The battle for exclusive games has come to smartphones
It’s like Sega and Sony all over again. We don’t mean the hardware arms race (although that’s certainly happening), but how the smartphone world’s two top players are now fighting over the most popular games… and their sequels. Gaming is one of the top money-spinning app categories on smartphones and tablets and according to a WSJ report, both Apple and Google are trying to get popular games and their developers on their side. The companies promise headline placement in their respective online stores and prominent ads around the app portal, in exchange for exclusivity, or at least a lead. This was apparently the case for Plants Vs. Zombies 2 last year, where Apple got a two-month lead over the Android version — and it’s not the only one.
The Cut The Rope series followed a similar pattern, while Gameloft, the company behind titles like Asphalt, had apparently discussed the exclusivity angle with Apple, but eventually decided to launch on both Android and iOS at the same time. “We haven’t found the case where it makes sense for us,” said Gonzague de Vallois, head of sales and marketing. In contrast to the console battles from the last few decades, neither platform has managed to nail down anything resembling a talismanic mascot character or series — we’re not expecting hell to freeze over in this new fight.
Filed under: Gaming, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: WSJ
Joystiq Weekly: Nintendo foibles, LGBT gaming cons and crash-prone dirtbikes
Welcome to the Joystiq Weekly wrap-up where we present some of the best stories and biggest gaming news from our sister-publication.
- Nintendo’s stumbles extend beyond its hardware, as the gaming giant also passed on securing the exclusive rights for the now-multimillion dollar Skylanders series.
- The LGBT-focused GaymerX con became a victim of its own success and its second year will, unfortunately, be its last.
With a few smart and unobtrusive tweaks to its thorny heart, Trials Fusion nails its balance between purity and cruelty. The new tricks system doesn’t betray the game’s simple roots, and instead makes a perfect landing seem even less attainable at times – and more rewarding. The primal pleasures of Trials live on and into the future, leaning forward just a tad.
- The latest entry in the punishing Trials series earns high marks from Joystiq’s editor in chief Ludwig Kietzmaan.
That’s it! Be sure to check back next Sunday for another recap, or if you’re impatient, click over to Joystiq and catch the news the moment that it happens.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Nintendo
Source: Joystiq
Play: The frantic, fun and infuriating Trials Fusion
Some games are so challenging, frustrating and physically draining that your controller could easily explode against the nearest wall at any second. Trials Fusion is one of those games: A repetitive, soul-destroying platformer that’ll have you playing the same level for hours on end, all in the hope you’ll shave mere milliseconds from your previous best. However, it’s only from the epicentre of this nightmare, through the tired workings of your callused, nail-bitten hands, that one experiences true gaming gratification. As with other games of this genre like Super Meat Boy or the Super Monkey Ball series, to name a few, the premise is devilishly simple. You must successfully navigate an obstacle course in the least possible time, mistakes not recommended. As its name suggests, Trials Fusion is based on the sport of motorcycle trials, with some motocross mixed in. Just it’s more arcadey, and probably harder.
Stop, go. Lean forward, lean back. These are the tools you have at your disposal, and combined with the game’s realistic (or should we say predictable?) physics engine, all you’ll need. The baby of a long line of trials-based titles, Fusion introduces a basic trick system for use on special, stunt-orientated levels that add a little variety to the classic game mode. Track challenges, too, give you other objectives to focus on when racing the clock has you burnt out, but don’t take that to mean they’re easy. Variety’s no bad thing, but fundamentally this instalment is the same as every other Trials game before it, which is awesome. New tracks, better graphics: Sold.
Fusion doesn’t tamper with the formula of its ancestors for good reason, but that probably means you’ll either like it, or you won’t. Tracks get much longer, and much harder, pretty quickly, and there’s nothing new in Fusion that’ll prevent a casual gamer from succumbing to the grind. Only the truly committed will be rewarded with the euphoria that is nailing a perfect run and climbing the leaderboards while your friends wallow in anonymity. But, with this comes the promise of fruitless evenings, sleepless nights and premature aging.
As much as we’re suckers for classic Trials gameplay, there are some notable issues with Fusion. The game’s menu screens are a jumbled, awful mess, fand 3D models on the bike selection screen take almost as long to load as levels do (Xbox One digital copy). Then there’s the lack of true online multiplayer. Sure, the leaderboards give you one way to compete against the world, but the side-by-side supercross racing of Trials Evolution is nowhere to be found. A similar and supposedly better “Competition” mode is due to fill that void within the next few months, but that doesn’t excuse its absence at launch. Until that arrives, though, you’ll have to rely on the level creator and community-generated tracks to hold your attention outside of the main game.
Anyway, enough from us. It’s halfway through the bank holiday already, and you won’t make any impact on the leaderboards enjoying the sun with family and friends. Clock’s ticking…
Trials Fusion is out now for PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows PCs.
Filed under: Gaming
Irish school children are building worlds for the Oculus Rift
If games, wildlife documentaries and virtual strolls in the park aren’t enough to validate virtual reality for you, try this one: educational motivation. School children in Ireland have been using a open source version of Second Life to learn coding, 3D modeling and to create virtual spaces of recent field trips. Their most recent project: recreating the monastery of Clonmacnoise and exploring it with an Oculus Rift. Technically the Rift isn’t part of the classroom’s normal operations — the founder of the MissionV virtual reality platform the school is visiting brought it with him on a recent visit — but it did give the students a new perspective on the world they had built. “Whoa,” one student exclaimed, looking at the classroom’s recreation of Clonmacnoise’s McCarthy Tower. “That is humongous.”
“The children spent two weeks building the model and were intimately familiar with the layout of the site and buildings as the appeared on the PC monitor,” MissionV founder and CEO James Corbett explained. “But the full realization of the scale and perspective of what they built only dawned on them when they were immersed in this reality.” Having a virtual presence in the model actually changed how the children learned about it — and the promise of being able to play in the world they built was bound to be a heck of a motivator, too. It’s still too early to say if VR will become a common tool in education, but it’s still a blast to watch these kids romp around in a world of their own making. Check it out in the video below.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: MissionV, Technology.ie
Candy Crush developer admits it can’t really own the word ‘Candy’
Although King’s $7 billion empire is built on the slim foundation of its lone blockbuster, Candy Crush Saga, many thought its efforts to trademark “Saga” and “Candy” were a bit over-the-top. It now turns out the company isn’t trying to crush every game maker that uses these words, and instead is taking each dispute on a case-by-case basis. To that end, it has cemented an out-of-court agreement to let the makers of “Banner Saga” and “CandySwipe” keep those monikers (“Candy” is only trademarked in Europe). Those two actually had legit challenges to the mark, but we imagine that other developers who deliberately used the terms to make a point (or for shits and giggles) may not get off so easily.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Re/Code
Source: CandySwipe, Stoic
Daily Roundup: Street View vs. captchas, living in a connected home and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
My connected home turned me into a spy and an addict
Ten years ago, adjusting the temperature of your home from a smartphone might have seemed like something from a science fiction movie. But in this age of hyper-connectivity, it’s easier to get wrapped up in the quantifiable aspects of life than you might think. Just ask our own Joseph Volpe.
MSI GS60 Ghost review: a gaming rig in Ultrabook’s clothing
Thin, light and simple: MSI’s latest gaming laptop is all of those things and more. Dubbed the GS60 Ghost, this slim aluminum machine has a bright 15.3-inch display and ultrabook-esque buttonless trackpad. All in all, the Ghost is a great choice for serious gamers, provided they can endure its less-than-average battery life.
Sony pumps up its PS4 update with game pre-loading and SHAREfactory video editor
In a recent blog post, Sony announced it’s preparing a 1.70 firmware update for the PS4 that will include a brand new video editor (called SHAREfactory) and pre-game loading functionality. Exactly when it will be released, however, is still to be known.
Google’s latest Street View algorithm beats its bot-sniffing security system
Apparently, Google’s algorithm used by Street View vehicles is so good it can beat reCAPTCHA images 99 percent of the time. If that makes you feel unsafe, don’t worry. The Mountain View company says there are additional safeguards beyond simply typing in the right answer.
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Titanfall pushes Xbox One sales to 5 million total, but it can’t pass PlayStation
Sony and Microsoft’s console sales were neck and neck for awhile, but the gap is starting to widen: according to the latest NPD numbers, Sony is winning the race. Yesterday, the Japanese hardware manufacturer announced that it has moved more than seven million PlayStation 4s worldwide — today Microsoft countered with a total of five million, trailing Sony in both monthly and lifelong sales. A stark difference, sure, but it’s not all bad: the Xbox exclusive Titanfall is the industry’s top-selling title right now, and the second highest selling for the platform overall. The new console is also outpacing the Xbox 360′s first-year sales by more than 60 percent; it’s doing well, it’s just not top dog. The latest inFamous game (a PS4 exclusive) ranked the second highest selling game for the month of March, followed by multiplatform titles like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Call of Duty Ghosts and Dark Souls II.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony, Microsoft
Via: Joystiq
Source: Xbox
Sony pumps up its PS4 update with game pre-loading and SHAREfactory video editor
Sony just announced sales of seven million PlayStation 4 consoles and promised more details on its upcoming software update would follow soon, now here they are. We still don’t have an exact timetable for when firmware 1.70 will arrive, but now we know more about its new “SHAREfactory” video editor and that game pre-loading is in the update. Many people are familiar with pre-loading via Steam and other PC services, which allows gamers to download pre-ordered games ahead of their release, then simply unlock the digital copy on the day it’s “released.” All it takes is enabling the PS4′s “auto download” feature, and you’re done, no more waiting while overloaded servers choke on release day.
The other big addition is SHAREfactory, a rich video editor app that will let gamers spice up their game recordings (which are getting a resolution bump to 720p) with filters and effects, music and picture-in-picture feeds from the PlayStation Camera. The music element is particularly interesting because it mentions both provided tracks and the ability to import your own original songs, even though the PS4 can’t play MP3s right now. If that’s a surprise addition to the list later, we won’t argue. One other tweak is letting users decide which friends they will share a clip or screenshot with from the Share menu itself, instead of having to go back into settings first. Additionally, a Japanese press release indicates the update will bring Remote Play to Sony’s Vita TV mini-console and the ability to archive those HD Ustream / Twitch broadcasts online.
While the Xbox One’s Upload Studio shares some of the same features, Sony is going a step further by letting users post SHAREfactory videos directly to Facebook, or move them directly to an external USB storage device to upload them elsewhere (YouTube). We called out the PS4′s lack of a video editor when we compared the two system’s services and apps, and while we’ll have to wait for some hands-on time to be sure, that gap may be closed. Of course, if you prefer DIY capture and editing, FW 1.70′s HDCP-off that will allow video capture of games over HDMI will be the big addition, but this makes it easier for anyone to try it. Now, if only we knew when we will get to see the new update (and, hopefully, successive ones to fill in missing features like MP3, Blu-ray 3D, DLNA).
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
Source: PlayStation Blog
Buy Halo: Spartan Assault on one Windows 8 device and kill Covenant on the others you own
One of the big promises that came out of Microsoft’s Build conference this year were apps that’d work across a number of Windows devices with a single purchase, and Redmond is using Halo to lead that charge. The first group of applications includes Halo: Spartan Assault and Skulls of the Shogun, both of which recently made the conversion to universal games — making them playable across Windows Phone, Windows 8 and RT devices for one price. If you’d rather not pay for your entertainment, though, Microsoft also converted the likes of Wordament, Minesweeper and Hexic too. However, as Windows Phone Central notes, buying the universal version of Skulls doesn’t grant access to the Xbox 360 version, nor does Spartan Assault’s universal purchase unlock the Xbox 360 or Xbox One versions. Given that the Xbox division is still pretty separate from everything else though, that isn’t exactly surprising.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile, Microsoft
Via: PCWorld
Source: Windows Phone Central
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