OUYA confirms further moves into China with Alibaba deal
Is Chinese giant Alibaba investing $10 million into California-based game console maker OUYA? That report remains unconfirmed, but OUYA did confirm this morning that Alibaba is getting the OUYA game library on its YunOS platform. Sorry, the what platform? It’s essentially a version of Android that was created by Alibaba, intended to compete with Android in China. So does that mean OUYA is heading to smartphones in China? Not quite.
OUYA says its game service will arrive on Alibaba’s Tmall set-top box, which apparently already has streaming options for more robust games (the press release calls out soccer game Winning Eleven 2014 and fighting game Street Fighter 4). As far as control is concerned, there’s no mention of OUYA shipping its gamepad to China — we’ve asked OUYA reps for more info.
Regardless, how does this impact you? Well, if you don’t live in China, it doesn’t impact you too much — OUYA continues to exist as a platform in North America despite its multiple pushes into China. As far as how OUYA approaches its original North American audience in the future, CEO Julie Uhrman has a quote in the press release that’s telling of long-term plans: “Markets, like China, without the baggage of the US console market, could be the game console leaders in ten years. That’s where OUYA wants to be.”
More bluntly, that’s where OUYA needs to be — the company’s plans to disrupt console gaming in the US faltered after early reviews panned the console and its gamepad. There was even a hardware revision between Kickstarter backers receiving their console and its eventual retail release months later. In so many words, we don’t expect this is the last time we’ll be writing news of OUYA moving into developing markets and out of the shark pond that is North American game console sales.
‘Doctor Who’ coding game for kids arrives on tablets
You no longer have to fire up your computer just to give your children some programming lessons from Doctor Who. The BBC’s educational coding game, The Doctor and the Dalek, is now available on iPads and Android tablets (both through Amazon and soon Google Play). You’ll get largely the same instruction-based Boolean logic puzzles as before, but with a few new levels and new abilities for your one-of-a-kind Dalek companion. The catch? While the game is still free, it’s only available in the UK for now — here’s hoping that the BBC makes it available worldwide so that more kids can help their favorite Gallifreyan.
Renault has a futuristic ‘Gran Turismo’ concept car too
The Nissan GT-R and Chevy’s Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo are about to get some fresh company thanks to French automaker Renault. The Alpine Vision Gran Turismo is the latest Gran Turismo 6 ride turned concept vehicle, and weighing in at around 1,984 pounds (900 kilograms) it’s lighter than a 2015 Dodge Dart by over 1,200 pounds. Let that sink in for a minute. Okay, still with us? It’s rocking a 450 horsepower engine mid-rear, a 199MPH top speed and a rad set of air brakes you can see in the video below. Renault teases that some of the tech from the concept will make it to Alpine’s 2016 production model — which, as Autoblog notes, would be its first since 1995. Should you want a peek at the car in person, it’s stationed throughout France until early next month. After that, it’s doing laps in Gran Turismo 6 as a free download in March.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Transportation, HD
Via: The Verge
Source: Gran Turismo
Your PS Vita is about to get slightly less useful
If you regularly use the Maps and YouTube apps on your PlayStation Vita, please raise a hand. If you’d be mightily disappointed if those were to disappear from the portable console, keep your hand up and someone will bring you a tissue. That’s because, unfortunately, Sony has announced that both features will be going the way of all things very shortly. Maps is getting erased from history with the March software update, which will, naturally, also kill the geographic elements of the Near social gaming app. YouTube, meanwhile, will stop working on April 20th, although the app itself is being pulled from the PlayStation Store from today. The company does, however, point out that you can still access YouTube via your browser, but let’s be honest – it’s at that point you probably just pull out your smartphone.
Catch up on all the virtual reality news from Sundance
Right now is an exciting time for VR, and this year’s Sundance Film Festival is full proof of that. Over the past few days, we’ve experienced new virtual reality horizons and got to know some of the visionaries who have jump-started the technology. VR, arguably in its second life, has opened up a novel medium for storytelling and a way to create deeply immersive experiences for most any audience — be it with films, video games or, why not, a full-body flight simulator. Here’s the best part: This is only the beginning.
Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Wearables, HD
Three more bonus games added to Humble Mobile Bundle 10
Humble Mobile Bundle 10 launched last week with three games (Buddy & Me, Lyne, and Doodle Kingdom) and three bonus games (Sorcery! 2, King of Dragon Pass, and OTTTD). As per past practice, they have added more games into the mix. Today’s additions include iPollute, Sorcery and the Tiny Bang Story.
If you already bought in above the average asking price ($3.94 at the time of this post), then you will receive these three new bonus games automatically. If you haven’t gotten in on this bundle yet, just pay over the average and grab all 9 games.
Don’t forget that your money will go to your choice (or combination) of Humble Bundle, the developers, the Extra Life / Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, or the World Land Trust.
source: Humble Mobile Bundle 10
Come comment on this article: Three more bonus games added to Humble Mobile Bundle 10
Here are the first films from Oculus Story Studio
Look out, Hollywood, because Oculus VR is coming for you. Earlier today, the Facebook-owned company introduced its new film division Story Studio, as it looks to broaden its horizons and experiment with narrative through virtual reality. The first short film to come out of Oculus VR’s in-house movie lab is Lost, which is making its debut at Sundance. In addition to that, Story Studio has revealed that it’s already working on more shorts with a VR twist to them, all expected to appeal to different audiences. Along with Lost, there’s also going to be Dear Angelica, Bullfighter and Henry, plus two other films that haven’t been announced yet.
Unfortunately, aside from displaying posters for the films and saying that they are “coming soon,” Oculus Story Studio didn’t share any further details. It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that the newly minted production house is partially made up of former Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic staffers. For now, the only thing we can do is look at the posters and use our imagination to dream of what these virtual reality short films will be about. For its part, Lost was being screened on a Crescent Bay headset and, to say the least, it was beautiful — stay tuned; more on that to come.
Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Wearables, HD
The triumphant return of ‘Rock Band’?
After several years years of hiatus, an official announcement, and the shockingly rapid decline of the music game market, Rock Band suddenly leapt back to life this month. Harmonix Music Systems — the studio responsible for the music game craze, and the studio that created Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central — announced new tracks heading to the Rock Band online store, which works with both Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz. Why in the world is Harmonix releasing new tracks as paid, downloadable content for games that only exist on previous generation consoles? The official word is full of public relations obfuscation:
“We had an exciting opportunity to add new content to the already-massive Rock Band library with a song from Arctic Monkeys – a band that’s never been in a Rock Band title before! – as well as new music from fan favorites Avenged Sevenfold and Foo Fighters. We couldn’t pass it up. Also, we wanted to see if we could still do it. Turns out we can. It’s sort of like riding a bike.”
Great. That out of the way, what’s really happening? Companies don’t just casually release new content for years old games. That’s not a thing that happens. I’d call it “testing the waters.”
First and foremost, here’s an interesting, not exactly surprising fact: “hundreds of thousands” of people are still playing Rock Band every month. That’s what a Harmonix rep told me, and it refers to folks playing online on “all platforms where DLC is available” (there’s no way of measuring how many folks are playing offline, but let’s wager that it’s not a lot).
For those of you wondering who’s still holding onto all those plastic instruments, the answer is “a surprisingly large group of people.”
As for the rest of us, well, my house is purged of all the fake guitars, wireless microphones, and plastic drum kits that accumulated across the Guitar Hero / Rock Band years. The same goes for most of my friends, and I doubt you’re much different. Beyond the burnout that comes with releasing several junky, obvious cash-in games — Activision flooded the market with constant variations on the Guitar Hero franchise — many of us didn’t want to fill closets/basements/dorm rooms/etc. with clunky gaming peripherals.
Harmonix is actually trying to determine how you feel about those peripherals in a survey sent out via Twitter. More importantly, not only is Harmonix trying to determine if you still own old peripherals — the company is asking very specific questions about which aspects of a Rock Band game (local multiplayer? a robust on-disc song library? etc.) are most important to you. It’s also asking which current-gen game consoles you own.
Smells an awful lot like Harmonix is pretty seriously considering a re-birth of its biggest ever franchise — the franchise that both helped popularize music games and managed to get more than one Beatle on stage during a video game press conference.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that the company is being asked about Rock Band all the time. When Forbes‘ Jason Evangelho asked about “Rock Band 4″ back in October 2014 (a theoretical sequel to Rock Band 3), here’s what Harmonix publicist Nick Chester said:
“We love Rock Band, it’s in the company’s DNA. We own the IP. And when the time’s right we will absolutely come back to it. There’s a whole bunch of factors to take into consideration before jumping in that pool again, but there’s a desire for it, absolutely.”
So, given that, and Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos outright stating that Rock Band would return at some point this console generation, the question of Rock Band’s triumphant return isn’t a question of if, but of when.
Do you want a new Rock Band on current-gen game consoles?
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
Gearbox’s beautiful ‘Homeworld’ remake reaches PCs on February 25th
If you’re a long-time PC gamer, you probably have a soft spot for the Homeworld series. Relic’s epic saga was both eye-catching and proof that real-time strategy could work in the void of space. However, time hasn’t been kind to the games — the first came out when 3D graphics cards were relatively new, and THQ’s acquisition of Relic (plus its eventual bankruptcy) made follow-ups difficult. At last, though, you’ll have a way to relive the Mothership’s journey while doing justice to your modern gaming rig. Gearbox, which bought the rights to the series, has revealed that its previously teased Homeworld Remastered Collection will reach the PC on February 25th. The remake spruces up just about every aspect of the two Homeworld games, ranging from much better-looking ship models and effects to reworked cutscenes. You also get a beta multiplayer experience that merges the online modes of both titles.
And what about a truly new game? That’s coming, too. Blackbird Interactive (a studio founded by Homeworld vets) is teaming up with Gearbox to make a prequel, Homeworld Shipbreakers. Nearly everything about the new entry is a mystery since it’s still early in development, but the announcement hints that there will be plenty more to do once you’re done replaying the originals.
Source: Gearbox Software, Steam
The claim process for Sony’s $15 million PSN breach lawsuit starts now
Been waiting for Sony to start dishing out the $15 million in restitution for the 2011 breach that took its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services down back in 2011? Well, thanks to the outfit putting a claim form online, now you can start the payment redemption process. It’s limited to those who had either a PSN, Qriocity or Sony Online Entertainment account prior to the intrusion (May 15, 2011), and the payouts aren’t all that different from what the firm gave out as part of its “Welcome Back” program at the time. Of course, back then PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games and themes were a bit more desirable, but three months of PlayStation Plus is actually a bit more valuable now than it once was. Sony doling out the goods could still take a bit longer, though.
You see, there’s still a chance that the class-action suit will see an appeal come its May 1st Fairness Hearing, and payments won’t be made until the court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved. Until then, there’s always the PlayStation 4 for gaming — we’ve heard it’s pretty popular.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Sony
Source: Sony
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