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Sega wants to turn Japanese arcades into 'fog gaming' data centers
The company might be developing a streaming platform for arcade machines.
Daily Update for October 29, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Devs gain ability to delete fake scores from Game Center leaderboards
In a move that is sure to appeal to both honest gamers and game developers alike, Apple has announced that developers can now delete fake scores from Game Center leaderboards. The announcement came via a posting on Apple's Developer News and Announcements page. It reads: Manage Game Center Leaderboard Scores October 28, 2013 You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period. To learn more, read the Managing Game Center Leaderboard Activity section in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide. Fake scores have often upset both developers and gamers as they frequently clog the tops of the leaderboards. With today's move, developers will be able to view and edit the top 100 scores and delete certain players from posting their scores to the leaderboards at all.
Apple clamps down on high-score cheaters with Game Center update
Believe it or not, there are some people in this world who think that faking a high score to be top dog on the global Game Center leaderboard is both big and clever. Of course, most of us know better, so it's with a great deal of relief that Apple's latest developer-facing update is looking to deal with the problem. The company is letting app developers manage the top 100 tables for their games themselves, so if they spot a faker, they can delete it without having to refer the problem to Apple. Now we'll all just have to knuckle down and earn those bragging rights the old-fashioned way.
Amazon brings GameCircle integration to iOS
Amazon's GameCircle framework has just gone cross-platform -- as of today, iOS developers can integrate the cloud service into their apps. The iOS programming interface mirrors its Android counterpart's ability to sync achievements, leader boards and saved games across devices, even if the player switches operating systems. Developers can also post any achievements and scores to Apple's Game Center. The tools are free to use, so those who want to build GameCircle into their next iPhone title just need to visit the source link to get started.
More than 600 million iOS devices sold, Tim Cook says
Tim Cook is on stage in California right now talking iOS numbers, and as you might imagine, they're big. There are more than 600 million iOS devices sold worldwide, according to Mr. Cook, and almost half of those just since the last year's WWDC. Smartphone usage market share is high, with iOS garnering 50 percent more usage than other platforms, and the iPad is even bigger in the tablet category, with 82 percent of usage as compared to 18 percent of "other" tablets. Users are also satisfied, with the iPhone winning multiple awards in its lifetime, and boasting a 97 percent satisfaction rate. Users are also unified on a single iOS install, with 93 percent of users using iOS 6, which Cook joked was a far cry from Android's situation. Cook then segued all of these numbers and this satisfaction into the announcement of iOS 7.
Macworld discovers the most loved (and hated) features of OS X
With WWDC and revamps of iOS and OS X on the horizon, Macworld conducted an interesting survey, asking its readers what they liked and disliked most about Apple's desktop operating system. As Macworld admits, the survey isn't scientific and only polled 5,000 responses, which is a drop in the bucket for OS X's user base. Still, the results are interesting. OS X's Facebook and Twitter integration and Dictation were identified as the least-used features; 65 percent of respondents said they "never" use them. Apple has highlighted Facebook and Twitter integration at past keynotes, but I'd agree it's not nearly as big a deal on OS X as it is on iOS. Game Center is the biggest loser here, though, with 84 percent of respondents saying they never use it on the desktop. As for the most popular features, Messages is used "all the time" by 44 percent of respondents. And Notification Center, too, has found a fairly big audience in the short time it's been available. So Apple has both some successes and some fizzles in bringing iOS features over to OS X. We'll have to wait and see what's new at WWDC this year to find out if research like this has changed Apple's approach to improving both operating systems.
Borderlands 2 for Mac gets a multiplayer update
Borderlands 2 arrived on the Mac late last year, but unfortunately the publisher, Aspyr Media, wasn't able to get the multiplayer working in time for the release. Today the company has released a patch that enables multiplayer co-op through Game Center, along with leaderboards and achievements. Aspyr has also made five different content packs available through in-app purchase, so you can pick up new items, new levels and the Mechromancer class as well. To celebrate the game's update, Aspyr has put the title on sale at 50 percent off for a limited time, so you can grab it for just US$29.99 right now. It's a shame this content wasn't available at launch, but better late than never, and having the game available at such a low price puts us in a pretty forgiving mood anyway.
Securing your iOS device for your children, Part 3: removing apps, limiting social features and other safety options
There has been a string of high-profile cases where children have racked up thousands of dollars in credit card charges through in-app purchases. In these cases and others like them, the iOS devices used by the children have not been properly locked down by the parents. In the first post of the series, we walked you through setting up a child-safe iTunes account and in part two we took a tour of parental controls (restrictions). In part three below, we put the finishing touches on your iOS device by removing stray accounts, deleting apps and turning off social features. Before you hand over an iOS device to your child, use this final checklist to clean up any leftover adult settings. 1. Remove all email accounts from your device. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Tap the name of your email account and then tap "Delete Account" at the bottom. 2. Remove all Facebook and Twitter accounts. Go to Settings > Facebook then "Delete Account." For Twitter, go to Settings > Twitter. Tap on each Twitter account and then select "Delete Account." 3. Turn off PhotoStream and other iCloud features, but leave on Find My iPhone. Go to Settings > iCloud and turn off all settings except for Find My iPhone. Find My iPhone will let you find the device or lock it if it is lost or stolen. 4. Remove all non-children apps, especially shopping apps like Amazon, PayPal and eBay. To remove an app, touch and hold any application icon on the Home Screen until the icons start to wiggle. Tap the "x" in the corner of the application you want to delete. Tap Delete to remove the application and all of its data from your device. 5. Set a Volume Limit for headphone use. Go to Settings > Music > Volume Limit and use the slider to adjust the maximum volume. 6. Turn off Game Center social features. Open Game Center and tap on the "Me" icon at the bottom. Then tap on your Account: name > View Account to access your Game Center settings. Turn off "Game Invites" and "Nearby Players" to prevent game invitations from strangers. Be sure the Game Center profile is set to private. Also remove all the email addresses from your email list by tapping "Remove Email from Account." Lastly, turn off Facebook Friend Recommendations at the bottom. 7. Get an Appropriate case to protect your iOS device. We recommend an Otterbox, Griffin Survivor or LifeProof case. For younger kids, there is also the iBuku Pets for the iPhone and iPod touch. Once you have completed these final touches, your iOS device should be extremely child-safe. If you have any other suggestions that'll help secure an iOS device from the tap-happy hands of a child, please share them in the comments.
Firaxis' Haunted Hollow combines monstrous fun with some serious strategy
Hearing that Firaxis Games (the famous studio behind great games like Civilization and XCOM -- which itself is coming to iPad very soon) is making an original game for iOS is very exciting. That game is Haunted Hollow, and I got to see it in action this week at GDC. Lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough have overseen the game's development for about a year. The group hopes to release Haunted Hollow later this spring. The game is surprisingly complicated, and though it definitely follows the Firaxis tradition of very well-crafted and complex strategy games, it also makes you wonder how the typically casual iOS audience will take to it. Miller told me that Haunted Hollow has always had a haunted house vibe to it. He showed off a picture used in the initial pitch, featuring two different haunted houses dangling over the edges of a town in the middle. The game contains online Game Center multiplayer, a pass-and-play mode and a single player vs. AI mode, so the title always pits you as the caretaker of one house against another house-building opponent, with a town of unsuspecting civilians lying in the middle. Each turn tells you which kind of room to build, and provides action points (called "fear points"), with which to perform various actions. Building a room allows you to create monsters, which you can then send with a movement into the town below. You pick up to five monsters to play with per game, and they all are of three types: Scary, "Fighty" or Special. Scary monsters can be used to scare townspeople, and scaring a house wins it to your side, with more fear points coming to you if you can scare a whole block. Fighty monsters can be used to fight and kill other monsters, and Special monsters offer a blend of those, or other different abilities. Ghosts, for example, are very scary but they don't survive long. Werewolves are very fighty, but can't be used to scare very well. Special monsters each have their own abilities: Wendigo can freeze the opponent, and zombies can raise an army to join the battle. As the game progresses, each player claims houses in the town by scaring them with various monsters, and the eventual goal is to claim the whole town for your color. Managing the monsters is fairly deep in terms of strategy, and other mechanics build to further complicate things. The rooms you build onto your house can be doubled up and upgraded, if you build them in the correct layout and order. There are different types of houses to choose from at the beginning of the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Scaring people in the town can rile them up into an angry mob, which is a completely neutral unit that can not only kill monsters on either side, but even tear down houses completely, which means not as much territory to conquer. While the graphics on the monsters and houses may be cartoony and colorful, the strategy is definitely not playing around. Miller told me that the game should work for children, but I can't imagine anyone but the very smartest of 7-year-olds really figuring out the mechanics and best strategy. Matches are supposed to last as long as a short game of Civilization Revolution, which means this game will likely be the length (and have the depth) of a fairly serious board game. Still, for strategy junkies like myself, Haunted Hollow sounds terrific. The model may give some gamers pause: The title will be free to play, with only five monsters available for free. Firaxis plans to charge for other monster types, up to 12 different monsters at a rate around US$1.99 per monster. That would make the entire game about $24.99, which isn't a bad price, but which isn't cheap for an iOS title, either. Especially if one of the monsters is unbalanced (not likely with Firaxis at the helm, but still), the model could backfire on them. But Miller did say the team was considering a "pay-once-for-everything" price, so hopefully that will work out right. Outside of the payment model, Haunted Hollow seems like an iOS game that fits perfectly with the great Firaxis tradition and reputation, and a solid entry on the platform for the studio. I'm very excited to dive into its fascinating strategy mechanics when it arrives on the App Store this spring.
OpenFeint gaming service closing down December 14
App Store-connected social hub Openfeint isn't going to be around much longer, relinquishing iOS gaming leaderboards to Apple's own offering. Its owner, Gree, picked up the iOS and Android gaming platform back in April 2011 and is now trying to convince developers to bring their titles across to its main social gaming service. The switch-off will occur in mid-December, with "all OpenFeint network calls" being summarily terminated. Gree hopes to transfer willing game devs across to their primary hub in under a week.
Pocket Frogs getting a big update this week
NimbleBit has had two big freemium hits now with both Pocket Planes and (before that) Tiny Tower, but my favorite of the company's titles is still Pocket Frogs, where brothers and developers David and Ian Marsh first cut their teeth on the generous freemium gameplay they're now known for. And this week, they're returning to that title with a big update: Pocket Frogs is being updated for the iPhone 5 with version 2.0 on November 1. Not only will the updated app include support for the iPhone 5's taller screen, but it's getting new content as well. Over 40 new frog breeds are being added, bringing the total number of collectible amphibians up to 100. And NimbleBit is also making another big change: They're switching the game's backup and social system from ngmoco's Plus+ service into Apple's Game Center. That's a pretty significant change, but a solid one, since the official Game Center service has become much more prevalent lately. But it does have one side effect: Players will need to make sure they have at least one install (and run) of the current client before upgrading to the new client. Otherwise, the Game Center version won't be able to grab the Plus+ backup, so all of your frogs will be lost.
Apple releases OS X 10.8.2 update for Mountain Lion: Facebook integration, iMessage fixes and more
Looks like one major software update wasn't enough, as Apple is following its push of iOS 6 with OS X 10.8.2. Weighing in at 697.54MB, it's a pretty substantial update for Mountain Lion users, with that long-awaited Facebook integration chief among the changes. As Twitter presently operates within the OS, Facebook will now too enjoy single sign-on simplicity, and all of OS X's sharing portals will now include Facebook as an option. You'll get Facebook notifications in Notification Center, and you can share Game Center scores with your Facebook pals. It's also being reported that this build restores laptop battery life levels to those seen with Lion. Other new features include the addition of Power Nap for the Late 2010 MacBook Air, a few iMessage tweaks (iMessages sent to your phone number will now appear on your Mac), a new shared Reminders list and the ability to receive FaceTime calls initially sent to your phone number. Passbook users will also enjoy the newfangled ability to add passes right from Safari and Mail, and Dictation now understands Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English (!), Canadian French and Italian. We're installing the update now, and you can peek the full changelog after the break. Feel free to toss your post-install impressions in comments as well.
Apple releases Mountain Lion 10.8.2 build to devs, focuses on Facebook, iMessage and more
Shortly after letting the 10.8.1 Mountain Lion out of the bag, Cupertino's now released the next dotted version of its feline OS X to members of the developer community. According to the seed note, this early release will be focusing on a slew of social areas as well as other handy applications, including Facebook, Messages, Game Center, Reminders and, of course, the company's own web browser, Safari. As is usually the case with these young builds, Apple suggests you install it on a machine "you are prepared to erase if necessary," though something tells us you were already well aware of that. But in case you do want to install v10.8.2, you'll find the rest of the deets at the Apple Developer site linked below.
Mountain Lion 101: Game Center
Yes, with the arrival of Mountain Lion on the Mac today, Apple has finally extended its Game Center iOS gaming social service to the desktop. The easiest way to find Game Center on your Mountain Lion-equipped Mac is to jump on over to the Launchpad, where Apple's already set up an icon for you. Click that sucker, and you'll be able to sign in, either with a brand new account or (even better) the same account you use on iOS. Once logged in, you're able to see all of your friends, any leaderboard ranks and achievements you've racked up on iOS games, and any pending friend requests you happen to have. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of Game Center-enabled games on the Mac yet, but a few popular games have been able to make the jump, including Cut the Rope, SpellTower, Osmos, and Firemint's popular Real Racing 2. I'm sure we'll see plenty of other games making the jump soon enough -- part of Game Center's charm is that it's relatively easy for developers to implement and include in their titles. Other than that bigger screen (the wood and felt look really great, actually), and the fact that desktop games will be included, this implementation of Game Center isn't radically different from what we've known before. There are still achievements and leaderboards, and presumably there will be multiplayer tie-ins soon as well. But perhaps it's enough that Apple has enough faith in its social gaming system to finally bring it back to the desktop, and let it grow there, too.
Amazon announces GameCircle, similar to Apple's GameCenter
Amazon has announced a new service for its Kindle Fire platform called GameCircle, which is akin to Apple's own GameCenter service. It's set to provide a series of APIs for leaderboards, achievements, and other socially-centered game-related features. GameCircle has already been tested with a few popular titles on the Kindle Fire, and it's available for developers to sign up and check out right now. Obviously this has nothing to do with us iOS users, as GameCenter not only covers our needs on Apple's portable devices, but it's also coming to OS X in the quickly approaching Mountain Lion. But this does show that other device manufacturers are learning from Apple's history. Originally on the iOS platform, there was no official social gaming network, and it was a free-for-all between popular networks like OpenFeint, Crystal, and plenty of others. But Amazon's heading all of that off early, aiming to bring developers under its own official umbrella for social gaming.
Notifications, AirPlay, Game Center all coming to the Mac with Mountain Lion
We knew these were coming to the next version of OS X already, but Apple has just demoed all three of them at the WWDC Keynote in San Francisco today. As you might expect, all three of these famous iOS features look pretty much the same on a Mac (especially now that the sweet MacBook Pro with Retina Display has been announced). Notifications allows you to hear about things like Twitter direct messages and other pending notes from a dragdown menu on the top of your screen, AirPlay allows you to send video wirelessly off to other devices, and Game Center not only tracks achievements, but allows for multiplayer gameplay across other computers and the Internet. All of these look great, and it looks like Apple has been able to bring all of the functionality over (except, of course, for the actual touchscreen). Mountain Lion should be out later on next month, with more info to come. Stay tuned.
Astronut for iPad available, use iPhone as controller
If you enjoy casual games and have both an iPhone and an iPad, then you'll want to check out Astronut from The Iconfactory. The planet hopping game has been available on the iPhone for a few years, but an updated iPhone and a new iPad version now lets you use your the iPad for the game and the iPhone or iPod touch as the controller. With its 24 levels and 40 different achivements to unlock, Astronut is a solid title that'll keep you entertained for a while. You can literally play for an hour without getting bored, but don't worry if you've only got a few minutes to spare as the game can be saved at any point. There's also GameCenter support so you can share your stats with other gamers. You can check out the promo video of Astronut below and grab both the free iPhone app and the US$1.99 iPad app from the iOS App Store.
Plants vs. Zombies iOS receives hefty update
PopCap has released updates to the iPad and iPhone versions of Plants vs. Zombies, bringing it more in line with its non-mobile counterparts. The iPad version sees the bulk of the updates, adding several new game modes, mini-games, achievements and leaderboards. Specifically, it adds the Zen Garden, Vasebreaker Endless and I, Zombie modes, along with the Slot Machine mini-game. An optional mini-game pack including Zombiquarium, Portal Combat and Beghouled Twist can also be unlocked with in-game currency (earned either through gameplay or, you guessed it, in-app purchase).The iPhone and iPod Touch version, meanwhile, receives only the Vasebreaker mode, additional achievements and leaderboards. The update is available now. Whether or not you have any free time available, well, that's something else entirely.
New York State removes sex offenders from Xbox Live
New York will be removing the state's registered sex offenders from several online gaming services, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced. As part of "Operation: Game Over," over 3,500 of accounts have been removed from various gaming services run by "Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Disney, Warner Bros. and Sony."The purge was done with the consent of each company. Xbox Live is the only service explicitly mentioned in the press release, though each company certainly has recognized services, including PlayStation Network, Origin, Game Center, Battle.net, etc.The press release notes that New York law requires sex offenders to provide the state with email addresses and screen names, which can then "be made available to certain websites so they can purge potential predators from their online networks." This marks the first time the law has been applied to gaming services. Vice president and deputy general counsel Rich Wallis noted that the company is "supportive of Attorney General Schneiderman's efforts to make the Internet, including online gaming environments like Xbox LIVE, safer for everyone."This isn't the first time that A.G. Schneiderman has delved into the world of video games. He also subpoenaed Sony regarding the PlayStation Network security breach last year.
