Νέα από την βιομηχανία των videogames!

[Viper]

Layoffs hit F1 and Dirt developer Codemasters

Layoffs have hit UK racing game developer Codemasters, sources close to the studio tell Eurogamer.

Around 50 jobs are being reviewed, we've been told, with north of 30 of those jobs set to go as part of a 30 day consultation period. Around 500 people work at the company globally.

We've been told Codemasters' F1 team, based in the Birmingham office and currently working on a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One entry in the series, is unaffected, and so development on that game and other active projects continues.

A new Dirt game, in production at the Southam office, is safe, but it may not release when planned. Sources told Eurogamer Codemasters planned to announce the new Dirt soon with a view to an Early Access-style release in the middle of February, but the company has yet to secure car licenses, so this is currently unlikely.

The team behind the new Dirt has been downsized, though, with a smaller group working on the game compared to last year's Grid Autosport. One source pointed out that the new Dirt team has always been relatively small, however, with under 20 staff building the game compared to the 50 or so who made Grid Autosport.

[Roy]

Κραξιμο για τη βιομηχανια του PC-Gaming. Το ευχαριστηθηκα!!!

http://www.antenna.gr/webtv/watch?ci...6b_ybx8%3D&p=1

[Viper]

Απο το free-to-play, παμε στο free-to-start απο την αγαπημενη μας ΕΑ.

EA Investigating "Free-to-Start" Console Games

Wilson replied by saying that, in the future, he thinks gamers--trained by media like TV, books, and music--will expect console games to be available, at least to start, for free, and then pay later. As such, Wilson said EA is "actively" investigating how it can meet this consumer desire with its future console projects.

[Leon_DiZ]

Απο το free-to-play, παμε στο free-to-start απο την αγαπημενη μας ΕΑ.

EA Investigating "Free-to-Start" Console Games

Στην εποχή μου απλά τα λέγαμε trial.

[dlevel]

μ αρέσει η ιδέα, έχω το μικρόβιο να θέλω πολλά παιχνίδια, και παίρνω πολλά παίζοντας τα μόνο λίγο εκτός απο εξαιρέσεις. Οπότε αυτό θα με γλίτωνε απο έξοδα.

[Viper]

Ubisoft Plans Five Triple-A Titles During Next Fiscal Year, Including The Division

Ubisoft has set expectations for its triple-A portfolio for the coming fiscal year. The company has re-affirmed releases of anticipated titles for the year ending March 31, 2016.

For those wondering about The Division, Ubisoft still says to expect it in the coming financial year. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean 2015, as the final quarter occurs in 2016.

Additionally, Rainbow Six Siege is still on track for the coming fiscal period. Assassin’s Creed, which was confirmed earlier this year following a leak, is also not taking a year off.

That leaves two titles still to be announced.

Φανταζομαι το 4ο ειναι το Watch Dogs 2, αρα μενει αλλο ενα. Ισως καποιο νεο IP?

[Leon_DiZ]

Darksiders Creator Teases New Game Announcement With New Studio

[Leon_DiZ]

PS4 boss Jim Ryan 2015 interview – ‘we’ve learnt an awful lot from the Driveclub experience’

Τον βίασε λίγο με τις ερωτήσεις του.

GC: But I think ultimately people were just so keen to embrace the new generation that they were happy to jump aboard immediately, many knowing that the first year probably won’t be that great. But I don’t think anyone expected it to be as bad as it was.

JR: …

GC: And just to your earlier point I’m not sure that any of my three concerns really are subjective. The question of quality perhaps, although I’m sure a study of Metacritic will show a consensus that it was not a classic year. The quantity of games was certainly at an all-time low, I remember quoting a retailer survey to that effect in my end of year feature. And then GamerGate was incontrovertibly awful, and so was the situation with broken games.

JR: Yeah, let’s move on from the subjective, because you have a view on that and the vast majority of 18 and a half million people appear to have a different view on that.

GC: Just because they bought the console doesn’t mean they’re happy with any of the things I’m talking about.

JR: Well… true. But we’re now 16 months in, right? And they continue to buy it in numbers that are unparalleled for February, at any point over the last 20 years. You would think that if all of these 18 and a half million people were having such a terrible time they would be telling their mates, they would be telling their children, ‘This is a horrible experience, don’t buy into this!’ But that’s not happening.

GC: What about Assassin’s Creed Unity then? That’s primarily single-player and its problems were blindingly obvious the second you started playing.

JR: When a third party multiplayer game runs on the servers of that third party publishers, you’ll understand it’s virtually impossible for us to QA that online experience.

GC: Are there any financial penalties you can levy at them? Because it’s your name on the box too you know.

JR: …

GC: From seeing it at a preview it was obvious to me a couple of months out that Unity wasn’t going to be properly finished for its release date, so it should have been obvious to you as well.

JR: You’re straying into the realm of conversations between publisher and platform holder that should remain private.

GC: And presumably that conversation was you saying ‘Does it work?’ and them answering with [starts winking and miming taking a bribe].

JR: No! No, no, no!

GC: Well, what happened then? If everyone reviewing the game noticed these horrendous bugs after just five minutes of playtime how did you miss it? You’re happy to put your foot down with little indie developers but because it was a big publisher apparently those rules are ignored.

JR: [deep breath] Ah, yeah. Well, it wasn’t just offline, there were…

GC: The co-op was a minor part of that game, and was not one of the issues most people were upset about. 10 minutes into Unity and I was controlling a flying apple instead of the main character. There was no way anyone involved in that game didn’t know the state it was in when it shipped. All they cared about was hitting their deadline. And by association you were okay with that, you were part of the conversation that said, ‘Ah, who cares? You can fix it later…’

JR: No! I… I think… let’s move on.

GC: I understand that you did a lot better than some in addressing the situation, but that was still three months. And… is there still going to be the free PlayStation Plus version?
JR: That’s still being looked at.

GC: You can’t guarantee that it will ever happen?

JR: I can’t say anything at this stage.

---

I can get the summer games drought to a degree – it’s hot outside and a lot of people are on holiday – but it’s February now, it’s freezing cold out and dark at 4pm, but apart from Evolve we haven’t had a major retail release for coming on three months.

JR: Why don’t you just play all the games that were released in November?

GC: I thought we’d agreed not to talk about the poor quality of last year’s releases?

JR: PlayStation means different things to different people. For me, one of the great joys of my middle-aged life is sitting with my eight-year-old daughter playing Knack on a Saturday.

GC: Oh, had she been bad or something?

GC: When people are compiling best of generation lists in five years time this whole period is going to be completely ignored.

JR: I think time has to tell on that. You get so close to these things and you get so angry…

GC: Well I have to play them, if that’s what you mean.

χαχαχαχα!!!

[Leon_DiZ]

Advanced PC/PS4 Rendering Engine Mizuchi by Silicon Studio Gets Amazing Screenshots, Video and Info

Λίγο offtopic γιατί δεν είναι περί PS4, αλλά ένα ωραίο tech demo στο τι γραφικά θα βλέπουμε σε μελλοντικά παιχνίδια.

Tech demo της Mizuchi rendering μηχανής






""Απίστευτο δείγμα από την rendering μηχανή της Silicon Studio


Μία εταιρία που έγινε πρόσφατα γνωστή από την χώρα του Ανατέλλοντος Ηλίου είναι η Silicon Studio, δημιουργός του Bravely Default για το Nintendo 3DS. Εκτός από τις υποχρεώσεις τους ως ομάδα ανάπτυξης, όμως, τα μέλη του studio εργάζονται και στην ανάπτυξη νέων τεχνολογίων και συγκεκριμένα στην rendering μηχανή Mizuchi. Παρακάτω μπορείτε να δείτε το πρώτο tech demo της rendering μηχανής Mizuchi, το οποίο εκτός του ότι είναι real-time, αποτελεί πολύ καλή ένδειξη του που κατευθύνεται η ποιότητα των γραφικών για τα παιχνίδια του μέλλοντος. ""


Πηγή: Unboxholics

[DJTaurus]

Magic Leap CEO implies that virtual reality competitors like Oculus Rift could cause brain damage

EA: Tablets Could Be More Powerful Than Consoles By 2018

It's estimated that worldwide revenue for smartphone and tablet games exceeded $25 billion in 2014 up around 50% from the year before. In 2015, global mobile game revenues will eclipse console game revenues for the first time.

[Leon_DiZ]

Ex - Darksiders Dev new game is.... BATTLE CHASERS (Sword in the Storm?)



Ανακοινώθηκε και αυτό - σε λίγη ώρα θα γίνει και το επίσημο reveal στο Polygon.

Τελικά ο Joe Madureira, creative director των Darksiders 1 και 2, θα συνεχίσει/ολοκληρώσει/μεταφέρει (???) την σειρά comics Battle Chasers σε μορφή action RPG.

Η σειρά δημιουργήθηκε από τον ίδιο ενώ τα τεύχη 1-9 κυκλοφόρησαν στο διάστημα 1998-2001. Το 10ο τεύχος ακυρώθηκε και ο δημιουργός τους πέρασε στο game development στο οποίο και παραμένει μέχρι σήμερα.

[Leon_DiZ]

tri-Ace acquired by Nepro Japan, becomes dedicated smartphone/tablet mobile dev

http://dokidokikusoge.moe/post/11154...by-nepro-japan
https://www.release.tdnet.info/inbs/...0220029526.pdf

Japanese mobile company Nepro Japan has announced that they are acquiring tri-Ace as subsidiary. They will be acquiring all tri-Ace shares through a cash buyout, and will refocus the developer towards mobile efforts (smartphones and tablets). tri-Ace was a privately held company, so it's interesting to see the ownership breakdown in the announcement:

Yoshiharu Gotanda holds 555 shares (30.8%), Masaki Norimoto holds 546 shares (30.3%), and Kenji Goshima holds 511 shares (28.4%). In the cash buy-out, they will each gets about a million bucks each, and they will each also get 18,300 shares of Nepro each (worth about 1500yen per share right now).

[muku]

^^ Κρίμα. Το Star Ocean άραγε σαν IP το έχει η Τri-Ace ή η SE?

[Leon_DiZ]

^^ Κρίμα. Το Star Ocean άραγε σαν IP το έχει η Τri-Ace ή η SE?

SE. Αλλά δεν με κάνει να νιώθω καλύτερα

[muku]

SE. Αλλά δεν με κάνει να νιώθω καλύτερα

LOL. Καλά, μόλις βγει το KH3 και το FFXV θα αναθεωρήσεις αυτό το statement!

[Leon_DiZ]

LOL. Καλά, μόλις βγει το KH3 και το FFXV θα αναθεωρήσεις αυτό το statement!

Το πρώτο λογικά ναι, το δεύτερο.. δεν ξέρω.. είμαι neutral.

Μακάρι.

[Viper]

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power

The Windows version will be the first one to be released – we’ll reveal more about other platforms later.

[BillyFlo81]

Ειδα δυο φορες το trailer. Με χαλαει που το γυρισαν σε τριτου προσωπου και δεν με ενθουσιαζουν τα τοπια ετσι οπως απεικονιζονται συγκριτικα με το Trine 2. Σιγουρα ομως θα υπαρχουν και side scrolling επιπεδα. Αλλα γενικα κατι δε μου καθεται καλα.. Καμια συγκριση με τα παραμυθενια τοπια των δυο προηγουμενων παιχνιδιων στο παραπανω trailer.

[nikon]

Εμένα πάλι μου αρέσει πάρα πολύ, ήθελε μια αλλαγή γιατί θα κούραζε για 3η φορά το ίδιο πράγμα και αυτή η αλλαγή που έκαναν είναι ότι πρέπει.

[Slay]

θα συμφωνησω με τον νικο, το παιχνιδι δειχνει να ειναι ενα μιγμα του παλιου με το νεο, και αυτο που ειδα μου αρεσε πολυ.