“In all of the games we will be releasing going forward, some kind of multiplayer element will be incorporated one way or another,” Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square Enix, said to Forbes. "What we will encourage them to do is to incorporate some kind of multiplayer element even in single player games."

In addition to games like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Front Mission Evolved, both of which are natural fits for multiplayer game design, Square Enix has been adding mulitplayer elements to their RPGs for the past few years.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has a Monster Hunter Freedom-esque ad-hoc mode. Dragon Quest IX has local Wi-Fi and tag mode, an option where players can passively share treasure maps. And Final Fantasy XIV will follow in the footsteps of Final Fantasy XI, a full-blown MMORPG.

Interestingly, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one of the most talked about games in Square Enix’s lineup, has no multiplayer modes. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is strictly a single player game.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/06/23...n-their-games/ ...

Activision chief operating officer Thomas Tippl has said he is "concerned" about the high price of the new Kinect and Move motion control systems.

"I think as a publisher, you have to be concerned about how the price drives a lot of the outcome of how big of an install base there's going to be [for hardware]," he told website Gamasutra.

"The bigger the install base, the more likely that you can make sense out of your investment. So, the lower the price, the better. In this economic environment, it's probably more important than ever," he added.

Although no official price for Kinect has been announced, it now seems increasingly likely that it will cost $150 in the US. The basic Move controller is priced at $50 but also requires a PlayStation Eye camera and Navigation Controller for full functionality - resulting in a total cost of around $120.

"A lot of that will depend on the price point they choose," Tippl said in reference to the potential success of the controllers.

"We have a few franchises where we think this could be an interesting value to improve the experience for the player. Tony Hawk is an example. We have our Rapala Fishing franchise. But it's not going to be something that will be in every game, because I don't think it's one size fits all. It's not going to enhance the experience for every game," he added.

Activision has historically been very wary of supporting first party motion controllers, with almost no major titles aimed at the market-leading Wii.

Instead the publisher has concentrated on creating its own bespoke, and often expensive, controllers for games such as Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk: Ride.

Having taken the role of COO in March, Tippl has been particularly prominent in the wake of E3, yesterday admitting that Activision's reputation with core gamers had become tarnished and that greater efforts would be made to engage with such fans.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...inect-and-move ...

Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox 360 S console at E3 this month, and without delay the new machine has been dissected and tested. The most dramatic change is the move to a single-chip CPU/GPU hybrid processor that is apparently being built on the 45nm process technology from GlobalFoundries, AMD's spun-off production facilities. With the inclusion of the new processor, the Xbox 360 S uses much less power (about 30-40%) compared to previous generation machines, and also turns out to be much quieter as a result of a single, larger fan. This article has photographic evidence of the teardown, with comparisons between this Valhalla platform and the older Falcon system, along with videos of the reconstruction process and noise comparisons."
The new console also takes measures to protect itself from overheating, so RRoDs shouldn't be a problem with this revision.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...kes-Less-Noise ...

The GPU for the Nintendo 3DS has just been revealed, and it's not made by Nvidia, ATI, or even Imagination Technologies. Instead, Nintendo has signed up Japanese startup Digital Media Professionals (DMP) in a deal that sees the company's PICA200 chip churning out the 3-D visuals. For the first time in Nintendo's history, the 3DS will feature a GPU with programmable shaders, rather than a fixed-function pipeline, meaning the 3DS is more graphically versatile than the Wii. Among the PICA200's features are 2x anti-aliasing, per-pixel lighting, subdivision primitives, and soft shadows. As well as featuring DMP's own 'Maestro' extensions, the PICA200 also fully supports OpenGL ES 1.1. The architecture supports four programmable vertex units and up to four pixel pipelines."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...S-GPU-Revealed ...

Super Mario Galaxy 2 has sold nearly 1 million units in the US.
The game has shifted over 900,000 copies since its release one month ago. Nintendo revealed the impressive sales figure in a Q&A on their Investor Relations site, according to 1up.
The platform holder also announced New Super Mario Bros Wii has been “the best-selling game so far in 2010”, followed closely by Wii Sports Resort. The pair are “two of only four titles which has sold more than a million units from January through April according to NPD”.
Finally, Nintendo said that the Black Wii bundle has sold more than 300,000 units since it was released.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39737/Mari...rs-1m-US-sales ...

Microsoft's shown interest in getting core, FPS titles to Kinect "someday".

That's what Albert Penello, senior director of global marketing for Xbox 360 wants to see anyway, even if it isn't the focus 'right now'.

"The hardest part is really trying to make people understand the same group of people who built the stuff that they love now are working on this stuff, and it's not about alienating, and it's not about abandoning; it's about expanding," Penello told Industry Gamers.

"I don't think we have any interest in sort of getting away from controllers and getting away from the core games that got us here. This box was a response, you know, from us to the people that have followed us along and really asked for features for the console. Kinect is about getting other people in the house."

"Core gamers will say to me, 'What is Kinect going to do for me?' Well, you probably have a girlfriend, or you have a sister, or a brother, or a niece, or a nephew, or a wife, or a mom, or an aunt who you've probably wanted to have experience, you know, the kind of stuff that you enjoy."

"The first thing that comes to mind is the casual types of games, but I'd like to see what a first person shooter would be on Kinect someday," Penello continued.

"I don't want to see Halo band-aided into Kinect, because Halo is a controller game, and I think that would be not what we're trying to achieve. I want to see what a new type of experience would be. And you're just seeing the first generation of stuff. So, this is really about doing an 'and' thing for us. Getting new types of genres, new types of customers, and then continuing to serve the core with great games."

So maybe Kinect will see core FPS titles one day, but they won't necessarily be like ones we've ever seen before.

"At no point have we ever said, 'I don't have any interest in having core games come out on Kinect,'" Penello continued.

"We wanted to come out and make a statement that said, 'We want to try and do something different than the Wii, different than wands and hands, something that's magical, that takes away the abstraction, and I want a bunch of new types of games created.'"

"And oh, by the way," Penello added. "We're doing some really cool stuff with dash navigation and the people who experience it really get a kick out of the sort of virtual reality/Minority Report style. And we just launched the thing."

So does that ease any of your concerns, readers?

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

Greystripe has announced that it's updated its iPhone advertising SDK over the air, to ensure it works properly with Apple's new iOS 4 software.
That means developers using Greystripe's ad units won't have to tweak their apps to continue running the ads under the new OS version.
Greystripe is trumpeting the over-the-air nature of the update, claiming it means developers won't need to resubmit their apps for approval.
That's slightly misleading though: developers ARE resubmitting their apps anyway, either to show they've been tested with iOS 4, or because they're using its new multi-tasking features.
However, Greystripe is also claiming that its SDK is fully compliant with Apple's changed terms and conditions for developers.

"Any developers negatively affected by Apple’s new OS or the change in the developer terms and conditions should contact Greystripe," says VP of strategy and publisher development Erica Chriss.
"Our easy to integrate SDK can have your apps ad-enabled in a matter of hours."

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37586...-SDK-for-iOS-4 ...

Barclaycard's Waterslide Extreme was the first branded iPhone app to pass 10 million downloads on the App Store earlier this year. Now it's got a sequel.
The game is called Rollercoaster Extreme, and like its predecessor, it's free and is the work of agency Dare and developer Fishlabs.
As the name implies, this time rollercoasters are the theme: the game is set in New York, and ties in with Barclaycard's latest TV advertising campaign.
"With the iPhone game Waterslide Extreme, we were able to realise our famous Waterslide campaign on television, the web, YouTube, and on mobile platforms, and thus create a buzz for our brand among our target group on every screen," says Barclaycard's Hannah Dean.
"It made sense to use this approach again with our partners Dare and FISHLABS for our new roller coaster campaign."

What's more, there's an update on Waterslide Extreme: the game has now generated more than 14 million downloads on the App Store.
"In our opinion, Rollercoaster Extreme has what it takes to beat that success," says Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37584...hone-advergame ...

Hot on the heels of the major Apple iPhone operating system release, Google has released an update of the Android operating system.
The new Android 2.2, code named Froyo in the now familiar desert-themed naming scheme, has begun rolling out as an automatic update to owners of the company’s own Nexus One phone.
Google has also made available the source code to partners with third party handset manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Motorola expected to also follow with the updated OS.
Many have been able to run the new Android operating system ahead of the official release with many positive reports of a substantial boost in speed thanks to the inclusion of a JIT complier which the company claims speeds up application execution between 200 to 500%. This might make Apple a little uncomfortable given the widespread reports of the iOS4 update resulting in sluggish iPhone 3G handsets.
Android 2.2 is also notable for delivering the capability to run Adobe’s Flash in the new web browser which provides additional functionality on the web through interactive flash applications video streaming and so on.

The new OS brings features and improvements such as a better on-screen keyboard, improved enterprise-class features for business and the ability to ‘tether’ the phone to a computer so it piggy back off the phone’s 3G data connection either via USB or a personal Wi-Fi hotspot.
Google has also revealed that is activating 160,000 Android handsets per day. The figures are particularly startling given that the rate was 100,000 in May, which represents a 60 per cent boost in take up even in the run up to the launch of the iPhone 4. Many put the success down to the wide variety of cutting edge handsets available from a range of manufacturers at different budget points.
In recent months the pace of third party support for Android has gathered with major phone launches such as the Samsung Galaxy S with the much-vaunted Super AMOLED display and yesterday’s Motorola Droid X launch in the US. The Droid X and Samsung Galaxy S also launched with the new Swype keyboard gesture input system.
Speaking in an interview with the Guardian, Schmidt said, “We have seen a tremendous increase in adoption. We've also seen a growth in the number of apps available for Android – there are now approximately 65,000 compared to only 50,000 a month ago."
He believes that means Android could have reached the volume necessary to become an essential mobile operating system – and perhaps the equivalent of Windows on PCs.
Schmidt wouldn’t be drawn on whether Google would look to producing its own Android-powered tablet to go head to head with the iPad, like the firm did with the Nexus One handset.
The open nature of Android will, however, mean that a great many handsets will be left waiting to see the OS improvements causing further fragmentation of versions of Android handsets on the market. Google claimed that this situation is improving and that major revisions of Android are expected to slow after Android 2.2.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/33798...-sales-numbers ...