Rep. Michael Capuano has introduced legislation on Capitol Hill (that's Washington D.C., Congress) which has technology such as Kinect dead in its sights:
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Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.)...has introduced a new bill that would stop technology and TV video services from monitoring viewing using cameras or microphones built-in to set-top boxes or DVRs in order to analyze viewing behavior and serve up targeted ads.
The bill, called the We Are Watching You Act of 2013, would prohibit video service operators from collecting visual or audio data from the vicinity of the device without express permission from the consumer. For viewers that opt in, the monitoring company would have to display a "we are watching you" message on the screen and provide to the consumer what types of information is being collected and how it will be used.
The bad news keeps coming for MS. Will their little NSA-lite AdBonerBox be kneecapped before it ever hits retail? Tune in to C-SPAN (better yet, EvAv!) to find out!
The costumed high-school hero Kick-Ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows.
MMORPG.com was shown a sneak peak of EverQuest Next during E3, and whatever they saw impressed them so much that they awarded it best of show. They also say the game is due to be officially revealed in August.
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Say what? You thought this one wasn’t at E3? Well, really... it wasn’t in any official capacity. But we were treated to an early look at what SOE has planned for the game’s unveiling in August and we were quite simply blown away by every little detail we saw. This is going to sound like a cop-out, but we can't say why we are choosing EQN as our Best of Show because we've been sworn to secrecy until the big debut in August. What we can say is that we saw grand plans for the world's largest sandbox and it was more than enough to stand head and shoulders above any game we saw at E3. When Sony pulls back the curtain later this summer, you will not be disappointed. EverQuest Next is this year's E3 Best of Show, and in just a couple months you'll all understand why. We promise.
Don Mattrick from Microsoft says they are over-delivering value with the Xbox One for $499.
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"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said on Bloomberg TV. "We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get. Any modern product these days you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they're going to love it when they use it."
Competitor Sony will offer its PlayStation 4 at $400 this holiday season, but Mattrick believes consumers will choose Xbox One for its suite of exclusive services and applications like an improved Xbox Live, as well as Skype, Twitch TV, SmartGlass, and Kinect.
"We're really making the living room your center of fun for your family," Mattrick said.
CD Projekt will be opening a studio in Kraków next month, their first project will be a "smaller" 20 hour game.
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Witcher developer CD Projekt Red will open a new studio in Poland in the historic city of Kraków next month, where it will make one of two new smaller games approximately 20-hours in length.
"This July we will open an office in Kraków," said CDPR managing director Adam Badowski in a statement to Eurogamer.
"As we informed in our strategy outlook some time ago, aside from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, the Studio aims to develop two smaller (approximately 20 hours of gameplay) premium quality titles.
IO Interactive has laid off half its employees after deciding to cancel every project except their next-gen Hitman game.
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"We are making significant changes at IO Interactive as we align our business against a changing and challenging market. Hannes Seifert, formerly Production Director for 3 years at the studio, will take over the position of Studio Head at IO," said the spokesperson in a statement.
"The studio will focus resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise and is in pre-production on a new AAA Hitman project. However we have taken the difficult decision to cancel other studio projects and initiatives at IO and reduce the workforce in this studio, which will impact almost half of the employees currently at IO, as we make internal adjustments to face the challenges of today's market."
Paradox Interactive has announced that they're ceasing to be the publisher of Seatribe's Salem MMO. However this doesn't mean the game is being canceled, they're allowing Seatribe to assume ownership and continue running it.
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As we approach the 2,5 year anniversary of the announcement of the game and after nearly a year in Beta, Seatribe and Paradox have taken stock and evaluated both where we are today and what we think the future has in store. Our conclusion is that the game is active and much potential still lies in the game and its community, but that the concept still needs time and development to mature. To ensure longevity of this title and to have a set up that will allow Seatribe to work with this game for many months/years to come we have therefore decided to take some steps to optimize how the game is managed today and the costs of running it.
Effective from July 8, Seatribe will assume full support management and development ownership of Salem: The Crafting MMO. Any decisions taken from that point on will be taken by and communicated through Seatribe to you - the community. Paradox Interactive will start phasing out their involvement in the project from today and on July 8 the game for all intents and purposes will be Seatribe’s to run.
We firmly believe this decision is in the best interest of Seatribe, Paradox Interactive and absolutely for the community as you will have a development team working even more direct with you and the game.
Gamasutra is reporting that The Last of Us is the biggest launch of a new IP in the UK since L.A. Noire.
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Naughty Dog's The Last of Us saw the biggest launch of a new IP in the UK sales charts last week since L.A. Noire in early 2011.
The critically acclaimed title took the top spot in the UK charts in its opening week, according to GfK Chart-Track, and is now the third fastest-selling game of 2013 in the UK after Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite.
It was a notable week all around for retail video games sales in the UK, with The Last of Us backed up by the launch of Animal Crossing: New Leaf on Nintendo 3DS, entering the charts at number two.
A company called Wicked Paradise is creating a sex game for the Oculus Rift. You can read an interview with the company's CEO over at Road to VR.
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Imagine playing Leisure Suit Larry but instead of watching a screen, you are inside the game.
Imagine the world and its inhabitants look highly realistic.
Imagine walking into a bar in Wicked Paradise, noticing a beautiful lady, talking to her, and seducing her.
Imagine playing your cards right and having passionate wild sex with her.
Imagine all this in high quality, immersive virtual reality.
So I packed in with fellow theater-goers to see if Superman’s latest big screen debut was worthwhile. Directed by Zack Snyder, the man behind 300, The Watchmen and the Dawn of the Dead remake, it certainly had one of my favorite directors at the helm. But is Man of Steel worth your time?
Tony Coles takes a look back at Irem's shooter, R-Type Final, in this week's retrospective from Eurogamer.
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Perhaps the saddest aspect of R-Type Final lies in its self-reference and self-celebration. There's joy mixed with sadness in this, and some signature bosses spring to mind. The third stage is a 3D take on the original R-Type's spectacular, stage-as-a-boss Warship level. It involves the unrelenting dismemberment of a huge battlecraft, with the player able to blow up skyscrapers in the process. Once mastered, it takes on a mournful mood. There's something of the whale hunt in it - it's not that tricky a level by any means, so it almost verges on cruelty as you're gently ushered around this giant, noble weapon to blast away its emplacements, engines and armour from every angle. Shooting it in the brain and enjoying a good 30 seconds of furious explosions doesn't carry the same sense of triumph that it did in the original R-Type. Here, it feels darker and more deliberate, something closer to an assassination.
Andrew House, president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, spoke with Yahoo! News about the PlayStation 4 and ownership of content. House said Sony believes that if "you buy it, you own it."
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“I think we saw a lightning rod for feeling that has been bubbling up - that doesn’t just apply to games, but to entertainment overall,” says House. “I think there’s an increasing nervousness about what ownership of content means, in the absence of physical goods. When that nervousness was starting to migrate into control over physical goods that consumers have purchased, that was a bridge too far.”
Sony put out a video after the launch, with a company representative saying, "This is how you share your games on PS4” before handing a disc to another person. The digital rights management system on Xbox One is much more complex - and caused fury on gaming websites since news of it leaked out.
“I want to be very clear about where we have been on this issue,” says House. “I think there’s a danger that we could be seen to have reacted and capitalised on a situation. When we first announced PS4 in February, people were saying, “Oh, Sony’s being coy” - almost with some implicit suspicion. It struck us as very odd. We had no intention of changing our position - it hasn’t changed from what it’s been for the last fifteen years. We believe that if you buy it, you own it, you’re able to do with it what you want.”
What is Lorne Lanning talking about when he says "Oddworld wasn't built on selling out"? He's talking about Microsoft's policy of forcing developers to partner with a publisher, which is why Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty won't be released on Xbox One.
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Lanning said he has tried to talk with Microsoft about getting New 'n' Tasty! on Xbox without success. The company spent 15 months trying to get Stranger's Wrath HD onto Xbox Live Arcade before they were turned down, and it sounds like they're having more trouble with the new game.
"For Xbox One they've granted us a license for New 'n' Tasty! but they still say you need a publisher. We don't have a publisher so we're not officially on the platform, even though we're compatible, even though we'll be ready to do it. Period.
"Why do we need a publisher when we self-finance our games, we build our own IP, we manage our own IP and we've turned nearly two million units online as indie publishers sold - not free downloads? Why? What's wrong with us?
"It's a different level of perspective. Is it ridiculous? I guess it depends on what seat you're sitting in. But I think right now Wall Street is seeing something else that's ridiculous and we're seeing it reflected in public companies' stock values.
"Who's in touch with their audience? And who seems out of touch with their audience? All we know is we've tried to get our games on their platform and we can't do it - and I even helped them release the box."
Get out your salt shakers but an anonymous engineer on the Xbox One team has taken to Pastebin to help clear up a few misunderstandings about Xbox One's DRM. In short, Microsoft wanted to bring the concept of Steam to the Xbox.
Those of you who thought the original Dark Souls wasn't hard enough may be interested in reading this Dark Souls II preview from CVG. How do you feel about fighting a boss and invading player at the same time?
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On the other side of the bonfire a long dark hall awaits. In the southern alcove several candles are lit, and according to Tanimura each of these candles represents a death. Whenever any player online dies at the hands of the boss in this area, a new candle will be lit, and you will see it.
That boss is the Mirror Knight: the mongrel no journalist has managed to defeat. He's a tall knight with a sweeping heavy sword attack and a lightning projectile. He also wields a mirror which, in the final build, will be an invasion entry point for other human players. This means you'll be dealing with not only a boss but also an invader, which is hilariously sadistic.
DayZ creator Dean Hall has announced that the game will be coming to Playstation 4. He is unsure of an Xbox One release due to concern over lack of control for game updates and unfriendliness towards indie developers.
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Dean Hall has suggested that his standalone version of Arma 2 mod DayZ, intended for PC and next gen consoles, might not be released on Xbox One due to publishing and patching restrictions.
Microsoft does not allow indies to self publish and charges for patches, while on PS4, issuing a patch is free, and indies can publish titles themselves, says Hall.
“We’re happy to see DayZ on any console but there is a… I guess one problem,” Hall told us. “The console needs to not charge for us to do updates and it needs to be indie title friendly.”
Kotaku is reporting that one of the new Xbox One showcase cames, Ryse: Son of Rome isn't even a real game, the horrible Quicktime events seen in the video play themselves without influence from the gamer.
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I’m on the battlefield. I’m stomping through the corpses of my comrades swinging my sword at anything that moves. I begin a combo, I slash twice and then whooom slow motion is initiated, shit is about to get ‘cinematic’. A button prompt hovers elusively above the sword I’m about to drive into the throat of my enemy… argh I’m too slow! The prompt flickers, disappears.
I missed it. Damn.
But then somehow, for some reason, I still complete the cinematic ‘kill’.
What?
Maybe it’s a bug I think, but no. Next time I deliberately press the wrong button. The kill goes ahead, no consequences. Then I try hitting no buttons whatsoever. The kill goes ahead. I put the controller on the table in front of me, the kill goes ahead.
What is going on here?
I ask one of the Crytek people hovering at the booth – is this a bug? Why am I completing kills when I hit the wrong button prompt? Or, worse, no button at all. Turns out it was a deliberate design choice.
“We don’t want the player to feel frustrated,” I am told.
These people are double retards. First for including Quicktime events in the first place, then again for making them pointless.
Best Buy will be partnering with the software giant to add stores-within-a-store to 500 selected locations within the United States, plus another 100 more within Future Shop and Best Buy locations in Canada. And the size will be in your face as well: 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet, on par with the size of the homes into which those PCs will be installed.
Inside each “store” will be a mixture of Microsoft devices: Windows-based tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, the Xbox console, and more. Microsoft said that each space will also include examples of how Windows services straddle those devices, and showcase the latest ultramobile Windows-based PCs, both from third parties as well as its own Surface. The Best Buy stores will be installed from late June through September.
Game of the Year Winner The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series is getting an all-new downloadable installment this summer titled, The Walking Dead: 400 Days. The episode is a brand new DLC chapter in the first season of The Walking Dead, chronicling the horrific aftermath of the undead outbreak through the eyes of five all-new characters as they struggle to survive during the first 400 days of the apocalypse.
Neverwinter is officially in Open Beta, and free for all to play. Face down the monsters that ravage the Forgotten Realms in the action-packed Dungeons & Dragons action MMO, and rise from ashes to glory!
Eurogamer has an interview with EA's Patrick Söderlund who reveals that Medal of Honor developer Danger Close has been shut down and its employees moved to different EA studios.
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Söderlund confirmed that Danger Close is no more, following the retirement of the Medal of Honor brand after the last game in the series, Warfighter, flopped.
"Danger Close as it was doesn't exist anymore," Söderlund said. "There are people who left LA, people who work with DICE LA, and there are some who work in other parts of EA, as always when something gets dismantled."
IGN reports that Oculus Rift is now capable of producing a 1080p image, which nearly eliminates the "screen door" effect that people complained about in the previous version of the unit.
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The very first official morning of E3 2013 brings the announcement of a new, higher resolution prototype of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. One of the biggest concerns expressed by early developers is the relatively low resolution found in the current kit. Oculus is now showing off a 1080p prototype in Los Angeles.
Machinima has an interview with one of the developers working on Mad Max. He reveals some new details, for example the game has vehicle crafting which allows you to build different types to fit your play style. Also the wasteland is as big as Just Cause 2's world. Click the headline to watch the video.
News that should surprise absolutely no one - Battlefield 4 won't have any mod support.
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PCG: Is there any chance of Battlefield 4 being moddable?
Karl-Magnus Troedsson, DICE GM: We get that question a lot. I always answer the same thing, and then the community calls me bad names. We get the feedback, we understand it. We also would like to see more player-created content, but we would never do something like this if we feel we couldn’t do this 100 percent. That means we need to have the right tools available, we need to have the right security around this regarding what parts of the engine we let loose, so to say. So for BF4 we don’t have any planned mod support, I have to be blunt about saying that. We don’t.
PCGamesN reports that 3D Realms has filed a lawsuit against Gearbox over unpaid royalties for Duke Nukem Forever.
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In a breach of contract suit filed in Texas on Friday, 3D Realms claim that Gearbox have failed to hand over all the cash stipulated in the purchase agreement the two companies signed in 2010, when Gearbox bought the rights to Duke Nukem Forever.
What’s more, 3D Realms say Gearbox have blocked an independent audit of the royalties they’ve earned on the game - something the 2010 purchase agreement should prevent them from doing.
“3D Realms has therefore been required to file this lawsuit to enforce the purchase agreement, to recover the amounts due and owing from Gearbox and to enforce the audit right provided by the agreement to enable it to conduct an audit of Gearbox's royalties,” the complaint reads.
