DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
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by Published on August 19th, 2011 22:04- Categories:
- PC News
With the latest Windows 8 build (8064) that has been delivered to Intel, it's clear that the company is taking strides to make sure that its upcoming OS isn't quite so easy to pirate. For starters, the generic volume license keys that were so easily exploited during the early days of Windows 7 leaks will no longer be an option for pirates. Product keys also won't be shipped in the prodkey.txt file included in the build packages. Instead, installers will need to retrieve a unique key from a Microsoft web page. There's also a good possibility that the recently-surfaced fast booting patent could come into play as well. If Microsoft does indeed have designs on using a remote server to push OS code to systems at boot time, that code would be a very clever place to embed activation-related programming. Even if a crack was discovered, it would be neatly undone during a subsequent start-up sequence — similar to the way Microsoft's now-idle Windows Steady State could turn back the clock on an entire Windows installation after rebooting."Microsoft has also indirectly confirmed in a recent blog post that Windows 8 will make use of an app store.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/...With-the-Cloud ...by Published on August 19th, 2011 22:02- Categories:
- Android News
Having just announced that it would continue to run Android on its best phones, HTC is now 'needling' Google by making good on 'promises it made earlier in the year to deliver bootloader unlock tools for many of its most popular Android phones,' writes blogger Kevin Fogarty. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, HTC CEO Peter Chou said that HTC views unlocked OSes as a way to encourage both ISVs and owners to get more involved developing apps and mods for the phones. Google, which has been trying to lock Android down more, probably doesn't see it that way."
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/...Its-Own-Phones
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 22:00- Categories:
- PC News
The new iteration of Microsoft's Windows operating system will have a custom App Store.
A post on the Microsoft Developer Network blog lists all of the teams currently at work on Windows 8 features. The list includes App Store, App Compatibility and Device Compatibility, and App Experience.
"You can look at all the comments and see the incredible demand for new features across a very wide range of scenarios," the post reads.
"Folks want new things, and changes to existing things; they want features to be available globally, to be accessible, and to be super high quality; they want things to work on existing hardware, and to take advantage of the latest new hardware. Our job is to get as much done in as short a time as possible, at a very significant scale."
There are currently 35 Windows 8 feature teams - some of which are outside the US - with between 25 and 40 developers working in each one.
Apple has experienced great success from its App Store, with more than 15 billion apps downloaded since its launch three years ago.
In July, rumours surfaced suggesting that Windows 8 will be the last Microsoft Windows OS. The company allegedly wants to introduce a new operating system that will be common across PCs, mobile phones, consoles, and even televisions.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-for-windows-8
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 21:58- Categories:
- PS3 News,
- Nintendo 3DS News
US retailer GameStop has reported that sales of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's 3DS have already jumped after both received recent price cuts.
While the 3DS price cut was larger than expected, president Tony Bartel told investors last night he's encouraged by the growth in hardware - sales of console in the second quarter were down, accounting for only 7.5 per cent of profits.
"We have seen a significant acceleration in the sale of PlayStation 3 and the 3DS," he said. "So we do expect for there to be an increase.
"Although these were not unexpected price decreases or price reductions that we had projected, obviously, the 3DS was somewhat larger than what we had anticipated. But we do see that will spark demand in the third and the fourth quarter."
"That is a good barometer for what is going to take place in terms of the installed base."
Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS this last week with plenty of warning after poor sales, while Sony cut the RRP of the PlayStation 3 with immediate effect this week.
Another US retailer, Target, told our sister site IndustryGamers that it has also seen an "immediate lift"in sales.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-on-price-cuts
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 21:57- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Xbox Live now generates more revenue from transactions than subscriptions, Joystiq reports.
Xbox Live EMEA marketing manager Robin Burrowes confirmed that digital content purhcases are now more lucrative for Microsoft than the Gold membership subscription fee.
Last month, Xbox Live Arcade portfolio director Chris Charla telling GamesIndustry.biz that the average price of a game on XBLA has "crept up", in definace of the "race to the bottom" evident on other digital services.
Burrowes also revealed that 5 million users have been added to Xbox Live since January, fuelled by the launch of the Xbox 360 in nine new countries in late 2010.
"Our audience growth is up to 35 million people globally across those 35 countries on Xbox Live itself," he said.
Burrowes declined to comment on the split between Gold and Silver members. However, in December last year, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Division CEO Dennis Durkin claimed that, "Of our 25 million members, about half of them are subscribers."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-on-xbox-live
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 21:55- Categories:
- PS3 News,
- Xbox 360 News
US retailer GameStop is currently beta testing the streaming of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games, with a plan to roll-out a consumer service by the middle of next year.
Earlier this year the company bought Spawn Labs, extending its peer-to-peer game streaming service into a cloud gaming offering, and promised "a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any internet-enabled device."
Yesterday it revealed that as well as PC game streaming, it is working with publishers to stream console games to smart devices as well as dedicated hardware via the Spawn software client.
"Spawn recently began its first beta and is currently live, testing the streaming of Xbox 360, PS3 and PC games from a data centre in Austin, Texas," confirmed GameStop president Tony Bartel.
The beauty of Spawn is it can take a very large assortment of games. There's really no restriction versus an Xbox 360 and PS3 game.
"We continue to get positive feedback from our publishing partners about the pro-console, low-investment model that we have chosen."
The closed beta will go national before the end of the year. At the beginning of 2012 GameStop is expected to reveal more details about the service and what it offers, along with a pricing model - and a nationwide launch is currently scheduled for the first half of 2012.
The Spawn client will be offered to GameStop's PowerUp Rewards members - currently 12 million customers - and feature a demo service which it's claimed will not require publishers to modify their games.
Cloud gaming technology from Gaikai and OnLive is already proving a viable business, offering PC games and demos over the internet with very little in the way of dedicated hardware beyond the right control method.
Behind closed doors these technologies have also shown format crossover such as World of Warcraft running on an iPad or console and full PC games launching from within Facebook.
And with the growth of Smart and connected TVs, both Gaikai and OnLive are dropping their technologydirectly into the hardware and consulting on dedicated controllers, taking streaming games straight to the consumer's living room - an area that GameStop is also interested in.
"Those conversations are taking place today," offered Bartel. "There's a whole cadre of services that GameStop can offer far beyond just Spawn. The beauty of Spawn is it can take a very large assortment of games. There's really no restriction versus an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game.
"We're also experimenting with PC game delivery as well, but we can take that to any Internet-connected device including TV. So clearly, it's part of our acquisition forethought. We anticipated being involved in smart TVs as well."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-in-early-beta
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 21:53- Categories:
- Nintendo 3DS News
Ubisoft has seen a marked improvement in sales of its 3DS software since the hardware price-cut.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz Germany, Ubisoft's European marketing and sales director Geoffrey Sardin reported an "eight-fold" increase in software sales in Europe.
"We are very pleased with the developement," Sardin noted.
Ralf Wirsing, managing director of Ubisoft Germany, was also pleased, attributing a 700 per cent spike in German software sales to the 3DS price-point of €159.
After the price cut of 3DS, our unit sales increased eight-fold in Europe. We are very pleased with the developement
Geoffrey Sardin, Ubisoft
However, a representative from another major third-party publisher - who wished to remain anonymous - was less enthusiastic, emphasising the importance of first-party titles like Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land to the future of the platform.
"So far retail is not euphoric," he said. "The fact that 3DS-software is still treated with great caution in the initial and repeat orders, we see that retail waits for the commercial development."
"It will be important to watch 3DS when the big Nintendo-titles are out there on holiday season. If the machine does not sell then, it´s definitely dead."
Last week's UK sales chart showed only one 3DS game in the top 40, despite many retailers selling the 3DS at less than half of its launch price.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...software-sales
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 21:51- Categories:
- PC News
Facebook game The Sims Social has debuted with with 4,859,046 million monthly active users after leaving public beta.
842,032 new users have started playing the title today, with 3,665,510 joining in the last week.
The game is published by EA and developed by PlayFish, the social gaming developer acquired by EA in 2009.
"When we created The Sims Social, it was important for us to incorporate the deep gameplay nuances The Sims Studio has perfected and leverage what Playfish does best- develop compelling, cutting-edge social-gaming experiences," said John Earner, GM of Playfish's London Studios.
"Our deep knowledge of the Facebook gaming platform enables us to continue to enable dynamic new features, quests and game updates on a regular basis so The Sims Social remains fresh and fun."
The game has been in development since October, a relatively long time for a Facebook title, and will offer items from advertising partners, such Dunkin' Donuts, in game.
Co-founder and designer with independent developer Honeyslug, and long time Sims player, Nat Marco gave GamesIndustry.biz her expert opinion on the title.
"Unlike other Sims titles, Sims Social moves away from sandbox style gameplay and gives users a much more structured experience. Core elements of the Sims franchise, such as virtual pet-esque avatars and creativity in terms of house building/decorating are all present in simplified Facebook friendly forms," said Marco.
"On the other hand, those who aren't used to Facebook games and are hoping for a more classic Sims experience, might be disappointed. My favourite elements of the Sims have been omitted, such as the ability to have families and the general freedom to play the game however you wish."
Currently Cityville is the most popular Facebook game, with nearly 76,000,000 MAU. At its peak it had over 100 million. CityVille managed 22 million MAU after 11 days live, and The Sims Social seems to be on track to challenge that figure.
The Sims is the best selling PC franchise in history, with over 100 million copies of Sims games sold and a dedicated online community.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...social-article
...by Published on August 19th, 2011 00:47- Categories:
- Playstation Vita News
Vita's 512MB of RAM enables it to run programs in the background while gamers are playing games, Sony has said....
One of those programs is cross-game voice chat via Vita's Party system.
"Part of the reason [for including 512MB of RAM] is more RAM means easier development for game developers," Sony president of Worldwide Studios Shu Yoshida told Eurogamer at Gamescom.
"But as important as that is to allow the PS Vita always to do more while the game is running in the background, or when you switch between the game and other applications or system software functionalities.
"So the reason why we were able to include something like Party, which enables cross-game voice chat, is because we designed Vita so it always has enough resources to handle something like that behind the game while it's running."
At Gamescom Sony revealed the final specifications of Vita, set for launch in Europe in early 2012.
The confirmation of 512MB of RAM ended months of speculation about the power of the machine, speculation sparked by a comment by a developer that appeared to back up murmurings that Sony had halved the amount of memory in Vita.
The RAM reduction rumour began in May when a French source said Sony had lowered the base Wi-Fi Vita model's RAM from 512MB to 256MB to lower the cost of the unit to compete with Nintendo's 3DS.
But according to Yoshida, Sony never even considered cutting the amount of memory powering the portable.
"It has been very funny," he said. "There were some rumours for the last few months. Some developer mentioned the RAM was halved. We never announced the amount of RAM, and we never changed it.
"We've been making games, right, and we've been showing the games, like Uncharted, since January. If RAM gets cut in the middle of development, there's no way we can complete the games. So I was like, what's going on?
"I got lots of Tweets saying, Sony made a huge mistake by reducing the amount of RAM. We never talked about the amount of RAM and we never cut it.
"So going into Gamescom we agreed there was no reason we should hide it, so we just added it to the specifications. We always had 512MB of main RAM and 128MB of V-RAM. Actually when you add them together, PS Vita has more RAM than PS3 [the PS3 has 256MB of XDR DRAM main memory and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory]."
The speculation around Vita's RAM caused some concern over the power of the final version of the machine. Yoshida moved to reassure gamers about this.
"So far we've been getting very positive reactions from our developer and publisher partners," he said. "We could put even more power into the portable, but there has to be a balance made between the size of the unit, the weight and the amount of time you can play. We think we've hit the right balance in terms of creating a great experience on the PS Vita.
"The PS3 provides a full HD experience. The resolution on the PS Vita screen is much lower. Even though it's four times the resolution of PSP, compared to the console, the amount of data you have to push is much smaller. So that works to the advantage of the PS Vita."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...s-512mb-of-ram
by Published on August 19th, 2011 00:39- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
In response to troubling reports that Japanese tech retailers had begun reducing the amount of shelf space they're allotting for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Europe's Chris Lewis confirmed the company has no intention of giving up on the market. "No, of course we're not pulling out," Lewis explained in a recent interview with Eurogamer.
Lewis said that the going is somewhat tough overseas. "It's a challenging market. We are up against very strong competition there." He added, "We're very respectful of what Sony and Nintendo do and where they've come from and what they bring," but thinks the Kinect will help penetrate the nation's motion-control-friendly consumer base. Now, if only they could simultaneously reach the giant mech-combat community as well. Oh wait! They totally are.http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/18/microsoft-responds-to-claims-of-japanese-retailers-phasing-out-3/ ...- Search DCEmu
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita