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ThinkGeek and Aperture Science do what they must, intro more Portal-themed goods because they can
Been yearning for more Portal 2-inspired goods from ThinkGeek? Fret not, dear test subject, the company's got some products ways that should satiate your desire for Cave Johnson-approved chachkas. Newly up for grabs are a $15 Aperture Science shower curtain, a $35 motion-sensing plush turret and a $40 Cave Johnson talking portrait -- think Billy Bass, but with a Portal twist. ThinkGeek's also announced a $30 Companion Cube cookie jar (the perfect companion for its Portal cookie cutters) and a $30 PotatOS Science Kit, complete with an insult-spewing "talking GLaDOS module." Sadly, the latter duo don't have an official release date just yet, and are merely listed as "coming soon." Of course, like the cake, they could just be lie. For the sake of science, portal past the break to find a press release with more details.
Bust the blockade and storm the fortress in DDO's Update 8
Excited about Dungeons and Dragons Online's Update 8? Do you feel a jolt race up your arm when you contemplate its glory and find yourself breathless? That may be a heart condition -- perhaps you should get it checked out? Or it could be the weighty dose of content that's about to descend on your chest, you never know! Along with cookie jars and cosmetic armor, DDO's Update 8 will unleash a quartet of new adventures for brave dungeoneers. In a recent promotional post for the patch, Turbine's provided a description for each of the level 13 adventures. The first, "Assault on Summerfield," has your team defending the city against waves of invasion, while the subsequent "Blockade Buster" gives you the opportunity to sail to the enemy ships at night and blow them up. In a pair of longer modules, "Undermine" and "Siegebreaker" offer daring groups a chance to infiltrate the enemy base and shut down their supply line of troops once and for all. As of right now, we do not have word as to the pricing plan for these adventures if you are a F2P player. However, it's never too soon to get ready to protect Stormreach in Update 8 by reading this post. And stay tuned -- we'll be taking a deeper look at Update 8 later this week on Massively!
Smule raises $3.9 million in funding
There's money in them thar App Store! Smule, the company behind the popular Ocarina and Zephyr apps for the iPhone, has informed us that they raised a whopping $3.9 million from a round of venture funding led by a firm named Granite Ventures. That's a lot of capital -- while a lot of people are aiming to get their hands in the cookie jar in a big way in the burgeoning economy of the App Store, $3.9 million is the biggest single payout we've seen yet (the iFund actually paid out $100 million, but that was split among various companies and people, and we haven't heard specifics on exactly what they got). The company brags that they've attracted over one million users already, and that they will use the funding to "help people experience music as it's never been experienced before and in turn find new ways of bringing people together." We can't help but wish them well -- hopefully we'll see more high quality apps in the App Store, and hopefully that'll pay off for both investors and consumers.
Nintendo Europe manager speaks, fanboys argue
Remember that song, "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" Yeah, it was a classic, wasn't it? Well, I've adopted the song for Sony and Nintendo representatives. It goes like this:Who sold marginally less handheld systems?Sony sold marginally less handheld systems!Who me?Yes YOU!Couldn't be!Then, who?Who sold marginally less handheld systems?Nintendo sold marginally less handheld systems!Who me?Yes YOU!Couldn't be!Then, who?Rinse, and repeat, folks. Rinse and repeat. If you couldn't tell, I'm somewhat sickened by this constant use of sales figures to somehow prove a system's superiority. Once it starts affecting me as a gamer, I'll start worrying. In the latest round of executive fanboyism, Nintendo product manager James Honeywell spoke out about the success of the DS, and how it's theoretically affecting the PSP: "Up until the end of last year sale between the two formats were fairly evenly matched, with DS slightly outselling PSP," he said. "Since the beginning of the year, with our stellar line-up of releases, we have pushed our sales through the roof. Then with the fantastic launch of DS Lite in June we have begun to pull further and further away.""Right now, with the combination of DS and DS Lite we are outselling the competition by a ratio of 3:1. This increase in hardware sales has also driven an increase in DS software sales, moving ahead of PSP in the total number of units and also, more interestingly, we have now seen that the same third party titles are selling more on the DS than on other formats. We are seeing publishers start to rethink their strategies switching development from other formats to the successful DS platform and, more importantly, creating bespoke titles that fully utilise the DS features rather than simply porting content without taking advantage of the great things you can do on DS."Once again, I haven't really seen third parties run away from Sony's handheld. Once quality games stop coming for my system, that's when I'll start to get worried. Until then, I'll enjoy my underappreciated PSP, just as much as I've enjoyed my Gamecube and Dreamcast (I have a real knack for choosing underdogs, huh?).[Via DS Fanboy]
