Sneak peek at SteelSeries’ pocket-sized controller for tablet and smartphone gamers
One of the most persistent problems with gaming on smartphones and tablets is the lack of physical controls. This has created an opportunity for developers to create unique game experiences, but more traditional-styled games that have found commercial and critical success, like EA’s Dead Space and Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. 2, mimic the control style found on traditional gamepads. Touch controls are good enough to play, but are still a far cry from the feel of a … Continue Reading
Top 5 sleeper hits of 2011
We’ve been thoroughly spoiled in 2011. One triple-A title after another has grabbed the headlines and, ultimately, the sales. But what about those in the background, without the budget to match their ambitions? Plenty of lesser-known titles have flaunted tremendous quality, yet may have slipped under the radar.
The games below are not only of a high standard, they are also among the most ambitious, unique, and creative titles to hit the shelves in 2011.… Continue Reading
So long childhood: GamePro magazine has been shut down
After 22 years of publication, popular gaming magazine GamePro‘s U.S. operations have been shut down by its parent company IDG, VentureBeat has learned.
Multiple sources within the magazine confirmed that GamePro employees, including executives, received phone calls first-thing this morning with the dreaded news. GamePro’s U.S. website, which has been online for 13 years, will be incorporated into a gaming channel at sister site PCWorld on December 5. The majority of GamePro staff will be … Continue Reading
Big Fish Games first to offer an “all you can eat” gaming subscription on iPad
Big Fish Games has become the first publisher permitted to offer a subscription gaming service on the Apple iPad, Bloomberg reports.
Customers will be asked to pay $6.99 per month in order to access dozens of games, such as Mahjong Towers and Mystery Case Files, through the Big Fish app, which will initially require Wi-Fi access to operate. If it works, it could be a new source of ongoing revenue on a platform where it … Continue Reading
Smart TV gaming startup PlayJam raises $5M round
Gaming startup PlayJam has raised a new $5 million round of funding to bring games to smart TVs and set-top boxes, the company announced Tuesday.
PlayJam is known for producing games on internet-connected TV platforms from Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic. The company says it’s seen over 6 billion game downloads on those platforms alone.
However, with the increase in devices that give televisions web connectivity — like Blu-ray players, game consoles and set-top boxes … Continue Reading
DCM invests in PapayaMobile, Appia, and more with Android-focused A-Fund
Investment firm DCM, which launched its $100 million A-Fund for Android startups back in April, today announced its first round of investments with seven promising startups.
The A-Fund is the first dedicated entirely to Android, and it competes directly with Kleiner Perkins’ $200 million iFund for iOS startups. DCM said it chose to focus on the Android platform primarily because of its massive growth. (Google said last week it has activated a total of 190 … Continue Reading
Diablo 3 release date is in early 2012, more beta keys going out
Blizzard Entertainment’s next highly-anticipated online game, Diablo 3, won’t come out until early next year, the company’s chief executive Mike Morhaime said Friday.
Blizzard Entertainment is known for taking its time before releasing a game. So far, the strategy has worked — while some of its games face delays, it has yet to deliver a game that has not been a smash hit. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty is expected to generate around $350 million … Continue Reading
Diablo 3 beta is short, sweet and a sign of great things to come (hands on)
The beta for Blizzard Entertainment’s next potential hit, Diablo 3, finally landed yesterday. We got a chance to blitz through the beta with each of the character classes and try out just about everything available, and it looks like Blizzard Entertainment has hit all the right buttons.
Diablo 2, the last game in the series, was immensely popular when it came out more than a decade ago in 2000. Blizzard Entertainment only released one expansion … Continue Reading
Diablo 3 beta begins today
Initial invitations to join the beta testing program for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 3 game are finally making the rounds to Battle.net account holders.
The start of a beta for an online game usually indicates that the game will come out relatively soon. Diablo 3, one of the holiday gaming season’s most anticipated titles, was originally slated for release later this year. But the company is still not committing to a 2011 release date for the … Continue Reading
Hands on with Microsoft’s slick speech-powered Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7 (video)
Microsoft is rolling out a whole host of speech recognition features for its Windows Phone 7 devices and Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 consoles in a move to make the gaming experience more immersive. The new features are part of what the company refers to as the “natural user interface” (NUI).
The company acquired speech recognition software developer Tellme in 2007. But there wasn’t whole lot of interest in the speech recognition sector until Apple stunned the … Continue Reading
Why Nintendo should start making games for iPhone and Android
Nintendo investors are extremely unhappy with the company’s nearly 30-year old strategy of making games only for its own consoles and have started demanding the company make games for smartphones as well, according to a Bloomberg report.
Nintendo did not immediately respond with official comment.
Investors should rightfully be dissatisfied. The new 3DS handheld has had poor sales, with less than a million units sold in the U.S. in its first months. This prompted an … Continue Reading
Blizzard won’t commit to Diablo 3 release date this year
Blizzard Entertainment chief executive Mike Morhaime said today the company is still not committing to a 2011 release date for Diablo 3, one of its most hotly anticipated titles.
“Diablo 3 is still on track to go into external beta testing this quarter. We’re working hard to ship the game by the end of the year,” Morhaime said on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “But we can’t commit to a release date for the game … Continue Reading
Gaming pays off: Blizzard unveils Diablo 3 auction system featuring real currency
World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment today unveiled an auction system for selling in-game items for real-world currency in its latest multiplayer game, Diablo 3.
Players can sell the equipment they get from monsters they kill in the game — like swords and armor — either for in-game currency or for real-world currencies like U.S. dollars. The whole process is automated and happens through an in-game interface rather than a third-party marketplace. Blizzard Entertainment will … Continue Reading
Meet Roku 2: a video streaming box with motion-controlled gaming (video)
Roku, a company that produces boxes that stream web content to televisions, announced today that it is unveiling a new lineup of devices that feature games and motion controllers.
The company’s flagship title at launch is Angry Birds, a game that has already collected tens of millions of users. The controller is similar to the Wii MotionPlus controller from Nintendo. Instead of using infrared light to track a motion controller, it uses an internal set … Continue Reading
EA’s Secret World online game is nothing like World of Warcraft
Electronic Arts already has a game like Blizzard Entertainment’s supergiant online game, World of Warcraft, in the works — but it looks like the game publisher has one more trick up its sleeve. The company unveiled its next online role-playing game, Secret World, at its summer games showcase on Thursday.
Secret World is a stylized take on the modern era, where vampires, secret societies and all the horror stories you heard as a kid are … Continue Reading
Sony plans to redesign PlayStation Network
Sony is planning a redesign of its online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN), following a hacking attack that brought the network down for nearly a month, according to reports.
The original layout for the PSN and the PlayStation store was heavy in text and had a lot of information on the screen. The new look is more streamlined, with bigger images and more accessible information, according to the report. It will be similar to … Continue Reading
Nook Color first to offer Angry Birds with location-based extras
Barnes & Noble said Tuesday its Nook Color e-reader and tablet would be the first device to offer a real-world tie-in to the insanely popular Angry Birds game.
The original Angry Birds title hit 140 million downloads in April, and that number continues to climb as the game flies to every platform it can.
What’s different about the new Nook Color version is the inclusion of the “Magic Places” feature. The feature opens up extras … Continue Reading
China gets World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion next month
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the latest expansion pack for Activision-Blizzard’s online role-playing game, will finally be released in China on July 12.
Video game launches have become like premieres of Hollywood blockbusters, both in the dollars consumer spend and the time they devote to the product. Cataclysm sold well when it first launched, even though Activision-Blizzard’s first person shooter blockbuster hit Call of Duty Black Ops came out at around the same time and brought … Continue Reading
Outfit7 signs with WME to develop film, TV and book brands
After almost a year since the birth of Talking Tom in July 2010, the Outfit7 Talking Friends are ready to graduate from their smart phones and head for bigger screens. The company has signed with Ari Emanuel, co-chief executive of talent agency William Morris Entertainment. WME will help the brand extend into books, movies and television.
Apps aren’t just for iOS and Android anymore. They are becoming increasingly influential in youth entertainment and developers are … Continue Reading
LulzSec’s real agenda? Who knows, but they love the Dreamcast
Well, that tears it. LulzSec, a band of hackers that has made headlines for a number of high-profile hacking incidents, are a bunch of gaming hipsters.
The hacking group has been gleefully attacking a lot of gaming networks such as online role-playing game EVE Online and indie sandbox game Minecraft. But LulzSec hackers have also avoided sabotaging certain games that have niche appeal in the gaming community -— indicating the group has some kind of … Continue Reading
