Patent reveals Microsoft's device will be able to understand American Sign Language, lip read and even track toe movement.
Apple is in discussions that could lead to the acquisition of Chinese game development studio Handseeing.
Headquartered in China's Sichuan province, the gaming company designs online titles based on popular Chinese folklore.
"We should have a decision in about one or two months," Tian Bo, Handseeing’s vice-president for operations, told Reuters. "They're still talking about it and it's not quite settled yet right now."
Channel 4’s video on demand service 4 on Demand may be headed to PS3.
An anonymous source told Broadcast magazine (via TechRadar): "We're looking to launch on the PS3. 4oD is becoming a platform agnostic product and will be successful because of the quality of the content."
Built from the ground up over the last 18 months, and consisting of industry veterans as well as staff from other disciplines, Good Science Studio is the developer behind Kinect Adventures, Microsoft Game Studios' minigame collection for Kinect. Don't call them minigames though, the company prefers to term each discrete activity an 'adventure'. Regardless of terminology, Kinect Adventures is the perfect ambassador for Microsoft's new device. It's accessible, wholly entertaining and just familiar enough.
Thirdparty accessories firm Mad Catz Interactive has posted a loss and a decrease in sales for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2010.
The company reported a net loss of $1.4 million (£883,000), compared to a net loss of $1 million (£631,000) in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year, while sales fell 11 per cent year-over-year to $19.9 million (£12.6m).
Square Enix has posted positive financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30.
The company swung from a loss of 1,672 million yen ($19.4m / £12.3m) during the same period last year to a profit of 1,812 million yen ($21m / £13.3m).
Net sales were up 10.7 per cent year-over-year to 32,540 million yen ($378m / £238.5m), while operating income rocketed 814.4 per cent to 5,434 million yen ($63.1m / £39.8m).
Farmville maker Zynga has acquired Japanese social game developer Unoh for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2001, Unoh has created titles including Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo! and Kaizoku Chronicle. The studio will lead Zynga’s Japanese mobile efforts, creating new games and localising others.
Creator: Adam “Atomic” Saltsman
Format: iPhone, Flash
Direct App Store link
A combination of successful software launches and new hardware helped boost sales of PlayStation platforms in Japan during the week ended August 1.
Total PSP and PS3 sales almost doubled week-over-week as new games for the platforms took the top two spots on the software chart. The home console’s sales jump can also be attributed to the launch of a white PS3 and higher storage capacity 160GB and 320GB models on July 29.
Format: C64
Release: 1987
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: In-house
Following Call Of Duty’s continued retail and online sales success, Activision has said it intends to “redouble” investment in the brand.
Activision Blizzard increased profit during the second quarter of 2010 despite a drop in net revenues.
The Call Of Duty publisher posted a profit of $219 million, up 12 per cent year-over-year, while revenues dropped 6.8 per cent to $967 million.
MTV and Harmonix parent company Viacom cut its losses on the Rock Band franchise in the quarter ended June 30, 2010.
The company’s Media Networks division, which houses its videogame business, saw quarterly revenue up six per cent year-over-year to $2.09 billion (£1.3b), while operating income rose 14 per cent to $789 million (£496m), “driven by higher affiliate and advertising revenues as well as lower losses from Rock Band”, the company said.
Known to many as the father of Mega Man, the title is one Capcom global head of production, Keiji Inafune claims he doesn't deserve. But as an executive producer his influence has been seen across many Capcom titles, including the Onimusha series, Lost Planet and most recently working with western developers on Bionic Commando and Dark Void.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has lifted the lid on the follow-up to 2009’s critically acclaimed and award-winning Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Konami has reported an impressive leap in net income, despite a slight dip in sales, during its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2010.
Company-wide net income rocketed 244.7 per cent to 1.23 billion yen ($14.3m / £9m), while net revenues were down five per cent to 53.2 billion yen ($618m / £389m).
Namco Bandai significantly reduced its losses while improving sales during its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2010.
Net loss fell from 2,846 million yen ($33m / £20.8m) during the same period a year earlier to 1,644 million yen ($19m / £12m), while sales increased 8.2 per cent to 81,912 million yen ($950m / £600m).
StarCraft II tops the UK all formats chart in its debut week, while Crackdown 2 drops out of the top ten.
A while back I wrote about how repetitive gameplay over long periods of time can provide a depth of familiarity unique to our medium. That’s true, and great, and whatever, but to be less sunny about it my honest opinion is that most games don’t achieve this ideal, this gradual osmosis of artistic intent. Most games are just way too long. Presumably, you also hardly ever finish games you start, and those you do finish involve some punishing, boring slog solely for the sake of completion. Right?
California-based publisher Glu Mobile has reported increased losses and a decline in sales for its second fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2010.
Quarterly revenues fell $3.9 million year-over-year to $16 million (£10m), while net loss increased $1.7 million to $3.2 million (£2m).
The control pad may be ingrained in gaming culture, but what of the wider world's relationship with the humble remote control? Microsoft has its sights set on nothing less than a living room revolution, and while games are part of that strategy, it hopes to change the way we think about films, TV and even social networking.
Peter Molyneux, Lionhead boss and creative director of Microsoft Games Studios Europe, doesn’t believe social gaming will replace the triple-A market.
“Triple-A is here to stay. When TV came along it didn’t replace the movie industry. Social gaming is like TV. It is going to co-exist because, frankly, there’s too much money in it,” he told Develop.
Google has reportedly agreed to buy social gaming and apps developer Slide as part of its wider efforts to build a new social networking service to rival Facebook.
The news was first reported by TechCrunch, which valued the deal at $182 million, although a subsequent New York Times report suggests the buyout price is $228 million.
Security software firm Uniloc has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, Sony Corp. of America and a number of other software makers, alleging that the defendants infringed on a copy protection patent.
Other defendants include Aspy Media, Borland Software, McAfee and Quark.
Indie developer High Voltage Software has cut between 20 and 30 members of staff and could yet axe "a lot more", according to a Joystiq report.