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by Published on August 22nd, 2012 23:23- Categories:
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A leading EA executive has predicted the death of High Street games retail within ten years.
"We know that packaged goods work today, and the majority of our current revenue comes from that," EA Games’ executive VP Patrick Soderlund told CVG.
"That's still a viable business model. But in the long term we'll see more and more people gravitate to downloaded content. I think it's going to be sooner than people think. I think it's going to be sooner than ten years."
Soderlund did, however, acknowledge that physical hangs on in the minds of some, but doesn’t accept that a transition to digital-only would isolate any particular sector.
"I happen to think that there's something about physical content, like books, that's collectable and satisfying to own," he added.
"I still want physical content but I'm not part of the new generation of gamers. I remember a time when I bought a cartridge and excitedly read the manual on my way home, imagining what the game was going to be like. Maybe kids don't have that anymore.
"The distribution method won't change how games are advertised or marketed, just how they are delivered to customers. My 96 year-old grandmother plays Cut the Rope and World of Warcraft. Honestly I don't think there's a digital barrier for the causal audience any more," he said.
EA has been banging the digital drum plenty as of late.
In July EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau spoke of a near future when EA no longer sold physical product.
"It's in the near future. It's coming. We have a clear line of sight on it and we're excited about it,” he said. “For us, the fastest growing segment of our business is clearly digital and clearly digital services and ultimately Electronic Arts, at some point in the future, we're going to be a 100 per cent digital company, period.
“It's going to be there some day. It's inevitable."
And of the more immediate future, COO Peter Moore foresees EA’s digital revenue overtaking physical revenuewithin the next two to three years.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/high-...elieve/0101647 ...by Published on August 22nd, 2012 22:59- Categories:
- DCEmu
Developers still trying to make blockbusters with a tenth of the budget
Medium-sized games do not exist anymore, claims the creative director behind Assassin’s Creed 3.
Speaking in an interview with develop, Ubisoft Montreal's Alex Hutchinson said many mid-tier developers use to make smaller licensed games for consoles as their bread and butter, but these deals had now gone to Facebook and other social media channels.
“They use to be licensed games and slightly crappy games,” he said.
“I say that as someone who worked on those, and not as a judgment call. It use to be the way if your studio was coming up you would get a deal to do Barbie’s Racing Ride, and you would try to build some tech and experience and roll that into a bigger game.
“I think all those licensing deals have gone to Facebook and other social media channels. I don’t think they see the value in a $60 box product anymore.”
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...-exist-anymore
...by Published on August 22nd, 2012 22:56- Categories:
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Unite 12: 22 Cans boss on how now is better than ever for start-ups and creativity
Renowned games designer and 22 Cans boss Peter Molyneux has claimed that games are the only entertainment medium left that can surprise.
He revealed he has lost faith in the likes of TV and cinema, leaving him optimistic that games can lead the way in the future of entertainment.
Speaking on stage at the Unite 12 Unity user conference, Molyneux also revealed his belief that in that context, and with tools like Unity making games development more accessible, now is a better time than ever for start-up studios.
"I'm bored of movies. I'm bored of TV shows," said Molyneux. "We're in the last entertainment industry that truly can surprise people.
"In today's world of mass-blandness we can make things that are unique that have never been seen before. We are the last that can do that."
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...t-can-surprise
...by Published on August 22nd, 2012 22:16- Categories:
- DCEmu
Thirty-six per cent of teenagers are unable to go 10 minutes without checking their phones.
A survey by free messaging app TextPlus, says that 50 per cent of teens couldn't live without their mobile devices for a week.
They would, like, literally die.
Of the 600 respondents aged between 13 and 17, 36 per cent said they aren't able to last 10 minutes without checking their phones.
Among this group, texting is still tops, with 61 per cent saying they couldn't survive without texting - more than any other activity they perform on their phones.
With this apparently essential need to text, it is little wonder that 52 per cent of teenagers said they use their phones regardless of the environment - 37 per cent check their devices on the toilet and 20 per cent do it in church.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...mobiles/019114 ...by Published on August 22nd, 2012 22:12- Categories:
- DCEmu
The UK festival season is in full swing right now, with the likes of Wireless, Global Gathering, and V invoking superstars from around the globe to perform to thousands of merrymakers.
And with such an excited atmosphere, revelers will look to their mobile phones to capture the moment with videos and photos, updating friends on social networks, and regrouping should someone wander off.
Given all of that, mobile network giffgaff has found one in ten festival-goers have lost or wrecked their phones at festivals this year, and when combined with thefts, this results in £130m worth of damages – equivalent to 650,000 phones.
Data also shows around £14m worth of call credit is wasted, while a quarter of people would have to pay out £300 on a lost or damaged device.
However, mobiles were only the third item on the missing list, trailing behind 22 per cent and 19 per cent for lost clothes and friends, respectively.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...ch-year/019118 ...by Published on August 22nd, 2012 12:50- Categories:
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Today one of our automated sites has been given a bit of a makeover, Amazon DCEmu is our site that collects all the latest Video Game releases and also consoles and accessories from both Amazon.Com and Amazon.co.uk.
Its a great way of seeing whats been released at this time and without leaving DCEmu.
Check it out here --> http://amazon.dcemu.co.uk/ ...by Published on August 21st, 2012 23:56- Categories:
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CSR Racing's $12m iOS success is a welcome sign and a warning, writes Johnny Minkley
Boss Alien
Two figures worthy of a 'Number Crunching' entry in British satirical magazine Private Eye popped up last week: £8.18m - the lowest week's revenue ever recorded in the UK for boxed games sales. $12m - the revenue generated by free-to-play iOS title CSR Racing in its first month.
While excuses were sought for the High Street's miserable performance - from the summer software drought, to the Olympics - that hasn't stopped consumers throwing easier-to-justify sums at Apple hand-over-fist.
And while we're on the subject of uncomfortable parallels for the Old Industry, as tensions between the games media and console games makers run high (fromBorderland 2's 'Girlfriend Mode' debacle, to the Assassin's Creed III creative director's ill-considered allegations of "subtle racism"), sales of NaturalMotion's title have soared without the slightest need for in-depth developer interviews or magazine covers.
As the new age of gaming flies, the old era flounders as everyone fights amongst themselves. I'm over-simplifying, clearly, but the contrasts are striking nonetheless.
"As the new age of gaming flies, the old era flounders as everyone fights amongst themselves."
What's interesting about CSR's success is that it backs the point NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil made at last month's Game Horizon conference, where he argued that the way to stand out in the mobile space today is by insisting on console-quality production values.
This was intended as a positive message to veteran games developers: your expertise and investment in technology gives you an edge. And CSR is the proof - developed by Boss Alien, a studio formed from the ashes of cutting-edge console racing game maker Black Rock.
We've all seen what Epic has achieved with Infinity Blade and its sequel, probably the most recognisably 'triple-A' experiences on iOS. As a cosy tech bedfellow of all hardware manufacturers in the games space, Epic generally gets in there early - as evidenced by the huge exposure it received from Apple for Epic Citadel, its Unreal Engine iOS demo.
But with the latest mobile hardware capable of serious graphical performance - iterating ever upwards at a rate alien to the console business - more and more developers with the means are going to town on those tiny screens.
As my learned colleague Rich Leadbetter suggested in his piece on what to expect from iPhone 5, "within the next 12 months mobile graphics technology will finally catch up with the capabilities of the current-gen consoles."
The thing is, to most consumers it already looks like it has. And when the games are starting to look as good as , it's little wonder. So the question then becomes: as mobile games begin to match triple-A console games in performance, will they attract more of the creators of them?
" So the question then becomes: as mobile games begin to match triple-A console games in performance, will they attract more of the creators of them? "
I was among the 1,200-strong crowd in Cologne last week for Sony's Gamescom press conference. And I gasped along with everyone else as Media Molecule's Alex Evans treated us to a superb demo of the enchanting Tearaway, the studio's new, Vita-exclusive IP.
But I might have gasped as well at the revelation that one of Sony's top studios was working on the portable platform. After all, Uncharted was handled not by Naughty Dog, but Bend; Resistance: Burning Skies by Nihilistic, not Insomniac; and still to come: Killzone: Mercenaries by Sony Cambridge, not Guerrilla; and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified by Nihilistic, not Treyarch.
Now, considering PlayStation Vita is the most versatile gaming device ever created, and one of its main USP's was the promise of home console-style gaming without compromise, isn't it funny how many leading creators seem uninterested in making games for it? It's the PSP problem repeating itself, second stick or not.
Well, okay, it's not that funny. There's the resource-sapping lure of the next gen, naturally, but the commercial reality cannot be ignored, either: as strong as Sony's Gamescom content offering was, success remains far from assured for its handheld. And in being reluctant to truly commit to the platform, the creators of gaming's biggest franchises are simultaneously hurting its prospects by effectively making it less likely others will.
No such concerns with smartphones. "But you'll never be able to do proper games on a phone," the hardcore perpetually sneer. To which I say, why does triple-A gaming require a controller, or a mouse and keyboard for that matter? Where's the stone tablet with the words "Thou shalt point thy reticule with the right stick" angrily chiseled into it?
"While I cannot see - nor do I wish to imagine - a near-future in which I can't play deep, complex games using a controller, I can envisage one in which that becomes an increasingly specialised niche."
I was rather taken with an analogy made by Denki's Colin Anderson during ...by Published on August 21st, 2012 22:43- Categories:
- DCEmu
Remember that time when they told you that stereoscopic 3D was THE next big thing in gaming? They lied.
Having been conspicuous by its absence at E3 in June, Gamescom has now been and gone without a single mention of the technology. And that’s despite Sony having the lion’s share of the German limelight.
It’s probably opportune to point out the faith that companies were once putting into stereoscopic 3D technology.
Sony itself once predicted that 3D screen technology would experience a swifter uptake than high definition. But that’s nothing compared to Ubisoft. In 2010 its then marketing manager Murray Pannell (who incidentally now works for Sony) claimed that 3D TVswould be in the living room of every home by next year!
That’s not to say that everyone was convinced, though. And don't forget that Sony has a vested interest in the uptake of the technology.
Indeed, while 3D may yet have a future in gaming, it will likely have to undergo some fine-tuning if it wishes to succeed. And by ‘fine-tuning’ we mean the eradication of 3D specs, which have proved the big sticking point for consumers – not least because of the cost.
Saying that, gaming’s first foray into glasses-free 3D hasn’t been a smooth ride either, with even the mighty Nintendo admitting that it was wrong to focus on the 3D part of the 3DS and that such tech would take a back seat in future.
Now EA COO Peter Moore has reiterated the words of his boss John Riccitiello, who last year admitted that it had seen very poor returns on the 3D investments it had made in titles like Crysis 2.
"3D is certainly not in any way on our list of things we are focused upon as a company,” Moore toldEurogamer. “I look at gaming, and it just doesn't seem to be a major factor.
"I'm always impressed when I go home to the UK by how many people watch TV in 3D. Much more so than in the US. The Olympics was available in 3D. I bet it wasn't available in 3D in the US. It's just not a technology particularly in our world of gaming that seems to have got traction. I remain sceptical."
What we really need is for someone to come along and start the whole 3D thing all over again. Oh.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-de...-games/0101595 ...by Published on August 21st, 2012 22:32- Categories:
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The mobile boom has given rise to a lot of talk about tablets and smartphones replacing consoles, but Zoe Mode has told Develop it's not buying into the hype.
In just five years the small Brighton-based team has grown into a thriving studio with over 150 employees, and design director Andy Trowers says this success is due to a thriving console market.
"I think we’ve actually remained fairly consistent over the years and there’s been a big gold rush away from consoles into mobiles," said Trowers.
"For us, we don’t actually really believe the hype. We think console is still a very, very thriving market."
Though many in the industry are calling it quits on what are widely considered to be outdated machines, Zoe Mode has continued to push console development as an investment in its future.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...hriving-market ...by Published on August 21st, 2012 12:49- Categories:
- DCEmu
Its been a while since ive had the time to go through all the DCEmu sites and one by one, im going to give them a little makeover or add links etc.
Today ive given our Alternative Handheld Emulation a little sprucing up, AHE as it is known focuses on minor handhelds and has pages for the likes of Gizmodo, Openmoko, Tapwave Zodiac, JXD, Symbian, Early Android Releases, Pocket PC and J2ME.
From the consoles ive just read out youll have noticed that they are all pretty much extinct so we use the news feed from the Wiz, GP2x consoles that were all merged together last year.
Anyway check out AHE here --> http://ngage.dcemu.co.uk/ ...- Search DCEmu
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