Microsoft has published a new video in which Xbox community mouthpiece Larry Hyrb and Xbox One general manager Zulfi Alam discuss the creation of the console’s brand-new controller.
Microsoft has “redefined” the wireless protocol used in the Xbox One’s wireless controller to reduce input lag by 20 per cent over the current Xbox 360 wireless controller.
“There were two goals: first increase the bandwidth of this wireless protocol, significantly more, 20x more than what we have right now. And the other one was to reduce the latency, so the moment you press the fire button, the time it takes to go to your console and back, essentially we reduce that.”
The controller is confirmed as having haptic feedback, advanced rumble motors, and a more comfortable design. There is also a USB input on the back of the pad, which gives consumers the option of playing either wired or wireless.
“The moment you plug in the wire essentially the radio in the controller shuts down, and at that point the controller transforms into being a truly wired controller,” he adds, with data carried purely through the USB cable.
The pad also has IR LEDs so that the system knows – thanks to Microsoft Xbox Kinect – who is holding the pad. The Xbox One automatically shifts gamers profiles depending on who is handling it.
Earlier, Microsoft announced it would be retiring its Microsoft Point system for purchasing games and other virtual items on the Xbox One when it launches in favor of using real money from a user’s local currency. Today, there’s an update on the Microsoft Points shutdown which concerns current Xbox 360 owners.
“Our goal is to make this transition as easy as possible for you,” Whitten wrote on the Xbox blog. “After the next Xbox 360 system update, when you go to buy something or redeem a Microsoft Points card or code on your console with your Microsoft account, we’ll add to your account an amount of currency equal to or greater than the Xbox Marketplace value of your Microsoft Points, which will be retired.”
Some of the added benefits of the change include faster and easier purchases with no need to calculate the conversion of your local currency to Microsoft Points. Whitten assures that you’ll still be able to purchase content directly from Xbox stores using any form of payment in your region. Furthermore, in late 2013 you’ll be able to buy new Xbox Gift Cards through Microsoft’s online retailers and local retail stores.
Whitten said that any Microsoft Points earned by people as part of their now shut down Xbox Live Rewards program will remain in their account and will also be converted to real money with the Xbox 360 update. A new rewards program will be announced on September 1st.
Microsoft is jumping on the wearable display bandwagon, but don’t expect a Google Glass competitor. This week the company patented a head-mounted display aimed at bringing augmented reality to gaming.
The fact that Microsoft is planning to make AR goggles was leaked last year, when a 56-page ‘roadmap’ for the Xbox One (pictured below) found its way onto the Internet. Microsoft subsequently confirmed that the roadmap was genuine, but outdated.
Beyond mimicking some of the functions of Google Glass though it was never really clear what exactly the AR glasses, codenamed Fortaleza, were for.
“In one example, a potential player invitation program receives user voice data and determines that the user voice data is an invitation to participate in a multiplayer game,” the patent request continues. “The program receives eye-tracking information, depth information, facial recognition information, potential player head-mounted display device information, and/or potential player voice data. The program associates the invitation with the potential player using the eye-tracking information, the depth information, the facial recognition information, the potential player head-mounted display device information, and/or the potential player voice data.”
Apart from acknowledging that the roadmap leak was real Microsoft has never mentioned the glasses officially and it’s unclear if and when they will do so. Many of the projects rumoured in the roadmap have since been revealed by Microsoft, including new Kinect, Xbox One, and forthcoming entertainment services.
The patent though, which was only published yesterday, suggests the idea is still well underway.
Microsoft will boost the clock speed of the Xbox One’s AMD graphics processor from 800 MHz to 853 MHz, Marc Whitten, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Xbox, said during the Major Nelson podcast. He also noted that game makers are now working with final Xbox One development kits.
Perhaps Xbox One engineers found that the GPU is most efficient at the said clock speed. The new “mono driver” is also a new “100% optimized for Xbox One” DirectX driver, Microsoft’s proprietary API.
In the podcast, Whitten also stated that Microsoft “dropped” the Xbox One GPU after E3 2013, allowing them to tweak and fine tune the hardware to match their vision of the experience that they wanted the Xbox One to provide the gamer/user with.
The Xbox One is slated to launch later this year, and the next-gen console will sport an 8-core CPU, 8 GB of system memory and a 500 GB hard drive. Sony’s PlayStation 4 will sport a similar system-on-a-chip architecture. Both semi-custom APUs will be manufactured by AMD.
The move comes after Microsoft’s console has been criticised for having significantly less raw performance compared to Sony’s PlayStation 4.
What do you think of Microsoft upgrading the Xbox One’s GPU? Does it matter to you at all? Why or why not? Let us know below!
Nintendo has released its latest financial results, and revealed quarterly Wii U hardware sales of just 160,000. Software sales for the system were just 1.3 million units.
During the period Nintendo sold 90,000 Wii U consoles in Japan, 60,000 in the US and only 10,000 in Europe and Australia.
In the previous three months Wii U sales were 390,000 hardware units and 13.42 million games, which left the company short of it’s projected 4 million sales in the financial year.
For the three months ended June 30 net sales were up 3.8 per cent to ¥81.5 billion ($832.6m / £547.5m) with net profit at ¥8.6 billion ($88m / £57.9m), compared to a loss of ¥17.2 billion for the same period last year.
Nintendo suffered an operating loss during the period of ¥4.9 billion ($50.2m / £33m) due to research and development for the Wii U and increased marketing costs overseas for the 3DS.
A lack of software support – both from Nintendo’s own in-house development teams and third-party publishers – combined with a high initial price tag and a slow user interface did little to accelerate sales over the Christmas period.
Almost nine months on and little has changed. Nintendo has slashed the price of the Wii U, but the games drought continues. Considerable mismanagement over the functionality of the console and its innovative GamePad tablet controller has also done little to persuade consumers.
We already knew that Microsoft’s Xbox One console will allow you to play a disc-based game while it installs in the background – which is apparently required – but now it has also been confirmed that you will be able to play a game while it’s still downloading.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with Polygon that the Xbox One will be able to play games as they download, eliminating the need to wait for dozens of gigabytes to transfer to the console before you jump in and start playing.
Sony already confirmed the convenient feature for the PS4, but this is the first time Microsoft has mentioned it.
This will certainly be a huge time saver for Xbox One gamers, especially since the games themselves will likely have large file sizes. Xbox One game discs will be based on Blu-Ray which means that the games themselves could have file sized of well over 10 GB.
The feature presumably covers Xbox Live Arcade Games, Indie Games and titles that are already available as a physical copy, dubbed ‘Games on Demand’. It’s not clear, however, whether this would cover additional downloadable content (DLC) too.
Sony’s play as you download feature will let you choose to first download the single-player or multiplayer part of the game, letting you access your favourite part faster.
Rovio Entertainment, the Finland-based creator of the Angry Birds mobile game franchise, announced this morning a sequel to the massively successful Angry Birds Star Wars.
It’ll include a new story as well as over 30 familiar characters including young Anakin, Mace Windu, General Grievous, Darth Maul…and also Jar Jar Binks. There’ll also be the option to “Join the Pork Side” and fight for the villainous pigs.
“Angry Birds: Star Wars was a blockbuster hit for us and Lucasfilm, with over 100 million downloads since its release,” Rovio executive vice president of games Jami Laes said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be able to introduce the exciting next chapter in the Angry Birds: Star Wars saga to our fans around the world. Some of the most amazing character additions are versions of young Anakin, Mace Windu, and Darth Maul. Hasbro’s Telepods technology also provides a great way to extend the experience beyond the app and bring a whole new dimension to the gameplay.”
Rovio is also teaming up with toy-makers Hasbro on the new game, providing licensing tie-ins that will be promoted at Comic-Con in San Diego this week.
“New characters and super powers can be unlocked for players by placing one of the collectible Telepods physical characters from the Hasbro line on the phone or tablet camera and scanning it into the game,” according to Rovio’s press release.
An animated 3D features based on the Angry Birds gaming franchise has been set up at Sony Pictures with delivery planned for July, 2016.
While Sony may be busy announcing its next generation console, their present iteration is still doing strong. The Last of Us is a Sony exclusive title developed by company’s Naughty Dog studios, for the PS3. The game plays on the zombie apocalyptic post world era, that we all have come to love and expect, yet there are some exciting new additions to the overall storyline and gameplay experience.
Joel and Ellie
Storyline
The Game begins with the normal life of main character Joel, and how it suddenly gets affected an outbreak that causes the Zombie Fungus Cordyceps to start spreading like wild bushfire. The gameplay is set in the United states and shows how everywhere, post this outbreak, there is utter pain and chaos. The character, like any hero is destined to help end the problems of the world by delivering a solution, where he needs to travel across the badlands of the United States.
Unlike any other Zombie game the Last of Us is designed in a different manner, and you simply cant expect instant hardcore action from the game. The game storyline is slow and progresses as the character fights various kinds of zombies, human enemies known as hunters and the government which basically controls everything. The story as it progresses reminds you from time to time the hopeless situation of the world and how the Joel fights on despite that. The game essentially takes off from the typical end of humanity scenario, but chooses to tell a story about the two people that travel across the pain stricken world in an attempt to revive humanity.
The gameplay is full of beautiful backdrops, amazing sceneries of the untouched wilderness and the post fungus cities which are destroyed and collapsing. The game developer has ensured that each scenery and backdrop shows the status of the world and each new backdrop tells a brand new story about what has happened.
As the game progresses the secondary character Ellie starts to take limelight as she becomes closer and closer to Joel. Their relationship is strengthened by Ellie’s constant need to oppose the exacting situation and Joel constant efforts to keep things under control. Ellie has been born into this world and has no idea what the real world is like, her constant need and discussions to find out what the world was, make for some of the best ingame scenarios.
The story line is beautifully presented and ensures that you build a relationship with the characters as the game progresses. The game defines what possibly is the best ever story written for the Playstation.
Post World Cities
Gameplay
What the storyline builds, the gameplay delivers! With a vast variety of interesting elements that make it a truly exciting and entertaining experience. Despite the fact that the game has many enemies throughout the story, the major focus remains on the infected. Cordyceps infested humans become rage hungry monsters that don’t eat or kill, they simply bite and infest others. The main elements of the infected are the runners that are basically the pawns of the enemies, the clickers are the bishops, blind yet brutal and many other higher ups that define the bosses of the infested chains.
Infected Clicker
Gameplay becomes intense and inflicts a sense of fear in the gamer as the infected arrive, while Joel has a vast majority of mainstream weapons to his disposal including pistols, automatic guns and even crossbows, the most interesting element of the gameplay is the characters ability to forge destructive weapons from the post world scavenging. While ammo is mostly scarce, hard to find and carried in a limited quantity, the handcrafted grenades, smoke bombs and throat slitting shivs are manufactured from items found on the map, including broken scissors, alcohol and pieces of cloth. All this crafting happens real time and the gamer is in constant stress especially when the threat is nearby.
Nearby Hunter
While the gameplay is close to perfection it may lack the certain finesse and responsiveness that users may expect from a actions scenario game like the Last of Us. The progress is slow and the expansive storyline, mixed in between intense gameplay, tends to take from the mood of the excitement. There are also stages where the characters are simply walking while figuring out their path, which may truly frustrate some.
Multiplayer
Although the Last of Us was not designed to be a multiplayer, the game does a wonderful job of that as well. Making you the leader of a group of survivors, scavenging and fending off enemies, you have to constantly explore the map and ensure that you are on top of the situation and in control of your team that often finds itself surrounded by problems. The multiplayer may not be the main concept but is a well appreciated addition to the overall experience of the Last of Us.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Last of Us is possibly the most beautiful game on Playstation 3, and the extensive work behind the tile truly shows from the start to the finish. The story is involving and creates a sense of relation and there comes a point where you actually start to feel bad for the state of the situation. The gameplay adds a lot of action and thrill, and literally keeps your heart pounding, especially when the higher-up infected are around. There is really nothing more you could ask for from a game.
If you own a Playstation 3 and are looking for a game that will keep you busy for hours and days, while making your heart pound and your thumbs smashing the controller, look no further.
If you were one of the few unfortunates affected by firmware 4.45?s perfidy (you’ll know, because your console won’t load the XMB) don’t despair; a fix is here.
Firmware 4.46 is now available for download and can be applied on PlayStation 3 units that were soft-bricked by the earlier update using a special technique.
If you’re trapped on the “ribbon” screen, you’re going to need a USB stick with at least 168MB free space, and to download the new 4.46 firmware using a PC.
Over on the official PlayStation support website, Sony explains how to enter the PlayStation 3 Safe Mode to initialize the updating process without XMB access. We’ve republished the instructions below:
Step 1: Manually Download System Software
You will need a USB Mass Storage device such as a USB flash drive with at least 168 MB of free space. If your PlayStation 3 is either CECHA00/CECHB00 series model, you can also use Memory Stick™, SD Memory Card, and CompactFlash®.
Create a folder named “PS3” on the storage media or USB device.
Within the PlayStation 3 folder, create a folder named “UPDATE”.
Download the update data from the webpage and save it in the “UPDATE” folder.
Location: Save in the “PS3” folder > “UPDATE” folder
File name: Save as file name “PS3UPDAT.PUP”
Note: If the data is not saved in the correct way, the PS3 will not recognize the update data. The folder name must be in all uppercase letters.
Step 2: Activate Safe Mode
With the PlayStation 3 off (power light should be red), touch and hold the Power button, you will hear the 1st beep indicating that the PS3 is powering on.
Continue to hold the power button, and after approximately 5 seconds you will hear a 2nd beep.
Continue to hold the power button and after 5 more seconds you’ll hear a 3rd beep, and system will power off (Power light goes red).
Release power button.
Touch and hold the Power button, you will hear the 1st beep, again for PS3 power on.
Continue to hold and after approximately 5 seconds you will hear the 2nd beep for video reset.
Continue to hold and after 5 seconds you will hear a quick double beep. At that point release power button.
If you succeeded in activating Safe Mode, you will see a message on screen saying, “Connect the controller using a USB cable and then press the PS button”.
Connect a controller to the PlayStation 3 with a USB cable.
Xbox One will not require regular online check-ins or place restrictions on game-lending “as a result of feedback from the Xbox community,” Microsoft announced today.
“Today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360,” wrote Don Mattrick in an official blog post today.
Additionally, Mattrick wrote, players will be able to “trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today. There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.”
This will come at a small cost — despite previous announcements, Xbox One will require that discs remain in the tray in order to play games, and players will be unable to share downloaded games. In other words, it’ll work exactly like the Xbox 360 — for better and for worse.
Originally it was planned that the new Xbox One would have allowed digital games to be shared with ten friends and family, allowing others to log in and play the titles. A cloud-based system also meant that software would be available from any console, even without a physical disc, and downloaded titles could be shared and sold. That would not be the case now.
Now, when the new console is released this November, there will be no need to authenticate the system online every 24 hours – a requirement thought to have been introduced as a digital rights management measure. According to the statement, “After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again.”
On the other side of the coin, capitalizing on online anger about Microsoft’s policies, Sony took E3 by storm with their announcement that the PlayStation 4 would use no similar DRM scheme.
Sony has officially shown off the new interface and does it look impressive. The double tap multitasking is a feature people were asking for for a long time and looks like Sony may have just pulled it off.
Within games you can now switch over to your messaging and switch back to the game, alternatively you can be on voice chat throughout, while downloading a game in the back ground.
The promo shows off a man trying to play knack but he is stuck in one area of the game, he then watches a video uploaded by a friend to clear that area. While another friend is asking him to join him on Killzone, which he must download from the Playstation store.
The video also shows off micro management, where you can use your smartphone to download games ota to the PS4. Now if only sony could implement it like they show it off, we could very well have the next gaming console.
For the time being, it’s probably a good idea to decline the latest system update for the PlayStation 3. Many users are reporting bricked consoles after updating.
The firmware update is intended to improve system stability and add options for in-game trophy notifications. However, several user comments on the PlayStation forum have stated that the latest 4.45 update is causing a lockdown on their consoles.
User JadeTreeInWind, for example, said that after the Playstation 3 logo was on display post update, the crossbar menu would not show up. The user tried restarting the console, but the same problem still persisted.
Restarting the system and other recovery attempts do not appear to resolve the issue. If you haven’t downloaded the update yet, avoid it until Sony gives the all-clear. If you have downloaded it and can’t access the XMB, sit tight until we know more.
Assuming the speculation that this issue arises from user-replaced hard drives, then it would bring back memories of the time when the 3.41 update caused a few corrupted Playstation 3 drives, too. Hopefully things will look up for the better in the long run, and a solution should be released sooner rather than later.
As of now, the latest firmware is 4.41, and Sony has yet to offer a statement concerning the bricked consoles.
Xbox One first-party titles will be $59.99, as confirmed by a Microsoft representative speaking to Kotaku. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft have not announced game pricing for the next-generation console.
In an official statement to gaming-exclusive sister site of The Verge, a Microsoft representative tells Polygon that pricing for Xbox One games published by Microsoft Studios will remain the same at $59.99: “I can confirm that Microsoft Studios games on Xbox One will be $59.99,” the representative told Polygon.
With every release of a new generation of consoles, gamers and enthusiasts alike often wonder what kind of, if any, price increase they’ll be seeing in the gaming market. When Microsoft and Sony unveiled their previous generation of new consoles, games saw a pretty substantial price increase.
It comes to many as a relief that there won’t be a price increase for Xbox One titles, despite the added cost of development for new consoles. Truly a win for the hardcore and casual gamers who work hard to buy multiple titles each and every month.
While that is good news for some, what about PS4 gamers? Can they expect the same treatment? After all a $100 difference in console pricing means nothing if the price of games will just end up covering the difference, right? While Sony has yet to confirm the pricing, an earlier report in February, Sony announced that the maximum price for PS4 games should be $60 too. Although Kotaku emphasized that Sony representatives were quiet on this topic at E3.
If you were thinking about ordering the Xbox One via a relative/friend abroad and use it in India before it officially launches here, Microsoft wants you to forget about it.
Just when you thought Microsoft couldn’t go a day without some new anti-consumer disaster it’s been revealed that the Xbox One is so reliant on its online connection that it won’t even turn on in some countries, no matter where you buy it from.
Microsoft’s Xbox One preorder information page states that the console will only support Live in only 21 countries at launch, and therefore presumably won’t work anywhere else.
The problem is there are only 21 supported countries at launch (depending on who you ask there are around 206 countries in the world) and that doesn’t include Portugal, Poland and most of Eastern Europe, or Japan and the rest of Asia (including India).
The full list of supported countries is Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
Microsoft have described this as a “staged approach” to marketing their new console. Their regional vice president for sales and marketing in Asia stated that they were still working on allowing Asian gamers a “great experience”, including localised content.
The only alternative for people residing in India (or the other countries omitted) would be to create a new Xbox Live account that pretended to be based in a supported region
In contrast, Sony has said that the PlayStation 4 will be region-free, like the PlayStation 3.
A special Grand Theft Auto 5 package exclusive to PlayStation 3 has been announced at Sony’s E3 press conference.
Making the bundle all the more enticing, this gaming collection will come wrapped in a special box adorned with exclusive GTA 5 themed artwork.
The GTA V PS3 bundle includes a 500GB PlayStation 3, a Blu-ray copy of Grand Theft Auto V and a 30-day PlayStation Plus trial membership. Like Assassin’s Creed 3 and Uncharted 3bundles, this package is priced at $299.99.
“The custom Grand Theft Auto V audio mode for Pulse – Elite Edition takes full advantage of the BassImpact technology embedded in the Pulse – Elite Edition headset to provide the ultimate Grand Theft Auto V experience,” an official Sony spokesperson stated. “This exclusive mode enhances the game’s most epic moments like car crashes, explosions and more.”
A custom-designed ‘Grand Theft Auto V Pulse – Elite Edition’ headset has also been produced in collaboration with Rockstar Games, and will go on sale for $179 in the US. UK and European pricing was not set out at E3.
The PlayStation 3 version of Grand Theft Auto V will also have a special ‘Pulse Elite Edition’ mode, using the technology in the headset to enhance sound quality during key moments in the game such as crashes and explosions. The software to activate the audio mode can be downloaded for free via the Pulse – Elite Manager app.
Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 5 will be released on Sept. 17, 2013 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
