Pac-Man TV Show As ‘Human Interest Story’

Avi Arad is working on a number of video game projects, though he was most eager to talk about Pac-Man during E3. While Pac-Man appeared in a jovial animated cartoon during the ’80s, this one he expects to have computer animation and stereoscopic 3D and change the character up even more.

“We wanted to keep Pac-Man the same lovable guy he has always been, but (put him) in the 21st century,” Arad said. “We (also) wanted to talk about real stories and see how they can relate to our lives, being in high school and being a teenager. At the end of the day, it’s the story of a reluctant hero.”

The plot description talks about ghosts taking over Pac-Man’s world, and it’s up to a high-school going Pac-Man to save the world with his Pac-friends and four friendly ghosts: Pinky, Inky, Blinky and Clyde. The first trailer was shown off at E3 for Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary; no studios or distributors have been approached with the idea.

“We feel we have a unique opportunity to have an action adventure, human interest story,” Arad said. “As a filmmaker, it’s a unique opportunity to get to know the characters you play. We don’t know what happened to Pac-Man’s parents. He’s the only yellow one in Pac-Land; what does that mean Is it a social statement We’ll find out.”

Source: Variety

iPhone 4 Anticipation Raises Stock Prices

Apple has one of the few problems that companies would like to have: too much demand for their products. After news came out that Apple’s initial pre-order of 600,000 units for the iPhone 4 sold through with lightning quickness, analysts were scrambling to adjust their sales recommendations.

“Given the size of the iPhone 4 pre-order and our analysis of the expected upgrade cycle, particularly the remaining 3G users, we believe the full launch weekend of June 24-27 is shaping up to potentially be a two million – three million iPhone event,” writes Susquehanna Financial’s Jeff Fidacaro.

Apple’s stock reached a new high of $274.02.

Source: Fortune {link no longer active}

Former Sony Executive Says PSP2 Needed For Sony ‘To Stay In The Game’

Nintendo had a very good showing at E3, mostly due to the 3DS. David Reeves, former SCEE chief and now COO of Capcom Europe, was incredibly impressed with the device and its capabilities.

“It’s an exciting time and you could possibly have two handhelds coming out within months or a year of each other,” said Reeves.

When asked if he expects a PSP successor from Sony in the next year, he responded, “I’d like to the think it would be for the publishers and developers and consumers. Sony tried to make the transition with PSPgo, I think that changed some consumers attitudes, but they need to come back with something on PSP pretty quickly to stay in the game because Nintendo are s*** hot at getting these things right. And they always get these things right.”

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

HTC EVO 4G White At Best Buy

Best Buy has announced that it will exclusively carry the launch of the HTC EVO 4G from Sprint in white. The company is taking pre-orders for the white version of the first 4G phone in America for release on July 11.

“We know that people turn to Best Buy for the latest consumer electronics, and now with our ability to exclusively debut great smartphones like the white version of HTC EVO 4G, they are turning to us for the best smartphones as well,” said Jude Buckley, chief merchant and marketing officer for Best Buy Mobile. “We are proud to help HTC and Sprint bring such a unique, fashionable and versatile mobile phone to consumers. It is a true connectivity device and exclusively launching this product affirms the position Best Buy Mobile has taken as a preferred destination for smartphones.”

The HTC EVO 4G will retail for $199.99 for a new or eligible upgrade with a new two-year agreement on select plan with Premium Data add-on.

Nintendo CEO Says, ‘3D Will Become The Mainstream Of Gaming’

Sony is clearly behind 3D for the PS3, and Nintendo is obviously bullish on the display technology too with the 3DS. When it comes to having 3D in their next consoles, however, Nintendo is certainly keeping an open mind.

“If you display a 3D image, the image quality becomes extremely bad, so we’d probably do it with the next system,” said Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. “We’re thinking that the timing should be once the 3D television adoption rates crosses the 30 percent mark. We’re looking at the adoption trends.”

When asked if Nintendo was responding to the increasing popularity of 3D products, Iwata responded, “Absolutely not. Nintendo had an eye the charms of immersive 3D for games and released a 3D game machine 15 years ago [the Virtual Boy], but the technology was not ready. After that, we looked for a chance, and decided two years back that we finally had the technology and parts to make a satisfying product.”

Iwata was very bullish on 3D’s potential and enhancement for games. “In 3D, it’s easier to get a sense for position. In a game where the stages extend into the screen, it’s surprisingly easier to control [compared to non 3D]. This is functionality for making games more pleasant to play, not just for show. It allows us to realize images that are close to what you see in your daily life. In the future, 3D will become the mainstream of gaming.”

Source: Andriasang  {link no longer active}

AT&T Security Breach Possibly Caused By ‘Session Exhaustion’

As is becoming all too common, yet another embarrassing security breach has happened to AT&T. This time, some trying to order the new iPhone 4 found themselves logged into the accounts of other users.

Apparently the reason for this huge security breakdown could have been caused by “session exhaustion from so many people logging into AT&T’s site. “I’ve seen similar behavior across different websites over the years, particularly among those under extreme application load to the point where the site is barely reachable,” said Jeremiah Grossman, a Web security researcher and chief technology officer of WhiteHat Security.

“Unfortunately — even amazingly — web browsers aren’t really designed to do session management well.  Developers have to bolt session support in, and more often than not, there are issues. The web application for the iPhone preorder page probably worked fine with small numbers of users. But at the scale we saw the other day, the bolted on session management fell over, causing the issues seen,” said Dan Kaminsky, the security researcher. “A sedan is designed for driving on the highway, while a 4×4 is designed for off roading.  That doesn’t mean you can’t take the sedan off-roading…but it’s going to have some issues.”

Source: Forbes

Thatgamecompany Goes On Journey

Thatgamecompany, known for visually stimulating and atmospheric titles fl0w and Flower, have unveiled their latest game. Journey is reportedly going to be multiplayer and challenge typical gaming conventions when it releases sometime in 2011 for PS3, though the initial reports came out earlier than planned.

“Our new PSN title ‘Journey’ is leaked a bit early,” said thatgamecompany co-founder and creative director Jenova Chen. “They released the material two days before we make the official presentation at E3.”

Source: MTV