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Massively Exclusive: GamersFirst on yesterday's layoffs and the future of APB
It's been a whirlwind couple of days for the folks at GamersFirst. Yesterday we broke the story of layoffs at the company, and today the free-to-play firm has come forward to chat with us about what exactly is going on (and what exactly it's thinking in regard to the new Occupy Free2Play promotion). We talked with Rahul Sandil, G1's senior vice president of marketing and business development, and he had some interesting things to say about the future of both APB Reloaded and Fallen Earth.
GamersFirst challenging players with Occupy Free2Play
Occupy Wall Street is the phrase on everyone's lips these days, and the folks at GamersFirst are getting in on the action with a lighthearted spinoff of the movement. GamersFirst is making the bold statement that it's "challenging video game players and consumers to break the cycle of MMOs that require you to commit to a subscription after spending as much as $60 for the honor of playing their products." The company continues, "Worse is the latest crop of subscription-lite and freemium games claiming to be Free2Play. GamersFirst is challenging gamers to reject this propaganda of what other publishers are calling free and demand more from their gaming experience." It's an interesting take on gaming, but G1 has even more to say and a very clear idea of what F2P is not: "Free2Play is NOT a thinly-veiled game trial. Free2Play is NOT titles that require cash shop purchases to play. Free2Play is NOT experience level caps. Free2Play is NOT exclusive content for paying players. Free2Play is NOT pay-to-win." Strong words, but is there anything behind them? The answer seems to be yes, since GamersFirst is backing up its words with -- what else? -- free items. Massively has been given 5,000 codes for APB: Reloaded gift packages that include three days of access to both a Colby CSG-20 PR2 shotgun and a ACT 44 Golden Marksmen pistol. The package also includes three days of premium access to the game. Head to our giveaway page to pick up your items, and make sure you hit the comment button to give us your take on Occupy Free2Play!
Rumor: GamersFirst lays off 32 staffers, CFO [Updated]
If the rumors are true, today has not been the best of days for MMO industry staffers. Hot on the heels of our NCsoft layoff story comes distressing news for fans of GamersFirst, as we've just received an anonymous tip concerning the apparent dismissal of 32 people from the firm's west coast office. According to our tipster, "Most of the APB team was let go. A lot of the support staff was let go. The development team was not, to my knowledge, so the game is still being developed in Scotland." We've also been told that GamersFirst's CFO was let go. We've reached out to G1 for clarification on this story, and as of press time there is no official word on the staffing decisions or how the shake-up will affect Fallen Earth and the rest of the company's free-to-play lineup. [Updated: Reader alacritythief let us know that GamersFirst's Revoemnag and TechMech have responded to the layoffs in regard to APB's future. Their comments are just behind the break.]
Fallen Earth's spiked chopper debuts in new trailer
Why did the Fallen Earth chicken cross the road? To get a closer look at the game's new choppers of course. When we say choppers, we mean badass bikes and not helicopters (although that would be cool too -- chop chop GamersFirst). Anyway, as we reported earlier this week, Wednesday marks the final day to subscribe to Fallen Earth prior to its free-to-play/hybrid makeover, and the faithful will receive a new spiked chopper mount for their trouble. You can take a good long look at the bike -- as well as plenty of post-apocalyptic wasteland visuals and the aforementioned chicken -- in the latest game trailer after the cut.
Gigabyte G1 Assassin motherboard is a last-gen gamer's dream come true
For a motherboard, the G1 Assassin from Gigabyte sure is gaudy and actually rather interesting. First off, that Killer E2100 networking solution from Bigfoot has been integrated into the board, as has Creative's X-Fi audio. The three-year-old X58 chipset at its heart is starting to look a little long in the tooth but, with support for three-way SLI or four-way CrossFireX, 24GB of RAM, and Intel's Extreme Edition processors, you probably won't miss Sandy Bridge too much. Starting at around $450 the Assassin isn't for everyone, but hardcore gamers determined to squeeze every ounce of performance from of their setup will not be disappointed. The one unfortunate fault of the G1 is timing -- the next-gen of high-end performance parts from Chipzilla are right around the corner. Though, that banana clip-shaped heat sink has to count for something. We know you like benchmarks, so check out the reviews below. Read - HotHardware Read - Legit Reviews Read - Overclock 3D Read - TechRadar
GamersFirst talks Fallen Earth account changes
If you're a current Fallen Earth subscriber, you'll want to head over to the official Fallen Earth dev blog to get the skinny on the upcoming account shenanigans scheduled to take place on August 1st and beyond. In a nutshell, Fallen Earth's acquisition by GamersFirst has necessitated that all users acquire a GamersFirst account to log into the game. Never fear, though, it's a free account, and it's just another step in the changeover process. In fact, GamersFirst's Joseph "Linus" Willmon writes that the account gymnastics are part of "phase two, where we fully integrate Fallen Earth into the GamersFirst publishing platform." Phase one has already been completed, and it involved a lot of behind-the-scenes hardware moves and the like. This week's Fallen Earth dev blog contains a complete rundown of the rest of the changes scheduled to occur in phase two, including payment and subscription tweaks.
APB Reloaded keeps us up to date on development
It's always good to see a games company keep the lines of communication open in regard to an upcoming title. It's especially nice to see those frequent morsels of communication presented in an open and downright amusing fashion! The team behind All Points Bulletin: Reloaded is certainly managing to do just that, as we can see in its most recent update. According to none other than the COO/CTO for GamersFirst, Bjorn "TechMech" Book-Larsson, the team currently working on ABP: Reloaded has made a huge find in terms of server bugs. Apparently, the way the current in-game death camera is coded, the entire sector hits a lag spike -- or as he puts it, "take[s] a brief 100ms moment of silence" when a player is killed. This, in turn, causes a lot of the rubberbanding that players see on their end. Finding this bug means that the team is now hard at work on a fix, and Book-Larsson is hopeful that we may even see it released to closed beta players within a matter of days. If you're curious about the progress GamersFirst is making on APB: Reloaded, then be sure to head over and check out the newest blog post or go get signed up for closed beta! [Thanks, Connor!]
HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video)
The original gangster of Android, T-Mobile's G1, just refuses to quietly fade into the annals of history. Even in spite of its long overdue end of retail life last summer, the handset continues to see support from grassroots modders and tweakers, with the latest project being the most ambitious of them all: an Android Honeycomb port. A pair of xda members have succeeded in splicing Android's most senior hardware with its very latest software and the results are available to see on video after the break. As usual with these builds, half of the phone's functions have still to be enabled and the UI lag seems like it'll be a permanent feature whatever happens, but still -- it's Honeycomb on the G1!
iControlPad finally available for order, shipping next week
The iControlPad hasn't been flirting with vaporware status for quite as long as Duke Nukem Forever but certainly long enough to make us wonder if we'd ever be able to use it to kick some in-game butt before we ran out of bubblegum. We've been tantalized by this formerly iPhone-exclusive adapter since way back in 2008, when it was going to be a simple case with a dock connector that would let you control those emulators with greater ease. It's grown significantly since then, the latest version shown above -- the final version, as it happens. It's now available for order at a cost of $74.99, and we're happy to say that ditching that dock connector and going for Bluetooth has expanded support well past the iDevice crowd, including things like the Motorola Blackflip, Blackberry Touch, and the now-classic G1. However, we're told not all games and emulators will work with the thing, so your mileage may vary. First devices ship next week, so make with the clicking. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Pour one out: T-Mobile G1 no longer for sale
And just like that, the T-Mobile G1 is no more. A quick stock check at T-Mobile USA, Amazon, and a few other retailers confirms that the world's first Android handset is no longer for sale, marking the end of an era. Of course, it's been nearly two years since we first saw the G1, and its 528MHz Qualcomm processor and 320 x 480 3.2-inch display have been long since outclassed by the recent crop of high-end Android hardware, but we're still feeling a little nostalgic. They grow up so fast, don't they? Take a pause, take a sip, and let's look back on the original of the species. T-Mobile G1 launch press conference liveblog T-Mobile G1 review T-Mobile G1 impressions T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream product hub %Gallery-34625%
Cyanogen squeezes Android 2.2 Froyo into G1, MyTouch 3G
Earlier this evening, we took the plunge -- now, we're rocking Froyo on our formerly old-and-busted T-Mobile G1. That's because Cyanogen's team of ROM hackers has come through once again for the little handset that could, serving early adopters with HTC Dream and Magic phones (as well as the Nexus One) with the first fully-functioning, stable build of CyanogenMod 6. Based on Google's famous frozen yogurt, the release candidate's got more fabulous tweaks than you can shake a stick at, but sadly doesn't seem to include Flash 10.1, and though WiFi and the camera are working great (as well as SurfaceFlinger and Chrome to Phone) many would-be shoppers in the Android Market are finding themselves faced with the dreaded force close. As usual, you'll find instructions at the source link if you understand the risks -- if you're not careful, you can easily brick your phone. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Android 2.2 wastes no time getting hacked onto HTC Dream and Magic
Though we're not even a wee bit shocked to see a "usable" version of Froyo already available to owners of the G1 / Dream and Magic, we're definitely heartened to see that phones running 2008 specs can handily run a mid-2010 version of the platform. There's plenty of stuff that doesn't work yet -- WiFi and GPS, just to name a couple of biggies -- but we suspect that this is one dev community that won't give up until everything is working to their satisfaction. Motivation to hang on to otherwise outdated hardware for a few more months, perhaps?
Cyanogen 5.0.7 experimentally brings Eclair to G1, myTouch 3G -- caveats apply
After a brief delay, looks like CyanogenMod 5 is now out for the HTC Dream, Magic and Sapphire, also known as the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G. The release is labeled as experimental, so take care not to flash it onto your work phone, and G1 owners should back up their data as they'll need to install a little something called the DangerSPL (which has phone bricking potential) and perform a full wipe. If you're the kind of individual who doesn't shy away from software explicitly labeled "danger," get cracking on that rooted Eclair at the source link. Update: Can't get through? That's because the sheer willpower of Android early adopters is crushing websites hosting the CM5 ROM like so many stale pretzels. Cyanogen is retweeting alternative options if you simply can't wait for things to quiet down.
Cyanogen ports Android 2.1 to G1 and MyTouch 3G (update)
Droid, Milestone, Eris, Moment, Spica, even the Hero, all have had their Eclair, one way or another. G1 and myTouch 3G? Not so much. But don't worry, Android early adopters, because Cyanogen's got your back. Most all the bells, whistles and hardware-accelerated graphics of Android 2.1 are coming to the HTC Dream, Magic and Sapphire in CyanogenMod 5.0.7, and you can see a video of a T-Mobile G1 running the new build after the break. Twitter buzz indicates the ROM will be out any minute now is nearly ready; the dev himself tweeted that it's good to go and just needs G1-friendly bite size packaging. Update: Don't stay up all night waiting -- Cyanogen says he's got "two more bugs to kill" and is "hoping for a test1 public beta tomorrow night." [Thanks, Philosophics]
Panasonic's DMC-GF1 / GH1 / G1 firmware updates improve autofocus performance
Curious timing, no? Nary a fortnight after Olympus announced an autofocus-related firmware update for its line of Micro Four Thirds cameras (the PEN E-P1, E-P2 and E-PL1), along comes Panasonic with an all-too-similar round of firmware fixes for their own MFT range. Slated to hit the interwebs on May 10th, a trio of new updates will purportedly bring improved autofocus performance with third-party lenses as well as recognition of the new 14-42mm kit zoom to the DMC-GF1, DMC-GH1 and DMC-G1. We're also told that there will be improved flash performance for the latter two, and if you just so happen to be the proud owner of one of these, you can head on past the break for the full changelog.
Android and Arduino-packin' Cellbot features voice recognition, autonomy, and charm to spare
The Cellbots gang has been furiously productive as of late. Not even a month after their wooden "boxbot" was first spotted on You Tube the project has moved on from its humble beginnings of lumber and windshield wiper motors to a full-on a neon green acrylic Truckbot that uses a G1 and Arduino board combination for control. Sure, we've seen Android-powered robots before, but these guys have done some pretty cool things, and have no intention of stopping now. They've already implemented an ultrasonic range detector so the 'bot can override the operator and prevent itself from running off a cliff (although we'd like to suggest mounting one on the rear as well -- for obvious reasons), voice recognition, and the Android compass into the control system. If anything, the amount of progress makes this project very well worth keeping an eye on. Move past the break to see some video, and then hit the source link to keep up with the action yourself.
T-Mobile G1 getting ultra-minor firmware update
Feeling like the world is passing you by, G1 owners? That Android has moved on? That no one loves you anymore? Well, take heart: T-Mobile isn't done updating you yet. The tiniest of updates is now in the process of rolling out to G1s across the land, featuring improved "call performance" without "any additional feature enhancements." In other words, this is a one-trick pony -- but probably a good one, and it's still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The update's already being rolled out, and all customers should have it by March 15.
One Shots: A quiet romance
There's something to be said for the quiet of a Sunday -- and for the lovely architecture and fashion of days gone by. That's why we couldn't resist this picturesque Sword of the New World screenshot sent in to us by FragmentaryHorcrux of the Fontaineblanc family on the Bristia server. The other thing that makes this excellent is the thought put into the note that came in along with it. After all, One Shots is just as much about what players are doing -- and love -- in their favorite MMOs. As such, since he sent in a great big note we're going to turn the rest of today's post over to him. Remember if you'd like to join the fun and tell us why your favorite game is your favorite game, email your screenshots to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a descripion. We'll post it out here and give you the credit. For now, on with FragmentaryHorcrux's letter -- just be sure to check out the rest of it behind the break! This shot shows one of the many romantic vistas of the Port of Coimbra in the game; a Scout, Fighter and Elementalist at the Lookout Point with the Eastern part of the town and the ocean in the background. %Gallery-85937% %Gallery-9798%
Android 2.0 officially coming to T-Mobile G1?
We don't know where this is coming from so take it with a grain of salt, but rumor has it from AndroidSPIN that the progenitor Android device, the T-Mobile G1, is destined to officially get an over-the-air update for an Eclair build, Android 2-point-something. Hey T-Mo, we know the holidays are pretty much over, but could you validate these whispers for us? Thanks! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Android 2.1 moves down food chain, ROM now ported to G1 (update: hoax)
Future, meet your past. The fine lads at xda-developers forums have ported the Android 2.1 ROM -- you know, the updated OS from Nexus One that everyone's been talking about lately -- all the way to the original G1. Right now it's being dubbed version 0.9999 since it's still lacking A2SD, CompCache, and SWAP... and if you're feeling confused by the terminology, it might be best to not try this at home just yet. Creator Teh Dust has also removed a few things for the sake of making it more lightweight, including Car Home, Live Boot, and high resolution wallpapers / apps that don't jive with the G1 anyway. Willing, curious, and wanting to impress your Droid-carrying friends? File's hiding in plain sight, waiting for you. Update: Quoth the raven, 'twas a hoax and nothing more. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
