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HTC Titan stomps its way over to AT&T on November 20th for $199
You know what they say about people with big hands? They need big phones. Lucky for those of you possessed of mammoth mitts, AT&T's made good on its word and'll be adding HTC's 4.7-inch Titan to its line-up on November 20th. For the $199 on two-year contract price, you get to take a crack at that WVGA Super LCD panel and the refreshed Windows Phone Mango OS running beneath. It's a single core 1.5GHz phone living in a dual-core world, but this big guy's such a standout, you'll hardly even care.
Blizzard says mass layoffs are 'just a rumor'
Yesterday we ran a rumor that a senior level designer on Blizzard's Titan project, John Staats, had been laid off. We've received confirmation presumably from the man himself that he is no longer working at Blizzard, though the reasons for his firing are unknown. Rumors also ran wild that Blizzard had seen some kind of "mass layoffs," but Bashiok stopped by the forums today to put an end to that, saying, "Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don't discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about 'massive layoffs at Blizzard' is just a rumor." Zahrym confirmed this on his personal Twitter account, as well. What Staats' absence will mean for the future of Titan remains to be seen, but we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we get word.
Rumored "mass layoffs" at Blizzard never happened
Yesterday, a handful of gaming news sites reported that a senior designer working on the new Titan MMO had gotten laid off by Blizzard Entertainment. In the hours that followed, the internet began conducting an "investigation" via Facebook that revealed tens, if not hundreds of Blizzard employees were just laid off. There's only one problem with the information said investigation dredged up: It's not true. There are no massive layoffs at Blizzard. So says Blizzard itself, via Community Manager Bashiok: mass layoffs at blizz Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don't discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about 'massive layoffs at Blizzard' is just a rumor. source Fellow Community Manager Zarhym confirmed the lack of layoffs on his own personal Twitter account, saying that there's "tons of speculation based on false evidence." He went on to explain that the vast majority of people rumored to have been laid off showed up to work today. So rest assured: The sky is not falling. Blizzard employees still have their jobs. Project Titan has not been cancelled. Ghostcrawler is still in the building. And despite what you may have heard from Mr. Feeney's grocer, Cory and Topanga are not adopting a 14-year-old Chinese boy. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Rumor: Senior Titan designer laid off by Blizzard
The recent spate of MMO industry layoffs isn't discriminating in terms of company size if the latest rumors are true. We've just been informed that one of Blizzard's golden boys has been served his walking papers, joining hundreds of devs from the likes of NCsoft, GamersFirst, GameForge, and CCP in recent weeks. John Staats, the senior level designer on Blizzard's secretive Titan project, has been let go, according to our tipster. Staats has been with the company for over a decade and is responsible for some of World of Warcraft's most celebrated content including all the raid dungeons, Blackrock Mountain and Booty Bay, and numerous other instanced dungeons. Staats was also described by Jeff Kaplan as the "hero of the WoW dev team." [Thanks to Steve for the tip!]
HTC Titan review
We knew as soon as we first clapped eyes on this hulk of a phone that it'd make a brave purchase. It's not just the 4.7-inch screen that requires a leap of faith, but also the Windows Phone operating system, which is presented here in all its Mangofied glory but is still very much an early adopter's ecosystem. After all, if you love the Titan's hardware but prefer a more established OS, you can always wait for the Sensation XL, which is essentially the same phone running good ol' Android and which should have a similar £480 ($750 converted) SIM-free price tag. The question is, do you have the guts to make that jump to something more exotic? Yes? Maybe? Then read on before you begin your run-up. %Gallery-136413%
'Quality concerns' keep user-created content out of World of Warcraft
User-created content can be a real hornet's nest in any game. When the user-created content systems are done correctly, you get a lot of new and imaginative content in the game straight from the players. But it's the question of what happens when it goes wrong that keeps user-created content out of World of Warcraft, according to Chris Metzen. As Metzen put it in a recent GDC online panel, while he loves the idea and the team does bring it up from time to time, there's a concern about whether or not the regular level of content would meet the standards of quality the team expects for game content. Metzen also discussed some of the pressures the Blizzard staff faces with Titan's design, since the game is explicitly not set in one of the company's existing and long-running franchises. While he doesn't reveal any major details regarding the upcoming game, if you're eager for every scrap of information about the secretive project, it's well worth taking a look.
EVE Evolved: Looking forward to the winter expansion
Since EVE Online's release in 2003, CCP Games has been the center of one of the most interesting success stories in the games industry. Produced by a tiny indie development studio on a frozen volcanic rock, EVE was the perfect example of how to do things right. The game's publishing deal with Simon & Schuster allowed CCP to buy back the rights to the game several months after its initial release. With no publisher taking a cut of the profits, CCP ploughed subscriptions back into the game's development and grew the development team organically. As a one-game company, CCP worked closely with players to make EVE the best game possible for its loyal playerbase. In a recent letter to the players, CCP CEO Hilmar laments that somewhere along the line, things changed for the worse. The CCP of today bears little resemblance to the "little indie studio that could" of 2003, not just housing over 600 employees in offices around the world but also developing upcoming MMOs DUST 514 and World of Darkness. Resources are spread thin, and EVE Online has suffered for it. Last month I looked back at the blockbuster Apocrypha expansion and asked why every expansion since then has cut down on the in-space development players want. Hilmar's letter and its accompanying devblog answered that question this week with a solid plan for iteration on flying in space features during the winter development period. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look forward to the winter expansion and explain why each of the issues being tackled in the coming expansion is a big deal to players.
MMO Roundup: Titan, why you gotta hurt me like this?
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. Blizzard's not talking about its unannounced MMO at BlizzCon this year Remember that one time when Blizzard accidentally leaked some info stating that it's working on a new MMO (codenamed Titan), and we all got excited? And then BlizzCon happened, and we all thought the studio would tell us more, but it didn't? And then remember when that happened the next year, too? Well, it's happening again this year. BioWare founders: We make the decisions, not EA BioWare has a message for critical fans who blame the company's perceived inadequacies on its corporate overlords at Electronic Arts. "I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare -- we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do," cofounder Greg Zeschuk recently told Eurogamer. MMO impressions from Eurogamer Expo 2011 Some of the industry's biggest names were at Eurogamer Expo last week, including BioWare, NCsoft and Trion Worlds. Massively's Brendain Drain was on the floor at the expo to get some hands-on experience with several upcoming MMOs, including Guild Wars 2 and The Old Republic. Not So Massively: Eurogamer Expo 2011 edition Not So Massively, Massively's weekly column for not-quite-MMO multiplayer games, covers all the latest and great not-so-massive Eurogamer news: League of Legends, Dark Souls, Diablo 3, and more. Star Wars: The Old Republic accidentally taunts potential testers What's the worst thing that can happen when you're waiting for a chance to play a highly anticipated game? Being inadvertently taunted about the fact that you aren't in the beta. Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
iPhone 4S vs. the smartphone elite: Galaxy S II, Bionic and Titan
Now that we know how the iPhone 4S stacks up against the iPhone 4, let's take a look at how Apple's latest smartphone compares to its mightiest competitors on the other major platforms -- Android and Windows Phone. In Google's camp we chose the superlative Samsung Galaxy S II models (focusing on the announced US variants) along with the Motorola Droid Bionic for its qHD and LTE chops. We then picked the upcoming HTC Titan to bat for Microsoft's team. RIM's not included here since it's still stuck in the junior leagues. We left out the intriguing Nokia N9 because it's a niche player. Check out the fancy table after the break -- the results are pretty clear cut!
HTC Titan, Radar on sale now at Phones4U, blow a raspberry at 'launch date' nonsense
Whether you're a spendthrift or just happened to be down at the shops, Phones4U had an extra early bird special this past weekend. Turns out the mobile retailer had received stock of both the HTC Titan and Radar ahead of the planned October 7th launch date, and did what any good commercial enterprise would -- they put'em up for sale. If you're down with carrier chains, you can snatch both handsets in-store or online gratis, with a contracted monthly fee on Orange, T-Mobile or Vodafone (for the Titan only). For the no SIM attached route, you'll have to practice a wee bit more patience, and wait until this Friday when Clove will offer the Mango phones at full price -- £489 and £329, respectively. Statesiders, take a deep breath, your crack at this first wave of Windows Phone 7.5 devices is close at hand.
Blizzard's not talking about its unannounced MMO at BlizzCon this year, either
Remember that one time when Blizzard accidentally leaked some info stating that it's working on a new MMO (codenamed "Titan"), and we all got excited? And then BlizzCon happened, and we all thought the studio would tell us more, but it didn't? And then remember when that happened the next year, too? Well, it's happening again this year. In a clarification statement to IGN, Blizzard has confirmed that it will not be discussing the "unannounced MMO" during BlizzCon 2011. This follows a VentureBeat interview with M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon, who predicted that news of Titan must be breaking at this October's event. Oh well, we still have emote dance contests and the Foo Fighters, right?
AT&T announces Windows Phone Mango lineup coming this fall, existing devices to be updated
In the first of what we expect to be many announcements related to Windows Phone Mango devices, AT&T stepped up to the plate this morning by unveiling three new "4G" handsets that use the latest version of Microsoft's OS: the HTC Titan, Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash. We already know quite a bit about the Titan, but details on Sammy's selections are slim for now -- images aren't even available for either phone, though it's likely we've seen at least one of them before. In addition, the carrier's also planning to update its entire existing lineup with Windows Phone 7.5. As for the fall lineup, there doesn't seem to be a slacker in the bunch. The Focus S will have a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.4GHz CPU and an 8 megapixel rear camera that accompanies a 1.3 megapixel front-facing cam for video chat. Also bearing Mango is the Samsung Focus Flash, considered the lower-end offering by Sammy, which still brandishes a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen -- no Plus involved on this one -- as well as a 1.4GHz CPU and 5 megapixel rear shooter and front-facing camera that for now has no specified resolution. Each of the phones are expected to arrive in the fourth quarter, and the existing lineup should be on the receiving end of the update sometime "this fall." This is just the beginning of the impending flood, so we can't wait to see what else is around the corner.
Blizzard to release six 'proven' properties over next three years
Blizzard will release six "proven property" titles over the coming three years, Activision Blizzard COO Thomas Tippl said at the Citi 2011 Technology Conference. Tippl named five of these six expected releases: Two World of Warcraft expansion packs, two StarCraft 2 titles and Diablo 3. Tippl also pinned a Diablo 3 expansion as the possible sixth title. Blizzard said it is immediately focused on updates for Cataclysm, releasing Diablo 3 and finishing StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. It would satisfy our OCD if these six games would release two-a-year at six-month intervals for three years, and it would satisfy our ADHD if all six titles dropped on the same day, but Tippl didn't provide any more specific dates. Titan, the mysterious next-gen MMO from Blizzard, wasn't mentioned, but it's not a "proven" property and could still launch in its rumored timeframe of late 2013.
Mobile Miscellany: week of August 29, 2011
This week, as always, was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011: More rumors are circulating about the upcoming Sony Ericsson Nozumi, originally leaked two weeks ago. The new specs getting floated around are even better than we previously thought, which include a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution for a PPI of 342, and NFC. (Thanks, David) [via XperiaBlog] The Motorola Milestone 3 -- the GSM twin of the Droid 3, essentially -- was released in Brazil this week and will be available in select Latin American countries later this month. [via AndroidCentral] Just as we're getting used to the idea of a white HTC EVO 3D at Radio Shack, it's now reported that a purple version will soon be available exclusively at Best Buy. [via PocketNow] The BlackBerry Torch 9860 has two new Canadian homes, as it launched this week on Telus for $100 and SaskTel for $130. Both carriers involve setting up a three-year commitment. [via MobileSyrup(1) and (2)] Did someone mention SaskTel? Yes, the carrier is jumping on the 4G bandwagon by announcing its intent to deploy LTE by the fall of 2012. [via MobileSyrup] AT&T's LG Thrill 4G is finally getting released tomorrow after several weeks of delays. While the phone will be offered for $100 by the carrier itself, you'll be able to get it at Costco for $30. [via PhoneArena] Alongside the Kyocera Milano, Sprint will also launch a new feature phone called the Kyocera Brio. The Brio will offer a QWERTY keyboard, a 192MHz CPU and will run Java. [via Electronista and AndroidCentral] At HTC's Windows Phone launch this week, reps confirmed that all of its new Windows Phones will indeed have the mobile hotspot feature included, though it won't be a part of the software update to the company's existing lineup. It's likely to be added with a future refresh, but apparently the feature was added too late in the process to get thrown into the initial rollout. (Thanks, Gilles) [via Pocket-Lint]
HTC Titan and Radar WP7 Mango phones revealed, we go hands-on
HTC just threw two new Windows Phone handsets down on the table and politely requested that we be impressed. The high-end Titan (previously leaked as the 'Eternity') is indeed an awe-inspiring brute, wielding a 4.7-inch SLCD display, 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing snapper to take full advantage of Mango's newfangled Skype integration. Its over-sized guts include a single-core 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and up to 16GB of fixed flash storage. Meanwhile, the Radar (which also recently leaked out as the 'Omega') comes significantly less pumped in order to meet a lower price point and -- we suppose -- the expectations of a more mainstream audience. It can be seen as an updated Trophy, with similar weight and dimensions, plus the same 3.8-inch LCD, 1GHz processor clock speed, 5MP rear camera resolution, RAM and maximum 8GB fixed storage. The key upgrades involve the cameras: HTC says it has an improved 28mm wide-angle lens on the rear, plus of course there's the front-facer, which is unfortunately only VGA. Although HTC intends to update its existing WP7 range to Mango starting in mid September, the Titan and Radar will be the company's first innately Mango-fied devices when they arrive in early October. What do we make of them? By all means, click past the break to find out. %Gallery-132157% %Gallery-132160%
Battle of the Immortals Titan update coming this Wednesday
Are you excited for Titan? No, not that one, we're talking about the new content update coming this week to Battle of the Immortals. That's right, Perfect World Entertainment has graced us with a release date to go along with the dev blogs we've been featuring over the past couple of weeks. The patch will hit the live servers on Wednesday, July 13th, and in case your anticipation isn't quite where it should be, PWE has just released a new Titan trailer to further whet your appetite. The one-minute clip is packed with in-game footage that includes glimpses of the new instances as well as some spiffy shots of the soul gear that's coming soon to every class. You'll also see some boss fights, including a brief look at the god-king Kronos. Sound good? Well, what are you waiting for? Check out the clip after the cut!
The MMO Report: Oh come on can we please just drop it already edition
Welcome to this week's edition of The MMO Report. The first order of business on The MMO Report this week is Age of Conan: Unchained. Funcom's bloody MMO went free-to-play last week, and also released their new Blood and Glory PvP servers yesterday. Next up we have BioWare's latest class video for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It focuses on the Bounty Hunter class and details the progression options available to Boba Fett wannabes. And then it's... Oh, not again. Monocle-gate, okay? Do we really need to say anything else? Lastly, we come to the announcement that Blizzard's project Titan is going to be a casual MMO. Considering the fact that, as Casey puts it, many players consider World of Warcraft to be casual as it is, what this means for Titan is ambiguous at best. For the full MMO Report, including (for the first time in a while) Uncle Casey's Mailbag, jump on past the cut.
Analyst: Blizzard's Titan MMO is casual
Blizzard's next MMO – codenamed Titan – has been under wraps for a long time. Following the internet's rules of speculation, things are likely to get interesting soon. Take, for example, what Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia wrote in an investor's note (PDF). Detailing the various properties Activision Blizzard is likely to launch, specifically those that could ease investors' worries that the publisher's focus is becoming too narrow, Bhatia included "a new casual MMO." He later confirmed to Gamasutra that he was indeed referring to the long-in-development Titan. Of course, whether or not that's "news" depends on how you define "casual." With 11.4 million active subscribers – and that's a post-Cataclysm dip! – one could say that the mammoth World of Warcraft is already a casual game. And, of course, the game's new free-to-play trial is bound to attract many more casual players as well. Still, the prospect of a Blizzard MMO aimed squarely at the casual market is certainly intriguing – and just a little terrifying.
Blizzard's Titan a 'casual' MMO
In case you were worried about a lack of new and accessible MMOs coming down the pike over the next couple of years, the king of casual is riding to the rescue. At least, that's what an analyst at Sterne Agee hinted at on Gamasutra recently. Arvind Bhatia is quoted on the game industry website as saying that Blizzard's product pipeline includes "expansion packs for StarCraft and World of Warcraft, a new Diablo game, [and] a new casual MMO." That casual MMO is of course Titan, the secretive WoW followup that has reportedly gobbled up Blizzard's most experienced designers. While no one outside of Blizzard has any inkling as to Titan's setting, mechanics, or target audience, Bhatia's prediction makes a certain amount of sense given the realities of the MMO marketplace and the costs inherent in developing and marketing AAA titles. Head to Gamasutra for the full report.
Massively Exclusive: Battle of the Immortals reveals two new instances
Sharpen your swords and fletch your arrows, because when the Titan update hits in Battle of the Immortals, it'll be time to dive into two of the fiercest dungeons known to mankind. While we've looked at some of the lore behind the Titan update last week, now it's time to get into the nitty-gritty details of what this patch will bring. Perfect World has created two new maps for players to explore -- and exploit -- in their efforts to become big, rich and powerful: Black Dragon Lair and Giants Kingdom. The update will also include the much-awaited Generation III pets, which can be bred with two Generation II pets of both genders. Generation IIIs feature faster attack speeds and higher damage output, so it's safe to say they'll be highly desired by players. Battle of the Immortals' Titan update is scheduled for a July release, but in the meanwhile you can read up on the new dungeons in an exclusive dev blog after the jump!
