Unity CEO David Helgason delivered a crisp response to a question at today's Develop conference about suggestions by Apple boss Steve Jobs that apps and games made with middleware are 'crappy'.
"He doesn't understand the economics of game development fundamentally," said Helgason, saying that pure native code development might work for apps, but not for more complex games.
Unity has been at the centre - along with Adobe - of speculation about Apple's policies on middleware tools, although for now, games created using the Unity SDK are still being approved for distribution on the App Store.
Helgason said consumers should be the arbiters of whether middleware-powered iPhone games are "crappy", and said that the fact that on any given day 10-20% of the top-selling games on the App Store use Unity proves otherwise.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37830...me-development ...

Though the first wave of Kinect titles have demonstrated Microsoft’s new focus on the casual market, UK studio Rare insists there's huge 'core-gamer' potential for the device.
Nick Burton, Kinect development director at Rare, said the current catalogue of Kinect titles are demonstrably "just the first wave" – and the potential for the device is huge.
And when asked if a game like, for example, GoldenEye could work well with Kinect, Burton replied "there are so many possibilities for games like that."
He added: "The [augmented reality] web cam things you’ve seen so far are just the tip of the iceberg. [With Kinect] we could do augmented reality on steroids."
Burton continued to praise Kinect technology, saying that pinpointing a person in a room, targeting their voice, and recreating that on screen is a "trivial" task with Microsoft’s latest controllerless device.

"It’s an afternoon’s worth of code," he said, "and that’s the magic of [Kinect’s] skeletal tracking."
Microsoft’s overall intention with Kinect remains a matter for debate. The company, rooted in a core gamer market, has made big decisions to tailor to the casual. Yet hints of a core-based future, such as the one made today by Burton, continue to emerge.
Rare, now enjoying its 25 year anniversary, has sold over 100 million games since it was established.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...tial-says-Rare ...

The Kinect development director at Rare believes the industry’s principal control mechanism – the joypad – has grown too complex and complicated for the wider market.
Speaking at the fifth annual Develop Conference in Brighton, Nick Burton said Joypads "have become convoluted, they have raised the bar to entry too high."
As an example of his claim, Burton recounted a time when he was playing a videogame with his daughter.
"So my daughter was asking what all the buttons did, and I told her just two were used. She just couldn’t get her head around the fact that the other buttons were redundant."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39996/Rare...too-convoluted ...

2K Senior Producer Denby Grace has said the firm is "excited" about its partnership with Sony for Mafia II, which will see exclusive downloadble content released for the PS3 version.

"We're really excited to announce this sort of partnership with Sony," said Grace. "We're going to be releasing some [PS3-exclusive] DLC at some point," he added, declined to reveal any specifics on exactly what extra treats Sony fans can expect from the developer.

"There's a lot more details to come out in time, all in good time," he told the US PS Blog.

A leaked list of Trophy rewards for the PS3 game have this week sparked speculation that the exclusive DLC will come in the form of a mission pack called 'Jimmy's Vendetta', containing several new missions, and an arcade-style points system. Reports also claim the DLC will be completely free and released on the same day as the game itself on August 27 (August 24 in US).

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

Famitsu’s mid-year sales report for the video games industry in Japan has revealed success for Nintendo in both the software and hardware market.
For the period covering December 28th 2009 to June 27th 2010 New Super Mario Bros emerged as the best selling game, with 1.4m units shifted, bringing its lifetime sales in the territory to nearly 3.9m units.
Other strong performers included Square Enix pair Dragon Quest VI and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and Namco Bandai’s God Eater.
In keeping with the increased popularity of Western games in Japan, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 all made the Top 100.
In the hardware charts DS emerged as the best selling platform, with sales of its various guises reaching a total of just under 1.4m. Very close behind it was the PSP, which continues to flourish in Japan despite its struggles in the West. Its sales to date in 2010 stand at over 1.2m units. Both the Wii and PS3 have failed to hit the 1m unit mark yet in 2010.

Lifetime sales of the Wii are almost exactly double those of PS3, standing at 10.4m. Coincidentally, DS’s lifetime sales of 30.5m are almost exactly double those enjoyed by the PSP.
Here are Famitsu’s numbers in full, as published on NeoGAF:
Hardware Sales:
1. Nintendo DS [DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL] - 1,390,176 / 30,550,765
2. PlayStation Portable [PSP, PSP Go] - 1,243,802 / 14,630,257
3. Nintendo Wii - 934,010 / 10,436,009
4. PlayStation 3 - 827,906 / 5,219,313
5. Xbox 360 - 103,481 / 1,301,354
6. PlayStation 2 - 53,216 / 21,856,978
Software Sales – Top 20:
1. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) - 1,401,895 / 3,887,045
2. [NDS] Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie (Square Enix) - 1,293,916
3. [NDS] Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 (Square Enix) - 1,194,584
4. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) - 1,012,437 / 3,324,385
5. [PSP] Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Square Enix) - 728,286
6. [PSP] Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Capcom) - 727,823
7. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - 695,295 / 1,993,828
8. [WII] Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) - 613,290
9. [PSP] God Eater (Bandai Namco) - 605,316
10. [PS3] Yakuza 4 (Sega) - 552,531
11. [PS3] Hokuto Musou (Tecmo Koei) - 544,807
12. [NDS] Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs (Pokemon) - 475,275
13. [NDS] Pokemon HeartGold/SuperiorSilver (Pokemon) - 393,862 / 3,776,459
14. [NDS] The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo) - 376,054 / 696,994
15. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) - 366,833 / 1,909,639
16. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 329,570 / 2,779,332
17. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [PSP The Best Reprint] (Konami) - 294,446 / 330,591
18. [PS3] Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition (Konami) - 258,961
19. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) - 193,179 / 1,891,435
20. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2 (Level 5) - 186,066 / 1,129,681

Other notable entries:

26. [PS3] Lost Planet 2 (Capcom) - 162,701
29. [PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2 (Sega) - 153,388
30. [PS3] Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope International (Square Enix) - 152,297
31. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Blue Samurai Challenge (Konami) - 141,800
36. [PS3] Super Street Fighter IV (Konami) - 132,664
37. [PS3] NieR Replicant (Square Enix) - 127,649
46. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (Konami) - 97,382 / 211,704
50. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto IV Episodes from Liberty City (Take 2) - 94,399
55. [PS3] God of War III (SCE) - 88,956
58. [360] Monster Hunter Frontier Online (Konami) - 82,490
60. [WII] Pokepark Wii (Nintendo) - 80,204 / 323,279
61. [PS3] Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix) - 79,959 / 244,578
62. [NDS] Quiz Magic Academy DS (Konami) - 74,670
63. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Blue Samurai Challenge (Konami) 74,123
76. [PS3] Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) - 63,469
81. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 60,290 / 3,653,124
84. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (Konami) - 59,399 / 436,739
90. [PS3] Call of Duty Modern Warfare (Square Enix) - 52,115 / 149,028

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40016/JAPA...s-best-sellers ...

Microsoft's efforts to ensure a strong start for its Windows Phone 7 OS continue, with senior director Todd Brix confirming that app developers are being offered financial incentives to support the platform.
According to Business Week, Brix confirmed that those incentives may include free tools and test handsets, but also funds for software development and marketing, with revenue guarantees if apps don't sell as well as expected.
"We are investing a lot to attract developers big and small to Windows Phone 7 to let them understand what the opportunity is and provide as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform," he says.
The interview confirms rumours that have been bubbling in the app developer community for some time now about Microsoft's calculated pursuit of successful iPhone developers in particular.
These developers could be forgiven for taking a wait-and-see approach to Windows Phone 7, which will launch with its first smartphones later this year.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37860...indows-Phone-7 ...

Apple will give away a free bumper to all iPhone users effected by the antenna issues that have led to widespread dropped calls, a move the firm says will solve the problem.
While the news will no doubt come as huge relief to customers, one upshot affecting the trade is that the large number of third party iPhone case manufacturers may now find themselves with less of a market for their own products – depending on how the specifics of the offer pan out next week.
Steve Jobs made the announcement at an impromptu press conference today. Unfortunately only a select few journalists were invited to Apple's headquarters for the announcement – however the below is true according to a number of live bloggers including Mac World, Arstechnica, and the New York Times.
Apple initially did its best to play down the fracas surrounding its iPhone 4 antenna issues, by claiming the dropped reception issue affects a tiny minority of users, with 0.55 per cent of users complaining to AppleCare.
The conference started by playing a YouTube video entitled The iPhone Antenna Song – a video which essentially implied the media have overreacted.

When Steve Jobs emerged, the CEO opened with: "You know, we're not perfect. And phones aren't perfect either. But we want to make all of our users happy. And if you don't know that about Apple, you don't know Apple."
After reeling off some stats about how well the iPhone 4 has performed so early in its life cycle, Jobs went on to say that ever since they heard about the antenna issue, they have "been working our butts off to come up with real solutions."
Jobs appeared to go into remarkable detail on similar antenna issues effecting HTC and Blackberry phones – reiterating the company line that this sort of complaint is common on all mobile phones – as is evident in its leaked complaint procedures.
Admitting the firm knew about the potential problem in development, Jobs claims it was however unavoidable. "We haven't found a way around the laws of physics... yet," he, presumably, joked.
He went on to announce as of next week users would be able to pick a case from the Apple website, and it will be shipped out to them for free.
A particularly emotive Jobs finished his speech, saying: "We love our users. We really love 'em. And we try very hard to surprise and delight them. We work our asses off for them. And it's great. and we have a blast doing it.
"We do all this because we love our users. When we fall short, we try harder. We pick ourselves up, figure out what's wrong, and we try harder. And when we succeed, they reward us by staying our users, and that makes it all worth it."
Earlier this week, the problem gained the attention of the US Government, with Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, reportedly writing to Steve Jobs urging Apple to come up with a "permanent fix" to the problem at no cost to customers.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/34000...h-antenna-gate ...

Apple has promised to send a free case to everyone who has purchased an iPhone 4, and will also bundle a case with devices sold between now and September.
The measure was announced at a press conference today, called by Apple after mounting criticism of iPhone 4's antenna issues.
Apple will also refund people who've already bought one of its official 'bumpers' for their iPhone 4, and offer a full refund to anyone who wants to bring back the handset itself.
CEO Steve Jobs apologised to users for the antenna issues, but nevertheless claimed that loss of reception when the handset is held in a certain way is not unique to iPhone 4.
Indeed, one section of the press conference was set aside for showing videos seeming to show the same problem with the BlackBerry 9700, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia.

"iPhones aren't perfect," said Jobs. "It's a challenge for the entire industry."
He went on to say that 0.55% of iPhone 4 buyers have called Apple's technical support department to complain about reception issues, and only 1.7% of buyers have returned the handset - compared to 6% for the iPhone 3GS at this stage.
Why is Mobile Entertainment writing about this? Well, app developers have been following antennagate closely - they're judging how to allocate their resources in terms of supporting the iPhone 4's specific features, like its Retina Display and gyroscope.
With that in mind, there was another big stat in the press conference: three million iPhone 4s have been sold so far.
That's the addressable base, although it's too early to tell how antennagate - and today's announcements - will affect the sales rate in the coming months.
Those sales will be boosted by the fact that iPhone 4 is going on sale in 17 more countries on July 30th.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37874...iPhone-4-users ...

Capcom has revealed the next title in its long-running and iconic series, Mega Man Universe.

The game was announced by Head of Research and Development Management for Capcom, Keiji Inafune - who also happens to be the original designer of Mega Man and producer of Dead Rising.

"We are thrilled to finally be able to announce Mega Man Universe" said Inafune.

"This game will break the mold and challenge the conventional wisdom of what a Mega Man game can be. When fans finally get to see it, I believe they'll envision their most far-out Mega Man dreams coming true."

The most recent Mega Man titles returned to the series' classic roots by using 8-bit visuals and returning featuring platforming gameplay that was extremely punishing.

What are Ryu and Arthur doing in this Mega Man trailer? The blue bomber may be invading Capcom's other properties if this trailer is any indication.

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