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Microsoft will pause optional non-security Windows updates
Because everyone, including IT people and Microsoft developers, already has enough to worry about right now, Microsoft is pausing all optional non-security releases for supported versions of Windows and server products. This will allow Microsoft to focus on security updates.
Google pauses Chrome updates to limit issues while teams work remotely
Google announced today that it is pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases due to adjusted work schedules. The goal, Google said in a tweet, is to ensure the releases "continue to be stable, secure, & reliable for anyone who depends on them."
Diving into Guild Wars 2's Fractals of the Mists changes with ArenaNet
Last November, the Lost Shores content patch brought the Fractals of the Mists, a set of bite-sized dungeon scenarios that increase in difficulty as more are completed, to Guild Wars 2. As the anniversary of FotM rolls around, ArenaNet is adding brand spanking new Fractals to the rotational lineup as well as making changes to bring the content further in line with the developers' vision for the future of the game. We were invited to attend a conference call with Game Director Colin Johanson and content designer Anthony Ordon, where they gave us some insight into the design behind the new Fractals, the updated reward structure, and where FotM will head from here.
Asymco's Horace Dediu measures the iTunes video store
The iTunes video store is a strange market to track. Most of Apple's attention and press these days is going to the App Store, and obviously iTunes wouldn't exist without the music store. But the video store, where you can buy and rent movies and TV shows, is sort of the quiet third pillar of Apple's digital retail service. And Horace Dediu of Asymco has posted that it's doing big numbers indeed. After Apple announced new numbers for both TV show and movie downloads (1 billion and 380 million, respectively), Dediu crunched the numbers, and determined that the rate of spending on iTunes video is about US$1.75 billion per year. That's sizable for sure, though as you can see in Dediu's chart above, video still only makes up a small piece of the amount of money traveling through the various iTunes stores. Dediu also says the picture of what users are spending on iTunes is becoming more clear. He estimates that users spend the most every year on apps, about $16 a year. Furthermore, $12 a year is spent on music, per user, and $9 a year is spent on software (on the Mac App Store or elsewhere). Then, about $2 a year is spent on books, and $4 a year is spent on video. So iTunes video definitely isn't the biggest store that Apple is running, but it does make up a fairly sizable piece of the entire pie.
Gmail getting an updated interface on desktop and mobile
The Gmail Blog reports that the popular online email service is getting yet another facelift, on both the desktop and mobile clients. As you can see above, the new look's emphasis is on Facebook-style tabs, with all of your interactions boiled down into your Primary inbox, or Google's Social, Promotions and Updates features. The new tabs definitely seem oriented towards Google pushing its own agendas (do I really care about Google Offers that much?) but then again they're the ones providing the service for free, so I guess that's Google's call. If colored tabs helps Gmail avoid the fate of Google Reader, I'll take them. The new look is definitely clearer and more colorful, and Google says that users will be able to switch back to the classic look if they like, for now anyway. The new look should be rolling out first to desktop users in the next few weeks, and then out to the Android and iOS apps as well. We'll be sure to put out another heads-up when it's widely available on iOS.
EA expects to publish for current systems through 2017
Speaking at the Stifel 2013 Technology Conference in New York this week, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said that EA plans to publish games on the current generation of consoles through 2017 at least. According to Gamespot's report, Jorgenson also discussed EA's exclusive Star Wars deal and specifically referenced fan favorite Star Wars: Battlefront. "The opportunity to do a new Battlefront, for example," Jorgensen said, "is very exciting." He added that none of EA's planned Star Wars games are film adaptations "per se," though their releases may coincide with upcoming movies.
Out today: Super Stickman Golf 2, The Croods by Rovio, Danger Boat and more
The biggest (and best) iOS release today is probably Ridiculous Fishing, but there were quite a few really good games hitting the App Store this week. First up, Super Stickman Golf has earned itself a sequel called Super Stickman Golf 2, and it features the excellent 2D golf game that made the first game so great and then some: More courses, more powerups, more achievements, new customizable characters and a new race-based multiplayer mode. Super Stickman Golf is excellent, and the sequel is even better, available now for US$0.99. Rovio's The Croods is now available, and sure enough, it's a freemium Farmville-style game featuring the characters from the upcoming movie. It'll be very interesting to see how this one does as compared to the studio's other big franchise, a little game you may not have heard of called Angry Birds. I was a huge fan of Pixelocity's great Disc Drivin' multiplayer turn-based racing game, and the studio has now released a new title called Danger Boat. It's not too closely related to Disc Drivin' (it's more like "Temple Run in a Boat," I'd say), except that it's very well-polished and a whole lot of fun. Both this and The Croods are completely free. And finally, I haven't heard much about Stargate: SG-1 Unleashed, but it's apparently an episodic adventure game featuring the characters and settings of the famous sci-fi franchise. It's a little pricey, at $4.99, but it looks pretty solid, and if you're a Stargate fan you've probably already gone to check it out. Some very excellent releases on the App Store this week -- we iOS gamers continue to be really lucky.
Paradox announces two iOS games for 2013, including a Magicka game
Paradox Interactive has been primarily a PC gaming studio. It has enjoyed success on Steam with titles like Magicka and Europa Universalis. But last weekend at an event in Iceland, Paradox announced that it's making the jump over to Apple's handheld platforms, with two forthcoming games. The first is a version of Magicka for tablets, which will appear on the iPad. It's subtitled Wizards of the Square Tablet, and like the PC game, it's about (up to) four different wizards combining seven different elements into spell groups, and tossing spells around that can be both helpful or harmful. The game looks excellent, and seems like a nice tablet-based twist on the popular and well-made Magicka series. The game promises lots of single- and multiplayer action, and should be available soon. Paradox is also working on a more tactical game called Leviathan Warships, which will feature some top-down multiplayer battles with 10-second turns. Each ship in a player's fleet will have a balanced set of strengths and weaknesses, making for a very strategic battlefield across a series of maps. This game doesn't seem as far along (or as close to release) as Magicka's tablet version, but it does look good, and we'll keep an eye out for it. Paradox, as I said, has been doing very well on the PC, and it's not too surprising that the company has started testing the waters on mobile platforms. This is a great duo of first releases, and hopefully we'll get them in our hands very soon.
Disney Infinity makers confirm annual rollout, future content on disc
Disney Infinity's executive producer John Vignocchi has told Videogamer.com that the new series (which uses physical toys to access digital content) is targeted for a yearly release schedule. The starter pack of the brand new "gaming platform" is due out this June, and Vignocchi says it will contain content for the first 12 months of the title, some of which is still unannounced. That means that hackers who are able to dive into the disc's code may indeed find so-far-unrevealed Disney characters and movies, a possibility that Vignocchi confirms developer Avalanche Software has "made the film-makers aware of." "There's absolute potential that people are going to see characters prior to their PR campaigns kicking off," says Vignocchi, adding that he hopes that won't "ruin the magic for the consumer." Future consoles, he promises, will allow for more widespread digital distribution of the new content, which means Disney will be able to release it out into the wild as needed. "But given the current generation of consoles," says Vignocchi, "the content needs to be on the disc."
Holiday game sales continue: Kingdom Rush, 2K Games, The Walking Dead, and more
We're rolling right up to Christmas next week, which means 'tis the season for big discounts and freebies on App Store titles, as publishers try to climb up in the charts going into the big gift-giving event. Kingdom Rush (which some say is the best tower defense game on the App Store) is now free, and the team would also like you to know that it's entered the game in the Steam Greenlight program, if you'd like to support it over there. 2K Games is having a great big sale, featuring Borderlands Legends for just US$0.99, Civ Rev and Sid Meier's Pirates for 99 cents as well (which is pretty amazing), along with a few other titles at the same price. Telltale's The Walking Dead Game is winning acclaim all over the gamingsphere, with plenty of Game of the Year nods already, and the company has decided to give the first episode of the title away for completely free on the App Store. Download this one right now if you haven't played it yet -- if you're a fan of zombies or just really well-made mature games, you won't regret it. Telltale has also got quite a few other games on sale, including Puzzle Agent, the Monkey Island series and almost all of its other episode titles, all for just 99 cents. Cut the Rope HD is just a buck right now. Almost all of Gameloft's games are on sale as well, for just 99 cents. The Settlers HD and Nova 3 are probably the biggest standouts, but there are a lot of options there. Rodeo Games' Hunters: Episode 1 is also on sale, as is Hunters 2. Whew! And we've only just started this week. Stay tuned for lots more gigantic sales as the week goes on.
THQ considering Linux and other platforms after Humble Bundle success
After the THQ bundle recently brought in over $5 million (split between THQ, charity donations, and "tips" to the bundle's organizers), the company's president Jason Rubin admits that he's looking at possible markets differently lately. Rubin's Twitter account says he "got the Linux message loud and clear" from the bundle, and he later told Polygon that "the message I took away from a large number of tweets and comments around the THQ Humble Bundle sale is that there are vibrant communities of gamers using other operating systems besides the dominant ones, and a company like THQ should not overlook them."In other words, there's opportunity for THQ in selling computer games outside of the standard Windows ecosystem. Rubin has no plans yet, but he says the analysis has started, and the company is "committed to look at anything that makes sense" in terms of releasing titles on platforms other than simply Windows. In the past, THQ has released Mac versions of its Company of Heroes series through a third-party publisher, but it sounds like Rubin is considering a more widespread solution for cross-platform releases after this feedback. He says THQ should have more to announce soon.
StoneBlade Entertainment (formerly Gary Games) shows off SolForge, coming next year
Ascension is still one of the best digital card games on the App Store -- it's a deckbuilding game that made the jump over to iOS, and it's probably the best example yet of how to take a great offline game, and put it on Apple's touchscreen device. Gary Games is the original creator of Ascension (though they worked with a company named Playdek to publish it on the App Store), and they held a Kickstarter earlier this year for a game called Solforge. The game is a card-based followup to Ascension that was set to be released as a physical card game, with versions available on both iOS and PC. That Kickstarter was eventually funded, and Gary Games has just emerged from their offices with a brand-new walkthrough video for SolForge, with a look at the game and how it works. And they're also going through a name change, so Gary Games is now known as StoneBlade Entertainment. As you can see from the video, embedded below, SolForge looks great -- the main mechanic is that cards you play can be transformed by leveling up, which allows for a lot of great strategies around not only deciding what to put down, but how and when to transform up the cards you've placed. I got to see the game in action at PAX earlier this year, and it looks like a whole lot of fun. StoneBlade has said the title is due out on iOS as soon as it's ready sometime in 2013 (and I'm sure the company is eager to recreate the success it's seen with Ascension), so we'll look for it sometime then.
Disney's Bart Decrem on the holiday lineup: Monster's Inc Run, and new Avengers and Wreck-It content
Disney's mobile game division has had one heck of a year. "I feel in general that we're executing very nicely on the vision we laid out a year ago," senior vice president Bart Decrem told TUAW this week. "Among media companies, we are maybe the most successful on the App Store and Android. I really feel like we are winning, and our vision and our strategy is working." It's hard to argue with that. The company has had quite a few number one games on the App Store this year, between the enormously popular Where's My Water, the Disney cartoon spinoff Where's My Perry, Decrem's own Tap Tap Revenge series, and the popular Wreck-It Ralph movie-tie in title. Disney's mobile division was already growing last year around this time, and Decrem says it's still growing, with the company seeing a peak daily user number of around 6 million. The company's found a formula for its popular characters and quality titles that's apparently working, and it's not slowing down anytime soon. Decrem filled us in on a ton of new content that's set to arrive on the App Store from the House of Mouse this holiday season: The company is putting out four major content updates and three new titles, all set to arrive by the end of the year. Content updates first: Wreck-It Ralph is getting a fourth game added to the trio of titles already included in the app. Turbo Time (as you'll know if you've seen the movie) is a retro racing title that got supplanted by newer games in the old arcade, and it'll be another minigame added to the current offerings. Both Temple Run Brave and Where's My Perry are getting new content as well. Temple Run Brave (which of course is based on a mashup between Imangi Studios' Temple Run and the recent Pixar flick) is getting a new in-app purchased character in the form of King Fergus, Merida's father, and a new mechanic to play with as well. And Where's My Perry is getting Dr. Doofenschmirtz as a playable character via IAP, and a number of new levels for free as well. Finally, Avengers Initiative (which is a Marvel game developed by Disney's internal Wideload Studios) is finally getting its first big content update, featuring none other than Captain America. The game, which uses Infinity Blade-style mechanics to tell an original Avengers story, has only featured the Hulk so far, and debuted to less-than-impressive numbers. But Decrem says Disney is supporting the title. "We believe in the game, it's a great game," he says. "We think we have a plan for getting millions of users into the game" in the next few months, including a major upcoming marketing plan that we can look for soon. Disney's also got three new titles incoming. The first is a Finding Nemo-related "reef builder" called Nemo's Reef, which sounds like a free-to-play Farmville-style game featuring those familiar fish. That one will be out for iOS and Android within the next week or so, so we'll look for it then. The second game is Where's My Holiday, a special holiday themed version of the popular series, which will connect the crocodile Swampy with the cartoon character Perry in the same game, and offer a combination of levels from the two big games. And finally, the other new title is called Monster's Inc Run. Disney has teamed up with Get Set Games in the same way it did with Imangi Studios, and has combined the Monster's Inc. movies (which are about to be rereleased in 3D) with the popular app Mega Run. This will be a 99 cent title, and will aim to share the Monster's Inc brand with the already huge Mega Run audience in the way Temple Run Brave combined a Disney property with that app's user base. So that's what Disney's planning for the rest of this year. As you can tell, Disney's strategy is clear: It's leveraging its most popular brands as much as possible. Decrem agrees that his division is definitely leaning hard on Where's My Water, but he says that "when you have a big hit like Where's My Water, you have a holy obligation to make the most of it." Yes, Disney is spending a lot of time reworking its hit titles to try and make more hits, but Decrem says it's being done in a very strategic way. "We're not just doing reskins or franchise plays," he says, "but when you've got them, you invest in them aggressively and you evolve them aggressively." And the company is definitely doing that. The ironic part, of course, is that much of Disney's mobile success came from the originality of Where's My Water, and it's used that success to make sure that there are now three games almost exactly like it on the App Store. But Decrem says Disney still appreciates original titles -- the Where's My Water team has mostly been working on levels for Where's My Perry, but he says they're still around, and we should see new games from them soon. Not to mention that because of all of this commercial success, future original games should be even better served. "It's a huge priority for us," says Decrem, "and I feel like we're getting more organized so that we can go do that." There was one more pressing question for Decrem and his games: How about that Star Wars acquisition? Decrem laughs and points out that the acquisition hasn't been approved just yet, so no one in Disney games has any Star Wars projects in the pipeline just yet. "But we're super super excited about the Star Wars universe and all of these characters," he tells us, "and we'll jump in as soon as the acquisition is completed." In that case, we'll keep an eye out for Where's My Watto coming out as soon as possible.
Duke Nukem 1 and 2 now available for Mac on GOG.com
Ever since they first announced that they'd be carrying Mac games, GOG.com has steadily added to the amount of retro titles on offer, making some really great old games available for our favorite platform. And today's edition is no slouch, either: They've put the original Duke Nukem and its sequel up for grabs for US$5.99 for the pair, complete with the original manual and soundtrack for both as well. That's a great deal, and who wouldn't want to have this gaming legend sitting on their Mac ready to play? Just like all of GOG.com's games, these are DRM-free, and I believe you also get the Windows versions as well. Pretty solid deal for two classic games, and another good offering in GOG.com's constantly growing Mac library.
TUAW Origin Stories: Retro Dreamer
Today we continue our Origin Stories series by interviewing Gavin Bowman, one of the co-founders of Retro Dreamer, a great iOS indie developer that's released games like Velocispider, Duckers, and most recently, Happy Fall. In the interview, Bowman lets us in on the wild story behind Happy Fall, and tells us about his company's philosophy lately, of simply making smaller games and testing the App Store market bit by bit rather than building huge projects with substantially more risk. Thanks very much to Bowman for chatting with us at the recent MacTech conference in Los Angeles! Retro Dreamer has updates coming for a few of their apps very soon (including Ice Cream Jump), and we'll stay tuned for more releases from them.
Atari's Centipede Origins available for free, Pong World due this month
Atari is revving up iOS releases for the holidays by kicking out a few long-awaited titles. First up is Centipede: Origins, which hit the App Store this week. It's a modern take on the old shooter classic. The app is free and universal, though (surprise!) it's also freemium, which means you must earn coins to upgrade weapons and other implements. Centipede purists may be a little weirded out, but it's a solid arcade game with a good progression system. Atari has also announced that Pong World will finally making its way to the App Store later on this month. This is the new take on Pong from the big developer contest that Atari ran (and that I served in as a volunteer judge), featuring some crazy creatures serving as paddles, powerups that tweak the game in various ways, and a few new modes and ways to play against your friends. Pong World should be an interesting release -- it's due out on November 15 (next week) later this month (Atari's just gotten in touch to say it's actually been pushed back a bit), also for free.
Next round of Steam Greenlight titles drop November 30
Valve has revealed it is targeting to announce the next set of Steam titles to earn "greenlit" status from its community-powered submission program on November 30. Since it was first announced, Steam Greenlight has navigated a bumpy road, most recently leading to the addition of a "concepts" category to help developers generate a following for their titles.The next wave for Greenlight will bring with it at least ten new offerings, the company says.At least five of those ten will also include the program's first Software (meaning non-game) graduates, a category that Valve added to Greenlight earlier this month. Valve says all of the titles chosen will be offered worldwide distribution agreements, so presuming everyone agrees, you'll be able to buy them right off of Steam no matter where you lay your head.
TweetBot for Mac reaches the Mac App Store, keeps the 3rd-party Twitter client flame alive
When Twitter put out its strict new API guidelines, there was some doubt as to whether or not third-party clients like Tapbots' Tweetbot for Mac would even make the cut -- the user caps and other curbs on unofficial apps potentially made it tough to develop competition around a different (and possibly better) experience. That makes today's official appearance of Tweetbot in the Mac App Store as much symbolic as it is practical. While there won't be many significant shocks for those who've been participating in Tweetbot's alpha and beta stages, the finished version gives everyone running OS X Mountain Lion a major and sometimes more advanced alternative to official choices, such as TweetDeck, as well as existing third-party options like Twitterrific. A $20 price doesn't make Tweetbot the cheapest way to buck convention by any means, but it might be worth the investment if you're already committed to Tapbots' iOS apps or want to make a statement on the value of third parties in an ecosystem.
Here's a look at the whole universe of Angry Birds games (so far)
Bad Piggies is the latest title added to Rovio's growing universe of Angry Birds games, and the latest word is that it's the fastest-selling game in the company's history, hitting number one on the App Store just a few hours after it launched. Given all of the various Angry Birds properties that have hit the App Store (and elsewhere), you might not have heard about everything Angry Birds out there. But worry not -- we've put together a quick guide here to the entire universe of Angry Birds. Here's a list of every single Angry Birds game Rovio has released so far, from the first title released back in December of 2009, all the way up until Bad Piggies' release about a week ago. Keep in mind that we're just talking about the games here -- this list doesn't include the countless bits and bobs of Angry Birds merchandise out there, and other partnerships like the upcoming Angry Birds TV show and maybe even a movie. Angry Birds (December 11, 2009): This is Rovio's original hit and its first iOS title (published by Chillingo, which is now part of EA) after a string of uninteresting J2ME releases and games for Nokia's N-Gage phone console. Since its original iOS release, the first version of Angry Birds has also shown up on a number of other mobile operating systems, including Android (as a freemium title), Windows Phone, Blackberry Tablet OS and Symbian. The original game has also seen about nine different free updates, as well as a number of promotional add-ons and content as well. Angry Birds HD (April 2, 2010): The iPad version of the game arrived about six months after the iPhone version, just as the first iPad appeared. The game wasn't fundamentally different, but the larger screen made for a larger audience, and the higher price point ($4.99) definitely made Rovio more money. The standard and HD games also got free versions at some point as well, with eight mini-episodes released for free. Angry Birds Seasons (October 21, 2010): Rovio introduced this first official spinoff just under a year after the original launch, featuring tons of new levels, and a regular holiday-based structure for updates (an HD version was released right around the same time). The game originally started out as Angry Birds Halloween, but as more holidays came around, it was updated to its current "Seasons" status. There have been 13 different updates to the game so far, with the latest being a "Back to School" update back in August of 2012. Angry Birds Magic (October 2010): This game, also called "Angry Birds in Florida" in some places, was made specifically for Nokia's NFC (near field communication) smartphones, and had a feature where when two smartphones with the game installed on them came near each other, different levels would be unlocked. The title was announced to great fanfare at a Nokia conference in mid-2010, and presumably it released on the smartphones later that year, though since we're all iPhone owners here, we have no idea how it turned out. Angry Birds Rio (March 22, 2011): This version of the game was created in conjunction with the animated movie Rio and featured a Rovio-built storyline that had the movie's birds crossing paths with the Angry ones. It premiered on the movie's release date with two sets of levels, and a series of updates provided more and more levels to go along with the film's storyline. This is arguably the least popular version of Angry Birds, although there's no doubt that both the game and the movie benefited from the shared marketing. And given that there's an Angry Birds TV show on the way, Hollywood paid close attention to this release. Angry Birds Chrome (May 11, 2011): Rovio designed a special browser-based version of the game for Google's Chrome browser, completely free to play and supported by in-app purchases. The game featured "Chrome bombs" which were special items that players had to find and hit with the frustrated fowl, in order to unlock "Chrome dimension" levels. Angry Birds Space (March 22, 2012): This game was billed as a full Angry Birds sequel, with all new levels and new gravity-based gameplay, as the birds were tossed off of actual planets and out into the upper reaches of space. But since the app's release, Rovio has spun it more as just another part of the current universe, with new twists on the game's tried-and-true method of throwing birds into pigs. Space spawned both HD and free versions on the App Store as well, and has been ported off to Android, Windows and Mac. Angry Birds Friends (May 23, 2012): Angry Birds Friends is the Facebook version of the game, which has been running online for a while now. The game features weekly tournaments and lots of competition between Facebookers and their friends. (There are also a number of other browser-based versions of the game that have been live at different times over the years, including promotions with Samsung, Formula 1 racing driver Heikki Kovalainen, Wonderful Pistachios, Pepsi, Fuji TV and a Finnish candy company. These games have all featured new levels and themed content, but have been live only during certain promotional times.) Angry Birds Trilogy (September 25, 2012): Rovio teamed up just a little while ago with console publisher Activision to bring the content from Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio to consoles as a downloadable title, including the Nintendo 3DS, the Xbox 360 (with Kinect integration) and the PlayStation 3. Sales only just started, so we'll have to wait and see how Rovio's birds do in the larger traditional gaming market after they have dominated so much in the mobile markets. Bad Piggies (September 27, 2012): Which brings us back to Bad Piggies, Rovio's current hit, and the first game in the series that is build around the Pigs, specifically the task of building them vehicles to try and find a map to the birds' eggs. There will likely be a whole slew of updates for this title as well, and then ... who knows? Rovio has certainly grown its Angry Birds franchise by capitalizing on the initial game, so as big as this universe is already, there's no doubt that the company still has lots of other ideas on how to make it even bigger.
Payback 2, Zaxxon, and more coming to the App Store this evening
Wednesday night is traditionally when new apps appear on the App Store, and this evening is going to be no exception with a few big titles finally showing up. First up, Payback was one of the earliest Grand Theft Auto-style games on the App Store, and now it's getting a sequel with Payback 2 (or Payback^2, depending on how you read it). The developers have some behind-the-scenes information on their website if you want to get an early look at the game's new lighting engine and features. The biggest change is probably that the title is event-based rather than an open-world game. But the devs say there are still some open-world elements included along with new multiplayer modes to play with. SEGA is releasing a sequel to the old Zaxxon arcade game called Zaxxon Escape. It looks very nice, taking the series into 3D and sticking to the familiar shooting gameplay. That one is also arriving this evening. There's also a Red Bull-sponsored game called Augmented Racing Reloaded arriving Thursday, as well as a Microsoft-published action platformer called, strangely enough, Tentacles: Enter the Dolphin. Stay tuned for reviews and insight on all of these releases and more in the coming days.
