HTC To Craft Amazon Smartphones?

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Though HTC has seen better days, the company is still faring decently enough – and, if a report from the Financial Times is any indication, they could come sooner rather than later. According to the report, HTC has teamed up with Amazon to produce a number of new smartphone devices that could make their way to the site’s store as soon as next year. The devices are expected to offer competitive hardware at an execllent price, much like the Kindle Fire line of tablets.

Now the question is when the devices will be released. The Financial Times report indicates that one release date for one of the products has already changed – even with it still in development – and there’s no indication as to when they will actually arrive, if at all.

It’s no secret that Amazon has been looking to get more into the “tech” market, especially with the success of its Kindle models, but it’s only a matter of time before it eventually nails down something to compete in the smartphone category. We’ll see what comes of this team-up soon enough.

Source: TechCrunch

Four PlayStation Hits Coming To PS4, For Free

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Sony has announced a new promotion where four of its more popular downloadable games on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita will be available on the PlayStation 4, just in time for the system’s launch last month.

flOw, Flower, Sound Shapes and Escape Plan will all be released on November 15 for the PlayStation 4, each with modifications that work specifically with the system. Flower, the critically acclaimed “relaxation” game from thatgamecompany, will feature a higher-frame rate and enhanced controls, along with access to the PS Vita version of the game, which also releases on the November 15. Escape Plan, which came out on PS Vita last year, will have controls that map with the new Touchpad on the PlayStation 4 controller.

 

Best of all, if users purchased these games on a previous system – be it either the PS Vita or PlayStation 3 – they can download them on the new system at no additional charge. Otherwise, the games are likely to run $9.99 apiece – a rather fair deal.The PlayStation 4 arrives in the U.S. on November 15th.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Lenovo Reenters Tablet Market

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Lenovo is back in the tablet game with a new model ready to go later this month, adding full Windows 8.1 compatibility and a reasonably sized screen for a low price. The Miix 2 will feature an 8-inch display, along with an Intel quad-core Bay Trail processor, a much more powerful successor to last year’s Intel Atom model. Testing reveals the new chip provides performance nearly equal to Intel Core chips at a fraction of the power, which should mean great gaming performance.

The device weighs in at a meager 350 grams, but provides a full Windows experience like you’d find on other Microsoft tablets, complete with 10-point multi-touch screen support and access to Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013, for those who need those services.

This latest model goes for a very affordable $299 and will be available later this month.

Source: GigaOm

Drive Like A Pro On Xbox One

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Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, a long-standing community spokesman for the company, posted a new video where he speaks with Branden Powell, director of strategic alliances for the console, on two new steering wheels that will come to the system. They’re expected to work with a number of next-gen racing games for the system, including Forza Motorsport 5 and Need For Speed: Rivals.

The concepts behind the designs are novel, and the design is sleek, with one model featuring a customizing-friendly design with an interchangeable steering wheel and realistic foot pedals, and another featuring an authentic 458 Italia design, put together by the team at Thrustmaster.

 

Release dates and pricing haven’t been provided yet for the peripherals, but you can probably expect them sooner rather than later.Source: Major Nelson

Machinima Coming To Xbox One

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Machinima is jumping into the next-gen of video with its new Machinima app exclusively for the Xbox One, launching on November 22 alongside the Xbox One. According to Machinima, the app will offer “rich, custom-created, and exclusive videos that accompany and complement the next-gen gameplay of a select group of Xbox One launch titles.” Machinima also plans to offer exclusive entertainment experiences through the app, with tent-pole series, weekly shows and other fan-focused content.

“The first Xbox Live app we launched was the fastest downloaded Xbox app in the prior 12 months, and we’re excited to deliver yet another breakthrough experience for our fans,” said Machinima’s co-founder and CEO Allen DeBevoise. “This is another step toward making sure we’re wherever our fans are, and delivering them unique experiences that no other network can provide. We can’t wait to unveil all the intricacies and abilities of the new app.’

‘We’re thrilled to welcome Machinima as one of the first global partners of Xbox One bringing its highly integrated experience exclusively to the platform when we launch on Nov. 22,” said Kathy Styponias, general manager for Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Machinima is one of the first partners to take advantage of the capabilities of our platform architecture and technology that will result in a cutting-edge, innovative app experience for all users.”

The [a]list daily spoke with Sanjay Sharma, executive vice president of strategy and business development for Machinima, about the app and its features. “The thing we’ve always been focused on here at Machinima, and it’s the core of the company, is the thesis that the experience of video gaming has been transformed dramatically by the rise of online video and the social movement,” said Sharma. “This app will accompany your game experience in a seamless way. While you’re playing a game you can say ‘Xbox, Snap Machinima’ and the Snap app will open along side your game, whatever game you’re playing. We’ll know what game you’re playing and we can immediately start serving up content exclusively created to accompany that gaming experience.”

The app will eventually be even more sophisticated by using data from the game to pinpoint precisely where you are and serving up content related to that. “Launch games will be enhanced with a feature we call Machinima Wingman,” said Sharma. “Suddenly you’ll have a buddy alongside you that can give you tips, tricks, tutorials. As it evolves over time we’ll have access to robust data and real-time game telemetry. Over the course of the year we’ll be releasing more and more enhancements to the application as we get feedback. We’ll know you’ve gotten stuck on a particular level for a certain period of time, and we can offer up video experiences that help you pass that level, win a fight or complete a lap in record time, things like that.”

In the next few weeks Machinima will provide a list of the initial titles that will be part of the program, and over time Machinima will increase the number of games covered. While initially the content won’t be related to your specific place in the game, “real-time game telemetry will be rolling out over the next several months,” said Sharma. “We’ll know where you are and can serve up contextually relevant content.” It’s also useful for non-gaming situations, too, letting you bring up Machinima content of all types while watching a football game or a movie – a common desire among multi-tasking oriented Millennials.

You won’t be limited to putting up video alongside your game on the big screen, as the app will allow you to push that content to your smartphone or tablet via Xbox SmartGlass. “The integration with SmartGlass is part of this strategy,” said Sharma. “The launch will be just the tip of the spear. You’ll be able to decide how you want to experience the video content — you can have the video populating your tablet sitting next to you so it’s not interfering with your gameplay experience.”

Creating all of this content does require spending, and Machinima is ready with monetization plans to make this a profitable enterprise. “At the launch it will be ad-free,” said Sharma. “Our Xbox 360 app is advertising enabled and monetized through advertising. At only a few months old, it’s the fastest downloaded app on the Xbox 360 over the last 12 months. The Xbox One app will have all of the same elements as our Xbox 360 app. The curated libraries that accompany games are a new feature on the Xbox One, but all of the Xbox 360 content we create will be available on the Xbox One app, and all of that content will be advertising supported.”

Microsoft is planning original video content for the Xbox One, with a Halo series already announced, and Machinima is also planning for that. “The Xbox One app is part of our larger, direct-to-consumer multiplatform strategy,” said Sharma. “Those experiences are about delivering original content, and that content ranges from amazing partner content from our partner network, to the day-to-day content we make in our studios, all the way to our premium episodic series. We’re developing things right now that would be windowed first on the Xbox, or released on the Xbox as part of a larger distribution strategy. The app will be an entertainment experience, and gaming is just one element of that.”

Millennials Tune Out TV, Tune In Online

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The viewership of online programming offered through the likes of Netflix and Hulu is on the rise — even more so than conventional cable television.

According to a study by The New York Times, roughly one in three Millennials manages to watch less TV than online videos. 50 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 34 report that they like watching online video at least once a day.

In general, 34 percent of those surveyed stated that they watch online video as a majority, compared to regular TV. Some turn off TV entirely in favor of online programming, including YouTube videos and other services like the ones mentioned above.

Only 20 percent of Generation Xers and 10 percent of Baby Boomers polled had the same preference as these, but it certainly speaks volumes in terms of how online video services have picked up over the years. One has to wonder how typical TV networks will try to keep up, outside of new kinds of programming, like the recent debut of such programs as The Blacklist and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Source: Mashable

Supercell Pulls Off Super Sale

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There’s huge money to be made in games, especially if you’re the developer of a hot property like Supercell. The team behind the popular iOS (and recently beta testing for Android) Clash of Clans has sold a 51 percent controlling stake in its company to Japanese telecoms firm Softbank and developer GungHo Online Entertainment, in a mega-deal worth $1.5 billion.

This is the latest in a line of strategic relationships with GungHo, which could easily pick up the online business for Supercell. The CEO of the company, Ilkka Paananen, said in a statement yesterday:

“We have received a strategic investment of $1.5 billion from SoftBank and GungHo. This new partnership will accelerate Supercell towards our goal of being the first truly global games company, and gives us enough time to get there…

At Supercell, one of our greatest aspirations is to become the first truly global games company, one that has a strong foothold in both the West and the East, including Japan, Korea and China. We want to build a company that people all over the globe will look back in 30 years and talk about all the great games that we developed and the impact they had on people’s lives. The same way I personally feel about Nintendo, for example.

This is a lofty goal and getting there takes persistence, passion, and luck – but just as importantly, it takes time, and requires a lot of patience. Even if we have had a pretty good start on our journey, it is still very early days. Creating history takes time.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Ubisoft Delays Next-Gen Titles

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Just when it looked like nothing could stop Ubisoft from completely dominating the holidays, along comes a delay that changes its 2014 outlook.

Sandwiched in-between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and South Park: The Stick of Truth, the innovative third-person action game Watch Dogs was set to make big waves with a November arrival on current and next-gen game systems. Today, Ubisoft changed the release date  to somewhere past April 2014, citing that it wanted to work more on the game to make it even better.

The company stated the following regarding the delay:

“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until Spring 2014.”

“We know a lot of you are probably wondering ‘why now ‘ We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune every detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the way you respond on the web, at events, press conferences and during other opportunities we have to interact. Your passion is what drives us. We can’t wait to see you in Chicago next Spring. We are confident you’ll love this game as much as we love working on it.”

In addition, the multiplayer-oriented racing game The Crew was also pushed into a mid-2014 release cycle, though a specific release date hasn’t been given on it just yet.

Both of these delays have forced Ubisoft to change its financial outlook for the season.

“Our long term goal is to win the next generation. The tough decisions we are taking today to fully realize the major potential of our new creations have an impact on our short-term performance. We are convinced that, longer term, they will prove to be the right decisions both in terms of satisfaction for our fans and in terms of value creation for our shareholders. We are building franchises that will become perennial pillars of Ubisoft’s financial performance. In a context of growing successes for mega-blockbusters, the additional time given to the development of our titles will allow them to fulfill their huge ambitions and thus offer players even more exceptional experiences” stated Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot.

“Fueled by strong momentum for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, calendar 2014 will see the return of growth to the console market. Combined with the quality of our line-up and our strong financial situation, this growth will allow us to achieve record operating income in fiscal 2014-15 and 2015-16.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

PSN Launches PS4 Game Pre-Orders

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The PlayStation 4 is just under a month away from arriving in the U.S. market, and Sony is already giving gamers the opportunity to purchase some select games through their current PlayStation 3 consoles.

The company launched pre-orders for two games, Warframe and Knack, on the PlayStation Store. Knack, the cartoony platformer featuring a character made up of various particle pieces, is available for $59.99, while the third-person multiplayer shooter Warframe is free of charge, with microtransactions expected to be introduced upon the game’s release.

In addition, 2K Sports has a combination deal for its basketball sim NBA 2K14. For $99.99, fans can purchase both the PlayStation 3 version of the game for immediate download, and gain access to the PlayStation 4 digital edition once it releases on November 15th. Though that’s a steeper price than the $10 upgrade fee being charged for other games, it’s still a decent offer for fans of the series.

Knack, Warframe and NBA 2K14 will arrive next month alongside the PlayStation 4.

Source: Polygon

Microsoft: Let Gamers Choose Digital Or Retail

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Even though digital games are on the rise for Xbox and PlayStation consoles – and will continue to do so with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 arriving next month – there’s still plenty of room for retail releases, according to Microsoft corporate VP Phil Harrison.

In an interview with MCV UK, Harrison explained that despite digital growth, retailers have nothing to fear as far as a lack of physical products. “On a macro-global scale, the world is clearly moving in a digital direction. It is, I think, an unstoppable, inexorable momentum. We are going to see the world be truly digital. But with Xbox One we quite correctly give people choice. They can consume and play games on disc, and get all the benefits of that. Or they can consume games digitally. Remember our games will launch day-and-date on both digital and physical, so it’s up to the user to choose which medium they want and have the benefits of either method.”

Regarding how retailers would “survive,” Harrison stated, “I think if the medium is shifting that does not mean the business model has to shift. From research we have done, consumers like to buy things from retail stores. What they might be buying is a time card or a store value card. Retailers have a very important part to play in the future of the ecosystem, but what they merchandise might shift slightly.”

Read the full interview here.

Source: MCV UK