Social Media.Online Games.Virtual Worlds

OnLive’s ‘Gaming Service’ Could ‘Shake Things Up’

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:09:16 +0000

Imagine a world where Mac users and laptop owners could pop up a game of Crysis regardless of the hardware they’re using. Imagine also a world where you can play that behemoth of a game onto your TV. Well, imagine no more because that’s what OnLive Game Service, the recently announced online system that enables ‘Cloud Gaming’, will be doing for future years to come.

How the hell does OnLive’s ‘Cloud Gaming’ works, you may ask? Simple: you first subscribe to the company’s service. The service runs whatever game you choose to play on its computer and then streams the video feed for you. At the same time, the inputs you make on OnLive’s game controller will be streamed to OnLive’s computer. All you need is a small piece of decompressing software on your computer, or a tiny device to hook up to your TV to make this possible.

On one hand, they’ll need to fix the huge problem with bandwidth and the usual game lag plaguing online play nowadays. On the other, OnLive has a lot of game companies on board like Ubisoft, EA, Take-Two, and other big names. This screams potential and a major shift in the gaming industry. What do you think, guys and gals? Press release after the jump, by the by. And forum discussion’s here. READ MORE…

This Week In Releases/Titles: We Keep On Rockin’

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:04:05 +0000

This week, we get a triple dose of color-matching, goofball fighting and retro Contra-like shooting.

Guitar Hero Metallica (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)

Long story short: it’s Guitar Hero with a lot of Metallica songs. I’m happy that they have Fade To Black inside. No Call of Cthulu though, damn.

Tokyo Beat Down (DS)

Dressing up like A Flock Of Seagulls in 2009, for starters…..

Long story short: it’s Double Dragon in 3D with Miami Vice. I like! Okay, probably not too much because I know the average lifespan of a beat-em-up is about close to a day, but it’s been a while since we’ve had something like this? Well, Yakuza 3 sorta counts, but that’s only single-player.

Cave Story (Wii)

This 2D shooter, which is still free for download, is now on Wii, with upgraded graphics and other features like new playable characters. I still remember how balls-hard this game was; I don’t think it’s going to get any easier……

Left 4 Dead Sold More Than 2.5 Million

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:03:09 +0000

Everyone loves Left 4 Dead; it’s the new complement to Team Fortress 2 (though people still play Counterstrike. Why?) Regardless, it’s no surprise that the game sold more than 2.5 million copies since it came out in November 2008, according to a newsletter we got from Edge. The total sales are all from the boxed versions of the game for the PC and Xbox 360, but it doesn’t include the actual number from Steam, Valve’s digital distribution service. Seriously, why should we even be surprised? Valve sell good games and people love killing zombies, even if they sprint as fast as the participants in last year’s Olympic games. It’s a no-brainer!

Wii

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:57:06 +0000

In this farewell edition of the Wii-kly Update (more on that below*), we’re pleased to announce a pair of excellent games based around completely opposite vocations. Newly available on the Virtual Console is Super Punch Out!! , the classic boxing title that pits players against tough pugilist rivals such as Bald Bull. Speaking of baldness, the unique new WiiWare game Bonsai Barber invites players to take off the gloves and work their clippers instead, giving new hairstyles to a colorful cast of fruits and vegetables. Both are yours for the downloading via the Wii Shop Channel.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare

Bonsai Barber (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The village residents are hungry for the latest in foliage fashion, and it’s up to you, the new barber, to fix them up. Use the tools of your trade: scissors, clippers, spray can, and more in this humorous, first-of-its-kind “first-person-groomer” game. Bonsai Barber features a colorful cast of 12 intriguing customers, including a temperamental shallot starlet (don’t call her an onion), an oddball strawberry boffin, a cactus cowboy, a daredevil carrot, and a suave banana with top-secret clearance. Each day, five customers arrive to test your stylistic skill. If the customer requests a specific style, you’ll plow that furrow, or you can rely on your expertise to pick from more than 30 popular fashions. Or, why not turn over a new leaf? Be creative and see how they react. They’re a demanding bunch, so if you miss an appointment, you’ll hear about it-on your Wii Message Board. If you do a good job, you may receive a gift or even a postcard from an exotic destination as your happy customers travel to distant lands and show off their exquisite coifs.

Virtual Console

Super Punch-Out!! (Super NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): Featuring the tight game play and humor the series is known for, this sequel to the NES classic sees Little Mac return to the ring with the World Video Boxing Association belt once again at stake. Slug your way through the grueling, sweat-pounding matches of the Minor, Major and World Circuits as you face off against some of Little Mac’s greatest rivals, such as Bear Hugger, Bald Bull and Super Macho Man. With a cast of new challengers waiting, do you have what it takes to identify their unique patterns and exploit their weaknesses? Go to your corner and come out fighting, but remember what Doc Louis would say: “It’s not about brawling-it’s about finesse!”

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

*- About that “farewell edition” stuff: Starting next week, the name of this newsletter will be changed from Wii-kly Update to Nintendo Download. Why? With the April 5 launch of the new Nintendo DSi portable game system comes the opening of the Nintendo DSi Shop. Like the Wii Shop Channel, the Nintendo DSi Shop will offer a growing library of downloadable games, with new titles added every week. Accordingly, we’ll be using this space to tell you not only about new games for Wii but also for Nintendo DSi. Watch for the first edition of Nintendo Download on April 6.

Reel Deal Slots Adventure

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:54:22 +0000

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“This is one of our most creative slot titles to date,” said Phantom EFX CEO Aaron Schurman. “Reel Deal Slots Adventure includes over 20 of Phantom EFX’s most popular slot games, which can be experienced as individual games or as part of a larger adventure. Players can accept challenges for each slot in adventure mode, which further the story and give the game a surprising new twist.”

Reel Deal Slots Adventure is the most exciting slot game to join the Reel Deal series. Featuring over 20 amazing progressive slots, this hot new game is busting at the seams with bonus rounds, superior sound and impressive 3D graphics – pushing the limits of slot machine variety. Players can explore tropical islands, barren deserts and icy arctic areas as they search for the mystical wealth-generating device of an ancient king. As they explore these various lands, players will be walking in the footsteps of the Sister Queens, a group of fellow adventurers who disappeared centuries ago while seeking the very same treasure.

Whether it is by unlocking new slots, winning new treasures or by trying to determine what happened to the Sister Queens, players of all ages will be challenged by Reel Deal Slots Adventure. Stay tuned to learn more!

Consumers interested in purchasing Reel Deal Slots Adventure in advance can be pre-order the game by visiting Phantom EFX’s online storefront, located at http://www.phantomefx.com. Boxed copies of nearly 20 of Phantom’s well-known PC games are also available for purchase on Phantom EFX’s online storefront, including the newest releases and classic titles like Reel Deal Slots – Mystic Forest and Reel Deal Casino – Gold Rush. Also available from the Phantom EFX Storefront are completely digital versions of single slot machines and entire games that are downloaded straight to a computer’s hard drive, eliminating the hassle of lost or scratched di scs.

Reel Deal Slots Adventure is an off-line game that does not interface with Reel Deal Live, the Internet’s first casino themed virtual world. Constructed in 3D, Reel Deal Live is a completely unique online destination that offers casino style play without wagering real money, and it’s suitable for people of all ages.

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KILLZONE 2

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:51:34 +0000

After many years of work Killzone 2 has hit the shelves. Straight in at No.1 taking Halo Wars off the top spot.

Audiomotion was responsible for delivering over 5000 in-game moves as well as all of the animation for the cutscenes.

Top stars including Brian Cox and Sean Pertwee were among the performers treated to Audiomotions innovative Performance Capture technology, capturing fullbody, fingers, face and final audio simultaneously.

Cinematics producer Geert Donker stated “Throughout the production of Killzone 2, Audiomotion proved once again to be a reliable and flexible partner.

They have shown a formidable willingness to facilitate our needs, and their great team of artists ensured animation of impeccable quality.

Supporting us creatively and technically, they went above and beyond the call of duty. They are a joy to work with.”

As always, we love hearing what the press have to say:

“The Helghast are the product of the most advanced performance capture in gaming…”

EDGE

“The animation infuses each Helghan with an uncannily lifelike capacity, utterly convincing …. sometimes making it easy to forget you’re not actually watching a movie.”

Games TM.

“Killzone 2 is without question one of the most stunning games we’ve seen…..utilising benchmark facial and character animation.”

Gamedaily.com

“Killzone 2 delivers in spades….character animation for both enemy and friendly troops is spectacular.”

Gamernode

“Killzone 2, is as epic a game as I’ve ever played …the character animations are outstanding.”

PSU.com

Microsoft takes up to 60 per cent of Community Games revenue

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:46:50 +0000

Microsoft claims as much as 60 per cent of the revenue from Xbox Live Community Game sales, according to XNA developer, Mommy’s Best Games.

The developer’s president, Nathan Fouts, received the sales data for the company’s XNA title, Weapon of Choice, describing the results as “sobering”, with less than 10,000 units sold, stating “that hurts”.

In his blog post, Fouts explained that Microsoft takes a baseline cut of 30 per cent and remittance rate, plus an additional 10-30 per cent cut for advertising. This put the developer under strain, he explained, as it also pays for membership, software licenses, hardware and marketing as well as royalties to contractors.

“What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does not feel great,” he wrote. “Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realise we’re far from rational.”

Mozilla, Google, And Khronos Collaborating On Standard For No-Plugin, 3D On The Web

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:42:03 +0000

Yesterday the Khronos Group announced an initiative to create an open, royalty-free standard for accelerated 3D graphics within Web browsers. To kick off the initiative, Khronos has created an “Accelerated 3D on Web” working group chaired by Mozilla. The group will begin work next month and is aiming for its first public release within 12 months. Google is also planning on contributing technology and development expertise to the project.

The initial proposal is to include a wrapper binding a modified OpenGL ES 2.0 to JavaScript. The first results, according to Mozilla Open Source Evangelist Chris Blizzard’s blog post, will likely come as part of the Canvas3D extension for Firefox 3.5.

There are plenty of other developers and organizations trying to bring 3D to the Web, but most rely on plug-ins to do so, whether that’s the near ubiquitous Flash, a quickly growing Unity3D, or their own proprietary technologies. The benefit of the new standard, if it’s successful, would be that designers could include hardware-accelearated 3D graphics in their websites without forcing users to download a plugin. With OpenGL, JavaScript, and hardware acceleration available on pretty much all platforms, it could also make it easier to develop apps and environments across multiple contexts.

That said, the initial development may have a tough time competing in the games or virtual worlds space with more advanced plugins. Regardless, more options are certainly exciting.

“People are doing more and more on the web, and are coming to expect more from the applications that they use. Web applications already have access to features that have traditionally been reserved for desktop apps, including being able to work while offline, storing data locally, multiple choices for 2D graphics, and native audio & video support,” blogged Mozilla’s Vladimer Vukicevic. “Adding 3D to this mix ensures that current web apps can experiment with new user experiences, while also enabling new classes of web applications.”

Norwest VC: Virtual Worlds Cap At $35-$45M In Revenue

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:40:38 +0000

At GamesBeat earlier this week, a panel of venture capitalists took the stage to discuss the state of investing in games. All see the market as increasingly crowded and fragmented, but still ripe with potential. One main interest that I’ve been able to glean from other coverage is in the social and casual space, but at least Tim Chang, a principal at Norwest Venture Partners, is a bear on virtual worlds.

I haven’t seen any solid live blogs of the session, but Jussi Laakkonen has a great live mind map up. One figure he captured and that I’ve seen tweeted enough to think it’s valid, was Chang’s claim that virtual worlds, at least those that are essentially graphical chat rooms, cap out at about $35-$45 million in revenue. (I’ve also seen $25-40M, so if anyone has notes or confirmation, that’d be great.) That also seems in line with Chang’s previous thoughts on the subject.

Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners, countered that Second Life and Habbo ave certainly reached significantly higher revenues and is more bullish on virtual worlds. The panel acknowledged that it’s getting harder to start a new virtual world and compete, and Chang seems to think that virtual worlds are shifting towards white label experiences.

I think that’s certainly true that virtual worlds with strong brands behind them (or incorporated through sponsorship or content deals) are more appealing to tweens in the crowded space, and Second Life is really more of a platform for other content than its own virtual world. That said, Habbo seems to have been pulling in around $75 million in 2008 and the comapny also announced this week that it had grown 40% over the last year. Habbo’s certainly a standout case in virtual worlds, but it does show the hunger of tweens and teens for virtual worlds that are simple, social hangouts. In the kids space, Club Penguin, another standout, has been estimated at earning between $50 and $150 million over 2008.

Investments in virtual worlds did slow down over 2008, but roughly in line with venture capital overall as investors reacted to the slowing economy. Even so, there was still over $584 million flowing into the space. That may slow down, but with the near ubiquity of virtual worlds among kids, I’d say there’s still profit to be found in smart plays.

Gaikai Bringing 3D MMOs To The Browser

youtopiaproject — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:38:57 +0000

This week saw the announcement of two companies dedicated to removing the importance of hardware (and ownership) from gaming and streaming high-quality, 3D environments from the cloud. OnLive seems mostly focused on traditional single-player games or multiplayer shooters. Gaikai, founded by David Perry, is aiming at similar ends, but streaming massive worlds instead of smaller games. Based on Flash, Gaikai requires no downloads and, according to an interview with GameDaily, is already supporting World of Warcraft and Eve Online.

Gaikai is taking an approach to massive worlds that others have to bring virtual worlds like Second Life to mobile devices. Instead of relying on a client-server approach to transfer data about the world, it’s streaming video to the player and recording input and sending it back to the servers over an encrypted channel.

“We install the latest games on our servers in purpose-designed data centres. We worry about the cost of the latest 3D video card, the gigabytes of game files, staying up to date with the latest patches and drivers, and all the other headaches involved in modern PC gaming,” explains the Gaikai website. “Our high performance software takes care of turning the game output into a high quality video stream on the fly, ready for you to watch and play, in a few milliseconds. Your input – every keystroke, every mouse click – is sent back over an encrypted channel to the game.”

There are a couple major benefits to that approach if virtual worlds can climb onboard. Users get the appealing, rich, 3D graphics of worlds that usually required large downloads, while developers and publishers get the lower barrier to entry of the browser. Also, with no download, it becomes easier to access those virtual worlds or MMOs from the workplace–a nicely captive audience.

There’s no firmly announced launch, but OnLive is set to exit beta and launch this winter, and Gaikai will is aiming to launch first.