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Archived News:
Activision Blizzard announces first quarter 2015 financial results, calling
them "better than expected." These also include their latest player count for
World of Warcraft, saying the MMORPG ending the quarter with 7.1 million
subscribers. Here's a summary of the financials: "For the quarter ended March
31, 2015, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $1.28 billion, as
compared with $1.11 billion for the first quarter of 2014. On a non-GAAP basis,
the company’s net revenues were $703 million, as compared with $772 million for
the first quarter of 2014. For the first quarter, GAAP net revenues from digital
channels were a record $581 million and represented a Q1 record 45% of the
company’s total revenues. On a non-GAAP basis, net revenues from digital
channels were a Q1 record $538 million and represented a record 76% of the
company’s total revenues."
Steam News announces the
release of Project CARS,
the high-fidelity racing simulation. Here's the deal: Guided, tested, and
approved by a passionate community of racing fans and real-life drivers, Project
CARS represents the next-generation of racing simulation as the ultimate
combination of fan desire and developer expertise.
Discover an unrivaled immersion fuelled by world-class graphics and handling
that allows you to truly feel the road. Create a driver, pick from a huge
variety of motorsports in a dynamic career mode and write your own tale in an
intense online multiplayer.
In spite of what we heard yesterday, the
Euro Truck Simulator 2 website
now offers the release of the Scandinavia expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2,
which adds new land and sea routes to the cargo transportation game. There are
new version 1.17.1 patches and an updated version of the demo to go along with this, and these
are mirrored on The Patches Scrolls.
Here's a trailer along
with word: Get ready for the largest and most exciting DLC for Euro Truck
Simulator 2 so far featuring Sweden, Norway and Denmark! New ferry terminals
allow you to board ferries directly and access the coastal cities plus use new
sea routes to ports in northern Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
Discover 27 Scandinavian cities including Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, Oslo,
Stavanger, Bergen, København, Aalborg and Esbjerg...
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces
that Blitzkrieg 3
is now available in Early Access, offering Standard and Deluxe Editions, each of
which includes free copies of the first two games in the series for those who
buy in the next week. Here's word on the third installment in the World War II
RTS series: Blitzkrieg 3 is an online real time strategy game, where
tactical multiplayer combat, player's base developement and historical battles
merge with each other to create a unique gameplay experience. With no
subscription, and no microtransactions.
The 35% discount for The Witcher 3 on
Green Man Gaming mentioned yesterday raised concerns
at CD Projekt RED, as the site is not one of their authorized resellers.
They tell GameSpot they do not know where these keys originate,
and post to their forums a request that fans not buy them, implying this is
somehow depriving them of revenue.
Shacknews has a response from Green Man Gaming saying they have purchased
the keys legitimately from third parties after being denied the chance to buy
them directly, which they say is because CD Project RED is favoring their own
new Galaxy platform over other vendors. They also state that they are absorbing
any additional discount they are offering, though they still hope to work out a
way of cooperating better. Word is: "We would heartily welcome a renewed
dialogue with CDPR, and are keen to continue to not only support the launch of
The Witcher 3, but to keep celebrating and bringing the whole catalogue of CDPR
titles to a worldwide audience, as we have done since 2011." Thanks nin.
Link of the Day:
Cube in a cube. Thanks
HARDOCP.
The
Oculus VR website announces that the first commercial release of the Oculus
Rift VR headsets is planned for first quarter of next year. Here's word: Since
the earliest days of the Oculus Kickstarter, the Rift has been shaped by gamers,
backers, developers, and enthusiasts around the world. Today, we’re incredibly
excited to announce that the Oculus Rift will be shipping to consumers in Q1
2016, with pre-orders later this year.
The Rift delivers on the dream of consumer VR with compelling content, a full
ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed
specifically for virtual reality. It’s a system designed by a team of extremely
passionate gamers, developers, and engineers to reimagine what gaming can be.
The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent
Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and
standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated
ergonomics for a more natural fit.
In the weeks ahead, we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software,
input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to
the Rift. Next week, we’ll share more of the technical specifications here on
the Oculus blog.
Virtual reality is going to transform gaming, film, entertainment,
communication, and much more. If you’re interested in building a next-generation
VR game or application, everything you need to start developing for the Rift is
available at the Oculus Developer Center.
E3 is just around the corner — this is only the beginning.
Excalibur Publishing announces the Scandinavia expansion is coming Friday
to Euro Truck Simulator 2, the cargo transportation simulation. They are
offering preorders of the digital and boxed editions of the game through
this page, saying there is still time to get the retail version in the mail
by Friday, and reminding potential customers they need the original game in
order to play. Here's word on what the pack includes: Featuring Sweden,
Norway and Denmark, you'll have access to mile upon mile across these three
beautiful Nordic countries. Fifteen new ports and ferry locations also allow you
to board ferries directly and to discover 25 Scandinavian cities like Stockholm,
Gothenburg, Malmo, Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Copenhagen, Aalborg and Esbjerg.
Reflecting how ferries are an integral part of Scandinavian transportation, the
developer, SCS Software, has painstakingly simulated the ships and Nordic ferry
locations you'd see in real life today. Many of the ports in this pack are the
same size as entire cities depicted in mainland Europe elsewhere within the
game.
The sea transportation network also allows the player to use alternate
connections between locations in Scandinavia and other territories of the map
with direct routes to the United Kingdom and Poland.
Features:
- New trailer models including semi-trailers for
transporting livestock
- Introducing the Mercedes Benz Actro 2014 cab
- New industries to service with 80 new cargo types
which include foodstuffs, machinery, construction plus deliveries to Volvo
and Scania dealerships across Europe
- Updates to the core Euro Truck Simulator 2 game
- Brand new rims and tyres upgrades
- Brand new Viking Legends paint jobs included
Dolby Labs announces that Star Wars: Battlefront will be the first
game to support their Dolby Atmos system for 3D sound placement (thanks
ASLayerAODsk). Here's how this works: What distinguishes Dolby Atmos from
earlier sound technologies is also what makes it perfect for gaming. Dolby Atmos
is object-based sound. That means that every object in a game scene – a speeding
car, a rocket, a charging tiger – can have a sound associated with it. The sound
moves precisely as the object moves. That produces sound that’s much more
realistic and enveloping than older sound technologies, which could only assign
sounds to channels, like your right or left surround speakers.
Star Wars Battlefront Key ArtGames and gaming platforms take a long time to
develop, and it’s too soon to make any announcements about other specific gaming
products with Dolby Atmos. But Dolby has a long history in gaming. Gamers know
that for years virtually all the best games have been mixed in Dolby® surround
sound. We’re excited about working with partners like EA to bring the next
generation of sound, Dolby Atmos, into the best game experiences of the
future.
Deadline has news that Hulu has secured rights to make a video game
television series based on
Myst, the point-and-click adventure released in 1993. The game was known
for its beautiful environments, but was light on plot and story, so it will be
interesting to see how this plays out. Here's word: Written by Daugherty,
Myst blends elements of science fiction and fantasy. It will explore the origins
of the island of Myst from the game where a man wakes up on a mystery island
with absolutely no idea who he is, where is, or how he got there.
Legendary Television acquired the rights to Cyan Worlds’ adventure game Myst
last fall. Legendary brought in Tolmach, who has a first-look TV deal at the
company, and feature writer Evan Daugherty, who was interested in penning the
adaptation.
A
Steam Community Group Announcement has details on GoatZ, an expansion
coming tomorrow to
Goat Simulator, offering survival/horror gameplay in the vein of DayZ,
the not-revolting half of the inspiration for the add-on's title (thanks
Dorkly via Ant). Here's a
release trailer, and
here's word: That’s right. GoatZ is the latest DLC for Goat Simulator and
it will be the only survival game on Steam that isn’t in Early Access!*
*not totally sure if this is even true, to be honest we didn’t bother to look it
up. But it’s still pretty funny, right?
Features
- Mandatory crafting system because everyone else is doing it
- Zombies that bug out. There’s a pun here about actual living bugs, but
we’re not going to bother
- You can craft anything in the world, as long as it’s one of the half
dozen weapons in the game
- Zombies, because this is a zombie game, remember?
- A pretty big new map with some stuff in it
- Completely realistic survival mode where you have to eat every damn five
minutes to survive because Dean Hall & Garry Newman said so
- Tons of unlockable new goats with special powers (wow, never thought I’d
ever write that sentence a couple of years ago. Also hi mom)
Continue here to read the full story.
The time may have come for my television, a venerable "Captain Kirk"-style model
from Samsung that uses the now out-of-favor DLP technology. A recent whine had
me worried that the unit's color wheel was having trouble, and sure enough it
now seems to have failed altogether. It still emits an extra hum of sorts, but
no longer displays color. This recalls a bygone era where they actually still
sold TVs that could only display black & white, but of course in those days they
were just a trifle smaller, so in a way this is pretty cool to have a
widescreen, high definition, black & white TV.
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