DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
wraggster
by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:44- Categories:
- Apple iPad
Apple's latest hot ticket seems to be a tad too hot to hold, some users are reporting. New iPad owners on the MacRumors forums and Apple's own support community complain that the slab's lower left corner can get a little warm during extended use. Don't get excited though, reports seem to vary by user -- some are reporting that their tablet becomes too uncomfortable to hold while others say that it only gets "slightly warm" and that it's "expected." How's your new iPad treating you? Click on through to the comments and let us know.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/18/i...ad-heating-up/ ...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:39- Categories:
- Apple News,
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
The new iPad was upgraded with a display an HD junkie would give his universal remote for, but the Apple TV simply received an update to a capability many believe the original should've had the first go around: support for 1080p content. In addition to that all-important resolution bump, both this and thelast-gen model received a modest software update that brings a few features and enhancements. Those tweaks aren't necessarily worth a review, if you ask us, especially since the price remains the same and existing Apple TV owners will reap the benefits of most of these improvements. Still, we'd be remiss if we didn't poke around just a bit. Follow past the break to see what's changed.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/19/2...e-tv-hands-on/ ...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:29- Categories:
- PC News
We knew good and well that Microsoft was aiming for a 2012 launch of its latest and greatest operating system, and if sources reporting to Bloomberg are accurate, it looks like we'll have a date with Mrs. October. Purportedly, work will wrap on Win8 this summer, with PCs and tablets (!) to ship in October carrying the newfangled OS. We're told that the initial rollout will include devices running Intel andARM processors, and not surprisingly, this positions Microsoft to make a serious play for holiday dollars. Still wondering if it's for you? Give the Consumer Preview a run, won'tcha?
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/19/m...-2012-october/ ...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:25- Categories:
- DCEmu
EA dominates top of the charts, Twisted Metal fails to break top ten
FIFA Street has maintained the EA's dominance of the chart, heading straight to the top of the UK software charts and setting a new record for the Street franchise's first week sales.
Following Mass Effect 3 and SSX, it's the third EA title in a row to debut at number one, and makes the top four of this week's chart a clean sweep for the publisher, despite its decision not to supply stock to troubled retailer GAME.
Other new entries this week made less of an impact, with Twisted Metal, which was on sale in GAME stores, only appearing at 12, Professor Layton And The Spectre's Call entering way down at 30 and Zumba Fitness Rush squeezing in to the top 40 with a new entry at 37.
All chart data is courtesy of GfK Chart-Track.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...a-in-uk-charts
...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:24- Categories:
- DCEmu
Single player games in danger, says Braben
The used games market is always a hot topic amongst developers and publishers who don't get a cut of any pre-owned sales. Frontier Development's David Braben argues that the used games business has effectively killed off the single-player focused endeavor, and he believes that not only are used games pushing more games to focus on a multiplayer setting, but he thinks those used games are helping to inflate prices on titles as studios seek ways to recoup lost revenues.
"The real problem when you think about it brutally, if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games," reflected Braben. "In some cases, it's killed them dead. I know publishers who have stopped games in development because most shops won't reorder stock after initial release, because they rely on the churn from the re-sales."
"It's killing single player games in particular, because they will get pre-owned, and it means your day one sales are it, making them super high risk. I mean, the idea of a game selling out used to be a good thing, but nowadays, those people who buy it on day one may well finish it and return it."
"People will say 'Oh well, I paid all this money and it's mine to do with as I will', but the problem is that's what's keeping the retail price up -- prices would have come down long ago if the industry was getting a share of the resells."
Braben, who has worked on titles like Elite and Kinectimals, is currently facing a crisis on his current title, The Outsider. The game is heavily invested in single player story mechanics, but Braben remains somewhat skeptical of the current development landscape.
"Developers and publishers need that revenue to be able to keep doing high production value games, and so we keep seeing fewer and fewer of them."
If anything, there appear to be signs that some studios are simply, if not begrudgingly, moving to the mobile gaming space, where used-game sales simply do not exist. Braben has acknowledged that his studio is working on new IP specifically for mobile.
"I think the problem was that the market then was very confused, whereas nowadays it's far clearer. Of course, a lot of that is hats off to Apple, but also the principle of the App Store, which is fantastic," he remarked. "And that applies to a lot of platforms -- it applies to Android, and it now applies to Mac OS, and it's been announced for Windows 8 and I think that is a very interesting realignment of the stars."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...r-developments
...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:21- Categories:
- Apple iPad
The new iPad has sold 3 million units, Apple has revealed
Update:Apple has now revealed actual sales figures - the new iPad sold 3 million units since launching on March 16.
"The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."
By comparison, the original iPad took 28 days just to reach 1 million sold.
Original story:
Apple's new iPad could have larger implications for the games business, with aprojected 66 million units sold in 2012, and its launch weekend would appear to be quite strong, according to Apple.
CEO Tim Cook told investors that the new iPad had a "record weekend" and Apple is "thrilled." By exactly what measure the latest tablet had a "record" is not clear at the moment, since the company still hasn't issued any concrete sales data.
Demand for the new iPad clearly has been strong, however, as Apple did sell out of its units online before launching last Friday, and wait times for new buyers are stretching out to as much as two or three weeks. Apple commented that its customer response has been "off the charts."
Apple took the same approach last year with the iPad 2, refusing to release hard numbers following launch, although some analysts have speculated that iPad 2 sold around a million during launch weekend alone.
Apple released the new iPad in 10 countries simultaneously.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rding-to-apple
...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:19- Categories:
- Apple iPad
Apple's readying for the next console war with its new iPad
Apple
Established in 1976, Apple is a multinational corporation (corporate headquarters based in California)...
www.apple.com
The new iPad looks much like the old iPad, until you turn it on. Then you see the razor-sharp clarity of the 2048 x 1536 screen, gleaming with more resolution than a 1080p HDTV. Don't be lulled into complacency by the beauty of the display. There's an army being created because of this new screen, and it's awaiting the signal to come forth and do battle in the next console war.
The first step in Apple's strategy has begun simply by making the 2048 x 1536 resolution the new standard for the iPad. The first reaction of game developers to this new high-resolution screen is that they will be creating a high-res version of their game as soon as they reasonably can. It's usually not a difficult process; some developers (ones who have been listening to the rumors) have been preparing their original artwork in higher resolution for months. Already, some of the key games like Infinity Blade II have appeared with high-resolution versions. Many more games are on the way; every publisher will want to take advantage of the higher resolution, if for no other reason than to produce gorgeous screen shots of their games. A few months from now, it seems like a safe bet that there will be hundreds of games for the new iPad with high-resolution graphics. By the end of the year, it will be thousands of games.
Why is this significant? Let's look at another piece of Apple's strategy for a clue. If you look on Apple's web site, the new Apple TV is listed as an iPad accessory. The new Apple TV can now handle full 1080p output for movies, and with AirPlay or through a cable your new iPad's output can be routed to your HDTV. All of those games that are soon to be in high-resolution will look excellent on your HDTV. The strategy is coming into focus now, isn't it?
"Gamers have learned to live with and enjoy FPS games on consoles, despite the apparent controller limitations. The same thing may well happen with tablet games"
Put this together with the persistent rumor that Apple is planning to release an 'iTV' - an Apple HDTV with some special features (perhaps Siri integration), which would doubtless include a version of the App Store. Probably at that same time, the stand-alone Apple TV box would gain the App Store as well. (Or maybe a newer version of the Apple TV hardware, if they feel the need to upgrade the processor.) Instantly, thousands of free or low cost games will be available in the living room. All of those games that were upgraded to better than HD resolution for the new iPad will be ready to be delivered right to your new iTV (or Apple TV plus your current HDTV). This neatly gets around the problem that most new hardware platforms have, that of limited software at launch. Usually it takes months to get a significant number of games for a new platform, if not years. Apple will have hundreds or thousands of HD apps when their new platform launches.
Now you can see the soldiers pouring out of Apple's Trojan Horse, assaulting the current rulers of the living room, the console makers. Apple's games will be just as good-looking to the casual eye as console games. No, they won't have the in-depth, immersive gameplay of the best console titles. Not at first, anyway. The limitation that you need to download the iOS games will keep them from becoming 25 gigabyte behemoths. That's just a temporary limitation; some of which can be sidestepped by clever design. For instance, large intro animations and cut scenes often take up gigabytes of space on disc; those can easily be streamed instead of waiting for a download. Massive content can be doled out in chunks if the design is tweaked to allow for that; intelligent downloading in the background can help, too.
The controllers... how can you have good games without great controls? "Playing first-person-shooters just doesn't work on a tablet, you don't get the great control you have on a console!" goes the argument from a hardcore gamer. True, as far as it goes. It's interesting to note that this is the same argument that PC gamers threw at console gamers many years ago. "Consoles may be OK for kiddie games, but real games are played on a PC," went the party line. The FPS game was purely a PC game... until Halo arrived. Even then, it was clear that the combination of a mouse and a keyboard was far superior for controlling an FPS. Microsoft toyed with the idea of allowing Xbox Halo players to play against the (then recently-released) PC version of Halo. They ran some tests, and quickly found that even mediocre Halo PC players mopped up the best Xbox Halo players without breaking a sweat. Plans to cross-connect the PC and console game audiences were quietly shelved.
Yet, here we are, with gamers having learned to live with and enjoy FPS games on consoles, despite the apparent controller limitations. The same thing may well happen with tablet games. The ...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:16- Categories:
- PC News
"We've been speaking to Blizzard from day one. They are without doubt the kind of company we can help"
Gaikai Inc.
Gaikai's David Perry believes that his game-streaming service can help bring down the high user acquisition costs associated with massively multiplayer online games.
Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Perry said online ads for games such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft are expensive and create too much friction - when ads could be replaced with links to stream a demo of a game directly in the user's browser.
"We believe we can really help get the cost of players down in terms of bringing more people in at a lower cost than publishers pay today," said Perry. "That's one of the reasons we made Gaikai in the first place. I was in the MMO space and thinking 'goodness we have to help solve this' because it's so expensive to get players to come and try your games."
You'll see us doing more and more MMOs, it's a very important part of this puzzle.
David Perry, Gaikai
"We have our favourites that we've been going after," he added. "We've been speaking to Blizzard from day one of the company. They are without doubt the kind of company that we can help because they run Google ads all over the internet to try to drive traffic into their game. And our position is, instead of doing that, why not put the game there, wherever it is, and that person can play the game.
"You're not moving the person and you're not having to pay to move the person around anymore, it's right in front of them. Each MMO company, when they think through their funnel and acquisition costs it just makes sense. "
Gaikai announced a couple of weeks ago that it has struck a deal to stream demos of Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online, part of an early move into the MMO space for the cloud gaming company.
In press demonstrations the Gaikai team has often used World of Warcraft to demonstrate the service, most notably streaming the fan-favourite to iPad and on social networking site Facebook.
MMOs have been on the agenda for a long time, revealed Perry, but various obstacles have held up bringing online RPGs to the cloud.
"It's taken longer than we thought because of discussions on how to handle patching and all that kind of stuff but we're finally out now.
"You'll see us doing more and more MMOs, it's a very important part of this puzzle. Those games are some of the biggest titles there are, I don't know if you're ever going to download such a big game onto your iPad. There's a problem there. This bridges the gap."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...sts-down-perry
...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:12- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
The days of the triple-A blockbuster are over, for today the games industry worships a new goal – the quadruple-A title.
Well, that’s if you listen to Microsoft, which in a recent job listing spotted by Gamefront used the term quadruple-A (or AAAA, to be precise) no less than three times.
“Microsoft Studios (Xbox) is looking for a dynamic and seasoned Executive Producer to lead and develop a world-class team who will own the creation and delivery of a AAAA experience that delivers on 1st party goals,” the listing reads.
“The EP will have P&L responsibility for a major Xbox AAAA console title and deliver the end-to-end AAAA title experience (Concept, Prototype, Greenlight, Pre-Production, Production, Release, ongoing revenue streams and a complete franchise plan).”
Those who believe they’re packing the prerequisite number of As will need to be able to commute to Redmond in the US. And some other market experience – all of which can be found in the official ad.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/forge...riences/093003 ...by Published on March 19th, 2012 22:09- Categories:
- Apple News,
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
World of Warcraft could yet be released on iOS, providing developer Blizzard can find a way of acceptably mapping the MMO’s controls onto touch screens
“You've got to put an interface, what do you do?” WoW senior producer John Lagrave told Eurogamer. “Maybe we'll stumble on the great way to put WOW on the phone - maybe we won't, but we're certainly looking into it.
"We won't do it until we think it's decent. So we certainly look at that, but we just haven't solved it. What we've done with WOW [with the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory app] on mobile devices is very simplistic: view the armoury, you check your auctions – not just on mobile but also on web.
"When we have an epiphany, everyone will know. But for now, no epiphany!"
Lagrave also stated that it’s possible the studio may choose to port a portion of the game – such as a fishing mini-game or pet battles – to iOS, although nothing has been confirmed as of yet.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/blizz...ibility/093005 ...- Search DCEmu
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita