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First they rebranded the XNA website as App Hub to help push Windows Phone 7, then they had XBLIG displayed after avatar clothing They did at least attempt to help support independent developers somewhat recently, so they have shown some sign of caring.

This is pretty much old news, this has been seen ever since Cataclysm was released.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/01/14/the-lawbringer-net-neutrality-and-mmos/

I believe the issue is mostly that the deep packet inspection kit that the ISPs use to classify and throttle/shape traffic are unable to distingush between Warcraft traffic and Bittorrent traffic since the changes made for Cataclysm, until signatures/filters/etc are updated to classify the traffic correctly, but in many cases they seem to be taking their own sweet time about doing it (or aren't capable of doing it).

Note that I don't really have a huge problem with traffic shaping as done by an ISP, as long as the customer is well informed as to exactly what is going on and why, some ISPs are better at cummunicating this than others.

I know several people who have changed ISP over this issue, but obviously this isn't an option in some areas where there isn't really much competition.

Microsoft is a joke. I can't believe they are a successful business, let alone the premiere provider of operating systems and office software.

And who would you have take their place?

Office software:
Want to use GroupWise? How about Lotus Notes?
Open Office has finally caught up ... with Office XP.

Server OS:
Linux is great, but it doesn't run Exchange (see above), and if you're using Exchange you might as well use Active Directory. (good luck with Samba in big environments).
And who wants to pay Oracle ten times more in licensing than the equivalent SQL Server would cost and MySQL just doesn't have the same broad support base with 3rd party software.
Then there's SharePoint, which started out as a joke, but has gotten a lot better recently and is stealing business from the more established CMS players (at least on the low-end).

Desktop OS:
MacOS wasn't a real contender until recently.
And Linux has another few years to go before it's ready (Ubuntu is getting close, but not if GNOME can't get its head out of its ass - sorry haven't tried kubuntu).

The only division worth keeping is the gaming division.

Ahh, now you're showing your business acumen. MS Entertainment has only just recently achieved profitability.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, the portion of the giant company responsible for Xbox operations (as well as Zune and Games for Windows) brought in $165 million in profits during the company's third quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended March 31. In the same period last year, the division lost $41 million.

That's after they've had quite a few years in the red, so they probably still haven't made back their investment.

Goregasm: The Legend of the Dong-Slayer - it sold 61m copies. The ultimate melding of violence and porn. If an egomaniac can pull it off, surely the big wigs can too.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/24/30-rock-tracy-jordans-porno-video-game-sells-61m-units/

There's plenty of room for improvement with the Xbox given today's standard cpu/gpu capabilities. It's still extremely rare to find a console game that runs in native 1080p. The cpu and gpu are woefully underpowered when compared to anything gaming-wise for the PC, and the system itself only has 512mb of ram.

As for innovating, I could see them trying to tie the hardware for Kinect directly into the system opposed to trying to supply it as a $150 add-on. My brief experience with Kinect is that it does need some work, but is it being limited by the hardware of the Xbox itself? One other thing that came to mind was a video from MS I saw last week that seems like they're working on some things. One of the points in the video is split screen gaming without a split screen. Pretty interesting.

Absolutely wrong. You're very misinformed.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/20/commodore64-iphone-app-finished-denied-by-apple/

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2008/09/13445/

http://www.iphonefreak.com/2011/02/sony-reader-denied-app-store-debut.html

http://mobihealthnews.com/6932/interview-the-iphone-medical-app-denied-510k/

http://gizmodo.com/5611169/why-the-hell-did-apple-pull-camera%252B-from-the-app-store

Google around, you'll find a million similar cases. Developers hear that their apps will be fine, and then at the last minute they are denied and not told why. It takes them alot of calling and emails to Apple and takes months before they can even find out why.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/20/mandatory-xbox-360-update-sneakily-halts-call-of-duty-pirates/

So no, it doesn't seem like MS is being more permissive than Sony here.

Both are trying to stop people from modding their consoles, presumably for the purpose of maintaining their revenue streams.

Perhaps the adventure games can arise again thanks to new devices and formats. I was pretty excited when I saw that a number of Sierra Online games were made available on the iPad. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/15/sierra-on-line-games-playable-on-ipad-via-web-app-for-now/

In traditional /. fashion, I didn't RTFA, but I'm seeing a gross inaccuracy in almost all posts around here: Blizzard did not send a cease & desist, the guy received a DMCA takedown notice. Those could've been issued by anybody, though Blizzard's response seems to indicate it was them (be it Activision or Blizzard) after all. A C&D is a much more heavy-handed response than a DMCA takedown.

What I am really curious about is whether Blizzard's decision to invite the guy for a tour of their office has anything to do with Riot Games' job offer.

Back in 09, Blizzard said their programming team for WoW's engine, gameplay, tools, servers and UI was 32 people total.

http://wow.joystiq.com/photos/adgc09-the-universe-behind-world-of-warcraft/#2296009

the mass unwashed just don't care

I know that graph doesn't show owners under 18, but i'm sure it's still climbing. With each generation of console we move away from being able to pay $50 to some dude in his momma's basement to solder a few wires for us. They've (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) made it hard enough, and it'll get harder. And the 14 year olds who need their fix'll JUST BUY THE GAME.

They'll just install another rootkit

They already did.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/the-xbox-turns-a-profit/ Xbox turns a profit starting First quarter 2008. http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/20346/Xbox-Division-Records-Second-Profitable-Year-in-a-Row/ 2009 ends 2nd year of profit for entertainment division on high sales from Xbox/xbox360 even being a tough year the xbox brand carried the division. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28220/Xbox_360_Division_Pushes_165_Million_Profit_For_MS_Q3.php 10% profit for entertainment division on Xbox sales. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/28/microsoft-announces-record-q1-revenue-thanks-xbox-360-consoles/ MS sites xbox360 as big part of profit numbers. http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/110/1104553p1.html xbox live had $1billion in revenue for 2010. I know you guys hate MS and want to see them fail but that took 2 minutes.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/the-xbox-turns-a-profit/ Xbox turns a profit starting First quarter 2008. http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/20346/Xbox-Division-Records-Second-Profitable-Year-in-a-Row/ 2009 ends 2nd year of profit for entertainment division on high sales from Xbox/xbox360 even being a tough year the xbox brand carried the division. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28220/Xbox_360_Division_Pushes_165_Million_Profit_For_MS_Q3.php 10% profit for entertainment division on Xbox sales. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/28/microsoft-announces-record-q1-revenue-thanks-xbox-360-consoles/ MS sites xbox360 as big part of profit numbers. http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/110/1104553p1.html xbox live had $1billion in revenue for 2010. I know you guys hate MS and want to see them fail but that took 2 minutes.

That's true. And Sony have been boasting of having the toughest DRM of all consoles.

However, it only took half a year from removing Linux support, and in that short period have had many partially successful attacks against it. Before, while they had the Linux support, such stories were remarkably rarer.

Many critics meant that the continued security of the console was partially because they allowed linux to run on it, and so many of the talented people had no reason to look closer at it. Since PS3, after four year of "DRM cracking almost never heard of" have now gone to "Completely broken" in just over half a year's time, I think they have a point there.

It's not that it was that much more secure, it's just that most of the really talented people had no reason to look into it.

it is questionable that [Starcraft 2] busted any blocks.

No, it isn't

That it is a "rehash" is questionable, but even if accepted as true it is irrelevant, as "rehash" and "blockbuster" are in no way mutually exclusive.

And don't try coming up with some alternate definition of "blockbuster". The term means that something was very popular and made a lot of money, and it has ALWAYS meant that.

Starcraft 2 is a blockbuster, period. And it's only one of the many blockbuster games produced since the late 90's.

Your comment was stupid, and you made it because you are stupid.

one million copies on the 1st day isn't too bad

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/03/starcraft-2-sells-1m-day-one-1-5m-in-first-48-hours-roughly-62/

Right on, thanks! For anyone interested, that's a new development from this month, and the company was involved in Kinect development: http://www.primesense.com/ and http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/primesense-releases-open-source-drivers-middleware-for-kinect/

There is a mineral called redstone in the game that can be placed like circuitry, albeit with a 15-block activation distance. Redstone torches act like NOT gates, but can be combined into more complex logic gates.

Youtube is now littered with demos, but I think this is one of the better ones: Working 16-bit computer built inside Minecraft.

...

Likewise games. In the last 2 years I played Batman:Arkham Asylum which was horribly disappointing...

Out of curiosity, was Batman disappointing because you couldn't glide?

Even if I did pay for them, I would probably throw the game out, as the pirated versions are so much more convenient and bug free.

Perhaps not in this case.

To get pirates to out themselves?

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/10/eidos-intentionally-glitches-batman-arkham-asylum-pirates/

A couple things about this bug me:

As you pointed out, the /. story was submitted by the article's author, but that was obfuscated in the summary. Alarm bells are ringing Willie.

He goes out of his way to conduct this article like a scientific review, but at the heart of it, it's just an opinion piece.

Take this article he deemed sexist: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/05/heres-where-cammie-dunaway-literally-went/ It's a short post with nothing but facts and a Lord of the Flies reference. It's not sexist in any way, but when confronted by the post's author, Jackmovich/SSDNINJA said it had "Implied or condescending remarks about women". If Cammie Dunaway had been a man, I highly doubt Jackmovich would have deemed that article sexist, which, in itself, is sexist. If that's the way he's collecting his data, this whole thing is just a farce designed to pull page views. Looks like it worked.

I'm not saying gaming journalism isn't without faults, but this feels like a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

The article doesn't really focus on the issue of game reviews, although I think we can all agree that there's a problem there.

Actually, the article is kind of hypocritical and self-fellating. It discusses the importance of having multiple sources (but really, how much gaming news actually merits multiple sources?), the unprofessionalism of editorializing news stories (welcome to blogging) and of running stories that aren't game news (because it's unreasonable to assume that gamers would be interested in Pac Man lawn ornaments), and how offensive and sexist the industry is.

Now, calling somebody sexist is a pretty serious charge, but unfortunately, he didn't make his data public (hows that for journalistic integrity?) but rather gave a very, very small sample of the articles chosen. Here's one of his examples. Can you spot the sexism? I can't!

He also posts a quote from his boss, but leaves his own website out of this harsh "study", which seems pretty self-serving.

Finally, he goes into a speech about how important it is to stick to the codes of journalistic integrity, and how game journalism can be so much more than just "enthusiast press" (as though that's a four-letter word). If he was attacking Gamasutra or gamesindustry.biz, that's one thing, but blogs? He's very guilty himself of posting stories which only include the official source, so maybe he should get off his high horse and set an example before he belittles everybody else.

But as someone else mentioned, current-gen consoles can max out the resolution of most (HD)TVs that are out there, so why put a bunch of money into R&D that isn't going to affect the end experience that much?

Actually, current gen console games frequently render at less than 720p:
GTA IV runs at 640p on the PS3
Halo 3 renders at 640p on the Xbox 360

We are getting close to the point (if we haven't passed it already) where low-end ($50) PC GPUs outperform current consoles.

But as someone else mentioned, current-gen consoles can max out the resolution of most (HD)TVs that are out there, so why put a bunch of money into R&D that isn't going to affect the end experience that much?

Actually, current gen console games frequently render at less than 720p:
GTA IV runs at 640p on the PS3
Halo 3 renders at 640p on the Xbox 360

We are getting close to the point (if we haven't passed it already) where low-end ($50) PC GPUs outperform current consoles.

No, it uses the Xbox to handle the processing and a significant portion as well. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/07/natal-to-use-10-15-percent-of-xbox-360-cpu-power/

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/kinect-vs-our-living-rooms-a-survey/?

"For all the talk of revolutionizing the Xbox 360 experience and making gaming more natural/ accessible, it's bordering on absurd how broken Kinect is when it comes to something as simple as working in your home."

Jeez, that's brutal.

Although the summary and linked article blame DRM (and I'm not one to defend that restrictive crap), the original joystiq article implies that it's just grabbing an incomplete update which doesn't have proper Xbox Live support yet. Nothing to do with DRM or copyright, simply that MS haven't set up a final version of the new firmware yet because they thought they had another few days to do so.

TFS is half of the linked article, which is a summary of an unnamed Joystiq story. One found here http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/28/psa-got-a-kinect-game-early-dont-stick-it-in/

It made $145 million last quarter.

They first made a profit in 2008, of $524 Million. While it hasn't made money every quarter, to say it's "lost billions since its inception" is misleading at best. Unless you're claiming that zune sales and PC games are making up for "billions" lost (LOL!), your claim is bogus.

It made $145 million last quarter.

They first made a profit in 2008, of $524 Million. While it hasn't made money every quarter, to say it's "lost billions since its inception" is misleading at best. Unless you're claiming that zune sales and PC games are making up for "billions" lost (LOL!), your claim is bogus.

Video games pretty much don't exist for full-size consoles that need to utilize an entire single-layer DVD's storage capability

Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the first 2-layer Wii game. Nintendo had to perform warranty repairs on several Wii consoles whose drives couldn't properly read dual-layer discs. PS3 games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 are even bigger; its install file alone is 4.6 GB, and Mr. Kojima reportedly had to cut features to fit the game in the 50 GB of a 2-layer Blu-ray Disc.

I can pretty much guarantee that no game will ever exist for this device (should it exist) that would exceed the 5GB mark.

Imagine the parents doing Christmas shopping online, and then multiple children spending their Christmas money on game downloads. That can rack up the bits real fast for the December billing period.

Aside from all the talk of Intellectual Property rights laws and protectionism, the video game company Turbine and the band Radiohead have a successful 'pay what you want' model that is profitable.
Lord of the Rings online has DOUBLED its revenue since becoming free to play online. You can then pay a-la-carte for upgrades, etc. but you can still play for free if you like.
An interesting business model that may be the the one model to rule them all...
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/07/lord-of-the-rings-online-doubles-revenue-since-going-free-to-pla/

Are you serious? Some very few examples:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html

http://www.macgasm.net/2010/04/30/apple-seals-fate-of-canadian-game-isealclub-rejected-from-app-store/

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/18/apple-rejects-yoot-saitos-iphone-game-dev-staff-considered-sea/

Not to mention all the rejections of games that used the Unity framework.

But what is the rest of the coverage besides recycled PR anyway? Personally I just try and get a sense of a game I'm interested in and then stop looking at coverage on it. I just want to see the basic idea of the game and what mechanics it uses, as soon as I'm interested then I cut off coverage because I don't want anything spoiled, not even the introduction. In other media I also avoid trailers because of how much they will spoil the actual movie for example. The way a game starts is meant to draw you in and intrigue you, and if you hear a lot about it beforehand, it doesn't have the same impact when you actually play the game.

There have been situations with games such as Super Smash Bros Brawl where they drip feed you with information, every day you see a new character, or a new move, or a new item you will be using in the game. By the time the game comes out I'm sick of it already and I don't even want to see it anymore. Or sometimes development time will drag on and paying attention to a game's coverage is like torturing yourself, such as with Dragon Quest IX or Duke Nukem Forever. In that case, coverage will often turn me off of a game, and if I already know I want to play it, what's the point? I've got better things to do.

Nowadays I just listen to a few podcasts where people don't talk so formally about their experiences and they often talk game theory which is much more interesting to me compared to regurgitated PR. I would recommend A Life Well Wasted, The Brainy Gamer, Gamasutra Podcast, In-Game Chat, Irrational Behavior, Mobcast, and Retronauts. If you also like those, you might like Geekbox, RebelFM, 1up Oddcast, Weekend Confirmed, Player One Podcast, Joystiq Podcast, Gamers with Jobs, Drunken Gamers Radio, IGN GameScoop and CAGCast. Hey, it makes work and commutes go by fast.

"We do not accept any gifts--such as video iPods, World Series tickets, cash (in the form of contest prizes)...all of which were actually offered to us at one point. But we are allowed to keep cheap, promotional items, so you'll see game posters or XXXXXXXL T-shirts around our offices. We also keep the games that the companies send us, but EGM's rule is to put one away for the office library copy, and the rest get evenly distributed to staffers who will actually play them (absolutely no trading them in or eBaying them for profit or gain of any sort)."

The rules are different at different outlets but you'll find most try to think about this subject and let their audience know how it affects or doesn't affect them. Giant Bomb are headed up by people who left after a related incident at their previous employer. One of the founders fought to defend their review against a publisher and editor who wanted them to give it a more glowing review, and their previous job was terminated for doing so, certain people quit in disgust and joined together to form a new site.

At least with the jailbreak I can get more use out of my PS3. 3D gaming and blu-ray? Not really interested (I don't have a 3D TV, and because of technical limitations, it's 720p only...).

You are wrong on this the 3.5 firmware allows you to watch 3D in 1080p. As for 3D games you can also watch them in 1080p if the game is written to support 1080p. If you look at the specifications of 1.3a/b/c hdmi and compare to hdmi 1.4 the only difference is ethernet and audio return for 1.4.

The PS3 has 1.3a hdmi which means it supports 3D 1080p to "compatible" 1080p 3D TV's. Don't believe me then look at this or just do a Google search but make sure you limit yourself to last month. As far as sound goes you can still use the optical connector to your amplifier (if it support this) rather than use the poorer quality TV speakers.

It's starting to look like the platform's shutdown is just a marketing stunt. Good Old Games spokesman Tom Ohle told us that "as the site says, this doesn't mean GOG is dead. We will have more to share in the next couple of days." A NeoGAF poster dug up a Polish business forum, in which CD Projekt co-founder Micha Kiciski purportedly mentions a conference dated for this Wednesday, adding, "we'll post information about this soon on GOG.com (please do not panic after reading the information contained there.)" We'll keep an eye out for more info.

Joystiq

Of course... Google is my friend:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/02/project-offset-team-disbanded-at-intel-offset-software-founders/

They also apologized. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/08/microsoft-apologizes-for-suspending-fort-gay-gamer/

Yet another example of Slashdot Sensationalism. This is why nobody should assume they have mastered a topic solely because they read all the Slashdot babble about it.

The nerd blogs were all in a pantybunch over the PSP Go not having UMDs or dual analog sticks. I thought that refresh was pretty cool, and I happily ditched all my old UMD games to get one. It's almost as neat as my iPhone.

The PSP Go was a terrible decision. As it stands, there are new games coming out now that the PSP Go can't play, simply because they won't be released on PSN.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is just the most recent example.

actually, the latest rumor is that Gearbox (of Borderlands fame) is now going to finish DNF, so it will most likely be using Unreal Engine 3 :) http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/11/rumor-duke-nukem-forever-being-completed-by-gearbox/

Today, PopCap's got a new thing on the streets, Plants vs. Zombies they call it. For just $19.99 they'll get you high on their take on tower defense, and pretty much every dealer in the digital distribution game has it. They've even got a little song to help get the kids hooked. Hey, I wrote a song too. It's called "Oops, I Played Too Much Plants vs. Zombies And I Forgot to Eat and I Died and I Wish I'd Listened to TV and Film Star Robert Loggia."

It's a real catchy tune ... until I sing it about you. Stay smart -- stay away from PopCap.

-- PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies now available

Uhm, I got the idea from Nintendo PR; specifically from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/iwata-dsi-xl-is-a-spectator-system/
http://kotaku.com/5393749/iwata-dsi-xl-not-just-for-seniors-its-for-watching-others-play-too

Seems I pay much better attention that you do...

Some directors have thanked pirates.

I would have never heard of the Man from Earth if it didn't show up in an RSS feed.

Ink is another more recent movie.

Games too

Those 90% piracy ratios come from publicly tracked torrents and are actually a conservative estimate since while sales are fixed torrent piracy is only the main form.

They also are not an aggregate figure, they come from comparing completed torrents to sales.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/13/world-of-goo-has-90-piracy-rate/

"..the Library of Congress yesterday approved six exemptions to US copyright. The one most pertinent to gamers is that, for archival purposes, copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder can be cracked.."

- http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/23/us-copyright-office-grants-abandonware-rights/

if not, why not? Seriously, interested..

"Pirates sue Rockstar for using and distributing unlicensed cracks."

There's another way you can sue them. Abondonware rights were added to the DMCA that made it legal to crack games that are "no longer being sold or supported" for your own personal purposes of archival. Now, it's still illegal to distribute those cracked games. So the people who cracked it might have a claim that they cracked these games for their own archival purpose after Max Payne left stores and did not distribute them. But the great part is that you don't need to sue them, you can write that up in a letter notifying the ESA who will take them to court and, effectively, may sue the copyright holders for distributing a cracked game even though they own the copyright on it. After all, it just might fit the description of abandonware and set precedent one way or the other.

I hope the crackers seriously stick it to them. Copyright length, game DRM and licensing really don't make any sense to me. Honestly I really am upset that I paid for ~$40 for Contra on the NES back in 1990 only to have to pay $8 for it on the Wii today with no ability to transfer it from that device to another. How many more times must I pay for the Contra license to what is the exact same game?

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/12/steam-for-mac-now-available-sort-of/

We can blame the third party publishers for making shovelware, or for misjudging the Wii market, but the simple fact is that the publishers have to develop completely separate games for the Wii because its CPU is not powerful.'

... is just a more polite way of saying:

"The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and duct tape." As if that wasn't already enough to break a fanboy's heart, (Spore developer Chris Hecker) called on Nintendo to "make a console that doesn't suck ass."

The Wii hardware sucked in 2007, and surprise surprise, it still sucks in 2010.