28054910
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
iPad rumors have been running rampant, but most expect a major update from Apple sometime this year. When the iPad 3 launches, it's likely to bring with it a much higher resolution screen and a far more powerful quad-core processor. This could mean great things for game companies. “Tablets are turning out to be great gaming devices, and I am very surprised there isn't more game development geared specifically for tablets. I think the iPad 3 could help accelerate that trend with higher end specs," noted RW Baird analyst Colin Sebastian. "If the publishers provide software support on the core level and a standardized controller is introduced, the iPad and other Apple offerings could definitely expand the gaming market and possibly take share from Microsoft and Sony,” added Ted Pollak with Jon Peddie Research.
27893162
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Earlier this week Vox Media revealed that it's planning a major games website and the company poached some of the best editors in the business, including Kotaku's Brian Crecente and Joystiq's Chris Grant. Both former EICs spoke about the opportunity to shake up the media. "There are outlets that are losing traction or losing credibility or losing their sheen, and we'd like to be there to pick it up. Sometimes it helps to be the new kid on the block because you don't have any baggage," Grant told IndustryGamers. "Being in a place where I'm covering something that's going from being pop culture to being mainstream, I think it's an incredibly exciting time right now," added Crecente. "I think that anybody who covers this industry has the chance to be like the writers of Rolling Stone back when music was rock and roll and the other forms of music were blowing up. It's hard for me to turn my back on that."
27374844
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Angry Birds has turned into a global phenomenon with over 500 million downloads on mobile devices, but is Rovio's success with the hit title going to last? Henk Rogers, manager of The Tetris Company, says no. Referring to Tetris' longevity by comparison, he commented, "Again I like to compare it to a sport, in the beginning it's an activity, like golf was an activity, then it became a sport. I think once people have played it more than 20 or 25 years you can say it's here to stay, it's a sport, it's no longer a fad. Angry Birds is cute and everybody plays it for a while but they get burned out and move on and they will play another game." Ultimately, Rogers believes Angry Birds will fade away, so he'd "rather have the goose that lays the golden egg."
27350826
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Amazon's entry into the tablets market has gone probably even better than they expected. And now the Kindle Fire is quickly becoming a viable games platform. Developers have come out in force to lavish praise on the Fire for its price and ease of use. “People are fired up about Fire because they know it's part of a service they already use and trust,” said Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo. “It becomes effortless to buy and use because it does not make them break their usual buying patterns. It enhances it.” Added Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky: “In many ways, the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device. Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android."
27012162
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Xbox 360 just came off a record November, with more than 1.7 million units sold in the US, but behind closed doors Microsoft is planning its next move for the successor to the popular console. Plenty of Xbox 720 rumors have surfaced in recent months, but veteran games journalist Chris Morris has filtered through them to provide a realistic take on what Microsoft should and shouldn't do with Xbox 360's successor. In particular, he notes that Microsoft should adopt the Blu-ray format from Sony. "A DVD drive as a medium for storing larger and larger games is outdated – and it steps on the toes of a system that bills itself as the high definition leader," Morris writes. "Microsoft resisted the move to Blu-ray this generation without any ill effects. It even survived picking the losing side in the format battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but it can't rely on the DVD to take it into the next generation."
26558952
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Video game consoles today are facing increasing pressure from other platforms, like smartphones, tablets and browser or social gaming on the PC. On top of that, they've become prohibitively expensive to manufacture. Can the dedicated console really survive? Richard Garriott, veteran designer behind Ultima, says no. "I think we might get one more generation, might, but I think fundamentally they're doomed," he told IndustryGamers. "I think fundamentally the power that you can carry with you in a portable is really swamping what we've thought of as a console."
26427150
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Scientists and psychologists have been saying for some time now that violent games can make males more aggressive — and now they may have found a reason. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have found that prolonged exposure to violent video games does indeed alter brain patterns, enough to create a discernible difference in the regions of the brain controlling anger and emotion. Yang Wang, M.D., assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis commented, "These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning."
25931690
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
More research into gaming has found a direct correlation between gaming time and the size of brain directly attributed to feelings of reward and satisfaction. The new study, conducted by Ghent University in Belgium, was able to determine that frequent gamers essentially have the same sense of reward as those who are pathological gamblers. The test specifically looked at the left ventral striatum, which is directly responsible for dopamine dispersion, and is commonly referred to as the ‘brain’s reward center.’
25851486
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Sure, Mario may be known to most, but how many people actually know about Skyrim or Uncharted 3? Games have come incredibly far, but they're still not recognized on the same level as many movies. That's likely to change soon though, if you ask online games maker Nexon. Won ll Sue, vice president of business development at Nexon, commented to IndustryGamers: "The game industry is much bigger than the box office industry but it’s not relatively mainstream like movies because games still cater to a relatively core audience. Give us five years and I think as many people will know about the gaming as they do about who made the latest movies."
25607886
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Nintendo is preparing to lose money at the end of its fiscal year for the first time in company history, and with the Wii in decline and 3DS seeing a tepid reception, investors are getting anxious. Some are beginning to question Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata's leadership, notes veteran games journalist Chris Morris. That said, as one analyst pointed out, the problem Nintendo is facing may stem from a company-wide stance, not just Iwata's vision. "I don't think Iwata's the problem," said analyst John Taylor of Arcadia. "The problem is that Nintendo looks like it's going to the well one too many times."
25305560
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Call of Duty has managed to break entertainment sales records for two consecutive years. Can Activision do it yet again next week when Modern Warfare 3 launches? Absolutely, says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will likely be the year’s top-selling game," the analyst told IndustryGamers. Pachter anticipates sales of $1.1 billion for the title in its first six weeks, which would put it 10% ahead of the pace of last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops. Overall, Pachter anticipates unit sales of at least 25 million.
25005218
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
The rise of smartphones and tablets has been impressive to watch and its impact on gaming has been undeniable. Already, some game industry veterans are questioning the need for dedicated handhelds, but what about consoles? Could mobile effectively replace those? Quinn Dunki of developer One Girl, One Laptop Productions believes so. "I think mobile development is the future of game development. The audience is gigantic, and the devices keep getting more powerful—especially tablets: Once wireless streaming HDMI becomes standard, there’s no reason they won’t replace the living room console," she said.
24965422
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
IndustryGamers reports on the University of California's Santa Cruz campus' Research Review Day last week, which examined the future of gaming and how today's young designers are building innovative new systems to revolutionize the industry. For example, what if a player is providing input to a procedural content generator, rather than a designer? Levels could be generated automatically based on the player's actions. In other words, the player would have infinite content. Associate Professor Michael Mateas wants to elevate games even further: “Games are mostly graphics with movement and collision detection.What about representing human nature? What are the equivalent of graphics for relationships and interaction?” Mateas wants to create "procedural everything,” and envisions systems to generate content, the equivalent of physics engines for characters, interaction, and stories.
24865500
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
With the rise of cheap and free-to-play games on smartphones, tablets and social networks, you might be inclined to think that $60 video games would be going the way of the dinosaur. Not so, says John Earner, GM of EA Playfish London, makers of The Sims Social on Facebook. "I don’t think that the $60 paid game is going to go away," Earner commented to IndustryGamers. "I think if you make a great first person shooter or a great role playing game, that there’s going to be an audience of millions of people who are probably going to be males, just as they are today, who are going to want a really high definition experience that’s very engrossing and the best way to monetize it is going to continue to be upfront payment." Earner goes on to acknowledge that the $60 market will get smaller as the overall video game pie grows and the audience becomes more diverse.
24815330
submission
donniebaseball23 writes:
Motion-based games have been shown before to help people with disabilities, and now serious games developer Red Hill Studios has taken this a step further by collaborating with the UCSF School of Nursing to develop specific physical therapy games that can help people with Parkinson's disease improve their gait and balance. The clinical team members at UCSF focused on specific body movements and gestures that their previous research had shown to be beneficial for staving off the physical declines of Parkinson's, and the results ended up being quite positive, as over half of the subjects in the three-month research project showed small improvements in walking speed, balance and stride length.
