PrimeSense, the company which developed the technology behind Microsoft's Kinect sensor, has released open-source drivers for the camera used in the device and founded an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Natural Interaction devices.

OpenNI, the organisation founded by PrimeSense, has released OpenNI Framework – an open source development kit which includes an API designed to program for the use of Natural Interaction devices.

Middleware included in the package allows users to develop software both for the camera used in Kinect and PrimeSense's own PDSK 5.0 unit, Next-Gen.biz reports.

Kinect was hacked into performing any number of interesting different tasks shortly after it was released, with a group of MIT alumni offering prize money for the first team to demonstrate a successful hack.

It's thought that the plethora of applications which various hacks have opened up for Kinect have accelerated the release of the open-source material, which PrimeSense had always said it would make available.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ect-technology ...

Sales of boxed software, hardware and accessories were up during November in the US by 8 per cent, the first rise in the market for seven months.

The market generated $2.99 billion in revenues, up from $2.76 billion for the same month last year. Year to date sales are $14.73 billion, 5 per cent down on 2009.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 1.37 million units during the month, up 68 per cent, while Bloomberg reports the PlayStation 3 sold 530,000 units, down 25 per cent on last year.

Nintendo's Wii sales were up marginally at less than 1 per cent to 1.27 million units, and the DS family of consoles moved 1.5 million units. Overall hardware sales were up 2 per cent during November, pulling in revenues of $1.08 billion.

Software was up 3 per cent for the month, with Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops dominating sales and shifting 8.4 million units - one in four of every new boxed game sold.

Ubisoft also scored hits with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Just Dance 2 ranking second and third for the month. NPD also noted that the music genre was up 38 per cent due to sales of Just Dance and Dance Central.

Microsoft's Kinect helped push peripheral sales up a massive 69 per cent according to NPD, and with less than a month on sale has already become the best-selling accessory of the year.

The best selling US games for November follow:

01 Call of Duty: Black Ops
02 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
03 Just Dance 2
04 Madden NFL 11
05 Fable III
06 Donkey Kong Country Returns
07 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
08 Gran Turismo 5
09 NBA 2K11
10 Wii Fit Plus

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-month-decline ...

A whopping 17 million people have walked the virtual streets of PlayStation Home, Sony has announced.

Mind you, it's free - perhaps the real story is that the remaining 22.2 million people with a PS3 haven't.

The numbers come on this, PlayStation Home's second birthday. A comparison chart between now and then, 2008 - launch of the open beta - has been posted on the US PlayStation Blog.

Then, Home had 0.2 million users; now, 17 million. Then, there were nine games to play; now, 236 games. Then, 114 virtual items; now, 7000. Then, 25 events; now, 600.

In January 2009, Sony announced that 10 million gamers inhabited PlayStation Home. How exactly this is measured - client downloads, avatars created - isn't mentioned.

Today, PlayStation Home is a fundamentally different place to the world and service Phil Harrison announced at the Game Developers Conference in early 2007. What was once to become an elaborate extrapolation of Achievements on Xbox Live has spiralled into an enormous world - a game in its own right.

Take Novus Prime as an example: it's a multiplayer space shooter where people can defend a space station, customise ships and partake in huge battles. Or there's the carnival area of Midway 2, where hundreds of games await your attention.

To that end, Sony plans much more of the same for 2011.

Conspiracy, available in January and made by Jet Set Games, will be a 3D multiplayer game that involves stealing from the enemy. And then in spring, PlayStation Home veteran Outso will deliver Sodium 2, with more customisable jet racers, faster speeds and louder songs.

Incidentally, PlayStation Home is still considered by Sony to be in beta.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-by-17-million ...

via http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ond-hand-games

Gigantic online shop Amazon will pay for your old games.

Box-up Medal of Honor, print out a special pre-paid delivery label and send your item off and in return you'll get an £23 Amazon Gift Card credited to your account. Do the same for Just Dance 2 and get £15. Repeat for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and get £28.

Once your old game has been received, Amazon will email you to say yes, you can have the money or no, your game was broken we're sending it back. The latter can take up to two weeks. And in some cases, faulty goods may be thrown away.

If you get a yes, the money will be credited immediately.

Note that Amazon will only accept up to three game trade-ins from you in three months - a limit that seems very low.

There's a FAQ to allay your fears on the Amazon website.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...200551740#fees ...

Why does Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, get special dispensation from Sony when he makes a game? Because each main Gran Turismo release has sold roughly 10 million copies - or more.

The best of the bunch is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, released 2001, with a gargantuan 14.80 million copies sold worldwide.

Gran Turismo 4 and the original Gran Turismo are almost neck-and-neck behind GT3, with 10.86 million and 10.81 million sales each, respectively.

Yamauchi's second game, Gran Turismo 2, didn't quite make it past 10 million sales, but finished close with 9.34 million sales.

Gran Turismo 5, the most recent instalment, has now shipped 5.5 million units.

Those are the core releases. Preceding the fifth game was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 2008, which shifted a significant 4.81 million copies. In contrast, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue sold 1.34 million copies.

There's an interesting geographical twist to the figures, too. Whereas record holder Gran Turismo 3 sold the most copies in America (7.14 million), every other Gran Turismo has done bigger business in Europe - barring GT2, which narrowly sold more in the US.

Typically, Yamauchi has opted for lower numbers of cars when launching on new PlayStation hardware: PSone debutant Gran Turismo 1 had 178 cars (according to Wikipedia), a figure Gran Turismo 2 took to 650; PS2 debutant Gran Turismo 3 had 180 cars, a figure Gran Turismo 4 bumped to 722.

Gran Turismo 5, however, bucks that trend like a steroid-pumped donkey, with a whopping roster of 1031 cars. I dread to think what Yamauchi will insist goes in to Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo lifetime sales are below:

Gran Turismo (PSone 1998) - Europe: 4.27m, US: 3.98m, Japan: 2.55m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo 2 (PSone 2000) - US: 3.96, Europe: 3.65, Japan: 1.171, Asia: 0.02m
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (PS2 2001) - US: 7.14m, Europe: 5.76m, Japan: 1.89m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo (PS2 2002) - Europe: 0.94m, Japan: 0.43m, Asia: 0.13m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (PS2 2004) - Japan: 0.79m, Europe: 0.39, Asia: 0.16m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2 2005) - Europe: 6.40m, US: 3.02m, Japan: 1.27m, Asia: 0.17m
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3 2008) - Europe: 3.04m, US: 1.13m, Japan: 0.53m, Asia: 0.11m
Gran Tursimo (PSP 2009) - Europe: 1.19m, US: 0.67m, Japan: 0.32m, Asia: 0.04m
Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 2010) - Europe: 3.56m, US: 1.25m, Japan: 0.55m, Asia: 0.16m

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...game-sold-most ...

Why does Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, get special dispensation from Sony when he makes a game? Because each main Gran Turismo release has sold roughly 10 million copies - or more.

The best of the bunch is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, released 2001, with a gargantuan 14.80 million copies sold worldwide.

Gran Turismo 4 and the original Gran Turismo are almost neck-and-neck behind GT3, with 10.86 million and 10.81 million sales each, respectively.

Yamauchi's second game, Gran Turismo 2, didn't quite make it past 10 million sales, but finished close with 9.34 million sales.

Gran Turismo 5, the most recent instalment, has now shipped 5.5 million units.

Those are the core releases. Preceding the fifth game was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 2008, which shifted a significant 4.81 million copies. In contrast, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue sold 1.34 million copies.

There's an interesting geographical twist to the figures, too. Whereas record holder Gran Turismo 3 sold the most copies in America (7.14 million), every other Gran Turismo has done bigger business in Europe - barring GT2, which narrowly sold more in the US.

Typically, Yamauchi has opted for lower numbers of cars when launching on new PlayStation hardware: PSone debutant Gran Turismo 1 had 178 cars (according to Wikipedia), a figure Gran Turismo 2 took to 650; PS2 debutant Gran Turismo 3 had 180 cars, a figure Gran Turismo 4 bumped to 722.

Gran Turismo 5, however, bucks that trend like a steroid-pumped donkey, with a whopping roster of 1031 cars. I dread to think what Yamauchi will insist goes in to Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo lifetime sales are below:

Gran Turismo (PSone 1998) - Europe: 4.27m, US: 3.98m, Japan: 2.55m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo 2 (PSone 2000) - US: 3.96, Europe: 3.65, Japan: 1.171, Asia: 0.02m
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (PS2 2001) - US: 7.14m, Europe: 5.76m, Japan: 1.89m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo (PS2 2002) - Europe: 0.94m, Japan: 0.43m, Asia: 0.13m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (PS2 2004) - Japan: 0.79m, Europe: 0.39, Asia: 0.16m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2 2005) - Europe: 6.40m, US: 3.02m, Japan: 1.27m, Asia: 0.17m
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3 2008) - Europe: 3.04m, US: 1.13m, Japan: 0.53m, Asia: 0.11m
Gran Tursimo (PSP 2009) - Europe: 1.19m, US: 0.67m, Japan: 0.32m, Asia: 0.04m
Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 2010) - Europe: 3.56m, US: 1.25m, Japan: 0.55m, Asia: 0.16m

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...game-sold-most ...

Why does Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, get special dispensation from Sony when he makes a game? Because each main Gran Turismo release has sold roughly 10 million copies - or more.

The best of the bunch is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, released 2001, with a gargantuan 14.80 million copies sold worldwide.

Gran Turismo 4 and the original Gran Turismo are almost neck-and-neck behind GT3, with 10.86 million and 10.81 million sales each, respectively.

Yamauchi's second game, Gran Turismo 2, didn't quite make it past 10 million sales, but finished close with 9.34 million sales.

Gran Turismo 5, the most recent instalment, has now shipped 5.5 million units.

Those are the core releases. Preceding the fifth game was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 2008, which shifted a significant 4.81 million copies. In contrast, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue sold 1.34 million copies.

There's an interesting geographical twist to the figures, too. Whereas record holder Gran Turismo 3 sold the most copies in America (7.14 million), every other Gran Turismo has done bigger business in Europe - barring GT2, which narrowly sold more in the US.

Typically, Yamauchi has opted for lower numbers of cars when launching on new PlayStation hardware: PSone debutant Gran Turismo 1 had 178 cars (according to Wikipedia), a figure Gran Turismo 2 took to 650; PS2 debutant Gran Turismo 3 had 180 cars, a figure Gran Turismo 4 bumped to 722.

Gran Turismo 5, however, bucks that trend like a steroid-pumped donkey, with a whopping roster of 1031 cars. I dread to think what Yamauchi will insist goes in to Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo lifetime sales are below:

Gran Turismo (PSone 1998) - Europe: 4.27m, US: 3.98m, Japan: 2.55m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo 2 (PSone 2000) - US: 3.96, Europe: 3.65, Japan: 1.171, Asia: 0.02m
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (PS2 2001) - US: 7.14m, Europe: 5.76m, Japan: 1.89m, Asia: 0.01m
Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo (PS2 2002) - Europe: 0.94m, Japan: 0.43m, Asia: 0.13m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (PS2 2004) - Japan: 0.79m, Europe: 0.39, Asia: 0.16m, US: N/A
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2 2005) - Europe: 6.40m, US: 3.02m, Japan: 1.27m, Asia: 0.17m
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3 2008) - Europe: 3.04m, US: 1.13m, Japan: 0.53m, Asia: 0.11m
Gran Tursimo (PSP 2009) - Europe: 1.19m, US: 0.67m, Japan: 0.32m, Asia: 0.04m
Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 2010) - Europe: 3.56m, US: 1.25m, Japan: 0.55m, Asia: 0.16m

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...game-sold-most ...

Metronome 1.3 released by Westy92

This is the first metronome ever coded for the Wii game system. This application will help you keep a tempo while practicing an instrument.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Metronome ...

BoltThrower Demo v0.01 by Titmouse

Ver 0.12 - 08/12/2010

Added missle hits
Added Spore spinny things
Bad ships go boom

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/BoltThrower ...