As Microsoft and Sony prepare new consoles and Valve plans its Steam Box (or boxes), it seems everyone is preparing for the three to go head-to-head. Everyone except Valve boss Gabe Newell, at least, who seems unperturbed by either console and more concerned with Apple's movements in the market.
Read more: 'I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily' »
Console-style gaming may be coming to iOS. A new patent application published today shows the company considering the use of a typical dual-analog controller to interface with Apple TV and other iOS devices. The documented controller looks very similar to Sony's DualShock, and offers two analog sticks, four shoulder buttons, and four face buttons (in addition to possible Start and Select buttons). A diagram explicitly shows it communicating with an iPhone.
If you get squeamish around the impending threat of mobile games, be advised that the content of this article is graphic and may disturb you. Infinity Blade is Epic's most profitable game franchise, according to CEO Tim Sweeney. The statistic comes with a few caveats, but it's still a pretty striking example of a rapidly changing games marketplace.
Infinity Blade 2 has received a large, free content update today, and is on sale at a cheaper price to boot. The "ClashMob" update creates social challenges, along with new in-game items, and the Gem Forge feature. Unfortunately, it doesn't include synchronized crowd dancing -- you're thinking "FlashMob."
The internet is now just a little bit safer for children playing online games, thanks to the efforts of seven major game publishers and the New York Attorney General's office to purge the online accounts of registered sex offenders.
"Operation: Game Over," the nickname of the initiative by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, used the New York sex offender rolls and compared them to the list of online video game accounts of Blizzard, Disney, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros., Microsoft, Sony and Apple. More than 3,500 accounts were successfully removed from the game companies' databases.
Apple's new iPad has started hitting the hands of early adopters and hipsters alike, and it sports a Retina display screen among other features. "But what can I use all those pixels for?" you might wonder. Fortunately, several games have already updated for iPad Retina Display support.
Read more: Infinity Blade 2, Mass Effect Infiltrator updated »
Apple announced a new iPad at a press event today in San Francisco. The successor to the iPad 2 will use the Retina Display for a striking 2048x1536 resolution. It will be hitting stores on March 16 at various price points.
Just six months after the launch of Lion, Apple has announced yet another iteration of its OS X operating system. Codenamed Mountain Lion, OS X 10.8 will be available to download from the App Store this summer.
The new OS will continue adding features now standard on Apple's other operating system, iOS. Perhaps the most important addition (at least to us) is Game Center.
Black Powder Media, maker of such iOS games as Vector Tanks and Vector Tanks Extreme, recently had both games unceremoniously pulled from Apple's App Store after mainstream publisher Atari reportedly filed a copyright infringement claim. A cursory look at games in the Vector Tanks series reveal games that bear some visual resemblance to Battlezone, an arcade-cabinet offering released by Atari in 1980.
Superman has a rocky history with video games. His most famous game, Superman 64, is remembered mostly as a punchline. But that doesn't stop developers from trying to strike the right tone with the Man of Steel, and his next platform will be the iOS devices. Chillingo and Tiger Games plan to release their iPhone and iPad Superman game this November.
Valve head Gabe Newell says that games are entering a transitional phase, and warns that the industry may be moving away from open platforms, towards proprietary technology instead. "On the platform side, it's sort of ominous that the world seems to be moving away from open platforms," Newell said in a panel.
He also suggests that Apple could be on the verge of releasing a living room device that could shake up the industry like the iPhone.
Unpleasant Horse, the debut game of PopCap's edgy spin-off label 4th & Battery, has now launched on the App Store. The free game lets you leap from cloud to cloud as a mean little pegasus, and jumping on the backs of other, nicer pegusi (pegasuses?) will drag them down to bloody spikes before you leap to safety. Adorable. Read more »
Unpleasant Horse, in which a naughty Pegasus pushes hapless animals into meat grinders, is apparently a little too unpleasant for Apple's tastes. In a series of tweets (via Joystiq), PopCap's new experimental label 4th & Battery announced that Apple rejected the free iPhone game. "We thought horses dying in meat grinders were wholesome family entertainment!" the team joked in a now-deleted tweet.
4th & Battery is appealing with a higher rating, and set to make an official statement soon. In the meantime, the team has been none-too-subtly complimenting Apple. Read more »
Apple has a tendency to update its hardware on a pretty regular basis -- take the iPhone, which is on its fourth revision in as many years. So it should come as no surprise that rumors are circulating of an iPad successor set to be rolled out at an Apple event on March 2.
Engadget reports that it received an invitation to an Apple event, which contains a none-too-subtle hint of the new iPad. The invite shows a calendar page unfurling to reveal the corner of an iPad. Read more »
The Mac App Store, which was announced back in October, will be launching on January 6 for Mac OSX Snow Leopard users ahead of the Lion upgrade coming next summer (via MacRumors).
The App Store, much like its iOS counterpart, will seek to help surface, organize, and sell Mac software in an environment familiar to iTunes and iOS users. It will be used for installing, updating, and managing ownership of applications and games, as well. Read more »
With the announcement of iOS 4.0, Apple declared third-party development tools to be in violation of its terms of service. The move was largely believed to be aimed at Adobe, which had been developing a tool to convert Flash games and applications into iOS compatible programs. Other developers with tools like Unity were caught in the crossfire, despite having apps continually approved by Apple.
Now, Apple has changed its policy once again with iOS 4.1, allowing third-party tools to be used once again. "In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code," explains Apple. "This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need." Read more »
Since the launch of Steam for the Mac and the release of Valve's back-catalog of Source-engine titles, Valve has been "working with Apple and their GPU vendors to close the performance gap with Windows." It has paid off!
The latest Mac OSX update, released yesterday for Snow Leopard implemented changes that led Valve to see, "depending on the game, video settings and the hardware.. measured frame rate improvements from 15% to 120%." Read more »
Valve brings more good news for Mac gamers today as the company has revealed it will "provide a portion" of its graphics code to developers looking to create Mac OS versions of their games. In an upcoming interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Valve's business development director Jason Holtman said the aid will be provided to devs who plan to use the Steamworks community infrastructure. Valve's reasoning for the move is to help studios expedite development of the Mac OS "graphics layer," which Holtman calls "the real hard work in making a Mac version" of games.
"So our Steamworks partners will have access to some of the hard work that we do to get our games up on Mac, and they'll be able to incorporate that into their games--and our hope is it gets them there faster," Holtman said. Valve released a Mac version of its popular digital distribution platform Steam for Mac users in May 2010. The code sharing decision will hopefully lead to more gaming options for dedicated Mac users and shorter wait times for fresh titles. Read more »
Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 4, its next smartphone, and while we won't cover the phone as a whole here at Shacknews, the device will be getting a gyroscope.
This has some nice implications for gaming as it should allow developers to make better use of the iPhone as a motion and gesture based controller. It should hopefully make the device much more precise. Read more »
[Update 4:47 PM - BL] Valve has confirmed to Shacknews that this release includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
[Original Story] Gordon Freeman's epic adventure through City 17 will hit the Mac version of Steam sometime tomorrow. To tease this, Valve has released an homage trailer to the landmark 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial. Read more »
Electronic Arts has released Skate It for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game will run on the iPad, though it isn't an iPad native app.
Skate It will run you a cool $6.99 and utilizes the series' "Flick It" control scheme along with accelerometer controls for steering. A replay feature is included as well as the ability to listen to your own music during gameplay. Read more »
After reporting its financial earnings for its 2009 fiscal year, Nintendo could be setting its sights on a new challenger: Apple. According to the TimesOnline, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told senior Nintendo executives that Apple is the "enemy of the future."
Additionally, he has also reportedly claimed victory in the fight against Sony, though no quote was provided. Microsoft, supposedly not mentioned, has seemingly not yet reached a competitive level in Japan. Read more »
As part of its developer preview for iPhone OS 4, Apple revealed "Game Center", a "social gaming network" for the iPhone , iPod Touch, and the recently released iPad.
The network might be launching alongside iPhone OS 4, which is scheduled for a "summer" release, but could be after the initial launch. The announced features are:
Apple's iPad is the company's new device: a multi-touch tablet, which currently runs iPhone OS 3.2, supporting all iPhone applications and its own iPad applications out of the box.
Critics, myself included, would have preferred a device that used a touch version of Apple's Mac OS X putting the iPad closer to a laptop than an iPhone. After using it, however, I'm no longer of this mind. Sure, multitasking support would be incredible (and is rumored to be in iPhone OS 4.0), but I can be patient. Read more »
PadGadget did some digging through Apple's database and found references to several "HD" versions of some games, presumably set for release when the iPad is launched next week on April 3.
The games are: Read more »
"People don't seem to realize this. Apple's portable devices are handled more like consoles than ..."
- DinK See all 39 comments