Today, Apple has announced that their App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch has exceeded over 100,000 applications. That number obviously makes both units the largest selection of applications for any platform, and there isn’t a sign of slowdown either. “The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve,” said Travis Boatman, VP of EA Mobile. “With a global reach of over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, the App Store has allowed us to develop high quality EA games that have been a huge success with customers.”
It’s hard to argue that Apple won’t be a serious gaming machine in the next year or two. Sure, hardcore gamers argue that both devices will never achieve that goal, Mainly because they hate the control scheme on the unit, but the numbers are starting to prove otherwise. Even companies like Rockstar Games, who are releasing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Apple’s phone and Touch, sees the potential of the portable units. Having them release a flagship title like GTA on the iPhone and iPod, makes me believe they’ll be doing even more with the device. If it proves to be successful, expect to see even more companies jump onboard with Apple and developed well-known franchises, that even the hardcore gamer would download.
Today, Apple has announced that their App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch has exceeded over 100,000 applications. That number obviously makes both units the largest selection of applications for any platform, and there isn’t a sign of slowdown either. “The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve,” said Travis Boatman, VP of EA Mobile. “With a global reach of over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, the App Store has allowed us to develop high quality EA games that have been a huge success with customers.”
It’s hard to argue that Apple won’t be a serious gaming machine in the next year or two. Sure, hardcore gamers argue that both devices will never achieve that goal, Mainly because they hate the control scheme on the unit, but the numbers are starting to prove otherwise. Even companies like Rockstar Games, who are releasing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Apple’s phone and touch units, sees the potential of the portable units. Having them release a flagship title like GTA on the iPhone and iPod, makes me believe they’ll be doing even more with the devices. If it proves to be successful, expect to see even more companies jump onboard with Apple and developed well-known franchises, that even the hardcore gamer would download.
Earthworm Jim is officially ready to make a comeback. Gameloft has inked a deal with Interplay, the original developers of the classic 16-bit game, to bring Earthworm Jim to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare and mobile phones. When the sidescroller debuted on both the SNES and Genesis, it quickly became a smash hit and even spawned a sequel and a few spin-offs. However, there hasn’t been a new game since 1999.
“We are delighted to partner with Interplay to bring Earthworm Jim to multiple downloadable platforms,” said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president, Gameloft. “The game, with its humorous and edgy style, is a great fit for today’s gamer who craves a fully immersive experience that is fun and easily accessible. We look forward to delivering a fantastic game.”
The new deal is a bit vague. A press release was sent out, but it made it sound like both companies are planning to bring out the original, and not new installments. If this is true, hopefully the title sells well enough to warrant a brand new incarnation of Earthworm.
Basically, if it ends up being the first Earthworm Jim and you want a new story — make sure you purchase the download. And hopefully we will finally see a new adventure featuring your favorite invertebrate.
When I think augmented reality videogames, I think about walking around a real world environment but interacting with computer visuals. For the most part, I’m pretty sure most people think closely to the way I do.
A group of programmers over at Georgia Tech have done something a tad different and developed a cool idea for an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones. Although the title has rather basic gameplay mechanics, the team has created something which definitely has potential in the industry.
I’m sure most people have seen some sort of viral campaign for either movies or even videogames, where you hold up a piece of paper in front of a computer webcam. Once you do that, a 3D graphical image appears on the computer display. The technology used for those things, is the basic idea that the Georgia Tech team did with their game called ‘ARhrrrr.’ Although this game is much more interactive.
The story is rather simple. Civilians are trapped inside a small town square, where a zombie invasion has begun. It’s up to the player to shoot and kill the undead, who are terrorizing the town square. The way you do this, is by lying a special paper with images on it, which made for the game, flat on a table. You then grab your camera-phone, and simply point the lens towards the paper and it’ll reveal an interactive 3D world. By moving the phone around the paper, it’ll seem like your flying inside a helicopter overhead the town in a 3D landscape. From there you’ll see swarms of zombies trying to attack people, and its your job to shoot them down by aiming your phone towards an enemy. Pretty awesome stuff.
Living on the west coast, I really have taken for granted the amount of conventions dedicated to videogames. This side of the country represents some of the biggest and well-known expos in the world like: E3, GDC and even PAX. These shows have thousands of attendees each year, and they seem to grow year-in and year-out. However, for me it wasn’t always easy to access a gaming show.
You see, I grew up in the Boston area, where the local government is trying to lure videogames publishers and expand to the Bay State. Just recently, Penny Arcade announced they will be extend their PAX show to two times a year and one of them will be on the east coast, and Boston is the lucky city to host the show. In a way you can say it was the first major confirmation that Boston is trying to be a focal point for the videogame industry.
While PAX is certainly a welcoming sign that New England could bank on a never-ending industry, the show won’t be the first to entice thousands of gamers to visit the Bay State.
A few years ago, the largest Ebay videogame seller opened an independent game store in Framingham, MA; a suburb just west of Boston. The store, called Game Universe, sells everything from retro gaming machines like the original Atari 2600 and goes all the way to this newest generation. While the concept alone is worth visiting, the store’s owners wanted to make sure their customers also had an incredible experience when they came to explored the outlet as well.
They decided to attach six 50″ plasma screens on the walls around the store and even added 5.1 surround sound to some of them. Each display was capable of playing anything, so if you wanted to experience E.T. on the Atari alone before your friends who were supposed to met you but are running late to play a little Gears of War — it could be done.
Word got around fast and customers started to come into the store just to play games. Management thought it would be a great idea to start-up tournaments, in hopes it would lure even more customers. The theory ended up being successful; the owners had to purchase another eight smaller screens because of the high demand of customers entering exclusively for LAN tournament play.
Over the course of three years, the store has earned some great creditability; they even saw players as far as California come to participate in their gaming tournament. They noticed that gaming tournaments were not just some fad and if done right, could actually be held inside a convention. That is exactly what they are planning as I write.
“We have spent the last three years building our local reputation for running pro-level tournaments at Game Universe in Framingham, MA,” said James Jewett co-executive director. “We got to the point where we outgrew our venue so we decided take on a larger event.”
Game Universe has just recently revealed a gaming convention called GameUniCon and will take place at the 20,000 square footBest Western Royal Plaza in Marlborough, MA. Get this, when the convention opens its doors on August 21st, they won’t close until three days later on the 23rd. That’s right, show organizers have confirmed it will be 24-hours long, and never close until the final day.
After the jump, read more about this newly announced convention. (more…)
In February, we told you about how Penn & Teller were going to dedicate a full episode about video games on ‘Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.’ We found out that the episode would try to disprove that videogames were harmful to children. It was also said that everyone’s favorite disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson, would be interviewed on the show and obviously speak out against the gaming industry. A promo trailer was released and it shows Jacko speak briefly and says:
“Grand Theft Auto is the worst assault on children since polio.”
Up top is a promo for season 7, and I guess it’s NSFW because Penn says “Bullshit” several times.
Here is a quick note about Apple’s phone. The iPhone 3.0 update has just gone live. For us gamers, the new software upgrade will give access to developers to create games that can be played online. It will also allow gamers to purchase in-game content, which is essentially known asdownloadable content.
The update is roughly 300MB and for me, it only took about 15 minutes to download and install. Although, expect that number to increase as more people find out they can download it.
‘3.0′ is also available to iPod Touch owners as well, unfortunately they will have to pay a $9.95 to upgrade their device.
We already knew that id Software was bringing their Doom franchise to the iPhone. I suspected it would have been like the Wolfenstein incarnation, where the company developed a great port of the original game, but made it work perfect on the phone. Because of that, I was set to download it as soon as it is was released.
Things have changed a little bit for the mobile first-person shooter and it has turned for the better. Escalation Studios has been working closely with the creator of Doom John Carmack, and they are developing something that follows the events of Doom 3 and not the original classic game. Meaning, this will be a complete new title, and not some remake.
Titled Doom Resurrection, the game is visually inspired by Doom 3, however, it still maintains the classic doom feel, unlike the third installment which came out in 2004.
The controls will also have a overhaul. The game will use both the touch screen and the accelerometer. From what it looks like, players will aim their gun by slightly moving the phone in any direction, while they run and strife by using the touch display.
If you are curious about the game, you won’t have to wait much longer. According to Venturebeat, we should expect to see Doom Resurrection sometime next week.
The latest trailer for the latest game in theNeed for Speed franchise, Need for Speed SHIFT, was released this week at E3. The game being developed by Slightly Mad Studios, is a ’shift’ from the Need for Speed games that you know and love. EA marketing boss Keith Munro told Eurogamer,
The urban underground was a manifestation of style in some past Need for Speed games for sure, but Shift focuses less on these style cues and more on mirroring the driver experience, that athleticism of being in a wickedly-intense race, and what it really feels like to be behind the wheel
The goal of Need for Speed: SHIFT was to be much more like Gran Turismo, to move away from the exagerated driving and try to become as real as possible. One of the major features of the game according to the official description and a representative at E3 is the first-person cockpit view,
Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.
Slightly Mad Studios did not do a bad job with this game, it works well, but it just isn’t Need for Speed. And for my money I would rather buy a game like Project Gotham Racing, Forza, or Gran Turismo. There is a point where a game can become too real. In Need for Speed: SHIFT, when you crash, depending on the severity of the crash a few things will happen. If you are in a light crash your view will turn black and white, and if it is a larger crash your vision will become blurry. This is just annoying and makes it difficult to recover from a crash. Now this wont be a problem for players that are good, but for those casual gamers that just like to go as fast as they can and bump into other cars and walls this game will not be fun.
Again this is not a bad game, it just is not the game that is going to revamp the Need for Speed franchise.
Do you remember that iPod killer thing that was manufactured by Microsoft, called Zune? Yeah, it certainly didn’t touch the iPod in terms of sales, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from retrying once again.
The company has just announced a new, sleeker version, now dubbed Zune HD. Obviously by adding the “H” & the “D” to the end of the name, they hope that will help people realize this is a high-tech device. Although, the features suggest it’s trying to be an iPhone, but without the phone part — so I guess its just an iPod touch.
This new version is going to have a few new elements, when compared to the older version. The biggest difference this time around is the touchscreen, which is something most handhelds will include in the future. I’m guessing Microsoft plans on including some kind of app-store, where games will be made available to owners for download. In the same press release, the company mentioned how they plan on integrating Xbox Live to the unit, but didn’t go into any other details.
However, they did mention how more information will become available at E3, next week. That alone tells me Microsoft plans on bringing some kind of mobile gaming to the Zune. Remember, E3 is for the most part — a video game convention.
I might even have more evidence to support this theory. Last month, Microsoft posted a classified ad on Careerbuilder.com. The posting was trying to find a suitable applicant to bring the Halo world to mobile devices. Could this Hale mobile device application be for the Zune HD? Maybe. If this is the case, what a great move on Microsoft’s part because that is something they have, that Apple doesn’t — first-party games. Of course, this is nothing but speculation.
Some other features the Zune HD offers include:
*HD Radio
*HD Video Output (720p)
*Wifi
*Accelerometer
*OLED Display
*480 x 272 Resolution
Microsoft expects the Zune HD to come out this fall, just in time for the holidays. However, I wouldn’t start thinking this is also going to be an iPhone killer too, and for a number of reasons. One, it is not a phone and two, it doesn’t really do anything innovative but copy many of the iPhone’s features. Also, Apple should be announcing the successor of their second generation phones, and I’m pretty sure it will update many features, as well include new and original ones.
After the jump, check out the full press release. (more…)
What is surly going to be a blockbuster and easily one of my most anticipated movies of 2009, is going to have a video game adaption. Amaze Entertainment, who is known to develop big budget movie based-games, has announced on their website that they are developing a video game based off the film ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. The film is directed by the talented Spike Jones (Being John Malkovich).
According to Amaze, the game will be released on “all console platforms,” which most likley means the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. I’m also guessing we’ll see it on at least one of the handhelds, along with the PS2.
Just like the children’s book with the same name, Where the Wild Things Are will follow a young boy named Max. While having a fight with his mother, Max is sent to his room with dinner. While bored inside his room, Max notices his room starts to turn into a forest wildly, which comes from his imagination. He then encounters large frighting monsters, but befriends them “by staring into their yellow eyes without blinking once”.
No word yet when the game will be release, but it is a safe bet it will be shipped around the same time the film hits theaters, which is on October 16, 2009.
Even though most have sucked, Hollywood has been going ‘gaga’ over film adaptions from video games. To be honest, I personally feel we have yet to see a decent one, although the movies down the line are looking like they have potential. Word has it, the Prince of Persia flick is appearing like a great summer blockbuster, and Gore Verbinski directing BioShock gets me all tingly inside. Even with the future being bright, there are a ton of video games that could easily be a translated into a movie.
A Japanese online polling website, called Secret Survey, asked 5,000 users which video games they would like see turned into a film. Below are the top ten games they feel should be on the silver-screen.
10. Grand Theft Auto 9.The Portopia Serial Murder Case 8.Ace Attorney 7.MOTHER (”Earthbound”) 6.The Legend of Zelda 5.Spelunker 4. Tetris 3.Metal Gear 2.Takeshi’s Challenge 1.Dragon Quest
While I agree with most on the list, I have a problem with one, a Tetris movie would be just ridiculous, even with the ultra-cool fan made fake trailer. Out of everything on the list, the one I would die to see most would be a Legend of Zelda film. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be the only, either. Followed by that, would have to be Metal Gear — although I hope that version would make some sense.
Is Microsoft planning on bringing their ultra-popular Halo franchise to the mobile phones? Well, according to a careerbuilder classified ad, they just might be thinking that. The posting is looking for a software development engineer to “deliver a great out-of-game interactive experience that takes the next step beyond the systems found in Halo 3.” The add also wrote that the developer will design and deliver “code for services supporting community applications and game titles.” As well as “building user-facing on-console features such as forums, tournament ladders, media libraries, and integrated mini-games.”
The job description also mentioned what Microsoft plans on doing, it read: “We’re looking to blend console, web, and mobile to create an immersive Halo world that follows the dedicated Halo fan wherever they go. We need engineers that can build connected technology while working in a startup environment.”
We want to make sure you know that this does not mean a Halo game is in the works. The only thing we know is that Microsoft plans on bringing some kind of Halo community aspect to mobile phones. Which could be as simple as seeing your progress by using your phone or something to that nature. Sadly, to me, that’s what it kinda seems like.
Who are ya gonna call? Well, no one because you’re using your iPhone to play a game. Sony Pictures Television announced today in a press release, that an iPhone version of Ghostbusters‘ game is being developed. According to the document, the title should be in the App Store in June, which is the same time as the console versions and the Blu-ray of the 1985 film are released
Although, there isn’t a description of how the game will operate, I would hope that the team working on Ghostbusters would include some of the cool features the iPhone has built-in it. Namely, I wouldn’t mind seeing the studio take advantage of accelerometer to cross the streams and ending “life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.” Ya, that would be fraking awesome!
Sadly, I get the feeling the iPhone version is just a DS port.
I love Mega Man II and I love my iPhone, having them together would be like a little taste of heaven for me. The ability to to take out my phone and play one of the greatest games of all time, anytime, sounds perfect. Well, the ‘ability’ to do that has happened, but just like some people say, “be careful what you wish for.”
If you log on to the App Store right now and search for Mega Man, you’ll find the first sequel just waiting to be downloaded. For only $4.99, the retro game can be yours and will only take up 13.2 MB of space. I almost purchased the game, until I saw the screenshot (above) and read some of the user-reviews. First, the best thing people had to say about the game was how good it looked. Graphically, the port looks identical to the NES classic. Sadly, that was about the only positive thing that was written.
The biggest complaint was the controls. “I was really excited to see this, but… I’m sorry, the controls are terrible,” wrote Dr. Tails. Mizzou2 agreed, “The Controls are AWFUL, nearly unplayable. I hope this can be fixed.” And even more bad stuff was written, “This Version of Megaman 2 has terrible controls,” wrote Blueblur.
Checking out the screenshot above, it is hard disagree. Why on earth would Capcom only use a small portion of the phone’s screen for gameplay. On top of that, the touch screen ‘buttons’ look hideous. Why would they even draw a joystick to move Mega-Man!? Just looking at these pictures make it seem like horrible game design.
I guess for now, I’ll stick with the Wolfenstein 3D port for my iPhone.
Apparently, Japanese gamers are decreasing in the Land of the Rising Sun. This comes from a recent poll, which was conducted by Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association. The association asked over a thousand people living in Japan, aged between 3-78 year’s old, about video games. They wanted to know why the excitement for video gaming has declined and why some decided not to play at all.
About 29% said they frequently play games on a regularly basis and use their home consoles to do so. The most common answer for the people who said that they didn’t play video games was; “I’m not interested in video games.” That’s simple enough, I guess.
Oddly enough, between 2007 and 2008, people in Japan that considered themselves gamers dropped about 30%. If these numbers hold up to be true, and you compare to the overall population in Japan, the country has lost approximately 6 million gamers in one year. These statistics to us, seem highly unlikely. Of course, we’re not actual expert poll people — so you never know.
via: Kotaku
