Amazon's Double-Helix Acquisition Hints At Gaming Console

Nerval's Lobster writes "A more prominent role in video-game development could prove the latest territory on Amazon's 'attempt to conquer' list. Yes, there's already Amazon Game Studios, which produces smaller games such as Air Patriots (a tower-defense title), but that evidently wasn't enough — Amazon has acquired Double Helix, most notably the developer behind Killer Instinct and other big-action games for PCs and consoles. Amazon confirmed the deal to multiple media outlets, suggesting that it would use Double Helix's developers and intellectual property 'as part of our ongoing commitment to build innovative games for customers.' Why would Amazon want to bulk out its game-creation abilities? Rumors have floated for the past couple weeks (hat tip to Gamespot) that the company is hard at work on an Android-based gaming console that will retail for below $300. Over the past year, it's also hired gaming luminaries such as Halo author Eric Nylund, which it probably wouldn't have done without something big — or at least interesting — in the works. Amazon would doubtlessly position such a device (if it actually becomes a reality) as the low-cost alternative to Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. But even the cheapest console won't sell without some killer games to attract customers — and that's where Double Helix might come in. ... With Nintendo flagging, there's potentially an opening for a third console ecosystem to take hold."

Comments

I can't think of how to tie this into Beta

[TheNastyInThePasty]

So here we go: BETA SUCKS!

Re:I can't think of how to tie this into Beta

[TWiTfan]

Speaking of Amazon, has anyone seen that new Amazon show "Betas"?

I'm switching to Lynx.

[Fx.Dr]

I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Slashdot Beta fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of Beta (1920x1080) for about 20 minutes now while I attempt to reply to another poster. 20 minutes. At home, on Reddit via IE11, which by all standards should be a lot slower than Beta, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.

In addition, during this post, Chrome will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even Javascript is straining to keep up as I type this.

I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while browsing various threads but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen Beta run faster than its community-driven counterparts, despite the Betas' faster bootstrap design. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this site layout at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Slashdot Beta is a superior forum.

Beta addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use Beta over other faster, cheaper, more readable fora.

Re:I'm switching to Lynx.

[Somebody Is Using My]

There are NO "beta addicts"

The community has universally spoken against the new look. I have not seen one post that has been in favor of it. In over twenty years of being on the Internet, that is a first for me.

The only people who seem interested in the beta seem to be the people at Dice pushing it down at us. There are numerous speculations as to why this is (an earnest belief it improves the site, somebody's reputation on the line, or an attempt to orient the brand at a new demographic). Dice's continued silence on the matter is quite telling, however; it is obvious they are not concerned with what the community thinks about the matter.

At the moment, I am still coming back to Slashdot because the circus and uproar about the beta is just too much fun to miss out on, but like many here I expect that - barring a reversal of intent on Dice's behalf - I eventually will migrate to some other website.

Already some suggestions have been made:

Ars Technica
Alt Slashdot (currently in development)
Subreddit /r/Slashdot
kuro5hin

I am on the lookout for more.

Boycott

[Koen Lefever]

Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet.

On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design.

Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.

If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.

We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project. We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott

Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta Commentors - only discuss Beta http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories

Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.

Captcha: fuckbeta

http://developers.slashdot.org... http://developers.slashdot.org... http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... http://science.slashdot.org/co...

Slashdot Beta = Windows Shitsta

[jkrise]

I have been reading Slashdot since 1997 or thereabouts. Every single day after 1998; of that I am sure. Even when I went out on vacation; when I got married; when I was convalescing after angioplasty- when I returned to work; I would read every single article; and if interested; the comments as well.

Some days back, I stumbled onto Slashdot Beta; I felt it sucked, so I came back to the old design. Today when I open any article; the only comments I find are those complaining about Beta. I use Opera for the past 14 years; so I couldn't understand why many readers found it difficult to just get back to Classic.

Then I started Firefox and opened Slashdot in that. I just couldn't believe the shit I was seeing. The main storythere was about the New Zealand Spy Agency. I carefully looked for 3 more recent stories; and couldnt find them at all. The reason was simple: the top 3 stories were disguised as ads; bcos that's how ads look in the regular site.

Then I clicked on those stories and tried to comment. Firefox went into a never-ending loop; I waited for 7 minutes, and killed the browser. I gave up on the beta.
-------------------
The reasons I visit Slashdot are:
1% - to look at the ads; and click on them
5% - to read the stories
3% - to read the linked artices
the rest - to read tons of Insightful comments from fellow Slashdotters
--------------------
But in the Beta; I couldn't even get to the Comments section on my 6-yr old Compaq laptop after 10 minutes. So I went back to Opera and Classic Slashdot. Already the Snowden article had comments cursing Beta. So I prepared this post in Notepad.

From now on, I will try for First Post with this one; in every new article.

Slashdotters I admire very much; and we are very successful people as a rule; minus of course the paid shills. I am sure I will keep this up and burn my karma until everyone else including those not fortunate enough to be using Opera; also stop complaining; and Beta goes away. Like Vista Shitsta; Millennium and Microsoft Bob.

Cheers.

dice.com is not the arbiter of elegance.

[CaptainStumpy]

Furthermore, I think the beta /. must be destroyed.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[i kan reed]

I wonder what could have happened to all that "good will".

I am Slashdot

[OzPeter]

I submit stories. I read stories. I add comments. I moderate comments. I am the reason that there is ad revenue.

I am Slashdot.

Re:I am Slashdot

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

They want to do DIGG route. It is all a corporate exec's perverted fantasy,"Look at how many people watch our content. Imagine how much ad revenue we'd get if we replaced all the content with 100% advertising." They don't realize if they lose all their users, they'll have no more revenue.

Oh, so that explains it.

[moogla]

I was wondering why they were trying so hard to make this site an unusable mess.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[wolvesofthenight]

No surprise. As I noted elsewhere, increasing profit from Slashdot while maintaining or increasing quality for the current user base would be hard. I would like to see it - the quality around here could really use a boost. But I think a Dilbertesque attempt at sacking the name for short term gains is more likely, possibly followed by a sale of the mangled corpse. Your point that they have already written off slashdot supports this. Maybe we will read about it on The Daily WTF. Too bad Dice isn't trying to make a few bucks by selling Slashdot off to some geek club... Anyway, where should the lifeboats head as the rats flee the sinking Slashdot? What other news sites do people recommend?

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[evilRhino]

I sure am glad these conglomerates are in the position to buy out these companies and make them more successful by using proven business tactics. Let's give them another round of tax-cuts for creating jobs!

Beta Feedback

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Slashdot admins,
I just tried the new beta site, and I have a concern.
In every story that I click on, 90% of the comments seem to just say, "Fuck Beta".
I would suggest sticking with the current format until you can fix this obvious bug.

Also, the new layout is horrible.

Thank you,
Concerned Reader

Re:Beta Sucks

[aardvarkjoe]

People hated the 2006 redesign, too, and yet they are still here. Why would they acknowledge a problem that by all past indication will disappear within a couple of weeks/months?

The classic interface continued to be available. That's what I've been using. The big difference now is that they want to remove the old interface.

Beta, Beta, Beta, Beta, Baked Beans & Beta

[neo-mkrey]

That one doesn't have much Beta in it.