DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
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by Published on April 14th, 2011 22:21- Categories:
- PC News
If you're part of the dwindling group still using Windows Vista, you'll have to wait until your next upgrade to take IE10 for a spin -- Microsoft has confirmed that the latest version of its browser won't run on its last-gen operating system, either in developer preview form or when the final software ships. While it's tempting to interpret that as an attempt on Microsoft's part to put the widely loathed Vista in its past, there's actually a precedent for this -- remember that Microsoft cut off XP support when it unveiled IE9. As a Microsoft rep told Computerworld, the company would rather not have to develop software for a lowest-common denominator. At least, if you do have to stick with the newly minted IE9, you can be sure you'll be in good company.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/14/m...s-of-ie9-user/
...by Published on April 14th, 2011 22:19- Categories:
- Nintendo Wii News
A 2012 launch for Nintendo's next home console could already be too late, so says industry analyst Michael Pachter....
Following reports today that Nintendo is planning to take the wraps off a successor to the Wii at E3 in June, ahead of a late 2012 launch, a number of industry experts have given Eurogamer their verdict on what we might expect from the system and the challenges that the platform holder will face.
Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter kicked things off, insisting that Nintendo has left it too long to jump into the HD space.
"I think the right time for the console was in front of Kinect and Move, and think that Nintendo has forever lost one customer for each Kinect and Move unit sold," he said.
"That means they should have launched the Wii 2 in Fall 2009, and at the latest in Fall 2010, so a launch in 2011 is late.
"With that said, it's never 'too' late, since they can retain the lion's share of the market by inducing current Wii owners to upgrade, and by capturing undecided consumers who have either not yet purchased a console or who have not yet bought Kinect or Move.
"It's highly likely that there is a Wii 2 reveal at E3," he added. "If they don't do it this year, then it might be too late next year."
M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon agreed that Nintendo needs to act fast.
"Nintendo needs to launch first in the next generation, as Wii is somewhat saturated and the console's low resolution graphics lag in the current generation," he explained. "I expect the next Nintendo console in 2012 at the latest, so a 2011 E3 launch announcement is a strong possibility.
"There will be some risk for Nintendo in the next generation - Wii has a huge installed base and Nintendo should work to keep that base active as long as possible.
"Nintendo has successfully straddled handheld generations, but console succession is far trickier. 'Wii 2' will need to be backwards compatible, as Nintendo is likely to support Wii with software until the next console gains sufficient penetration."
Pidgeon went on to speculate that the new console would pack in better motion control and possibly even a Kinect-esque tracking camera.
"The next Nintendo console is likely to have improved motion control and to include video camera tech, but I'd be disappointed if it didn't have some off-the-wall innovation that pushes the medium forward in an unforeseen direction.
He also argued that if it hoped to prosper against the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the machine would need to feature a hugely improved online set-up over the Wii's much maligned efforts.
"With Wii and with handhelds, Nintendo doesn't compete with other vendors on hardware. In fact, Nintendo leads with hardware control and user interface.
"However, Nintendo must step up and compete in the online console marketplace and multiplayer experience, where Microsoft and Sony are performing strongly. Connected devices' online experience should lead, rather than follow, the hardware's capabilities."
EEDAR VP Jesse Divnich was more cautious with his predictions but agreed that a late 2012 launch was likely.
"Unfortunately I cannot speculate on what a Wii 2 will have. I literally have no information on it, so anything I speculate will surely be wrong.
"But I can say this. Nintendo doesn't go with the flow, they never have, and gamers can expect Nintendo to continue to be original and offer up an experience that simply cannot be found or matched on other platforms.
"But if you want to use some historical information. Nintendo announced the Revolution, later renamed the Wii, at their 2005 E3 press conference, a full year and half from its official release. So a Wii 2 announcement certainly wouldn't be a shocker if they plan for a 2012 holiday release."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...aunch-too-lateby Published on April 14th, 2011 21:56- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Microsoft today released an update for the Xbox 360 which brings Kinect support for the popular Netflix application. Users will be prompted to upgrade the next time they start up Netflix."Finally, a remote that my 3-year-old can't hide.
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/st...rt-For-Netflix ...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:54- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
A real breakthough in AI allows a simple video camera and almost any machine to track objects in its view. All you have to do is draw a box around the object you want to track and the software learns what it looks like at different angles and under different lighting conditions as it tracks it. This means no training phase — you show it the object and it tracks it. And it seems to work really well!
The really good news is that the software has been released as open source so we can all try it out! This is how AI should work.http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/04...ct-Recognition ...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:53- Categories:
- Android News
InfoWorld's Neil McAllister test-drives Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0 and finds its shortcomings too sweeping to be chalked up to beta status. 'The worst part is the player's inconsistent behavior. This gets really frustrating when there's lots of HTML and Flash content mixed on a Web page. The UI turns into a tug-of-war between the browser and the Flash Player, where each touch produces varying effects, seemingly at random,' McAllister writes. 'As far as I could tell, there was one thing and one thing only that the Flash Player for Android 3.0 accomplished successfully. On the stock Android browser, Flash content is invisible, so you don't notice Flash-based advertising. With the Flash Player installed, however, all those ads suddenly appear where once there were none, their animated graphics leaping and scuttling under your fingertips like cockroaches on a dinner tray — some achievement.'"http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/...ils-To-Impress ...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:52- Categories:
- DCEmu
Activision's Dan Winters, head of developer relations, has spoken out about what he feels are misconceptions of the company's image, telling GamesIndustry.biz that it's not so long since his company was the plucky underdog.
Winters' comments come as part of an exclusive interview about the general state of play at Activision, in which he is keen to point out that the company has a great deal of respect for developers, something he hopes is reflected in public perceptions of the publisher.
"I would like to think that we spend a lot of time, and I individually spend a lot of time thinking of ways to reach out to the development community and show that we have respect and complete admiration for what they do on a daily basis," Winters argued. "I hope that there aren't any hard feelings and I hope there isn't any reluctance - I've certainly not felt it directly.
Before our merger with Blizzard we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two.
Dan Winters, Activision
"A business is a tough thing to manage on a number of different fronts, especially when you're dealing with a creative community like video games or interactive entertainment. Any time that I do hear anything of concern I do try to dispel it. The overall message that I would love people to get out of any time they actually get detailed information about us or my personal approach is that we have admiration and respect for the talent in this industry.
"We recognise that the success we've had as a company comes from the talent of those individuals and those teams. We would like to think that we're able to compliment that talent and high-quality product with the ability to move things through the right channels, and that's great, I think that's part of our magic sauce. But without really high quality product, and without the passion and talent behind it, we recognise that the business is only the business. I hope there's no reluctance, I certainly haven't felt it directly."
Recently, in an interview in Edge magazine, three high level ex-Bizarre Creations staff spoke about their experience during the notice period and subsequent closure of that studio by Activision. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there was an impression that the process had been handled with a sensitivity and tact, with the offer sitting on the table to buy back the studio as an independent concern.
"I'm sorry that people were surprised by that," Winters responded when the interview was raised. "With all of our internal studios we have built a process, Bobby [Kotick, CEO] has really done this directly himself, built a process for the independent developer model, that allows them to retain their own culture, their own visibility, their own leadership, really to drive the stewards of the brands. I think those are important pieces of ownership, as it's loosely defined.
"I think that's an important part of people coming in and having a passion and being able to exercise that passion as opposed to going in and being called publisher's name plus location. That takes some of the individuality away from that studio, and maybe some of their ability to personalise, to put in passion and ownership into their studio process. So I think we've done a good job of that through the years."
A large part of the negative perception of Activision's behaviour doubtless comes from its success. As Winters points out, it's wasn't too long ago that EA was sitting in Activision's current position: number one in terms of revenue, and wearing the heavy badge of the 'Evil Empire'.
"It's interesting, before our merger with Blizzard, becoming the number one publisher from a revenue perspective, we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two. As soon as we become the number one and we develop broader perspectives, perceptions started to change a little bit.
"We've worked very hard, and continue to do so, to let people know that, you know, we're the same guys, we really are. We haven't changed! I'm the same guy that I was before the merger, as are most of us. We're the same organisation. We haven't gone out and hired 3000 people. Our ability to scale and move quickly is the same as it was before. We're not this big, monolithic empire that's making decisions in a dark room, we're still very collaborative. We still have the same healthy respect and appreciation for talent that we ever did."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...olithic-empire
...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:50- Categories:
- PSP News,
- PS3 News,
- PS2 News,
- Nintendo DS News,
- Nintendo 3DS News,
- Nintendo Wii News,
- Xbox 360 News
D3Publisher's Earth Defense Force franchise has earned itself another Japanese number one this week, although it does so with just 64,000 unit sales and amidst little competition.
The PSP title is a version of PlayStation 2 game Chikyuu Boueigun 2, which was never released in North America and only in Europe as Global Defence Force. However, it is the best regarded of the series by fans and part of a push by D3Publisher to promote other new entries in the franchise.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional on the Nintendo DS sold just 42,000 units at number two in the charts, with third-placed dating simulator Amagami selling just 24,000 units.
The only other new entry in the top ten is manga and anime tie-in Kimi ni Todoke: Tsutaeru Kimochi, which sold 11,000 in its debut at number seven. Number 10 title Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity on PSP sold just 9,000 units to secure its place in the top 10.
There is some positive news for the 3DS format though, with one of the three versions of nintendogs + cats returning to the top 10 at number eight. The system is unlikely to see a significant boost though until next week, when Pilotwings Resort is released.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...umber-one-spot ...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:48- Categories:
- PSP News,
- PS3 News,
- PS2 News,
- Nintendo DS News,
- Nintendo 3DS News,
- Nintendo Wii News,
- Xbox 360 News
The PSP has again outsold the 3DS in Japan, with sales of Nintendo's new handheld dropping by 10,000 units to just 32,910.
All formats have seen a drop though in what has been a very slow week for the market in Japan, with the best-selling software title recording just 64,000 unit sales.
According to data obtained by Andriasang, sales of the PSP-3000 alone dropped by almost 22,000 in just the space of the week, to a total of 35,478. Combined sales with 356 units of the PSPgo stood at 35,834.
The PlayStation 3 experienced a drop of 5000 units to 22,431, but remained easily the best-selling home format. Wii sales fell by around 1500 units, dropping to a four digit total of just 8825.
The Nintendo DS family of consoles sold 16,935 units in total (DSi XL: 8386, DSi: 8035, DS Lite: 514) - a drop of just over 2000 units. The PlayStation 2 was down a few hundred to 1395, but the Xbox 360 was up slightly to 1906.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...again-in-japan
...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:46- Categories:
- DCEmu
A report by tech industry analysts Gartner believes that half of all organisations which 'manage innovation processes' will gamify those processes by 2015.
The study concludes that gamification in marketing and customer retention programs will be "more important than Facebook" by 2014, citing programs such as the DWP's Idea Street and recruitment tool America's Army as prime examples of the process.
"Gamification describes the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change," said Gartner analyst Brian Burke.
"Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization."
Key points of gamification were identified in the study, which splits the advantages of the process into the four distinct branches of accelerated feedback cycles; clear goals and rules of play; compelling narrative and a successful challenge/achievement balance.
"Where games traditionally model the real world, organizations must now take the opportunity for their real world to emulate games," added Burke. "Enterprise architects must be ready to contribute to gamification strategy formulation and should try at least one gaming exercise as part of their enterprise context planning efforts this year."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...on-on-the-rise
...by Published on April 14th, 2011 21:43- Categories:
- Nintendo Wii News
Following speculative comments from analystsreported earlier today, Game Informer has stepped up citing 'multiple sources' that claim Nintendo will indeed announce a new console this summer.
According to these anonymous sources, Nintendo is preparing to make the announcement at E3 in June 'if not sooner'. They also claim it will be a HD console comparable in power to Xbox 360 and PS3, although GI notes that it's unclear if it'll surpass or fall short of those consoles in terms of processing power.
According to the report, the system is headed for a late 2012 release, but Nintendo is already showing the console to third-party firms in an extra effort to drum up interest and offer plenty of time for development of launch games.
"Nintendo is doing this one right," GI quotes one source as saying, in regards to its support of third party firms on the new machine after being criticised for its lacking support of third parties with Wii and DS.
"[It's] not a gimmick like the Wii," they also added, although they shared no further information on any other features - whether it will be backwards compatible with Wii games, how it will support online and, crucially, how its controller will work.
Elsewhere, Kotaku says it's "heard" the new Nintendo console will be more powerful than the current-gen systems.
Nintendo has issued 'no comment' statements in regards to the rumours, although it apparently signed off an email to GI with "Stay tuned".
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