The entertainment industry in general has been fortunate to avoid a lot of the economic strife other industries such as the housing market are enduring.
For the Blu-ray format, this is the most important holiday season yet where HD DVD is officially off the radar and titles are being released at a fast and furious pace.
With this in mind, Parks Associates earlier this year predicted 5 million Blu-ray players would sell globally in 2008, up from a combined 1.6 million combined HD DVD and Blu-ray players in 2007. At the time it appeared the economic climate would not affect the forecast.
In an email to BetaNews, Parks Associates has revised down their estimates by 25 percent, or 4.3 million worldwide and 2.2 million stateside, citing a softening of player sales that began in September. This is the month when player sales should have increased as holiday "deals" and revised pricing began to pop up at various retailers.
Codemasters has today officially announced FUEL. Set to revolutionise multi-terrain racing with the largest environment ever created in race gaming, FUEL will present players with an astonishing no-boundaries playfield that's over 5,000 square miles (14,000+ km²) in size.
Creating the ultimate competitive go-anywhere racing experience, FUEL will have players competing across wildly different terrain and executing spectacular death-defying stunts as they race dozens of varied two and four-wheeled rides and explore this epic world on an unprecedented scale.
FUEL is set in an alternate present in which whole swathes of the globe have been ravaged by the effects of climate change brought on by decades of environmental abuse. Here oil prices have rocketed and yet a new breed of racing junkie takes to the wastelands, pitting their grungy home-tuned vehicles against each other in an all-new extreme sport as they compete ... More »
After a federal judge awarded the MPAA a summary judgment against former BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy late last year, the only question left was how much it would end up costing TorrentSpy's admins.
We've got our answer, and it comes in the form of a staggering $110 million damage award, or $30,000 in statutory damages for each of the nearly 3,700 files in the MPAA's complaint.
The MPAA announced the award in a press release (PDF) earlier today.
"This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. "The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders."
Snake’s tale might be in its final stages, but the hype surrounding it seems to be growing at an unprecedented level.
The community has waited with bated breath and digested the release of every ounce of gameplay, trailers, retrospective chronicles arising from the stables of Kojima productions, and this syndrome of hype seems spiraling choke gamers out of their last ounce of breath.
Well adding fuel to fire, here are a few healthy does of petrol to douse (or rather flame) expectations about the game further.
- The introduction cut scene for the game is close to 17 minutes long (that’s a short film in itself). If we remember that once in 1964 (MGS 3) Kojima implemented pseudo-interactive cutscenes, well there is certain well defined upgrade to this feature with probable camera shifts during the cutscenes.
- An average in-game cutscene is about 5 to 7 minutes long and as we all know there are no loading times between cutscene and ... More »
The first manned, hydrogen-powered plane has been successfully tested in the skies above Spain, its makers say.
The small, propeller-driven craft, developed by aviation giant Boeing, made three short flights at an airfield south of Madrid, the company said.
It was powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which produce only heat and water as exhaust products.
The tests could pave the way for a new generation of greener aircraft, the company said.
Boeing's chief technology officer John Tracy said the flights were "a historical technological success" and "full of promises for a greener future".
Small future
Three test flights of the two-seater aircraft took place in February and March at an airfield at Ocana, south of Madrid. The plane was modified to include a hybrid battery and fuel cell system developed by UK firm Intelligent Energy.
The fuel cells, which create electricity by combining oxygen and ... More »
As our bat-eared readers discovered when the game was first released, the Wii edition of Guitar Hero III, though advertised as possessing Dolby Surround Sound capabilities, could only duplicate one channel of audio through multiple speakers (a.k.a. mono sound).
Incensed, Nintendo's virtual troubadours demanded action -- Activision responded with a somewhat less-than-timely disc replacement program. Now, four months after the game was released, Activision has announced another method of atonement for their single-channel sins.
Instead of replacing your half-mute disc with a standard one (though this option is still available), you can now replace said disc with cold, hard cash (or warm, soft cash, depending on your local climate and the weariness of the bills you receive).
While we're sure this policy will be exploited by those who tire of faux rocking and simply want the cash, it's refreshing to see Actie-V face their shortcomings so directly --... More »
The official Conflict: Denied Ops Web site is now live, offering new details about this first person shooter under development for the PC, PS3 and X360 and due to ship later this year.
Previously known as Crossfire, the game takes place in today's delicately balanced political climate, focusing on two covert field operatives, experts in weapons and military tactics.
Conflict: Denied Ops allows players the freedom to switch seamlessly, at any point, between these two operatives to lay down cover fire, explore different paths through levels, create a distraction or pin down the enemy under crossfire.
Ok, ok. I get it. Not unlike the 'video games as art' argument morality is a tired topic when it comes to video games, but in the current climate of this new generation it is certainly one worth discussing.
Video games are changing, offering new experiences and interactions that both literally and figuratively take you to the next level. Better graphics, higher production values, a strong sense of immersion, realistic relations with more-human-than-ever characters. With such an evolution taking place in the creation process of each video game the question of morality is always ready to rear its ugly head.
It's a point of contention that's as old as the industry itself, constantly dissected and viewed from every angle. Since the first shot was fired in SpaceWar games have portrayed violent behavior in such a way that allows the player to define their own moral framework.
Not all video games are violent affairs, but an incredible amount will allow... More »
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