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Featured Article
$345m invested in virtual worlds this year
Article Image USD 161 million has been invested into 16 virtual worlds companies during the second quarter of 2008, brining this year's total investment up to USD 345 million, according to figures from Virtual World Management.

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  • GameDev
    • The Daily GameDev.net
      Since the world is determined to send me into a depressive spiral that will lead towards me living an apartment furnished with only my own tears it had to go and delay WipEout HD which was due out for the Playstation 3 some time this summer. That's okay, I guess, I mean, I'm sure they're spending time polishing the game like they did with the amazingly-slick Wipeout Pulse, right? Right? Well, as it turns out: no, no they are not. The developers of WipEout HD (why the capital E? Who knows) are redeveloping aspects of the game because it failed epilepsy tests. Now, I could fill an entire week's worth of GameDev.net Dailies with why I think this is absurd, but I'll limit it to these questions/concerns/statements: Games have to pass epilepsy tests? Why are there epilepetics playing psychadelic racing games? Why is a warning in the beginning of the game along the lines of "NO EPILEPTICS ALLOWED!" not sufficient legal coverage? What are they going to change to make Wipeout epileptic-friendly? I hate them all. Electronic Arts has signed a deal with the United Talented Agency to "formulate plans to movie into large-budget movies and TV." Vice President of EA Entertainment, Patrick O'Brien, says: "Some of our teams have already made steps to expand our games into other forms of media like online, social networks and print publication. This partnership will help us take these efforts to the next level and match each of our titles with the right artists, producers and financiers." Some of these game-to-Hollywood adaptations that EA could create are: Mirror's Edge (yay!), Need for Speed (WHAT WHY), and the only game that I've played in the last year which actually made me want to throw the protagonists into situations where they had no chance of ever surviving even though I'm an immensely talented gamer: Army of Two. A mere day after New York passed their video game law (which mandated that consoles have parental controls and that retailers can only carry games with ratings by a voluntary ratings commision) there are already civil rights groups protesting the law. The two angry groups are the New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship which both feel that the law violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. I guess I could see where this would send people into a tizzy but, from my perspective, these are both things that seem logical (though movies in the US are allowed shelf space with an "Unrated" moniker) and, in the case of the parental controls, are already present in the current generation of consoles. And despite the criticism it received this year E3 2009 will happen.
    • Additional News Wrapup
      Tyler from IndieZen Radio has some additional stories from the week so far, presented in the now popular Daily format. New York's new video game bill, Nintendo's injunction for having controllers with analog sticks, Giant Bomb Launch, and a game you will probably only find in sex shops, all inside!
    • TIGA to help UK developpers
      UK developpers association TIGA has been accredited as a trade organization, allowing it to give cash to UK developpers in order to help them to exhibit in trade shows.
    • Gamefest 2008 News: DirectX 11, XNA and GFW-Live!
      The Gamefest 2008 conference (about Microsoft gaming technology) is currently running in Seatle. Today, the company unveiled many details about their flagship products DirectX and XNA.
    • The Daily GameDev.net
      According to Sony Computer Entertainment president and group CEO Kaz Hirai: Playstation Home is important. The company says that they're spending enough time on Home in order to have a "fun service" at launch time. When Hirai was asked whether the excessive hype would damage the eventual release of Home he responded: "Well I would put it the other way around [...] Because we got so much buzz, had we launched it before we thought it was the right time and the right features and functionality to launch it - with the high anticipation, people would go there in droves the first time around, they would check it out and say, 'This isn't fun at all, so I'm not coming back again." While, as a Playstation 3 owner, I do hope that Sony has a great deal of success with Home but, as a Playstation 3 user, I don't really see the point of it nor why it deserves as much development time as it's getting. The biggest announcement yesterday is that not only is Microsoft making Games for Windows Live a free tool (no more paying $50 for a gold membership) but they're also planning on launching their own digital distribution platform; quoting the story source: "Microsoft today announced that its Games for Windows initiative is set to expand with the launch an online PC gaming marketplace this fall. The service will deliver free and paid downloadable game content, along with trailers, demos, and other content comparable to the company's Xbox Live offerings." Microsoft will also be redesigning the Games for Windows Live interface to be more PC friendly which, really, was the biggest problem I had with the service when I attempted to use it in Universe at War. And, more from Microsoft, is a double header of information about DirectX and XNA. First, there are the revealed details of the allowed XNA Xbox Live Arcade pricing scheme which will allow users to submit their games, via a previously established peer-reviewed pipeline, and then charge somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 to 800 Microsoft points for their games; what is news is that the authors of these games will receive 70% of the revenue from their games. So that's awesome. And then there's information on DirectX 11 with one of my most favoritestest quotes in recent memory: "DX11 is totally compatible with DX10. There's not that 9/10 discontinuity we created before." There is, though, still that pesky DirectX 11/DirectX 9 discontinuity which, really, is kind of a big one. This occurred after I initially wrote this, but it's worth linking to the story about New York's recently-signed video game bill.
  • DevMaster
    • Gamestudio v7.10 Released
      Gamestudio/A7, the easy all-in-the-box game development system, announces the release of version 7.10. The new version contains tons of new engine functions and features, among them a decal manager, an FBX importer for whole levels, an extremely fast light mapper with radiosity support, and a new game template system for creating games without programming. Gamestudio 7.10 is available as a free update at http://www.3dgamestudio.com.


Virtual Worlds on dW

Community Leader
Jason T Clark, IBM developerworks
Jason T Clark's Image Jason T Clark is an author, inventor, and evangelist for emerging interactive technologies. Jason currently works for IBM Software Group on the developerWorks Advanced Design team, where he is a software developer creating enterprise web applications and Web 2.0 applications.

Next Gaming Event
E3 Media & Business Summit
July 15, 2008 to July 17, 2008
The event will be open to ESA members and non-members alike. Companies involved in console, PC, online, and mobile game publishing and developing, as well as makers of video game hardware and peripherals will be eligible to participate. Attendance at all events, meetings, and demonstrations will be by invitation only.

Next-Gen Console Articles

Gaming Blogs

Cell Broadband on dW
Core partners, Part 4: Managing the PlayStation 3 Wi-Fi network
Terra Soft Solutions IT Manager Aaron Johnson shows you, step-by-step, how to configure and encrypt ...

The little broadband engine that could: Rendering fractals on the SPE
In the previous article in the series, you learned some reasons why there were no appreciable ...

The little broadband engine that could: Looking at some DaCS performance fine-tuning issues
In the previous article in the series, you migrated a fractal-rendering program from earlier in the ...

The little broadband engine that could: DaCS--flexible and complex
In an earlier article in this series, the author introduced a fractal-generation program built...

The little broadband engine that could: IDL is dead--long live DaCS!
In SDK 3.0, the Data Communication and Synchronization library (DaCS) provides a sparkling sub...


Featured Book
Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide
Feature Text Image Whip up awesome Wii games using Flash and ActionScript. Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide lays out each next-generation technique alongside real-world examples and cut-and-paste code samples. Learn how to design exciting Flash animations, create cool characters, simulate realistic motion, and use the Wii remote control in innovative ways. Plus, you'll get the latest tricks for supercharging your games and tips for distributing them on the Web.

Group space

Description: This space discusses the techniques, stragegies, and advances within the realm of game development, and the exploration of virtual worlds. We also address finding alternative open source solutions for developing your next gaming project, and the best tools currently in use around the gaming industry. Cell technologies will also be addressed.

Objective:

Audience:

 

Group type: Public

Date created: 05 Apr 2007
 
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