DCEmu Featured News Articles

Total physical videogame sales in the US were down again during the busiest month of the year, to $5.06 billion, or 9 per cent compared to 2009.

Hardware revenues slumped 16 per cent during the holidays to $1.84 billion, while physical software was down 8 per cent to $2.37 billion.

Videogame accessories were up 10 per cent, thanks to Microsoft's Kinect, to $853.2 million.

Nintendo's DS was the best-selling hardware for the month, with 2.5 million units sold, while the Wii shifted another 2.3 million units.

Microsoft, which said yesterday that supply was constrained during December, sold 1.9 million units. Sony's PlayStation 3 sold 1.3 million units.

"Among new physical videogame sales in December 2010, the Wii and the 360 platforms generated the greatest dollar sales of all platforms, at 32 per cent and 31 per cent of dollar sales respectively, across all categories including hardware, software and accessories," said the NPD Group.

"December 2010 is the biggest month for accessories sales in history, due to a hefty increase in the average retail price driven by specialty controllers," added NPD. "The Kinect was the best-selling accessory item for the second month in a row, following its release in early November."

The biggest highlight for software was PC game sales, which were up a massive 62 per cent due to Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

A full breakdown of sales for the entire US year can be read here.

The best-selling games for December follow:

01 Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PC, NDS, Wii, PS3)
02 Just Dance (Wii)
03 World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC)
04 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Wii)
05 Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
06 Disney Epic Mickey (Wii)
07 Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii)
08 Michael Jackson The Experience (Wii, NDS, PSP)
09 NBA 2K11 (360,PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
10 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (360, PS3, Wii, PC)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ed-in-december ...

George 'Geohot' Hotz, one of the people responsible for the recent PlayStation 3 security breach, has claimed his actions will ultimately be deemed legal in the case brought against him by Sony.

"Right now, still legally, you can go to my website and download my Jailbreak for your PS3," he told G4TV's Attack of the Show.

"What it lets you do is install homebrew applications, which have been developed by anyone. You can develop your own application or go download some and put them on your Jailbroken PS3."

He believes his earlier iPhone jailbreak being allowed by the courts under the DMCA sets a precedent for the PlayStation case.

"Currently the difference is the DMCA says specifically mobile phones, but the same precedent should apply. If they decide a phone is a closed system, where the manufacturer controls all the software that runs on it.. If you can Jailbreak one closed system, why can't you Jailbreak another?

Hotz felt that, were he to win the case, it could open the door to more legally-permissible console hacking. "This case is about a lot more than what I did and me. It's about whether you really own that device that you purchased."

Hotz also claimed that his hack will not allow the running of bootlegged games. "The way piracy was previously done doesn't work in my Jailbreak. I made a specific effort while I was working on this to try to enable homebrew without enabling things I do not support, like piracy."

The reason he was being sued, he claimed, was simply for "making Sony mad."

Confirming that he had hired two layers to help him fight back, he commented that "the adrenaline is definitely flowing. It's exciting, it's scary at the same time."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-you-purchased ...

The Entertainment Software Association has criticised a study due to be published in a paediatrics periodical, calling it flawed and exaggerated.

The study, by Douglas Gentile, is an attempt to show links between gaming habits and mental health problems among children in Singapore. The ESA has said that Gentile has a long history of anti-gaming sentiment and that his methods and results are unreliable, questioned by many of his peers.

"We commend credible, independent, and verifiable research about computer and videogames. However, this research is just more of the same questionable findings by the same author in his campaign against videogames," said Richard Taylor of the ESA.

"There simply is no concrete evidence that computer and videogames cause harm. In fact, a wide body of research has shown the many ways games are being used to improve our lives through education, health and business applications."

"Throughout our nation's history, those critical of new entertainment forms have sought to blame those creative works for society's ills and some of have sought to use flawed research to support their theories."

Gentile's methodology has attracted criticism before. After publishing a study in Psychological Science last year, Gentile issued a public apology after it emerged that he had not chosen his subjects randomly, but had instead selected a group of 'convenience'.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...tudy-as-flawed ...

A forthcoming study which claims to establish a link between gaming and metal health problems in children has been junked by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) as "questionable" and "dubious".

Although the exact contents of the report, authored by Iowa State University researcher Douglas Gentile, have yet to be made public, it's angered the ESA enough to coax a statement from senior VP Richard Taylor.

"We commend credible, independent, and verifiable research about computer and video games. However, this research is just more of the same questionable findings by the same author in his campaign against video games."

"There simply is no concrete evidence that computer and videogames cause harm," Taylor continued. "In fact, a wide body of research has shown the many ways games are being used to improve our lives through education, health and business applications."

According to the ESA, the methodology used in Gentile's report just isn't sound.

"Its definition of 'pathological gaming' is neither scientifically nor medically accepted and the type of measure used has been criticised by other scholars.

"Other outcomes are also measured using dubious instruments when well-validated tools are readily available. In addition, because the effect sizes of the outcomes are mainly trivial, it leaves open the possibility the author is simply interpreting things as negatively as possible."

Gentile, who has a long history of research into the alleged negative side-effects of gaming, issued a retort via Gamasutra.

"Although the ESA claim that this study is flawed, they give no credible evidence of significant flaws," he said. "Furthermore, the article was subjected to peer-review by independent experts in a top medical journal, experts whose interest is in evaluating the quality of science."

"My position is and always has been that games are powerful, and that they can have many effects. Some effects are beneficial, others can be harmful," he added.

"The various effects depend upon many different features, upon amount of time spent with the games, and possibly upon characteristics of the player. By being aware of both the potential benefits and potential problems, families can maximise the benefits while minimizing the harms."

We'll have more to say on this one as soon as Gentile's report gets published, but in the meantime we'll take the time to remind you that a different set of eggheads recently claimed gaming helped youngsters do better at school and stay away from drugs. Who to believe, eh?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...mental-illness ...

The new Silver Xbox 360 controller will be available in the UK from 4th March, priced at £44.99.

According to Gamerzines, that price includes a Play & Charge add-on.

The new wireless controller, revealed last August, offers a "transformative" D-pad for more accurate control that rotates into either a standard 'plus' shape or a disc depending on your preference. It also tweaks the thumbstick, giving it a new concave top, and adds a grey tone finish to the A/B/X/Y buttons.

The new controller is already out in the US, with an RRP of $64.99, which converts to about £41.

The standard wireless controller currently sells for around £30, depending on where you shop.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...r-dated-priced ...

EA's inclusion of the Taliban as a playable faction in the multiplayer portion of last year's Afghanistan shooter Medal of Honor turned enough heads to force it to scrap the idea at the 11th hour, but for THQ core games boss Danny Bilson, the Taliban should never have even been considered.

"I wouldn't have put them in in the first place," Bilson told Eurogamer in New York this week. "I wouldn't have."

THQ's soon-to-be-released shooter Homefront depicts a 'what if?' scenario in which the US is invaded by Korea.

Bilson describes the game as "speculative fiction", but following the recent escalation of the real world conflict between North Korea and South Korea, some have suggested that Homefront is bad taste.

Bilson denied the accusation, pointing out the difference between Medal of Honor and Homefront.

"In Battlefield, when you had the Mid East Alliance and the Chinese and the Americans, it was all fantasy and I didn't mind playing one side or the other.

"When you get into reality – and that's real, that's not speculative science-fiction like ours – people are dying at their hands. I take my games seriously. That's why they're fun to play, because you care about them. I don't want to play as the Taliban, particularly."

Last year DICE, the studio behind the multiplayer portion of MOH, told Eurogamer its reviews were hurt by the controversy surrounding the game's setting. Bilson, however, is confident Homefront will not suffer a similar fate.

"If we [the US] were in a shooting war with them [North Korea] and people's children were dying at their hands, you'd have to watch a bit what you do, as Medal of Honor ran into a little bit in Afghanistan.

"I'm old school. No offence, but I don't like playing as the Germans in World War II, either. That's just me. I just don't, because I take my games seriously and I have my heroes and villains in my psyche.

"Germans don't want to see the swastika, not for one second. I immerse myself in a game and care. Also, I'm older. I grew up with World War II as a big part of reality for my parents and my grandparents. For a younger generation, it's just a strategy game, like with board games or RTS. It's interesting.

"I'm not as sensitive as I was when I was younger but it's emotional and it's personal.

"I lost some relatives in World War II, so I always have that somewhere in my mind - some relatives in Poland. The next guy goes, oh, I don't relate it to that. It's a videogame.

"It's all personal. I'm not speaking for THQ. I'm just speaking for my experience and me."

Bilson, who used to work on the Medal of Honor series while at EA, added: "I had a lot of friends and family members who worked on that Medal of Honor game. They worked really hard to create an incredibly respectful experience of the American soldier. But we don't have to worry about respecting the Taliban. We don't because there are a lot of issues we have with them socially and politically.

"But I'm not sitting in Afghanistan having feelings of being... whatever they feel, in the tribal areas.

"It's very tricky stuff. When you deal with real-world stuff, you have to be sensitive to all points of view - absolutely not just an American point of view. I don't think Homefront's an American point of view at all.

"I'm not here to do politics. I'm not here to make a political statement. We're making entertainment. But we don't want to offend. We really don't, because if people are dying in the real world that becomes sensitive.

"When it's up to me, I'll make certain sensitive choices in all of these things."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...taliban-in-moh ...

Newly released/updated for the Caanoo:

Here are some skins to use with Caanoo. Drop them in the image folder of the Skin Maker and enjoy. These are the first and more are to come. Images found on the web.

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Newly released/updated for the Caanoo:

GPH Caanoo Software Development Kit for LinuxIt includes:1. EABI Toolchain2. DGE 2.03. DGE Example : 3 Workspace, 34 examples4. Analog-Stick, 3G-Sensor, Haptic_Motor, OpenGL : Drivers & Example CodeUser's guide updated for Linux Users.

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Newly released/updated for the Pandora:

An example app from the fltk source actually quite playable so I packaged it up...

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