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DCEmu Featured News Articles
by Published on January 1st, 2012 00:12- Categories:
- DCEmu
Google bought Motorola, Nokia tried to regain its mojo, fake Apple stores were discovered in China..
20. NFC - coming whether you want it or not
The history of mobile can be carved up into three eras: voice, messaging, data. And after data, well who knows? But if the combined will of Google, Mastercard, Visa and the world’s operators has any bearing on it, it could be contactless payments. This year has seen a series of remarkable announcements in the field of NFC-based mobile wallets. In the US, the big three operators unveiled their own project, called Isis. In the UK, after Barclaycard and Orange rolled out a service, the big three networks unveiled a cross-operator collaboration. And then, in September, Google actually went live with its own Google Wallet service. Remarkable, given that NFC is present in just a single mainstream Western handset, the Nexus S. To be fair, the emphasis isn’t entirely on payments – Google and the UK opcos are more interested in coupons and advertising – but it’s still bold future-gazing stuff given that one survey in 2011 showed that 91 per cent of consumers have never heard of NFC.
19. The Cloud – coming whether you want it or not
When did server farms in remote Nordic locations become the cloud? And, er, what is the cloud anyway? This year saw two huge announcements bring the cloud into the mainstream. Well, the B2B mainstream anyway. Because it’s pretty obvious the punters haven’t got a clue. Apple confirmed its plan to press ahead with the iCloud system that lets users keep all their music in cyberspace (the stuff they’ve purchased anyway) and have a copy locally too. Then Google did the same, but letting users upload their collections. Then there’s the DNLA consortium, which is trying to give OEMs one standard through which to offer ‘access anywhere’ media on TVs, in-car etc etc. Then there’s Spotify. All are slightly different, and all have distinct business models. Yet they’re all the cloud. It was so much easier when we had external hard drives.
18. Did we all dream the Nokia N9 MeeGo phone?
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In the first series of Happy Days, Richie Cunningham had an older brother called Chuck. The makers soon realised that Chuck wasn’t interesting, and that Fonzie was ‘the one’. So one day Chuck went to his room and was never seen again. In the mobile world, the Nokia N9 is Chuck Cunningham. It’s the lonely MeeGo device deemed surplus to requirements. A handset with no narrative purpose when set against the Arthur Fonzerelli that is WinPho 7. Get an N9 now. Keep it in the box. And save it for Antiques Roadshow.
17. If you've got one I want one too: social gaming
There’s money in coins. Well, of course there’s money in coins. That’s the whole point. This year it was the virtual coinage offered by various social gaming platforms that lit up the M&A columns. As micro-payment surged (app analytics firm Distimo found 49 per cent of the revenue on iPhone apps in 2010 came from in-app purchases), these firms suddenly looked very tempting. After DeNa bought ngmoco in 2010, RIM swooped for Scoreloop and Gree bought OpenFeint.
16. There are other tablets beside iPad. It's just that no one buys them.
When Apple launched the iPad in 2010, people said ‘oh tablets, that’s been tried before. No one will buy them.” They were right. No one would buy tablets. They’d just buy iPads. It’s an exaggeration of course, but the truth is that rivals have tried smaller tablets, cheaper tablets, tablets with 3D – and still Apple rules. Analysts put iPads share as high as 75 per cent. In October, ComScore revealed that 97 per cent of tablet data traffic in the US comes from iPads.
15. Never mind fake iPhones, let's fake an entire Apple Store
China eh? It’s like a foreign country or something. They certainly do things differently there, as one US blogger discovered when she felt there was something weird about the Apple Store in Kunming. There was. It wasn’t one. Your heart bled for the cheery staff who thought Steve Jobs was their boss, not some bloke who could also do you dodgy D&G belts. A month later the BBC unveiled 22 more fake stores. It’s not funny.
14. Barcodes may not be shit
Designers hate the way they look on adverts. Most consumers don’t know what they are. Barcodes are rubbish, aren’t they? Not so fast. In June, 14m Americans scanned mobile barcodes (says Scanbuy), and overall global scans grew 88 per cent in the quarter to May (says I-nigma). Barcodes are everywhere and they are converging around a single (QR) standard. The public is catching on. And when the first codes hit the peachy backsides of Olympic Beach Volleyball players, the mainstream may beckon.
13. Spotify streams into the US
After protracted legal negotiations Spotify finally hit the US this year, and then pulled off a coup by tying up with Facebook. The results were impressive, which must have royally annoyed Real, Napster et al. Spotify now has 2.5m premium subs, roughly half of which come from the US.
12. Here you go, InMobi. Have $200m.
Over the years, we’ve become accustomed to large VC rounds in mobile. And why not? If you’re going to invest in tech firms, then damn right ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:41- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
This year's great platformer nobody bought, Rayman Origins, is just one of the alluring items on sale in GameStop's new year sale. Now you can fix that by totally buying Rayman: Origins for $30. Just a suggestion!
If you're looking to upgrade that crummy launch unit or finally see what this "next gen" is all about, GameStop is also offering a pretty sweet Xbox 360 package. A 250GB Xbox 360 S without Kinect will net shoppers a $75 gift card. If you want Kinect, GameStop has knocked off $20, bringing it down to $129.99.
This GameStop sale lasts until January 3, so you'll need to act relatively quickly. For the full weekly ad, hit up the source link below.
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/weeklyad/...1/default.aspx ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:38- Categories:
- PC News
You tried to be grateful, you really did. But with every Snuggie, Slanket and Opiate-Laced Cuddle Cocoon you opened, it became abundantly clear that you were getting none of the EA PC games you asked Santa for this Christmas.
Luckily, Amazon is there to set this sad situation right, with deeply discounted, digitally delivered diversions like Dead Space 2 ($4.99), Dragon Age 2 ($5.99), Mass Effect 2 ($4.99) and more. See the full list right here, and try to cut Santa some slack, okay? He always gets depressed this week.Amazon’s download deal of the day it to save up to 75% on Electronic Arts Games. There are a number of titles at absolutely silly prices. Check out the highlights below.
- Dead Space 2 – $4.99
- Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition – $8.99
- Dragon Age 2 – $5.99
- Mass Effect 2 – $4.99
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – $9.99
- Mirror’s Edge – $5.99
- Battlefield Bad Company 2 – $5.99
by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:35- Categories:
- Nintendo Wii News
You enter the quiet, overgrown cavern by pushing open the heavy stone door with all your might. Inside, sunlight streams through the broken ceiling, and dust that hasn't been disturbed in hundreds of years lazily floats through the air, shaken up by your entrance. The sunbeams land on the summit of a small set of stairs, where an ornate, red and gold chest sits, teasing and waiting for you to open it.
You do. As you crack open the ancient treasury, a small fanfare plays, starting quietly and then opening up into a triumphant series of simple notes, telling you that you have finally done it. The item you pull out of the centuries-old coffer is fine treasure indeed.
It's a shirt, adorned with some kind of legendary logo, a heart container tag, and the number "25" on the back. It's available in five sizes, for a special one-time only printing. Order now, before February 20, 2012, to get it sometime this May. You fold the shirt into your leather pack, and move on through the dungeon -- who knows what fearsome beast you might have to use this on, three different times, to defeat it?
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/29/le...reasure-for-a/ ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:31- Categories:
- Apple News,
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
GameStop's iOS device trade-in program has been "successful," according to the company. The program, which began in September, allows customers to trade iDevices for hundreds in company credit. GameStop claims customers can receive up to $180 for an iPod Touch, up to $300 for an iPhone and up to $400 for an iPad.
"The velocity of this trade program has exceeded our expectations," said GameStop president Tony Bartel.
The company was unwilling to provide specific sales numbers or details on the program, but informed us it will have more to share with its holiday sales release, which regularly arrives during the first week of the new year. The company also expects to see more iDevice trade-ins as consumers upgrade their Apple products over the holiday.
GameStop is moving ahead and expanding the availability of "refurbished devices" in more stores and online in the coming year.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/29/ga...-expectations/ ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:22- Categories:
- Playstation Vita News
It's hard to set much store by early sales performance, particularly after the evergreen 3DS faced such arocky road. Nevertheless, the Vita's latest stats do look disappointing for such a highly anticipated -- not to mention high-quality -- console: after shifting a remarkable 321,000 units during its first two days on sale in Japan, it could only muster 72,500 in the whole week between December 19th and Christmas Day. In comparison, the PS3 sold 76,000 units during the same period, while the 3DS rang up half a million. This doesn't necessarily reflect a lack of interest, however: there have been stock shortages, and it's also possible that buyers are waiting to make sure that all the launch bugs get cleaned up. As for us, our alarms remain firmly set for February 22nd.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/29/t...uring-first-f/ ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:19- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Austerity means the military can't afford the big-budget training exercises to battle-harden new recruits, so it's relying more on computer simulations. Sadly, Virtual Battlespace 2 can't compete with the Hollywood-style excitement of Modern Warfare. That's why it's buying in game engines from the studios (VB2 was based on tech licensed from the makers of Operation Flashpoint) and cutting out the unrealistic physics -- such as rifle bullets flying three miles and vehicles that don't obey gravity. It's hoped the project will keep the attention of death-match hardened trainees and encourage them to play it in their own time: the team were told that two soldiers learned enough skills to stay alive during combat thanks to marathon sessions in the game. If you've just unwrapped an FPS for the holidays, you can now tell disapproving family members that it's educational.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/29/b...tweaked-games/ ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 23:04- Categories:
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
Your momma always said your handsome mug would take you places. Now it might allow you to access your iPad. An Apple patent application released today describes a facial recognition system that requires minimal computing power, and works whether you're indoors or out -- we don't use our tablets and phones in a photo booth, after all. The technology works by comparing a current image of your mug to a reference model user profile made using "high information" portions of the human face, like eyes and mouths. Translation: it'll take a picture, compare it against the pictures associated with various user accounts on the device and decide if the two images are similar enough to grant you access. Because this is just an application, it's safe to say we won't be seeing this kind of facial recognition in iOS anytime soon, but let's hope it works better than the ICS version if it does.
Update: An important thing to note is that Apple applied for this patent long before Android's Face Unlock debuted a few months back. The paper work was first submitted on June 29th, 2010 -- it's just now being disclosed to the public.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/29/a...to-let-idevic/ ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 22:45- Categories:
- DCEmu
The demise of LA Noire dev Team Bondi was emblematic of a year filled with closures and complaints of crunch.
Closures
The year saw the unwelcome end of a host of developers, kicked off with the demise of much-loved Liverpool studio Bizarre Creations. Parent company Activision recommended it be closed after the commercial failure of Blur left it unable to find a buyer for the studio, and it closed its doors for good in February. It was a busy month for Activision: it also closed its Guitar Hero business unit, causing a rush of job losses and spelling the end for 7 Studios.
Disney was busily swinging the axe too, closing Tron: Evolution developer Propaganda Games and Split/Second studio Black Rock. THQ, meanwhile, closed New York-based Kaos Studios following the lukewarm reception given to Homefront, then did the same to its UK wing Digital Warrington, a Phoenix, Arizona-based developer and two Australian studios, Blue Tongue and THQ Studio Australia.
2011 also meant the end for Hudson Entertainment, MTV Games, three Sony Online Entertainment studios, Game Republic, Fat Princess developer Titan Studios, Bedlam Games and EA's Visceral Studios, with recent reports claiming STALKER dev GSC Game World is also on the brink.
Team Bondi
The Sydney-based developer of the Rockstar-published LA Noire endured a protracted demise. The month after its release in May, former staff painted a picture of excessive, unpaid overtime and questionable leadership from studio head Brendan McNamara, with more than 100 staff who left before the end of the project omitted from the game's credits.
The IGDA said it would investigate the reports, and shortly afterwards it was claimed Rockstar had grown so weary of the studio's lack of direction under McNamara's controversial stewardship that it had washed its hands of the developer, leaving it without a publisher for its LA Noire follow-up. Gameplay lead David Heironymus moved to defend McNamara, writing an open letter to the IGDA in which he insisted that claims of regular 100-hour weeks were wide of the mark and said: "It was not any one person's fault that we weren't making progress."
News that the studio was in acquisition talks with film production company KMM were followed by claims that it had sold its assets and IP to KMM, helmed by Mad Max director George Miller. In early September, it was put into administration: the following month it emerged it was to be closed at the behest of unpaid creditors. Our trawl through documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed that the bulk of those creditors were its own staff, with unpaid wages and bonuses accounting for over 75 per cent of the debt - more than a million Australian dollars - that brought the studio to its knees.
McNamara would later blame inexperience for Team Bondi's woes, saying "we literally took people fresh out of school who had never made a game before." Only those within Team Bondi truly know how much his management style contributed to the studio's untimely demise, but the closure sparked an industry-wide debate on the perils of asking staff to work long hours without guaranteed recompense to ensure a project ships to deadline.
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/2011-round-development ...by Published on December 29th, 2011 22:43- Categories:
- DCEmu
Minecraft's stunning success, bundle overload and other highlights from the year in independent development.
Minecraft
It may have been our 2010 indie game of the year, but last year was merely the beginning for Minecraft. In January, developer Mojang confirmed the game had been bought one million times, just eight months after launch and while still in beta. It was still very much in active development, even though Mojang announced its new project, Scrolls, at GDC in March. At the same event, Minecraft won both the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the IGF Awards.
Peter Molyneux hailed it as "a complete work of genius ... the best thing I've played in the last ten years," and the audience agreed: in April, it hit 1.8 million sales. By this point it had grossed £20 million for Mojang, with charismatic studio head Markus Persson saying: "I try not to look at it ... but there's a big pile somewhere." To celebrate, he announced the game's final release date: November 11. By the end of the month, sales had passed two million.
Its unprecedented success on PC meant that the spread of Minecraft to other platforms was inevitable, and so it proved, with the announcements of releases on iOS, Android - a timed exclusive on Xperia Play - and Xbox Live Arcade, Kinect support included, the port handled by Dundee developer 4J Studios. By the middle of June, sales stood at 2.5 million, total revenue amounting to almost £30 million. A few weeks later it hit 10 million users. It was still in beta.
Mojang then announced Minecon, a Las Vegas convention set for November where Persson would launch the final version of Minecraft on stage. It didn't quite go off without a hitch: there was a brief but very public fallout with Yogscast, the YouTube sensation whose creators told us they deserved some of the credit for Minecraft's success. With Minecraft finally at version 1.0, Persson stood down as lead developer, passing the torch to Jens Bergensten while he moved on to other projects.
It's a true indie success story: four million sales while still in beta, users not only funding but assisting in development of the final product by giving feedback and suggesting new features. It's created a new business model, one that Mojang is following in publishing Cobalt, a side-scrolling action game developed by fellow Swedes Oxeye Game Studio.
Humble Ennui Bundle?
While the first two Humble Indie Bundles were released last year, 2011 saw the pay-what-you-want indie promotion become one of the most immediately lucrative business models available to independent developers. All games in the promotions are DRM-free and compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux, with buyers able to stipulate how they would like their payment to be split between the developers involved, the bundle's organisers and charities EFF and Child's Play.
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/2011-round-indies ...
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita