As the free-to-play movement continues to grow on mobile and PC, console formats slow to adapt to freemium are missing out on the increasingly popular - and lucrative - business model.

Another studio embracing the PC space is Hi-Rez Studios, creators of Global Agenda and owners of the popular multiplayer licence Tribes. Tribes: Ascend was original announced as a PC and Xbox Live Arcade game, but co-founder Todd Harris recently told GamesIndustry.biz that all effort is being placed on the more open PC platform.

"Our first initial focus is the PC as far as what we're developing on, testing on, and as far as availability we're focused first on the PC. Because that's where people associate the franchise, that was its home. And because we do want to be able to deliver updates for it… we think that's the strongest platform for it right now," he said in an interview published today.

A platform that lets the developer update the game frequently will continue to win out
Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios
Harris isn't completely dismissive of free-to-play on consoles, acknowledging Sony's efforts with Free Realms and DC Universe Online, but in the free-to-play space the business model has clearly evolved and outdated home hardware.

"I think that is possible, and yes we'd like to see [free-to-play] expand. It's not quite as far along as obviously the PC, so we continue to look at the PC as our focus in the short term."

"Until the console allows for faster, more frequent updates and alternate business models then it's less of a sweet spot for us than PC," he added.

Last week, research and analysis firm Games Investor Consulting told the audience at GameHorizon that it didn't expect free-to-play to make any significant impact on home consoles in the short term.

But Harris is still holding out hope, adding: "I do think it's realistic in this generation. There have been rumours of free-to-play on the Xbox - which I don’t know anything more about than you do - but it feels like there’s no reason that faster updates and specifically free-to-play models or alternate pricing models, those should be able to be developed on this generation consoles, and those things would be very interesting to us."

But in the meantime - and after considerable success with Global Agenda as a free-to-play business - Hi-Rez is sticking to the PC.

"I think a platform that lets the developer update the game frequently will continue to win out. The PC and the mobile platforms are very strong in that regard and we’d like to see the consoles move in that direction also."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...to-play-growth ...

Ubisoft's Yves Jacquier believes that improved graphics will not be a "strong feature" of the next generation of consoles.

Jacquier, executive director of production services at Ubisoft Montreal, has been working with students at Montreal University following the creation of the Industrial Chair on Learning Representations for Immersive Video Games earlier this year.

Ubisoft is investing $200,000 a year for the next five years with the aim of developing "other ways of thinking" about game production. Jacquier demonstrated the group's work in the field of procedural AI, telling GamesIndustry.biz that innovation in this area is vital to the future development of videogames.

"AI has always been the real battleground. The challenge is that, if you see an AI coming, you've failed. And that's a problem we have to overcome as we create the impression of flawless, seamless worlds."

What's the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?
Yves Jacquier, Ubisoft
In the past, consoles have been marketed principally on the strength of their graphical capabilities. The Wii broke this trend, and Jacquier believes that the next generation of consoles will all follow suit.

"In general the industry expects that graphics will not be a strong feature any more... Obviously, graphics are better for marketing purposes because you can show things. AI you can't show."

"Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox [360] is that we're extremely limited in what we can do. It's a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time."

"We think that the next generation of consoles won't have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what's the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?"

Jacquier's comments chime with those made by id Software's John Carmack in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

"The better games get the harder you have to go to give a delta people care about," Carmack said. "That's going to be a challenge for the next-generation of consoles, to show that the pack-in title is going to look more awesome than what you get on the current ones that people will want to go spend $300 on a new console."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...t-gen-consoles ...

All you Jedis can stop building fake landspeeders in your driveway now — the real deal is finally here. Wired is reporting on an Israeli company that has been testing one for use as an ambulance called the AirMule. Watch out, Womp Rats.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...-takes-flight/

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/st...eders-Are-Here ...

A new report from technology advisors Gartner Inc forecasts a $74 billion spend on gaming on 2011, which will grow to $112 billion by 2015.

The $74 billion is a rise of 10.4 per cent on 2010's total of $67 billion, and two thirds of that spend will be on software.

“As the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to expand, gaming will remain a key component in the use of these devices," said principal research analyst Tuong Nguyen.

"Mobile games are the most downloaded application category across most application stores. For this reason, mobile gaming will continue to thrive as more consumers expand their use of new and innovative portable connected devices."

The report, Market Trends: Gaming Ecosystem 2011, also predicts that in 2011 hardware will follow software in sales numbers, with online coming in last. However, online games will start to catch up over the next five years, as spending on subscriptions and microtransactions will mean a compound annual growth rate of 27 per cent through 2015.

"We find that subscription fees are giving way to ‘freemium’ models, in which the game is provided for free to gamers but is monetised through advertising (both in-game advertising and display advertising) and in-game microtransactions, such as the sale of value-added services or virtual-good purchases,” said research director Brian Blau.

“This trend is prevailing given the rise of social gaming, in which online gaming is connected to social networking sites and social networking platforms.”

Blau also emphasised the need for mobile technology to progress quickly enough to meet the needs of gamers.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-games-in-2011 ...

Three hackers, part of Anonymous Hacker Group, have been identified and arrested after an Italian-Swiss investigation. The cell performed several attacks against Italian government websites and 'relevant Italian companies.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/0...-Cell-Arrested ...

Electronic Arts will show Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: The Run at this year's Eurogamer Expo in September.

The AAA titles join Battlefield 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic and FIFA 12 at the event.

"We're thrilled that EA has expanded its showcase to include Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: The Run, two of the biggest games due out in the next 12 months," said Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer. "Together with the likes of Battlefield 3 they represent an incredibly strong line up at the Eurogamer Expo."

Konami, Namco Bandai and id Software will also be supporting the event, and Sega will present the Eurogamer Expo Indie Arcade.

The Eurogamer Expo is predicted to attract around 30,000 attendees to London's Earls Court between September 22 - 25 and is the only expo of its size in the UK. GamesIndustry.biz will also be holding a career fair at the show.

Further information can be found at the official website.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...eurogamer-expo ...

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has warned publishers of the dangers of annualising their franchises.

Speaking in an investor note, he said the strategy remains questionable outside of sports brands.

"We question the strategy of annual franchises for any game except sports simulations. While Activision has been enormously successful with the Call of Duty franchise, we think its success has been largely a function of its online multiplayer offering, with a network effect driving ever higher packaged product sales.

"We are not optimistic that others can replicate that formula, and think that a balance between the EA approach (games every two years) and the Take-Two approach (games every six years) is appropriate."

One notable exception is Assassin's Creed, which seems to be growing commercially every year, although some gamers have expressed unhappiness over the decision to launch a third Ezio game this November, rather than a full-blown Assassin's Creed III.

Pachter added: "It is important to point out that Take-Two has not intentionally brought games out slower than the others, but rather is laser focused on game quality, and its internal studios have delivered phenomenal results.

"We still think that if Take-Two were able to deliver its key franchises every three or four years instead of every five or six, its share price would appreciate dramatically."

Take-Two chief operating officer Karl Slatoff said earlier this month that the publisher won't 'beat franchises to death' with annual releases.

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

Brains Eden includes Games Jam and academic get together
This year's Brains Eden festival returns this weekend and will feature a 48-hour Games Jam.
The event will once again be held at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and will run from July 9th to July 11th. The Games Jam will see 15 teams competing to develop the best computer game in just 48 hours.
The competition will be run by Cambridge-based studio Jumped Up Games. The developer's CEO Berbank Green said: "The event is a chance for students to make an entire computer game, from scratch, in 48 hours.
"Last year, the Games Jam produced the headline-grabbing 'Destroy The Brain' by roBurky, an Anglia Ruskin student and independent game developer, and his team.
"This year we have over 60 students from around the country and abroad the country and abroad, plus many notable indie developers and major studio developers, all coming to experiment and have fun. This is where the future of games takes shape."

Teams will be offered help and guidances from local games studios such as Ninja Theory, SCE Studio Cambridge and Jagex. The completed games will then be displayed in the Games ArtWork exhibition at Anglia Ruskin's digital Ruskin Gallery.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-uni-next-week ...

Education minister Michael Gove MP discusses the benefits of computer games as teaching tools
Michael Gove MP has encouraged educators to experiment with using video games to help teach maths and science.
The Secretary of State for Education discussed the benefits of specially created software during his speech to the Royal Society.
"We need to look at the way the very technological innovations we are racing to keep up with can help us along the way," he said. "We need to change curricula, tests and teaching to keep up with technology, and technology itself is changing curricula, tests and teaching.
"Computer games developed by Marcus Du Sautoy are enabling children to engage with complex mathematical problems that would hitherto have been thought too advanced. When children need to solve equations in order to get more ammo to shoot the aliens, it is amazing how quickly they can learn. I am sure that this field of educational games has huge potential for maths and science teaching and I know that Marcus himself has been thinking about how he might be able to create games to introduce advanced concepts, such as non-Euclidean geometry, to children at a much earlier stage than normal in schools.
"The Department for Education is working with the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the highly respected Stanford Research Institute on a pilot programme to use computer programmes to teach maths. We have not developed the programme - we are just helping them run a pilot. Stanford say it is one of the most successful educational projects they have seen.
"These developments are only beginning. They must develop on the ground - Whitehall must enable these innovations but not seek to micromanage them. The new environment of teaching schools will be a fertile ecosystem for experimenting and spreading successful ideas rapidly through the system."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/45181/Gove...mes-in-schools ...