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'Angry Birds' turns 10 years old today
If you're already struggling with the idea of entering a whole new decade in a couple weeks' time, here's something that's going to make you feel even older: Angry Birds is 10 years old today. In kid terms, it's on the cusp of middle school and it's probably started answering back.
Massively unboxes EVE Online's Collector's Edition
Sci-fi MMO EVE Online initially launched as a physical disc sold in stores back in 2003 and saw limited success in the fledgling MMO space. A decade of regular updates and digital distribution has seen EVE grow organically into the largest sci-fi sandbox on the planet with over half a million subscribers, but until now something has been missing: EVE has never had an actual collector's edition box. To celebrate 10 successful years of operation, last month CCP officially released the EVE Second Decade Collector's Edition box. I recently received a review copy of the Collector's Edition from CCP and have put together an unboxing video with my general impressions of the items within. The collection comes in a sturdy presentation box and contains a 192-page commemorative hardback book looking back on the first decade of EVE's history, along with an anniversary re-release edition of CCP's board game Danger Game and a physical Rifter model that doubles as a USB hub. The pack also comes with a new account key with 60 days of game time, a soundtrack CD of the EVE music played by the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, and keys to unlock billions of ISK worth of virtual collectables in-game. It's pretty expensive at around €150 or $150 US, but the virtual items can be sold in game to claw back some of the cost in the form of PLEX. Enjoy our look at the new CE!
EVE Evolved: Ten years of EVE Online
Tomorrow marks a huge milestone in MMO history as sci-fi sandbox EVE Online officially turns ten years old. Released by a tiny icelandic development studio whose only previous release was a board game featuring Reykjavik's favourite cross-dressing mayor, EVE has slowly grown over the past decade to become one of the industry's biggest and most stable subscription titles. Following 2011's monoclegate scandal that led to around 8% of players quitting and CCP Games shedding 20% of its employees, this year saw EVE Online climb to new heights as it regained the playerbase's confidence and smashed the 500,000 subscriber barrier. As a special side-note, the EVE Evolved column also turned five years old last week; it has now officially been running for over half of EVE's lifetime. The past year has been remarkably successful for CCP, with both of the year's EVE expansions being extremely well received and console MMOFPS DUST 514 finally starting to take shape. The Inferno and Retribution expansions fixed a staggering number of small issues that were broken in the game while also making big changes to bounty-hunting, piracy, and PvP across the board. We also saw huge emergent events like the Battle of Asakai, a $6,000 ship kill, and the five trillion ISK faction warfare exploit this year. With DUST 514 officially launching in just over a week on May 14th and players fired up about the upcoming Odyssey expansion, the future's looking bright for EVE Online as it heads into its second decade. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at some of year's top EVE stories, stories that touched real life, and what the future holds for EVE's second decade.
EVE Online Second Decade collector's edition revealed
Moments ago at EVE Online's tenth anniversary Fanfest, CCP revealed plans for its Second Decade Collector's Edition box. EVE never really had a proper collector's edition, and the tenth anniversary of the game is the perfect opportunity to release one. The box will come with an awesome physical Rifter model that doubles as a USB hub, a CD of the tenth anniversary EVE symphony from this year's Fanfest, and a series of codes to redeem to cosmetic items in EVE Online and DUST 514. The box is due for release in October 2013 and on the EVE store and Amazon and can be pre-purhased right now for $149.99 (€149.99 for those in Europe). Cosmetic upgrades for EVE include a new golden pod skin that applies permanently to one character, some new bloodline-based in-game clothing, and several collector's edition ships. Players will get a five-run blueprint copy of the tenth anniversary Gnosis battlecruiser and a re-skinned red Tash-Murkon Magnate, and pre-purchasers will get a bonus Nefnatar Thrasher. DUST 514 items include a set of permanant Amarr templar drop suits and weapons with the same stats as normal items but lower skill requirements.
EVE Evolved: Five years of EVE Evolved
About five years ago, on April 27th, 2008, I joined the Massively team and wrote the very first issue of the EVE Evolved column. Five years later, the column is still going strong and delivering its weekly dose of EVE Online to thousands of readers. I used to worry about running out of ideas to write about, but regular game updates and hilarious player shenanigans mean there's always something interesting going on in New Eden. When EVE hits its 10th anniversary in May, this column will have been running for just over half of the game's lifetime. In that time, I've written over 250 in-depth articles, guides, in-game stories and opinion pieces on EVE Online and a few on DUST 514. As usual, I'll be celebrating this anniversary by rounding up this year's column highlights and giving away two 30-day Pilot's License Extensions to two lucky readers. To enter the competition, write a comment explaining which EVE Evolved articles from this year you liked best and what topics you'd like to see covered in the coming year. You will need an active EVE account to claim the prize, so be sure to include your character name in your comment if you want to be in with a chance. If you'd rather not give out your character name or don't have an EVE account but would like to give the game a go, you can sign up a new trial account and use the name of your new character. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the highlights from the column's fifth year!
EVE Online hits 500,000 subscribers, heads into second decade
Most modern MMOs launch to an initial flurry of sales followed by a steady decline in player activity, but sci-fi MMO EVE Online has lived life in reverse. The game initially failed to secure a large number of launch sales but has since grown organically into one of the most successful subscription MMOs on the planet. EVE developer CCP Games told Massively today that the game has now officially broken the 500,000 subscription barrier. Subscription numbers hit the 450,000 mark following the relaunch of EVE's Chinese server Serenity in December of last year, and they have continued to climb ever since. This new subscription milestone is attributed to the success of EVE's recent Retribution expansion and the anticipation building over upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514, which is set on actual planets in the EVE universe. EVE is due to hit its 10th anniversary this year on May 6th, and developers have been taking the opportunity to look forward at what the coming decade will bring to the game. We caught up with CCP for a quick peek at the studio's plans for the future and to find out what kind of announcements we can expect from EVE Fanfest in April of this year.
The Mog Log: A decade of Final Fantasy XI
Generally speaking, when I celebrate anniversaries, I celebrate the point when the game actually came out in a language that I could play it. This is relevant in the case of Final Fantasy XI, since the game took a year and a half to reach the shores of America (also known as "the place I live"). I learned my lesson about trying to learn a language just to muddle through a game back with Final Fantasy III. However, when one of our eagle-eyed readers pointed out to me the milestone that the game had hit, that made an impact because even if I couldn't understand any of the game's text back when it launched, a decade is a long time for continuous operation of anything. So rather than talking about the Legacy campaign as I'd planned, I think I'd rather talk about the legacy of Final Fantasy XI this week, including where the game has gone from its state at launch. You know, when a Black Mage could make the entire world bow and you still got attacked when riding a chocobo.
Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: A decade of Apple retail
This Sunday night, we're celebrating ten years of Apple's retail stores with an hour of chat about the unlikely success and remarkable story of the little shops that could. Got a great retail experience to share, positive or otherwise? Pop in and let us know. [We were fortunate to have our buddy Ross Rubin as a guest tonight, along with Gary Allen from ifoapplestore.com -- be sure to catch the show on iTunes! –MR] We'll also tackle the news of the week plus your questions and comments -- and if there's time afterward, there's always the TUAWTF aftershow (never recorded, often regretted). To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the TalkShoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 PM EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cell phone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here (if you like Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store). Talk to you tonight.
Mac OS X turns X years old today
Whether it changed everything, made you think different, or was just a sideshow to the Windows centerpiece of your life, there's no denying version X of Mac OS has been the most successful and enduring piece of software Apple has ever produced. It is turning 10 years old today, so we thought we'd spare a moment to say congratulations and to dust off an image of our favorite logo of the bunch. And who knows, with the next iteration being dubbed Lion and the lack of any more senior big cats available, maybe this will be the last big anniversary before Apple takes the leap into version 11. [Thanks, Robert]
Apple nabs four of Engadget's 10 gadgets of the decade
Our friends over at Engadget have selected their top 10 gadgets of the last decade (the naughts, as I like to call them), and Apple has come up big: four out of the ten choices are made by the company from Cupertino. The iPhone is on the list (of course), as is the iPod. The original Titanium PowerBook fills a spot for its "category-shaping design" and its influence on laptops since its release in 2001. Perhaps most interesting, Mac OS X is on the list right alongside Windows XP as a co-gadget of the decade. Engadget says that both operating systems provided fresh and clean restarts for their respective companies, and that while OS X took a little while to "become a usable daily OS" (ouch), it still helped to "set a new standard for computing." Being the Apple weblog that we are, we might argue that Windows XP provided a solid update to Windows 98, while OS X offered up some actual innovation in the operating system market (and Apple still carries the banner on commercial UI innovation today). But we're nitpicking on that one -- 40% of their gadgets that shaped the decade were made by one company, and that's good enough for us.
Ten gadgets that defined the decade
As 2009 winds down and we try to come up with new and clever ways of referring to the early years of this century, there's really only one thing left to do: declare our ten favorite gadgets of the aughts and show them off in chronological order. It's arguable that if this wasn't the decade of gadgets, it was certainly a decade shaped by gadgets -- one which saw the birth of a new kind of connectedness. In just ten years time, gadgets have touched almost every aspect of our daily lives, and personal technology has come into its own in a way never before seen. It's a decade that's been marked the ubiquity of the internet, the downfall of the desktop, and the series finale of Friends, but we've boiled it down to the ten devices we've loved the most and worked the hardest over the past ten years. We even had some of our friends in the tech community chime in with their picks on what they thought was the gadget or tech of the decade -- so join us for a look back at the best (gadget) years ever!
The Engadget Show - 004: The decade in gadgets, with special guest Peter Rojas!
What a crazy 10 years, right guys? It's really flown past; the highs, the lows, the stuff in the middle that didn't seem very impressive one way or another. For our final Engadget Show of the decade, we asked site founder Peter Rojas to join us for a look back at our picks for the most important and / or interesting gadget developments since 2000. A hardcore crowd came out just after a gigantic snowstorm to witness the proceedings, and now you get your chance to see how it all went down. This is a long one folks, so grab some popcorn and settle in for the show! Update: The HD download is now live! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel Special guest: Peter Rojas Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Josh Fruhlinger Edited by: Tony Chen Music by: Bubblyfish Visuals by: CJ Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 004 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 004 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Sega's Dreamcast turns 10, inspires us to find that VMU and finish Shenmue
In at least a few time zones, today is 09/09/09. Aside from being the same day that Apple holds a keynote on the left coast, Leica launches something and The Beatles: Rock Band encourages gamers everywhere to call in sick, today also marks the ten year anniversary of Sega's iconic Dreamcast. Looking back, it's hard to believe that the always-Thinking console was only in production for two years, but even today it holds an oh-so-special place in our hearts. We still maintain that the defunct VMU could eventually be the next coming of the Tamagotchi, and there's still zero doubt that the designer of Seaman was on copious quantities of LSD during the conception process. Any particularly touching stories as we celebrate a solid decade of The Swirl? Share 'em below -- tissues are on us.
Dyack: Too Human 10-year dev cycle 'factually incorrect'
var digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/25/dyack-too-human-10-year-dev-cycle-factually-incorrect/'; Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack wants to set the record straight: Too Human was not in development for 10 years. Speaking to X3F during their tour of the studios last week, Dyack said, "I cannot dispel that rumor enough ... that is a bad way to talk about Too Human because that is factually incorrect." He cites the E3 1999 reveal -- at that point planned as a 4-disc PS One title -- but explains that production didn't actually begin until after Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes was completed. Given that title's March 2004 release, we're going to carbon date Too Human at 5 years, born in 7 A.D., or Anno Duke (Nukem Forever). It should be noted that there are screenshots from E3 1999, but both those and the descriptions appear devoid of any Norse mythology that now has become a major aspect of the game. Stay tuned for video and images from X3F's Silicon Knights tour later today. Check out X3F's four-part video series with Too Human developer Silicon Knights, including a guided studio tour and an interview with the ever-controversial Denis Dyack.
