Ken Levine: ‘I Haven’t Thought At All About What The Next Game Will Be’

BY

Ken Levine has been working on the BioShock franchise exclusively for nearly a decade at this point. When asked straight out if he yearned for a new challenge as a writer outside of the BioShock franchise, Levine was frank in his answer: he doesn’t know.

“I always do like mixing things together, but I don’t know. Because I haven’t thought at all about what the next game will be…” said Levine. “We’re working on DLC and after that I don’t know… Games are such a big investment that people are putting a lot of faith in you and I take that very seriously.”

Source: HuffingtonPost.co.uk

Google Nose, Twttr, YouTube Video Contest On April 1

BY

There were several pranks this April Fools’ Day from tech companies, with Twitter advertising that it was cutting out all vowels from the service (those who subscribe could get them back) and Hulu saying they were going to start carrying fictional shows-within-shows like The Itchy and Scratchy Show and The Rural Juror. Google pulled out all the stops with a smell based search engine and Gmail Blue making the font blue… but the best one in our minds was what they announced for YouTube.

What was announced was that YouTube has been a video submission contest over the past eight years and will now shut down for judges to determine the best video, with the site reemerging a decade from now in 2023. The announcement video is replete with YouTube celebrities like Matt Harding, Antoine Dodson and iJustine.”Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as a video with 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck,” said YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar.Supposedly every video is a possible candidate and it won’t just be based on views (so Gangnam Style won’t automatically win). The first set of “nominees” are set to be announced here {link no longer active} and it will be interesting to see what is actually said.

Mass Effect 3 Infographic

BY

Electronic Arts released an infographic detailing the statistics compiled online from Mass Effect 3 over the past year. While some statistics are not surprising, like that most players favored Paragon choices and played male soldier-class Shepards, others are more particular and interesting (like that nearly 2/3s of all players did not meet Wrex in Mass Effect 3).

Amazon Purchases Goodreads

BY

Amazon has announced that it will purchase Goodreads. The book recommendations site has roughly 16 million users and was founded in 2007.

“Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content for Amazon. “In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Range Rover Sport Launched By Daniel Craig In New York City

BY

James Bond star Daniel Craig has helped launch the Range Rover Sport in New York City. He drove the SUV through Manhattan, revealing the car to an audience that included Michael Strahan, Yasmin Le Bon, Zara Phillips, MBE, and Jade Jagger, at Skylight at Moynihan Station on 8th Avenue.

The drive is part of a short film called The Delivery, broadcast live by Land Rover at www.newrangeroversport.com. The commercial was directed by Jonathan P. B. Taylor (A Good Day to Die Hard) following the journey of the new Range Rover Sport from Solihull to Manhattan, before it was driven by Craig over Manhattan Bridge to Moynihan Station.

 

YouTube Expands Game Streaming Services

BY

YouTube will be releasing a new series of programming APIs to allow developers to live stream gameplay from directly within their titles. This technology is expanded from previous streaming offerings from YouTube and will now be available on Android and iOS.

This new service will allow content creators using the service to put in breaks in their stream for ads or screenshots. “Video is the most powerful tool to enable that to happen,” said YouTube product manager Satyajeet Salgar.

This expanded offering is no doubt a response to the rise of popular game streaming services like Twitch and Ustream. While this service will not be available to regular users just yet, YouTube hopes to expand out from just developers and publishers in the future.

Source: The Verge