Epic Games Ex-President ‘No Longer Affiliated With Epic’

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Epic Games president Mike Capps has been serving in an advisory role with Epic Games since departing as president in December. He’s revealed, however, that he has fully transitioned away from the company.

“When we announced that I wanted to transition out of my leadership role at Epic, the plan was for a continued but less active role, service on the board of directors, and ideally, being that eccentric semi-retired guy who still comes to playtests and gold parties. I’m sad to say that plans have changed, and as of February 11, I’m no longer affiliated with Epic Games,” wrote Capps. “I have many wonderful memories of my time at Epic, and I wish my friends there all the best in their future projects.”

“So what’s next for me Games have been so good to me, and I’m delighted to have the time to give back. I’m a member of several game industry boards, and I’m proud to serve as an advocate for our art in Washington,” he continued. “I’m considering seats on a few company and advisory boards, as well as options for teaching at one of the world-class universities in the North Carolina Triangle area. And mostly, I’m focused on being a new dad in a few short weeks. Time is flying by, and I’ve still got a dozen games I want to play before the UnSleep begins!”

Source: Facebook.com

Apple Patent Deals With Pre-Owned Software Sales

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Apple has filed a patent that deals with passing the rights to digital content between users. This would potentially allow users to sell or loan their pre-owned content to each other.

“The transferor is prevented from accessing the digital content item after the transfer occurs,” reads the patent. “The entity that sold the digital content item to the transferor enforces the access rights to the digital content item by storing data that establishes which user currently has access to the digital content item. After the change in access rights, only the transferee is allowed access to the digital content item.”

“As part of the change in access rights, the transferee may pay to obtain access to the digital content item,” it continues. “A portion of the proceeds of the ‘resale’ may be paid to the creator or publisher of the digital content item and/or the entity that originally sold the digital content item to the original owner.”

Source: Apple Insider

Galaxy S IV Might Have ‘Eye Scrolling’

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Samsung’s next Galaxy might be controlled with a user’s eyes, according to a report. “Eye scrolling” would let users scroll down a page of text when the user’s eyes have reached the bottom of the screen.

Samsung Galaxy S IV will reportedly be heavily geared toward new software than a physical reboot of the Android-based device. The Korean company is expected to unveil the Galaxy S IV at a New York City event on March 14.

Samsung’s chief product officer Kevin Packingham declined to talk about software upgrades, but he said hardware upgrades will be significant. “It’s an amazing phone,” he said.

Samsung has filed in Europe to trademark a technology called “Eye Scroll” and another named “Eye Pause.” It was described as “computer application software having a feature of sensing eye movements and scrolling displays of mobile devices, namely, mobile phones, smartphones and tablet computers according to eye movements; digital cameras; mobile telephones; smartphones; tablet computers.”

Samsung Galaxy S III has a similar feature called “Smart Stay” where the phone’s front-facing camera can register whether the user is looking at it and keeps the display screen from going into sleep mode until the user looks away.

Source: New York Times

Tomb Raider Hits 1 Million Fans On Facebook

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The official Tomb Raider blog was looking to offer two tracks to the game’s soundtrack if it reached the 1,000,000 fan mark on Facebook. The mark was hit within hours on launch day.

The first track is called Hunted and deals with the idea of the island itself being a character. Scaling the Mountain is an example of the dynamic music of the game that changes as events change around Lara.

Download the tracks for yourself at TombRaider.Tumblr.com.

Ouya Accepting Launch-Day Submissions

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Kellee Santiago has announced that submissions are open for the Ouya microconsole. The post is her first since becoming the head of developer relations at Ouya.

“Devs, as of today, any game you upload to Ouya on http://devs.ouya.tv will be available for real on OUYA when units start to ship on March 28. This means the games you have in the store after today will be in gamers’ hands when they receive their Ouya units — starting first with our Kickstarter backers, and continuing on through June when we launch to anyone and everyone who wants to get Ouya,” she wrote. “Those of you who uploaded a game during our test period — thank you for helping us work out the kinks — we are now resetting the store from those early uploads and starting over fresh!”

Not only can developers get their games up for the machine’s launch day of March 28, 2013, it is possible the software will be included in a promotional documentary. “We will take the top three games (by total gamer time spent playing during the first six weeks that Ouya is in gamers’ hands), and . . . make you famous,” wrote Santiago. “Ouya is investing in a series of short documentaries to tell developers’ stories. We want to share your process, ups and downs, everything that goes into making the thing that you love – and that game we love to play.”

“If your game is one of the top three in the first six weeks, then one of those documentaries will be about you,” she added. “We will rely heavily on these documentaries to tell people about Ouya, and we’ll share them far and wide as part of our launch marketing in June leading up to the holidays – everyone will know your name, your game, and where to play it.”

Source: Ouya.tv

Back To The Future Train Model In Lego

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Masashi Togami, the founder of Team Back to the Future, has a new BTTF project on Lego Cuusoo: Doc Brown’s Jules Verne Train. The team already got the time traveling DeLorean accepted and this new model created by Sakuretsu is extremely well designed and fully functional.

The train can’t fly but it can move. The proposed set fits in the current Lego train rail system, supports Lego’s power functions and includes minifigs for Doc Brown, Clara, Jules, Verne and Einstein.

Source: Lego.Kinja.com

Bigpoint Names Khaled Helioui As CEO

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Khaled Helioui has been named as CEO of Bigpoint, being promoted from his previous role as chief games officer. He replaces Heiko Hubertz, who stepped down four months ago, and will signal a renewed focus on game quality at the free-to-play browser-based publisher.

“I am really excited about the new concepts and the quality of the games that we are going to see over the next few years,” said Heloui. “I genuinely believe we are entering a new era for gaming and the space is going to experience a disruption that is not driven by a new business model, technology or platform but by unleashed creativity.”

Source: TechCrunch

Gears Of War: Judgement Gets Maxim Sponsored Maps

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Maxim magazine announced that they will be sponsoring DLC content for Gears Of War: Judgment. The downloadable content, featuring a new multiplayer map and a new gameplay mode will be available as a free download on Xbox Live starting April 2, 2013.

The map is called Haven, described as an ancient monastery in the frozen Azura mountains, with an asymmetrical circular layout. There will also be a new Execution Mode, a team deathmatch mode with the variant that players must receive a coupe de grace “Execution” move or else they’ll revive.

Source: Maxim.com

Kittens On The Beat

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Corridor Digital had a plan for this music video of Wildstyle by Savant: step one, steal socks and step three, profit! The kittens Roto and Bowie substitute as the cute adversaries against the miniature cat burglars.