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May Retail Video Game Sales Numbers Take a Nosedive

Game Politics - 53 min 40 sec ago

According to sales data collected by NPD Group, sales of new videogame products fell 25 percent in May, with game sales of console hitting their lowest levels in more than a decade. While NPD and other analysts are chalking this decline up to anticipation for new consoles like the Xbox One and PS4, they fail to mention the dramatic shift to digital sales not covered by the NPD.

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Games for Change Announces SEXECT.ORG Game Design Competition Winner

Game Politics - 2 hours 16 min ago

Games for Change has announced that the game concept Safe Sex with Friends is the winner of the 2013 SEXECT.ORG Game Design Competition. The three finalists were Safe Sex with Friends, SexEd Super Task Force, and Check/Mate. After hearing presentations from all three finalists (during the 10th Annual Games for Change Festival) and thoughtful deliberation by jurors (Matt Parker, Lana Dakan, Lucinda Holt, and Naomi Clark,) Safe Sex with Friends was selected as the winning game.

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Zampella: Titanfall "not gunning for Call of Duty"

GamesIndustry.biz news - 3 hours 11 min ago
Respawn co-founder says shooters aren't direct competition, explains absence of single-player campaign
Categories: Gaming News

EA Sports: Ignite Engine Has to Be Adjusted for PCs

Game Politics - 3 hours 16 min ago

If you are a PC owner that enjoys playing EA Sports titles like FIFA, then I have some sad news for you: you won't be playing the latest editions of these games. You'll be weeping alongside Wii U owners who also have been told that EA Sports titles are not available to you. The reasoning behind this, according to EA? Most of your PC rigs are just not powerful enough to handle EA's new Ignite Engine - the technology that was touted during EA's E3 press event being used to develop PS4 and Xbox One sports titles.

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Humble Bundle for Android 6 Launches

Game Politics - 3 hours 29 min ago

Humble Bundle for Android 6 is alive and kicking, offering five games for Android-based hand-helds. Most of the games are also available for Windows, Mac and Linux too - and all of them are DRM-Free. The games include Aquaria, Fractal, Organ Trail: Director’s Cut, Stealth Bastard Deluxe, and Pulse (Android only). If you pay more than the average price you can also get Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword: Director’s Cut. You'll also get digital soundtracks from all the games.

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2013 U.S. Wireless Network Tests: AT&T Fastest, Verizon Most Reliable

Slashdot Updates - 3 hours 35 min ago
adeelarshad82 writes "For the fourth year running, PCMag sent drivers out on U.S. roads to test the nation's Fastest Mobile Networks. Using eight identical Samsung phones, the drivers tested out eight separate networks for four major carriers across 30 cities evenly spread across six regions. Using Sensorly's 2013 software, a broad suite of tests were conducted every three minutes: a 'ping' to test network latency, multi-threaded HTTP upload and download tests including separate 'time to first byte' measures, a 4MB single-threaded file download, a 2MB single-threaded file upload, the download of a 1MB Web page with 70 elements, and 100kbps and 500kbps UDP streams designed to simulate streaming media. Nearly 90,000 data cycles later, the data not only revealed the fastest networks (AT&T) and the most consistent (Verizon), but also other interesting points. The tests recorded the fastest download speed (66.11 Mbits/sec) in New Orleans and the best average in Austin (27.25 Mbits/sec), both for AT&T's LTE network. The tests also found T-Mobile's HSPA network to have the worst Average-Time-To-First-Byte, even when compared with AT&T HSPA network. Also according to the tests, Sprint's LTE network didn't even come close to competing with other LTE networks, to the point that in some cities its LTE network speed averaged less than T-Mobile's HSPA network speed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Categories: Science & Tech News

PS4 Games to be Priced at $60

Game Politics - 4 hours 10 min ago

Yesterday it was revealed that Microsoft planned to hold the line on pricing for retail game discs for Xbox One to current levels at right around $60. Today we learn that Sony will use the same price point for PlayStation 4 retail game discs.

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How Ubiquitous Autonomous Cars Could Affect Society (Video)

Slashdot Updates - 4 hours 17 min ago
We talked with Peter Wayner about autonomous cars on June 5. He had a lot to say on this topic, to the point where we seem to be doing a whole series of interviews with him because autonomous cars might have a lot of unanticipated effects on our lives and our economy. Heck, Peter has enough to say about driverless cars to fill a book, Future Ride, which we hope he finishes editing soon because we (Tim and Robin) want to read it. While that book is brewing, watch for some thoughts on how autonomous cars (and delivery vans) might affect us in the near future.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Categories: Science & Tech News

Video: How Western mobile games conquered China

Gamasutra - News - 4 hours 38 min ago

Google Play, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China -- so how can Western mobile games succeed? Yodo1's Henry Fong suggests a complete re-write for marketing. ...

Categories: Gaming News

First Particle Comprising Four Quarks Discovered

Slashdot Updates - 5 hours 3 min ago
ananyo writes "Physicists have resurrected a particle that may have existed in the first hot moments after the Big Bang. Arcanely called Zc(3900), it is the first confirmed particle made of four quarks, the building blocks of much of the Universe's matter (abstract one, abstract two). Until now, observed particles made of quarks have contained only three quarks (such as protons and neutrons) or two quarks (such as the pions and kaons found in cosmic rays)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Categories: Science & Tech News

Protecting immersion: 'Whyproofing' your game

Gamasutra - News - 5 hours 3 min ago

Droqen (IGF nominee Starseed Pilgrim) writes about what really breaks immersion -- bad creative decisions on the part of a game's creator -- and how to use the game's world to "whyproof" it. ...

Categories: Gaming News

Get a job: Activision looking for a Tools Technology Director

Gamasutra - News - 5 hours 18 min ago

"Reporting to the VP of Technology, this role's primary objective is to direct the development of significant tools technology across multiple Activision studios and titles." ...

Categories: Gaming News

Google and Yandex Voice Opposition to Russia's 'SOPA'

Game Politics - 5 hours 40 min ago

Google and Russia's biggest search engine Yandex are voicing their opposition to a new bill that would block sites accused of hosting (in some way) copyrighted material. The new bill, which has already passed Russia's State Duma, is being called Russia's version of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill gives intellectual property holders the ability to sue a web site that they claim is hosting copyrighted materials. The accused site then has 72 hours to remove the offending material (without the option of reviewing the claim).

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Jon 'Maddog' Hall On Project Cauã: a Server In Every Highrise

Slashdot Updates - 5 hours 46 min ago
Qedward writes with an excerpt at TechWorld about a new project from Jon "Maddog" Hall, which is about to launch in Brazil: "The vision of Project Cauã is to promote more efficient computing following the thin client/server model, while creating up to two million privately-funded high-tech jobs in Brazil, and another three to four million in the rest of Latin America. Hall explained that Sao Paolo in Brazil is the second largest city in the Western Hemisphere and has about twelve times the population density of New York City. As a result, there are a lot of people living and working in very tall buildings. Project Cauã will aim to put a server system in the basement of all of these tall buildings and thin clients throughout the building, so that residents and businesses can run all of their data and applications remotely."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Categories: Science & Tech News

'Next-gen' isn't just a new console: Emerging trends from E3 2013

Gamasutra - News - 5 hours 50 min ago

While everyone else was focused on the Microsoft-Sony horse race, editor Patrick Miller was paying attention to the Oculus Rift, eSports, and a collection of creator-driven games as the real next gen. ...

Categories: Gaming News

Mobile Game Developer - Sunstorm Games Las Vegas, NV, USA

Gamasutra - Jobs - 5 hours 51 min ago

Sunstorm Games, a highly successful mobile games developer with a reputation for having a fun, collaborative work environment, is seeking multiple developers for our Las Vegas studio. As we continue to grow, we are seeking several mobile developers to assist us in our ongoing expansion of our highly successful product offerings of over 80 titles on iOS, Android, and all other casual gaming platforms. We need creative, smart, eager, and team oriented individuals to join our successful group.

Categories: Game Dev Jobs

Today on New Scientist

New Scientist - Breaking news - 5 hours 51 min ago
All the latest on newscientist.com: living without oxygen, writing the body, how the Med is killing the Atlantic, Lego Curiosity, slimy computers, and more    

Categories: Science & Tech News

China aims to slash its air pollution by 2017

New Scientist - Breaking news - 6 hours 1 min ago
After suffering the worst smog on record earlier this year, China has decided to cut the emission of air pollutants by 30 per cent in 5 years    

Categories: Science & Tech News

The Witcher 3 DLC Free on PC

Game Politics - 6 hours 5 min ago

If you are someone that will buy CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and are concerned about all the nonsense associated with DRM and used game sales blocking found on the Xbox One, and you want free DLC (that you likely won't get for free on the PS4), then your best bet seems to be found on the PC.

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Texas Law Kills Warrantless Searches of Email

Game Politics - 6 hours 14 min ago

While the rest of the country worries about what the NSA is doing with our data on the Internet, the state of Texas is securing the privacy of its citizens' emails. On Friday Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) signed into law a privacy bill that will guard Texans from warrantless searches by state law enforcement officials. House Bill 2268 in effect requires that state investigators obtain a warrant to access emails no matter how old the communication might be.

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