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February 11th, 2010, 21:05 Posted By: wraggster
Blizzard has revealed that only 30 per cent of new World of Warcraft players make it past level 10.
That's the tipping point at which people either stay or go, which make's the game's 11.5 million subscriber base all the more impressive.
In an investor call following the release of Activision Blizzard's financial results, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said the game had a stable subscriber base of 11.5 million players - the same figure announced in July 2008.
Mindful of that dropout rate, Morhaime restated WOW expansion Cataclysm's goal of bringing the existing 'old' world of Azeroth up to "current design standards". That add-on will be released sometime this year.
He also announced that the closed beta for Starcraft II would begin this month, with thousands of players expected to take part across the world, while the revamped Battle.net platform would be released to allow the RTS sequel to be made available digitally as well as in boxed form.
He had a few words on the current situation WOW is facing in China, too - claiming operating partner NetEase was running the game "normally right now" and that the suspension of new registrations was linked to a public holiday, rather than yet another political row over content.
However, he did admit that while the company was hopeful that expansion Wrath of the Lich King would be released there soon, that and prior expansion, The Burning Crusade, had been submitted to the authorities for checking.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bl...ast-level-10_1
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February 11th, 2010, 20:57 Posted By: wraggster
Lauren Weinstein sends in news of a major and disturbing Microsoft anti-piracy initiative called Windows Activation Technologies, or WAT. Here is Microsoft's blog post giving their perspective on what WAT is for. From Lauren's blog:
"The release of Windows 7 'Update for Microsoft Windows (KB71033)' will change the current activation and anti-piracy behavior of Windows 7 by triggering automatic 'phone home' operations over the Internet to Microsoft servers, typically for now at intervals of around 90 days. ... These automatic queries will repeatedly — apparently for as long as Windows is installed — validate your Windows 7 system against Microsoft's latest database of pirated system signatures (currently including more than 70 activation exploits known to Microsoft). If your system matches — again even if up to that time (which could be months or even years since you obtained the system) it had been declared to be genuine — then your system will be 'downgraded' to 'non-genuine' status until you take steps to obtain what Microsoft considers to be an authentic, validated, Windows 7 license. ... KB71033... is scheduled to deploy to the manual downloading 'Genuine Microsoft Software' site on February 16, and start pushing out automatically through the Windows Update environment on February 23. ... [F]or Microsoft to assert that they have the right to treat ordinary PC-using consumers in this manner — declaring their systems to be non-genuine and downgrading them at any time — is rather staggering."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/...Home-Quarterly
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February 11th, 2010, 20:56 Posted By: wraggster
Version 3.2 of the OpenOffice.org office suite is now available. This marks the tenth anniversary year of the office suite, with over three hundred million downloads recorded in total. The new features include faster start up times; improved compatibility with open standard (ODF) and proprietary file formats; improvements to all components, particularly the Calc spreadsheet, with over a dozen new or enhanced features; and the Chart module (usable throughout OpenOffice.org) has had a usability makeover as well as offering new chart types.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/02...ce-32-Released
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February 11th, 2010, 20:54 Posted By: wraggster
It's official; Activision Blizzard's much-anticipated sequel to 12-year-old StarCraft is going to enter closed beta 'this month,' according to company President Mike Morhaime during an investor conference call. This comes in the wake of the SC2 beta forums showing up briefly on Battle.net. If you've got a Battle.net account, it's probably not too late to opt-in for upcoming Blizzard beta tests.
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...gin-This-Month
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February 11th, 2010, 19:07 Posted By: Shrygue
via Eurogamer
2K Games has revealed that BioShock 2 PC's widescreen mode is a clipped version of 4:3 and that the game deliberately doesn't support gamepads.
Widescreen fans may remember that the original BioShock chopped the top and bottom off a 4:3 image in order to display 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios. BioShock 2 does the same thing.
However, according to a post on the Cult of Rapture website yesterday, this was because of a "last minute bug fix" and will be changed so that widescreen users see more left and right rather than less above and below.
"We feel rather silly about this, and agree that horizontal expansion is much more awesome, and that you'll have it very soon," a 2K rep wrote.
As for gamepads, the word about those comes in a FAQ discovered on the official site following the game's worldwide launch on Tuesday (thanks Kotaku).
"The decision was made early on not to support controllers at all in order to ensure that we got the mouse and keyboard control absolutely right," the FAQ noted.
"This of course required a redesign of large parts of the UI and the player HUD. For example, we removed the Weapons and Plasmid Selection Radials in favour of a custom created Weapons Selection Strip which more accurately reflects the keyboard layout."
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February 11th, 2010, 17:21 Posted By: wraggster
The UK spent as much as £280 million on online-based casual games, a new study suggests.
If accurate, the research reveals that 2.4 million Britons paid on average £117 each to play games through online game portals. For mobile games, the UK spent £170 million.
German gamers spend £440 million, and France spends £220 million on online game portals. The figures come as the freemium, browser and online game models continue to break apart traditional game business models.
The study, conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com, says however that the online game market has far more opportunity to grow – only 18 per cent Brits playing through online game portals end up entering their credit card details.
Facebook and other social networks have been more successful, with 38 per cent of its players paying for premium content.
“The range of business models in the online casual gaming business is staggering,” says Rik Haandrikman, head of business development at GamePoint.
http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/298...-games-in-2009
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February 11th, 2010, 17:20 Posted By: wraggster
Broadcaster revives online games portal as Pro-G Media expands its website team
Virgin Media has relaunched its online games channel, choosing VideoGamer as its editorial partner.
A new partnership between the broadcaster and VideoGamer.com’s publisher Pro-G Media will see the Virgin Media games portal populated with news, reviews, features and trailers, as well as downloadable PC games through Oberon and Metaboli.
“With immersive games demanding instant reactions, our ultra-fast fibre optic broadband makes Virgin Media the perfect place for gamers,” said Virgin Media’s online director Alison Davis.
“Our new games portal will help games lovers play new games, watch demos and reach levels quicker than their friends but will also help families and casual gamers discover a whole new world of gaming for themselves.”
Pro-G’s operations director Adam McCann added: “With a new fresh design, a wider selection of content and VideoGamer.com hosting the new video games channel, it has allowed for greater flexibility and functionality, hugely increasing the usability of the channel.
“The launch is also great news for VideoGamer.com, with the channel already growing on a daily basis, further extending the reach of the site’s content.”
Pro-G Media also announced it has expanded the VideoGamer.com team with the appointments of Joey Rabbitt and Alex Ridler.
Rabbitt joins as designer having spent five years working for web design firm Createanet, while Ridler takes on the role of content and community administrator.
McCann said: “We’re delighted to have Joey and Alex on board.
“We’re now well positioned to carry out our ambitious plans to further expand Pro-G Media in the months to come.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37532/Vide...ias-games-site
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February 11th, 2010, 17:17 Posted By: wraggster
Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick remains cautious of social game business models, though insists that his company is carefully monitoring the blossoming market.
“Social games, social network integration, mobile and portable games, a few you're hearing a lot about today, they're interesting and present brand development and marketing opportunities,” said Kotick, speaking at last night’s Activision financial call.
“[But] they remain characterized by unproven business models, a lot of clutter, and relatively low barriers to entry,” he added.
Social games are known for their disruptive freemium monetization models, where restricted editions of the games are free to play though the full experience will require consumers to pay.
The business has ignited the game industry, with emerging companies such as Playfish and Zynga soaring to high valuations.
Last year, EA bought Playfish in a $300 million deal.
Kotick said the current wave of emerging game markets were ‘speculative’. And when asked if he thought social games were the exception to the rule, he replied:
“Social games is like digital revenues to me where games are social, and to be talking about like casual games like Farmville that are in Facebook, the monetization opportunities are still very speculative.”
Kotick made it clear that Activision was fully exploring opportunities in the broad range of digital segments, but the company is being selective with what it’s backing.
“I think we're hopeful; we're spending a lot of time looking at [social games],” he said.
“I think as we always have in the past, when there is an opportunity for a new platform or a new revenue opportunity, we always pursue it thoughtfully, we've had great success in doing that, and I don't think that any of these new potential platforms is any exception.
“We plan to continue selectively expanding our brands into other digital segments like the iPhone as we did with Call of Duty, and will do with other brands like Guitar Hero.
“However, today these opportunities are better utilized as a means to connect our community and extend the brand, and less about financial scale or huge financial return.
“If there is an opportunity to capitalize on some of these new trends in social gaming or in mobile gaming, there’s no better company that's better positioned to capitalize it on it than we are. And I think we've shown that over a 20-year history.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...model-unproven
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February 10th, 2010, 23:28 Posted By: wraggster
Well, here's something we didn't notice last time we checked; it seems Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has already overtaken Windows Vista as a hardcore PC gamer's operating system of choice.
28.53% of Steam users report Windows 7 as their operating system, while Vista users represent 27.91% of the platform's userbase (the remainder, of course, still using good ol' Windows XP). For the record, Windows Vista was released to retail in January 2007. Windows 7, on the other hand, was released to retail in October 2009, meaning it's overtaken its predecessor in record time. At least, among hardcore PC gamers. And seeing as many games demand the use of Steam these days, I think it's safe to assume Steam users are an almost perfect representation of hardcore PC games.
Sure, Vista had its critics early in the day, but it quickly settled down; I've been running it since April 2008 on my gaming PC with no hassles whatsoever. I guess Windows 7 is just...better. Anyone who's made the upgrade care to elaborate on just why that is?
http://kotaku.com/5468394/windows-7-...dcore-pc-users
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February 10th, 2010, 22:59 Posted By: wraggster
Following Google's announcement ending support for Internet Explorer 6, I find myself wondering whether we (Web developers) really need to continue providing support for IE6 and IE7. Especially when creating Web sites intended for technical audiences, wouldn't it be best to end support for obsoleted browsers? Would this not provide additional incentives to upgrade? Recently I and my colleagues had to decide whether it was worth our time to try to support anything before IE8, and in the end we decided to redirect any IE6/7 user-agent to a separate page explaining that the site is not accessible with IE 6 or 7. This was easy once we saw from our analytics that fewer than 5% of visitors to the site were using IE at all. Have you had to make a choice like this? If so, what was your decision and what was the reasoning behind it?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/02/...t-Required-Now
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February 10th, 2010, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster
The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the 2010 'We're Linux' video contest. The contest seeks to find the best user-generated videos that demonstrate what Linux means to those who use it and inspire others to try it."
Sadly, the winner will almost certainly be edited in Final Cut Pro on a Mac 
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/0...-Video-Contest
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February 10th, 2010, 22:53 Posted By: wraggster
Blizzard updated the official StarCraft II site today with a preview of how the revamped Battle.net will function. They emphasize the social features, competitive matchmaking system, and the ease of sharing mods and maps. Quoting:
"When the legacy Battle.net service introduced support for user-created mods such as DotA, Tower Defense, and many others, these user-created game types became immensely popular. But while Battle.net supported mods at a basic level, integration with tools and the mod community wasn't where it needed to be for a game releasing in 2010. The new Battle.net service will see some major improvements in this area. StarCraft II will include a full-featured content-creation toolkit — the same tools used by the StarCraft II design team to create the single-player campaign. To fully harness the community's mapmaking prowess, Battle.net will introduce a feature called Map Publishing. Map Publishing will let users upload their maps to the service and share them with the rest of the community immediately on the service. This also ties in with the goal of making Battle.net an always-connected experience — you can publish, browse, and download maps directly via the Battle.net client. Finding games based on specific mods will also be much easier with our all-new custom game system, placing the full breadth of the modding community's efforts at your fingertips."
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...mped-Battlenet
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February 10th, 2010, 22:52 Posted By: wraggster
Cryptic Studios has given a lengthy update on its MMO revealing that the upcoming Champions Online expansion has been renamed and will even be released for free.
"We have a lot going on right now at Cryptic, and with Champions Online in particular," reads the update. "There are huge changes afoot, and rather than spend a lot of time with the preamble, let's sink our collective teeth into the meat of the matter."
Skipping through the update, we get to: "The expansion formerly known as Vibora Bay (always our working title) has a new, more descriptive name: Champions Online - Revelation. The half-angel / half-demon Therakiel is bent on bringing forth the end times. Now, it is up to you to join a team of the greatest heroes the world has ever known to stop him.
"We've had continuous discussions for many weeks regarding the Revelation expansion and how it should be delivered to our community. I am very glad to announce that while we built Revelation to the quality and expectations of a paid expansion pack, we are making it available for FREE to our players."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS
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February 10th, 2010, 19:37 Posted By: Shrygue
via Eurogamer
EA has reportedly said that Dead Space 2 is not on its way to PC after all.
"As of right now a PC SKU is not in the plan," a spokesperson told Blue's News.
The game was originally announced for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in December.
This week the publisher said to expect the game between January and March 2011.
We've contacted EA to clarify the loss of the PC version.
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February 10th, 2010, 17:17 Posted By: wraggster
British gamers spent £280m playing online casual games in 2009 says the UK National Gamers Survey Report.
Similar studies carried out in other countries revealed that French players spent £220m and Germans £440m over the same period.
The survey estimated that there are 13.3m Britains playing on various game portals but only 2.4m pay to play - an average of £117 per person per year.
Gamers in the UK were also said to have spent £170m on mobile games in 2009.
The survey was carried out by TNS and Gamesindustry.com.
"In the future all games are going to be social," John Vechey, founder of casual game developer PopCap, told BBC News. "Every game you have will be interactive in some way."
PopCap specialises in games that can be played on social networks or online in short bursts.
Mr Vechey believes that the interactive nature of online games is a return to tradition when families played games and competed against each other at home.
Short and sweet
One of PopCap's biggest hits is Bejeweled, which challenges players to line up and match as many gems as possible in 60 seconds as they fall from the top of the screen.
The Facebook version, Bejeweled Blitz, launched in 2009 and registered 25m players within 12 months.
"Bejeweled is a good time stealer," says player Darren Haynes.
"It is completely addictive - mainly because each game only lasts for one minute. I found myself saying "just one more game" and before I knew it ... 3am."
Mr Haynes compared the game with arcade classic Tetris.
""We were somewhat surprised by Bejeweled's success but we put a lot of work in," said Mr Vechey.
"It only took two months to make but you have to keep working on it. A game isn't done when you release it. It's important to keep the core simple and fun."
Constant tweaks like re-setting the leader boards have helped to keep the game fresh for existing players, he believes.
PopCap is now looking to expand more into the mobile games market, and is launching a game called Plants vs Zombies that has proved a popular download with PC players.
"The iPhone is a great customer experience - you can spend 30 hours on an iPhone," says Mr Vechey.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8507813.stm
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February 10th, 2010, 01:47 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
The underwater nightmare is not done yet, Rapture and the Little Sisters now drag you into the dark depths once again into the splendid, fallen utopia. The mutated people and the general menace within the glass walls are more powerful than ever, you need both brain and brawns in the game to survive.
From the publisher: Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture.
You are the very first Big Daddy as you travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and your own survival.
Multiplayer in BioShock 2 provides a rich prequel experience that expands the award winning BioShock gameplay. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject in the underwater city that was first explored in the original BioShock.
Players will need to use all the elements of the game’s toolset to survive as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.
The game is available on your favourite home consoles and the PC. The Asian versions are available today, US versions will come on Friday (Feb 12) and the Japanese versions will come in March.
Xbox360™
Bioshock 2 JPN US$ 68.90
Bioshock 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Bioshock 2 US US$ 64.90
Bioshock 2 (Special Edition) ASIA US$ 109.90
PlayStation3™
Bioshock 2 JPN US$ 72.90
Bioshock 2 US US$ 64.90
Bioshock 2 ASIA US$ 54.90
Bioshock 2 (Special Edition) ASIA US$ 109.90
PC CD-ROM
Bioshock 2 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Bioshock 2 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
Bioshock 2 (Special Edition) (DVD-ROM) ASIA N/A
Game Guides
BioShock 2 Limited Edition Strategy Guide US US$ 34.90
BioShock 2 Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...-2bf-84-n.html
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February 10th, 2010, 01:40 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
features
New levels, new monsters, new bosses and a new story, all in typical Painkiller style
IMPROVED shadows, a higher texture resolution, moveable light sources, post processing, motion blur and ambient occlusion
NEW coop-multiplayer campaign mode
description
The award winning and critically acclaimed pure shooter is back.
William ‘Wild Bill’ Sherman, an ex CIA Agent and specialist for dangerous missions in the Black Ops Special Unit has a big problem: during his last job, he has managed to not only kill the head of an illegal drug operation and a slew of innocent civilians, but himself in a fatal mistake.
Trapped in a hostile place between heaven and hell, his soul flickers between the millions of faceless infidels and good and evil forces start to use Wild Bill for their own needs. But, it turns out that nothing is as it seemed at the beginning… solve the mystery and give the equilibrium between heaven and hell a little flip!
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3qdk.html
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February 9th, 2010, 23:29 Posted By: wraggster
If we've learned anything about LEGO Universe, it's that the game should not be dismissed. Yes, it's an MMO aimed at younger gamers, but did you see the trailer? Whether you did or not, you need to watch it right now. We've embedded it directly above this post. There should be a play button right in the middle. Click it. We'll wait.
Now, having seen that, know this: The LEGO Universe beta is now accepting signups. We suggest you head over to the signup site and sign up immediately. Unfortunately, no one is guaranteed a slot in the beta so, while you're waiting on confirmation, why not check out some footage of the actual game in action? After that, you can start refreshing your inbox like mad.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/09/le...signups-begin/
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February 9th, 2010, 23:07 Posted By: wraggster
As discussed here last year, IBM has made good on its promise to release the Power7 processor (and servers) in the first half of 2010. The Power7 processor adds more cores and improved multithreading capabilities to boost the performance of servers requiring high up-time, according to Big Blue. Power7 chips will run between 3.0GHz and 4.14GHz and will come with four, six, or eight cores. The chips are being made using the 45-nm process technology. New Power7 servers (up to 64 cores for now) are said to deliver twice the performance of older Power6 systems, but are four times more energy efficient. Power7 servers will run AIX and Linux."
And reader shmG notes Intel's release of a new Itanium server processor after two years of delays. The Power7 specs would seem to put the new Intel chip in the shade.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...wer7-Processor
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