Get In Touch With ‘Tearaway’

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Tearaway is coming soon and looks to be a unique experience that takes advantage of PS Vita system’s features. Check out the cool uses of the front and back touch screens, the camera and the tilt sensor.

Tyson Returns Holyfield’s Ear

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With the new shoes available at Foot Locker, the company says all is right with the world in general. They’re demonstrating this with several sports figure “make ups”, like Tyson giving Holyfield back his ear, Dennis Rodman leaving forever for North Korea and Brett Farve acknowledging that sometimes you have to know when enough is enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5zpTGPrp6Q

PlayStation 4, Xbox One Pre-Orders Near Parity

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After the dust settled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this year, many gamers thought that Sony would be the clear-cut winner of the next-generation console race. However, if pre-orders have anything to say about it, it’s more along the lines of neck-and-neck.

IGN gathered pre-order data from various retail partners across the United States, and have learned that the gap in reservations between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 has dwindled. There’s now only a ten percent difference in pre-orders between the two, with Sony still retaining an edge.

Granted, Microsoft has eased up on a lot of its limitations since E3 a few months ago, including the always-on connectivity and used game restrictions that were first implied. This decreased Sony’s odds a bit, though the lower price point of $399 was expected to be a home run for the company compared to Xbox One’s $499 price tag.

We’ll see where the dust settles after this holiday season, as the Xbox One just released in stores today.

Source: IGN

GameStop Reports Strong Sales

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GameStop turned in solid results with an increase of 18.8 percent in sales for the last quarter (compared to 2012), pushing sales to $2.11 billion. The company had a profit of $68.6 million compared to last year’s $624.3 million loss, though last year’s loss was due to a goodwill writedown of $627 million. The results were, of course, driven by sales of new software (up over 43 percent), which was led by Grand Theft Auto V. New hardware sales were up by 15.3 percent, due to the strength of the Nintendo 3DS and the 2DS.

Analysts were also bullish on GameStop’s prospects, with Baird’s Colin Sebastian putting forth a $57 price target and Wedbush Securitues’ Michael Pachter targeting $60 for GameStop shares (currently hovering around $50 per share).

Pachter did note that used game margins were a concern. “While explained well on the call, used margins were at their lowest level in 12 quarters, and the second lowest level in GameStop’s 11 year history,” Pachter said in an investment note. “It attributed weakness to mix and promotional activity, as it intentionally offered extra trade-in credits for customers buying next-gen consoles.”

GameStop’s optimism didn’t hide some key info from Pachter’s sharp gaze. “The company’s positive commentary about console launches and allocations implied that they expect robust sales, but it is clear to us that sales of current generation software have been impacted by the launches, and it is possible that current generation software sales are down by 20 percent or more in November — January, with only partial offset from next generation software sales,” Pachter said.

The Xbox One Party System

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Now that the Xbox One is available in retailers (after a long wait, mind you), users everywhere can’t wait to try out the system’s features. Among them is a great new way to chat with your friends, all with a few pushes of a button.

A post by Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb details how the party system works. Players can see which parties that they are in, as well as their friends, and what games they’re currently playing. This is all done through a convenient Xbox Live friend list breakdown, much easier to use than the original list on the Xbox 360.

Users can then join friends’ parties upon request, and even an online game session if a slot is open for them to jump in. To do this, though, you need to make sure you’re compatible with the game through the Xbox One’s Smart Match system, which checks on your skill level and playing style and syncs you up automatically with proper players.

With this Party Scout system in place – that’s what it’s called – users can multitask while waiting to get into a multiplayer game, including using Snap mode to view TV or Netflix. A notification would then be sent, letting you know that the game is ready to go.

Check out the Party Scout and system on the Xbox One, in stores now.

Source: Major Nelson

 

Mercedes-Benz’ Gran Turismo Concept Car

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Just in time for the series’ 15th anniversary – and the forthcoming release of Gran Turismo 6 – Polyphony Digital team producer Kazunori Yamauchi commissioned automaker design studios to create their ideal sports car. The project, known as “Vision Gran Turismo,” certainly got the attention of various car makers. Up first – Mercedes-Benz, one of the companies partnering with Polyphony for the game’s release.

The AMG Vision Gran Turismo is a sleek silvery model that features a Formula 1 inspired rear air diffuser, sleek build, and various other features, as well as a specialized V8 engine to assure the sound of the virtual 577hg AMG V8 biturbo engine is like the one used in the game.

The vehicle was inspired by the legendary 1952 300SL racing car, complete with classic louvered grille and star emblem, among other features.

The car made its recent debut at the 2013 LA Auto Show, though it’s not likely to be offered for real. Still, you’ll get your chance to drive it in Gran Turismo 6 when the game releases for PlayStation 3 on December 6th.

Source: PSFK

Apple Gets Moving, Kinect-Style

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With its iTV and other iGadgets rumored to be gathering speed for the 2014 electronics season, Apple could be looking to key companies to make said technology happen.

An Israeli financial news site named Calcalist has reported that Apple has purchased PrimeSense, the Tel Aviv-based company that made the motion tracking technology for Microsoft’s Kinect device for the Xbox 360. The deal is reportedly worth around $345 million. Apple may be seeking to add Kinect-like capability to Apple TV or the rumored iTV.

PrimeSense responded by stating the rumor wasn’t true. “We do not relate to rumors about our customers and partners,” said executive vice president of sales and marketing, Yaniv Vakrat.

However, another PrimeSense rep had a more passive statement. “PrimeSense is the leading 3D technology in the market. We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and Natural Interaction to the mass market in a variety of markets such as interacting living room and mobile devices. We do not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we do not relate to rumors or recycled rumors.”

Despite these early denials, you can probably expect an official confirmation sooner rather than later.

Source: Venturebeat

Xbox One’s Massive Fan

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While the Xbox 360 is certainly a popular game console in today’s market, it hasn’t been without its problems. Many users have experienced the “red ring of death” over the years, which has resulted in the failure of their system when it comes to operations. This was usually attributed to cooling problems.

However, the Xbox One will avoid this problem. In disassembling of the system, iFixit located a “beefy cooling system” inside the hardware, which will allow it to keep the Xbox One at moderate temperatures so it doesn’t overheat and cause a system shutdown. In addition, if the heat-sink or fan ever do go bad on the console, replacing them is “easy-breezy” with simple amateur mechanics.

That said, it’s still advised you don’t take the system apart on your own, as it may void your warranty. iFixit learned that the Xbox One’s hard drive is a 500 GB 2.5 inch Samsung Spinpoint M8 SATA II model, and could be replaced with a larger one — but that will definitely void your warranty, and it’s not known if the Xbox One can deal with an unformatted hard drive in any case. Better to plug in a USB hard drive if you need more space, though that feature is not supported at launch (it’s planned for later).

Source: iFixit

Next-Gen Kid’s Play

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Fingerprint is “dedicated to creating the next big kid’s company” as their mission statement says, and the San Francisco-based company is making significant progress towards that goal. Software for kids seems like a natural for tablets and smartphones, seeing the strong affinity kids have for a touch-based interface. The [a]list daily spoke with Fingerprint CEO and co-founder Nancy Macintyre about the company’s deal with Sylvan Learning, the evolution of the company’s platform strategy and the reinvention of kid’s software.

Fingerprint CEO Nancy Macintyre

Educational software for kids was once a major category, reaching nearly $500 million in annual sales in 2000 before collapsing to $152 million by 2004, according to NPD. The decline was driven by free web sites offering educational games and the rise of devices like the LeapPad from LeapFrog Enterprises. Now, the incredible growth of smartphones and tablets has created fertile ground for the regrowth of software aimed at kids.

“We started the company thinking we were going to be a consumer business, with a focus on kids” said Macintyre. “In February of this year we launched a new version of our platform that supported safe social, multiplayer games. What started getting calls from big media companies, cable companies and well-known brands, who said ‘we have subscription businesses, wouldn’t it be interesting if we were operating a gaming network with you ‘ We recognized that an enterprise solution where we were powering networks for third parties would be interesting for us.”

Fingerprint’s first partner in this strategy is Astro, the largest pay TV company in Southeast Asia. “We’ve built them a learning and play focused network that will be bundled with their mobile TV-to-go app,” said Macintyre. “We’re putting a game network in front of TV subscribers, and we’re very excited about that.”

“There are many companies out there like a cable MSO or a content creator, and everybody has the same objective ““ to leverage the incredible growth in usage of mobile devices, particularly tablets, aimed towards kids,” said Macintyre. “If you’re a TV company you want to have as many eyeballs as possible on your brand and on your content, and you want to monetize that content as well as possible. If you’re a developer you want to get discovered. By partnering with big organizations that have a large subscriber base already buying content, it’s a logical step that games would also be made available to them.”

Fingerprint is creating apps for kids, but now is also helping other developers find an audience for their kid-friendly games with their platform Fingerprint Play. This allows Fingerprint to find a steady stream of content for its network, and is part of their expansion plans. “Our objective is to scale our user base geographically by partnering with lead partners in a variety of territories, then expanding beyond learning and play to entertainment as well,” said Macintyre. “There’s no reason why we can’t go into various vertical markets.”

The company has started with younger kids, but it doesn’t plan to stop there. “We’re primarily focused on ages 3-8, but there are no technical reasons why the platform that would keep us from expanding to other types of content like ebooks and video, which we’re already doing,” noted Macintyre. “Second, we can expand to other kinds of content. For instance, our partner Astro in Asia might decide they want to do a custom platform experience around the World Cup. There are no barriers to creating a custom sports network that would be targeted to older kids.”

The strategy for Fingerprint is to optimize for each market.”We go into any particular market and try to recruit the best app developers the best content in that market that’s customized and localized for that particular market,” said Macintyre. “In Southeast Asia in particular there is significant focus on education; you must have them to make any education platform work. As well, we like to go beyond ABCs and 123s and offer passion topics that keep kids engaged, that could be science, it could be geography, astronomy, space, or cooking even.

 

Beyond global expansion, Fingerprint is also using its expertise in the North American market by joining forces with Sylvan Learning. “We’re launching before the end of the year a new network with the Sylvan Learning Center,which is the largest private tutoring company in North America,” said Macintyre. “We’re creating a proprietary learning network for them that will be targeted at kids in K-4. We think it’s the first of its kind custom network, and we’re working directly with their curriculum specialists to develop the apps. We’ll also be hand-picking a variety of third-party apps targeted at this audience. We’re super excited about this because it lets Sylvan kids play games at home that expand on what they get in the Learning Centers.” SylvanPlay will launch on iOS and Android with a suite of four apps created by Fingerprint and its developer network.

The kid’s marketplace is ripe for expansion, Macintyre believes. “I think there are more kids playing educational software than ever before,” said Macintyre. “They’re just not paying for it. Parents are willing to pay for quality educational content — you just have to get the content in front of them and be able to show them the value. That’s one of the things we think Sylvan will be super successful in doing.”

GoldieBlox Makes A ‘Princess Machine’

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Girl’s toys have long been focused on homemaking simulations and pink dolls, but GoldieBlox wants to change that. This creative ad, featuring a variant on the Beastie Boys classic “Girls”, advertises the engineering-focused toys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC5A9txqSE