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Amazon reportedly explored opening discount stores to offload unsold electronics
Amazon has been examining the idea of opening discount stores or outlets selling unsold electronics and home goods at steep discounts.
Walmart abandons plan to have robots check store inventories
Much as Elon Musk did with his Tesla Model 3 factory, Walmart has discovered that robots can’t necessarily replace humans. The retail giant has decided scrap plans to use robots to automate the chore of tracking inventory after find that humans could do as good a job.
Google has discontinued the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
Google is no longer selling its landmark Pixel 3 and 3 XL phones, the company confirmed with Android Police. If you enter the old Pixel 3 listing you'll get the home page instead and it no longer appears in the product carousel. Meanwhile, the carrier/configuration section shows the devices as "out of stock."
'Fallout 76' hackers wiped out players' inventories
If you play Fallout 76 you might want to avoid public servers for a while. According to multiple posts on the game's Reddit forums -- and confirmed by publisher Bethesda -- hackers have attacked public servers and wiped out the inventories of more than a few players. A post from one of the Overseers warns that "Your weapons and armor, and any other inventory items are not safe." It also appears that Bethesda is unable to restore lost items, so if they're gone, they're gone for good.
Amazon's smart shelves will re-order office supplies automatically
Amazon's Dash buttons were a boon for the forgetful and time-pressed when they launched in 2015. The nifty little device let you re-order household items the moment you realized you'd run out, at the simple touch of, well... a button. But while they were discontinued earlier this year, their concept will continue to live on in the Amazon Dash Smart Shelf, a weight-sensing, WiFi-enabled smart scale designed to take the hassle out of office supply management for small businesses.
Walmart tests shelf-scanning robots in 50-plus stores
You may have seen stores deploy shelf-scanning robots before, but they're about to get one of their largest real-world tests to date. Walmart is expanding a shelf-scanning robot trial run to 50 additional stores, including some in its home state of Arkansas. Machines from Bossa Nova Robotics will roam the aisles to check for stock levels, pricing and misplaced items, saving human staffers the hassle of checking everything themselves. There will be technicians on-site just in case, but the bots are fully autonomous. Thanks in part to 3D imaging, they can dodge around obstacles and make notes to return later if their path is completely blocked.
MIT researchers use drone fleets to track warehouse inventory
Imagine a warehouse buzzing with tiny drones that automatically track and monitor inventory from afar, leaving workers free to manage and move material. That's the new system developed by MIT researchers, which could prevent mismatches and help employees find particular items faster on top of looking really cool with a bunch of worker drones zipping around.
Robot watches store shelves so you don't leave empty-handed
Few things are more annoying while shopping than finding out that a store hasn't bothered to stock what you want... assuming you know to look for it in the first place. A robot may just come to your rescue, though. Simbe Robotics is launching an autonomous robot, Tally, that scans store shelves and lets workers know when goods are running out or misplaced. Shops no longer have to make a human trudge through the aisles -- they only have to send someone out when supplies are low. Tally can work during normal business hours, and it even has a Roomba-like charging dock so that it can top itself up in mid-shift.
Get organized with The Elder Scrolls Online's collections system
So you have a whole lot of stuff in The Elder Scrolls Online. That's great. How are you going to organize it all? With a house? Don't be ridiculous; what you need is the new Collections feature going live in the game's next major update. A new development blog explains how the system will allow players to organize mounts, pets, and costumes through a few tabs and a handful of blood sacrifices. (Mostly the tabs.) Items that belong in Collections will automatically be moved over when Update 6 goes live, removing any need to worry about inventory space when you need to summon a mount or don a costume. Any new items will also be tossed right in your Collections if they fit the criteria. The Collections also allow you to see vanity pets that you haven't yet obtained, thus giving you all the more reason to hunt down those elusive little critters for your collection-related purposes.
Global Chat: Can MMO stories rise above mediocrity?
Players have long debated the importance, relevance, and quality of stories in MMOs. Some have called for an abolishment of dev-driven narrative entirely, some enjoy what's there, and some have pressed for better writing and storytelling techniques. This week we'll hear from one blogger who is struggling with "mediocre" stories in MMOs and what might be done with them. But wait, that's not all! We'll also hear from writers about MMO inventory systems, aging games, and how pretty much nobody in the world was shocked when Elder Scrolls Online ditched its sub.
Toys R Us: Lucario amiibo pre-orders not being canceled
Numerous Toys R Us customers received emails from the retailer this morning, seemingly canceling their pre-orders for the Lucario amiibo figure. As a Toys R Us spokesperson told Joystiq in a phone conversation today, the emails were part of a "technical issue," and pre-orders for the figure will not be canceled. Toys R Us added via email, "we apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused pertaining to customers' amiibo pre-orders. Please know that we are working on an email communication to all customers effected, which will provide instructions on how we plan to fulfill their order." The Lucario amiibo was revealed in November as a Toys R Us-exclusive figure, though the retailer's listing for the figure is currently missing from its storefront. Toys R Us was unable to offer specific inventory data for amiibo, but assured that the issue was unrelated to its supply of the figures.
Roberts discusses Star Citizen's inventory system, balancing, and factions
Star Citizen fans can get some answers from Chris Roberts, assuming that the questions they have match up with the five questions featured in the latest video. There's nothing fancy about this one, just Roberts sitting down and answering top fan questions about the game as collected from the game's Reddit directory. Roberts starts off by discussing inventory and how it will be influenced by player outfits, along with the different inventories for ships, player characters, and the like. He also talks about balancing with weapons and items in the present and in the future, the interplay of organization membership with enemy NPC factions, ship durability, and the details on the Caterpillar. If you want to hear about all of that, jump on past the break to watch the full video; it's only eight minutes long, but it contains plenty of information for fans to consider and discuss in depth.
The Daily Grind: Do you make use of mule characters?
If you go to any bank in World of Warcraft, you're going to see two different kinds of characters: actual players bedecked in fine combat gear... and level 1 bank mules with cute names and even cuter guild tags. These characters are often seen as worse than alts; they're not merely alternatives to someone's main character but characters who exist solely to hold extra gear or sell items on an auction hall, usually circumventing the intended inventory limits system. In short, they're real characters' pack mules. In some games, especially early sandboxes, such mules were loaded down with tradeskills to allow a single player to craft items for his real character, allowing him to circumvent intended character interdependency too and seriously impacting player-driven economies. Do you make use of mules or bank alts in your MMO of choice? Or has your MMO found a clever way to make muling unnecessary? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Stomping Land is switching to Unreal Engine 4
Dino-delay or evolutionary upgrade? The situation might be both for The Stomping Land, which has been on the down low while its developer works to bring it to a new game engine after the old engine lost studio support. "It has been quiet in The Stomping Land community but that is certainly not the case behind the scenes!" Developer Alex "Jig" Fundora told Kotaku. "The game is being moved to Unreal Engine 4 to take advantage of technical and creative opportunities, and while the game was so early in development, I didn't want to keep working for years with a game engine (UDK) that had officially lost support by Epic. The move has put a bit of more work on my plate, but the already discovered opportunities using UE4 are exciting, and I'm confident fans will be satisfied with the long-run decision." The dinosaur-themed survival sandbox went into early access this past May 30th.
The Stomping Land's dinosaur survival MMO is coming to Steam this month
The Stomping Land, a survival MMO with a generous heaping of dinosaurs, is set to arrive on Steam Early Access on May 23rd for backers and May 30th for everyone else. The cost will be $24.99 for non-backers. The MMO was successfully funded through Kickstarter last year and is being developed by Alex Fundora. The Stomping Land challenges players to survive as a human in harsh environments that include rather ravenous dinos. Hunger and thirst are issues that must be dealt with, and these are made all the more challenging by a lack of internal inventory (everything must be carried in hand or stored on the map). The game encourages players to form tribes for survival and allows them to capture, tame, and even ride dinosaurs. The Early Access version will launch with one island, and you can check out the trailer for the release after the break.
Trials of Ascension details dynamic spawning feature
Trials of Ascension started its life with an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign in November of last year that grew into a determination to rise up and continue making the player-driven sandbox MMO. Now the team is back this week to update us on the progress of several features including Dynamic spawning. Dymanic spawning allows the dev team and GMs to pick points for the world to change with spawn markers. This change could include everything from animal migration to creeping flora, and the dev blog states that all testing has blown the team away so far. Be sure to check out the full dev diary for more on the world map, an innovative inventory system, housing, and more. [Thanks to Cik for the tip!]
Final Fantasy XIV offers more retainers for a price
A new patch for Final Fantasy XIV is out and playable today. It's full of stuff to do, things to craft, and of course, items to acquire. This might not be a welcome bit of news to players already struggling to fit items into their burgeoning banks. But help is here, after a fashion. If you truly can't reduce your items any other way, you can now buy more retainers to take care of the many things you've still got kicking around in your inventory. The downside? It'll cost you real money. Players are allowed to purchase up to two additional retainers for their characters at the price of $2 per month for each. The extra retainers are available to all characters on your account and will not be deleted if you discontinue the extra monthly fee but won't be accessible until you pay again. For more details on signing up and interacting with your normal retainers, check out the full update.
New vids detail Entwood, Isengard, inventory changes from LotRO's Update 13
Fan site LotRO Players has sussed out a few details on Turbine's upcoming Update 13. Lord of the Rings Online will be heading to Entwood and a flooded version of Isengard, both of which are detailed in lengthy new videos captured on the Bullroarer test server. Update 13 will also introduce significant changes to LotRO's inventory system, including the ability to purchase additional slots. You can watch all three videos after the break, but be aware that the first two contain spoilers relating to LotRO's epic story quest. [Thanks everyone who tipped us!]
More inventory improvements coming after Warlords launch, larger bags in the meantime
For the avid collector, inventory problems have reached critical mass in Mists of Pandaria. The previously announced toy box and heirloom storage will arrive with the launch of Warlords, but many are still wondering what to do with their ever increasing transmog collections. A solution is on the horizon, but it won't arrive until sometime after the expansion's launch. If the already announced inventory improvements aren't enough, there will also be slightly larger bags added in Warlords. These will probably be 30-slot bags, and I would be surprised if there is ever a larger bag than that once the inventory changes are fully implemented. When it comes to what items will qualify as a "toy box" item to be removed from your regular inventory, Blizzard will be adding these on a case-by-case basis and looking for player feedback on the future beta and PTR to help identify items they may have missed. For example, should a trinket such as the Super Simian Sphere be turned into a permanent toy instead of a trinket? What about a popular quest item like Dartol's Rod of Transformation?
Mew-Genics wants you to hoard attribute-boosting furniture
Team Meat recently unveiled another aspect of Mew-Genics' gameplay: furniture collecting. Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen discussed the game's furniture system in a blog post on the game's site, drawing comparisons to Nintendo's Animal Crossing series. In Mew-Genics, players acquire furniture through Baby Jack's store then place it in a room in their house. Each piece of furniture, which belongs to one of five "types," influences a variety of stats in the game, from disease rates to each cat's life span. The five types of furniture are large, medium, small, wall furniture and those belonging to item sets. Team Meat says Mew-Genics will include 750 pieces of furniture in total, not including rare alternates for each one. The cat genetics and breeding game will launch in 2014 for Steam, iOS and Android.
