Forget Dark Souls, one of the hardest games around is Minecraft, says RPG maker Jeff Vogel. For adults. As we've noticed ourselves, kids have no problem simply playing it, dreaming up projects to make and do, made spellbound by possibilities. But adults? Vogel, who runs Avernum developer Spiderweb Software, says:
OnLive founder, president and CEO Steve Perlman is no stranger to cutting edge technology, having worked for both Apple and Microsoft over the course of a career that’s seen him dabble in everything from Quicktime to motion capture. OnLive can be viewed as an amalgamation of his past experience, drawing in aspects of digital distribution, hardware manufacture and software development as he attempts to take cloud-gaming by the horns.
OnLive founder, president and CEO Steve Perlman is no stranger to cutting edge technology, having worked for both Apple and Microsoft over the course of a career that’s seen him dabble in everything from Quicktime to motion capture. OnLive can be viewed as an amalgamation of his past experience, drawing in aspects of digital distribution, hardware manufacture and software development as he attempts to take cloud-gaming by the horns.
Details on the 3DS RPG unveiled by Square Enix at last week's Tokyo Game Show remain scarce, and these screens reveal little beyond its charming aesthetic.
Producer Tomoya Asano has confirmed that Bravely Default's battle system will be turn-based, with random encounters, but is tight-lipped on who else is working on the game, saying that those responsible for sound and storyline are "interesting people" who haven't worked for Square Enix. The game will also use 3DS's AR capabilities.
Californian mobile game developer Appy Entertainment's iOS games have been downloaded ten million times since the studio was formed in 2008.
The developer tells us that since it began experimenting with the freemium model 12 weeks ago, download volumes are up 340 per cent to 20,000 per day, which has resulted in its revenue doubling. It's doing well on Android, too, with FaceFighter Gold downloaded 650,000 times since its release.
Speaking to Official Nintendo Magazine, Yusuke Amano, the man charged with coordinating development of the recently released Star Fox 64 3D between Nintendo and Q-Games, said that the game's lack of online multiplayer was due to cost and time restrictions.
Sega has confirmed that Dreamcast classic Space Channel 5 Part 2 will be released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on October 4 and 5 respectively.
Another Dreamcast game, Sega Bass Fishing, will be available on the same day and, on PS3, includes Move support. Both games will be priced at 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA, and £6.29 on PSN.
Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, the cloud gaming service which launched overnight in the UK, believes that the console cycle as we know it is a thing of the past.
OnLive, the cloud gaming service that launched in the US last year, is now live in the UK.
The service launches with a library of some 150 games, playable instantly on an HDTV, PC or Mac, with iPad and Android tablet support to be added in future. Games can be bought individually, with prices starting at £1.99, or played through a subscription package, the PlayPack Bundle, which costs £6.99 a month.
Dragon Quest Collection has debuted at number one on the Japanese software chart.
Released as part of publisher Square Enix’s Dragon Quest 25th anniversary festivities, the Wii collection of the first three games in the series sold over 263,000 copies during the week ended September 18.
Dragon Quest Collection has debuted at number one on the Japanese software chart.
Released as part of publisher Square Enix’s Dragon Quest 25th anniversary festivities, the Wii collection of the first three games in the series sold over 263,000 copies during the week ended September 18.
Edge publisher Future has teamed with Sony Computer Entertainment UK to launch Access, a new on-console PS3 video show available to download for free every Wednesday from the PlayStation Store.
Hosted by comedian Lucy Porter and billed as a ten minute weekly HD video guide to PlayStation in the UK, it promises to offer "unrivalled access to... the best games, the biggest industry events and SCE UK's Access community".
Angry Birds creator Rovio is reportedly preparing to launch a new publishing label for independent studios.
According to Develop, the Finnish outfit has already been in contact with multiple mobile games studios regarding its plans, although nothing has been officially announced.
“We have some plans for this area, but not ready to announce yet,” Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka told the site. “If we do something in the publishing area, you can expect it to be a bit different.”
UPDATE: It's back up.
ORIGINAL STORY: The PlayStation Network has been out of action for over three hours and there is currently no indication when it will be back online.
While there are no updates on the US or European PlayStation blogs concerning the unscheduled downtime, both divisions have acknowledged the current outage on their official Twitter accounts.
Here's one: why there aren't many civilians in military shooters? The first answer's obvious - so you can't shoot them and games aren't pilloried as awful murder simulators. But doesn't a game world in which everything you kill is an enemy, and therefore deserving, tacitly reinforce the idea that lethal force is always OK? Michael Thomsen's question in his Slate column provides a good head scratcher, spanning MW2's No Russian to Six Days In Fallujah.
The Angry Birds developer is reportedly continuing its expansion into other walks of life by entering talks with Starbucks with a view to putting leaderboard displays into its coffee shops.
Rovio's Wibe Wagemans told The Guardian: "It's tying in the real world with the virtual world. Retailers get new customers who've not been to their stores yet, and repeat customers.
While rumours of the precise date on which Apple is to unveil the next iPhone have been swirling for some time, we're inclined to believe All Things Digital's claim that new Apple CEO Tim Cook will reveal the device to the world on October 4.
The reason? It's been right before, correctly revealing that Apple would unveil the iPad 2 in San Francisco on March 2. Sources have told All Things Digital that the device will be put on sale within a few weeks of the announcement.
Does familiarity breed contempt? Or is it more often the truth that familiarity simply begets boredom, and a gradual withdrawal? Kairosoft's iOS debut, Game Dev Story, was a pared down and idiosyncratic take on the management genre that stole hearts, its pixelly caricatures and Engrish gags reminiscent of nothing so much as the import SNES days.
Online retailer Play.com has been taken over by Rakuten, the largest online retailer in Japan, in a deal worth £25 million.
Rakuten chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said: "The UK market is one of Europe's largest and most mature e-commerce markets. Play.com is not only a pioneer in the market, but also one of the UK's most successful e-commerce businesses.
According to Japanese blog Esuteru, From Software is taking on those who have somehow acquired an early copy of the upcoming Dark Souls in typically cruel fashion.
It appears the developer is making use of a feature which enables players to invade each other's worlds, by sending max-level Black Phantoms into the games of those who are already playing the game thanks to retailers breaking Dark Souls' official Japanese release date of tomorrow.
There’s a subtle grace in a fired bullet. The rifling in the barrel making it twist just so as it rushes to put an end to someone’s life. But such precision is incongruous with much of the rest of Red Orchestra 2. Alongside the simple, sudden deadliness of the bullet is the constantly present clumsiness of war. That’s no bad thing: war is clumsy, full of pointless deaths and stupid accidents.
EA says it has learned the tools of the social gaming trade and is now ready to take on runaway market leader Zynga.
Like porn, it can be hard to define exactly what a clone is: but you know it when you see it. Muffin Knight has been riding near the top of the App Store for a several weeks, with the majority of its players probably unaware they're playing a copy of Super Crate Box, a freeware PC game that's also destined to hit the App Store in a couple of weeks.
Like Dungeons & Dragons, Minecraft makes its constituent parts explicit from the moment you hear the name. Which is why it's wholly disconcerting to discover on booting up Minecraft Pocket Edition that mining and crafting don't feature. But given the popularity of XBLIG clone FortressCraft and the appetite for unofficial Minecraft apps like World Explorer, even the idea of a stripped down official version in your pocket is enough to raise most people's pulse.
UK minister for culture Ed Vaizey has called on developers to help create a gaming room in the Houses of Parliament.
The suggestion came during an interview in issue 232 of Edge, as a result of Vaizey's frustrations when it comes to promoting games to visitors.
"I asked if I could put a games console in my room in the department," Vaizey tells us. "The powers that be were against it, because people coming for meetings would assume that I was spending every spare minute playing games!