A guy named John has changed his first generation iPhone for a new Palm Pre. Nothing bad or weird about that. Until he took a steel hammer out of his toolbox:

Then—for some unknown reason—he smashed his iPhone with it.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5282391/moron-s...f-his-palm-pre ...

The news of Last.fm arriving on the Xbox 360 got kind of buried at E3 by, well, more exciting news. But that doesn't mean it's not exciting in its own right!


If you're an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you'll automatically have access to the service when it drops on the console later this year. It'll allow you to use the service much like you can online right now. This means you can listen to stations based on the sound of certain artists, compile custom playlists, and create a custom station based on music you like.
There's no word on when exactly this will arrive, nor is there word on whether or not you'll be able to listen to stations in-game, but these screenshots should keep you sated for a little while at least.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5283025/more-de...implementation ...

As Microsoft adds more functionality to the the Xbox Live Marketplace, the online business is offering multiple opportunities for developers to grow their business with new revenue streams through services such as the new Avatar Marketplace.

That's according to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, who said that the New Xbox Experience has been pivotal in opening up earlier efforts to monetise games post-release.

"I believe now, as we launch things like Avatar Marketplace where we give people the ability to create content that they can award with their games, props and costumes, but also to create IP that they can put in the store, you will see that actually be bigger than we ever saw with Gamer Pics, because it's such a richer ecosystem and a richer way for people to express who they are," he said in an exclusive interview published today.

Microsoft wants the creation of digital assets to be simple for developers, with Whitten suggesting the more a developer creates additional content for games, the higher the rewards.

"Our goal is that these things are very easy. The beauty of many of these things, especially things like Themes, things like personalisation around Avatar items, is that they are pure digital assets, which allows you to optimise a lot of the tools around this creation, ingestion and the content pipeline for that."

"The more you engage the community with the functionality that you build in and out of the game, I think it creates an overall opportunity."

Whitten highlighted recent titles Kingdom for Keflings and Geometry Wars 2 as examples of developers using Avatars or Leaderboards to enhance and reach a wider audience. The New Xbox Experience, he said, is acting as a deeper online experience similar to traditional web sites and services.

"This is the first time that you can change it consistently and over time," he said. "Something like Spotlight is a great example, where everybody sees that when they first pop on. It's a great experience.

"But frankly what we've seen is that people do an awful lot of exploring of the New Xbox Experience in a pretty rich way pretty consistently. So it kind of serves as a very advanced website, and you see people tracking us. We put interesting content up there, interesting games, interesting things like Inside Xbox. We see a lot of people who just go check out that content."

Microsoft introduced the New Xbox Experience in the autumn last year, and is set to roll-out multiple new features such as games-on-demand and Avatar Marketplace later this year. Whitten wouldn't rule out a new redesign if warranted along with changes to the user interface.

"It could possibly happen in that part of the value of this generation is how with something like Xbox Live and the power of the console, you can reinvent the experience and continue to grow the experience.

"What I'll tell you is right now, the New Xbox Experience has been incredibly successful. It's given us the ability to expand faster, to innovate faster, to target things. The fact that we're launching a new category, a new channel like the Music Channel, is because we have the ability of the New Xbox Experience to expand to give us this place that we can do that work," he concluded.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...for-developers ...

The Sims 3 has debuted with the biggest UK opening week ever for a PC game, behind the two World of Warcraft expansions and Championship Manager 4. So it's fourth biggest, then.

The Sims 3 charted ahead of other new release Red Faction: Guerrilla, while fellow THQ offering UFC 2009: Undisputed slipped to third, having held the number one place for the last two weeks.

Here's the top ten, courtesy of Chart-Track:

The Sims 3 (EA)
Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ)
UFC 2009: Undisputed (THQ)
EA Sports Active (EA)
Wii Fit (Nintendo)
Infamous (SCEE)
Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (Activision Blizzard)
Virtua Tennis 2009 (SEGA)
Terminator Salvation (Warner Bros.)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217103 ...

Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki has extended his blessing to the Team Ninja's recently-announced Metroid game, Other M.

The ex-Team Ninja head, now heading up a new studio founded by Tecmo refugees, 'Tokyo Vikings', is apparently a fan of the Nintendo series. It's a shame Itagaki didn't get to work on it himself, really.

"Metroid is a fantastic game that I played a lot on the Disk System when I was a child," he told 1UP. "I also know Mr. Sakamoto, the producer at Nintendo, very well. He fathered Samus Aran. He's been making games since I was a child, so he's a veteran I really respect.

"I think [Yosuke] Hayashi will learn a lot working with him. I hope Team Ninja works hard in making a good game," he said.

Metroid Other M, a collaboration between Nintendo's original Metroid team, Team Ninja and CGI house D-Rockets, was announced during Nintendo's pre-E3 conference last week.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217093 ...

Sony’s handheld enterprise transformed to allow cheaper development on smaller, casual and niche titles

Sony has transformed its entire outlook on PSP development in a bid to broaden the range of titles available on PSP consoles, to provide its PSP Go system with its own identity, and ultimately to establish a direct rival to Nintendo’s 100 million-selling rival handheld, the Nintendo DS.

Sony recently released a company statement centred on two key objectives; that PSP development should be cheap, and that the PSP should be hosting a catalogue of niche indie titles as well as casual games for broader audiences.

The measures are a far cry from the reputation the original PSP once established; being a handheld that offered watered-down PS2 titles which, while still a technical feat, were often considered too bloated and unfocused for the commuting gamer.

Meanwhile, the platform holder has seen its rival Nintendo dominate the handheld market with cheap titles that are dedicated for a handheld audience.

With a tiny development team, a small budget and a slim timeline, Nintendo managed to deliver Brain Training; a divisive game that has nonetheless sold many millions of copies.

This is the market that Sony is calling for its fleet of partners and developers to enter, arming each with budget-priced dev kits and test kits. On top of this, the micro-sized PSP Go is positioned as a less intimidating, carefree system for the digital age, clearly designed with Nintendo’s casual DS audience in mind.

At E3 Sony announced that it has made a staggering 80 percent price cut in PSP dev kits, with models DTP-T2000A and DTP-T2000 now both priced at $1,500 in North America and €1,200 in Europe.
Develop has today reported that Sony will also be cutting its test kit costs to €800 and $1,000.

But the company’s new plans to replicate Nintendo’s success does not end with price cuts; Sony will also be providing a free add-on to its SDK in the shape of ProDG, a programming tool which Sony states is held in high regard among developers.

In its written statement, the company makes its ambitions abundantly clear; “to support a broader range of developers and publishers” and “to create varieties of small software titles”.

Beyond these measures Sony has also implied, slightly ambiguously, that it aims to further streamline the development process for PSN titles – “from license agreement to publishing” – for its “small, download-exclusive software titles.”

The aim again is clear: “more casual, exciting and attractive content to be made available for the ever-growing PlayStation Network”.

http://www.developmag.com/news/32120...-the-DS-market ...

Boss Ben Feder speaks of his confidence in Sony and the support they will offer PS3 exclusive Agent
Take 2 Interactive and Rockstar president Ben Feder has been waxing lyrical about platform holder Sony in the wake of the news that upcoming title Agent will be a PS3 exclusive.
“The trade-offs a publisher will typically make is, if you're platform-agnostic, you get a larger installed base,” Feder told GameSpot. “You're platform exclusive when you get the right kind of support from first parties.
“At this phase in the cycle, when you're trying to launch a new franchise, exclusivity can really help you launch the franchise. It can give you the kind of platform that you need to start exclusive, start in the right kind of way with the right kind of partner. Exclusivity does work.
“I have a lot of confidence in Sony. I have a lot of confidence in their ability to lead the market, as they always have. Their console is a terrific platform to be developing for, and Agent is a great testament as to our belief in what that platform can do, and what they can do with us as part of a partnership.”
Agent is currently in development at Grand Theft Auto IV studio Rockstar North, and whilst little is known of the title as of yet, its pedigree alone already makes it a must-watch title.

“We think Agent has the potential to be yet another great Rockstar North franchise title,” Feder added.
“It's the Houser Brothers and Rockstar North. It's the A team working on a triple-A title. I think the subject matter, the characters, the story, the environment, the background – all the elements are there. It's such a rich environment to play in.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34645/Rock...vity-does-work ...

It seems the days of EA's well-oiled licensed game machine could be numbered, as The Godfather joins James Bond, Lord of the Rings and Batman in the publisher's recently dropped brand names.

After confirming that EA is "not going to do another" Godfather game, Games boss Frank Gibeau suggested that licensed games will play less of a role in EA's strategy for the future.

"The bloom is really off the rose for licensed games," Gibeau told the Los Angeles Times.

An EA spokesperson later rushed to deliver the publication the official line that "nothing has been decided as to future [Godfather] sequels". Though it sounds like it has.

The comments could have interesting repercussions for the development of the upcoming Harry Potter games and Starbreeze-developed Jason Bourne. Will these get the traditional marketing bang EA's typically put behind its licensed games?

Either way, more Dead Space and less 007 Racing can only be a good thing

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=217082 ...

The publishing community is celebrating the rebirth of E3 after the annual event returned last week to showcase the talent, product and success of the games business in what is likely to be another record year for the industry.

Microsoft, Sony, Take-Two and Sega have all told GamesIndustry.biz that the Los Angeles event is the ideal opportunity to celebrate the achievements and vibrancy of games in the wider entertainment and media market.

"It's great to see it back," offered Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Xbox business. "We're an entertainment business and we should act and talk like an entertainment business.

"We shouldn't go hide in a corner. I've been doing E3 for some time and I'm really excited to see all the excitement and energy and noise and all the people come back, because that's what we should represent. I feel very fortunate that we got to launch Project Natal this year, because in essence this is the rebirth of E3 and Natal is the perfect way to kick that off."

Following the ESA's decision to scale back the event in 2007 and 2008, the industry lost an opportunity to promote itself and reach new audiences, according to Andrew House, Sony's new president and CEO for Europe.

"I feel very strongly about it, I was one step removed from the industry at the time the decision was taken but it wasn't a decision I supported," he said.

"I think you get a singular opportunity to have the press and everybody else focus on our industry for a week in LA – one of the entertainment capitals of the world. That's pretty priceless. As soon as you took emphasis away from that we lost an opportunity to reach the media and by extension broaden our appeal as an industry as a whole, so I'm very glad it's back. It's absolutely worth the collective investment we put into it."

Ben Feder, CEO of Take-Two, said the show floor felt alive and attendees were openly enthusiastic about the future of the business despite tough economic times. "We couldn't be happier, the energy in this room is unbelievable," he offered.

"The business is growing, the industry is growing. Every passing year there is more and more interest in the interactive entertainment business and I don't see this disappearing in the economic environment. I just see it growing from year to year," he added.

Gary Dunn, development director for Sega Europe, noted that his company has been able to talk business, and there was a perfect balance between showing product to the press and retail partners.

"I think they've hit the sweet spot this year, to be honest. The previous couple of years were very low key, but before that it was huge and probably over subscribed. I've been able to walk around the show floor this year – all you could do previously was shuffle around and it was very frustrating.

"We certainly feel that we've got to see all the key people we wanted to see from retailers and press. We're doing business so we feel it's been a success."

And while some developers fear the pressure of showing game demos at events like E3 might take the focus away from completing the final product, Tony Hawk's developer Robomodo welcomed the motivation of creating and showing early code to the press and partners.

"I saw a picture of E3 last year and it just looked so sad. This industry is so big that to not have one big gathering of a combination of developers, publishers, press, retailers and buyers was a real shame," said Josh Tsui, director of Robomodo.

"It's so great to have it back. On the development side of things it kicks us in the ass to get more stuff done by a certain date. We got a lot done in the last few weeks. I always joke, but there should be four of these gatherings a year, because if they did that, games would always be on time and on budget."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-rebirth-of-e3 ...