Slashdot Mirror

yesterday http://kotaku.com/5562639/get-a-look-at-kinects-star-wars-game

A day later and they have confirmed this, does require an inbetween peripheral though:

http://kotaku.com/5560679/rock-band-3-playing-the-new-keyboard-102-button-guitar-controller

Actually, turns out it's a yes:

The good news for actual musicians? If you already have a MIDI keyboard or MIDI drum set, you can opt for the Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Adapter Box. The device will convert MIDI messages into console controller data and includes on-board console navigation buttons that will let players navigate the game's menus.

The attach rate for the Wii has been well above that of the PS3 for years now

Ahem, welcome to 2009.

The reviewers were all for the Wii when it first came out. The massive amount of shovelware has taught them the lie behind "it's all about great games, not graphics!" and yes, people don't like being lied to.

The Wii is the McDonald's of gaming. Cheap and palatable in small doses, but ultimately a poor experience.

I run Duke Nukem 3D on my iPhone. I still cant believe how small the entire game is! And its sold on the App Store http://kotaku.com/5334823/a-first-look-at-iphones-duke-nukem-3d I simply CANNOT get used to the controls, oh gawd they are awful! I cant even really move , see an enemy, aim and shoot! I've never bothered getting past the first MINUTE of the game...This is in no way the fault of the hardware, its the soft control setup!

You guys are still going on about Copyright infringement? A cracked program does NOT qualify as Fair Use, and as such would be considered an Unauthorized Derivative Work. Pirate groups CAN'T hold a copyright on their work.

That said, Rockstar stopped selling the cracked version before this was even posted to /.

See here.

Yesterday I noticed that my Steam client downloaded a 1.8MB update for Max Payne 2. There was no news about the update on Steam , but the new Steam client did offer an article from Kotaku regarding the crack being present in the Steam version. So I guess the update was to remove the hacker's logo or something.

So Rockstar needed crackers help to release an old game in a digital download version? Maybe now it makes companies think that games without DRM are superior to DRM-laden versions, if even they need cracked versions to re-release the games whose developers are already gone.

On top of that they're using someones elses work and profiting from it.

Someone at kotaku's comments also noticed they're using cracked executables for the original Max Payne.

My apologies and I'm embarrassed. It is the first result for "wii ps3 attach rate". December 2007 is 2.5 years old.

Here.

It could have been an hour and a half playing Major League Baseball 2K10 after having spent years with earlier-year versions of the game.

According to Kotaku, this version of the game has different pitching controls from the previous versions.

Although according to the same article, he spent two weeks prior to the game's release playing the demo and practicing for the contest.

So, yeah - not like he only spent an hour and a half on this. He practiced.

Didn't Sony get a tax break in Europe because they were able to claim that the PS3 was a computer because of the Other OS functionality? The tax rate on a console was higher than a computer.

http://kotaku.com/179245/why-the-ps3-is-a-computer-sony-dodges-euro-tax-men

From this article SONY sold 23.8 million consoles by June 30, 2009, I'll give a conservative estimate of another 1.2 million consoles sold by the end of the class inclusion date (end of March, I think), so 25 million consoles sales can be included in the class (I think it's a bit more but I'm being conservative here).multiply by the purchase price of $599 (we'll say $600) and you get 15 billion dollars in damages (yess that's billion with a "B".

From what I understand, fraud is alleged in the complaint as well. SONY originally advertised the Other OS feature and many people purchased a PS3 over a lower priced xbox 360 or wii because of the reasonable expectation that Other OS would continue to be available for the life of the console. This initial representation and advertisement of the Other OS feature was false and therefore a fraudulent means of selling additional consoles. From what I understand fraud is in many circumstances punishable by treble damages, so we'll triple the 15 billion in damages and SONY could end up compensating consumers for a whopping 45 BILLION dollars!

Also, Kotaku goes on to say 'the solution it (Capcom) is working on with Sony Computer Entertainment America involves providing notice of the DRM in the game's description page on the PlayStation Store in North America and Asia, not removing or altering the DRM.' But that doesn't really help people who've already bought the game. I wonder if anyone will be applying for refunds on that basis?

One of the most powerful things about the PS3 is the "Install Other OS" option. It won't be Vista. It'll be Linux. - 20 Questions With Phil Harrison At DICE
“The PlayStation 3 is a computer. We do not need the PC.” - Phil Harrison, president of Sony Worldwide Studios
Read more funny stuff: http://www.ps3vault.com/list-of-sonys-greatest-quotes-in-the-past-1659

Looks like the mod chips themselves are considered illegal: http://kotaku.com/285007/massive-mod-chip-raid-sweeps-nation You only own the hardware, apparently, if you use it exactly as the company says you can. Sounds like how they treat the software.

Never mind that people actually pay more for "collector's editions" of games, which generally are just more packaging... http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/01/img273.jpg http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/924/924565/fallout-3-collectors-edition-20081028113013731_640w.jpg I suppose Ubisoft would need to focus on making consumers happy as opposed to squeezing them for every last penny.

It comes complete with Natalie Portman.

Y

Here's a great response from Kotaku writer Brian Ashcroft which pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Please mod parent up! He is ABSOLUTELY correct. I've been working as a fine artist for 20 years, I have multiple degrees at the graduate level in fine art, I ran a gallery that featured "interactive" and game- based projects, and I damn well know my way around contemporary art theory-- Douchey is right when he says that INTENTION is everything. Did you intend for your action/object/project to be viewed as/judged as a work of art? Then it is. That's it, end of discussion. Emotional response, narrative, winning/losing, all that stuff-- merely aesthetic judgment calls.

Whether or not it it is a good or interesting work of art is another matter. And (flame away if you must) without the intention of being "art", the artistry of video game creation (as freakin amazing as it is) is in service to a craft.

So... I guess Ebert is more right than he knows- I can't think of a COMMERCIAL video game that has ever INTENDED to be an art project (maybe flower...). In fact, video game projects that explicitly intend to be art projects, in my opinion, cease to be video games in the same way Duchamp's "fountain" has ceased to be a piss-pot.

A quick google gave me this result, I'm sure there are more-- video game is the media, but the intention is art project. Counter strike game that squirts real blood

Why does video games have to be "art", anyway? To be in a museum? Museums are where art and creativity go to die. Let video games live-- LIVE, I say!

Taken from the Playstation.com forums (nice work!):
----------------

CREDIT goes to Xrobx who posted these in another thread and i wanted to make sure that everyone sees them...

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.:
"In addition to playing games, watching movies, listening to music, and viewing photos, you can use the PS3 system to run the Linux operating system. By installing the Linux operating system, you can use the PS3 system not only as an entry-level personal computer with hundreds of familiar applications for home and office use, but also as a complete development environment for the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.)."
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

(http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:byasL-PxEiMJ:www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html+http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=cln
k&gl=us&client=safari) - google's cached page of the above hyperlink from March 30th 2010 which does not say anything about FW 3.21 removing Other OS. I've saved the page in case it goes offline, copy http address into browser as link probably won't work. Or, just search google and get the cached page. - kiyyto.

Phil Harrison, February 2007,
President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios 2005-2008:
"One of the most powerful things about the PS3 is the 'Install Other OS' option."
http://kotaku.com/235049/20-questions-with-phil-harrison-at-dice

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., 2006-2009:
"The Linux Distributor's Starter Kit provides information, binary and source codes to Linux Distribution developers who wants to make their distro support PS3."
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux

Izumi Kawanishi, Sony, May 2006:
"Because we have plans for having Linux on board [the PS3], we also recognize Linux programming activities... Other than game studios tied to official developer licenses, we'd like to see various individuals participate in content creation for the PS3."
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9290

Geoffrey Levand, August 2009,
Principal Software Engineer at Sony Corporation:
"Please be assured that SCE is committed to continue the support for previously sold models that have the "Install Other OS" feature and that this feature will not be disabled in future firmware releases."
mailing list to PS3 customers using Linux

Phil Harrison, May 2006,
President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios 2005-2008:
"The Playstation 3 is a computer. We do not need the PC."
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,418642,00.html
SONY
Make.Believe... you didn't see that

This made me think of a recent news article... it's not Korea, but China, it's not an MMO but an FPS, but it does involve an internet cafe and "trouble". Some poor kid got a kitchen knife through the temple and survived. It's pretty fascinating.

this and this are likely couple of those places. Maybe you also found this PS2 tax court battle interesting :p

this and this are likely couple of those places. Maybe you also found this PS2 tax court battle interesting :p

Who is the target audience?

I doubt Grandma/Grandpa would want it. Not because it lacks a camera, but because of the normal aspects that it lacks. I've had to help elderly with computer things and the most common issue I've noticed is they don't like work arounds. Doesn't support flash, so that kills things like Farmville on their Facebook which has over 75 million users. And it's not the only Facebook game that runs on Flash. Telling them they can't play these games that they enjoy is going to be a killer against the iPad for them since they don't use the internet much, And having to quit whatever they are doing to use a second program isn't going to cut it either since they do that all the time on their computer, why can't the iPad? This isn't supposed to be a simple iPhone so the lack of multiple apps isn't going to go unnoticed. The weight will also be an issue since its meant to be held with one hand and the other hand is to click things, and arthritis is not nice to things like that (why most elderly read a book with 2 hands, helps with the books weight and their arthritis)

As for business, the weight might get to you. The lack of a functional way of entering letters will be a much bigger issue. A business would use this like a notepad and it's just not designed to be used like a notepad. Also custom software will be a huge let down since many businesses use either custom or niche software, and trying to convince the boss to pony up another $100 or so dollars per unit just to make them 'developer' models and load in house built software isn't going to be a good option either (20 units = $2000, that would be a small business when what they already have works great as it is without spending thousands+ more for units and that extra cost). As mentioned about the lack of keyboard, I doubt a writer would want to use this since typing would be a pain to write more then 2 pages when they could be using a netbook that has a USB port to hold onto a backup copy of their current revision.

Maybe kids want it? Again the lack of flash makes this a unlikely option since I see the bosses kid at work sometimes and when he goes online, he doesn't go to Facebook or Slashdot.org that doesn't use flash. All the kids want to do is go to places like bored.com and play Flash games. Kids what fun things to do at the moment and impulsively, not sit there and think ahead 'oh, maybe I should load some movies to watch in a few hours from now.'. So I doubt kids would want this either. And unlike Dad's iPhone that Daddy already bought games for, I don't see them being able to go on a shopping spree with Daddies credit card and Daddy might not have the time to look at 'this cool, neat game' little Timmy wants at the moment.

As for '"fancy graphic designers" don't always use Flash', what else are they using? HTML5? Doubtful since unless it's a video like on YouTube, HTML5 just doesn't cut it. This has been noticed with http://www.quakelive.com/#home (needing Flash) can play Quake 3 on a browser without tons of loss and massive hardware requirements, where as Quake 2 running on HTML5 has lower graphics (needing less power) ran pretty slow when more then a few objects where on screen (watch the video when 2 or more enemies are on screen and see that slow down). These don't happen on Flash, and so people will want to program these games for Flash because it will work better and faster. And doesn't need as many special addons (like WebGL which I doubt is on the iPad). This was fine on a iPhone since it was a mobile smartphone and no smartphone runs Flash. The iPad is a tablet PC and is the only one that can't use Flash, it will be noticed and this is going to been seen and used as a PC, not a smartphone.

you mean something like this?

http://kotaku.com/5499712/is-this-how-3d-will-work-on-the-nintendo-3ds

EA: We Will Not Charge For "Traditionally Free Game Demos" claims something entirely different and less "OMG the people in EA have been eating LEAD!"

Not that I don't think a vast majority of the people at EA don't enjoy a good paint chip now and then, I haven't been under a rock you know. I just don't think this particular article is about the consequences of such.

I thought Left 4 Dead 2 was censored enough after its initial rejection to receive an M15+ in Australia.

Take the Kings Quest "The Silver Lining" as an example. They got permission from Vivendi Universal, only to have permission revoked years later.

5th, who makes a gun shaped controller for a Wii?! It's a platform mainly aimed at KIDS!!!

You were doing pretty good until you got to this point, but the majority of Wii gamers are over 18:
http://kotaku.com/5010227/nintendo-wii-gamers-are-hardcore-gamers

I would imagine that lots of accessory manufacturers make gun-shaped controllers for use with shooting games, although they typically use white & blue plastic with unrealistic shapes.

"The fact that there are things like this Wii toy that look like guns, make it all the more important for the adults to keep the guns away from the children," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Keep it locked up, keep it secure, or don't have it at all."

Why does that make it more important? I fail to see how leaving a loaded weapon in reach of a child can be less important in any way.

The REAL issue seems to be that Activision was afraid that the two were going to jump ship and go back to EA...

If this is true, then Activision is run by insane people and their stockholders should be very, very worried.

It's not necessarily insane to fire employees. Even employees who are really good at what they do. There are times and places where shit like that happens and in the cold calculation of business you may calculate that it may make you more pennies to fire them than it does to keep them around. It happens.

But it IS insane to fire employees because you're worried that they're going to quit and go work for a competitor. That's just completely batshit nuts.

According the legal brief that IW filed they didn't "SELL" to Activision, Activision simply bought them out. Also after MW1 West and Zampella signed a contract with Activision that gave them exclusive rights to the "Modern Warfare" name, stating that no game can hold that title, nor can any Call of duty game take place after the Vietnam War without written consent from both of them. It also promised them royalties for for any past or present Call of Duty game or any game built on an engine developed by IW. It also promised them creative freedoms to explore new IPs instead of just churning out COD games. The only "hitch" was that the two had to make another Modern Warfare (MW2) and that they had to deliver it by November 15th..

Well, they delivered the game, and did so 5 days before it was due. honestly I think even if Activision has valid grounds for letting them go, they still owe them what was promised in that contract since it the two of them clearly met their end of the bargain. Kotaku has the whole legal briefing... it's eye opening

The REAL issue seems to be that Activision was afraid that the two were going to jump ship and go back to EA... The legal brief also goes into details of ridiculous month-long interrogation techniques Activision put the IW developers though trying to find evidence against West and Zampella. The final termination was based on comments made by them at a meeting over a year ago, and they were given 6 hours to "respond" to the charge of "insubordination" without being told what the charge was actually about.

It's like a husband suspecting that his wife is cheating, turned the house upside down looking for evidence, and then the only "evidence" he can find is an off handed email from a year ago and kicks her out saying "you know what you've done"...

According the legal brief that IW filed they didn't "SELL" to Activision, Activision simply bought them out. Also after MW1 West and Zampella signed a contract with Activision that gave them exclusive rights to the "Modern Warfare" name, stating that no game can hold that title, nor can any Call of duty game take place after the Vietnam War without written consent from both of them. It also promised them royalties for for any past or present Call of Duty game or any game built on an engine developed by IW. It also promised them creative freedoms to explore new IPs instead of just churning out COD games. The only "hitch" was that the two had to make another Modern Warfare (MW2) and that they had to deliver it by November 15th..

Well, they delivered the game, and did so 5 days before it was due. honestly I think even if Activision has valid grounds for letting them go, they still owe them what was promised in that contract since it the two of them clearly met their end of the bargain. Kotaku has the whole legal briefing... it's eye opening

The REAL issue seems to be that Activision was afraid that the two were going to jump ship and go back to EA... The legal brief also goes into details of ridiculous month-long interrogation techniques Activision put the IW developers though trying to find evidence against West and Zampella. The final termination was based on comments made by them at a meeting over a year ago, and they were given 6 hours to "respond" to the charge of "insubordination" without being told what the charge was actually about.

It's like a husband suspecting that his wife is cheating, turned the house upside down looking for evidence, and then the only "evidence" he can find is an off handed email from a year ago and kicks her out saying "you know what you've done"...

Ubisoft Sinks DRM Piracy Claims

http://kotaku.com/5485502/ubisoft-sinks-drm-piracy-claims

Yeah, Activision sounds just lovely. I just keep wondering why Vivendi doesn't put them in shape, but probably it brings money in now. I just hope Activision dies quickly. At least EA has started to bring some innovation again.

And that's the rub. By focusing on time-tested franchises that are basically guaranteed to be profitable, rather than new properties, they increase revenues and reduce risk. Both are good from a corporate standpoint, in general. Unfortunately, creativity doesn't always pay the bills. It just drives home that Activision is a production company that happens to specialize in games, rather than a game publisher.

That said, Kotick obviously understands the downsides of this approach. He even stated he regretted not buying (Rockband Developer) Harmonix when he had the chance. At some point he needs to expand his franchises, and by being too conservative he ended up passing up one of the best opportunities to come his way. I was expecting that would mean a more balanced approach to Activision's strategy going forward, but this IW shake-up makes me question that prediction...

It depends. If they want to, they can make something that no other manufacturer can touch outside of individuals making their own. The SF4 Tournament Edition stick is often heralded as the BEST stick you can buy, as it uses Sanwa parts and is laid out in a very logical manner... not to mention it's user moddable.

I started taking care with my online info about 12 years ago. I've only posted my photo once since then, and operate under the assumption that if I post something to the internet, everything from same pseudonym is known by someone, or will be, so if I post my name one place, my hometown in another, my job in another, I assume someone could add them up.

Sadly though, the war is won in the minds of the people. Quite literally, a story about citywide CCTV will come up and if I speak against it, I'll have kids around 20 and younger saying "the only reason you'd mind this is if you have something to hide! It's public, so there's no expectation of privacy, so it's ok to have cameras everywhere all the time!" They never seem to get that
A) That's more like an immortal never-sleeping policeman waiting outside your home, following you everywhere, and then parking himself and waiting when you go back inside.
B) Anyone with a net connection can find hundreds or thousands of cases of police abuse of citizens, even if you only count surveillance cases.

My big conspiracy theory is still that privacy was accidentally surrendered. Everyone has cel phones. Everyone's phone has a camera. EXIF data saves the time a photo was taken. More cam-phone pics are being hosted on servers or uploaded to social sites instead of on the camera. More phones are incorporating GPS receivers and geotagging pics. Off the shelf software can identify people's faces. Even without the PATRIOT act, search warrants are seldom declined. SO, WHEN YOU PUT ALL OF THAT TOGETHER... with current, non-theoretical technology in use today, if someone gets a warrant so search a photo host or a Facebook server, assuming the pics are geotagged, they can run a few scripts and know
- Whose pics are on the server
- Where you were
- When you were there
- Who you were with
- With enough pics, what your habits are, and who you tend to associate with
- Who's a friend of a friend
- Who took photos of police (illegal in many places in the Western world now!)

All without installing a single camera or deciding to follow a single person - because the camera is in each of our hands.

Recentrly, Spain's Plumbers association honored Mario "For 28 Years Of Plumbing Accomplishments"

Nintendo isn't very hostile anymore

True, Nintendo is far less hostile than it was in the NES days when it was found either guilty or liable (I forget which) of monopolizing the market for video game consoles by demanding exclusivity agreements from developers and retailers. Competition from Sega, Sony, and Microsoft has scaled some of Nintendo's hostility back, but some indies still get shafted by Nintendo's policies requiring a dedicated office and apparently a prior commercial title on a non-Nintendo platform just to get the SDK. See also Bob's Game.

The subscription offering would provide new premium features you could choose to pay for and are in addition to the features currently available for free such as access to online multiplayer gaming (current features would remain free).

There's even a grid of their tier options and new features at that link.

"is it worth all the stories popping up in the tech world? "

Thank you!

Actually I'll take it a step forward: shut-up already! Tell me when it comes out and give me a full review with a components breakdown. I'm so incredibly tired of every tech site I go to running a article every day with potential design mock-ups, hypothetical processor specs, and emerging screen technologies that might appear in the new not-formally-announced Apple tablet. I've been reading Apple Tablet stories on slashdot for five years, and frankly I'm tired of hearing about it.

This thing has more hype than Duke Nukem Forever and half the credibility, at least Duek Nukem Forever had confirmed release dates.

So what about it /., am I still going to be reading Apple Tablet might-have stories on /. in 2015, or can we finally stop beating this very dead horse and bury it until it's really released?

Hopefully someone bought rights to the title so we can continue to write about DNF.

It's still held by 3D Studios, but it'll be hard to continue development when they have no staff working on the project.

MW2 has only grossed $1bn+, not made that much, since a fortune was spent on the advertising and the game design was also pretty expensive. http://kotaku.com/5449597/the-billion+dollar-video-game-vs-the-billion+dollar-movie

Even when we go to download only games there will still be a market for big budget titles. No amount of $1.99 iPhone games can, for me, challenge the fun of playing Call of Duty online. You can argue that downloaded games will be cheaper and the price of games will fall but the fact remains that this year's best selling game was also one if its most expensive.

As a counterpoint to the rest of your post, may I point out that in the most recent iPhone games chart the top selling game costs $9.99 and five out of the top ten games were published by EA (none of which cost more than $6.99).

Rumor has it that Microsoft has an exclusivity contract with netflix for streaming built into gaming consoles which expires sometime near the end of year.

The PS3 will go disc free later this year, but didn't supply details as to why. However, since the Wii has far less storage, this may or may not be possible on the Wii...

http://kotaku.com/5391286/netflix-on-ps3-getting-embedded-solution-late-next-year

http://kotaku.com/5446301/bioware-confirms-spring-2011-release-window-for-the-old-republic

why have you seen nothing? because you never even searched. Helps to keep your eyes open if you're going to say you can't see something. First google result for "onlive review" pulls up a pretty recent result, aka this link:

http://kotaku.com/5181300/onlive-makes-pc-upgrades-extinct-lets-you-play-crysis-on-your-tv

Broken games still get shipped all the time.

In the old days when magazine reviews were still relevant, it really wasn't that uncommon to read reviews that basically came down to "great game, but we can't recommend it due to this bug or that glitch." And with systems that didn't allow patches, getting those kind of reviews could be devastating to a game.

Nowadays, even with the certification processes, some of the biggest AAA single-player games are shipping with game stopping bugs that would have been bad enough to kill a whole franchise 10 years ago. The only difference is that now the developers go back and patch problems in the code that they should have found and fixed if they had only done their due diligence to begin with.

Blizzard? Mostly ships pretty functional games or expansions these days.

You should look into the extremely bad Modern Warfare 2 glitches (published by Activision) that have popped up on the consoles. I've shelved my copy for the 360 because currently, there's a modified playlist going around which causes infinite ammo with no reloading. And it's got a viral nature, meaning once you get it, it's stuck in your playlist cache until you purge the console's cache. So if you play someone else, you pass it on to them (and they pass it on, and so on).

And that's not mentioning the glitches they've already patched (infinite care packages and javelin suicide), or the ones they haven't (matchmaking dumping you into a private match with a completely unrelated gametype).

And this is on Modern Warfare 2, not a small title.

it did but depends on what your comparing; units vs overall sales. overall, gross sales it killed everything in revenue generated due to the fact that video games are that much higher priced than other media.

btw, i didn't buy Modern Warfare 2 and never said it was awesome just that the claim console video games are dying is absurd. if anything, its growing due to the casual market. us core gamers have always been a given but the casuals bring another sect to the game. sure, they won't buy games like us core gamers but they still buy games and were consumers that prior to this generatio may have never bought a video game (ie wii market).