in the entire RGB colour spectrum – meaning gamers get a choice of 16.7 million different RGB colours.
Due to a special design of the entire system, all 16.7 million RGB colours can also be displayed in high luminosity for the first time.
“With our newly developed MX RGB switch, key symbols can be evenly illuminated not only in the widest variety of brightness levels but also in up to 16.7 million different colours,” explained Karl-Heinz Muller, product developer at Cherry.
“Our new concept of light conductance was implemented through the use of new materials and several patent-pending technical solutions. This innovative, technical concept was implemented only in conjunction with manufacturing processes and sophisticated tool concepts constantly optimised over many years."
Cherry and Corsair will debut the Cherry MX RGB keyboards at Corsair’s press suite at CES 2014 in January.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...es-2014/032717

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Internet-Enabling a Lamp with the Raspberry Pi

December 12th, 2013, 00:57 Posted By: wraggster


[Jack] sent in his writeup for internet enabling a home lamp. While we will certainly have some comments saying this is too simple, it does a great job of breaking things down to the basics. For those that aren’t confident in their electronic skills, this is an easy hack to a commercial device that greatly expands it’s capabilities. [Jack] started with a cheap wireless outlet controller. By opening the remote and wiring each switch to a 2N222A transistor, you can very easily control the remote from the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi. In [Jack's] case, he set up a web page using Flask that allows quick on/off control.
Of course, this method can be used in any number of instances where you have a wireless controller, from small lamps to garage doors. Given it’s simplicity, anyone can do it with even basic skills. If you’re a beginner who’s been itching to do some home automation, follow [Jack's] writeup and check an item off your todo list!

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/11/inter...-raspberry-pi/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Premium pricing will survive but console F2P important for new IP

December 12th, 2013, 00:53 Posted By: wraggster

Free games are not a threat to triple-A console releases.
That’s according to experts from the biggest free-to-play companies. Execs at CCP and Wargaming dismiss the idea that all games in the future will be free, but tell MCV that free-to-play is a great way to break new IP.
“It doesn’t seem that prices are off-putting. PS4 and Xbox One sold 1m units each during their first 24 hours on sale. Most people buy consoles to play popular franchises and games that have already become classics – not free-to-play titles,” said Andrei Yarantsau, VP of publishing at Wargaming.
David Reid, CEO of CCP Games agreed: “I don’t think there’s a shortage of people willing to pay premium prices for quality games. But gamers have grown tired of plunking down a lot of cash up front for a game they’ve never played.”
Yarantsau added that F2P games can help plug a gap between the blockbuster launches, not replace them.
“Once completed; boxed games are put on a shelf. This is when F2P comes in handy.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/premi...new-ip/0125643

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

F2P: The next generation of free

December 12th, 2013, 00:51 Posted By: wraggster

Last year one of the questions was whether free-to-play was really a legitimate business model or a temporary fad?
One year on and we have our answer. It is definitely here to stay. And the model has evolved and changed even further.
From its humble beginnings on PC with the likes or Runescape, and then onto mobile and now the recent tentative steps into the console space with the likes of Dust 514 and World of Tanks.
But we’re experiencing a further development as Xbox One and PS4 launch with a variety of F2P titles available at launch. Killer Instinct and Warframe are just a couple of the cost-free games that are luring in users and generating revenue from microtransactions.
These games mean that customers already have games ready to play from the moment they switch their consoles on. It’s convenient, and poses the question:?Will one day all consoles games be free?
“It’s inevitable,”?says Rob Kinder, marketing director at Jagex. “Gaming has moved in many new directions since the last generation. The landscape has changed in a way that developers can no longer ignore. Business models and gaming habits are changing dramatically and free-to-play experiences are at the heart of that, whether it’s on PC, mobile or console.”
But CCP Games’ chief marketing office David Reid, the company behind F2P?console game Dust 514, believes the premium blockbuster games will never die.
“There will always be a market for blockbuster titles, which command a premium price on launch day," he says. “Free-to-play provides a really interesting way to debut new IP, but I don’t imagine gamers will suddenly be unwilling to pay for the next Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.”
Of course, the games industry is far from black and white. What works for EA and Activision on the PS4 and Xbox One is entirely different to what mobile games developers are looking to achieve with their titles.
“I don’t think we’re heading for a future where there’s one true answer,” says Scott Hartsman, Trion Worlds CEO. “We’ll continue to see a variety of models. What’s best for a game whose goal is to acquire 100,000 dedicated people would be vastly different than a game that’s aiming for a larger scale audience.”

“There will always be a market for blockbuster titles,
which command a premium price on launch day.
Free-to-play provides a really interesting way to
debut new IP, but I don’t imagine gamers will
suddenly be unwilling to pay for the next Call of
Duty or Grand Theft Auto.”

David Reid, CCP

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Carmack: Switch to next-gen devalues PS3 and 360 audiences

December 12th, 2013, 00:43 Posted By: wraggster

Doom co-creator also says he would have liked to release more games at Id Software
Id Software co-founder John Carmack has said he is dissatisfied with the industry abandoning aging console generations and the huge audiences that they have in favour of rising costs and added risk.
Speaking to Wired on the 20th anniversary of Doom, the trailblazing first-person shooter he co-created with Jon Romero, Carmack said he had misgivings about the industry’s ongoing pursuit of more powerful hardware for the comparatively small number of dedicated, tech enthusiasts.
Carmack himself has led many technical and graphics breakthroughs at Id. But now, with PS4 and Xbox One starting a new console cycle, Carmack feels that there is a great deal of untapped potential in the previous systems, and said he can no longer justify being in the race for cutting-edge tech any more.
"Even to this day, I struggle a little bit with that," said Carmack.
"There's so much you can still do on the previous console generation. The 360 and PS3 are far from tapped out in terms of what a developer could do with them, but the whole world's gonna move over towards next-gen and high-end PCs and all these other things.
"Part of me still frets a little bit about that, where just as you fully understand a previous generation, you have to put it away to kind of surf forward on the tidal wave of technology that's always moving. That's something that we've struggled with in every generation. And now I at least know enough to recognise that some of my internal feelings or fondness for technology that I understand or have done various things with usually has to be put aside. Because data has shown over the decades that that's usually not as important as you think it is."
The pursuit of graphics, such as Carmack’s fabled megapixels, meant that Id Software’s production cycle gradually got longer and longer. On this issue, Carmack said that he would have like to have released more games during his time at Id Software.
"The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often.
"And that was id's mantra for so long: 'It'll be done when it's done.' And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by-if it's done when it's done and you're talking a month or two, fine. But if it's a year or two, you need to be making a different game."
Carmack left Id in August to work full-time at Oculus VR. He exited the studio he co-founded as development of Doom 4 looks no closers to be finished. Earlier this year, the project was said to have been completely rebooted after running into trouble.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/c...iences/0187134

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

Gran Turismo 6 enjoys strong Japan debut

December 12th, 2013, 00:34 Posted By: wraggster

Gran Turismo 6 has enjoyed a strong debut in Japan, selling more than 200,000 copies in the week ending December 8.
The Wii version of Dragon Quest X Version 2 follows in second with some 117,000 sales, while the Wii U version trails in 6th place with 70,000 sales.
<figure style='font: 14px/23.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 460px; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' class="responsive single-article__canvas single-article__canvas--full zoomhover" title="" data-media992="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3102/image_310203_460.jpg" data-media768="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3102/image_310203_700.jpg" data-media480="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3102/image_310203_480.jpg" data-media="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3102/image_310203_320.jpg"></figure>Despite sales being up on the previous week, Super Mario 3D Worlddrops to sixth place, while sales of Wii U hardware are also on the up, thanks in part no-doubt to the release of Dragon Quest.
The full weekly Japan charts are below, via Gematsu.

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here

YouTube should chase hacker videos, not legitimate fan-made content

December 12th, 2013, 00:32 Posted By: wraggster

Sniper Elite and Aliens vs Predator developer Rebellion has urged YouTube to shift its focus away from 'legitimate fan-made game play videos' and crackdown on game hacking tutorials.
The independent studio has spoken out in support of game video posters as YouTube's newly-deployed and stricter copyright detection technology cripples a large number of established video game channelswith a bombardment of copyright flags.
<figure style='font: 14px/23.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 460px; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' class="responsive single-article__canvas single-article__canvas--full zoomhover" title="" data-media992="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3125/image_312573_460.jpg" data-media768="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3125/image_312573_700.jpg" data-media480="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3125/image_312573_480.jpg" data-media="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3125/image_312573_320.jpg"></figure>"If you're a gamer that's had strikes against your monetized videos featuring footage taken from Rebellion games, please get in touch so we can try and resolve the disputes as quickly as we can," advised Rebellion marketing & PR co-ordinator Robie Cooke, mirroring statements from several other publishers.
Cooke went on to defend affected YouTubers. "Things change fast, and we're still getting our heads round how we can help support gamers and make it as easy as possible to make video content of our games so they don't have to worry about copyright disputes.
"As indie developers we support YouTube in their aim to defend copyright, but we don't believe that chasing after legitimate fan-made game play videos is the answer. In fact we're very happy when our players show what they can do in our games and encourage our fans to help spread the word."
Cooke argued that there are more pressing matters for YouTube to focus on. "What we'd like to see is more action on videos that show how to crack or hack our games for the simple reason that if too many people get cracked versions of our games, we don't get the money back that enables us to make more games, so everyone loses out."
YouTube invited gaming channel holders to dispute "invalid" Content ID claims in an official statement after its new technology issued mass copyright warnings to game video bloggers this week.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...tent-says-dev/

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here