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An updated clause in Sony's terms and conditions for its PSN service, which has caused uproar amongst gamers because it appears to ask users to forgo their rights to participate in class action lawsuits against Sony in perpetuity, is largely designed to protect against suits in the US, says Sheridans partner and specialist interactive entertainment lawyer Alex Chapman.
The updated contract features an entirely new paragraph 15, which advises that acquiescence to the contract means that:
"If you have a Dispute with any Sony Entity or any of a Sony Entity's officers, directors, employees and agents that cannot be resolved through negotiation within the time frame described in the 'Notice of Dispute' clause below.
"Other than those matters listed in the Exclusions from Arbitration clause, you and the Sony Entity that you have a Dispute with agree to seek resolution of the Dispute only through arbitration of that Dispute in accordance with the terms of this Section 15, and not litigate any Dispute in court. Arbitration means that the Dispute will be resolved by a neutral arbitrator instead of in a court by a judge or jury."
Given Sony's recent problems with customer relations following the PSN security breach, the wording is perhaps not the wisest, but Chapman believes that Sony is making an essential balance between protecting itself from litigation and appeasing already upset customers.
"Whilst this may not be popular with consumers it is really nothing more than any sensible business would do after it has learned some lessons through what must have been a very difficult experience," Chapman told GamesIndustry.biz in an exclusive statement.
"I remember when the GTA Hot Coffee incident hit the news. Overnight all the publishers seemed to change their dev/pub agreements to include new language concerning hidden content. In that way terms and conditions and contracts often act as a barometer of what is going wrong in an industry and this case is no different.
"Sony is clearly balancing the risk of adverse consumer reaction against the risk of facing future class actions. Time will tell whether consumers care enough about not being able to bring a class action to give up PSN access.
What's more, the extensive caveat which Sony applies to the end of the clause, detailing the fact that it may be legally inadmissible, either wholly or in part, means that the publisher is likely to be directing the section at customers in the US. The law, says Chapman, is unlikely to be enforceable in the UK.
"From a legal point of view there is no certainty that this language will have any effect," Chapman continues.
"The applicable law for the kind of disputes that consumers may bring will generally be governed by the country in which the consumer is resident. In the UK it is not unlikely that this would be considered unenforceable under the Unfair Contracts Terms Act.
"However it is probably not the UK that Sony is worried about but the USA where class actions are more common place and the system can mean that defending those actions can be so time consuming and expensive that it is more cost effective to settle even spurious claims."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...y-to-affect-uk
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Video games — especially violent ones — are constantly under scrutiny from parents concerned about negative effects. Now, research suggests that those worries should focus more on the player's personalityrather than the content of the games. 'If you're worried about a video game turning your son or daughter into a killer, don't worry about that,' says psychologist Patrick Markey of Villanova (Pa.) University. 'But is your kid moody, impulsive, or are they unfriendly? It's probably not the best idea to have that child play violent video games.' ... Markey found slight increases in hostility for those with certain personality traits: extremely high on neuroticism and extremely low on agreeableness and conscientiousness. ... 'We found — irrespective of violent content — the two highly competitive games produced more aggressive behavior than the two less competitive games,' [Markey said.]"

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/0...tudy-the-Gamer ...

"It turns out Microsoft's app compatibility will be limited to one architecture or another. Yes, Windows 8 will run on your ARM tablet, but your x86 Office 2003 will not. In his explanation, Steven Sinofsky reasoned, 'If we allow the world of x86 application support like that, or based on what we call desktop apps in our start yesterday, then there are real challenges in some of the value propositions for system on a chip,' he said. 'You know, will battery life be as good, for example? Well, those applications aren't written to be really great in the face of limited battery constraints, which is a value proposition of the Metro style apps.'"

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/09...t-For-x86-Apps ...

We found a veritable rainbow of PlayStation Vita prototypes hiding out in the rear of Sony's TGS setup, surrounded by accessories, mock retail packaging, and faux game cards. PlayStation representatives assured us the colorful consoles were just for looks, and only the basic black will be available when the system launches in December. Hit the gallery below for a multicolored peek, or just skip past the break for a view of Gravity Daze's mockup retail box.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/16/v...up-game-cards/ ...

Hold on to your seats gaming enthusiasts, Corsair just unleashed an onslaught of Vengeance seriesperipherals aimed at helping you dominate that Call of Duty marathon... and we got our hands on all of 'em. There's a lot to cover, so we'll get right to it. The K60 gamer keyboard boasts Cherry MX Red interchangeable keys for rapid fire, 20-key rollover, windows key lock and crazy fast reporting rate at 1000 reports per second. Its companion, the M60 mouse, implements an Avago 5670 DPI sensor, adjustable center of gravity, custom lift detection and high-mass scroll wheel. In addition to all that, this bad boy features a dedicated sniper button which allows you to hone in on your target that much faster. Read on for the full rundown on the goods.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/16/c...sets-hands-on/ ...

We've had plenty of QT with the Vita on the floor at TGS, but battery life is hard to judge when you can't take the device away with you. Back at our earlier hands-on in June we were told that longevity should be on a par with first-gen PSPs, which were all rated at 4-6 hours and -- with the PSP-1000 -- achieved around 3.5-5.5 hours in real-world tests. Now though, Sony says the Vita has just enough juice for 3-5 hours' gaming. We need to play this thing to death before we can be sure, but this does sound like a potential 15-25% drop in minimum play time. Do we care at this point? Not particularly. We're too busy salivating over this.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/16/s...hree-hours-on/ ...

Looks like Boeing's decided to get in bed with Android a mile-high in the sky. The aerospace company has exclusively selected Google's mobile OS as the might behind its new class of 787 Dreamliners' in-flight entertainment. Currently in production jets, of which there are over 800 plus orders, will get outfitted with either a Panasonic or Thales model of the 7- to 17-inch screens. And in a strange twist of luxury privileges, first and business class passengers won't get to enjoy the touchscreen tech, as their monitors will be too large and too far out of reach. Instead, an alternate gesture-based control method is being explored by the company for elite travelers, although nothing's been solidified. Don't expect the planes to launch with the typical Android market experience, either -- apparently, "airline-specific apps" are on the way for the nascent fleets' launch. Now, if only they could replace those flight attendants with little green robots.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/16/b...powers-in-fli/ ...

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Nintendo made their SNES for 13 years, shelving the console in 2003, though the last big games landed in 1996 shortly after it was replaced by the N64. Six years is long enough for any console - it was long enough for the PS1 (1994- 2000) and PS2 (2000-2006), the Mega Drive (1988-1994) and DS (2004-2010), and it's long enough for the 360.

When the clock strikes midnight on 16 November the 360 will head into its seventh year, with dozens of games still to come. This isn't the usual console life-cycle; by now the big games should have dried up, with only one or two first-party essentials tiding players over until Microsoft release their next console, which would typically be revealed in the middle of the predecessor's fifth year.

Instead we're looking forward to a year with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the rebooted Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite - and the beginnings of an eighth year where we'll see the likes of Halo 4.

The 360's longevity has set developers free to push the hardware further than anyone ever thought possible. This was the generation game development got stupidly expensive; teams grew, deadlines moved into the distant future, budgets inflated.

For a long time studios were happy with the power the console offered, and software solutions from Crytek and id have milked the last drops of power from those half decade-old processors.

Not until this year have prominent voices in the industry started demanding more. Crysis proved the 360 was outgunned by the PC back in 2007, but building a machine to run Crysis on its highest settings was beyond the bank accounts of most players. Crysis was a 'what if?' kind of game and it sold poorly, but four years on that Crysis-capable PC isn't such a pipe dream.

Cosmetics matter, and high-end PC mods for GTA and Crysis show what the next generation of games deserves to look like. Hobbyists are modding games to look near-photorealistic without the support of major publishers, while cutting-edge developers are once again looking to the PC to lead the way. The technology powering Epic's Unreal 3 'Samaritan' demo isn't some pipe dream; it's here now, in the modern PC.



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It's personality that counts, of course, and developers need more power for that, too. Battlefield 3 looks smoother and prettier on a heavyweight PC, but the lack of grunt provided by the PS3 and 360 cripples the basic mechanics of the game - online multiplayer is capped at 24 on consoles, 64 on PC, just as it was in Bad Company 2.

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz Ubisoft Montreal's Yves Jacquier bemoaned the current generation's inability to do the things Ubisoft Montreal need - beautiful graphics, complex sound, large scale, and smart AI - all at the same time.

"We're extremely limited in what we can do," he explained. "It's a challenge for the engineers to provide everything with a small amount of memory and computation time. We think that the next generation of consoles won't have these limits any more. What's the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?"

The Xbox 360 is a 2005-spec PC in a slimline box at a consumer friendly price, and the next Xbox will likely follow the same model when it arrives in late 2013, but building the next generation will be a challenge for everyone.

For Microsoft, the challenge is selling such a monster machine at the right price; for developers, it's creating so many HD assets in such a volume, on time and on budget; for the tech experts, it's everything from finding the right storage media to worrying about whether broadband data caps will kill the dream of a fullydownloadable future.



Until it's settled, games on console and PC are hamstrung by the needs of a generation long past its sell-by date. Years seven and eight will be fruitful but filled with envy - that feeling you get when L.A. Noire stutters to around 20fps on 360 while the PC version blazes along at 60fps will become all too familiar, as developers reach for the stars with a boat anchor around their ankles.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...next-xbox-now/ ...