PlayStation and a strong dollar help Sony turn a profit
Twelve months ago, Sony was busy recalculating the losses it was expecting to report, due to its beleaguered mobile division. Today, the firm’s announcing a 33.6-billion yen ($278-million) profit thanks (once more) to PlayStation and its image sensor division. Overall revenues came in slightly lower than a year ago (down by 0.5), but a general uptick across the company’s many divisions has helped push it into profitability. Despite this, mobile sales continue to slide (down 15-percent this quarter). Sony’s Xperia brand is an expensive pastime, costing the company approximately $1.9 million per day in losses.
Source: Sony
Nintendo’s first mobile game sounds weird, has in-app payments
Mario won’t be leaping or exclaiming on your iPhone any time soon. At an investor’s meeting, NIntendo announced that it’s delayed its smartphone game debut til around March 2016. It’s also aiming for a global launch. Elaborating in the Q&A session, Nintendo CEO Kimishima said the first game is called Miitomo (“Mii Friends”) and will involve Mii interactions. Your avatar will apparently even interact with people on its own volition, helping shy types or unearthing sinister new facets of your friend’s personality. Maybe. Inevitably, (mobile games maker DeNa is involved), in-app payments will be built-in, but the game will be free to play. Games following Miitomo will be pay-to-download. You know, like normal Nintendo release. The company plans to launch five different apps by March 2017.
Source: WSJ
‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ returns to PC with some lingering issues
Warner Bros. removed Batman: Arkham Knight from Steam in June because that version of the game was essentially too broken to function. Today, it re-launched Arkham Knight on Steam, though some players are still experiencing problems. In an effort to address these issues, Warner Bros. posted an update with a few suggestions for specific problems: Windows 7 players may encounter hard-drive paging issues after “extended gameplay sessions,” but “re-launching the game will resolve” that. For Windows 10 players, Warner Bros. says, “having at least 12GB of system RAM on a PC allows the game to operate without paging and provides a smoother gameplay experience.” It should be noted that 12GB of RAM would provide a smoother gameplay experience for just about every game in existence. The studio is also looking into stabilizing the experiences on specific graphics cards.
Via: Motherboard
Source: Steam
Xbox One Kinect bundle drops to $399 for a limited time
With the holiday season just around the corner, Microsoft is looking to capitalize on Xbox One sales over the next couple of months. As such, the company has announced a limited-time deal for the kit that includes its latest console and companion motion sensor, plus Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. If you’re in the US, Mexico or Canada, starting today you can buy the Xbox One Kinect bundle for $399, $7,999 MXN and $449 CAD, respectively. What’s more, for people who only want the Kinect, Microsoft’s also offering it for $99 right now. Microsoft didn’t say how long this promotion will last, so those of you who are interested should probably act on it as soon as possible.
Source: Xbox
A ‘Quake Live’ Steam update raises the game’s price from $0 to $10
Quake Live, a highly competitive first-person shooter from Doom studio id Software, has been free since it launched in 2010. Rather, it had been free. On Wednesday, long-time players booted up the game to find it now costs $10 on Steam and no longer offers subscription options for serious fans. The move is part of Quake Live‘s transition to Steamworks, which allows players to use their Steam display names in-game, receive Steam stats and achievements, and download new content through the Steam Workshop. “By retiring our services and subscription service, all players now have the same benefits and features in-game,” the Quake Live team says. The move also erases all previous game data, which, for some players, is five years’ worth of clan-building and killing. Many players were surprised (and some were enraged) by today’s news.
Via: Kotaku Australia
Source: Quake Live
Android can record your mobile gaming sessions
Google doesn’t want YouTube Gaming to be populated solely with videos from consoles and PCs. It’s rolling out a feature in the Google Play Games app that lets you record 480p or 720p footage from any Android game that supports the Google Play framework. All you do is pick the game from the GPG app and start capturing — when you’re done, you can edit the clip before sending it YouTube’s way. You can have it record your on-camera reactions, too, if pure gameplay isn’t entertaining enough. Only US and UK gamers will have access to recording in the next few days, but more countries are coming “soon after.”
Copyright exemption lets you modify old games to keep them running
You no longer have to dread the day that a game developer shuts off its servers and renders your favorite title unplayable. As part of a series of DMCA copyright exemptions, the US Library of Congress has granted long-sought permission to disable authentication server requirements in games where a server’s shutdown will completely break the experience. Historians can even hack the consoles themselves, if necessary. This doesn’t allow you to tweak games where you’d only lose multiplayer modes, but it does mean that at least some aspects of a classic game will live on.
Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Source: Copyright.gov (PDF)
Playdate’s Wii U Halloween Horror: ‘Fatal Frame’ and ‘Year Walk’
‘Spooky’ isn’t exactly the first word that comes to mind when one things of the family-friendly Wii U — but that didn’t stop the PlayDate crew from digging up a couple or horror titles to mark the coming of all hallows eve. Join us at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific as we tour Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water’s haunted Hikami Mountain and learn the legend of its ghost-wrangling shrine maidens. Then, we’ll take a Year Walk and step into the darker side of old Swedish folklore. Join in the fun right here, at twitch.tv/joystiq and on the Engadget Gaming homepage.
‘Detroit: Become Human’ is Quantic Dream’s debut PS4 game
Detroit is bouncing back from some absolutely devastating economic times, but Detroit: Become Human from Quantic Dream exists in an altogether different timeline. The team behind Heavy Rain is using the Motor City and its manufacturing legacy as a backdrop for its tale of an AI with human emotions, and the game is an extension of the studio’s “Kara” demo from a few years back. Aside from that, lead David Cage didn’t give an awful lot of info. Considering the studio’s pedigree, it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume the game will be highly cinematic, but that could also be a detriment. After all, the team’s last game, Beyond: Two Souls looked great in demos too, but fell a bit flat in terms of actual gameplay. Become Human isn’t the first time a game about androids and AI’s been set in Motown — Deus Ex: Human Revolution did that back in 2011.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
Enjoy all the trailers from PlayStation’s Paris Games Week event
Sony had plenty of titles to show off at its inaugural Paris Games Week press conference today, from Star Wars: Battlefront to No Man’s Sky, Dreams and Gravity Rush 2. It showed off some new games, including Gran Turismo Sport, Vector (made in collaboration with the musician Avicii), Housemarque‘s Matterfall and Detroit: Become Human from Beyond: Two Souls creator David Cage. We also got a closer look at Wild, the fantastical, mysterious, open-world game from Rayman creator Michel Ancel. See trailers for all of these and more, including some videos not shown on-stage today, all handily collected below. You can even read along with our liveblog and pretend the conference is happening all over again, at your own speed.
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