Kodu, an "end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games," will be out before the end of the month, says Microsoft.

Kodu is a visual, icon-based programming language designed to be accessible enough for everyone to use - not just geeks with thick glasses.


Running on PC and Xbox 360, it lets you make games using your controller, and then distribute them via the Community Games Channel on Xbox Live. Think LittleBigPlanet, but without the 2D restrictions.

"Programmes are expressed in physical terms, using concepts like vision, hearing, and time to control character behaviour. While not as general-purpose as classical programming languages, Kodu can express advanced game design concepts in a simple, direct, and intuitive manner," promises Microsoft.

A developer revealed on the Kodu blog: "I'm doing final content passes as we get ready for release, which is the end of June," although the exact day is still up in the air.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217192 ...

Modern Warfare 2 may seem to capture the chaos you'd imagine of war - and look stunningly realistic too - but studio head Vince Zampella says Infinity Ward aims for entertainment, not simulation.

"We go for authenticity not realism," Zampella told Official PlayStation Magazine. "We're not making a sim, we're making entertainment. We want it to look real like an action movie."

Zamplella explains why the futuristic weapons, like a tripod gun that uses lasers to detect and shoot enemies, don't ruin the game's authenticity. "You see a guy in an action movie, what he does is a little over the top. It makes for a great movie."

Elsewhere in OPM's huge 11-page feature, the mag details an open-world level set in Brazil, which it describes as a "huge sprawling shanty town full of multiple routes and areas." But IW won't go overboard with open-world mechanics, insists Zampella.

"We do it where it fits and doesn't make the game worse," he explained. "There isn't any mandate that every level has to be a wide open sandbox. There are certain levels like this where it fits naturally."

Put its November 10 release in your diary (if you're female). Or just write it in permanent marker on your FACE.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217173 ...

Modern Warfare 2 may seem to capture the chaos you'd imagine of war - and look stunningly realistic too - but studio head Vince Zampella says Infinity Ward aims for entertainment, not simulation.

"We go for authenticity not realism," Zampella told Official PlayStation Magazine. "We're not making a sim, we're making entertainment. We want it to look real like an action movie."

Zamplella explains why the futuristic weapons, like a tripod gun that uses lasers to detect and shoot enemies, don't ruin the game's authenticity. "You see a guy in an action movie, what he does is a little over the top. It makes for a great movie."

Elsewhere in OPM's huge 11-page feature, the mag details an open-world level set in Brazil, which it describes as a "huge sprawling shanty town full of multiple routes and areas." But IW won't go overboard with open-world mechanics, insists Zampella.

"We do it where it fits and doesn't make the game worse," he explained. "There isn't any mandate that every level has to be a wide open sandbox. There are certain levels like this where it fits naturally."

Put its November 10 release in your diary (if you're female). Or just write it in permanent marker on your FACE.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217173 ...

Shiny founder David Perry believes that the next logical evolution of the PSPgo is to include Sony Ericsson’s mobile phone service for the device.
Shiny founder David Perry believes that the next logical evolution of the PSP Go is to include Sony Ericsson’s mobile phone service for the device.
Perry – who proclaimed the potential of a PSP Go-like device as far back as 2007 – offers his view as part of Develop’s panel discussion on Sony’s new handheld, where eight leading developers give their verdict on the new device.

“The next logical step is to get Sony Ericsson involved, adding cell capability” he said, stating that he’s impressed with the steps Sony has taken so far in evolving from the original PSP.
Speculation linking Sony Ericsson to the PSP has surfaced numerous times in the past, most recently with Sony Ericsson president Hideki Komiyama expressing his interest in partnering with Sony’s game business.
Though none of the rumours have been met with confirmation from Sony, game consultant Perry has a history of pinpointing Sony’s next move.
As far back as 2007 he was calling for a PSP Go-like device, saying at the time: “The PSP should have had internally stored games. If you could download games and stick them on your memory card, then the battery life would go up exponentially, the machine could be smaller and things would be much cheaper. [UMD] was a bad idea to begin with.”
Back in February, Perry wrote on his confirmed Twitter account: “I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!”
Today he sees a new direction for Sony to take. As well as incorporating cellphone technology into the device, he believes Sony should “supply a toolset that helps speed up the conversion process of PS3 source to PSP Go”.
He added that his main concern with the new handheld is its apparent omission of Flash. “I could find no mention of Adobe Flash in the menus,” he said, “I think that’s an essential component in any future web based devices.”

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/287...t-logical-step ...

Platform accounted for 10 per cent of mobile games market in US and Canada, says Screen Digest.
The market analyst adds that Apple's device accounted for over $100 million in revenues in the second half of 2008 (games were launched for the device in July).

Screen Digest believes that new smartphone devices will boost the mobile games industry, while the traditional on-portal Java space will slow.

It says growth in the operator distributed mobile games market, which peaked at over 50 per cent in 2004 and 2005, will drop to seven per cent in 2009.

Games for new platforms accounted for 15 per cent of mobile games revenues in the major North American and European markets in 2008.

Screen Digest asserts that Nokia’s N-Gage and Google’s Android Market have the potential to grow the market for mobile games off portal, but that Apple has the key elements to remain market leader.


Jack Kent, research analyst at Screen Digest, said: "At the moment Apple is out in front – in terms of user experience, range of content and in generating consumer and developer interest in mobile games for its devices.

"While the market for mobile games on the App Store is strong, iPhone users still only account for a tiny proportion of the market. In Q4 2008, iPhone shipments made up less than 2 per cent of total handset shipments.”

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33454...-in-US-in-2008 ...

Despite not yet having a UK release date, the Palm Pre yesterday made its debut in the North American market. And whilst the hype, queues and sales are all good news for Palm, the fallout that is now descending is not.
Reuters reports that Palm shares closed down six per cent on Monday trading (having at one point been 11.8 per cent down), due to supply and demand concerns for its Pre handset.
Though Sprint said it experienced record sales when it began offering the Pre on June 6th, the article points to at least one analyst who reckons Palm only managed to ship 50,000 units prior to launch compared to earlier estimates of 100,000 units.

All eyes will be on Palm now that Apple has unveiled its iPhone 3GS, which goes on sale June 19th. Nokia's much anticipated N97 goes on sale the same day.

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/287...it-Palm-shares ...

PSP users have no hope of seeing the PS3 trophy system expanding to their portable, Sony has said.

Eric Lempel, director of PSN operations, put it simply: "You're not going to see Trophies on the PSP." But he has his reasons, "keeping it secure" being the main one.

There's a risk that the hacking and system exploits rampant on PSP could allow users to "artificially inflate their rankings and amounts of Trophies", which would "kill the whole [Trophy] system", he told Joystiq. Fair enough.

The PSP Go hits shelves on October 1 for $250 in the US (250 Euros in Europe). A UK price is yet to be confirmed.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217149 ...

Ubisoft's head of marketing in the UK, Murray Pannell, has told GamesIndustry.biz that he feels Sony is facing a big challenge to become the dominant player in the country's next-gen platform landscape - but also believes that if the PlayStation 3's value and price proposition is right, the brand still has a huge appeal.

Pannell, who spent over six years at Microsoft marketing the Xbox and Xbox 360, joined Ubisoft in March this year, and is happy, as a third party, to support all of the platforms increase installed base numbers in order to help his new company sell more games.

"So if I'm just looking at the UK specifically, we all know that Nintendo has done an amazing job, the 360 has solidified its position and is still doing well, and PlayStation I think would say themselves that they would have liked to have sold more hardware units," he said.

"Coming at it from a platform perspective, when I was at Xbox we never underestimated the power of the brand for PlayStation - despite the hiccups they had at launch, and the price particularly, there's still a latent demand for that product. And if they can get their value proposition right in terms of pricing and online, and a software line-up that's unbeatable, they're still a force to be reckoned with.

"But they will take a long time to even get their installed base up to that of the Xbox, let alone Nintendo's level, so they've got an uphill struggle in the UK.

"Obviously we support all platforms, and frankly, the more installed base you've got, the more games you can sell. So we'd rather have all the platform holders growing the IP as much as they can, so there are more people playing games that we can sell to.

"That's very much our hope, and we support all the platform holders where we can to push that, if that's exclusive games, or specific games for specific platforms to help drive those to new audiences."

Pannell was also confident that 2009 would be another strong year for the games industry, despite overarching economic conditions - but did query whether or not the market could sustain the kind of growth that it's seen in the past two years.

"It's certainly not going to decline," he said. "The question is, how long can it continue to grow at the rate of the last two years? I think the jury's out on that, but we're expecting a good year this year.

"Ubisoft has got some great titles, and if you look at the broader line-up there are some great titles as well - Square Enix coming in with Final Fantasy should be great, no doubt about it, and Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty... there's a lot of competition out there, and we'll all be looking eagerly to see what's coming when, but I enjoy the challenge - and there's plenty of consumers out there to appeal to, so we'll make sure we're getting our marketing, PR and product right to make sure they have a good time."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...m-space-pannel ...

Sure, we feign a lack of bias, but deep down in our hearts we only have one love: Symbian Foundation's robo-duckie mascot. Unfortunately for Symbian, it's going to take all the charm it can muster to win over the iPhone App Store's crop of cash-flush developers. Symbian was apparently at WWDC today, doing its best to woo, with all-day festivities involving coffee, food, a "hackathon," prizes, and free Nokia 5800 handsets for attendees. We're expecting Ovi Store to fill in with some solid €1.00 beer drinking simulators and Zippo lighter apps any second now.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/s...a-5800s-world/ ...