Lottery players in dozens of states hit the jackpot Sunday as two national games — Powerball and Mega Millions — began selling tickets in the same states. The move is likely to increase jackpots and promises greater revenue for cash-strapped state and local governments. Lottery critics, however …
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Powerball, Mega Millions share turf – USA Today
One of the more interesting aspects of the annual Game Developers Conference is the Independent Games Festival, a showcase for some of the best and brightest people and ideas in the industry. Hidden among the next big indie games is the Student Showcase. Here, 10 student-developed games compete for the top prize and $2,500, and past Showcase winners have gone on to create games like Portal, Flower, and de Blob. This year featured a record 190 entries, and the chosen 10 showcase a bright future for the video game industry.
Let’s take a look at what students are bringing to the world of gaming; the breadth of ideas is impressive.
DES MOINES, Iowa – Dozens of states have begun selling Powerball and Mega Millions tickets in what could be a step toward an eventual national lottery . Margaret DeFrancisco, co-chair of a committee for both lotteries and president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery Corp ., says tickets for both games …
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States begin offering Mega Millions, Powerball tix – YAHOO!
Dead Rising 2 will allow you to duct tape items together to create new weapons. Example? Chain saw attached to boat oar.
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Capcom
Many developers have been hard at work cooking up ideas for Microsoft’s ambitious Project Natal ever since the peripheral was announced at last year’s E3. But aside from Lionhead Studios’ Milo & Kate, we’ve seen very little of what we can expect when Natal gets released later this year. Now we have some details on an already canceled project by indie studio Arkedo.
The developer has posted some concept screenshots and parts of the game’s design document online, revealing what could have been a very interesting title. Called 2 Finger Heroes, the game was to be a traditional side-scrolling beat ‘em up, albeit with a unique control scheme. Characters would be controlled by moving your fingers, while special moves could be done by incorporating your whole hand. The environment could even be affected by moving your arms folded at your chest.
The design doc was created in 12 days, and was an attempt by Arkedo to prove it could make high-def games. The studio has already released a pair of DS titles as well as several Xbox Live Indie Games.
“So Natal had a great user interface, and we tried to play with concepts which were not possible before,” one of the developers wrote in a forum post. “Something that would not feel old, hopefully. And most important, something we would have fun making.”
The result was 2 Finger Heroes, which Arkedo describes like this: “a silly tale of friendly invaders who did not have enough time to scan the entire human body! So they are left on Earth as merely fingers (yup, scan was 3 percent complete), but with the WILL TO LIVE AND FIGHT THEIR NEMESIS, THE GIANT FOOT FROM OUTERSPACE!”
One of the more interesting aspects of this story is that it brings to light some of the drawbacks of Project Natal, something that hasn’t really been discussed before. While the gesture-based controls were interesting, they also provided some unique challenges.
“One of the design flaws of this, apart from the fact that it demanded some very precise pattern recognition from the Natal system, is that it would have been HELL to localize,” the developer wrote. “Yup, what can be understood as the victory sign in France, could be a terrible insult in the UK, for instance. And we are not even talking about Italian. Oh, the possibilities…”
While it’s disappointing that 2 Finger Heroes may never see a release, this at least gives us an example of the type of experiences that developers are thinking about. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the actual software that will be available over the next few months leading up to the project’s release.
This year at CES, the big story was 3D. Every meeting, every speech, and every party was, at some point, interrupted by some executive or PR person telling us to put on our glasses. Sony famously brought out Taylor Swift, then asked attendees to watch Taylor Swift perform live in 3D on video screens… even though she was right there.
You can ready our own Jon Stokes’ take on the differing 3D displays and technology from CES to get caught up on the story. My question is: did the show sell you on the idea of 3D? The technology seemed mature and ready for your home—as long as you don’t mind wearing those ubiquitous glasses—but will interest from the press and electronics giants translate into consumer spending?
After reading all the coverage of 3D displays at CES, are you excited about the technology?(survey)
If you were buying a display in 2010, how much extra would you pay for 3D?(opinion)
We realize there are many determining factors here, such as amount and cost of content, but we wanted to get a gut feeling for how important 3D is to our readers. Did CES convince you that you need to have a 3D television? Did it leave you cold? Are you looking forward to picking up a new 3D-capable display this year? Please vote, then share your thoughts in comments.
Ubisoft has lowered its third quarter and full-year profit estimates due to weaker-than-expected performance of titles such as James Cameron’s Avatar, the slowing down of the DS market, and weak performance of the publisher’s catalog titles. How bad does it look? The company expects losses of $72 million in the fiscal year, from estimated profits of $102 million. Unfortunately, part of that lowering is due to Splinter Cell Conviction being pushed from February to April of this year, and R.U.S.E. being pushed into the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Both titles will now be included in the next fiscal year’s earnings.
Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft, pointed to strong competition and a contraction of the DS market as a cause of the company’s problems. “Against this backdrop and with a view to further reduce our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the two consoles that are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010,” he stated. Assassin’s Creed 2 is already enjoying a 40 percent increase in sales from the first title.
In an interesting twist, it was announced that a new Assassin’s Creed property would be released in the next fiscal year—starting in April—and that the game will include multiplayer. Other titles coming that show the new push into the PS3 and Xbox 360 include Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Lonnie Acton loved playing video games. Kenny Fry, at age 61, liked to flirt. Alonso Ruffin would sometimes preach to his caretakers
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Disabled victims in Ohio crash remembered – MSNBC
Sony surprises community members at CES MAG event with free copies of game mailed to their house. The room erupts in cheers.
The employment outlook for 2009 in the video game industry was sunnier than many expected. There were a few hundred more people working in the industry in 2009 than in ‘08.
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PC World