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Final Fantasy XIV opens up HD fanfest streams for purchase
If you missed out on your chance to get a ticket for Final Fantasy XIV's fanfest in Las Vegas this weekend, you can still at least watch the events unfold in glorious high definition. Square-Enix has opened up the purchase option, allowing players to watch the event, pick up a moogle costume, and watch otherwise unviewable parts of the convention for $20. Players who opt for the HD stream will also have access to the archived footage until March 31st, 2015. Should you be short of the cash to drop on this stream, you still have options open, as a standard-definition stream is also available for free. This stream skips the opening keynote and closing ceremonies and does not award viewers a moogle costume, so it's up to you if $20 is worth the absence of those. Still, even if you can't make it out to the side of the convention, you'll be able to find out all of the information on the ground as it happens.
The Stream Team: Dota 2's 6.82 madness
The last few months in Dota 2 have come with a sense of stagnation. The professional and high-tier play meta, on display most prominently in this year's $11 million International championship, was in a rut. Something had to change before players grew bored or frustrated with facing the same three or four team strategies. Last week, Valve delivered an earthquake of a content patch, providing a ridiculously huge update that changed items, heroes, abilities, game modes, core mechanics, and even the map itself. For the next few months, pros and casuals alike must sift through the wreckage and try to re-optimize how they play. Tune in tonight as Massively's Mike Foster takes one of Dota's newly-reworked heroes for a spin and tries to make sense of the post-6.82 carnage. The action begins at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Game: Dota 2 Host: Mike Foster Date: Wednesday, October 1st, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT Enjoy our Stream Team video below.
Comcast's cloud DVR starts serving up recordings you can watch anywhere
In the midst of attempting to gobble up its largest counterpart, battle Netflix on net neutrality and face down customer service scandals, Comcast is still slowly extending its new TV platform. The latest addition to its X1 setup is enhancing the cloud DVR feature that CEO Brian Roberts showed off at the beginning of the year. While the 500GB cloud DVR and in-home streaming are already a part of the system in several areas, in the Bay Area and Houston viewers can stream or download recordings to their mobile devices (iOS or Android, PCs can only stream) starting today. Inside the house, the X1 app fulfills Roberts promise of turning any mobile device into a television, with access to live TV streaming, recordings and video on-demand.
HP's $199 Windows laptop arrives alongside a pair of tablets
Contrary to earlier rumors, HP's Chromebook-like Stream 14 turned out to be more expensive than people had hoped for when it was announced a few weeks ago. Having said that, today HP is finally introducing its $199 laptop with Windows, staying in line with what a company representative had told us before in regards to the Stream line expanding beyond the 14-inch machine. But there's more, since HP's new, budget-friendly, 11.6-inch laptop isn't the only fresh announcement. There's a 13.3-inch model as well, priced at $230, which, along with the $199 Stream, features an Intel Celeron processor and 32GB of flash storage. In addition to this pair of notebooks, HP is also introducing two Windows 8.1 tablets: the HP Stream 7 and HP Stream 8. If the moniker for each didn't give it away, they are 7- and 8-inch slates, respectively, with the former costing a mere $99 and the latter going for $149.
Guild Wars 2 promotes its World Tournament Series Championships, goes on sale
Earlier this morning, ArenaNet delivered its 2014 Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series Championships roadmap from London's Eurogamer Expo, where the studio is livestreaming its latest e-sports endeavor. ANet is calling the tourney the game's "first truly international competition" as it pulls players from three continents; opening rounds of qualifiers have already concluded. The studio explains, "Each event will pit four teams in a fight to become the world's best Guild Wars 2 PvP players, with the top two teams from the host region facing off against two visiting teams. The debut event is scheduled for December 4-5 in Beijing, where players will vie for a $50,000 (USD) prize pool and the title of first-ever Guild Wars 2 WTS Champion." As promised Tuesday, the buy-to-play MMO's free trial also began this morning at 3 a.m. EDT; it's active for a week until the wee hours of October 2nd. Box prices (specifically, Digital Heroic Editions and Digital Deluxe Editions through the GW2 storefront) have also been halved throughout the promotion. [Source: Anet press release]
Nintendo streaming Super Smash Bros. for 3DS today, US demo imminent
Nintendo is hosting an official stream showcasing gameplay from its 3DS mascot brawler Super Smash Bros. starting at 1 p.m. PST today, giving an early look at the finished product prior to its North American launch on October 3. Super Smash Bros. hits store shelves in Japan this week, and a number of fan streams have already revealed its full roster. Nintendo is also offering weekly eShop sales highlighting games that feature its Smash Bros. stars. Nintendo is also launching a demo version of Super Smash Bros. in North America today for Club Nintendo Platinum members. Eligible players will receive an e-mail with download instructions once the trial is available. All 3DS owners will get access to the demo on September 19. [Image: Nintendo]
Trion clarifies ArcheAge's head-start housing situation
During its livestreamed pre-launch discussion of ArcheAge earlier this week, Trion Worlds clarified a number of issues that will affect players early on when the game enters its head-start period tomorrow. Top priority in a sandbox? Where you hang your hat. Housing will open at the beginning of the head start period, so early players will naturally secure the best properties. There is no limit to the number of houses an account can own, although accounts are taxed "exponentially" after they acquire three and up. Also of note: The game plans to launch with the eight ten original beta servers. The "patron" subscription is indeed $15; 1250 credits cost 1 APEX or $10. For scale, consider that a character slot costs 1000 credits. Trion vowed to continue its efforts to deal with chat spammers and botters. Everyone, even F2P players, can access the auction hall. As to the controversial labor point system, Trion says all characters will begin with zero points. [Thanks, JunkiesNation.]
Nintendo lines up 8-hour gameplay stream, including Smash 3DS
Nintendo continues its holiday push with an 8-hour "gameplay" stream this week that's set to feature among others the handheld Super Smash Bros. The House of Mario is broadcasting from its American headquarters this Friday, September 12, though it didn't give specific times to tune in. Nintendo said it'll first "be covering some upcoming games" for Wii U and 3DS before getting into gameplay, but it coyly kept what those other games are beneath its cap. It's hard to know if we can expect a Direct-like slew of announcements or not, but it's safer to say there'll be more Smash info, simply because the game's almost out. The 3DS Smash launches in Japan on Saturday, September 13, and over there NicoNico is preparing its own Smash broadcast, also scheduled for this Friday (3AM PT/6AM ET/11AM UK). So, if there is any news left - and supposedly leaked character videos suggest there is - now's the time, though that info may arrive earlier in the day during NicoNico's broadcast
'Destiny' launches tomorrow -- watch us play it live today! (update)
The folks who created Halo have a new game, Destiny, and it launches tomorrow on both last-gen and current Xbox and PlayStation consoles. While that prospect might be enough for some folks, there are no doubt many more of you unsure if Destiny is worth your ducats. Thankfully, the game's servers are online one day early and we've got a PlayStation 4 copy handy to give it a live run before it's officially available tonight at midnight (via retail and for pre-load on current-gen consoles). Join us for a jaunt through the next big online game from Bungie Studios, just beyond the break. And bring your best Peter Dinklage impersonation! Update: And we're out, folks. Thanks for joining us!
HP's Chromebook-like 'Stream' laptop is real, but not as cheap as we thought
When we first saw leaks for the HP Stream, a $199 laptop primarily meant to be used online, like a Chromebook, we were pretty excited -- here was something as affordable as a Chrome OS device, but running Windows 8.1. It turns out, however, that although the Stream is indeed a real product, it's not as cheap as we all thought. HP just formally unveiled it, and it's actually going to start at $300, not $199, as Microsoft itself previously promised.
Joystiq Streams: Shadow of Mordor brings a Twitch to Sauron's eye [Update: It's over!]
Team Joystiq tackles Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor today at 4PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, giving you an early look at Monolith's dark fantasy adventure game ahead of its launch later this month. Blending open-world action with stealth mechanics, Shadow of Mordor explores the darker side of The Lord of the Rings universe with an original story starring the Wraith-ranger Talion. Publisher Warner Bros. bumped up Shadow of Mordor's release date earlier this year, giving it a leg up on the holiday season competition. Joystiq Streams hosts regular broadcasts every Tuesday and Thursday at 4PM EST at Joystiq.com/Twitch, but we often stream whenever the mood strikes us, so make sure to follow us on Twitch to catch us when we go live! [Image: Warner Bros.]
Twitch viewership now rivals prime-time cable
While some folks don't understand the phenomenon of watching others play a game when they could actually play it themselves, many are doing exactly that. And those numbers continue to rise: A recent look at viewership compiled in The New York Times shows that Twitch at its peak now rivals the average of some prime-time cable networks. Compared to major video providers, however, Twitch still lags behind. When held up to NetFlix and YouTube, Twitch has about eight times fewer hours of video viewed monthly compared to the former and roughly 24 times fewer than the latter. Contributing to Twitch's numbers are a multitude of streamers who've built large audiences. These personalities can individually pull in up to and even more than 40,000 viewers during a single stream. For a glimpse of all the graphs, head on over to NYT.
Bravely Second footage goes on a job search
The debut gameplay footage of Bravely Second is limited to city exploration and a few menu screens, but it does highlight some of the new content coming to the 3DS JRPG sequel. To check it out, bravely head below the break. As captured from a Square Enix livestream by Nintendo Everything, the videos show new character Magnolia trekking through what looks like Istantal, going by official images. According to previously released details, it's a city home to a university of magic where the professors helped to develop a "new structure" of the arcane art. As for Magnolia, Bravely Default fans may recognize her from the first game's special epilogue. The site describes her as having a "daredevil attitude" that we're sure Agnes will find unacceptable.
Watch two fish duke it out in 'Street Fighter' on a live internet stream
The bar has been raised for fish-controlled video games. Not content with the solo action of Fish Plays Pokemon, Andrew Hill has launched FishPlayStreetFighter, a Twitch stream that lets you watch two fish (Aquarius and Robert the Bruce) square off in Capcom's classic Street Fighter II. It's mapping movement around the tank like before, but it's using a significantly more advanced control scheme to liven things up. Color detection makes the two-player mode possible, and the fish can string together input combos based on where they're swimming -- watch for long enough and you'll see a goldfish throw its opponent across the room. The best part is that the matches actually move along pretty quickly. While you'll sometimes see the fighters wasting time, one fish usually gets a knockout before time is up. The feed doesn't run at all hours (usually between 7:30AM and 10PM Eastern), but it should easily keep you distracted while you're at work.
HP is building a $199 Windows laptop
Microsoft has been pushing hard for extra-cheap Windows computers that can take on Chromebooks, and it appears that HP is more than willing to hop on that bandwagon. Mobile Geeks has posted a leaked data sheet for the HP Stream 14, an upcoming $199 laptop that's clearly meant to fight Google-powered PCs. The base 14-inch system should cut corners by using a low-powered AMD A4 Micro processor, 2GB of RAM, a 1,366 x 768 screen and 32GB of flash storage; apart from the capacity, it'd be a step down from the company's $299 Chromebook 14. You'd have to pay more for brawnier parts like an A10 Micro chip, 64GB of space and a 1080p touchscreen. Not satisfied with the limited drive options? HP would try to make up for the shortfall by giving buyers 100GB of OneDrive cloud storage for two years, matching what you get with many Chrome OS devices. There's no word on when the Stream 14 would make its debut, although the deluge of information hints that we could see this budget portable fairly soon.
Watch the Microsoft Gamescom press conference right here [Update: It's over!]
The Xbox press conference, live from Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, goes live at 2PM CEST (8AM ET, 5AM PT, 1PM UK). In other words, any minute now. Watch the livestream right here and be sure to follow along with our liveblog straight from the press conference. Update: The stream may be over, but the good times keep on rolling. We have all the announcements from the event on hand, plus an archived version of the stream embedded below.
Justin.tv shuts down as Twitch goes all-in on video game broadcasting
Twitch shut down Justin.tv this week, putting an end to the streaming platform's seven-year run, as the company is now focusing its resources on Twitch. Videos on Justin.tv are no longer available to view, and those with active premium pro accounts should receive an email about getting refunded. The shift in focus has been in the works for months, as the company formerly known as Justin.tv changed its corporate name to Twitch in February, the same time Twitch achieved one million active monthly broadcasters. Those with Justin.tv accounts that would like to move over to Twitch need to fill out a form on Twitch's site, though all requests must be received by September 5. However, Justin.tv broadcasters' videos are lost forever; VOD and video archiving support were removed on June 15.
The Stream Team: Family MMO night with the Super Hero Squad Online devs
Super Hero Squad Online has been a favorite for several of Massively's writers, Larry Everett being one of them. Today, Larry and his son, Zach, will show off the new SHSO Recharged. And for extra fun, they've invited the developers along. (Maybe they'll have free stuff for you!) Join us at 7:00 p.m. to find out just how awesome this family MMO is for both kids and adults. Game: Super Hero Squad Online Hosts: Larry Everett, Zach, and the Gazillion devs Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT Enjoy our Stream Team video below.
Stream Lollapalooza sets from Outkast, Skrillex and Phantogram this weekend
If you enjoy taking in the summer's big music festivals from the comforts of your sofa, you've likely already peeped this year's Coachella and Bonaroo livestreams. The in-home viewing continues this weekend with Chicago's annual Lollapalooza event, kicking off Friday, August 1st at 2PM CT on Red Bull TV. Over the course of the weekend, there's three channels of over 100 performances on tap, with interviews and behind-the-scenes content peppered in. In addition to web access, the festivities will be beamed to Apple TV, Xbox 360, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TVs and a range of mobile devices for a truckload of streaming options. Notable acts set to take the stage between Friday and Sunday include Outkast, Kings of Leon, Skrillex, Phantogram, Broken Bells and The Avett Brothers -- just to name a few. [Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella]
Choose My Adventure: Hunting for trouble (and riches) in ArcheAge
Bouncing between alpha and beta has hindered progress in ArcheAge for Massively's MJ, but it hasn't diminished the fun. As per last week's vote, she spent the past weekend in beta, checking out life on the other continent as an Elf. Now, with the next beta a whole week away, it's back to alpha life as a Firran. But that doesn't mean it's a lonely life! MJ found a spot for her little farm and has been raising some goslings as she continues her crafting and trade exploits. And there's also this thing about joining a guild... we're sure she could find some more trouble to get into with friends. Perhaps she'll even finally make it to prison! Join us live at 7:00 p.m. for MJ's final two-hour CMA Live adventure. Game: ArcheAge Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Friday, July 55th, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT Enjoy our Stream Team video below.
