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Weekly news recap, featuring Niko
The immensely charming Niko returns this week with WoW Insider's news recap, where we look back at the hottest news of the past week. This week's topics include: Mists of Pandaria faction tabards do not grant reputation Does Mists have too many daily quests? A pet battle overview Pokemon-themed pet battle transmogrification Character transfers on a discounted rate this weekend If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to Niko on YouTube, leave a comment, and come back next week for the next episode!
Report: 64% of Chinese gamers spend money on online games
Gaming in China is serious business, especially once you consider that a strong majority of players dish out money to support their habit every month. Analyst group Niko Partners polled 500 Chinese gamers and found that 64% of them dropped money on online titles monthly, including many free-to-play and MMO games. Considering that China has 180 million players and a $5.8 billion gaming market, the country continues to be watched closely as a major economic force in the online realm. And while MMOs still account for a good portion of the income, they've lost some ground to other types of games, according to Niko Partners Managing Partner Lisa Cosmas Hanson. "Online games revenues are now more distributed among various platforms and genres than they have been in past years, when MMORPGs compiled the vast majority of domestic revenue," she said. Other interesting details from this report include the news that players are spending less time per week on games and that one in 10 players in the country is over 40 years of age.
Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video)
While we've seen no shortage of smartphone-powered robots in the past, the Nokia camp has been sadly under-represented. But, there's a new one coming to balance things out, a machine called Niko that has Lego Mindstorm NXT 2.0 components for a body and an N900 for a brain. The bot has been under construction for a few weeks but it has just made its YouTube debut with the short video posted after the break, showing it roving around and taking a photo whenever it bumps into something. When all systems are go and the machine is set free Niko will be posting messages and pictures to Twitter describing its every move in thrilling detail. We can't wait for it to start picking fights with @CourtneyLoveUK.
Pixeloo returns with the Real Niko Bellic
The artist known as Pixeloo delivers once again with his "real" rendition of Grand Theft Auto IV antihero Niko Bellic. Thankfully, Niko's character design is that of a standard human, so we don't get the abomination of Pixeloo's not-safe-for-sanity "Real Mario."The artist says he did the piece for Official Playstation Magazine UK's latest issue. Another impressive piece by Pixeloo, and unlike Real Mario, the Real Niko won't cause us to wake up screaming for two weeks and shudder every time we even think about the portly plumber.
