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Intel's 32nm Clarkdale CPUs moved up to Q4, a full year ahead of AMD?
It's just a rumor, but DigiTimes has pretty decent sources within Taiwan's motherboard industry. So what was a Q1 2010 mass production launch of Clarkdale CPUs is now rumored to be coming in Q4, notable as the first Intel CPU to use its new 32nm process technology with an integrated memory controller and graphics core built on a 45nm process. This jibes with what DailyTECH and others were reporting back in Feburary. DigiTimes adds that Intel expects Clarkdale CPUs to account for 10% of its total desktop CPU shipments in Q4 rising to 20% in Q1 2010. That means we should see the chips well before the holiday shopping season (near the October 22nd launch of Windows 7 makes sense) if true. As for AMD, well, last we heard they're still looking to "ramp up" production in the middle of 2010 with mass production capabilities arriving around Q4. Yeah, we know.Read -- DigiTimes Read -- DailyTECH
Turncoat! Warren Spector developing for casual audience
"How dare he abandon us?" you may scream into your monitor (and later into your favorite pillow). Warren Spector, developer of core gamer classics such as Thief and Deus Ex, is working for the mainstream audience. In a Forbes article about casual gaming's increasing influence, Spector said, "I don't believe I'm compromising on my gameplay ideals at all. [But] any artist who doesn't want his or her work in front of the largest audience possible is nuts."Spector's "shift" shouldn't come as a surprise. For starters, we know his company, the Disney-owned Junction Point Studios, is currently working on a Pixar collaboration. He also intimated his desire for more mainstream development at the Games Education Summit in June."I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them," he said, later adding that he feels the hardcore genre is "completely safe" but "less relevant to major publishers" -- Cliff Bleszinki can breathe a sigh of relief. What we're wondering, now more than ever, is what's going on with the untitled fantasy project we haven't heard about since June 2007.[Via MCV]
Leadership in EVE Online applicable to real-world ventures
EVE Online has been getting increased mainstream media coverage. Recently the New York Times covered EVE's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) summit in Reykjavik, as well as the self-styled 'bad guy' alliance Band of Brother's initiative to annihilate their rivals in New Eden, wiping them from New Eden's star maps. A new MMO article at Forbes takes a close look at the corporate paradigm of EVE Online, both in-game and out. The piece touches on the views of Goonswarm alliance leader and CSM delegate Sean Conover (aka Darius Johnson, CEO of Goonfleet) and the real-world CEO of CCP Games, Hilmar Veigar Petursson. The Icelandic CEO states: "There isn't a lot of difference between what you can apply within the game and out of it... It's more about social skills than gaming skills. It's very hard to stay on top."
WRUP: Feeling the burn edition
This week's big release is none other than Wii Fit. It's not only something many of you diehard Wii fans have been looking forward to, but also the mainstream public. Mothers and kids, grandparents and siblings, people from all walks of life have raised an eyebrow and perked their ears up after hearing about it. People are down with the fitness bundle.Are you? Did you get your copy of Wii Fit yet? Are you planning on getting in some quality workout time this weekend? Are you playing something else? What are you playing?%Gallery-23454%
You're not special
Hardcore Casual has a very interesting article up discussing how current MMOs trick players into thinking they're special when they're really not. And after reading the rather convincing argument - I have to agree. Sort of. However, I'm not convinced that it's the fault of the MMO developers. Rather, they are but a part of the overall picture.Gaming is mainstream and the "hardcore" gamers, while still out there and still as boisterous as ever (see any online gaming forum), are the minority. What, you don't really think the majority of the nine million WoW players are hardcore gamers do you? Gaming is major league big business now. It's not like it used to be back in the day (late 80's and early 90's) when a few folks could get together and bang out a game that became a cult hit. It just doesn't work like that anymore. Thus, games must cater to the lowest common denominator, to the largest group of people willing to pay the monthly fees. And that means casual gamers who don't, or more likely can't, spend hours upon hours in game. Thus, the game mechanics (i.e., instances) have to change or the game simply won't survive. It's a matter of economics. ESPECIALLY in the jam packed MMO arena where everyone is fighting in a very limited revenue pool. Even the hardest of hardcore gamers can't play more than a few at any one time.Plus, the whole "carebear" mentality goes hand in hand with how our society has developed. In our country especially, most everyone (that does not mean ALL people) now expects things to to be given to them. A life, a job, a car, an "epic sword".. whatever. They want it all, want it now, and don't want to work to get it. Sadly, that's a fact and not just the ramblings of a mad man. Why this "entitlement" mentality has evolved is a topic for another time and another place however.So give the Hardcore Casual artcile "You are not special" a read and let us know your thoughts!
The Simpsons Game: Glancing a mainstream review
Reading entertainment trade publication Variety's review of The Simpsons Game makes it pretty obvious that as video games evolve, and mainstream publications start doing more reviews, so too do the methods of evaluating them. The Simpson's Game seems to be one of those anomalies we're running into more frequently, where the game may not be all that to typical game review publications (and certainly not worth $60), but still presents an experience worth having (Heavenly Sword says "hello"). The games are neither evolutionary nor revolutionary for the hardcore, and so the reviewers give it a whatever score and move on to the next game they have to rate and berate. Variety got a lot of flak for their Metroid Prime 3 review because it was written from a mainstream perspective. They pointed out to their average mainstream audience that Metroid probably isn't the Wii game for them if they don't know "the rules" of a Metroid game -- just think of trying to teach a non-gamer how to play Metroid compared to Wii Sports. In the case of The Simpsons Game, Variety goes and recommends an average game because they believe the writing could sustain their mainstreamer through the experience. While we frequently put gameplay above story, Variety and more mainstream pubs might see things reversed. It may not be all that simple, but it's plain to see that reviews can be influenced by the audiences they're written for.
Dr. Phil talks Manhunt, but Steinberg steals the show
We're totally enjoying CBS' coverage of Manhunt 2. After Katie Couric's eye-roll inducing Notebook entry two days ago, the odiously designed CBS.com site bubbles up a clip of Dr. Phil with Early Show host Harry Smith and journalist Scott Steinberg. We're sorry, but just try not to laugh as Smith introduces Dr. Phil to the show and Steinberg starts flailing the Wiimote trying to execute the guy on screen. Of course, you'll have to go to CBS.com to watch it. We're sorry, but the networks haven't discovered the basics of embeddable code.Dr. Phil is far more careful here then the last time he talked about video game violence's effect on children during the Virginia Tech massacre -- probably because his hypothesis was dead wrong last time and he looked like a total (insult of choice goes here). Dr. Phil says about Manhunt 2, "Now the truth is, if somebody plays this game and then they go and do this in their life, there was something seriously wrong with them before they got the game. But it's modeling." We'd prefer if the mainstream media did a simple PSA and told parents not to let their children play M-rated games instead of all this fear mongering.[Via GamePolitics]
Second Life "Wonderland" scandal hits mainstream media
UK media outlets are blowing up with stories of "Wonderland", a virtual playground in Second Life where Ageplay is the go. Sister-site Second Life Insider has been following the various stages of this story over the last day, including its growing coverage by mainstream press and the reply from SL developers Linden Lab.For those who need a little background, Ageplay is when an adult roleplays a child. This need not be for sexual purposes, but to use the quote from SL Insider of Sky News reporter Jason Farrell, "Wonderland is a virtual children's playground where paedophiles cruise and kids are solicited." Even though there probably aren't real children controlling the characters, it is still an offensive community for others within SL, and a Kid Avs community representative has already spoken out about it. It is also something that SL fans wouldn't want to be mistakenly associated with -- now that it has hit the mainstream, it may be one of the first things that people remember about Second Life, akin to "Oh, wasn't that the computer game for pedophiles?".The response Linden Lab provided to SL Insider essentially says that they have found no wrongdoing after investigating the Wonderland community. I'm not sure how well the rest of the media will take this answer. Provided below is a link to SL Insider's on-going coverage of this story as it develops.
CBS tosses their hat into the Manhunt 2 debate
CBS anchor Katie Courc thinks that Manhunt 2 is very dangerous. Why? Well, because the vicious acts of murder that are portrayed within aren't carried out in the usual manner, as a player presses buttons on a controller (you do press buttons in Manhunt 2 for the Wii, by the way), but by "wielding a knife, an axe, and a glass shard" to dispatch their opponent. We haven't seen the box for this thing yet, but it would have to be pretty big to include all of these things.But, what really gets us is the mainstream media's assumption that kids just walk into stores every day and purchase games that are rated "Mature." Even if this happens, and the kid takes said game home and plays it, what about the parents? Are they so absent-minded and uninterested in their child's life that they won't hear the curse words coming from their TV or hear the sounds of these murders (gurgling and the like, we imagine), let alone spend a few seconds to ask what they're playing or, dare we ask, watch their kid play it? You know, we can understand your stance against violent media in general (well, maybe not everyone's), but the detachment is there. You're holding a white Wiimote and nunchuk, it's not like you could honestly think that you're some crazy psycho killer out there performing murder with no repercussions for your actions. If the game came with a life-sized dummy that you had to choke from behind with the cord connecting nunchuk and Wiimote together for points, then we might be willing to entertain the mainstream media's concerns.It all comes down to the parents.[Via Joystiq]
Mainstream TV news covers Manhunt 2
OK, so it's not a big surprise that Manhunt 2 looks to be falling pretty flat with the gaming community. But remember, there's still all that expectation of controversy that the mainstream media has been gearing up for! This evening, both ABC and CBS news had segments on Manhunt 2. We seem to have missed the CBS one, but we did catch the ABC segment. We'd love to share the package with you, but the networks are quite behind the times and we can't seem to find the segments anywhere on their sites yet (and we're even less sure to find embeddable code). If it finds its way to YouTube, we'll be sure to post it. (Update: Still no code, but here's CBS' segment.)ABC.com's news section actually does have a quick rundown of video game ratings and terminology on their site for the utterly uninitiated. CBS took a different approach, however, as CBS.com features Katie Couric's Notebook. "What sets this video game apart is that the player can become physically involved in the acts of violence," Couric says. "Rather than just pushing buttons, the player actually wields a knife, an ax, a glass shard -- to stab an opponent." Ummm, no. Don't know who writes the copy over there at that ratings powerhouse, but that's just plain wrong. Although the PS2 version would be about pushing buttons -- unless CBS has discovered some new feature -- we're currently unaware of the Wiimote's ability to shape-shift into any of those items described allowing a player to "stab an opponent." Couric then says that research shows violent games cause children to accept violence as an every day part of life. Ironically, a kid with average intelligence should be able to figure that out by watching the first segment of Katie's news broadcast every weekday evening.
Is HDTV finally ready for the mainstream?
It seems that this question gets posed by one mainstream media outlet or another every year or so, and what better time to ask again than following estimates that 50 million American homes will be HDTV-equipped by the end of next year? It's no secret that carriers are pushing HD more frequently in their advertising, and now that select basic cable channels are finally making the move to HD, we wonder if the currently satisfied viewers will get curious and follow along? Numerous analysts have suggested that consumers won't make the jump en masse to demand HD programming until a noticeable amount of non-network content becomes available in HD, and while CNN, Food Network, TBS, and A&E (for instance) are all going (or have gone) HD, there's still hundreds of channels out there that have yet to purchase the first piece of HD recording equipment. Is HDTV ready for mainstream? Our gut says not quite, but we're a lot closer today than we've been.[Image courtesy of PSBSpeakers]
E307: Mainstream press loves WiiFit, constructs Wii robot as tribute
Though the gaming press's reactions to Nintendo's E3 media briefing have been, for the most part, lukewarm, mainstream publications are very positive about WiiFit's debut. Here are a few headlines that enunciate the differences in perception between the gaming hardcore and the general public: Forbes: "Can The Wii Save Your Life?" Washington Post: "Game On - Nintendo Is Star of E3 Show as Rivals Scramble to Catch Up" San Jose Mercury News: "Wii outplays Sony, Microsoft for now" (requires registration) The Mercury News went so far as to fashion together an automaton (see image above) out of coils and Wii scraps in order to illustrate Nintendo's domination. We'd be too scared to even compete with the company, knowing that this ED-209-esque villain could break into our houses and stamp us out at any moment. Jump past the post break for a better view of its hulking figure.
Retailers seek to promote HD DVD / Blu-ray titles equally
My, how things have changed in just a few short months. While we once groused over retailers not devoting enough attention to high-definition film, it wasn't too long before the SACD and DVD-A kiosks were canned (hey, it's our best guess, anyway) and HD DVD / Blu-ray titles received expanded exposure. Now that both formats are still holding (relatively) strong, it looks like the major players are seeking to provide an equal amount of promotion for each "until customers tell them they shouldn't." Jim Litwak, president and CEO at Trans World, was even quoted as saying that while Blu-ray sales were currently trumping HD DVD, "the customer is still saying that they want HD DVD." Firms such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Virgin Metastores were all noted as companies unwilling to "snub" one format while the war raged on, and that sits just fine with us.
Fortune: Nintendo is beating Microsoft and Sony
The July 11 issue of Fortune magazine features an in-depth look at Nintendo's success and how it has managed to "beat the pants off Sony and Microsoft". The company has experienced both embarrassing defeats and resounding successes over the course of its 118 year history. Now, thanks to a combination of penny-pinching and industry leapfrogging, Nintendo turns a profit from every Wii console sold, unlike Sony and Microsoft who lose money each time their respective system is bought.Taking a look at Nintendo's finances, the company generated over $8.26 billion in revenue last year, or $2.5 million for each of its 3,400 employees. By comparison, Google's employees generated $994,000 each, while Microsoft's staff scraped in just $624,000. Exchange rates and fiscal calendars complicate the comparison, but the difference is still striking.Nintendo's strategy has been successful in attracting new gamers to the fold, but what about core players who grew up with NES controllers in their hands? Are we as smitten with Nintendo as Fortune seems to be? Is Nintendo's success little more than new players getting a taste of videogames for the first time?[Thanks, Tweak]
Wii Warm Up: The Wii effect
Will the Wii help move the internet into the living room? Some people think that Nintendo's sleek new system might just succeed at what Microsoft has been hoping to do since day one: turn the home gaming console into a media center, and thus move our multimedia experience to the sofa. The combination of the Opera browser and the Wii remote makes couch-surfing (pun intended) stupidly easy. No, you're not going to transcribe War and Peace without a keyboard, but for anyone used to text messaging, the interface and predictive text make typing far easier than we might have expected. You guys may not have been 100% in love with the Wii browser, but one comment from yesterday's discussion really stood out: the ease of watching videos, despite some limitations with the browser and Flash support. Forget what we can't do right now; that can always be changed. Think instead about the ease of watching YouTube from the sofa with a remote control. Once again, these aspects of the Wii aren't really about us (though we can certainly reap the benefits along with everyone else). We're not going to buy a console just to browse the internet or play tennis; we're interested in lots of games on our consoles, and we have phones and handhelds and computers with which we can trade cat pictures and the always-hilarious head of Leonidas. This is about the people who never even noticed the game consoles before. It's about that 30% of households predicted to own a Wii by 2011. The Wii remote puts all of what we take for granted quite literally in the palm of their hands, and because of that, it really could change the face of the internet. Browsing from the sofa is a different experience, after all. We'll wait and see ... but it's plausible, don't you think? Where do you see the web in three years?
Kochalka not too cool for Miis
We hear a lot about mainstream coverage of the Wii, but what about non-mainstream coverage? The Mii Channel is so much fun that even indie cartoonist James Kochalka wants in on the "HEY LOOK AT MY MIIS" fun, posting a series of Mii creations to his diary comic American Elf .His Mii creations veer toward the monsterish, which we enjoy. So many people limit their Mii designs to themselves, their grandparents, and celebrities. Unless these Miis are meant to represent Kochalka's family, in which case we're very, very sorry.We also love how the Mii Channel has resurrected the practice of sharing photographs of TV screens. It makes us nostalgic for magazine high-score columns.
USA Today calls out Sony: 'from top dog to underdog in record time'
USA Today, who purports to have the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, published a story today discussing Sony's fall from an almost monopolistic first place with the PlayStation 2 to less-than-stellar sales with the PlayStation 3.Drawing from the February NPD figures, writer Mike Snider places Sony in third place with 127,000 in PS3 unit sales, behind home consoles Xbox 360 (228,000) and Nintendo Wii (335,000). This is in addition to anecdotal evidence that the PlayStation 3 is easily available in stores while the Wii is still hard to find. Total Wii sales in the U.S. are estimated to 1.9 million while Sony has 1.1 million.Newsweek's N'Gai Croal chimes in on reasons for Sony's ranking, including price, software lineup and negative press. Of course, early runnings mean nothing long-term, and the PlayStation 3 could easily pick up steam following release of heavy-hitting games, PS Home and a possible price drop. Still, when you got one of the biggest newspapers giving less-than-complimentary status reports it can't be good for business.
Wall Street Journal's Mossberg picks Wii over PS3 [update 1]
Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg (pictured) is possibly the most influential technology writer in the country. So when Mossberg compares the Wii and the PS3 by saying Nintendo's system is "the more exciting, fun and satisfying of the two new game machines," it shouldn't be taken lightly.Mossberg and a group of four 20-something volunteer testers were duly impressed with the PS3's graphics and multimedia functions, but no so much so that they thought it was worth the extra price over the Xbox 360. The testers were much more excited about the Wii's motion-sensitive controls and the way they made games easier to get into. One of the female testers, a college athlete and non-gamer, said the Wii was the first time she ever felt successful playing a video game.Mossberg's reputation doesn't mean he's infallible -- the column erroneously suggests gamers will need to spend $100 on HDMI cables for the PS3 and that a classic controller is required for all Wii classic downloads. Outside of the factual errors, though, the opinions expressed by Mossberg and his testers might be more than a little worrying to Sony and its supporters.[Update: Changed Read link below to a version that requires no registration. Thanks Clay.]
Mainstream press talks up XNA
BBC technology commentator Bill Thompson is excited about developing games for the 360 using XNA Game Studio Express, despite not being able to play Halo without looking at the buttons. [Thanks laserboyjc]
Mainstream Madden Love
The insane popularity of the Madden series among general gaming public continues to garner mainstream media attention -- and meaningless holidays. Mayor John Street proclaimed August 22 a "Madden Holiday" in the City of Brotherly Love (I would have settled for parking ticket amnesty). Meanwhile, the Enquirer devoted a few days of coverage to the EA juggernaut. Next thing you know, the MSM will be blogging about video games.
