defunct
Latest
Codemasters denies picking up APB
If you were holding out hope that the defunct urban crime MMO All Points Bulletin would be resurrected courtesy of the folks at Codemasters, Eurogamer has a little bit of cold water to throw on your fire. David Solari, Codemasters Online general manager, minces no words in a recent interview. "We have not picked up APB, I can answer you definitively," he said. Rumors circulated that the publisher might be picking up the pieces of the shuttered MMO, left scattered by the closing of Realtime Worlds, when former RTW community manager Ben Bateman updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new job at Codemasters. Epic Games has also been rumored as a potential salvager, and Solari says that someone will inevitably pick up APB's assets, if only for the innovative tech. "If they don't pick up the game then they will pick up the technology for sure, because the avatar and character customisation technology is incredible. Something will definitely be done to preserve that," he muses.
Now Software suspends day-to-day operations
Now Software, the company that for many years created and sold Now Up-To-Date and Contact to Mac users, has ceased day-to-day operations. As noted in a tip from TUAW reader Barry T., attempts to view the Now Software website are now redirected to a Google Sites page. On that page, there's a link to information about the current state of the company. That's where this letter from Now's John Wallace explains what killed the company (click the Read More link to view the letter):
Format heaven: 10 other failures HD DVD will meet
We've already dished out our suggestions for what to do with your HD DVD player now that the format war is over, but if you decide to retire it to a better place, what other formats will it meet in that digital cemetery in the sky? A comedic (albeit nostalgic) piece over at Popular Mechanics takes a look at the top ten now-defunct video formats Toshiba's high-def medium will congregate with, and while you may not be familiar with them all (Capacitance Electronic Discs and TeD, anyone?), it's a great look back at what could have been. Rest in peace, HD DVD -- you're in great company (so to speak).
Unreleased but unforgotten systems
We must have missed the memo about yesterday being "blog about game systems that were announced but never came out" day, but we're trying to make up for it belatedly by pointing out two sites that took part. The first, TechEBlog, has compiled a list of five systems from the '90s that never made it off the drawing board, including the retro-futuretastic Sega VR helmet pictured above. Insert Credit didn't go quite so far back in looking at the FreeOn, a Korean cell phone system that was shown at E3 2003 and promptly never heard from again. Not a bad start, but there are a couple dozen other unreleased consoles just waiting to be covered by the blogosphere. We'd take one but we're too busy writing about systems that, y'know, actually came out. Read - TechEBlog: Five Unreleased systemsRead - Insert Credit: MIA FreeOn
