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High-profile Kickstarter games see delays, port cancellations
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, was crowdfunded to the tune of $5.5 million last year, with an ETA of March 2017. It promises to be a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, but this week, project lead Koji Igarashi (known colloquially as IGA) personally announced via Kickstarter that the game will now be pushed back to "the first half of 2018." The delay, IGA says, is because the game is currently at risk of not "meeting [his] quality standards." To that end, he's adding additional developers to the team, who will hopefully be able to put the project back on track. He also offered his apologies to anyone affected by the delay.
Dawngate shutting down in 90 days
We hope you haven't pinned your future MOBA hopes on Dawngate, as EA has decided to take this title out of the running completely. Dawngate, which has been in beta most of this year, said today that it will be shutting down service in 90 days and is refunding testers any money they have spent thus far. "Today, I have the unenviable task of announcing that we've decided to stop development of Dawngate," Group General Manager Matt Bromberg posted. "Dawngate has been in beta for almost 18 months, including a full open beta for the past six months. Through that time, we've taken a lot of feedback from players and delivered lots of new features and innovations. And although the game has grown, we're not seeing the progress we'd hoped for." You can read Massively's hands-on experience with Dawngate as well as our interview with Composer Jeff Broadbent.
Uber axes Human Resources Kickstarter campaign
Planetary Annihilation developer Uber Entertainment canceled its Kickstarter campaign for Human Resources, the developer's human-harvesting, apocalyptic real-time strategy game. "Every Kickstarter prediction model is showing that we will come up woefully short of our goal," the developer wrote in an update on its funding page, adding that it can't continue spending time and money on a project that won't get funded. "One thing is for sure, Human Resources, as pitched in this Kickstarter, is over. But we adore the world of Human Resources and will endeavor to do what we can to bring it to life in some form." The developer raised $384,358 of its $1.4 million goal on the funding platform. The lofty goal would have been difficult for any aspiring developer to overcome; just four of the 341 Kickstarter games tracked in our one-year Crowdfund Bookie research series earned that much money in their campaigns. Even the $844,127 hauled in by Harmonix for Amplitude in May was an anomaly in a funding space that scarcely supports big-budget projects like it once did. Human Resources was planned to end in two weeks on Tuesday, November 4. [Image: Uber Entertainment]
Blizzard officially cancels Titan
If you were holding onto hopes that Titan would be the next great thing from Blizzard, it's time to douse yourself with a cold bucket of reality. Polygon is reporting that Blizzard has officially canceled the Titan project, saying that it ultimately wasn't fun. "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs, so we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine," CEO Mike Morhaime commented. "And it didn't come together. We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no." Senior Vice President Chris Metzen said that the decision was necessary as the studio goes forward: "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place." The studio didn't put out details on what Titan was going to be, except that it had "some cool hooks." Blizzard also said that it isn't going to be working on another MMO at this time, but won't rule out the possibility of a follow-up to World of Warcraft in the future. If you want to tease yourself with "what if," you can read Massively's summation of the Titan project.
Samsung's ChatON now lets you recall those embarrassing messages
In an effort to get owners of its smartphones to actually use ChatON, Samsung has thrown numerous features at the messaging app to see what sticks. For instance, it's just gifted inveterate file sharers with 1GB media transfers and given FourSquare types the ability to divulge their position and route via Glympse. But it also came up with a feature that may resonate more: the ability to cancel a missive. Provided you're in a one-to-one chat, you can now tap the message bubble and hit "recall" to delete a text on the recipient's device, even if they've already read it. Samsung says that'll be handy if you text the wrong person, but we know what that feature's really for.
In the year 20XX, Mega Man Online is cancelled
It's been quite some time since we heard anything about Mega Man Online, which we first heard about in May 2010. Unfortunately for fans of the Blue Bomber, it looks as if we've now heard the last of it, as Korean website This Is Game has received confirmation from the game's developer, Neowiz, that the project was officially canned last November. The studio's representative stated, "Both companies have continually discussed to find agreeable points on quality, development time, communication and etc. Ultimately, both companies have agreed to stop the development of Rock Man [Mega Man's Japanese name] Online [early last] November." It's sad news for fans who were looking forward to going Maverick-hunting with some of their closest friends, but if the much-requested Mega Man Legends 3 can't even get through the pipeline, it shouldn't be too surprising that this didn't, either.
Audience noise-cancelling said not to feature in next iPhone
There was a time when Audience's contribution to the iPhone's call clarity was not only praised, but actively hunted down. But now it looks like the party is over -- at least according to the chip maker itself. Citing events "in the normal course of business" the firm believes that its technology won't be making it into Apple's next handset -- unsurprisingly a big blow for its shareholders. While it remains unconfirmed, Audience suggested in a conference call that Apple has built its own audio team. Something that is possible already creating a hubbub with other industry players. Though all things going well, we'll only have to wait a week until the new iPhone hits the surgeon's bench anyway.
EverQuest Online Adventures slays its final dragon
EverQuest Online Adventures, the console spinoff of SOE's EverQuest franchise, is counting down the hours until the server is switched off at midnight tonight. In addition to EQOA, SOE is shuttering three other underperforming titles today: Cosmic Rift, Infantry, and Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga. Instead of spending its final days in sorrow, the EQOA community joined the dev team for a series of epic battles against marauding dragons this past week. Players have filled the forums with posts about their favorite in-game memories over the past nine years of gameplay. To compensate players for the loss of their game world, SOE gave EQOA subscribers three months of gold-level status in EverQuest and EverQuest II. EQOA came out in 2003 on the PlayStation 2 and was one of the first generation of console MMOs. For those Massively readers feeling nostalgic or curious about it, definitely check out our series on the game: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
The Daily Grind: What would make you cancel a pre-order?
These days, MMO pre-orders are commonplace. They're used to allow early access to the game so you can grab that Legolas or Lord Stark name before anyone else. Throwing your money down is a risk we must take in order to secure that early status, and the developers usually mix in some extra goodies to sweeten the deal. But sometimes we get word of a before-the-bell game mechanic or design implementation that ruins the game for us and makes us cancel the pre-order on the spot without giving the game a chance to speak for itself when we've finally gotten our hands on it. So let's get specific here. What could a game developer do to ruin a game for you before it launches? And have you ever canceled a pre-order? Why or why not? 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!
Preparing your old iPad for sale in five easy steps (Update)
It appears from the huge pre-sales of the new iPad that a lot of people are getting the new model. We've also heard from a number of iPad "recyclers" that they're seeing record numbers of people who are selling their original iPad or iPad 2 to trade up to the new model. Since I'm among those who recycle their iPads whenever a new model appears, I thought I'd share my method of getting the old devices prepared for sale. There are five steps that you should take to prepare your old iPad for a new owner, even if it's just going to be turned over to a friend or relative. Follow along as I go through these steps: 1) Cancel your recurring monthly data plan if you have a Wi-Fi + 3G model This first step is only necessary if you have a Wi-Fi + 3G iPad. You'll want to make sure that you no longer need the 3G service before you do this, but it's a necessity if you don't want to continue getting billed every month for cellular data. Update: If you are staying with the same carrier and using the same plan, do not cancel your data plan, and don't follow Step 2 of this post. You can swap the SIM from your current iPad and put it into the new iPad. Steps 1 and 2 area really only useful if a) you're switching data carriers or b) getting rid of your iPad and not purchasing a new one. Go into Settings on your iPad, then tap the Cellular Data icon. You'll want to tap the View Account button, after which you'll need to log into your account using the email address and password that you used when you signed up for the service. Once you're signed in, you'll see an account overview (screenshot below). The shows the data plan you're using and the status of that plan (how many MB or GB you've used and how many are left). Next, tap the Add Data or Change Plan button. This brings up a list of plan options for your wireless carrier. To cancel the service, tap the Cancel Plan button. The following screen appears: You'll be asked if you want to cancel your plan and delete the account now, or cancel the plan and have the account deleted after 60 days of inactivity (screenshot below). Make your choice, and then tap the Continue button. After tapping the Cancel Plan button, your iPad pauses momentarily and then displays a note that tells you that you will be notified of the changes as soon as they are processed by your carrier. In my case with AT&T, that took about 30 seconds. 2) Remove the SIM if you have a Wi-Fi +3G model Next, you'll want to remove the SIM from your iPad. Once again, this is only necessary if you have a Wi-Fi + 3G model. Locate the SIM door on your iPad. On the original model, it is located lower left side as you face the screen. On the iPad 2, it's on the top left side. Now take a very skinny paper clip or one of Apple's SIM removal tools (which they no longer seem to provide, by the way), and push it into the hole at the top of the SIM door. The door pops open, revealing the SIM in its tray (see photo below). Pull it all the way out of the iPad, remove the SIM, and keep it as a souvenir. I have a pile of these things... When you're done, slide the door back into place until it clicks. Note that you'll get a "No SIM card installed" error message on your iPad the first time you power it on after you remove the SIM. 3) Back up your device OK, hopefully you're on a Wi-Fi network for the next step, backing up your iPad. Fortunately for all of us, we no longer need to back our iPads up to a Mac or PC unless we really want to. Instead, tap on the iCloud button in Settings and then tap the Storage & Backup button (screenshot below). Chances are good that your iPad has automatically backed itself up when it is plugged in at night. If it hasn't met the backup criteria of being plugged in, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi, the Storage & Backup screen will show that you haven't been backed up in a while. You can plug in your iPad and then tap the Back Up Now button to force a backup (screenshot below). Wait until the backup is done before moving on to step 4. 4) Delete everything Quoting the great line from Aliens, "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." The iPad equivalent of nuking the site from orbit is completely wiping its storage. The iPad and iPad 2 both support hardware encryption, so Apple's method of wiping your data is stated as "Erases user settings and information by removing the encryption key that protects the data. This process takes just a few minutes." To "nuke the site from orbit" is pretty easy. Go to Settings, tap on General, and then tap the Reset button. Next, tap the Erase All Content and Settings button (screenshot below). With a few minutes, your iPad is cleaned of all apps, data, and setting that you had on the device. You probably want to wait until after your new iPad is set up and running to do this... 5) Clean it up physically Many of the "recycling" services will actually pay more for iPads that look brand new. If your iPad spent most of its life in a case and has no scratches or dents, you'll get top dollar. What I always do before boxing up my old gear to send to the recyclers is to clean it physically. The best way to do this is to use any of the commercial cleaning sprays and a microfiber cloth. My current favorite brand of cleaner is the Antec Advance line, which comes in bottles of various sizes and will last a long time. Rather than spray the cleaner right onto the device, I always spray the cloth lightly and then begin wiping the screen and body to make sure that any and all smears are gone. Let the iPad dry completely, and then give it another close look to make sure you haven't missed something. That's it! Your iPad is now ready to leave your hands and go on to be used by someone else. Give it a goodbye kiss if you'd like -- just don't smear up the screen you just cleaned.
Jagex pauses Stellar Dawn's development
Word to the wise: Don't put "dawn" into any part of your MMO's name, or else it will get hit by the curse of breaking dawn. Just ask Dawntide, DAWN, and now, Stellar Dawn. Yes, unfortunately it's true. Jagex announced that it's suspending development on Stellar Dawn to make sure the company is in the best position possible by concentrating on Transformers Universe and RuneScape. While the studio was able to shuffle most of Stellar Dawn's team around to new positions, the decision still resulted in the loss of 12 jobs. In a prepared statement, CEO Mark Gerhard was highly complimentary of Stellar Dawn's team and progress. "Jagex has always been committed to developing the highest quality games and services. This is not a decision we have taken lightly; the Stellar Dawn team has achieved a great deal developing the game and should rightly be proud of their achievements so far." Stellar Dawn fans might find hope in the language being used by the team in the forum announcement, as the title's development is described as being "paused" and a "temporary move" instead of being outright cancelled.
Audience earSmart eS110 brings its voice processing and noise suppression to low cost feature phones
Remember Audience? Sure you do. The outfit was behind the iPhone 4's noise-canceling wizardry that would be later built directly into the 4S' A5 heart. Now, the company has announced its earSmart eS110 advanced voice processor for feature phones. Touting "the same voice quality" as those more expensive phones that we all covet, the single microphone tech will suppress unwanted noise like cars passing by or that loud guy next to you at a bar. The eS110 offers crisp calls for both handset and speakerphone uses thanks to processors designed around how humans filter the sounds that we hear. Entry-level smartphones are targets as well and the kit's 3.5 x 3.5mm stature should make for easy integration. Audience says that samples will be sent out to manufacturers in March and should show up in handsets by the end of the year. In search of a few more details? Hit the full PR below to find out more.
GAME announces exclusive SWTOR CE contract, Walmart accidentally cancels 'nearly all' pre-orders
Whenever a major MMO nears launch, tensions and anxieties grow to a fever pitch among players -- particularly in regard to their pre-orders. There are worries that a game won't install right, ship on time, or allow proper access to one's account. Today, there are a few more issues to be concerned with in regard to Star Wars: The Old Republic if you've pre-ordered it. Over in the UK, GAME (and Gamestation) has announced that it will be the sole retailer for SWTOR's physical Collector's Edition in the region, even though EA previously said that companies such as Amazon, Play.com, Zavvi and ShopTo were going to be selling them as well. UK players can also purchase non-CE versions of the game through EA's Origin service. In other news, several players who secured their copy of SWTOR through Walmart found that their orders -- both regular and CEs -- were canceled over this past weekend. A Walmart customer service representative appeared on the SWTOR forums to say that this happened due to a "data error" that forced the company to nix most of the pre-orders. SWTOR's Stephen Reid said that BioWare is investigating the situation, but he confirms that any players who have already added their pre-order codes into their accounts will have locked in early access for the launch.
RIM scraps 10-inch PlayBook to focus on QNX-powered superphone?
BlackBerry PlayBook enthusiasts will want to cuddle up with their favorite blanket and a carton of ice cream, as the 10-inch version of RIM's tablet may have been given the axe. N4BB reports that its development was recently cancelled to focus on an upcoming QNX-based "superphone," said to feature a 1.2GHz single-core processor (same as on the Bold Touch 9900) and a 4.3-inch HD-quality display. It's no secret that phones powered by this platform are on the roadmap, but scrapping a PlayBook project in its behalf could indicate the company's elevated desire to get it to market even sooner than originally planned. Anything less than two cores, however, will be an unpleasant surprise; company reps have stated that a QNX-powered handset won't hit the market without a dual-core CPU inside. The motive behind this change of heart appears to be battery life concerns with the existing PlayBook's chip. The report doesn't completely rule out the possibility of an extra core getting thrown in, but we're not holding our breath. While tragic, the scrapped product will make room for other projects -- the already-announced 7-inch LTE variant is reportedly targeted for an October launch -- but since this is all hearsay, let's hold off on the eulogy for now.
Cox ditches 3G network infrastructure, sticks with airwaves borrowed from Sprint
Cox Communications had some grand designs on the cellular market, but they're not panning out quite as the company planned -- FierceWireless reports that though Cox already poured cash into rolling out 3G equipment, it's going to scrap the whole thing, in favor of continuing to pay Sprint for borrowed airtime. Cellular service in the original three launch markets will reportedly continue, though a quick peek at Cox's website shows the current phone selection is getting a bit stagnant. While we've yet to hear any particular reasons why Cox would want to stick it out as an MVNO, we imagine that mandatory roaming agreements make it a tad easier to offer those "Unbelievably Fair" contracts. There's also the possibility that with all the 4G fervor, Cox has decided there's no point in moving forward with CDMA equipment when LTE is ripe for the picking -- and when Cox has $304 million worth of 700MHz spectrum waiting for such a network. [Thanks, Phil]
Curtain lifts, Audience exposed as iPhone 4's noise cancelling wizard
It's hard not to respect good detective work, so we have to give kudos to the good folks at Chipworks for putting a long-lived iPhone mystery to rest. The iPhone 4 has been applauded for its dual-mic noise cancellation, but nobody knew who actually built the voice processor responsible for this "magic and revolutionary" feature. Jobs and Co. white-labelled a certain chipset inside the iPhone 4 -- it asked the manufacturer to scrub all branding off -- so nobody could properly identify it. Was it made by Apple or a third party? Fast-forward nearly eleven months and it turns out the company responsible is none other than Audience, the same lovely folks behind the Nexus One's renowned noise reduction. We're unsure why this was kept under wraps for so long, but we can understand why Apple would want to remain quiet and keep this superb technology all to itself. A little sleuthing can go a long way, however, so follow the links below to learn how this mystery was unraveled.
E-Noa's Interpad Android tablet is nowhere to be found
It's been almost eight months since we introduced you to Interpad's Tegra 2-packing Android tablet, and now we're hearing rumors that the thing might never make it to market. The tablet was originally slated for a December 2010 debut, but in August the slab's maker, E-Noa, released a statement that said the tablet was on hold until January. Well, January's come and gone, and with a slew of Tegra 2 tablets getting ready to hit the market, it looks like the Interpad might get left behind. Aside from a lack of updates to the company's website, its Facebook page is devoid of any information, and according to the folks over at Tablet Guys, repeated calls to E-Noa's office have gone unanswered. Basically, the Interpad's nowhere to be found, and with Acer's Iconia Tab slated for an April 24th release and Motorola's Xoom already making the rounds, the Interpad's once impressive specs just don't seem so special anymore.
Sony Europe cancels games across several UK studios
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has informed staff at London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and Evolution Studios that several of their projects will be "streamlined or closed" to focus development on higher-priority first party offerings. In a statement to GamesIndustry, the publisher explained, "with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resources should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion." Sony did not reveal the identities of these projects, or whether their cancellation would result in layoffs -- the statement only mentioned, "This decision will have no impact on the role that our first party studios will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms." We've contacted Sony to try and find out if any positions had been cut thanks to the reallocation.
Are other game studios taking countermeasures against RIFT? [Updated]
If you didn't know, today is the head start launch of RIFT and the beginning of many strained household relationships as players finally dive into Telara for real. While we've known for some time that Trion Worlds' creation was going to be a major player in the MMO field, it seems as though RIFT's release has caused other MMO studios to step up and take countermeasures. In the past 24 hours, there have been a few significant developments that seem suspicious in regard to timing, at least. The first is that Blizzard dropped World of Warcraft's next content update, Patch 4.1, on to the public test server in the middle of the night. Mortal Online's announced that its free 14-day trial program is now active for any interested parties. We've also received numerous tips that EA Mythic disabled the cancel subscription option for Warhammer Online. Although we obviously can't be certain that all of these events are due to RIFT, timing, as they say, is everything. Have you seen any other MMO studios stepping up their game today as a distraction from the new shiny? [Update: The Warhammer subscription option was a bug that should be resolved today, according to the devs.]
WSJ: Nokia X7 canceled for AT&T, but at Espoo's behest
Our subsidized Symbian superphone dreams remain squashed, but it looks like we might have a different party to blame -- the Wall Street Journal's anonymous sources say it was Nokia itself who decided to pull plans to launch the X7 exclusively on AT&T. Originally, the phone would have waved the white globe banner at Mobile World Congress next month, but Nokia reportedly decided that AT&T didn't have its back, and wouldn't provide sufficient marketing support -- and cheap enough subsidized prices -- to make it worth the company's while. If you simply must have the handset and live in the US, though, we're sure you'll still find a way. It's only a matter of time before Nokia launches in countries more willing to play ball... and unlocked models appear on eBay.
