Facebook officially owns Oculus now
It’s official: Facebook now actually owns Oculus VR, the company behind virtual reality goggles Oculus Rift. Though the $2 billion acquisition was announced way back in March, these kinds of negotiations typically take months to resolve thanks to various regulations. Now they have. Facebook and Oculus released a joint statement today that simply states: “We’re looking forward to an exciting future together, building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate.” As for just why the deal took place, Palmer Luckey, Oculus’ founder, has said that the plan is to “promote the long-term adoption of virtual reality, not short-term financial returns” and that the partnership would become the “clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone.”
The Trinity Magnum VR controller is like a PlayStation Move for your PC
The Oculus Rift isn’t even a consumer product yet, but it already has a shadow hanging over its head: how, exactly, are its users going to interact with its intangible, virtual worlds? It’s starting to look like the answer will be multifaceted, requiring users to own different devices for different gameplay scenarios. Trinity VR wants to be gamer’s go-to product for the FPS genre, and have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its Magnum VR controller. We caught up with the company in San Francisco to give its prototype controller a quick look; here’s what we found out.
It’s hard to look at the Trinity Magnum without thinking about the PlayStation Move. It’s not an intentionally likeness, but rather a necessity of the technology it uses: optical light tracking. Just like Sony’s kit, the Magnum uses a webcam and a bright glowing ball on its front end to facilitate 1:1 positional and orientation tracking. Unlike the Move, however, Trinity’s motion controller is specifically designed to be a firearm analog — peppering a two-handed rifle grip with four buttons, two analog nubs and, of course, a trigger. The 3D printed prototype we saw seemed well designed, placing a horizontal analog nub directly under the thumb’s natural position on the forward grip, but the model was sadly non-functional: we never found out how the sideways inputs felt during practical use.
Trinity did have a functional prototype on hand, but it didn’t quite have all the features the prototype promised. A single analog stick and a trigger were all the hand-built device had to offer (aside from some charming exposed wires and, of course, a glowing green ball), but it performed well in it virtual space: handily tracking movements with little to no visible latency. It certainly performed well with the limited FPS demos we were shown, but we couldn’t help but wonder what set the Trinity Magnum apart from its competitors. The answer surprised us: price. While there are plenty of complicated, versatile and amazing VR control setups on the way, they all ring into the triple digits. Trinity told us that its developer kits will be closer to the $100 price tag, and it hopes the eventual consumer controller will be priced competitively with standard console gamepads.
Trinity VR’s Magnum controller isn’t going to become the de facto control standard for all virtual reality experiences, but it certainly shows promise as a motion tracking FPS controller – and if it can secure a competitive price tag, it could do well as a go-to niche controller for the genre. Still, there’s a long way to go before the product becomes a reality — the firm needs to finalize its ergonomic design and button layout, improve its positional tracking and catch the eye of budding VR developers. Want to help? Well, there’s a Kickstarter page for that: early backers can nab a developer kit for $75 a pop, while regular backers will have to cough up a full $99. Check out the source link below for full details.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Source: Kickstarter
Xbox One’s next update makes it easier to keep up with friends, and play Blu-ray 3D
A new lower price alone may not have moved the Xbox One past the PS4 on the sales chart, but Microsoft is still keeping up with its quick update cycle. The August update preview is arriving for testers, and one of the areas getting a lot of attention is the friends list. Right on the home screen, gamers will be able to see what their friends have been playing and a Gamerscore leaderboard, and in the activity feed you can finally like or comment on activity. It seemed like an obvious feature for the feed from the beginning, so it’s good to see it’s here now. Also, after an update to the app it will be able to handle Blu-ray 3D — something we asked Phil Spencer about, 5,644 of you requested, and something the PS4 still can’t do. Check after the break to see what else is changing, plus a video demo of the new features.
Two more tweaks bring features we were used to on Xbox and PlayStation, since you’ll be able to purchases games and updates from the website or SmartGlass app and the Xbox One (if it’s in standby and set to receive updates) will wake up and download them automatically, and set the system to disable notifications while any video is playing. There’s a new low battery notification for your controller, OneGuide support in Brazil, Mexico, Austria and Ireland, and a listing for “last time seen” next to your friend’s names in the friends list. That last one is said to have come as a result of feedback — now that we’ve got our Blu-ray 3D playback what do you want to see on the list next?
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Major Nelson, Xbox (YouTube)
Playdate: We’re livestreaming the ‘Destiny’ beta for PlayStation 4!
Welcome, ladygeeks and gentlenerds, to the new era of gaming. The one where you get to watch, and comment, as other people livestream gameplay from next-gen consoles. Because games! They’re fun!
When the folks behind Halo, Bungie Studios, offered a taste of their next big franchise earlier this year, we jumped in to show it off. And now that Destiny‘s beta is open on PlayStation 4, we’re back to jump in once more and explore the upcoming blockbuster a final time before its official launch on September 9th. Rather than employ wildly expensive dark magic to show Destiny, we’re using the delightfully free Twitch service. Join us right here at 12PM ET (or thereabouts — technical issues do sometimes occur) for an hour-long exploration of Bungie’s next big game, Destiny.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony
Source: Twitch
Sure, why not: Pay $2 to fart and plank in a PlayStation 4 game
Look, we’re not gonna tell you how to spend your hard-earned money. If you want to spend two actual dollars enabling your Killzone: Shadow Fall character to fart — yes, that kind of fart — and “plank” (this) on PlayStation 4, go for it. But allow us this moment of plea: please don’t. Here’s the description of what your $2 gets you:
“It’s all fun and games until someone loses a game. (Or so they say). Show your fallen enemies, not everything need [sic] be taken seriously. This pack contains Fart, Planking and Comedy spotlight moves.”
One part of us wants to know what “Comedy spotlight moves” could possibly be given that the highly comedic farting and planking verbs have already been used.
We’re not gonna make the guilt plea (“there are children starving all over the world”), and we’re not gonna appeal to your financial sense (it’s just two bucks, right?). Your common sense, however, is fair game. The long and short is this: forking over any cash for this kind of junk DLC sends the wrong message to both the game’s developer (Guerrilla Games) and its publisher (Sony). We’re not saying it isn’t funny — it very well may be! — but we are saying you shouldn’t have to pay for it. It is indeed optional, yes, which is exactly why we suggest you optionally choose to skip this. Vote with your dollars, y’all! Or end up like the angry lady above.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony
Via: GameSpot
Source: PlayStation Network
Hackers make Xbox One’s Kinect work on a PC
Microsoft famously said the Xbox One Kinect wouldn’t work on a PC, but hackers have already done the trick mere days after the release of the Kinect for Windows v2.0 SDK. As shown in the video below, they managed to rewire a USB 3.0 cable to pair it with a laptop, giving them access to the depth sensor. The pair work at Hyperkin (which happens to sell gaming accessories), and plan to make a retail version of the cable available. Kinect for Windows 2.0 is already up for pre-order, but such a cable could be handy if you can’t wait to get one, or don’t want to splurge for a redundant Kinect. The Xbox 360′s sensor was hacked in a similar way, but the Kinect 2′s hardware is far more powerful. On a PC, it could function as a motion capture device or map a 3D environment, to name just a few examples — far more interesting applications than Just Dance.
Filed under: Cameras, Gaming, Microsoft
Via: Kotaku
Source: Chris Gallizzi (YouTube)
NVIDIA Shield tablet image leaks
Earlier this month we’ve seen leaked specifications of NVIDIA’s Shield tablet. Those specs were nothing to scoff at, Tegra K1 chip, a 7.9″ 2048×1536 display and 2GB of RAM all sound really good. Now we have another leak for you.
Known leaker @evleaks shared an alleged image of the tablet along with the title: “NVIDIA Shield Tablet, 2014″. This tablet is expected to provide great audio (everyone knows what BoodSound is by now), great build and performance. These are all points in which HTC is good at, great even. There is no more information on the tablet except the rumor which says it will feature a 192-core GPU. All in all this device should be a real gaming beast and other than the specs we expect all kinds of gaming-centered features along with it.
No word on the release date at this point, but we should get more information soon. When that happens you’ll be the first to know.
Source: @evleaks
The post NVIDIA Shield tablet image leaks appeared first on AndroidGuys.
ESPN will broadcast a $10 million gaming tournament this weekend
If someone gaining an athletic visa to play StarCraft 2 or the staggering amount of hours spent watching pro gamers duke it out virtually wasn’t enough to prove that competitive gaming is a real thing, maybe some mainstream support is. This weekend’s massive $10 million-plus Dota 2 tournament, The International, will air live on ESPN 3. What’s more, prior to ESPN 2′s broadcast of the final match late Sunday evening, the network will host a preview show with expert analysis and even an interview with Dota 2-developer Valve’s Gabe Newell. That the Worldwide Leader in Sports is giving the same kind of love to eSports that it does, say, basketball or even skateboarding is surely a sign of big things to come. The fans have been into it for awhile — tickets for the event, held at Seattle’s 17,000-seat Key Arena, sold out in an hour.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Valve
You can buy a PlayStation 4 for £300 right now
New consoles are never easy on the wallet, so anything to take some of the sting out of that purchase is always appreciated. Case in point: well-known retailer ShopTo has just dropped the price of a brand-new PlayStation 4 to a penny under £300, which is quite simply the lowest price we’ve come across yet. That’s basically a £50 saving compared with almost every other retailer (barring one that’s selling the console for £325 via Play.com). This particular deal is only available through ShopTo’s eBay storefront, and we’ve no idea how long the discount will be in effect for, so you might wanna ride that impulse straight to the checkout to be sure you don’t miss out.
Via: HotUKDeals
Source: eBay (ShopTo)
Microsoft closing Xbox Entertainment Studios
As part of its massive round of layoffs, Microsoft is closing Xbox Entertainment Studios (XES), the wing dedicated to producing original video content for the Xbox platform. All is not lost however, as Halo: Nightfall, the Spielberg-produced Halo TV series and Signal to Noise (whose first episode chronicles Atari’s rise and fall) will all still continue as planned. We were also told that the studio’s Nancy Tellem along with Jordan Levin and “some” of the XES team will remain on staff and working on the aforementioned in-production programming. In an email today (pasted in full after the break) Xbox head Phil Spencer notes that change is never easy, but he believes the studio closure will help the company “better align with longterm goals.” We’ve reached out to the affected studios about what this means for them and will update this post should we hear back.
Recode’s sources paint a different picture, however, saying that the studio was disorganized and lacked a fully established business model. Both of which turned off any studio partners and thusly complicating securing any more premium content.
“I hope you have had a chance to read today’s mails from Satya. I wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts on what this means for our team and some of the changes we are making as a result.
In last week’s mail outlining some of the steps towards creating the culture and organization to bring our ambitions to life, Satya called out the strategic importance of Xbox as a strong consumer brand, a creative center for gaming and a leader in bold innovation. Every member of Team Xbox should be incredibly proud of the impact and reach your work has within the walls of Microsoft, with our developer community and most importantly, with consumers.
Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for a mobile-first and cloud-first world, and games are the single biggest digital life category in a mobile-first world. Success in this category, by growing a robust Xbox business, brings additional value to Microsoft. I have stated this before, but for Xbox to be successful, we must remain committed to being a consumer-driven organization with the mission of meeting the high expectations of a passionate fan base, to create the best games and to drive technical innovation.
As part of the planned reduction to our overall workforce announced today and in light of our organization’s mission, we plan to streamline a handful of portfolio and engineering development efforts across Xbox. One such plan is that, in the coming months, we expect to close Xbox Entertainment Studios. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the accomplishments from the entire team in XES. They have built an impressive slate of original programming and pioneered interactive entertainment on Xbox, such as the innovative reality series ‘Every Street United’ that succeeded in uniting audiences around the globe during the recent World Cup.
I am pleased that Nancy, Jordan and members of the XES team remain committed to new, original programming already in production like the upcoming documentary series ‘Signal to Noise’ whose first installment takes on the rise and fall of gaming icon Atari and of course, the upcoming game franchise series ‘Halo: Nightfall,’ and the ‘Halo’ Television series which will continue as planned with 343 Industries. Xbox will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like ‘NFL on Xbox,’ and we will continue toenhance our entertainment offering on console by innovating the TV experience through the monthly console updates. Additionally, our app partnerships with world-class content providers bringing entertainment, sports and TV content to Xbox customers around the world are not impacted by this organizational change in any way and remain an important component of our Xbox strategy.
Change is never easy, but I believe the changes announced today help us better align with our long-term goals. We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us to define what the next generation of gaming looks like for the growing Xbox community. I have a great deal of confidence in this team and know that with clarity of focus on our mission and our customers we can accomplish great things together. We already have.
Thank you again for all you do for Xbox.
Phil
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Via: Recode
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