DCEmu Featured News Articles

Whether they annoy you or fulfill your nerdy collection habit, achievements have spread across the gaming landscape and are here to stay. The Xbox Engineering blog recently posted a glimpse into the creation of the Xbox 360 achievement system, discussing how achievements work at a software level, and even showing a brief snippet of code. They also mention some of the decisions they struggled with while creating them:
"We are proud of the consistency you find across all games. You have one friends list, every game supports voice chat, etc. But we also like to give game designers room to come up with new and interesting ways to entertain. That trade-off was at the heart of the original decision we made to not give any indication that a new achievement had been awarded. Some people argued that gamers wouldn't want toast popping up in the heat of battle and that game designers would want to use their own visual style to present achievements. Others argued for consistency and for reducing the work required of game developers. In the end we added the notification popup and its happy beep, which turned out to be the right decision, but for a long time it was anything but obvious."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...an-Achievement ...

Also unveiled is the much-rumoured cheaper model of the new Xbox 360 S. The £149.99 (€199.99 / $199.99) console will include 4GB of built-in flash memory instead of a hard drive, and will sport a matte finish rather than the glossy shell of its bigger brother.

Onboard wi-fi remains, and the console is officially known as the Xbox 360 4GB. It will be available at retail from August 20 in the UK and August 3 in the US.

A bundle containing Kinect, the Xbox 360 4GB and Kinect Adventures will be released in tandem with the seperate Kinect launch this winter. The package will sell for £249.99 ($299.99).

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...xbox-is-GBP150 ...

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has adjusted his assertion that Call of Duty multiplayer will move to a paid model by the end of the year, following yesterday's claims to the contrary by publisher Activision.

However, he remained sure that claims that the company is planning on finding new revenue models for its multiplayer games - potentially with an opt-in premium model rather than a subscription.

"I don't want to call out any of the blog posts or tweets or statements to IGN as untruthful," he told GamesIndustry.biz today.

"Rather, I think that they probably are true: Activision won't require people to play for multiplayer, but I think that they will find a way to offer a premium experience for a fee, whether that takes the form of subscription, pay-as-you-go, microtransactions for virtual goods, tournament fees or some combination."

He pointed to the publisher's history and particularly comments by CEO Bobby Kotick as a strong hint of its future intentions. "I am confident that the company will continue to move in the direction of extracting more revenue from gamers.

"In my view, Activision is motivated to charge for multiplayer, has a window of opportunity to do so, and can extract greater profits if it imposes a charge. It makes logical sense (to me at least) that given their motivation and opportunity, coupled with their past behaviour, they will charge in the future. Call of Duty is the most likely candidate due to the large number of users."

Pachter was also sure that any monetisation of Call of Duty's multiplayer would not harm its profits. "Some consumers will likely revolt, but giving full credit that the blogs, tweets and statements are true, virtually everyone will be able to continue to play for free, and only those who wish a premium experience will pay for it, with an opt-in model.

"I think that this is the most fair way to approach extracting value, and yes, I think it will be successful."

The analyst did, however, observe that while he considered multiplayer charges to be a financially sound move, he was not otherwise an advocate of them.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-model-article ...

Activision Blizzard and Infinity Ward have batted away talk of plans to introduce a paid subscription model to current or upcoming Call of Duty games.

A mysterious player video appeared yesterday, which showed references to membership over the top of a Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer session.

While a publisher retroactively adding an additional cost to an existing game seemed highly unlikely, many saw it as the actualisation of recent comments by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick that he would like to introduce subscriptions to Call of Duty.

Additionally, Webdush analyst Michael Pachter predicted earlier this week that Call of Duty would move to a paid multiplayer model by the end of the year. However, Activision has claimed there are no such plans.

Activision's Dan Amrich dismissed the video as a "glitch", which had caused an Xbox Live subscription page to appear in Modern Warfare 2. "It's not a secret portal to some nefarious plot to charge people for COD multiplayer - and there are no plans to do that."

Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling – who has resisted joining his former comrades at Respawn – added on Twitter, "For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they."

On his own blog, he elaborated that "No such plan exists for this or any other Call of Duty (including the upcoming Black Ops)." Whether this also encompasses unannounced titles is unclear.

Further corroboration of the claims came in the form of an official Activision statement to IGN. "Reports of a subscription membership in Modern Warfare 2 are not true. Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer."

Whether all this entirely defuses suspicion and speculation remains to be seen. Kotick recently expressed some frustration with Xbox Live, again hinting that he was keen to move to a direct-to-Activision subscription.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...d-subscription ...

Eleven states have banded together to support California's attempt to reintroduce legislation restricting the sale of videogames to minors.

While the law was thrown out by an appeals court, its next and final port of call is the Supreme Court. Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Virginia and Texas are all now on-board.

Website Gamasutra has seen a brief of the 12-state alliance's intentions, which claims that the need to "prevent minors from buying or renting without parental approval a defined class of video games which invite players to commit digital homicide, torture, and rape" is permissible under the first amendment, despite previous court decisions to the contrary.

Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal explained his state's support for the bill, accusing the games industry of having no self-regulation but seemingly unaware of the ESRB. "Protecting children from digital danger requires proactive parents - but they need and deserve help.

"The videogame industry should act responsibly - play nice, not nasty - and agree to sensible self-imposed restrictions that block children from buying the most violent games. I am calling on the videogame industry to follow the leadership of the motion picture industry, which sensibly stops unattended children from viewing violent or graphic movies."

Senior figures in the US videogame industry are deeply concerned about the potential law, fearing that major chains such as Wal-Mart would outright refuse to stock adult-rated games.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-restrictions ...

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich says the £129.99 ($149.99 in US) asking price of Microsoft's Kinect peripheral is "appropriate".

Disagreeing with comments from Wedbush man Michael Pachter, who reckons Kinect is "too expensive", Divnich thinks the device still has the potential to sell to the masses considering "previous peripherals with mass-market appeal, such as band kits, have sold millions of units worldwide even while priced north of $150."

Divnich notes that said band kits were only for use with one game at release, and restricted to the music genre, while Kinect has a far broader use and potential shelf life.

"Kinect should not be viewed as a typical video game peripheral that is retired from one's active playlist after 90 days, but rather a consumer enabling device that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with all forms of media on a daily basis," he said, adding that it's "crucial to rekindling the energy among the casual and mainstream audience, the same audience that has exacerbated software revenue declines since 2009."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Industry analyst Michael Pachter has claimed that the price of the standalone Kinect peripheral for Xbox 360 is too high to win over the hardcore - but that Microsoft can afford to cut it in future.

However, Pachter said he expected the device to be "moderately successful" - but without troubling the casual market dominance of Nintendo's Wii.

Microsoft announced pricing for Kinect earlier today, with the standalone device (plus Kinect Adventures) at £129.99 for the UK and $149.99 for the US.

It also announced a new 4GB Xbox 360 'S' console for £149.99. Kinect and Kinect Adventures are to be bundled with the hardware for £249.99, or $299.99 in the US.

"The Kinect bundle costs only $100 more than the cost of a standalone console, so they can afford to sell Kinect for $100," Pachter told CVG.

"[Also] the standalone price for Kinect is too high, and core gamers will be put off by the price. My bias is that most core gamers will wait, but that 5 - 10 per cent will buy it. That suggests 2 - 4 million standalone units [sold]."

He added: "The takeaway is that if they can afford to cut price on the [new 250GB Xobx 360 S] console and to bundle Kinect for $100 more, we could see a $349 bundle next year.

"That would provide an advantage over Sony. At current pricing, it's only a $30 advantage, given that the all-in cost for a complete Move package is $180 and the all-in cost of a standalone Kinect is $150.

"I don't see a meaningful threat to the Wii at these prices. The all-in cost of the arcade bundle is $299, still $100 above the Wii, although some people will find that attractive. The all-in cost of the PS3 plus a complete Move package is $479; $399 for the PS3, game, Move and Eye, another $80 for an extra Move and a sub-controller. At this price, it's not particularly competitive with the Wii.

"I think that both Kinect and Move are priced too high to spark the whole industry, but think that both will sell modestly well."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Microsoft product director for Xbox Aaron Greenberg has claimed that Microsoft's Kinect - which has just been given a hefty £130 pricetag - is better value for consumers than Sony's Move peripheral.

Sony announced pricing for Move earlier in the year. It will cost £34.99 for the standalone controller, whilst a PlayStation Move Pack - which includes a PlayStation Move controller, the PlayStation Eye camera and the starter disk which includes the games Beat the Sketcher, Blocks and Echochrome 2 - will set you back £49.99.

The PlayStation Eye camera on its own costs £24.99 and the PlayStation sub-controller on its own will cost £24.99.

"Relative to the competition, we feel like we're in a very envious position," Greenberg told Destructoid.

"If you think about the console bundle as a standalone, what you have to keep in mind is, when you get the console and the sensor and the game, when you add another player to that experience you don't have to buy another wand, another controller, another Nunchuk... It's all included in the experience."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Microsoft product director for Xbox Aaron Greenberg has claimed that Microsoft's Kinect - which has just been given a hefty £130 pricetag - is better value for consumers than Sony's Move peripheral.

Sony announced pricing for Move earlier in the year. It will cost £34.99 for the standalone controller, whilst a PlayStation Move Pack - which includes a PlayStation Move controller, the PlayStation Eye camera and the starter disk which includes the games Beat the Sketcher, Blocks and Echochrome 2 - will set you back £49.99.

The PlayStation Eye camera on its own costs £24.99 and the PlayStation sub-controller on its own will cost £24.99.

"Relative to the competition, we feel like we're in a very envious position," Greenberg told Destructoid.

"If you think about the console bundle as a standalone, what you have to keep in mind is, when you get the console and the sensor and the game, when you add another player to that experience you don't have to buy another wand, another controller, another Nunchuk... It's all included in the experience."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...