APB Customers Struggling For Refund

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Realtime Worlds might be dead and gone and APB has had the plug pulled, leaving perhaps thousands of upset customers. In a nightmare that any company that bought the game would inherit, some are now demanding a refund for playing time purchased.

Customers should revert to the entity from which they bought the game in respect of their entitlement to any refund, said Realtime Worlds administrator Begbies Traynor.

Along with customers that paid the full retail price for the game and had some play time left, some customers had no doubt bought extra month, 90 and 180-day subscriptions along with RTW Points that could be redeemed for gametime or marketplace items all directly from the Realtime Worlds website.

Source: MCV

PS3 Blu-Ray 3D Update Coming September 21

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Sony has announced that the Blu-ray 3D update is coming to the PS3 on September 21. Update v.3.50 will also have other features that will be announced soon.

We know that many consumers have purchased 3D TVs already and more of you will be purchasing them as the holidays approach so we re excited to offer this firmware update that makes all 38 million PS3s worldwide compatible with Blu-ray 3D discs, writes Eric Lempel, VP of Network Operations Americas. This new feature expands the PS3’s 3D capabilities as you may recall, we added the ability to play stereoscopic 3D games with the 3.30 firmware update in April.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Tecmo Koei’s Fist Of The Alarm Clock

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Anyone who has been to an industry event has probably come back with at least an armful of swag, much of which is cool but little of which is useful. Tecmo Koei took a different route at Tokyo Game Show, handing out a bag of Samurai Warriors rice and a Fist of the North Star alarm clock.

Proof that this is a real thing.

Source: Kotaku

Molyneux Talks Fable Movie

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Peter Molyneux has helped cast an all-star team of British comedic talent for Fable III, including Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Ross, Michael Fassbinder and John Cleese. In particular, Molyneux says that Cleese really imprinted himself on the character of Jasper the butler. “He improvised a lot,” says Molyneux.

When asked if he’s tempted to make a Fable movie, Molyneux said, “Part of me says ‘yes’. I could got to the set and hold the camera. I could go to the movie premiere. But then, I think how Hollywood has driven pretty much every game franchise into the ground.”

Source: Kotaku

Samsung Shows Off Galaxy Tab

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Samsung has unveiled its Galaxy Tab in the U.S. recently. The tablet computer, running on Android, will be sold by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the weeks and months to come.

Pricing depends on what carrier is used, and while a Wi-Fi only version of the 7-inch tablet is planned, no release details were given. Partners like MTV, NBC, Paramount and Universal Home Entertainment will provide content for the device, which will be displayed via a Media Hub.

Source: WallStreetJournal.com

DFC On F2P

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Broadband connections are having a huge effect on the way that people buy and consume entertainment. In fact, DFC Intelligence thinks that by 2014, over 50 percent of global game software revenue will be generated online.

In Asia, the dominant form of online games are free-to-play, where they generate billions of dollars every year. Still, English language F2P represented only $249 million in revenue.

There are several reasons why client-based F2P games have been slow to emerge, notes DFC. However, DFC believes the number one obstacle has been the continued difficulty of delivering a large client to consumers. Game publishers like to talk about having millions, or even tens of millions, of registered users. For DFC registered users is almost a meaningless number. A major issue is a large portion of registered users never use the product because they are not able to get it to download and install.

DFC believes the situation with downloads will improve, and that eventually Western developers will better adapt to methods that consumers will want to pay for micro-transactions. They see the English-language F2P market reaching $2 billion by 2015.

Source: IndustryGamers

EA CEO Says Medal Of Honor Controversy ‘Caught Me By Surprise’

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The inclusion of the Taliban as a playable in the multiplayer of Medal of Honor has caused a bit of a stir. For his part, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is blaming the mainstream media for manufacturing the controversy.

“The controversy . . . kind of caught me by surprise,” he said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, indicating that it was a non-issue internally, “until a journalist decided to put the game box in front of a mom who’d lost her son in Afghanistan to create some controversy.

“I think that says more about the newspapers than it does the game industry,” he said. “Having said that we’re incredibly sensitive to the challenges that a non-gamer who doesn’t really understand what I’ve just described might imagine when a journalist who also doesn’t understand a game describes it to her. It tends to excite a little bit of angst.”

Riccitiello added that he was “incredibly proud” of Medal of Honor, and argued that it stays, “well within the boundaries that are good entertainment.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

RealNetworks Goes Backstage

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RealNetworks GameHouse is purchasing Backstage Technologies. The games division wants to improve its position in the social gaming sphere, and is bringing in Backstage’s experience with Facebook games such as Scratch and Win, Vinyl City and Family Feud.

“As we transform RealNetworks, we will focus on areas with strong revenue growth and profit potential that will realize the value of our core businesses,” said Bob Kimball, CEO of RealNetworks. “The most compelling growth opportunity in games today is social games, and this acquisition is part of our commitment to make our entire GameHouse business social.”

“We acquired Backstage to advance our commitment to delivering fun and engaging games,” said Matt Hulett, senior vice president of the Games Division at RealNetworks. “With their pioneering talents in supporting and optimizing leading social gaming titles to scale to millions of users, Backstage will help evolve and improve our existing social games efforts.”

“Over the past three years, Backstage has excelled at building and monetizing social games to scale to millions of users,” said Russell Ovans, founder & CEO of Backstage. “Joining forces with GameHouse gives us the opportunity to apply our unique expertise while accelerating the company’s broader goal of making all games social for players across their massive global distribution network.”

Dead Rising 2: Case West

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Chuck Greene is going to need help if he’s going to expose what’s really behind the zombie outbreaks. In this short but poignant trailer, we see that he’s found just the guy for the job (who’s covered wars, ya know).

Ico / Shadow Of The Colossus In HD

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Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were praised for being atmospheric and immersive back when they released. Now, getting an HD remake for the PS3, it’s amazing how excellent the two games still look.