Tag Archives: Sony

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 08.03.13

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UE4It’s the end of the week so it is time for another Train2Game News round up.

Epic announced earlier this week that the Unreal Engine 4 is available for PlayStation 4. In addition to showcasing the new Unreal Engine 4 “Elemental” demo running live and in real time on PlayStation 4 at the PlayStation Meeting 2013, Epic is providing the resources PlayStation 4 developers need to harness the full power of its Unreal Engine 4 technology and realize all facets of their creativity using Epic’s revolutionary new toolset now and in the future.

Multiplay, a leading provider of community gaming, game server hosting, events management and broadcast services, is pleased to announce Insomnia 48. Taking place on 22nd-25th March at the Telford International Centre, i48 pits 1,000 of the best gamers against each other to compete for prize funds of up to £10,000 per tournament. The event will give UK gamers their first hands on experience with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Find out more about the event by going to http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/

High Moon studio and Marvel have released a new trailer for the upcoming game featuring every bodies favourite “Merc with a mouth”, Deadpool. If you know the insane Marvel character, you will know what to expect. If you don’t know him, prepare for a shock! If you are over 18, you can watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCBD7NPhCQ&feature=player_embedded

Sony Computer Entertainment UK MD Fergal Gara announced that PlayStation VITA sales absolutely exploded over the holiday period. When asked how he rated the handheld’s performance in its first year on the market, the executive said: “Vita really, really responded as we went into Christmas. We had a pre-Christmas lull where sales were quite low. But that absolutely exploded 20-fold from that low-point into the peak of Christmas. That’s very encouraging and shows that with the right promotion and software we can light that fire.” Mr Gara also admitted that the system’s software release schedule currently appears light, but promised: “It looks bare in terms of what we have announced. The cupboard won’t be bare.”

Finally Eidos Montreal have confirmed they are working on a reboot of Thief. The game is scheduled for a 2014 release and will be coming to PC and Next Gen consoles. The official blurb for the game is “Series hero Garrett returns to the Gothic, industrial metropolis known simply as the City to steal any and everything that will make him richer. Unfortunately, the City is broiling with social tension as it is ravaged by a plague and lorded over by a political tyrant known as the Baron. In order to survive his adventures, Garrett will have to pay attention to his environment and make use of the many possible paths through each of the game’s levels.” Sound familiar?

Train2Game News: Games news round up – 22.02.13

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Barack Obama speaks at the Rodon Group in PennsylvaniaIt’s the end of the week so Train2Game News will bring you some of the news stories of the week!

United States president, Barack Obama, revealed he was in favour of computer programming lessons in schools as part of a Google+ discussion. He said computers and videogames excited youngsters and spurred them on to learn. He referred to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, saying he taught himself to program due to his interest in games. He said he wanted people to understand the principles involved in a career in videogames such as maths, science and design.

Following the troubles THQ had they have sold the rights to the WWE video game series to 2K. 2K are more than familiar with sports titles having previously developed the entire NBA series of games since 2011. The series, which will continue to be developed by Yukes in Japan and will combine the studio’s signature gameplay with 2K’s commitment to authenticity in this years WWE ’14.

In addition 2K Games and Irrational Games today announced that production of downloadable content has recently begun for their forthcoming BioShock Infinite and revealed details of the BioShock Infinite Season Pass. Three all-new add-on packs are in development that will provide hours of additional gameplay and continue the player’s journey in the sky-city of Columbia with new stories, characters, abilities and weapons. The BioShock Infinite Season Pass will be available on March 26, 2013 when the game is planned to launch.

Despite Sony showing the currently-available PS Move controller being used with PS4 during the console’s unveiling event on Wednesday, the firm says the new console will not support the use of the standard DualShock 3 controller. The reasons are unclear since the DS3 controller uses the same industry-standard Bluetooth 2.0 tech as the Move controller to connect with PS3, which suggests PS4 will have Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities.

Commander Shepard’s story is finally coming to an end with the announcement of the last bit of single player DLC. Available on March 5th, Mass Effect: Citadel will see Shepard “explore and discover new locations across the vast, deep-space station” while reconnecting with some recognizable characters from the series past. Mass Effect was truly a great game, a save game that lasted six years across three games. Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy shall be missed.

Train2Game News: Smart device games outselling handheld

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Smart devicesGames on smart devices are outselling games on Nintendo and Sony handheld consoles. This is excellent news for Train2Game students looking to break in to the industry.

The final quarter of the year’s sales are normally the best for devices such as the 3DS and VITA, thanks to all the package deals around Christmas time. This time however iOS and Android games completely eclipsed the games sales of the consoles.

A breakdown of the data also indicates that iOS games made three-and-a-half times more money than Android ones over the period but Android games are growing at a faster rate.

The data covers global sales between October and December 2012 and comes despite the fact that games for the PlayStation Vita and 3DS typically cost more than their smartphone equivalents. In-game ad revenues were excluded.

Despite the findings, the researchers said they believed the Japanese firms would release further handhelds.

The Portable Gaming Report by IDC and App Annie is the first of its kind produced by the companies. It helps build on NPD’s influential monthly study of US games sales which does not include smartphone and tablet games.

IDC’s Lewis Ward said “If you rewind the clock a year you will find the dedicated handhelds were clearly ahead, and this year they are more or less tied with an edge going to Android and iOS games.

“If we fast forward to the end of 2013 we should see a decisive edge for smartphone and tablet gaming.

“I think a further version of the Vita could be the last dedicated handheld from Sony, but I suspect Nintendo will continue for a while. They are three to four times as large as Sony in this business and I think they have a much more defensible niche.”

All this data is good news for Train2Game students as the mobile market is much easier to develop for than the console market and with the mobile market growing to even bigger and better heights there should be more chance of developing a financially successful game.

Train2Game News: Sony’s big announcement revealed!

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PS4 Controller

Last night Sony made their big announcement that gamers around the world were waiting for with baited breath. Their big announcement was the reveal of… a controller.

Sony have not yet given a look at the next console but they have stated it will be called the PlayStation 4 and they unveiled some of the specifications for it. Their new console has 8GB of unified memory so the PS4 can do a lot more at once. The CPU behind that is the x86 which should be more than powerful enough to keep that 8GB of unified memory running nicely.

There was no mention of a disc drive in the machine. This may mean that their isn’t one and it will be all digital but what Sony did confirm is that it WON’T be backwards compatible but it WILL play second hand games. This could be proof there is actually a disk drive.

Older games may eventually reach the Cloud. Despite that, while browsing the store, Sony said that with the hit of the “X” button, you’ll be able to play games before you purchase them. The way they insinuated the concept, it sounds similar to going to the library and reading the books right there in the building. Any cloud services that they are talking about will be rolled out in phases, so it doesn’t sound like this will be fully functional at launch.

Sony did reveal they have a vision for an online world. It is very ambitious and staying connected with friends is a priority. As they demonstrated during an animation in one of their videos, they want you walking the streets staring into your smartphone and tablet keeping up with whatever’s happening with your friends on PSN. Those friends can don their real names and faces, too. The ability to keep your reverent online alias is still a possibility. This is a rather funny choice from Sony, considering they had the worst breach of online security in recent memory and are probably still paying for it.

In addition to this Sony have also added a “Share” button to the new controller they revealed. This will work in the same way as Facebook’s share button to share any video clips of your games if you are particularly proud of something. When you hit the Share button it will take you to a mini video editor letting you clip your video to what you want before displaying it on Facebook and Twitter. You’ll also be able to stream yourself live through Ustream and people can interact with you and your game to the point you’ll be able to let players take over your game and play for you. It’s remote access on your console.

There is also an option called Remote Play that will be available. It’s similar to the PS3 and Vita’s cross-play except that it acts more like the Wii U’s Gamepad functionality. As marketed, the compatibility can take a game from the PS4 and put it on the Vita with “full” functionality – meaning full graphic capability. The game they demo was a more cartoony game than something heavy like Crysis or Watch Dogs and it’s probably not going to work with every game, nor did they say it would. It’d be highly unlikely that a future Crysis game would fair well at the same graphical capability on the Vita but Sony may suprise us yet.

Finally let’s get to the new controller they unveiled. The controller will keep its inventive and memorable name, just like the console: DualShock 4. The changes in its design are immediately apparent, but not terribly ugly. It might take getting used to for some. The edges aren’t as rounded and it certainly looks curvier. One of the biggest change is the touch pad in the middle which I can imagine will be used in games in the same way the Vita utilises it. Flanking the pad at the top of the controller is also the “Share” button I mentioned earlier and an “Options” button. There is also an addition of a headphone jack. The size of the jack has not yet been confirmed however.

There is also a light bar that sits on the back portion of the controller that gives a “simpler, more friendly way to identify players.” The controller also acts as the old Sixaxis should have except that the DualShock 4 can read depth in front of the controller and the light bar helps read its position in space in conjunction with a stereo camera.

There was absolutely no sign of the console and no mention of a price during the event but Sony did announce that the PlayStation 4 will be available for Christmas this year.

If you would like to watch the two hour announcement, you can do so by going to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/playstation-live—english-2

Train2Game News: PlayStation 4 announcement coming soon?

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PS TeaseA post and video on the PlayStation firm’s official blog invites fans to “see the future” at an event set for February 20 at 6pm EST. Sony has also launched a countdown website with the tagline “be the first to know”.

A report suggest that invites have been sent to media and investors for a ‘PlayStation Meeting’ in New York City on the same date.

The Wall Street Journal reports that people “familiar with the matter” have confirmed the event will indeed be an unveiling of the PlayStation 4.

The ‘Orbis’, which is the PlayStation 4 code name, has been the subject of an increasing number of high profile ‘leaks’ in recent weeks, including more than one alleged system specifications dossier. In January senior games studio sources announced the next PlayStation will utilise a brand new controller and that versions featuring a biometric sensor and LCD touch screen have been tested.

Sony has publicly suggested that the next PlayStation will not go on sale before Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor. Whether this is a good plan is yet to be seen.

There have been rumours that the next Xbox will also be announced in some form before E3, but further leaks of information are not likely.

Train2Game News: A round up of tech from CES

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The Consumers Electronics Show is coming to a close and Train2Game are bringing you the news of some of the most interesting technology to come out of the show.

Steam BoxValves media named Steam Box was finally confirmed at the show after much speculation through 2012.  Valve has invested in computer manufacture Xi3 who will be developing a special customised PC designed to bring Steam to the living room.

The box, codenamed Piston, will offer up to 1TB of internal storage and the ability to upgrade components like the RAM and CPU in the future, a spokesperson told Polygon. Valve will also be making its own Steam Box in-house, and they’ll be a few more from other PC manufacturers too.

It is currently rumored to have 4-8 GB of DDR3 RAM and a quad-core 64-bit, x86-based 32nm processor running at up to 3.2GHz with 4MB of Level2 Cache.

Asus Transformer AiOA new tablet from Asus was announced at the show but this is a tablet with a difference.

The Asus Transformer AiO is a standard tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) from an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor but you can take it home and connect it to its stand and it becomes a desktop PC running Windows 8 running on a Core i3 processor and Nvidia GT 730M GPU.

The trick is the stand, which has its own array of USB ports and a built-in 1TB hard disk. The tablet itself has 16GB flash memory.

RAZER GROUP EDGE GAMING TABLETAnother exciting tablet that was announced this year was the Razer Edge which is optimised for gaming.

The Razer Edge is a Windows 8 tablet, but a ferociously powerful one with the sort of tech you would expect to find in a gaming laptop. The standard model has a Core i5 processor, an NVidia GT640M LE GPU, 4GB of RAM and a 64GB solid state drive, while the Edge Pro has a Core i7 processor instead, 8GB of RAM and either a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive.

The tablet can also be plugged into a Gamepad Controller, which comes complete with two Wii Nunchuk-style handles featuring two analogue sticks, a D-Pad and a variety of face buttons.

Xperia ZSony Xperia Z was the smart phone announcement to look at for gamers. It’s only 7mm thin, has a 1080p 5-inch screen and is packing a beast of a quad-core Qualcomm processor with 2GB of RAM.

According to Sony, the Xperia Z is the most powerful phone it’s ever made and the first it’s had a strong say in since it took over manufacturing from Ericsson, and it also claims that while it’s running Android 4.1 instead of 4.2, its own “skin” is very minimal and it should be easy to upgrade the OS in the future.

It is set to be an incredibly powerful phone with a good battery life thanks to Sony’s new technology that apparently draws very little power while in sleep mode.

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 12.12.12

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The Train2Game blog has once again been searching the internet and has found some of the biggest news from across the week.

The Rapid2D engine has gone live as of yesterday following its demonstration at the Evolve conference in London. Rapid2D is designed to help developers create apps for PC, tablet and Windows Phone 8 through the Windows 8 Marketplace. The engine uses C++ for scripting, and includes features such as physics, visual effects, sound particle systems, collision control and animated sprites. As well as the free version of Rapid2D, there will also be extra add-ons, upgrades and a pro-version available to developers.

Randy Pitchford, one of the developers behind Borderlands 2 has confirmed that there will be a new character class coming as DLC. Mr Pitchford previously said it was unlikely because of the amount of extra work the Mechromancer class took. The news was revealed after someone tweeted the developer saying “My mate says you won’t” to which Randy replied, “yes – we’re working on another character.” It’s as simple as that.

PopCap, the team behind hit casual games such as Plants v Zombies has announced that they are now working on a AAA title. The news comes following a tweet and job posting from PopCap. The game is a console game, inspired by Team Fortress 2. The job posting confirms that the game will use the Frostbite 2 engine, which is becoming more and more popular.

The final issues of PSM3 and Xbox World have gone on sale today. One of the many features in the last PSM3 magazine is a feature written by editor Dan Dawkins talking about the making of’ PSM3, office secrets, the highs and lows, how things have changed and how the future looks. Meanwhile Xbox World rounds up the biggest, loudest, saddest, funniest, most shocking moments in Xbox history and gives GTA5, arguably the biggest Xbox game of 2013, one final, epic preview.

Rovio has announced plans to release an Angry Birds feature film in the summer of 2016 and it will be in 3D so you can feel what those bad piggies go through. Despicable Me producer John Cohen has signed on as producer for the CG-animated movie, while David Maisel, former chairman of Marvel Studios and executive producer of Iron Man, will serve as executive producer. The movie will be produced and financed by Rovio outside of the studio system, allowing the Finnish company to retain full creative control of the project. Over 100 billion Angry Birds games have been downloaded since the games début in 2009.

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 06.12.12

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The Train2Game team has searched around and found some of the exciting news from this week.

343 Industries, who recently released Halo 4, have said that they are in early stages of developing a new Halo. Frank O’Connor, the franchise development director for Halo, said that “a lot of people at 343 are already prototyping ideas and software and art for future Halo products”. Many within the 343 Industries studio are still working on post launch content for Halo 4.

Sega has revealed a new partnership with Games Workshop which will see Total War developer Creative Assembly making multiple titles set in the Warhammer fantasy universe. Creative Assembly studio director Tim Heaton said: “With this year being our 25th anniversary, it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner. The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers.”

Sony Pictures Consumer Products has teamed up with Capcom-owned developer Beeline Interactive to produce an Android and iOS Ghostbusters game, targeting an ‘early 2013’ release. The new Ghostbusters will be a ‘freemium’ title based on the popular eighties movies. The players will play the role of “a fledgling Ghostbuster. Who ya gunna call?

UK celebrity, chat show host and film critic Jonathan Ross has opened a new game development studio named Hotsauce Interactive, based in Candem, North London. The outfit is part of Ross’ TV production company Hotsauce, and has already released its debut game, Cacha Cacha Aliens for iOS. It is understood that Hotsauce Interactive is staffed by a number of experienced developers and the studio may look into releasing games on hand-held and console in the future.

Customers of Valve’s Steam digital distribution service can now play their PC games on a TV. The much anticipated Big Picture mode has been in beta for some time, but has only now seen public release. Big Picture is designed to be compatible with gamepads, but also supports the use of a Mouse and Keyboard. To celebrate, Valve has placed over thirty “controller-friendly” games on sale.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 made $1 billion a day quicker than Modern Warfare 3, Activision has announced. That’s $1 billion in worldwide retail sales in 15 days since launch, based on Chart-Track and internal figures. Modern Warfare 3 took 16 days to cross the $1 billion mark. For comparison, James Cameron’s Avatar made $1 billion in 17 days. Since launch, more than 150 million hours have been logged online playing the game on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Kickstarter’s United Kingdom operation has reached £2,069,164 in pledges since its launch late in October. 45,799 backers contributed to the £2 million, with 30 projects having successfully ended their funding drive out of 407 launched. Of those backers, 39 percent came from the UK.

Train2Game News: Mid-week Round up – 28.11.12

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Good news for PlayStation Plus subscribers! For the festive season Sony are adding a number of new games including: Batman: Arkham City, LIMBO and Vanquish. All the games are added to the PlayStation Plus service on December 5.

Nintendo are offering a similar service where new and existing owners of the 3DS XL who register before January 15, 2013 will be able to download one of five games from the eShop. The titles on offer are Super Mario 3D Land, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, New Art Academy, New Style Boutique and Freakyforms Deluxe.

Take Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has announced that the Grand Theft Auto series has shipped over 125 million games since its debut on on the original PSOne. Zelnick put the series’ continued success down to the firm’s refusal to annualise as Activision has with Call of Duty.

Microsoft has announced that they have sold over 750,000 Xbox360’s over the Black Friday week. Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription sales also saw a surge of more than 50 per cent compared to last years Black Friday week, and US entertainment application hours logged on Xbox LIVE during the week of Black Friday was up 43 per cent over last year.

Microsoft has announced sales of 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the operating system’s launch month but 40 million licenses sold does not mean there are now 40 million Windows 8 users. Countless numbers of licences are bought up by hardware manufacturers for future use in new machines.

Dishonored is, clearly, a new franchise, publisher Bethesda has said. Sales of the Arkane-developed first-person action game are above expectations, Bethesda marketing chief Pete Hines told Destructoid, and so publisher Bethesda has added it to its stable of franchises, which includes Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Doom. In the UK Dishonored entered the chart at number two following its October release. It was kept off top spot by FIFA 13, but is the biggest launch for a new IP so far in 2012 (a title previously held by Sleeping Dogs). This record was achieved despite UK numbers company Chart-Track not counting digital copies sold.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 26.11.12

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Hitman Absolution sneaks into second place this week following its release with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 still sits proudly at the top. Lego LotRs entered at number 6, Udraw Studio: Instant Artist came in at number 13 and Sony’s innovative new game, Book Of Spells, just got in to the top 20 coming in at 20.

Week ending 24 November 2012

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 –  CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 1
2   HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX –
3 –  FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 3
4 –  ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 4
5 HALO 4 MICROSOFT 2
6   LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE –
7 –  JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 7
8 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 5
9 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 6
10 DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 14
11 –  WWE ’13 THQ 11
12 MOSHI MONSTERS: MOSHLINGS THEME PARK MIND CANDY 13
13   UDRAW STUDIO: INSTANT ARTIST THQ –
14 RESIDENT EVIL 6 CAPCOM 20
15 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 10
16 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 NINTENDO 18
17 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 12
18 MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER EA GAMES 19
19   F1 2012 CODEMASTERS –
20   BOOK OF SPELLS SONY COMPUTER ENT. –

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2012 UKIE Ltd