DCEmu Latest News Update - The Battle of The Handhelds
Its Now May2012, DCEmu is still here providing you with the latest Homebrew, Hacking, Emulation and Gaming News for all of the consoles released today and yesteryear, the news on here is updated every single day without stopping.. Check out our network sites listed on the right hand side (theres a heck of a lot more news and downloads and articles posted on individual console sites).
At the moment the handheld gaming market seems to be a massive battle between the like of Nintendo 3DS, the PSVita, Android tablets like the Kindle Fire & Samsung Galaxy Tab and then finally probably the outright winner the iPad 3. Which ones your favourite ?
Price promotions are an industry staple, but few have got the trade talking like Microsoft’s latest offer.
The platform holder’s US stores are selling a 4GB Xbox 360 and Kinect for just $99. The catch? It comes with a two-year subscription to Xbox Live, priced at $15 per month, and an early termination fee.
This model is commonplace in other sectors: smartphone handsets are discounted or free with contracts, and media packages like Sky+ come with a free set-top box.
But it’s rarely been tried in gaming before.
As sales fall, format holders need new ways to make consoles more appealing. And the benefits of subscription packages make it difficult to fathom why this hasn’t been tried earlier.
“Lower upfront costs could make the console appear more affordable, despite the fact that it’s actually more expensive when you add the two-year subscription,” said Jia Wu, connected home devices director at research firm Strategy Analytics.
“In essence, it is a financing deal just like a car loan.”
Tesco entertainment director Rob Salter added: “A fixed term contract guarantees an ongoing direct relationship with the customer, which will hopefully secure greater retention and the ability to market directly to the customer. This alone has significant value to the platform owner.” THE SMALL PRINT
However, the games industry can’t just assume that the subscription model can be lifted wholesale from the mobile and media markets.
One mobile operator exec told MCV that such offers would introduce credit risk: “You only want to let someone walk out with an Xbox if you are confident they will pay their bills. I’d add that given the failure rate of some consoles there might need to be a service element, like a premium repair service in the life of the contract.”
It’s also important to remember that a network contract is mandatory when using a mobile phone but Xbox Live is not entirely essential for 360 owners. Time will tell if the significant two-year commitment to an optional service proves to be a selling point or a deterrent.
The subscription itself may put off consumers already snowed under by monthly fees: rent, bills, insurance, phone contracts.
And let’s not forget phones and TV are viewed as must-have utilities. Video games are still very much a luxury. A NEW ERA?
But if Microsoft – or whoever else tries this practice – irons out the kinks, it could have huge implications for the way consoles are sold.
The next generation is on its way. And while we won’t know anything about the new consoles until E3 at the earliest, you can guarantee they won’t be cheap.
360 launched at £280, PS3 at £425. Both 3DS and Vita have suffered slow sales after launch – thanks in part to £200+ price tags branded “expensive”. So imagine how a £500 NextBox or PS4 would struggle in today’s market. Subscriptions could be the answer.
Even the current consoles could benefit. Streaming services are becoming more prominent in today’s market, and enable this generation to run more powerful content.
Analyst Nick Parker says: “Streamed content does not require high-end hardware – just a connected device so that cheaper dumber local clients can be deployed and sold through subscriptions.
“If streaming and browser games take off, as I expect them to, then any connected device will be competition to consoles: smart TVs, set-top boxes, mobiles and tablets.
“Microsoft is testing the water, both in terms of consumer acceptance of the financials and prioritisation of a service-led platform. It may also indicate a future direction for the next gen – with less emphasis on the box’s specifications and more on services.”
That was OnLive’s vision – selling a console through retail and games packages via subscription. Now that a big brand like Xbox is trying its hand, perhaps consumers and the trade will take notice of what could become more commonplace in future.
“It will be interesting to see what level of interest exists for this model,” said Salter. “In the end, it is about the value it represents and the trade-off between a lower entry point and a two-year commitment. Customers will decide whether it is a good deal overall to them.
“We will be watching this with interest.”
Japan's consumer affairs agency has declared the controversial complete gacha randomised item mechanic illegal, confirming developer expectations.
The gacha system acts like a slot or capsule toy machine, with players paying a nominal fee for a chance to unlock items. The complete, or "kompu", gacha mechanism locks away a highly rare item until other items have been unlocked.
From July 1, companies employing kompu gacha mechanic will be subject to penalties, though many companies abandoned the system last week, leading analysts to describe the situation as a "disaster of historic proportions".
Samsung's Galaxy S III isn't due for launch until May 30th, but it has already received nine million pre-orders in little over two weeks since the unveiling, according to the Korea Economic Daily – via Reuters.
The figure spans across over 100 operators globally, while the South Korean Samsung factory is currently at full capacity producing five million units per month.
It's the third flagship smartphone from Samsung and arguably features the most high-end tech yet, with a Siri-like S-Voice assistant and image recognition functionality.
If the story is true, it looks set to outpace the previous Galaxy S and S II, which took seven and five months respectively to reach ten million sales. http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...-orders/018080
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Sometimes the games industry can get too caught up in willy waving with other forms of entertainment.
But this week comparisons with cinema are fair, if only to remind us how rough things are for games retail at the moment.
The UK’s boxed software market has generated £320m this year, while 2012 cinema Box Office receipts currently tally close to £340m.
Roughly neck and neck, then. But when you consider that the Hollywood summer season is just gearing up – while June, July and August are looking pretty sparse for games – you see the problem.
Cinema has new Spider-Man, Batman and Men In Black sequels to look forward to, plus the usual-but-popular family animated movies and some grown-up fare.
Aside from the interactive tie-ins to said movie sequels, games retail has… well, very little.
The problem here isn’t that our market won’t catch up with film in 2012 – because it will – it’s that the big games are some way off. And when they come, they come all at once.
This has been a problem for the trade since virtually time immemorial. But by now you’d have thought publishers had got to grips with planning. A smoother schedule would please retail, diminish the attraction of trading in relatively new games, give games room to breathe, and satisfy consumers year-round.
Certainly the number of families queuing up to see The Avengers proves they will hand over £40 if you offer access to decent big-budget entertainment on a rainy day.
But in big boxed video games there is very little on offer right now, much to the industry’s discredit. SLOW PROGRESS ON PEGI, BUT IT’S BEEN WORTH IT
Parliament re-opened last week, and with it kick-started the process to turn PEGI into the de facto ratings for games.
This has been a slow, drawn-out affair, with a handful of delays and miles of red tape to cut through.
Forgive yet another comparison to the movie world, but: provided the transition is now relatively smooth, decoupling games from the BBFC’s authoritarian methods adds a level of credibility to games.
Through this process, the trade will have earned self-regulation – not many big-money business sectors can claim to have pulled that off.
Ten times the current amount. Should put a strain on central London's 2.5 networks.
New stats from Informa Telecoms & Media estimates the value of the whole mobile biz will go from from $325.8 billion to $627.5 billion between 2011 and 2016. There will be a rise of 23 per cent in phone ownership overall.
And its data that's driving the rise, with traffic up from 3.89 trillion megabytes to 39.75 trillion megabytes.
The main uses of data will be web, P2P messaging and apps. Video streaming will consume one third of all bandwidth but only deliver one per cent of revs. Bit worrying.
Average users will consume 6.5 times as much video, over eight times as much music and social media, and nearly ten times as many games as in 2011.
Informa reckons the average number of text messages sent in a month will go from 118 now to 146 in four years.
Vita was the headline casualty in Japan as game market sales fell heavily in the seven days following the nation's Golden Week holiday period. Sales of Sony's latest portable slipped from 10,583 units to 6,340 during the week ended May 13, representing a new weekly low. Sales of the top-selling system, 3DS, almost halved to 46,425 units, Andriasang reports.On the software front Mario Party 9 remained the top seller, although weekly sales declined from 144,585 copies to just 37,353. The highest new entry was PS3 exclusive Starhawk, which debuted at No.4 with 12,873 sales. Weekly hardware sales (previous week)
3DS: 46,425 (91,868)
PS3: 12,996 (23,478)
PSP: 12,247 (20,033)
PSV: 6,340 (10,583)
Wii: 6,073 (15,789)
PS2: 1,212 (1,611)
X360: 1,023 (1,420)
DSi LL: 819 (1,097)
DSi: 387 (814)
Weekly software sales (life to date)
Mario Party 9 (Wii, Nintendo) 37,353 (334,821)
Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS, Nintendo) 16,530 (361,790)
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City (PS3, Capcom) 14,553 (319,505)
Starhawk (PS3, Sony) 12,873
Super Mario 3D Land (3DS, Nintendo) 11,260 (1,574,788)
Mario & Sonic at London Olympics (3DS, Nintendo) 4,933 (162,270)
Conception Please Give Birth to My Children (PSP, Spike Chunsoft) 4,600 (44,639)
Announcing earlier this month that worldwide Vita sales stood at 1.8 million units as of March 31, 2012, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said "software and services must be strengthened" if the company's to hit its annual targets for the handheld.
Infographic demonstrates the effect the tech will have on the app space.
Analyst IDC has released an infographic on HTML5 that says one billion mobile web browsers will be compatible with the tech next year.
Meanwhile, HTML5 web developers will hit two million as 79 per cent of mobile app developers look to use the platform this year.
This will push more than 80 per cent of mobile apps to incorporate the tech by 2015.
The Financial Times has been a key mover in the space, launching a HTML5 web app after become enraged by Apple's App Store charges, which now has two million users.
US social gamers are spending less per person, but playing more mid-core titles
The landscape of the social gaming world continues to change; more input from market research firm SuperData suggests that the average amount of revenue brought in from each gamer has been dropping, from $45.58 to $37.59 in the span of a year. This number might be dropping, but the firm does recognize that more and more gamers are paying for titles.
According to analyst Janelle Benjamin, games considered 'mid-core' are helping to drive business in a market expected to tip $1.8 billion by the end of the year in the US and $1.4 billion in Europe. By 2015 SuperData expects the global social game market (on social networks and mobile) to hit $13 billion. The mid-core games are pushing more and more players to pay, something close to 2.5 percent of social gamers. This is a marked increase over 1.4 percent from last year.
"Mid-core social games are clearly driving the current momentum," said Benjamin. "This emerging genre represents a different gaming demographic that spends substantially more."
The best performing games on the market remain shooter and strategy titles, notes Benjamin. The hardest hit games in the genre are from farming-type genres, much like FarmVille.
While an 18 percent drop in average sales per user might be cause for concern, the increase in paid conversion actually indicates a growth in overall revenues per title. Developers are seeing a wider swath of the market embracing paid titles, with many new players not spending as much as those who have embraced paid social games over the past year. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-says-analyst
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A charity 5-A-Side football event held by HMV and sponsored by Microsoft has raised £19k for Teenage Cancer Trust.
Sony Music emerged as the winners of the tournament, having come from two goals down to topple runners up OMD 4-3. Sony Music’s Ryan Slack was named as the player of the tournament.
“HMV is, of course, also hugely obliged to Microsoft, whose sponsorship and on-the-day support helps to make this annual event possible,” an HMV statement read.
“Over the years its value to us must have amounted to the best part of £200,000. So huge and special thanks to them and to Samantha Earley and Marcus Toon in particular.”
Here’s the complete list of contributors to the event: BBC Consumer Products (Greg Wilson), Bravado (Alex Mitchell), Faber (Clare Yates), House of Marley/HoMedics (Tim Joslin), Island Records (David Hawkes), Koch Media (Deane Punter/Steve Crisp),Libertine London (Will Wright/Emma Herridge), Lionsgate (Ben Grunbaum),MEDGE,Ministry of Sound(Rob Watson/Andy Pegler/Mark Findlay),Momentum Pictures (Rob Bentley/Neil Williams), Ninja Tune(Sam Upton/Darryl Defoe),Paramount Home Entertainment (Tony Glasscoe), Skullcandy (Henrik Anderson), Sony Music (Greg Lawton), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Mark Bowron), Teenage Cancer Trust (Laura Martin), Twentieth CenturyFox (Chris Shiels/Richard Kinney/Kate Longbottom)Universal Pictures (Martin Nichols), Warner Bros. (Sam Howes/Nik Leighton/Tracey Stewart) and Warner Music (Paul Reeve).
Royalties went unpaid for two years; No settlement reached as lawyer seeks full figure
Publishing giant Activision has paid a portion of its employees $42 million in long-delayed royalty payments for Modern Warfare 2, as part of a wider lawsuit between the company and development staff.
The lost bonuses were initially due after the release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which broke sales records when it launched in November 2009.
In 2010, as many as 38 development staff – known collectively as the Infinity Ward Employee Group – went on to sue Activision for unpaid royalty payments.
At the same time, and in a separate case, two of the studio’s directors – Vince Zampella and Jason West – launched a lawsuit against Activision, seeking various damages after the pair was dismissed for “insubordination”.
That lawsuit, which also incorporates EA, is still going ahead.
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Publisher EA has announced that it will air the world TV premiere ad for Medal of Honor: Warfighter during tomorrow’s Champions League final between Chelsea
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wraggster May 17th, 2012 23:17