SOE Talks Compensation To Users

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Sony Online Entertainment has outlined the bonuses to their subscribers to make up for the recent down time. Along with increased security, they’ll offer in-game items, currency, Station Cash, as well as free game time to users subscribers of various levels, depending on the game.

We thank you for your patience as we continue to work around the clock to restore our game services. We know this has been a frustrating time for you and appreciate your understanding as we work to confirm the security of our network, said SOE in a statement. We are currently in the process of an extensive upgrade to our network to further protect your information from future attacks. It will likely be at least a few more days before we restore our services, and when we come back online, here is what you can expect for each of our game services.

Source: SOE.com

Ubisoft Says Nintendo’s Next Console ‘Is Really A Fantastic Platform’

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Nintendo’s Project Cafe is highly anticipated, though little is honestly known about it at this point. Despite being expected to be slightly more powerful than the Xbox 360/PS3, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot expects to reuse assets from games for those consoles on Nintendo’s next console.

“The platform Nintendo is coming with is really a fantastic platform. We think it will be extremely successful,” he stated. “What we see is that we will be able to leverage a lot of the work we do for Xbox 360 and PS3 while we create games for the platform.

“So we will not have to redo completely the games that we create, he added. We’ll be able to use all the capacity the console is giving but also use all the work we do for the other platforms.”

Source: Eurogamer

Advertising And Bringing Back The Magic

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Advertising companies are at a crossroads now, and there’s a sense that some changes need to occur. Here, Cindy Gallop delivers a brief video talking about what the industry needs.

New Angry Birds Levels Exclusively Available For Google Chrome

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The survival of the Angry Birds continues in your browser! Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds eggs and use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs fortified castles. Featuring hours of gameplay previously seen on iOS, Android and beyond, Angry Birds is now available download via the Google Chrome App Store. A challenging physics-based castle demolition game with hours and hours of replay value, each of the 70 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy. Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!

Capcom Caps Purchases In Smurf Village

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According to a person familiar with the situation, Apple’s attempts to crack down on in-app purchases were specifically targeting Capcom’s Smurf Village. Apple said explicitly the customers complaints they had gotten over the game were unacceptable, something Capcom at the time denied.

Capcom has acquiesced by putting a new cap on purchases in Smurf Village, down to five items via in-app purchases within a 15 minute period. Apple had already implemented changes that forced users to input their iTunes password with every purchase.

Source: PocketGamer

IPad Sales Not Hurting PCs: NPD

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The NPD is reporting that 14 percent for people who owned iPad six months or more are bailing out on PCs, with the number at 12 percent for holiday purchasers. While this seems to be less negative for PC sales than some thought, netbook cannibalization dropped 50 percent among recent iPad buyers compared to early adopters.

“The conventional wisdom that says tablet sales are eating into low- priced notebooks is most assuredly incorrect,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “The over $500 Windows consumer notebooks market is where PC sales have been impacted the most, with a 25 percent decline from October 2010 to March 2011.”

“The explosion of computer sales when Windows 7 launched, as well as the huge increase in netbook sales at that time, are much more to blame for weak consumer PC sales growth than the iPad,” added Baker. “Overall it appears that the vast majority of iPad purchases to-date have been incremental to the consumer technology industry.”

Source: Beta News

Sony Ericsson Responds To Lukewarm Reception To PSOne On Xperia Play

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PSOne titles are available for the Xperia Play as part of the PlayStation Certified program, which will also include the S1 and S2 tablets and other devices. However, sales of the titles have been sluggish so far, struggling to break the three figure mark.

I think there’s also an awareness thing for people that are getting their hands on the device and where they are choosing to purchase games. There s only a few, at the minute, PlayStation One titles there, and there’s more coming on a regular basis, and there’s the whole PlayStation as a content provider exclusive to the device, the story about that, that will emerge and people will see, said Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Head of Market Development at Sony Ericsson. So, there s no concerns, it s a revolutionary device, it s shaking up the market, we’re very pleased with it. In terms of getting the PlayStation Certified program out, generally, we’re very happy. I think we ll make a full assessment of if it has achieved our expectations fully, further down the line, so we’re very happy.

We know there’s a lot more to come that we’re not, obviously, releasing yet, he added. We re releasing as we go, rather than telling everyone the full story, and I think everyone appreciates that you have a good line-up at the start of selling a device, because it is a smartphone and it has a good line-up and that line-up will grow and the feedback we got on that line-up is that it is a good line-up, so we’re very happy where we are.

Source: PlayStation Lifestyle

Zynga Snaps Up SOE Veteran

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John Blakely has left his position as vice president of development at Sony Online Entertainment to join Zynga. He will be a general manager at the social gaming giant.

SOE confirmed this move and thanked him for “the passion and leadership he brought to work every day and fully support him in his future endeavors. He will be succeeded by Lorin Jameson, executive director of development for SOE, who oversaw the development teams at SOE’s Austin studio for the past five years.

Source: Kotaku