Microsoft reportedly relaxing its stance on free-to-play games funded by microtransactions.
Free-to-play games will soon be available through Xbox 360 download service Xbox Live, according to reports.
IGN has been told by a “trusted source” that Microsoft is to change its policy regarding free-to-play, which sees games made available as free downloads, funded by the sale of virtual items and other microtransactions.
_0_0.jpg "World Of Goo Coming To iPhone This Week")
Arrives this Thursday, reduced to 99¢ for the first 24 hours; iPad version updated to universal app.
Much-loved indie game World Of Goo will be released for iPhone later this week, developer 2D Boy has announced.
The studio revealed the news in a post on its website. Launching this Thursday, April 14, the iPhone version will be priced at $2.99, but will be reduced to 99¢ for its first 24 hours on sale.
Becomes first 3DS game to pass the million mark; Ono hints at Facebook title.
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition has shipped one million units worldwide, publisher Capcom has said, and becomes the first 3DS game to reach the milestone.
The Guitar Hero series has not been completely killed off, but is merely “on hiatus”, according to publisher Activision.
Dan Winters, the firm’s VP of developer relations and acquisitions, told GI.biz that the series very much remained in Activision’s thoughts.
70,000 of episodic title’s 250,000 total sales came when one episode was free for a fortnight.
Andrew Eades, co-founder of Relentless Software, says the developer will now give serious thought to the free-to-play model after the success of its episodic title Blue Toad Murder Files.
Parties reached settlement late last month; “It was never my intention to make piracy easier,” says Hotz.
Sony has confirmed that it has reached a settlement with George “Geohot” Hotz, against whom the firm was locked in a legal battle over his role in the hacking of PlayStation 3.
CCP senior programmer Joel McGinnis on how to build AI for the most demanding players, but still teach new ones.
“I wish we had enough work to keep everybody employed all the time, but sometimes it’s just business.”
THQ’s VP of core games Danny Bilson has justified the recent layoffs at its subsidiaries Kaos Studios and Volition, saying that trimming staff after completion of a project is “normal” and “just business.”
Developer demonstrates "LA Noire beating" animation tool capable of rendering every human expression in real time.
During a visit to Finland-based Max Payne and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, we were given an exclusive look at work-in-progress animation tech that the studio is using to create its next project.
The rapidly growing social gaming market will be worth $5 billion by 2015, a fivefold increase on its current value, according to research firm Parks Associates.
It makes the claim in a new report, Social Gaming: Market Updates, in which it points to the successful monetisation of social games, with sales of virtual items and other microtransactions seeing the sector gross a billion dollars from players in 2010.
Akai Katana PCB on sale through developer’s online store for 220,000 Yen.
Cave is selling a version of its latest project, Akai Katana, through its online store for 220,000 Japanese Yen – over £1500 at current exchange rates.
The game, the latest in Cave’s line of much-loved bullet hell shoot-'em-ups, will be released for Xbox 360 next month, but the developer is also offering the game on a PCB arcade board.
Format: Xbox 360
Release: Out Now
Publisher: Ankama Play
Developer: Ankama Play
All change at the top as 505 Games’ workout title unseats Crysis 2.
505 Games’ Zumba Fitness is the new number one in the UK all-formats chart, knocking Crysis 2, which had occupied the top slot for two weeks, down into second.
The relative lack of new releases at the beginning of April, as publishers enter a new financial year, means Tecmo Koei’s Dynasty Warriors 7 is the chart's sole new entry, sneaking in at number 10.
Mobile advertising evolves, offering demographically targeted rewards when achievements are unlocked.
A new mobile advertising model is to introduce a reward scheme, with specific, targeted rewards unlocked with in-game achievements, which the firm behind it describes as “driving for customer acquisition when players are happy.”
Says Nintendo handhelds are “a great babysitting tool”; other platforms “are running out of steam.”
SCEA president Jack Tretton has hit out at rival platform holders Microsoft and Nintendo, describing Nintendo’s handhelds as “a great babysitting tool” and saying both firms’ console offerings are “running out of steam.”
PlayStation 3’s motion controller outsells Xbox 360’s by almost two to one.
Sony’s PlayStation 3 motion controller, Move, is outselling its Xbox 360 rival, Kinect, in Sony’s native Japan.
Andriasang reports that by the end of 2010 Microsoft’s Kinect had sold 90,000 units in Japan, with Move almost doubling that total with 170,000 sales.
Both were outsold, however, by Torne, a DVR attachment for PlayStation 3 which with 784,000 units sold was the year’s best-selling peripheral.
Analyst suggests the smartphone sensation is dominating yet another download platform.
The phenomenon that is Angry Birds is no longer just the dominant force in smartphone gaming: it is already the most downloaded game on Sony’s PS3 online service, PlayStation Network, despite only launching in January.
Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets told Industry Gamers: “PSN appears to be tapping into the casual and social gaming market with titles such as Angry Birds, which is the most downloaded game through PSN.”
“We need to move onto something else as an industry. I don’t know if Kinect or Move are the answer.”
Quantic Dream head David Cage has called on platform holders to introduce new control devices, saying the PS3’s DualShock is “the end of an era” and that Kinect and Move are not “the ultimate answer.”
Format: Flash
Developer: Super Flash Bros.
Tom Hanks once said that he’d play a villain in a film just as soon as he could find one that he could understand. Videogames have a faintly similar problem with wickedness: it’s appealing to offer players the chance to explore evil choices, but how do you impose meaningful restrictions when morality – or at least the handy barriers associated with morality – have been taken away?
CEO Yves Guillemot on hand to accept night’s big award at trade magazine’s annual awards ceremony.
Ubisoft had a good night at yesterday’s MCV Awards, taking home the event’s most prestigious award, the Grand Prix.
The award, the only one selected solely by the trade magazine’s editorial team, recognises “commercial and critical success plus the highest levels of support and efficiency at trade level.”
UPDATE: The below story only relates to the price of PSP in the Eurozone. SCE UK told us: "The price drop in continental Europe has been made possible by favourable fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Euro and the Yen. Since we in the UK are vulnerable to two exchange rate calculations, pounds into Euros and Euros into Yen, we are not in a position to offer a similar cut in PSP for the UK."
ORIGINAL STORY: Sony has cut the price of its PlayStation Portable by 24 per cent across the European Union.
Nintendo’s US liaison on the hunt for studios “with a sense of craftsmanship”, with mixed results.
Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe is on the lookout for more developers of the calibre of Retro Studios, who so impressed the Nintendo producer during development of Donkey Kong Country Returns – but admits that too many US game companies are “running a business for business’ sake.”
Nikkei stock falls for fourth consecutive day; US ADR share price has fallen 17 per cent since February.
Nintendo is having a troubled time on the stock market, with its Japanese share price falling for a fourth consecutive day, and having dropped 17 per cent on the US market since late February.
Format: 360, PS3
Release: 2011
Publisher: Namco Bandai / From Software
Developer: From Software