Category Archives: Gaming

Microsoft To Shut Down Xbox Entertainment Studios

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By NELLIE ANDREEVA

This morning’s announcement by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella of one of the largest layoffs in tech history, a plan to cut 18,000 jobs, triggered a whirlwind of speculation about the future of the fledgling Xbox Entertainment Studios. In a memo, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division and Microsoft Studios, just confirmed that the company will close the Entertainment Studios in the coming months.

Nancy Tellem, Jordan Levin and some of the XES team will stay on for some time to shepherd original programming already in production, including the documentary series about technology Signal to Noise and the Halo game franchise extensions, digital feature Halo: Nightfall and the Halo TV series, which will continue as planned with Microsoft’s 343 Industries and Amblin. Xbox also will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like ‘NFL on Xbox.’ XBox’s app partnerships are not impacted.

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PLAYSTATION4 sales surpass 7.0 million units worldwide

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PS4 Furthers Global Momentum as Gamers Embrace Its Breakthrough Gameplay and Innovative Sharing Capabilities

Tokyo, April 17, 2014 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system has cumulatively sold through more than 7.0 million units*1 globally as of April 6, 2014 (JST), demonstrating the rapid growth of the PS4 platform.

“The response from the global gaming community for PS4 has been overwhelming and we are truly humbled that gamers are selecting PS4 as their next generation console of choice,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

“The PS4 journey has just begun, and although we are still facing difficulties keeping up with the strong demand worldwide, we remain steadfast in our commitment to meet the needs of our customers, and surpassing the wildest expectations of gamers by delivering new user experiences that inspire and engage. We look forward to unveiling many of these experiences to our fans in the coming months.”

The PS4 system is currently available in 72 countries and regions*7 worldwide.

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Facebook to Acquire Oculus VR for $2 Billion

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Transaction expected to close in Q2 of this year.

by Scott Lowe

Facebook has announced that it will acquire Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift for $2 billion. Announced today, the social networking giant will acquire the Oculus VR for $400 million in cash and 23.1 million in Facebook shares.

“While the applications for virtual reality technology beyond gaming are in their nascent stages, several industries are already experimenting with the technology, and Facebook plans to extend Oculus’ existing advantage in gaming to new verticals, including communications, media and entertainment, education and other areas.” a Facebook press release read. “Given these broad potential applications, virtual reality technology is a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform.”


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How video games are transforming the film industry

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Posted by Steve Boxer

At one time it was the game industry that wanted to emulate films. But now the movie industry is adopting the technology of video games

Amid the debate about television stealing the film industry’s thunder, another entertainment form has crept up unnoticed, further threatening Hollywood’s creative hegemony: video games. With a new, much more powerful generation of games consoles poised to arrive – Microsoft’s Xbox One goes on sale on Friday, with Sony’s PlayStation 4 due a week later – the games companies reckon they finally have the ammunition to shake off the perception that their digital epics are inferior to movies.

I’m in a place that could not reinforce that impression more emphatically: the historic Ealing studios, where classics such as The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers were filmed. But I’m here to experience the process of making a video game called Ryse: Son of Rome, an epic tale charting the Roman conquest of Britain, which will be a launch title for the Xbox One. And the studio is nowadays home to The Imaginarium, an outfit co-founded by Andy Serkis, who – as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings – is perhaps the world’s leading exponent of performance-capture, in which every nuance of an actor’s performance (specifically movement, voice and facial expressions) is recorded and mapped on to a video game character.

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Sony PlayStation 4 review: Welcome to the next generation

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By Sean Hollister, Ross Miller, and David Pierce

Seven years is a technological eternity. Yet the PlayStation 3 has sold well for that long, ever since DJ Fatman Scoop and Ludacris hosted its blowout launch event in New York City in 2006. At launch, the PlayStation 3 was big, heavy, and expensive — it took nearly two revisions and almost a dozen SKUs of PS3 to get Sony to 2013. The console now starts under $200, the controller rumbles, Blu-ray is the dominant physical disc format, backwards compatibility is a moot point, and there’s a large back catalog of titles both physical and digital. PlayStation Move exists now.

But even as the current generation continues to adapt and evolve, Sony has decided it’s time to start anew. Time to do something fresh, to create the console that will sate gamers for seven more years. Sony’s new PlayStation 4 reflects the company’s guess about the future of video games, and displays the many lessons Sony’s learned over the life of the PS3. It’s built a different kind of console for a different sort of purpose as it looks to 2014 and 2021 to see what we’ll want to buy.

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Nintendo Wii production has officially ended

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John Callaham

Today marked the end of one of the most successful game consoles in Nintendo’s history. The Wii, which launched in the fall of 2006 with the funny name and the Wii Remote controller, is no longer being made by the company as it tries to made the transition to the more recent Wii U.

Nintendo’s Japanese website has confirmed it has shut down producing new Wii hardware. Nintendo has shipped just over 100 million units of the Wii since its launch, beating the shipment numbers of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. However, both of those consoles are still in production and in theory they could finally overtake the Wii if sales last long enough.

Nintendo had an early success with the Wii; stores all over the world could not keep up with the demand for the first several months after its launch. This was due in part to its low price (just $249 in the U.S) and the fact that the console, at least in some parts of the world, included Wii Sports as a freebie. The game, which also served as a tutorial on how to use the motion-based Wii Remote, became a critically acclaimed title on its own.

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Apple Could Put the Final Nail in Nintendo’s Coffin

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By Sam Mattera

The last six years have been terrible for Nintendo’s (NASDAQOTH: NTDOY ) shareholders. After peaking in 2007 with a market cap near $85 billion, Nintendo has steadily collapsed and has now lost over 76% of its value over the last five years.

Unfortunately, this could be the beginning of the end for the once iconic video game company. Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) coming entrance into the video game market, a fairly likely possibility, could signal the end of Nintendo.

Nintendo’s business model is becoming obsolete
Ironically enough, Apple and Nintendo have similar business philosophies. Both believe in marrying hardware with software, and maintaining strong control over their devices. Consumers buy Apple devices to get access to their operating systems (iOS, Mac OS); likewise, gamers buy Nintendo’s consoles to play Nintendo’s games.

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Wii U getting price cut September 20

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By Eddie Makuch,

32GB model dropping to $300 effective next month in US and Europe; Wii U Basic model will be phased out; Wind Waker HD bundle revealed.

The Wii U is getting a price cut on September 20.

Nintendo announced today that the struggling system will drop to $300 for the 32GB version in the United States and Europe. The $250 8GB Wii U Basic model will be phased out.

In addition to the price cut, there will be a new Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD Wii U bundle, which will debut on September 20.

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How Nintendo Can Win E3

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By Steve Peterson

Is there really such a thing as ‘winning’ E3? There is the external victory of being the thing most talked about in the mass media, in the game media, and on social media. Those are really three different audiences: The broadest possible audience of anyone who sees, hears or reads news; the audience of gamers who are always interested in game news, and hardcore Nintendo fans. Then there’s victory internally for Nintendo, by whatever standards it chooses to set. Ultimately, it’s the votes cast by consumers in the form of spending that counts.

Nintendo is heading into this E3 in a difficult position. Sales of hardware and software have not been meeting the company’s projections. CEO Satoru Iwata has gone on record that he intends to deliver a billion yen in profits for Nintendo this fiscal year, and implied that he may step down if that’s not achieved. This puts Nintendo in a difficult position for marketing strategy, since any marketing spending has to return a profit within the fiscal year. No long-term brand-building here; Nintendo will be looking for marketing efforts that can produce solid short-term results.


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The Key Split Between Sony’s PS4 And Microsoft’s Next Xbox Is Starting To Emerge

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By Kristin Ambrosino

From the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine, to Elle UK, and now V Magazine, Miley Cyrus has taken her sexy body to great heights.

Cyrus has definitely moved on from her Hannah Montana days, and it is clear to see from her revealing photo shoot for the cover of V Magazine. According to UPI.com, Cyrus showed off her perfect abs, slim legs, and a spikey pink hairdo for renowned photography Mario Testino, who shot her tri-fold cover.

On the inside of V, Cyrus shows off her sculpted backbones. According to US Weekly on one shot on the inside cover, Cyrus sits on the floor in all leather with a crop top that reveals some major underboob. It is clear to see that Cyrus’ look has evolved over the years.

In the magazine, Cyrus also opens up about her speculated relationship with her hoPaul Tassi

For the past console generation, the so-called “rivalry” between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 has been something of an unnecessary feud. Both consoles occupied the exact same space in the video game scene, and often felt like copies of one another. While the Wii was trying to innovate with its motion controls, the 360 and PS3 were firmly fixed on a more traditional evolution of gaming, with regular controllers and better graphics.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. Both systems created great games and most would say ended up being better consoles than the Wii in the end. It’s just that more often than not, they simply seemed redundant. Third party games looked identical across the systems, and really, there were only a handful of truly fantastic exclusive series on either side. It was like trying to choose between Pokemon Red and Blue at a certain point. Two sides of the same coin.


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