DCEmu Featured News Articles

Bill Gates doesn't give too many interviews, but the Daily Mail's Caroline Graham sure managed to get a lot out of him during their recent sitdown. Gates spent much of the time discussing his global health foundation, which, according to him, has become "full-time work for the rest of my life." And, while he acknowledged that he's still involved with Microsoft on a "part-time" basis, he reaffirmed that he has no desire to return to the throne. Does this mean he's finally ready to lift his household's notorious Apple embargo and allow his kids to own iPods? Not exactly:
"They have the Windows equivalent. They have a Zune music player, which is a great Windows portable player. They are not deprived children."
Hear that? Bill's kids aren't in need! In fact, they even earn allowances and "do chores," just like your kids. Sure, their pops may have billions of dollars stowed away under his mattress, but he says his offspring will only receive a "minuscule portion" of that fortune. Cue the violins.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/13/b...ey-have-zunes/ ...

Sales of indie phenomenon soar ahead of Xperia Play and Kinect release
More than 2.5 million PC users have picked up a copy of Minecraft to date.
The sales achievement was revealed by the game’s creator Markus Persson via Twitter, where he said: “2.5 million sales! That’s as much as Diablo 1 and Far Cry, according to Wikipedia.”
The news comes just days after Microsoft announced a Kinect-compatible version would be coming to Xbox 360 by the end of the year.
Minecraft is also due for release on mobile devices such as iOS and Android, after a period of exclusivity on Sony’s Xperia Play.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44860/Mine...sses-25m-sales ...

Mominis discuss the problem of mobile fragmentation
This is the latest of a series of articles from MoMinis to coincide with the launch of its $15,000 Mobile Game Development Contest – GameCast 2011. Find out more about the contest here.
There’s no shortage of information about the mobile fragmentation problem occurring in today’s mobile market.
Just plug the keyword into Google, and you’ll find pages of tips, discussions, blog posts and analyst reports about the current and future implications of this subject for mobile developers, manufacturers and end-users.
Historically, mobile fragmentation addressed only technological complexities and discrepancies among devices and operating systems.
But now the problem is entering the realm of distribution too, with a multitude of options available to developers.
Here's a summary of the key development challenges when it comes to fragmentation:
Platform Selection

The first decision that mobile game developers make is which mobile platform and OS they will build their games for (such as Symbian, BlackBerry, iPhone, J2ME, Android, Windows Mobile or others). Should they attempt to become an expert in one OS or try to tackle all of them, including all their sub-variant OSs?
Device Hardware Decisions
Even after selecting a platform, developers are still required to create numerous versions of games that can support different device hardware specifications within each phone. They should decide among supporting multi touch or single touch keypads, pointing devices, track balls, QWERTY keyboards, various keypads and even joystick controls.
They are sometimes even required to make game editions that adapt to various screen resolutions from the highest end devices with HD screens (480x800px) to the lowest-end devices with low screen resolutions (128x128px). Additional parameters that should be taken into account are the processing power, hard disc space and memory capacities of the individual phones.


Learning Curve and Time Constraints
Becoming fluent in each individual platform’s programming language is a process that usually takes many months to years. Research has shown that Symbian, which currently has the largest global device market share, takes 15 months or more to learn while Android, which is predicted to surpass Symbian in market share, takes a reported average of five months or more to learn.
Expertise Constraints
Completing a high quality game and targeting single or multiple platforms is an operation that requires skilled programmers or teams of programmers. There are major barriers of entry into the mobile sphere for developers having less mobile expertise such as flash developers and regular PC game developers.
Maintenance
As upgrades and new versions of devices and OSs emerge, developers need to make sure their applications are compatible with all new and old versions of handsets in the market and update their code accordingly. This upkeep requires intense time allocation, expertise and attentiveness to market shifts.

Risk Management
Many risks are involved in embarking on a mobile game development project including making a bad platform choice, having slow or no market penetration, and receiving low or no return on investment.

There's more on the pressing issue of fragmentation in a new whitepaper from Mominis called ‘platform agnostic development and distribution ecosystems’.
The document also shows how developers can bypass pervasive fragmentation problems using a 'develop once deploy anywhere' system that is adaptable to all mobile device variations while attaining instant entrance to all distribution channels.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44859/The-...g-mobile-games ...

Duke Nukem Forever, the FPS which began development fifteen years ago and seemed to have stalled irrevocably several times during development, has debuted at number one in the UK charts despite a Metacritic rating of just 50 per cent on Xbox 360 - its leading platform by sales.

The game sold 56 per cent of its copies for the 360, six per cent of which were the £64.99 special edition version. It pushes L.A. Noire, also from publisher Take-Two down into second place for the first time since its release. Sales of L.A. Noire dropped by 54 per cent from last week.

505 Games' multi-platform workout game, Zumba Fitness, climbs a place to third, putting PS3 exclusive Infamous 2 in fourth place on its debut week. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean drops to fifth place from second, with DiRT 3 slipping to sixth from third.

THQ's Red Faction Armageddon debuts at eighth, with seventy per cent of sales on Microsoft's console.

This Week Last Week Title
1 New Entry Duke Nukem Forever
2 1 L.A. Noire
3 4 Zumba Fitness
4 New Entry Infamous 2
5 2 LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
6 3 DiRT 3
7 5 Brink
8 New Entry Red Faction Armageddon
9 7 Call of Duty: Black Ops
10 9 Portal 2
11 8 FIFA 11
12 6 Wii Sports Resort
13 13 Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
14 12 Art Academy
15 10 The Sims 3: Generations
16 14 Hunted: The Demon's Forge
17 15 Just Dance 2
18 11 Mario Kart
19 17 Crysis 2
20 18 Wii Fit 2
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...from-l-a-noire ...

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said he doesn't believe the announcement of the Wii U will affect sales of the Wii, as that the two machines will attract different consumers.

He argued that the price and available games will maintain sales of the Wii, and that Nintendo intends to support the older machine until after the launch of the Wii U sometime in 2012.

"We don't think that's going to be an issue and here is why. Let me focus in on the US. About 36 million units later, the consumer who is buying a Wii for the first time now is very different from one buying the first one million Wii units," Fils-Aime told GamesBeat.

"The consumer today loves the $149 price point. There is a wide range of software. For the consumer today, having a library that includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii New Super Mario Bros, Wii Donkey Kong Trooper Challenge - it's a different consumer."

"I continue to believe that the Wii will have a strong summer, fall, holiday season and we are going to continue to drive the Wii part of our business. It will be strong even after the Wii U launches. They are just different consumers and we saw that just as an example when we launched the 3DS and continued to sell other units too."

While the console shown at E3 was a prototype, Fils-Aime said both the machine and controller won't undergo any drastic changes before release.

"In terms of the form factor of the console, it is quite near final. Similarly the form factor of the controller is quite near final."

He also pointed to the addition of HD, a first for Nintendo, as a significant step forward in securing new software. "HD is something that our partners told us was important to them and they were holding HD as a key reason why game A on a competitive platform couldn't be brought to the existing Wii. We have eliminated that issue now. "

The Wii U boasts 1080p graphics, a multi-core 45 nm microprocessor and a distinctive tablet style controller complete with a six-inch touchscreen for streaming content from the console.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...says-fils-aime ...

Apple has taken a further step towards intervening in the legal cases brought against several app developers, which accuse the studios of infringing copyrights licensed to Apple by the Texas-based company Lodsys.

Previously, Apple had asked Lodsys to withdraw the claims, but the company continued to pursue the cases, arguing that the patents, which cover in-app upgrades and purchases, had been licensed to Apple and not its licensed developers.

Apple had argued that its agreement with Lodsys covered any App Store developers for use of the code in question, but has now seemingly expressed its willingness to fight the legal action on behalf on the companies named so far, telling courts that the developers are: "individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and...lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple's rights under its license agreement."

The filing was posted in its entirety by Florian Mueller, who sees Apple's commitment as a positive move for the smaller companies involved.

"While I don't have any confirmation from anyone that Apple has agreed to cover those defendants' costs and potential risks, it's hard to imagine how else this could work," said Mueller.

Whilst its still possible that the prospect of taking Apple on in court may not appeal to Lodsys, who have a history of litigation, the case has yet to be dropped.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...odsys-in-court ...

Sony has said that the cost of the PlayStation Network hack - currently expected to be $170 million for this financial year - won't have an impact on hardware or software development budgets in the PlayStation business.

The bill comes at a time when Sony's PlayStation division had reported a profit of $435 million for the last financial year, off the back of falling hardware costs and better games sales - although the entire Sony Corporation suffered a $3.14 billion loss.

"It's a cost for which we'll have to make provisions and that I think we, ironically, were also at the same time talking about very, very strong profitability for our division overall," European president Andrew House told GamesIndustry.biz last week at E3.

There's a very good and sensible reason why we haven't clarified exact timing in regions and geographies - we were significantly impacted by the events of March 11
"I'm hoping that profitability will allow us to just sustain our business at the operational level in much the same way as we would have done without any of this happening."

The PSN hack isn't the only disaster to affect Sony this year. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March had a devastating effect on manufacturing, and it's this disruption that has left the PlayStation division unable to define a solid release date in any regions for the new PlayStation Vita handheld.

"There's a very good and sensible reason why we haven't clarified exact timing in regions and geographies - we were significantly impacted by the events of March 11 in Japan," said House.

"We've undertaken, across Sony but also SCEE, a significant assessment of impact on our supply chain and what we think the long or medium term impact is going to be. Once we've completed that assessment and have a full understanding of what our supply chain looks like then we'll be in a position to be more specific about launch in specific regions."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...o-game-budgets ...

Following the arrest of three alleged 'Anonymous' members by Spanish authorities on Friday, Turkey's state-run news agency has reported that police have detained 32 individuals allegedly linked to the hacktivist group. The Anatolia news agency said today that the suspects were taken into custody after conducting raids in a dozen cities for suspected ties to Anonymous. The group recently targeted Web sites of the country's telecommunications watchdog, the prime minister's office and parliament as a protest to Turkey's plans to introduce Internet filters."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/06/...d-To-Anonymous

Anonymous are the group most linked to the recent hacking of the PSN Network ...

CryEngine will also have 'deep support for Kinect'
CryEngine-built software is already close to fully running on Nintendo’s next-generation console, engine vendor Crytek has said.
“Crytek’s support for Wii U is definitely going to happen,” company CEO Cevat Yerli told Develop in a new interview to be published soon.
Yerli claimed that CryEngine's tech was close to fully running on Nintendo’s new system, though wouldn’t specify any details.
“We aren't showing it but we are pretty much running it already,” Yerli said.
The news comes days after Develop revealed that Crytek’s closest business rival, Epic Games, is also supporting Wii U with its high-end game engine.
Yerli suggested that Crytek will be taking a more aggressive business approach with CryEngine 3, which at the time of writing only supports PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 projects.
He said he wants CryEngine to eventually support “every platform that's a major player in the industry of gaming”.
“We are expanding in many ways, and some of that is more announced than others. Kinect is major driver for future platforms as well, so Kinect support is important. Having basic Kinect support in the CryEngine is one thing, but I'm talking about really supporting it deeply. CryEngine is going to have deep support.
“Then there are other efforts towards supporting mobile and tablets, which we can only say we are working on. How far we have gone and what we mean is something I can't say more about now.”
Nintendo turned heads at this year's E3 by unveiling an ambitions next-generation console that displays TV content on the system’s controller itself.

However, throughout E3, Nintendo execs had dodged questions on the Wii U’s system specifics.

All the company’s execs at the event would onlyexplain the console's horsepower in illustrative terms.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-tech-to-Wii-U ...