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June 17, 2011

LulzSec disrupts Eve servers again

EDIT: CCP has clarified the effects of the attack to us - "The second attack did not indeed bring down the Eve Online servers, but instead caused some temporary connection issues for a small portion of our playerbase. Others did remain unaffected and were able to play without incident. We have no evidence that any Eve Online user information was compromised at all." [Original story below]
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44910/LulzSec-takes-down-Eve-servers-again
MCV

The hacking group has hit CCP's Eve Online servers for the second time, bringing them down in the process. In addition, the group has published the email and password details of 62,000 internet users obtained from an unspecified source. LulzSec has claimed responsibilty for attacks on Nintendo, Epic Games, Square Enix, Codemasters, Minecraft and the Escapist websites over the past few days.


The Friday Game: SpeedRunner

SpeedRunner piles on the mileage, but its greatest pleasures lie with one of videogames’ most reliable gadgets.

For the length of its opening level, SpeedRunner, the debut title from DoubleDutch Games, appears to be Canabalt with a bit of story thrown in. Stick with it, though. By the second level, you’ll realise this arcade platformer is actually Canabalt with a grappling hook – and that’s a much more appealing proposition.

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Riccitiello wants Call Of Duty core

EA CEO questions the timing of Activision's announcement of subscription service Call Of Duty Elite, and believes Battlefield 3 will take away Call Of Duty's core audience. "A lot of people bought Modern Warfare more for the coffee table and didn't play it for two months," he said. "There's sort of that mass audience...[Activision is] going to win there. The question is: 'So, if the gamer buys our game and the mass audience buys their game, where do the two meet?' And all I want to do, if you will, is have them rot from the core."
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ea-ceo-wants-call-of-duty-to-rot-from-the-core/
Industry Gamers


Facebook preparing HTML5 iOS app platform

TechCrunch reports that Facebook has 80 external developers working on apps for Project Spartan, an HTML5 platform aimed squarely at iOS devices. It won't be distributed through the App Store, but through Safari: a Facebook-branded portal to apps and games, playable in the iOS browser by virtue of being built in HTML5 instead of Flash. Zynga is reportedly on board, and Spartan will support Facebook Credits, helping the social network's proprietary payment system reach some 100 million mobile users.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan/
TechCrunch


Notch reveals XBLA Minecraft developer

The Kinect-compatible port of Mojang's indie smash is being handled by Dundee-based 4J Studios. The developer has plenty of experience, having produced the PS3 version of Oblivion and the XBLA ports of Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark. Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson said: "I'm a big fan of their previous work, and they've worked closely with Microsoft in the past."
https://twitter.com/#!/notch
Twitter


June 16, 2011

Microsoft releases Kinect Windows SDK

Toolkit features raw sensor streams, skeletal tracking, audio capabilities, sample code and documentation.

Microsoft has officially released a beta version of the Kinect for Windows SDK.

Designed for non-commercial purposes, the programming toolkit is aimed at academic and hobbyist application developers.

Offering Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, it includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, audio capabilities, installation documents, sample code and resource materials.

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Duke Nukem Forever tops Nordic chart

LA Noire dethroned after three weeks of sales dominance.

Duke Nukem Forever is the new number one on the Nordic chart, which collates sales data from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Fellow new entry Infamous 2 takes second place ahead of LA Noire, which had topped the rankings for three successive weeks.

Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean slips one place to number four, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars rounds off the top five, while Portal 2 and Zumba Fitness slip out of the top ten.

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Alice: Madness Returns review

Fantastical visuals and satisfying combat fail to mask a generic journey.

Regularly promoted alongside Shadows Of The Damned, there are few finer stablemates for Suda’s descent into hell than American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns. Both herald from digital auteurs encroaching on familiar territory – hell and Lewis Carroll – and both lack ideas to match their visual invention. This is a Burton-esque Wonderland; in fact, it’s more Burton-esque than the director’s own attempt.

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Tapjoy announces $5 million Android fund

The app monetisation firm has set up a $5 million fund to help developers port their apps to Google's Android system, a move that would appear to be a response to Apple's recent changes to rules on download incentives which pushed Tapjoy off the App Store. CEO Mihir Shah said: "Tapjoy is in the business of democratising the application ecosystem." Nine thousand apps use its services, and it claims to reach more than 200 million users.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/16/tapjoy-launches-5m-fund-to-port-apps-to-android/
VentureBeat


John Carmack's Armadillo rocket project suffers crashes

While Carmack's "been crunching on Rage" according to his Twitter feed, his Armadillo Aerospace rocket project has suffered two crashes. One due to instability as the rocket returned to ground ("a small area of shrubbery was torched") and one due to combustion becoming unstable 11 seconds into flight, causing the rocket to turn sideways in flight, tearing several fins off and eventually crashing into the desert. "We will persevere..." says Carmack. On the plus side, the crashes make for exciting watching - see below for the first one - and click the source for Armadillo's full flight reports.
http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=375
Armadillo Aerospace


Report: Game Republic closed

Genji and Majin developer's official website offline and Tokyo offices vacated.

Japanese developer Game Republic is believed to have closed its doors after eight years in the business.

The studio, known for the PS3 exclusive Genji: Days Of The Blade and last year's Majin And The Forsaken Kingdom, has vacated its Tokyo offices, and its official website has been offline for some time. It is our understanding that the studio had been operating with a skeleton staff since at least October of last year, while staff known to have worked at the developer have been popping up at other companies.

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Facebook Credits facing awareness problem

Inside Social Games reports that one-third of 2,000 active social gamers polled said they had not heard of Facebook's proprietary currency system for microtransactions. Of those who were aware of Facebook Credits, only 51 per cent had actually used them, with many respondents saying they had only done so due to a promotion which gave them away for free. Much remains to be done, then, and quickly: the system will be mandatory in all Facebook games from July 1.
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/06/15/inside-virtual-goods-facebok-credits-gaining-in-popularity-but-still-new-to-many
Inside Social Games


Sodium 2 hits PlayStation Home

This futuristic racer is the first PlayStation Home game to take advantage of the new features introduced recently in Home v1.5, including improved visuals, better physics and realtime multiplayer. It's free to play, with upgrades available using XP earned while playing or through microtransactions, and will be available in Home this Thursday. SCEE, however, is still unable to confirm when European customers will receive the bundle of over 100 virtual items as part of the Welcome Back programme, though it says details are currently being finalised.
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/06/15/playstation-home-sodium-2-project-velocity-is-here
Sony


Valve opens Portal 2 music video competition

Creative fans of The National's rather lovely Exile Vilify, a song written for Portal 2, have a chance of winning a guitar signed by the band and pack of Valve swag. Aside from featuring the song itself and being uploaded to YouTube, the brief for the video is very open: "live action, game assets, shots of the band, sock puppets, whatever you want." All entries should be tagged PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE by the closing date of July 15. There aren't many entries there yet, but below is an early gem (includes spoilers).
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/videocontest/
Valve


Xbox Live Indie Games Summer Uprising announced

Indiegames.com confirms a follow-up to December's Winter Uprising, an effort to promote the Xbox Live Indie Games service "to show people it isn't simply full of knock-offs and tacky-looking titles." This time organisers are taking submissions for the promotion, rather than choosing the games themselves; developers need to submit games for consideration by June 27, with the promotion to start on August 22.
http://indiegames.com/2011/06/indie_games_summer_uprising_an.html
Indie Games


Game Group shares hit eight-year low

UK retailer's share price drops to 38.25p, its lowest level since March 2003, when it slumped to 37.25p. Game's highest share price in the interim was 296.75p, in May 2008.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44919/GAME-shares-hit-8-year-low
MCV


Wii U dev kits "underclocked"

A Wii U white paper published by Hit Detection - the consulting company founded by former Edge columnist N'Gai Croal - claims that Wii U developer hardware does not reflect the system's true power. "Developers have underclocked development kits, and worked hard to deliver titles running on hardware to demonstrate live at E3," it reads. "However, due to titles not looking much better than what is currently available on Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo decided late in the game to not show those titles and focus instead on tech demos."
http://kotaku.com/5812391/report-developers-working-with-underclocked-wii-u-hardware
Kotaku


Take-Two stock drops 4 per cent

The publisher's share price has fallen more than 15 per cent since the middle of last month, though is still up 20 per cent for the year. Driving factors are sales of LA Noire, which NPD revealed this week had sold 899,000 in May - a strong showing but some way short of the 1.5 million units Take-Two's Red Dead Redemption sold in the same month last year - and dismal reviews of Duke Nukem Forever.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/take-two-hit-by-sales-data-duke-nukem-ratings-2011-06-14?reflink=MW_news_stmp
MarketWatch


BioWare hacked

General manager Aaryn Flynn confirms an attack on the developer's decade-old community server to which the Neverwinter Nights forum was linked. No credit card data was compromised but the login details, email addresses and birthdates of 18,000 registered users "may have" been taken by hackers.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/6/index/7653193
BioWare


Nolan Bushnell goes back to school

The Atari founder talks to TechCrunch about Speed To Learn, which Bushnell describes as being "aimed at changing the way kids learn, both in and out of school...We have a game system which teaches while you're playing a game like Dance Dance Revolution." Increased heart rate, he says, improves retention and mental capacity, and Speed To Learn will help students develop maths skills and language vocabulary. Bushnell says the platform, built for PC, will use motion-sensing software but remains tight-lipped on specifics.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/mr-atari-video-arcad-classroom-tctv/
TechCrunch


Iwata rules out free-to-play

Questions the long-term viability of freemium, and argues it threatens the very future of the industry.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has emphatically ruled out the suggestion that Nintendo should develop games that use the free-to-play model, saying that the entire industry would be at risk were the firm to do so.

In an interview with All Things Digital, Iwata reiterated comments made about mobile and social games at GDC in February, when he said that low-cost software threatened consumer perception of traditional, full-price experiences and the industry that produces them.

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Devil May Cry HD Collection on the way?

According to one Spanish online retailer, Capcom is to mark the tenth anniversary of the Hideki Kamiya series' debut with the PlayStation 3 release of a remastered collection of the first three games in the series this November. Capcom declined to comment.
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/15/spanish-game-store-lists-devil-may-cry-hd-collection-with-box-art/
Siliconera


Zynga continues mobile push

The king of social gaming releases its second iOS game in as many weeks, following last week's Hanging With Friends. CityVille Hometown is a mobile version of CityVille, which became the most popular game of all time on Facebook with 88.4 million players in its first month. Players can invite friends to live in the town they have created, with some cross-platform functionality with Facebook. Hometown will be available as a free download from the App Store soon.
http://www.zynga.com/about/article.php?a=20110615
Zynga


Epic announces London UE3 event

Epic Developer Day and Unreal University come to Europe for the first time next month.

Epic Games has announced a free two-day event in London next month to help developers get the very best out of Unreal Engine 3.

The event kicks off on July 13 with Epic Developer Day, which is open to anyone bound by Epic's non-disclosure agreement for commercial UE3 evaluation or holds a full licence. Sessions will cover a variety of topics, and time will be set aside for Q&A and troubleshooting. Those interested can register here.

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Duke Nukem publisher axes PR firm for threatening reviewers

2K Games has dropped third party PR agency The Redner Group, which most recently represented the publisher on the poorly received Duke Nukem Forever. The move came after the PR firm’s founder, Jim Redner, threatened to blacklist reviewers, saying on Twitter last night: “Too many went too far with their reviews...we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom.” 2K responded swiftly, announcing today: “2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by @TheRednerGroup and confirm they no longer represent our products.”
http://twitter.com/#!/2KGames/status/81056724546633729
Twitter


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