According to reports, NBC is working on a video gaming show for prime time television. TJ Allard, a former Ubisoft designer, will head up the show with co-host iAudrey Cleo, a Sony Qore contributor.
The pilot for the new show (working with the title Game On) might premiere as early as next month. The team is apparently working on a pilot that includes interviews from E3 with Kinect’s Kudo Tsunoda and Mortal Kombat‘s Ed Boon.
Source: Joystiq
The reception issues for the iPhone 4 have produced a class action lawsuit. Ward & Ward, PLLC and Charles A. Gilman, LLC have filed the suit on behalf of Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn and other iPhone users in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
The suit mentions both Apple and AT&T. Breach of warranty, deceptive pracices, fraud by concealment and general neglience are all claimed.
Source: Gizmodo
Sony Corporation today announced that some of its Vaio laptops may suffer from overheating problems. The company is providing a downloadable firmware update that they say will prevent the issues in question.
“Recently, we became aware of a potential issue affecting certain units within the Vaio notebook PCs’ F11 and CW2 series,” said Sony. “In rare instances, these notebook computers may overheat due to a potential malfunction of the internal temperature management system, resulting in deformation of the product’s keyboard or external casing, and a potential burn hazard to consumers.”
Over half a million Vaio laptops are believed to be vulnerable to the malfunction.
Source: Economic Times
The BioShock movie, much like the city of Rapture, has been taking on water of late. Despite concerns, producer Gore Verbinski remains optimistic about the project.
“We’re working trying to make it. The problem with BioShock was: R-rated movie, underwater, horror. It’s a really expensive R-rated movie,” explained Verbinski. “So we’re trying to figure out a way working with [director] Juan Carlos [Fresnadillo] to get the budget down and still keep so it’s true to the core audience, you know The thing is it has to be R, a hard R.”
Verbinski dismissed the tepid reception of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as a roadblock. “No, I think BioShock‘s a rare one because it’s actually a great story,” said Verbinski. “Me I don’t want to make movies based on videogames, but BioShock‘s the one Oedipal, crazy kind of — it’s just got really good bones, and we’re really trying to figure out a way to make it work. We don’t want to dumb it down, we don’t want to make it PG-13. We want to keep it really edgy, and it’s a huge bill.”
When queried about possibly coming back to the director’s chair if Fresnadillo opts out, he responded, “We’re really down the road with Juan Carlos and right now it’s really a budget thing and how to keep the integrity and keep it a Hollywood movie because it could balloon. It’s a lot. Our first budget was extraordinarily high and we’re working on it.”
Source: IGN
Amazon.com revealed the latest version of the Kindle DX with 3G capabilities and 50 percent better contrast promised. What’s more, the price of the top end Kindle has bee slashed from $489 to $379.
“There’s no turning back once you read on our beautiful new Kindle DX screen,” said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. “With 50 percent better contrast and darker fonts, you’ll find it easier than ever to read wherever you happen to be, whether it’s outside in bright sunlight or under the low light of your living room. We’re excited to offer the new Kindle DX with free 3G wireless at the lower price of $379.”
To pre-order the Kindle DX before it ships July 7, visit www.amazon.com/kindledx.
ShopTo CEO Igor Cipolletta thinks that the asking price of the Kinect is too high. All retailers have placed the motion sensing device at $149, or 129 British Pounds, which is the U.K. retailer’s pre-order price.
“It’s too high,” said Cipolletta of Kinect’s pricing. “We believe that with this current economy it should be around 70 British Pounds. For 140 British Pounds you can buy a Wii.”
“Pre-orders are very low,” added Cipolletta.
Source: Eurogamer
Despite releasing only in April, it appears that Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Kin group. Verizon will continue selling Kin One and Kin Two for the time being, though that’s likely to not last.
“We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship Kin in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our Kin team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from Kin into future Windows Phone releases,” said Microsoft in a statement. “We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones.”
Free-to-play is the norm in China and South Korea for online titles and they are trending well in the West as well. In fact, World of Warcraft lead designer Tom Chilton thinks that titles like Lord of the Rings Online, Company of Heroes and Dungeons and Dragons Online going free is a natural evolution.
“I feel like they’re doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at. I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalized some of the other subscribers. I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft. If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out.”
“While that may be the case in the long, long term, going free-to-play is not in World of Warcraft’s immediate future. We’re not spending a lot of time thinking about it. It s not something that’s a reality for us in the near future,” said Chilton.
Source: PC Gamer
Amazon.com recently announced that it will purchase Woot.com. Amazon hopes this leads to sustained growth for Woot, which has a strong online community and sells discounted products, in the long term.
“Woot to be acquired by Amazon, then left to amuse ourselves,” said a statement by Woot. “Holy crap! Woot has signed an agreement with Amazon — yes, the Amazon — to become an independent subsidiary of the ecommerce colossus. More details forthcoming after we pick our eyeballs up off of the floor.”
Amazon says that the agreement is expected to close in the third quarter.
Source: Reuters
Crysis 2 was one of the more technically impressive games at E3, especially its 3D demonstration. While this trailer doesn’t show off the 3D effects, it still makes good use of the Cry Engine 3.
