true crime
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Netflix is already making a docuseries about the alleged billion-dollar bitcoin launderers
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather 'Razzlekhan' Morgan were arrested and charged this week.
Netflix is making a documentary about the QuadrigaCX Bitcoin saga
When founder Gerald Cotten died in 2018, hundreds of millions in crypto assets allegedly became inaccessible.
Spotify’s tastemakers create 17 specialized podcast playlists
Spotify is making it easier to find podcasts you'll like.
Podcasts can now win Pulitzer Prizes
Podcasts like S-Town, Serial and Believed aren't just enthralling, they're also great examples of hard-hitting, in-depth reporting. With that in mind, the Pulitzer Prize Board is adding a new journalism prize category for audio reporting.
What we're listening to: Sturgill Simpson and 'Chase Darkness with Me'
In this installment of our audio IRL, senior editor Andrew Tarantola's affinity for anime leads him to an unlikely musical discovery. Senior editor Jessica Conditt is addicted to true crime podcasts, but her recommendation is an audiobook with podcast roots.
'Dateline' debuts the true crime podcast it should've had all along
The NBC News true crime series Dateline is muscling into Serial's territory for its latest story, as it has released a podcast. The show is called 13 Alibis, and it tells the tale of Richard Rosario, a man who served 20 years in prison for murder even though he said he had 13 alibi witnesses ready to testify to his innocence.
Be a Hong Kong gangster in the upcoming Triad Wars
Are you a fan of Sleeping Dogs who looked at the game and really wanted to start mixing up your other activities with player feuds? That's the idea at the heart of Triad Wars, a new game coming from United Front Games that is and isn't a sequel to the aforementioned game. It's a direct descendant of the mechanics of Sleeping Dogs, but the focus is on taking the role of a leader within the Hong Kong Triads, claiming territory and taking down rivals. The game is set for a PC-exclusive release sometime next year and retains most of the gameplay elements from Sleeping Dogs, from the combat to the driving. As an online game, it's explicitly a game that can change from year to year, with the stated purpose being that nothing is necessarily the same over time. So if you want to drive a car through Hong Kong before setting up an underground gambling ring, keep a close eye on the development here. [Thanks to Celestial for the tip!]
MMO Burnout: Do yourself a favor and play Sleeping Dogs
This week I thought I'd travel to Hong Kong as an undercover cop, infiltrate the Triads, enter a few street races, sing some karaoke, and generally kung fu fight my way through another jewel of an open-world sandbox actioner. You're welcome to come with me, but you'll need a copy of Sleeping Dogs to make it happen. Square's 2012 gangster opus got a new DLC injection this week, but it'll be a while before I can report on it since the rest of game is so large and involving.
Square Enix snags rights to True Crime: Hong Kong from Activision
"The finished product was not going to be at the top of that genre," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told Joystiq following the sudden cancellation of the publisher's True Crime: Hong Kong reboot in February. That blunt assessment hasn't stopped Square Enix from picking up the rights to the United Front Games-developed title from Activision and placing it under the management of Square Enix London Studios and its general manager, Lee Singleton. "When we first saw and got our hands on the game we fell in love with it," Singleton tells Gamasutra, further describing the game as a "great big bucket of fun." Square Enix London Studios knows a thing or two about "fun." The organization is tasked to provide a "fresh approach to third party game development" and, in that pursuit, it's managed games like Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham Asylum and Avalanche Studios' open-world Just Cause 2. Since Square Enix didn't purchase the (somewhat worthless) True Crime IP, it appears it will be renaming the game; the "branding team is already working on concepts," Gama reports. And while the-game-formerly-known-as-True-Crime-Hong-Kong was destined for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this November, Square's not ready to even address those specifics. After the game's cancellation, the development team had to "scale back" but now that Square Enix has picked up the title, "we're ready to turn up the heat and get the team up to capacity," Singleton says. For his part, Activision's Hirshberg tells Gama, "Our team has worked very hard to find a solution where everybody wins. Square Enix gets the benefit of the tremendous investment we've made in the game thus far. UFG gets to stay together and complete their vision. And gamers get to play a great game. We couldn't be more thrilled." And while most gamers will no doubt look forward to the title's release, if only to play "Would I Have Cancelled It," Singleton reminds us that the game still needs work. "We are committed to working with the team at United Front Games and giving them the time needed to realize the full potential of the game's standout features and create a truly unique open world adventure." Now we wait to see if Square's able to release something "at the top of that genre."
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg on True Crime, Bizarre Creations, the 'Hero' franchise, and transparency
When Eric Hirshberg stepped into the role of CEO of Activision Publishing last July, the company had just begun an ugly, public battle with the founders of Infinity Ward, having fired the creators of the company's Call of Duty cash cow just four months prior. Frequently villainized in the press, the appointment of Hirshberg seemed to indicate that Activision was eager to turn its brand identity around. Hirshberg cut his teeth as CEO and chief creative officer of marketing firm Deutsch LA making ad campaigns for brands like PlayStation -- you may not recognize that name, but if you've seen a Kevin Butler commercial, you know his work. And as Activision Publishing narrows its focus and energies into a few key brands, notably the aforementioned Call of Duty, tasking a marketing man with running a game publisher starts to make a lot of sense. Last month I had the opportunity to speak with Hirshberg in his office at Activision headquarters in Santa Monica. It was less than a week after a massive leak upended the company's carefully prepared marketing plan for the latest in the blockbuster Modern Warfare series and, for Hirshberg, it was a chance to connect with that audience. "We woke up with a marketing crisis," Hirshberg told me, "and wanted to go to bed with a marketing win." Throughout our conversation, Hirshberg mentioned the need to be transparent with consumers, so I challenged him to explain some of the company's more controversial decisions since he's been CEO: the cancellation of True Crime; the closure of Bizarre Studios; and the very public retreat from the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero games.
Umpire strikes out as Find My iPhone goes horribly wrong
Find My iPhone: helpful utility or breeder of social discord? You be the judge... or, in this case, the umpire. In New Jersey, youth baseball umpire Carl Ippolito lost track of his iPhone and became convinced it had been stolen out of his car, reports the Hunterdon County Democrat. Ippolito used the FMi app on his son's phone to track down his device, and the service's location readout led him to the spot where he found 27-year-old Brent Johnson chatting on an iPhone. The aggrieved Ippolito, assuming that Johnson was holding his iPhone, tried to talk to him about it. When Johnson moved to walk away, Ippolito grabbed him and punched him, cutting his chin. Foul ball! Not only is it inappropriate to assault people, even if you think they stole your phone, but it turns out Ippolito's iPhone was at the snack shack at the nearby baseball field, in the spot where he accidentally left it -- Johnson was using his own, perfectly legal iPhone. Ippolito was later arrested on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. The moral of the story? As we have said repeatedly before, confronting someone based on Find My iPhone tracking is Not. A. Good. Plan. If you think your phone's been stolen, call the cops -- not the brute squad. Thanks to Charles for the tip.
United Front Games hit with layoffs in wake of True Crime cancellation
We've heard rumblings over the last week about layoffs at True Crime: Hong Kong developer United Front Games, but last night a representative confirmed to us that "a number of roles have been made redundant" at the studio, specifically as a result of the cancellation of True Crime. The "recent activity" page for UFG on LinkedIn, a business networking site, shows at least 25 people who were affected. Despite the layoffs, we were also told that, "UFG is still very much open for business and we will continue to ship top games." Additionally, the studio's website has an update message on its front page this morning, lamenting the cancellation of True Crime but admitting, "we understand why." We wish everyone affected at the Vancouver-based studio the best in the coming months. The full statement from United Front Games is available after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Activision axing Guitar Hero and True Crime; Freestyle Games reportedly hit with layoffs [update]
Despite a recent cover story in EGM, United Front's True Crime: Hong Kong won't make it to retail. Activision's latest earnings report confirms the game's cancellation, as well as the end of the Guitar Hero franchise. "Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," Activision said in its financial statement. The statement goes on to confirm the cancellation of True Crime. "The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences." Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg went into a bit more detail on today's investor call: "Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a widely well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as a 90-plus rated release from our most direct competitor [Rock Band 3], demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace. Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand. Instead, what we'll do is focus our time and energies on marketing and supporting our strong catalog of titles and downloadable content, especially to new consumers as the installed base for hardware continues to grow."Hirshberg continued, saying that True Crime's development, "was't going to lead to a title at or near the top of the competitive open-world genre." To put things more directly, Hirshberg added, "To be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough." If that weren't enough bad news, Eurogamer also reports that DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games has suffered "severe layoffs," though it's unclear whether the rhythm series has been affected by the alleged redundancies. We'll update this post as we learn more. [Update: An earlier version of this post was based solely on Eurogamer's report, which has since been partially confirmed by Activision.] [Update 2: United Front Games has commented on the cancellation of True Crime]
True Crime: Hong Kong delayed until 2011
Activision's recently released Q2 2011 investor's report contains a bit of bad news for United Front Games' upcoming reboot of the True Crime franchise -- or good news, depending on how you look at it. The game -- now referred to as True Crime: Hong Kong -- has had its somewhat ambiguous fall 2010 release window pushed to an even more ambiguous 2011 launch, which Activision hopes will "give the development team more time to deliver the high-quality entertainment experience they envision for the game." We normally can't help but scoff when publishers give this excuse when pushing back the release of one of their titles, but in this case, we'll let it slide. We're not sure if you've heard, but Hong Kong is ... um, kind of big.
Impressions: True Crime
click to enlarge After a five-year hiatus, free-roaming felony franchise True Crime is set to return (sans subtitle) in Fall 2010. United Front, which is also working on the upcoming ModNation Racers and houses veterans from games such as Bully, Prototype and Scarface, is developing the new entry for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Lead producer Jeff O'Connell describes it as a "more serious" reboot -- and a story that's more closely modeled after cop films. "It's an opportunity to be an innately good guy," he said of the undercover, under-pressure role you'll assume. "That's good drama." Inspired by films like "The Departed" (see: "Infernal Affairs"), True Crime follows undercover lawman Wei Shen as he infiltrates the triad, slow-mo kicks enemies in the chin, and completes objectives across the game's new city playground. "Is it an accurate representation of Hong Kong?" O'Connell asked. "It's not." Despite referencing over 27,000 photographs, the city has been "tuned for gameplay," eschewing a realistic, street-for-street recreation in favor of a more cinematic and moody Hong Kong. %Gallery-87831%
Activision reports $113m in profits for 2009; 2010 game plan is predictable
Today Activision Blizzard reported the financial results of its December quarter and the entire 2009 calendar year. For the year, Activision recorded a net income of $113 million, a modest turnaround from the $107 million in net losses for the company in 2008. Led by sales of Modern Warfare 2, all signs -- at least, this one -- pointed to an outstanding Q4 for the publisher. However, figures released today indicate that Activision actually posted a $286 million net loss during the period. "Despite these challenging times, in 2010 we remain focused on expanding operating margins by growing our high-margin digital/online revenues, directing our resources to the largest and most profitable opportunities and realizing operational efficiencies globally," CEO Bobby Kotick said. "In calendar year 2010, we expect our net earnings and operating margin growth will be driven by our product slate that includes Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft II and the World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm, as well as a diversified lineup based on Activision Publishing's best-selling franchises including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, together with other well-known titles such as True Crime, Spider-Man and Bakugan." While few details were give about Activision's pending slate of sequels, spinoffs and possible reboots, Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, did share a few words about the next True Crime game. "We'll be releasing a game in the $4 billion action genre, based on our True Crime franchise," Griffith said. "The game blends intense Hollywood-style driving with martial arts combat and shootouts to deliver an Asian cinema-inspired action thriller. This is a big open-world action game that looks especially strong." Griffith also confirmed that a new 007 game is still in the works for 2010. Additionally, Activision noted that two new IPs are in development for its 2010 lineup and assured that additional DLC will continue to be released for Guitar Hero 5 (and presumably Band Hero), as well as for DJ Hero. The next installments in both music game franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, are due in "the back half of the year," according Griffith. Activision also announced that it has ceased developing new Guitar Hero games for the PlayStation 2 platform. Aw, shucks.
Spike VGA 2009 Wrap-up: The awards, the trailers, the premieres
As you can probably tell by looking at our front page, last night's Spike Video Game Awards show was a pretty prolific source of gaming news. From the big reveals of games like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, to new trailers for Crackdown 2 and Halo: Reach, to ... well, the actual awards, it was a pretty busy night for all parties involved. We've collected all the stories, trailers, and winners of each award in this post to prevent you from hunting through our archives -- or our hateful, hateful liveblog -- to find what you're looking for. You'll find them all listed after the jump!
True Crime in Hong Kong revealed at Spike VGA
The second world premiere of the VGAs was the full version of the teaser we saw a couple weeks ago -- you know, the one we initially presumed was for another installment in the True Crime series? Yeah, well, it was totally for another installment in the True Crime series, which is being developed by ModNation Racers creators United Front. Guess there's no more mystery as to what Activision's upcoming Hong Kong-set action title is, huh? It'll be a little while before we can get the high definition version of the trailer up, but until then, check out a screengrabbed version of the trailer after the jump, and feel confident in the fact that we're very good guessers. Update: We've added a hi-res version of the trailer above.
Wii-deprivation drives man to kidnap himself
Sure, Wii is great and all, but we're guessing a man in China who tried to extort $1,400 from his parents by "kidnapping" himself and demanding a ransom after they refused to buy him a "Nintendo computer" was probably a little too infatuated with Ninety's white box. The man -- who we're hoping is more of a "boy" -- apparently hired two men to kidnap him, and was arrested after he withdrew his own ransom from an ATM. Genius. Quick tip, kids: real tennis, bowling, golf, and boxing are almost as much fun as Wii Sports, believe it or not -- and they involve just slightly less jail time.[Via Wii Fanboy]
Plan for financial success: 1. Steal iPhones, 2. ???, 3. Profit!
What do you get when you combine 332 iPhones and 2 crooked Apple employees? Felony theft charges, apparently, after a luckless pair of underhanded but enterprising Apple Store workers decided to set up their own iPhone shop using purloined stock from Uncle Steve. Now one is in the slammer, and the other is facing extradition to New Hampshire (from Massachussetts, not from the French Riviera -- too bad for him). This all goes to show, crime does not pay -- especially when you get caught with $132,000 of hot iPhones. There is no official word as to what color t-shirts the thieves wore in their day-to-day work, or whether either of them could be reasonably classified as Apple Geniuses. [Via Ars]
