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'Final Fantasy' celebrates 30 years of not being very final
On December 18, 1987, developer Square released its first Final Fantasy title to the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicon console. While Hironobu Sakaguchi thought it would be his last video game, the title was a financial success, leading to a continuous stream of sequels released on almost every gaming platform since then, including a surprising recent foray onto iOS with Final Fantasy XV Pocket. The first Final Fantasy was included on the recent NES Classic, too, if you were lucky enough to grab one before Nintendo stopped making them.
Lenovo’s leaked 25th-anniversary ThinkPad sports a familiar look
The latest ThinkPad that Lenovo brought to CES back in January had a notably sleeker, more modern appearance than the line's traditional boxy black look. But it kept a couple features, like the red TrackPoint nub and 45-degree ThinkPad logo, that have become trademarks of the beloved brand since it debuted under IBM back in October 1992. But WinFuture reports that a leak revealed Lenovo is releasing a 25th-anniversary retro version that mimics the look of the first ThinkPad laptops that reached consumers.
Pokémon Go celebrates first birthday with events across the globe
Still playing Pokémon Go? Might as well have fun on its first anniversary. Now that we're only a few days away from the Pokémon Go Fest taking place in Chicago, Niantic has revealed more details about its game's first birthday celebration. Apparently, you can participate in the event no matter where you are in the world by working with the participants at Grant Park during three Challenge Windows that will take place throughout the day.
The Cash Money app creates cover art for your rap debut
Music fans of a certain generation will remember Cash Money Records' charmingly kitschy album art. Twenty years later the record label is capitalizing on nostalgia with the Cash Money 20th Anniversary app. If you've ever wanted to put your face on a Hot Boy$ album, this app will help you live out that fantasy. There are 20 stickers to dress your photo with, and even a Birdman and Lil Wayne tattoo pack to complete the look. As Billboard writes the first sticker pack is free, but everything else will run you $0.99 each.
'Overwatch' celebrates its anniversary with a double XP weekend
While you wait to hear about what's new in gaming, maybe you can kick back and relax with one of last year's highlights. As part of the anniversary celebration for Overwatch, Blizzard will kick off a double XP weekend that will run from Thursday night at 8PM ET 'til Tuesday morning 3AM ET -- if you need something to do until then, maybe set up two-factor authentication on your Battle.net account. In between, nearly everything in the game will award double XP, no matter what platform you're playing on. That also coincides with your last chance to pick up Anniversary themed loot boxes and rewards, so play well, but remember we'll have plenty of E3 2017 news this weekend, including Microsoft's Xbox press conference Sunday afternoon at 5PM ET and Sony's event Monday night at 8PM ET.
‘Overwatch’ turns one with more skins for your arsenal
Last week, Blizzard answered the susurrous rising from Overwatch fans wondering whether the studio would celebrate the game's one-year anniversary: Yes, an event was in the works. (And there was much rejoicing.) To commemorate the game's arrival exactly a year ago, and in recognition of its wild critical and commercial success, Overwatch is launching a new event and releasing a Game of the Year edition for $40. But if you need convincing, the game will be free to play this weekend.
'Overwatch' turns one with another event and free weekend
Developer Blizzard keeps making frequent, regular updates to its popular team-shooter video game Overwatch. Players have gotten new battle arena maps, interesting new characters and various time-limited events to keep them coming back for more of what is, essentially, the same game over and over. To keep interest high, Blizzard is launching a one-year anniversary event from May 23rd to June 12th. You'll also be able to buy a new Game of the Year Edition when the event launches, which will include 10 bonus Loot Boxes, extra Hero skins, and various virtual trinkets for other Blizzard games.
Ubisoft reveals year two 'The Division' expansions and gifts
Ubisoft has unveiled its roadmap for The Division year two expansions and is throwing in some gifts for the game's first anniversary. Judging by the details it revealed, you're not going to get a big updates à la one of the game's main rivals, Destiny. However, it's free, and Ubisoft is keeping the game ticking along until it's able to release a sequel.
The iPhone's legacy, 10 years later
January 9th, 2017 is a milestone day in the technology world: It's the 10th anniversary of Apple's iPhone. Yes, it's been a full decade since Steve Jobs took to the stage and introduced the device that many credit with defining the modern smartphone. But was it an overnight revolution? Well, no. Despite all the initial hype, the iPhone actually represents a gradual reinvention strung across many years. It wasn't the first out of the gate with many basic concepts, but its fresh approaches to those concepts helped smartphones escape their niche business-tool status and become the must-have companion devices they are now.
iPod marks its 15th birthday in a changed world
If you're a gadget fan of a certain age (cough), you're about to feel ancient: Apple's iPod just turned 15 years old. Steve Jobs unveiled the first version of the media player at an event on Apple's campus on October 23rd, 2001. To say that it had a wild ride after that would be an understatement. Many credit the iPod as the device that took Apple from niche PC maker to one of the largest companies on the planet, only to fade away as smartphones took over. But how did it get to where it is now? And is there any room left for the iPod 15 years later? Let's take a quick look back at how the iPod has evolved through the years.
Pokémon's Super Bowl ad is the very best
We're still a few weeks out from Super Bowl 50, but we've already been blessed with one of the most absurd — and amazing — ads of the season. To commemorate the franchise's 20th anniversary, The Pokémon Company shelled out millions of dollars to create a Super Bowl ad that'll run at the beginning of the game's third quarter. Go ahead, take a moment to wrap your head around that one. We'll be waiting.
Yahoo! Turns! 20!
You now have permission to feel ancient: Yahoo, one of the web's first big service providers, has turned 20 years old. The company has seen a lot in the past couple of decades, to put it mildly. It rose to fame as a web directory in the 1990s, and quickly became the web portal of choice for legions of early users. However, it suffered under both the dot-com bubble collapse and the pressure from an upstart, search-focused rival called Google -- it spent much of the early 21st century scrambling to keep up, including an eventual deal to use Microsoft's Bing search in place of its own tech. The firm's revolving door approach to CEOs didn't help, either. Yahoo is doing much better now that current CEO (and ex-Googler) Marissa Mayer has addressed some of the company's mistakes, but it's safe to say that this web pioneer doesn't look much like it did back in the heady days of Windows 95 and dial-up modems. [Image credit: David Paul Morris/Getty Images]
Star Trek Online starts its fifth anniversary celebration
It was five years ago February 2nd that Star Trek Online came mewing into the MMO world, bringing with it final frontiers, infinite diversity, and canon-approved lockboxes. Cryptic's so excited to share this milestone that it's starting the celebrations a little early with a daily giveaway from today through Thursday, beginning with a free research and development pack. The real special treat is more than just casual freebies, however. The team's introducing a brand-new featured episode, Dust to Dust, starring Garrett Wang as Harry Kim. Q is also returning with his annual events, although this time around he's adding an Omega Particle minigame to the mix. Completing both the featured episode and Q events will earn tokens to spend on various rewards (including a Kobali Samsar Cruiser) and fragments that can be assembled for an Omega upgrade kits.
Did you get a World of Warcraft anniversary statue?
The World of Warcraft community is abuzz with the revelation that Blizzard is sending out a special thank-you to its most dedicated fans for its 10th anniversary: a physical 9" statue of an Orc. Only fans who have been with the game for the entire ride are eligible to get the statue, however,. According to Blizzard's qualifications, "A player must have created a World of Warcraft account within 60 days of the game launching in the NA or EU regions and maintained their subscription or game time for all 10 years." Our question today is, if you qualify for this, have you indeed received your spiffy statue? And do you have a picture to prove it?
World of Warcraft brings back its anniversary event
Did you get everything done that you wanted during World of Warcraft's 10-year anniversary event? If you did, great, but if you didn't... well, still great because you're getting another shot at it. Community manager Bashiok posted on the forums that the team is bringing back the anniversary event for one more week, starting today at 1:00 p.m. EST and ending on January 13th at the same time. The reactivation is confined to the North American servers, so players elsewhere in the world hoping for more time with anniversary antics will be sadly disappointed. There's also nothing new in the event, so if you have everything, you can sit this round out. Otherwise, log in today and start celebrating a decade of the game's operation... like, again.
Final Fantasy XI laps the Year of the Sheep
Here's a fun Final Fantasy XI fact: When the game launched in the west in 2003, it was the Year of the Sheep on the Chinese zodiac calendar. Now it's 2015, and the Year of the Sheep has arrived once more, putting the team in an interesting position. "When we first created the new year's event, we never imagined that it would ever come full circle, and thus the festivities are especially moving for me," writes Producer Akihiko Matsui. To celebrate the new year, the team posted a short story on the site and is in the midst of a sheep-related new year's event. Players are encouraged to "consort and cavort" with sheep for prizes until the event ends on January 14th.
OC Remix celebrates 15 years of remixes with more music
OC Remix's eclectic community of musicians has been coating gaming music with fresh, metaphorical coats of genre paint for 15 years now, and they're celebrating their anniversary the only way they know how: by making music. A press release noting the anniversary highlights 15 new remixes that pull source material from 15 different gaming consoles, with source material involving Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and more. The full list of OC Remix's birthday tracks (as pulled from the press release) can be found after the break, which includes timaeus222's "Let's Bust Some Viruses," a dancy, accumulative opening theme remix from most of the Mega Man Battle Network opening themes, and Tetrimino's "Simply Be-groove-ed," a four-piece band's re-imagining of Kingdom Hearts' opening theme (originally performed by Utada Hikaru). True to OC Remix's nature, sampling and downloading from this selection is free. Should the anniversary tunes neglect any of your favorite soundtracks, you can always search the vault of work that's cataloged on OC Remix's website. Happy anniversary, Remixers! [Image: OC Remix]
SWTOR turning three, giving away anniversary decor
Star Wars: The Old Republic is turning three this month, and BioWare is celebrating by making the game's Coruscant and Dromund Kaas Stronghold housing instances available for three credits. Which isn't as cool as it sounds, since their normal 5,000 credit price is pocket change that you can earn in 30 seconds. But hey, three! Fortunately the devs are doing something else that is actually cool. Namely, they're giving away slick-looking decor for your player house including a holographic projection of the galaxy, paintings, and a fireworks launcher. You can pick these up at the Anniversary Personnel vendor in the Strongholds area of the Fleet from December 16th through January 13th.
Sony's PlayStation '94 Shop: where 20th Anniversary PS4s are £19.94
It's 10:30am on a cold Wednesday morning. A small crowd gathers outside an unassuming grey shop in the middle of Bethnal Green Road, London. Four multi-coloured neon symbols suddenly come into view -- it's 1994 all over again and I'm suddenly feeling nostalgic. It's been hard to miss, but it's been two decades since the OG PlayStation went on sale. To celebrate, Sony's returned to its retro roots, and the gaming public are loving it. It started with the unveiling of the 20th Anniversary Limited Edition PS4, which sold out in minutes in the US, moving on to a retro-inspired theme for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita owners. To mark the console's UK launch, it's opened this new pop-up PlayStation store in Central London.
Pick up a SWTOR stronghold for practically nothing
If you haven't planted roots in Star Wars: The Old Republic's strongholds or are on a quest to collect them all, then BioWare has a nice surprise for you. Buried in the patch notes for this week's Shadows of Revan expansion is an announcement that the studio is selling two of its strongholds for a pittance. "To celebrate our impending 3rd anniversary, the Dromund Kaas and Coruscant Strongholds are now available for three credits!" BioWare posted. Typically, these strongholds go for 5,000 credits or 50 cartel coins.
