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Amazon's Luna game streaming platform is now in early access
A small number of players can try out the service starting today.
'LittleBigPlanet' follow-up 'Dreams' comes to creators this spring
Media Molecule's Dreams has generated a lot of buzz for its creative potential during its beta phase, and soon it'll be available to everyone. The LittleBigPlanet studio has announced that its PS4 crafting tool will be available in Early Access form this spring. This version won't have everything you'll find in the polished release, but it'll include the same implements Media Molecule uses, a range of pre-made arcade games and tutorials to help with your own projects. The rough release will help "prioritize" what the company works on, the developer's Siobhan Reddy said.
Discord now offers early access games on its PC store
The most popular chat platform for gamers, Discord, will now be selling early access games, adding to the growing catalog of titles on the Discord Store. Early access was popularized initially by Steam and allows gamers to buy games that are still in development. It gives players access to games months -- or even years -- before launch, while giving valuable feedback to developers.
'PUBG' could be en route to PlayStation 4 this year
Since 2017, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been exclusive to PC and Xbox. That could be changing. The battle royale game may appear on PlayStation 4 soon if a Korean ratings board slip-up (spotted by Eurogamer) is to be believed. Each time I've spoken with PUBG Corp over the past year, whoever I've talked to said that a PlayStation 4 version wasn't in the cards because the team wanted to get the Xbox version up to par with the PC first. It looks like that time may have come.
PlayerUnknown believes ‘PUBG’ doesn’t need to beat ‘Fortnite’
Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene is in an unenviable position at the moment. His namesake game, PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds was the surprise hit of 2017, going from being an obscure work-in-progress game in Steam's Early Access section to racking up over $60 million in sales in mere months, averaging 2 million daily players on PC and getting a console port via the Xbox One -- all before it hit version 1.0. By all accounts, it looked like the game's continued success was guaranteed. Then Fortnite: Battle Royale happened. This week, Fortnite developer Epic Games announced that in just nine months time, its free-to-play spin on battle royale had accrued 125 million players. (Weeks earlier, PUBG's parent company sued Epic for alleged copyright violations.) But Fortnite isn't the only competition for PUBG. Giants of the FPS world like Call of Duty and Battlefield have announced they're joining the fray, and others will surely follow. Greene couldn't talk about the pending lawsuit, for obvious legal reasons, but when I spoke to him at E3 this week he was candid about the competition and his team's plans to differentiate PUBG from everyone else. Oh and to get this out of the way up front, don't expect PUBG to go free-to-play any time soon. Greene said that the team hadn't discussed it "at all." This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
'Radical Heights' is Cliff Bleszinski's free-to-play battle royale game
That didn't take long. After announcing that LawBreakers wasn't living up to expectations (and making enough money), and teasing a new project on Friday, developer Boss Key has revealed the "passion project" it teased. Try to feign surprise when you find out that it's a free-to-play battle royale game. On the surface, Radical Heights stands out from the crowd with a vibrant, quasi cel-shaded, retro-futuristic game-show vibe that hearkens back to the '80s. Meaning, there are a lot of extreme pastels and hot pink triangles complementing its over-the-top Saturday morning cartoon tone.
Survival arena brawler 'Darwin Project' launches March 9th
Been waiting for Scavengers Studio's Darwin Project ever since it stole the spotlight at last year's Microsoft E3 conference? Don't worry: your wait is almost over. The early access version of the Hunger Games-style battle royale title will be available for purchase on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Preview, the platform's pre-release program for Xbox One, on March 9th. Darwin Project is a multiplayer game that combines various aspects of popular titles in the genre, such as Don't Starve and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. In our previous write-up, Engadget Senior Reporter Jessica Conditt described the game as "Katniss Everdeen running around Pochinki Hill, chopping down trees like Wilson the Gentleman Scientist."
As ‘PUBG’ finally exits beta, its creators look to the future
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been this year's biggest surprise. Since launching on Steam Early Access in late March, the game, which conceptually started life as a DayZ mod, has picked up 25 million players on PC, not to mention a marketing and publishing deal from Microsoft for an Xbox One version. This week, version 1.0 arrives on Steam, gaining a second map and new instant replay feature in the process. But for PUBG Corp CEO Chang Han Kim, even though the game is losing its beta status, work is far from finished. "When we first started this project and thought of the Early Access model, we never took it as a model where you start developing a game, you complete it, you ship it out and then be done with it," Kim said through a translator. "As long as we have fans out there playing our game, it will never be complete."
YouTube debuts 360-video app on Steam VR
There's a lot of VR content out there, but much of it is for one platform or another -- what works on Gear VR may not on Daydream, the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift. Google just made it a bit easier to use one of its key Daydream VR apps by releasing YouTube VR for Steam VR on the HTC Vive. You can download it right now, but the app is an Early Access release and reviews are, to say the least, mixed.
DxO's snap-on Android camera is now available to pre-order
DxO One is a compact snap-on camera that drastically improves the quality of your smartphone photos, but only iPhone users have been able to benefit so far. It recently arrived on Android, however, and is now up for pre-order as a fairly attractive "Early Access Pack." For $499, you get the camera, a protective shell and DxO's PhotoLab software, effectively saving about $260. The caveats are that there's still no shipping date, and the device only works on newer models that have built-in USB Type-C ports.
Get your first taste of 'Sunless Skies' on August 30th
Sunless Skies, the sequel to Sunless Sea that reached its Kickstarter goal in just four hours, will be available for Early Access play on August 30th. Kickstarter backers will get their key via email and anybody else who would like to play and provide feedback can get the game for 10 percent of its regular $25 price during the first week of release.
Survival RPG 'The Long Dark' adds story in time for August launch
After years of development as a crowdfunded project and, later, a pre-alpha build on Xbox One and Steam, wilderness survival RPG The Long Dark from Hinterland Studios finally has a release date of August 1st. Better yet, the studio announced on Wednesday that the game will be be making the jump to PS4 on that date and all three platforms will gain access to the first two chapters of a new five-part story mode dubbed "Wintermute".
Microsoft will let you try Windows 10 games early
The Xbox Game Preview program is a nice way to try indie console games before they're finished, but what about PC gamers? Where's Microsoft's answer to Steam Early Access? At last, it's here. Microsoft has announced that Xbox Game Preview is coming to Windows 10, giving you a chance to play early desktop games and potentially influence their design. The company has only confirmed Rockfish Games' Everspace as one of the launch titles for the initiative, but it's vowing that there will be "many more to come."
'Starbound' is almost ready for everyone to explore
After years of being in Steam's Early Access program for in-development games, Starbound is readying to leave those confines. Four years on and the 1.0 patch, what developer Chucklefish refers to as "the story update," adds a ton to the charming 2D sci-fi title. In terms of narrative, your character is a member of a group called "Protectors" who are trying to guide the universe toward peace, and after your Earth-based graduation from the training program you'll head off to the stars to explore the galaxy.
GOG.com is selling still-in-development games, too
Who says only Steam users get to have all the fun with Early Access games? Well, not GOG anymore. Today the PC-gaming seller is announcing its curated take on vending still-in-development software. Purchases are refundable within 14 days, no time limit (Steam doesn't offer refunds if you've played more than two hours), no questions asked. More than that, if an update breaks one of these games or changes in a way you don't like, you can roll back to a previous version via the service's Galaxy desktop client. And this version of access to non-final games wouldn't truly be a GOG endeavor if any of them were locked behind digital-rights management, so they aren't. Basically, it's treating these builds like any other type of game it'd sell.
Sony rolls out 'Dungeon Defenders 2' as a paid alpha on PS4
Dungeon Defenders 2 will be free when it launches as a full game on PlayStation 4, but fans who want to play it as soon as possible, pre-alpha bugs and all, can pay for the privilege starting next week. The pre-alpha version of Dungeon Defenders 2 -- that's a version that the developers are still building -- will be available for purchase on PS4 on September 29th in three packages: $15, $25 and $75. These are three bundles offering different in-game goodies for die-hard (or simply curious) fans, and they're identical to the ones offered on Steam Early Access.
Rockets, flirting and bruised egos on Steam Early Access
Steam launched its Early Access program in 2013, allowing developers to publish and sell incomplete, in-progress builds of their games on the internet's largest digital distribution hub. And publish they did -- by May 2014, more games had launched on Steam that year than in all of 2013, partially thanks to Early Access. This contributed to the gaming industry's ongoing digital revolution, where publishers shifted away from shipping physical products, indies were on the rise and Kickstarter changed how everyday players interacted with game creators. The revolution continues to simmer today and developers, especially independent ones, are still figuring out what to do with all of these new tools -- including Early Access.
JXE Streams: Creeping through 'Darkest Dungeon'
We're back! Like clockwork, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon you can expect Joystiq X Engadget streams on Twitch, and today is no different. I'm jumping into Darkest Dungeon, a game only available on Steam's Early Access program right now -- I'm told it's both excellent and scary as hell. Given that, I'm going in completely blind and learning as I go. Won't you join my expedition into the mouth of madness? I sure hope you will! The pre-show kicks off just ahead of our official 3PM ET start time -- head blow for the stream and comments, or head to our Twitch page right now and follow along so you know when we're streaming any time of the week!
The future of Xbox One: early access gaming, Cortana and more
Since the Xbox One launched last November, Microsoft's latest game console has changed pretty dramatically. From "going all-in" on Kinect to offering a camera-less $400 model; from focused on TV and home entertainment to appealing directly to "core" gamers. The last year for Microsoft's Xbox division has been one massive pivot. The future sounds brighter. You've already read about the updates coming to Xbox One this fall. What about beyond that? Head of Xbox Phil Spencer offered us some possibilities in an interview this week at Gamescom 2014. What about, say, a version of Steam's massively popular Early Access program, which enables developers to release games still in development and gamers to participate in the development process? "I think it does make sense. I think we have to land it the right way on console," Spencer told us. That's certainly a start!
Steam Early Access makes public game tests a near-automatic affair
Many gotta-have-it-first gamers are very familiar with public betas and other chances to try titles before they officially reach the servers -- but not on Steam, where the closed system has usually left people waiting for final builds. Valve doesn't want to leave customers on the sidelines, though, and is launching Steam Early Access to provide officially sanctioned peeks. The portal gives pre-release games the same automatic updates and community features as their finished counterparts, making it easy to squash bugs as they're discovered, take feedback and simply let testers focus on playing rather than patching. Early Access' initial roster is small: it focuses mostly on the ArmA III alpha as well as a swath of puzzle and RPG releases, so don't expect to preview all the latest blockbusters. However, it might still be a win for both nervous game creators and especially eager players.
