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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 17 declined, 18 accepted (35 total, 51.43% accepted)

Submission + - George Lucas criticises The Force Awakens (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: While many critics have responded positively to JJ Abrams's take on Star Wars, one particular industry figure seems rather less impressed. George Lucas has criticised the "retro" tone of The Force Awakens and lamented his own lack of involvement in it. Speaking to television talk-show host and journalist Charlie Rose, Lucas quipped that he had sold his “kids to the white slavers that take these things”.

Submission + - Fallout 4 release raises questions about reviews of buggy games (kotaku.com)

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: Fallout 4, the latest instalment in the long-running video-game series and one of the most hyped titles of the year, was released on 10 November. The game has generally been reviewing well, currently holding a Metacritic score of 89. However, a number of reviewers have noted the very large number of bugs present in all versions of the game and have, in some cases, reflected on the difficulty that these pose for reviewers, despite still awarding positive overall write-ups. Can it be ethical to recommend a product to consumers on the basis of its strengths, despite knowing that it contains serious faults?

Submission + - Nintendo names Tatsumi Kimishima as new CEO

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: Following the death of Satoru Iwata in July, Nintendo has announced the appointment of Tatsumi Kimishima as its new CEO. The 65 year old Mr. Kimishima has been serving as Nintendo's human resources director, following a previous stint as the CEO of Nintendo of America and earlier work on the management of the Pokémon franchise. Kimishima takes up post at a time of considerable change for Nintendo, with the company beginning a tentative step into the mobile games market and preparing for the launch of a new console, codenamed "NX", in 2016.

Submission + - Ubisoft revokes digital keys for games purchased via unauthorised retailers (eurogamer.net)

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: For the last several days, some users of Ubisoft's uPlay system have been complaining that copies of games they purchased have been revoked from their libraries. According to a statement issued to a number of gaming websites, Ubisoft believes that the digital keys revoked have been "fraudulently obtained". What this means in practice is unclear; while some of the keys may have been obtained using stolen credit card details, others appear to have been purchased from unofficial third-party resellers, who often undercut official stores by purchasing cheaper boxed retail copies of games and selling their key-codes online, or by exploiting regional price differences, buying codes in regions where games are cheaper to sell them elsewhere in the world. The latest round of revocations appears to have triggered an overdue debate into the fragility of customer rights in respect of digital games stores.

Submission + - Assassin's Creed: Unity launch debacle pulls spotlight onto game review embargoe (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: The latest entry in the long-running Assassin's Creed game series, Assassin's Creed: Unity released this week. Those looking for pre-release reviews on whether to make a purchase were out of luck; the publisher, Ubisoft, had provided gaming sites with advance copies, but only on condition that their reviews be withheld until 17 hours after the game released in North America. Following the game's release, many players have reported finding it in a highly buggy state, with severe performance issues affecting all three release platforms (PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One). Ubisoft has been forced onto the defensive, taking the unprecedented step of launching a live-blog covering their efforts at debugging the game, but the debacle has already had a large impact on the company's share value and the incident has drawn widespread attention to the increasingly common practice of review embargoes.

Submission + - Lucasfilm announced break with Star Wars Expanded Universe (starwars.com)

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: A recent blog post from Lucasarts had confirmed that the new Star Wars movies planned for release by Disney will formally break continuity with the Expanded Universe novels, comics and video games.

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.

The news is unlikely to be a surprise, given George Lucas's previous pronouncements on the issue.

Submission + - South Park game censored on consoles outside North America

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: South Park has long been vocal in its opposition to media censorship from any source, launching scathing attacks on everything from "think of the children" moral crusades to the censorship of religious imagery. In a curious twist, therefore, Ubisoft, the publisher of the upcoming video game "South Park: The Stick of Truth" has decided to censor certain scenes from the game's Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions from release in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. American versions, as well as the European PC release, so far appear to have escaped the censor's pen.

Submission + - Ouya developers share their experiences (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: Four months after the launch of the Ouya micro-console, Gamasutra has pulled together a round up of the experiences of indie developers who have brought their games to the platform. There's both positive and negative news; developers seem to like the ease of porting to the platform, but have concerns regarding the approach that its marketplace takes. Perhaps most crucially, sales of games on the platform are far from stellar.
Businesses

Submission + - Ubisoft ditches always-online DRM requirement from PC games (rockpapershotgun.com)

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "In an interview with gaming site Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Ubisoft has announced that it will no longer use DRM for its PC games that requires the player to be online and connected to its servers at all times, even when playing single-player content. This represents a reversal of Ubisoft's long-standing insistence that such DRM was essential if the company were to be profitable in the PC gaming market. Curiously, Ubisoft is still at pains to remind gamers that they will need an internet connection if they wish to play its games over the internet — a restriction that is perhaps not entirely unexpected."
Businesses

Submission + - Sony closes WipEout developer Studio Liverpool (eurogamer.net)

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "Eurogamer is reporting that Sony has closed its subsidiary developer Studio Liverpool. Beginning its life in 1984 under the name Psygonis, the development house has played an important role in the history of computer and video gaming, publishing classics such as the Lemmings series. Since its acquisition by Sony in 1993, the studio has been best known for its work on the WipEout franchise, which helped to establish the Playstation console as a successful brand. Sony's statements indicate that it will seek to find positions for staff in its other development houses, but that some redundancies will be necessary."
Businesses

Submission + - UK's largest specialist video games retailer enters administration (mcvuk.com)

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "The GAME Group, owners of high street chains GAME and Gamestation, which between them account for a large majority of the UK's specialist games retail market have entered into administration. In the hours following the Group's entry into administration, hundreds of stores were closed and thousands of staff made redundant.

While some of the factors behind the Group's downfall, such as stores located too close to each other and overly-ambitious international expansion, were likely unique to the UK-based company, other factors, such as price competition from supermarkets and online retailers, as well as a reliance on a fickle pre-owned games market, may have wider application."
AMD

Submission + - Sony ditching Cell architecture for next Playstation? (kotaku.com)

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "According to reports on Kotaku, Sony is planning to ditch the Cell processor that powered the Playstation 3 and may be planning to power the console's successor using a more conventional PC-like architecture provided by AMD. In the PS3's early years, Sony were keen to promote the benefits of its Cell processor, but the console's complicated architecture led to many studios complaining that it was difficult to develop for."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - PS3 Counter-Strike to support keyboard and mouse (eurogamer.net) 1

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "Eurogamer reports some encouraging news for console-bound fans of online shooters. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the new stand-alone version of the wildly successful Half-Life mod recently announced by Valve, will support mouse and keyboard controls on the Playstation 3. This isn't entirely unprecedented; 2007's Unreal Tournament 3 had a similar feature, but the idea has never gained momentum. If the idea of allowing PC-style controls on a console does catch on, could this help remove some of the stigma associated with first person shooters on consoles?"
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - EA bans gamer from Dragon Age 2 over forum post (kotaku.com)

Submitted by
RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: "Kotaku is reporting that a gamer banned from Bioware's forums for an allegedly inflamatory post has been locked out of the (singleplayer only) game for the duration of the ban. This is a consequence of EA's backend systems, which link forum accounts to the accounts that players use to access their games. This would appear to be a worrying new development; while trolling forums has led to bans from massively multiplayer games in the past (arguably with some justification), the extension of the principle to singleplayer games, where an abusive player cannot affect the enjoyment of others, must surely be a step too far."
Businesses

Submission + - UK games retailers threaten boycott of Steam games

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes: Games industry trade site MCV is reporting that two major UK video games retailers are threatening to ban Steam-enabled PC games from their stores. The as-yet-unnamed retailers are apparently concerned that by selling Steam games, they are pointing their customers towards a competitor and will by trying to bring pressure upon publishers to strip Steam functionality from their games. This could prove an interesting test of where the real power lies at the retail end of PC gaming.

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