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Around 40 employees laid off at Gas Powered Games [Update: Chris Taylor explains timing]
Gas Powered Games, the development studio responsible for the Dungeon Siege series and one that has recently launched an ambitious Kickstarter campaign, is undergoing a round of layoffs, Kotaku reports.While anonymous sources claim that virtually the entire company has been let go, save for CEO Chris Taylor and a small handful of others, the only official word is that layoffs are indeed underway, and that more information will be posted to the Wildman Kickstarter soon. We've reached out to Gas Powered Games to learn more about the severity of the situation, as well as what these layoffs may mean for the studio's future projects.Update: Gas Powered Games boss Chris Taylor tells Joystiq about 40 employees have been affected by layoffs. Taylor says it was a "Very tough decision, but an important one such that I could properly pay severance and remaining [paid-time off]."Taylor wouldn't go into specifics about his studio's future, but he further clarified that those affected understood the timing of the decision, despite how sudden it may have appeared in the press."I think everyone agrees better to have a few bucks to find the next job that run this train to the end and have nothing left to work with. It's one thing for me to bet the company, but I can't bet their last severance money, that's not cool," he said. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Taylor said he was betting his company on the success of the studios' first Kickstarter project, Wildman.
iPhone 5, other phones are consuming far more data than tablets
While it might seem logical that, since tablets are better suited to web tasks than smartphones, data consumption would be skewed towards slates. But new data from Arieso suggests the opposite. According to the firm's lastest figures, smartphones including the iPhone 5 handily trumped tablets when it comes to data usage, suggesting that users' data habits don't scale along with the size of a device's screen. The report followed the habits of 1 million mobile users over a 24-hour period in November 2012. According to the report, iPhone 5 users best all other smartphone and tablet demographics in terms of downloaded data, while Samsung's Galaxy S III takes the top spot for data uploads. The iPhone 5 accounts for 50 percent more data usage than the iPhone 4S, and roughly four times as much as the iPhone 3G. "For the first time, smartphone users are consistently consuming more mobile data than tablet users," the report notes. "Out of the top 10 most voracious devices (excluding dongles) six were smartphones, three tablets and one a 'phablet'. Tablet users placed fourth, eighth and ninth." Another interesting figure points to a small segment of users consuming massive amounts of data compared to the rest, with 40 percent of all data being consumed by just 1 percent of users. [Via TechCrunch]
Breakfast Topic: Do you report problem behavior in game?
Nobody likes a snitch, but let's face it: Unless players are willing to report bad behavior and spammers, our virtual world is going to remain uglier than it has to be. True, filing a report isn't always simple or convenient. It's often simpler to ignore or /ignore bad behavior and move on. Ideally, we'd all shoulder some of the responsibility of keeping our online community balanced and clean. Even in the best of circumstances, though, being the squeaky wheel is no fun. Whiner, snitch, tattletale -- there seem to be plenty of labels for players who are simply letting Blizzard know that another player is breaking the rules. Thing is, it's up to us to get that job done. Blizzard can't be everywhere at once, but we can -- and are. Do you take the time to report problem behavior in game? If so, do you tend to stick to cases of personal harrassment? Do you bother to report spammers? What about problem players in the dungeon finder or raid finder -- do you let a kick "take care" of them, or do you follow up with a report?
NPD counts 39M game consoles in US homes going into 2013
The NPD's latest report says there are 400 million Internet-connected devices in American homes these days, 39 million of which are video game consoles.The majority of connected devices (about 184 million) are still plain ol' desktop and laptop computers, and smartphones are in second place with about 133 million devices. Video game consoles come in third, right above tablets (31.8 million) and connected HDTVs (16 million), which means there's a significant number of game-oriented devices out there plugged into the Internet.The NPD says it expects these devices to start connecting to each other more in 2013, with smartphones and tablets doing more sharing to larger television screens. Video game consoles serve plenty of functions outside of pure gaming already, including video streaming, networking, and Internet browsing. NPD's report says that if smartphones and tablets can provide those services in a combination that appeals to customers, those categories will continue to grow this year, possibly even leaving dedicated game consoles behind.
Chitika: iPad usage still far outweighs tablet competitors
Mobile ad network Chitika has released a report that says the iPad is still far, far ahead in terms of web usage over any other tablets out there. All you need to really know here is that the iPad isn't even on the chart above -- the chart above shows average impressions on tablets per 100 impressions on the iPad, which means that the highest figure up there, from the Amazon Kindle Fire, has only 4.88 impressions per every hundred impressions on the iPad. That's pretty crazy -- the iPad isn't just winning in terms of tablet usage, it's very much dominating. These competing tablets are growing in terms of usage (the Kindle Fire rose by about 20 percent since earlier this month, and Samsung's Galaxy line rose by about 0.3 percent). But those growth rates, in terms of numbers, are tiny compared to the huge audience that's browsing the web on the iPad. And while the numbers have yet to come out, of course, there's no question the iPad mini has only made that audience even larger this holiday season. Apple has a huge lead in the tablet market at this point, and while it certainly can't last forever, it will likely be around for a while. [via Mashable]
App downloads spike over the holiday, though not as high as expected
The Christmas holiday saw a record number of iOS device activations, and as usual, a nice spike in app downloads for developers (thanks to all of those new devices on the market). But Distimo just shared a report that says Christmas might not have been as merry as we thought for app developers this year. While iPhone app sales and downloads did spike, up to 87 percent above the average for December, that spike is nothing compared to last year's 230 percent spike. In other words, the trend of big sales around the holiday season appears to be leveling off just a bit. The iPad fared slightly better, with downloads seeing a 140 percent spike. That's sizable (and it speaks to how popular the iPad mini especially has been this holiday season), but it's not the kind of jump we saw just a few years ago, when all of this holiday commotion started. So what does this all mean for the big picture? I suspect it means that we might not see developers quite so eager to go for big holiday sales in the next year -- there were some incredibly huge sales in the past few weeks, and those were put in place partly because developers expected this big spike in downloads. But if the spike isn't as big, devs might be more convinced to hold to their standard prices, or try other tactics to drum up sales over the holiday season. This trend of big sales and spikes over the Christmas holiday has been growing for a few years now, but this is the first sign we've seen that it may be heading in the other direction. [via BGR]
Forrester report finds US tablet ownership doubled this year
Forrester Research has come out with its annual report on technology consumption in the US, and tablets are certainly gaining popularity. Although slightly lower than Pew Research's figures, Forrester deduced from its nigh 60,000-strong survey that 19 percent of 'mericans over the age of 18 own at least one tablet -- double the number the research outfit noted last year. While tech penetration is lowest among adults aged 47 and up, 14 percent of this demographic now have slates, which again is twice the figure recorded in 2011. Another notable stat that's risen is daily internet use, with 84 percent of adults hopping online every day (up from 78 percent last year), and approximately half of those owning a smartphone of some variety. TVs are pretty well connected also, as 43 percent of the plugged-in population has accessed the net from their living rooms, with games consoles being by far the most popular intermediary. The whole report isn't available to the public, but why not use the time you would've spent reading it inspecting what's under the tree, and hoping you'll be responsible for upping those tablet stats in next year's report.
Forrester: 19% of U.S. consumers now use tablets
As 2012 draws to an end, it's time once again for various analytics firms to reveal what the statistics they've been feverishly compiling. Forrester Research is one such organization, and as TechCrunch reports, the company's annual "State of Consumers and Technology" report has just been published. Among the tastier tidbits of data on the report is the finding that 19 percent of consumers in the US now own at least one tablet. That figure is roughly double what it was at the end of 2011, which is quite a remarkable leap in adoption. The research also found that while 43 percent of consumers now utilize web-based programming via their TVs, the method by which many user connect may surprise you; 42 percent of those who use the internet on their TVs do so through a video game console, with just 14 percent of the remainder relying on set-top boxes like Apple TV.
Report reveals just 34% of apps released in 2012 were paid
The App Store is a very different place than it was four years ago, and nothing makes that point better than Appsfire's 2012 roundup infographic. Arguably the most telling statistic regarding the current state of apps is that just 34 percent of apps released in 2012 landed in the Paid category, with the other 66 percent being free to download. But what does this say about the App Store? Has it suddenly become a cheapskate's paradise? Not really. As opposed to 2008, when 74 percent of apps were paid from the start, app publishers are embracing the "freemium" model more and more, relying on in-app purchases and upgrades to bring in the cash instead of charging upfront. The infographic also reveals that despite being released just days ago, Google Maps managed to take the title of highest-reviewed non-game app. On the gaming side of things, Angry Birds Space snagged the top spot.
Report: Valve acquires Star Filled Studios talent [Update: Valve responds]
Update: We got a response from Valve's Doug Lombardi, who did confirm that Valve hired both Tod Semple and Jeff Gates; however, he did wish to clarify this doesn't necessarily mean Valve is opening up an office in San Francisco, despite what Semple's LinkedIn profile says. "As a point of clarification, this is probably better categorized as Valve hiring two new employees instead of an acquisition of a company or opening of a Valve SF office."Original story: Star Filled Studios is a two-man outfit, founded by ex-Popcap and Blizzard guys Tod Semple and Jeff Gates, who both worked on Plants vs. Zombies and Diablo 3. "We are opening a new Valve office on the San Francisco peninsula," Semple's LinkedIn profile reads, revealing Valve's acquisition took place in November.Semple doesn't say anything in regards to what Valve plans to do with this satellite offices in San Francisco, though current speculation is that this move mirrors Valve's acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios in 2008, buying the developer and then finishing Left 4 Dead development on its own. Star Filled has not announced any projects of its own, so it is uncertain what the studio was working on previous to acquisition.Semple's blog talks about going up to Seattle to visit Valve in September, so we can only imagine this is another Turtle Rock scenario. Again, that's only speculation at this point – we've inquired with Valve for more information and will update accordingly.[Thanks, FHorrigan; image credit]
Learn all about the MMO market with this nifty infographic
Knowing is half the battle, folks. Sometimes the process of going from not knowing to knowing can be boring and slow -- but not this time, thanks to the magic of infographics! The intelligent folks over at Newzoo have compiled a relatively brief infographic about the state of the MMO market, from the fact that there are 400,000,000 MMO players world-wide (of whom about 180,000,000 are strictly free-to-play patrons) to the fact that 30% of Australia's paying players are female. Last year, the market was split nearly 50/50 between free-to-play and pay-to-play games, but has since switched to a 53% to 47% advantage for free-to-play. Check out the full infographic after the break to feast your eyes and your brain, or head over to an interview with Newzoo's CEO to absorb knowledge the old-fashioned way.
Nielsen reports that iPad is most wanted this holiday season
Nielsen has released its annual report on which electronic goodies consumers in various age groups are looking for this Thanksgiving. Once again, Apple products are claiming most of the top of the list. Kids in the US aged 6-12 are looking for an iPad as the number one item under their holiday tree this year, and while that's followed by Nintendo's new Wii U system, Apple's iPod touch, iPad mini, and the iPhone fill out the rest of the top five spots. At the very bottom of the list, the Apple TV makes an appearance, too. That's not a device I would expect kids that young to ask for, but apparently so. On the older side, in persons 13 and up, iPad also tops the list of items that are most expected to be purchased in the next six months. Tablet computers and e-readers are also sitting near the top of that list, and since the iPad is the most popular of those (with 21 percent of people expecting to buy it soon), it's not too surprising to see Apple's slate in high demand. The iPhone is also high near the top of that list. It's perhaps also interesting to note that the rest of the list is full of gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita and the major gaming consoles. Considering that the iPad and the iPhone provide a strong mobile gaming experience and the widest ecosystem of game apps out there, that's an interesting perspective on what people are willing to spend big ticket money on lately. Finally, the Apple TV makes an appearance on the adults' list as well. I think 2013 will be a very interesting year for that device -- if Apple can bring its popular App Store to a non-mobile device, starting with the Apple TV, the core functionality of that little black box may be very different in a year's time. [via 9to5Mac]
Drama Mamas: Bullying is not welcome here
Mishandled humor is one thing. But stereotyping, disdain, and bullying? The WoW community has no room for players who've made those a part of their rotation. Dear Drama Mamas, Starting things off; I'm a Moonguard player. Hear that sound? I know you do, because the mere word Moonguard invokes it in so many players now; words like "obscene" or "immature" or "inappropriate" jump to mind. And it drives me absolutely crazy. Let's get the obvious out of the way; Moonguard has a bad reputation because of Goldshire. And Silvermoon City. Okay, fine, yes, we get the point. But every single time I get into a group, every single time I enter a Battleground, or an Arena, the moment I even say anything (or sometimes when I haven't said anything yet), it begins. The more polite chuckleheads spew it into the public chat, every possible Moonguard joke and comment they can think of, and a couple of personal attacks against anyone who would dare to touch the place with a ten foot pole. The less polite ones start whispering, telling you to get out of the group, or to disconnect, to stop being a child or stop being a freak of nature. Heaven help you if ANYONE in that dungeon group turns out to be bad, because it can and will get blamed on you. If your team ends up down 0/2 and you mention it's because so-and-so is dancing on the roof not attacking or defending, you could be in the enemy flag room, with the flag, having downed half of the other team solo, and it's your fault because you're a filthy Moonguard player (this is also about the time you get the wonderful suggestion that you should kill yourself).
Report: Dragon Quest 7 remake on 3DS coming to Japan in February
Square Enix is porting PSOne RPG Dragon Quest 7 (known as Dragon Warrior 7 here in the states) to the 3DS, it would seem. According to a scan from Japanese mag Jump, the planned port is slated to launch on 3DS sometime in February of next year, Tiny Cartridge reports.Right now that's all we've got to go on. The article mentions no new additions or features in the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest 7. We've followed up with Square Enix for comment and will update accordingly.
Flurry details app retention by app category, users love weather apps
Flurry has looked at app engagement and retention with its great series of reports on app usage, and the company has now returned to the subject in a new release. This time, the mobile advertising firm looks at app retention within certain categories to see which kinds of apps users are able to find easily, keep and engage with them. The results are pretty much what you'd expect: Weather and news apps are able to keep users for a long period of time, because most users choose one they trust and then stick with it. In terms of frequency, I'm not surprised to see streaming music apps listed high: Lately, the Slacker Radio app is probably the most used on my iPhone 5. Social games and social messaging apps are also used frequently, showing that people are most engaged when their friends are as well. On the other side of the spectrum, you can see that music apps tend not to keep users around for long. I'd guess that's because Apple's own music apps are probably what most people end up going back to. Health and fitness apps are also down there, and retail and deals apps are also in that lower quadrant. That's also not too shocking. Most people interested in retail apps or deals probably use them until they buy what they need, and then move on. These are just general comparisons of categories. Not all weather apps command high retention, and there are some health apps that get used all the time. But it is interesting to have a big picture of which categories are being used more often on iOS.
International Telecommunication Union: worldwide mobile subscriptions hit six billion in 2011
Last year, the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) told us there were five billion mobile subscriptions worldwide at the close of 2010, and now it's reporting that at the end of 2011, that figure hit a staggering six billion. China and India account for one billion a piece, and it brings us ever closer to having the equivalent of one subscription for every person on the planet. (According to the CTIA, there are already more cellular plans in the US -- around 322 million -- than there are inhabitants.) In a stat-heavy release from the ITU, it also ranked the most advanced telecoms countries, with South Korea placing first, Japan eighth and countries in Europe filling the remaining spots. Interestingly, the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions now outnumbers fixed ones by two to one, and mobile internet services showed the biggest growth rates in 2011: 40% worldwide and 78% in developing markets. The ITU attributes the latter figure to the relatively high price of fixed access in these countries, and the increasing availability of mobile alternatives. The CTIA also commented on mobile broadband use, reporting that from July 2011 to June this year, Americans consumed 104 percent more data -- no doubt due, in part, to people taking advantage of expanding 4G coverage. As usual, we've given you the cheat sheet, so if you'd like the full reports and have got a thing for statistics, there's plenty more in the source links below. [Image credit: Chris Jordan]
Mass Effect 3 Omega DLC out Nov 27, priced 1200 MSP/$15 [update: confirmed]
Mass Effect 3 DLC Omega is landing on November 27 and is priced at 1200 MSP or $15, if a video interview by Examiner's Beverly Lim Lee is accurate. The interviewee is apparently Mass Effect 3 Producer Mike Gamble, although he's introduced as "Mike, the producer of Mass 3 Effect Omega." According to the interview, the DLC is double the size of any previous Mass Effect 3 DLC, and lets players take on Aria, who is vying for control of the Omega space station.The video was uploaded to Ms Lee's YouTube account, and was apparently taken at the New York Comic Con, a convention at which EA BioWare is certainly in attendance and showing off Omega concept art.We've reached out EA BioWare for confirmation of these details and further information.Update: A post on the BioWare blog confirms the details. The Omega DLC is coming to PC, PSN, and XBLM on November 27 for $14.99 or 1200 MSP. PS3 owners in Europe will have to wait until November 28 for the DLC to hit the continent. The blog post reads: "Disturbing reports from the Citadel suggest that something big is about to go down. If our Intel is accurate, Aria is on the move. This was anticipated, as we did not expect her to sit idly by while Cerberus ran roughshod over Omega. With her biotic capabilities and well-documented mean streak, what happens next won't be pretty. Our informants believe that Aria intends to seek out Commander Shepard for assistance. We are aware of the Commander's ties to Aria, but are unclear about how deep they run. What we do know is that Aria will be relentless in her fight to take back Omega, and with the Commander at her side, she may very well be unstoppable."The video linked above has now been made private.
Report: Xbox Music launches this month with free ad-supported streaming
Microsoft's Xbox Music service will reportedly launch alongside Windows 8 on October 26, according to anonymous sources speaking with Polygon.The service will supposedly provide both subscription-based and free ad-supported streaming music plans for Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone users. Microsoft SkyDrive integration is also said to factor heavily into the service's functionality, allowing for synced playlists and music libraries across all supported devices.These claims match an earlier report from last June, in which Bloomberg claimed that Xbox Music would launch with Spotify-like streaming options and cloud storage capabilities. Microsoft did state shortly thereafter that reports of it "launching a new music service on Xbox this fall are inaccurate," only to discontinue certain Zune services the following month. Personally, all we care about is whether we'll be able to use this new service to watch Girls' Generation videos, regardless of when it actually comes out.
Pew Research finds 22 percent of adults in US own tablets, low-cost Android on the rise
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that more Americans than ever now own tablets, but if you'd ever wanted some quantifiable data to go along with that homespun wisdom, then the Pew Research Center is glad to help. According to its latest report, 22 percent of US adults now own a tablet of some form. While the iPad remains the dominant player in the space with a 52 percent market share, this figure starkly contrasts the 81 percent share that Pew reported in 2011. As you might expect, Android tablets have made significant inroads and now account for 48 percent of the overall tablet space. Leading the Android charge is the Kindle Fire, which alone accounts for 21 percent of all tablets sold. It's worth pointing out that Pew's survey was conducted before the release of either the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD, which means that even the most recent information is a bit behind the curve. You'll find a press release after the break that provides a much broader take on Pew's latest findings in the mobile space, but those who want to go straight to the meat should hit up the source link below.
Apple's A6 CPU actually clocked at around 1.3GHz, per new Geekbench report
As the initial wave of iPhone 5 reviews hit, it looked as if Apple's dual-core A6 processor was sporting a clock speed of around 1GHz. We saw reports (and confirmed with our own handset) ranging between 1.00 and 1.02GHz, but a new Geekbench build (v2.3.6) has today revealed a horse of a different color. According to Primate Labs' own John Poole, the latest version of the app -- which landed on the App Store today -- "features a dramatically improved processor frequency detection algorithm, which consistently reports the A6's frequency as 1.3GHz." In speaking with us, he affirmed that "earlier versions of Geekbench had trouble determining the A6's frequency, which lead to people claiming the A6's frequency as 1.0GHz as it was the most common value Geekbench reported." When we asked if he felt that the A6 was capable of dynamically overclocking itself for more demanding tasks, he added: "I don't believe the A6 has any form of processor boost. In our testing, we found the 1.3GHz was constant regardless of whether one core or both cores were busy." Our own in-house iPhone 5 is regularly displaying 1.29GHz, while a tipster's screenshot (hosted after the break) clearly display 1.30GHz. Oh, and if anyone wants to dip their iPhone 5 in a vat of liquid nitrogen while trying to push things well over the 2GHz level, we certainly wouldn't try to dissuade your efforts. [Thanks, Bruno]
