hypnosec writes “World of Warcarft, the gaming industry’s most popular franchise and one of Blizzard’s cash cows, is bleeding subscribers with 1.3 million defecting from the game in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Blizzard revealed a subscriber decline of over 14%, the total now standing at 8.3 million in their earnings call press release (PDF).”
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Valve has a surprisingly varied staff roster. Mike Ambinder is the company’s very own experimental psychologist and he’s been outlining some of Valve’s work with biofeedback technology, including eye-motion controls for Portal 2 and perspiration-based gaming adjustments on Left 4 Dead. Mentioning these developments at the NeuroGaming Conference last week, Ambinder notes that both are still at an experimental stage, but that “there is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotion [and] what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself.”
In Left 4 Dead, test subjects had their sweat monitored, with values assigned to how much they were responding to the action. This data was fed back into the game, where designers attempted to modify (and improve) the experience. In a test where players had four minutes to shoot 100 enemies, calmer participants would progress normally, but if they got nervous, the game would speed up and they would have less time to shoot. When it came to the eye-tracking iteration of Portal 2, the new controls apparently worked well, but also necessitated separating aiming and viewpoint to ensure it worked. With Valve already involving itself in wearable computing, it should make both notions easier to accomplish if it decides to bring either experiment to fans. Venture Beat managed to record Ambinder’s opening address at the conference — we’ve added it after the break.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Venture Beat
Roku, the nifty streaming video device that brings a variety of easily-accessible content to your television, just reached its newest milestone: the shipment of its 5 millionth device in the United States. The massively popular device is used to stream what has amounted to billions of hours of TV shows and movies, among other content.
Roku just announced via its blog that it has sold 5 million of its streaming Internet media players since its launch back in 2008. The devices have managed to stream a total of 8 billion pieces of content in that time, impressive for a device that started out as essentially a dedicated Netflix box. Roku recently introduced its third-generation hardware to market with the Roku 3, which went on sale in March.
TechCrunch
Companies like HTC and LG have an uphill climb following the Samsung Galaxy S4 announcement. Here’s what they must do. [Read more]
CNET News
The chief of Sims creator and EA subsidiary Maxis indicates that a few good things are coming to weary residents of SimCity, who’ve experienced disconnections, lengthy queues, and other woes since the game’s launch. [Read more]
CNET News
Brightcove, one of the leading cloud content delivery providers in the world, today announced an end to a major experiment, and the start of something new for its mobile video app platform. The company says it is shuttering its HTML5-based App Cloud efforts, which took a hybrid approach to creating mobile video apps that worked across platform using open web standards, and switching to a native player approach targeting Android and iOS device specifically.
Teammates and other players express shock and offer condolences to the families of City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins. [Read more]
CNET News
Ever since 2000, game consoles have effectively (if not very assertively) been banned in China. There’s already been signs of a warming attitude with official plans for the Nintendo 3DS XL coming this December, but Sony may have slipped out hints of a fuller thaw without anyone noticing until now. A Sina Weibo user just discovered that the 160GB and 320GB versions of the previous-generation PlayStation 3, the CECH-3012, passed through China Compulsory Certificate approval in July — an odd move when the console couldn’t actually go on sale in an official capacity in current conditions. Certification is still far from a guarantee that Sony will actually sell the PS3 in the country, most of all when it’s a slightly outdated model of a console line that’s edging ever nearer to a replacement. The government certainly hasn’t commented on what the regulatory clearance means. If it ultimately leads to more gamers in Chengdu or Shanghai, however, we’re all for it.
Sony quietly gets PlayStation 3 certification in China, we hope for a few more Dynasty Warriors players originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Many fans may wonder why so many NBA players struggle with free throws, such as newly acquired Los Angeles Laker Dwight Howard. He made just three of 14 attempts in his Oct. 30 season debut — and less than one-half of his tries last season. New research may offer Howard and other NBA stars who struggle at the free-throw line a method to identify exactly why their shots go awry.
Heyzap has added a cool new feature to its social platform for mobile games — the ability to actually start playing games with other users.
The app already allowed users to check-in to games that they were playing (either manually in the Heyzapp app, or automatically through its many SDK integrations), to earn badges, and to find other players and games. However, in order to actually start playing a game with someone else, users had to manually share their in-game usernames with each other. That’s something “tons of users” were doing, says co-founder Jude Gomila, but it’s not exactly a graceful solution.
TechCrunch
An anonymous reader writes “Looking for an inexpensive means to capture audio from a dynamically moving crowd, I sampled many MP3 players’ recording capabilities. Ultimately the best bang-for-the-buck was refurbished SanDisk Sansa Clip+ devices ($ 26/ea) loaded with (open source) RockBox firmware. The most massively multi-track event was a thorium conference in Chicago where many attendees wore a Clip+. Volunteers worked the room with cameras, and audio capture was decoupled from video capture. It looked like this. Despite having (higher quality) ZOOM H1n and wireless mics, I’ve continued to use the RockBox-ified Clip+ devices … even if the H1n is running, the Clip+ serves as backup. There’s no worry about interference or staying within wireless mic range. The devices have 4GB capacity, and RockBox allows WAV capture. They’ll run at least 5 hours before the battery is depleted (with lots of storage left over). I would suggest sticking with 44kHz (mono) capture, as 48kHz is unreliable. To get an idea of their sound quality, here is a 10-person dinner conversation (about thorium molten salt nuclear reactors) in a very busy restaurant. I don’t know how else I could have isolated everyone’s dialog for so little money. (And I would NOT recommend Clip+ with factory firmware… they only support 22kHz and levels are too high for clipping on people’s collars.)” This video incorporating much of that captured audio is worth watching for its content as well as the interesting repurposing.
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If you’re going to revisit a certain underwater dystopia, you might as well have a ball. At least that’s the approach being taken by Sweden-based DIYer rasmadrak, who has decided to build a Bioshock-themed custom pinball machine just for kicks. The project is filled with lots of neat little touches from Rapture, including Little Sister vents and a few Big Daddy homages. The builder also does a pretty good job of drilling into the details and providing insight on the creation process — like the challenge in using two different systems such as Arduino and chipKIT together, for example — via detailed posts in the Poor Man’s Pinball! blog. The project proved to be a pleasant shock to the system for fellow pinball aficionado Ben Heck, who gave the project a sprinkling of Heckendorn love via Twitter. Pinball geeks can also follow the saga, so to speak, by checking out the source link below.
Filed under: Gaming
Bioshock custom rig is Big Daddy of pinball machines, gives players a taste of Rapture originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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An anonymous reader writes “Speaking at GDC Europe this week, BioWare Montreal’s Fernando Melo spoke about how the oft-disparaged first-day downloadable content for video games is actually something a significant amount of players want. ‘Melo argued that on the occasions when BioWare hasn’t provided DLC from day one, those players who complete the game quickly then complained that there was nothing more to play and asked for extra content. If DLC isn’t provided for these players, they may well move on to a different game and never come back to play DLC later on. As proof that day one DLC also works in terms of sales, Melo said that 53 percent of all sales for the first Dragon Age: Origins DLC pack — which was released on the same day as the full game — were made on release day.”
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Editor’s Note: Sales Marketing Manager Leslie Hitchcock is a non-editorial TechCrunch employee. In addition to working at TechCrunch and being super fashionable, she reviews startups and tech products occasionally on her personal blog, Leslie Just Joined.
“Marketing is the name we use to describe the promise a company makes, the story it tells, the authentic way it delivers on that promise.” –Seth Godin
In an effort to appear in touch with Silicon Valley, the traditional media has recently turned its eye on venture capital’s marketing efforts.
Venture capital is certainly a changing landscape, especially as of late. With the chattering classes abuzz about the current state of VC, the tech industry seems to be taking the recent visibility of local investors personally. Traditionally a quiet industry, firms are now actively touting themselves and it is making some people uncomfortable.
TechCrunch
Activision’s financial results for its second quarter have landed, and things are looking pretty good for the massive publisher. Net revenue came in at $ 1.075 billion for the year, which is actually better than the $ 950 million the company was expecting. Earnings per share landed at a pretty healthy $ 0.16, which was again ahead of
Well, that was quick. Earlier this week Bethesda’s Pete Hines promised that more information about the missing PC and PS3 releases of Dawnguard, Skyrim‘s first DLC, would be coming soon. When he said that, we didn’t think he meant it would be releasing soon, but apparently he did. Yes, Dawnguard is available on PC right
We’ve wondered ever since Roku’s media streamers went on sale at Walmart about a year ago when or if the retailer’s Vudu streaming service would be available on them, and that time may be drawing near. While there’s still no official word or appearance of the channel, Dave Zatz posted an image of an upcoming June 10th Walmart ad from SlickDeals.net for the Roku HD that includes a logo for Vudu. Of course, even if the app is released, as he mentions there’s no assurance they’d be able to handle the highest quality HDX streaming, but it would be one more way to get video on-demand, and access to cloud stored Ultraviolet movies.
Walmart ad hints at Vudu streaming on Roku players originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’re a fan of Plex’s media server software and Roku’s do-everything hockey puck media streamers then today is your lucky day, as bringing the two together is now easier than ever. While Plex has supported streaming to Roku devices through an unofficial channel since last year, today it announced it’s officially available in the Channel Store. That’s not the only thing that has changed either, since a blog post indicates the new official channel brings a new upgraded UI and features like myPlex support, audio and picture support, and Direct Play of video without transcoding on compatible videos. Hit the Plex blog for a few more screenshots and details, or just turn on your Roku and add the app directly. Also, if a Google TV device is your preferred Plex client, that app has also just been updated with a few new bugfixes.
Roku players now have an official Plex channel with upgraded UI and new features originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The online video market in China is a fragmented scene led by national businesses where companies like YouTube don’t even get a look in; but today sees that market move one step closer to consolidation, with the news that the two largest video portals, Youku and Tudou, will be merging in an all-stock deal, to take control of nearly half the online video market in the country.
The merger caps off a period of intense rivalry between the two companies, which included spars over TV rights and the ability to index each other’s content on respective sites. Now, it seems all that is water under the bridge: the companies say that the new company will be known as Youku Tudou, and shareholders in Youku will own 71.5 percent, while Tudou shareholders will have 28.5 percent.
TechCrunch
mikejuk writes “SuperPoke Pets is another casualty of Google’s aggressive spring cleanup… But unlike other users of Google’s trashed software, Superpoke users have decided to fight back with a class action. The aim is to recover the money they spend on virtual gold used as a currency to buy clothes for their virtual pets. The total ‘amount in controversy’ exceeds $ 5,000,000 — a sum that is credible given that there were at least 7,000,000 users. So if you are considering adding a virtual currency to your app you might want to think of the future.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
DeviceGuru writes “Roku is building its streaming media player technology into a thumbdrive-style device that will plug directly into a TV’s HDMI port. The Roku Streaming Stick, to be priced in the $ 50-$ 100 range, will convert ordinary TVs into smart TVs, according to CEO Anthony Wood. One catch is that it will depend on the TV having at least one Mobile High-Definition Link (MHDL) compliant HDMI port. The new standard is not widely supported yet, with only Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, Sony, and Toshiba listed as members on the MHDL Consortium’s web page.”
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Wearable sensors collect data from athletes as they’re playing—data that could soon be broadcast during the game.
Statistics in sports is about to hit a whole new level. A new generation of wearable monitors that measure heart rate, electrical activity in the heart, lung capacity, metabolism, and other metrics is allowing scientists to study athletes’ physiology as they play.
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