News
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Yoostar 2 dev claims to use more.
Blitz Games claims to be getting nearly twice as much out of Kinect as everyone else. Those games you see on the shelves today – they’re using barely a third of what the new device can do.
“A lot of the games you’re seeing are using 20 to 30 per cent of what Kinect’s capable of,” Blitz Games’ Steve Stopps remarked to Eurogamer. “What we’re doing is using probably 50 to 60 per cent.
“What most developers are starting to do now is they’re realising that under the hood of what Kinect can do there’s a whole world of potential we’re only really just scratching.”
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Xbox 360 game feeds results into leagues.
A Kinect Sports Facebook app that sorts times set in the main Xbox 360 game into online leagues has been released.
Developed by Rare and Nzime, the Kinect Sports Facebook app uses your Xbox Live gamertag to compare your results with those of friends and randoms in Kinect Sports leagues.
You can join a weekly international league, create your own league and watch videos of your performances uploaded from Kinect Sports.
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Government news site says Activision’s shooter glorifies attempts to kill Fidel Castro.An article on news site Cubadebate claims that Call Of Duty: Black Ops is “doubly perverse” for the way it represents an assassination attempt on former Cuban president Fidel Castro, and for stimulating “sociopathic attitudes in North American children and adolescents."
The controversy stems from a scenario in the game that sees players infiltrate a Cuban stronghold in Havana to try to assassinate a young Fidel Castro.
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“Publishers are creating a monster.”
At least two “major” shops will demand publishers remove Steam functionality from PC games, a new report claims.
If publishers refuse, those retailers will not sell PC games with Steam integration at all.
“Key retailers” fear Valve’s digital service has a “monopoly” on the download market, according to MCV.
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Beats Modern Warfare 2.
Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies in the US and UK combined – in one day. That’s more than Modern Warfare 2’s opening record of 4.7 million copies.
Those sales generated $360 million for Activision. Modern Warfare 2 only made $310 million, scoff.
“There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year’s five-day global sales record of $550 million,” commented Activision’s Bobby Kotick.
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Starbreeze alumni using id Tech 5.
ZeniMax Media – the company that owns Bethesda, id, Arkane and Tango – has bought another studio: MachineGames.
This developer was formed in 2009 by the founders of Starbreeze – the studio behind the Riddick games (Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena) and comic-book conversion The Darkness.
MachineGames is busy making a new game using the impressive id Tech 5 engine. Bethesda Softworks (not Bethesda Game Studios – the developer part) will publish, but for now all details on the project are held back.
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Can you afford Harmonix?
Viacom plans to sell Rock Band and Dance Central developer Harmonix.
No explanation was given in its financial report, but Rock Band 3, released last month, appears to have failed to achieve commercial success.
Official UK sales figures from UKIE revealed Rock Band 3 sold just 7386 units for the week ending 30th October in the UK.
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As beefy patch 1.4 arrives.
Today, PlayStation Home is transformed – big patch 1.4 has arrived. We knew that was coming, but we had no idea multiplayer LittleBigPlanet paintball was on its way.
More accurately, it’s a paintball shooting range called LittleBigPlanet Derby. That’s because the more targets you hit the further your horse-riding Sackboy moves across the screen.
You’re not supposed to play alone but with up to seven other people. It’s all very pretty in a LittleBigPlanet way, and the splattering paint literally adds plenty of colour.
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“Lazy buggers” missed PS3 release.
The Two Worlds II release saga continues: now Euro publisher TopWare/Zuxxez is “hopping mad” with Sony because the PS3 version of the game wasn’t made on time.
Everything was paid upfront, TopWare/Zuxxez CEO Dirk Hassinger explained on the Zuxxez forum (reported by Eurogamer Germany) – but a bunch of “lazy buggers” at Sony meant Tuesday’s European Two Worlds II launch only happened on PC and Xbox 360.
“The PS3 version wasn’t delivered on schedule for release. We can choose our pressing plant for PC and 360, but unfortunately not for PS3. I’d preferably post the email and phone number of the lady responsible at Sony here,” threatened Hassinger. “We’re hopping mad!”
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CEO Kristian Segerstrale says that the next big growth in social games is in connecting with the real world and players’ passions.
Speaking at the Social Gaming Summit at the Chelsea football ground in London today, Segerstrale emphasised that huge change is still coming, even though social gaming has evolved enormously over three years that have elapsed since Facebook launched the Facebook app platform, which allowed thirdparty developers to access its social graph.