MIT’s Shape-Shifting inFORM Display

BY

It’s amazing what some minds can do with technology – or, in this case, the team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team has just unveiled a new technology called inFORM, which allows you to reproduce digital content physically in 3D.

With this technology, users can utilize inFORM to react to various things, including 3D models, bar graphs and more. In addition, you can also use Skype with it, creating a physical version of the person you’re having a conversation with – even though it’s not a hologram projector. Hey, it’s the next best thing.

inFORM cost quite a bit to make, with 900 small motors that control each pin on it. The pins then work together to render objects in 3D, with each one costing around $20 to $30. That doesn’t mean we won’t see it for consumer means down the road, but, for now, it’s merely an MIT project – but an innovative one. The game possibilities are very interesting.“The traditional sort of interaction design and device design sort of assumes for a very static way of interacting and this [inFORM] device can change its physical form very quickly and that means that we need to come up with new ways that we interact with technology,” said Seam Follmer, working alongside his team, Daniel Leithinger and Professor Hiroshi Ishii, at MIT’s Tangible Media Group.

Source: Digital Trends

 

 

Why Do Launch Games Underwhelm?

BY

Usually, when a new game console arrives to market, there are a number of “must-have” games available. On occasion, though, there are duds that don’t really “fit” with the system, but are merely launched for the sake of their brand name, or because the company’s looking for a quick buck.

So why do some of these launch titles get questionably average reviews Ubisoft’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Tony Key, has an explanation.

“Right now, all publishers are transitioning their development resources,” he says. “For a game like Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, most of the sales are still going to be on current generation platforms. We can’t make a version for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One that’s so wildly different that we can’t market them together. So, for now, developers and designers are focused on making a game that works really well on all of the systems – but as we transition resources to the next gen, it’s going to be more difficult to do that because the power of these machines is going to allow so much more creativity.”

As for new franchises, they may introduce some “fresh blood” to the market, but that doesn’t always guarantee their success. (Ubisoft recently delayed their long-anticipated Watch Dogs from launch window to mid-2014.)

“It’s heartbreaking to be so coveted for launch and not be able to deliver it at launch, but from a business perspective, it’s not a difficult decision to make,” says Key. “Watch Dogs is designed to be a long-term brand for Ubisoft. We won’t launch it until we know it’s equaling the vision it can achieve. . . We’re playing the long game – and as a company, we know how important it is to get it right.”

“Our feeling is the installed base of these machines will be much faster to take hold than previous generations,” he says. “In the first couple of years, we expect double the installed base of previous generations [during that same time period]. … The reason why is: the last cycle was longer, so there’s a lot of pent up demand.”

You can read the full interview at the link below.

Source: GamesIndustry International

PlayStation 4 Launch Brings PS2 Memories

BY

The hoopla surrounding the PlayStation 4 isn’t just affecting the players and the media – Sony’s own team is excited about it finally arriving as well. Just ask Sony’s vice president of marketing, Jon Koller.

Speaking with GamesBeat, Koller stated, “The launch overall, just in business terms, we feel great about it.”

“The pre-orders are through the roof. The demand is huge. Of the five platform launches we’ve had, this is the best game line up. It reminds me a lot of the PS2 launch, when we had such pent-up demand – ‘When is the PS2 coming ‘ The same thing is happening here.”

“When you look at some of our past launches, you could argue about the various points of supply. We had a lot of demand for PS3, and we were short. We didn’t want to relive that. It’s hard when you don’t have a lot of supply. But even so, we have a lot of demand this time around.”

The PlayStation 4 is available in stores now.

Source: GamesIndustry International

New All-White OUYA

BY

Those of you who haven’t picked up the Android-based OUYA console may want to hold off, as the company is set to introduce a new “deluxe” model in time for the holiday season. OUYA is now touting the fact that there are over 500 games available for the console.

An all-white OUYA system will be available starting next month, with double the internal storage capacity of the original system, totaling 16 GB. As you can see, the design is much sleeker than the Kickstarter-based model, though there are some mild colors on the buttons of the controller.

The system will go on sale on December 8th for $129.99. You can order it through Amazon or directly from OUYA’s site.

Source: OUYA

Analysis: October Retail Sales Up

BY

Once again US retail sales rose compared to last year, and once again the cause can be attributed to one thing: Grand Theft Auto V. NPD’s Liam Callahan put it this way:“This is the third month in a row where overall video game retail sales increased, up 5 percent over October 2012 due to 10 percent software growth combined with a modest 1 percent growth of accessories, while portable hardware sales minimized decreases in overall video game hardware sales.” In other words, accessories were flat, hardware was down, and software rose due to the combined effect of a new Grand Theft Auto title, new Pokémon titles, and a new Battlefield, Batman, Assassin’s Creed and Skylanders titles. With all of those new top franchises with new software, the category could only eke out a 10 percent improvement over October 2012.

You already know who the winner was for the month. “Grand Theft Auto V was the top selling game for the second month in a row, selling just fewer than 1.1 million units and representing 15 percent of dollar sales,” noted Callahan. “New launches were the main driver of software sale increases, with a 9 percent increase of sales from October 2013 launches compared to October 2012 launches during their respective launch month.”

TakeTwo had a good month to follow its spectacular September, with three different titles in the Top Ten. Activision’s Skylanders SWAP Force came in lower than perhaps might be expected, but its peak buying time is really still coming up. Activision will have an excellent November in any case with Call of Duty: Ghosts sales hitting the bottom line.

October 2013 Top 10 Games
1. Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)** Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
2. Pokémon X (3DS) Nintendo
3. Pokémon Y (3DS) Nintendo
4. Battlefield 4 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
5. Batman: Arkham Origins (360, PS3, NWU, PC)** Warner Bros. Interactive
6. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, NWU)** Ubisoft
7. NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PC)** Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
8. Skylanders SWAP Force (WII, 360, PS3, NWU, 3DS) Activision Blizzard (Corp)
9. Lego Marvel Super Heroes (360, PS3, NWU, 3DS, PSV, PC) Warner Bros. Interactive
10. WWE 2K14 (360, PS3) Take 2 Interactive (Corp) 

Hardware sales dropped 8 percent over last October, even with strong 3DS sales to help. That’s really no surprise, given the new consoles being introduced this month. There are a number of new bundles for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U being introduced this month, which should help hardware sales for November and December. “October 2013 marked the sixth consecutive month that the Nintendo 3DS led overall hardware sales,” said Callahan. “3DS hardware sales were supported by the launch of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, as well as from sales of the newest member of the 3DS family, the lower-priced 2DS. The success of the 3DS helped lift portable hardware sales, which was the first time portable hardware sales increased since February 2012 (excluding January 2013 due to an extra week or reporting), when the PS Vita launched.”

The Accessories category has been redefined to include toy/game hybrids like Skylanders, and thus experienced a slight increase. “Accessory sales rose by a modest 1 percent due to an over 70 percent increase for sales of Interactive Gaming Toys with combined sales of Disney Infinity and Skylanders items, including those from the new Swap Force, lifting sales from last year,” Callahan noted.

It’s important to put the NPD retail sales figures in context. “These sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games,” said Callhan. “When taking into account our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in October such as used and rentals at $89 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including micro-transactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and the consumer spend on social network games at $491 million, the total consumer spend in October is just over $1.3 billion.”

So comparing retail sales from this year to previous years is not a very accurate comparison, as more spending is shifting to digital. This tracking problem will only get worse as new games are released day and date on digital and at retail for next-gen consoles.

Console mid-list games have been disappearing over the last couple of years, and part of the reason is the acceleration of downloadable content sales. Publishers are putting effort into more content for the top games, and that is done by removing mid-list games from the publishing schedule. The result is more higher-margin revenue for the publisher, and unfortunately it doesn’t get tracked as easily as retail sales. This shows up as declining sales in NPD’s reports.

The really difficult part about the shift to digital is that it’s much harder to track than retail sales. There’s only a few publishers and retailers to keep track of in order to get a 90 percent or more accurate picture of retail sales, and NPD has agreements in place to do that. The digital picture is much murkier, since retail is so fragmented. Does Valve share Steam sales figures with analyst firms If it doesn’t, how accurate can analyst firms be at tracking digital game download revenue That’s not even considering all of the indie publishers now selling through consoles, or selling PC content on a wide range of web sites.

NPD and other analyst firms are trying hard to overcome these problems, of course. No doubt their models and ability to track digital revenue will improve over time. However, it’s unlikely to approach the familiar accuracy of retail sales tracking. Pay close attention to whatever they tell you about methodologies used for coming up with their numbers, and weigh the results with that information in mind.

The Aaron Levenstein quote about statistics applies to game sales. “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” Think about that when you look at sales figures and statistics about the game industry from any source.

The Strangest Truck Ad Ever

BY

Jean-Claude Van Damme is famous for doing the splits, but this one (done between two Volvo Trucks to demonstrate Volvo Dynamic Steering) is the most epic yet, made more so by Enya’s Only Time. The most amazing parts about this ad is that there was no CG and it was done in one take; find out the full story at WSJ.com.

‘The Fall’ Concludes

BY

This final episode of the Ryse: Son of Rome – The Fall miniseries has Marius’ mentor Vitallion telling him that he should examine the reasons he truly fights. Is Rome, with all of its corruption, really worth fighting for

https://youtube.com/watch?v=APgWxhdyLZ8

One Million PS4’s Sold In U.S.

BY

Sony doesn’t have to worry too much about finding an audience for its new PlayStation 4 game console.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, announced on Twitter this weekend that the company has sold one million units in the United States, in just a 24 hour time period. This sets a record for console sales for this current generation. This follows the previous report from Gamescom that Sony had one million pre-orders for the system a couple of months back.

“PS4 has sold through over 1 million units within 24 hours of the launch in North America!” reads Yoshida’s tweet. To further celebrate the fact, Adam Boyes, Sony Vice President of publisher and developer relations, added, “Thanks to all you gamers in getting us to 1,000,000 sales of PS4 in our first 24 hours!”

It should be a good Christmas, provided enough PS4’s stay in stock to sell.

Source: IGN

All Xbox One Games Get Full Gamerscore

BY

In the past, Microsoft had Gamerscore points divided between two categories on Xbox 360. Full retail games would have 1,000 points that users could unlock over the course of the game, while downloadable titles on Xbox Live Arcade would start with 200 points to earn – though it would eventually double to 400 points.

However, for the Xbox One, Microsoft will even the playing field. The company has announced that downloadable and retail titles alike will come with 1,000 Gamerscore points, which can be earned and added to a player’s profile.

One of the first titles to take advantage of this will be Halo: Spartan Assault, which will release on Xbox One next month, as well as the Xbox 360. PopCap Games’ forthcoming sequel Peggle 2 will also feature the higher point value.

“On Xbox One, games are games. All games follow the same policies for achievements and Gamerscore,” said a Microsoft representative.

The Xbox One hits stores on November 22nd, this Friday.

Source: GamesIndustry International