Hotline Miami Creator on Piracy, Making Games

November 2, 2012

Teasing an upcoming interview with Hotline Miami co-creator Jonatan Söderström, VG247 offers tidbits on the developer's positions on piracy and making games "just for money." Recently made headlines when he offered support to players who had pirated his game over on Pirate's Bay.

First he talks about why he makes games:

Report: Video Game Industry Will Join in on France's 'Three-Strikes' System in 2013

October 24, 2012

Until now France's Hadopi system only took claims from the recording and movie industry, but apparently a new partner is about to join in on the action. According to French publication PCInpact (by way of TorrentFreak), next year France's Hadopi agency will get strong backing from the video game industry in the country.

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Buy Digital Eel's Brainpipe at Indie Game Stand, Help Reading is Fundamental

October 17, 2012

The experiment continues over at the Indie Game Stand, where every 96 hours a new indie game is highlighted and put up for sale at the cool price of "pay-whatever-you-want." This time out it's Digital Eel's excellently trippy first person real-time spatial navigation game Brainpipe.

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Indie Royale Fall Bundle Launches

October 16, 2012

The newest Indie Royale Bundle is alive and kicking - offering five new games that consumers can pay-what-they-want for until October 21. The Indie Royale bundle is a little different than the Humble Bundle in that it has a starting price - in this case $5.

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Riot Issues Fine For Season 2 League of Legends World Playoff Cheaters

October 11, 2012

Riot Games has issued a final determination on those teams they alleged cheated this past weekend in the third day of the Season 2 League of Legends World Playoff Matches. Riot has concluded that Korean team Azubu Frost is guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct and will be fined 20 percent of its winnings. The fine will be donated to a Riot Games charity in Korea.

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Time is Running Out on Humble Indie Bundle 6

October 2, 2012

The organizers of the Humble Bundle sent along a note reminding everyone that the latest bundle, Humble Indie Bundle 6, will be done in less than 7 hours. If you haven't gotten in on the latest pay-what-you-want DRM-free bundle, the window to do so is getting very narrow at this point.

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Indie Royale Launches Oktoberfest Bundle

September 28, 2012

The Indie Royale has launched its latest bundle of indie games - the Oktoberfest Bundle. The Oktoberfest Bundle offers a handful of indie games, including three episodes of the adult-themed point-and-click adventure Hector: Badge of Carnage, puzzle platformer Adventures of Shuggy, musical puzzle game Chime, the popular and slightly controversial RPG adventure Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble, and The Network.

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The Humble Indie Bundle 6 Reddit AMA Thread

September 27, 2012

Nine of the developers who have games in Humble Indie Bundle 6 have gotten together to answer questions via an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit.

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GREE CEO Predicts a Bleak Future for PCs

September 21, 2012

We've all heard the story about how the PC is doomed and PC gaming will soon be a thing of the past, so it's not surprising that a company like GREE (whose bread and butter is mobile games) says that the future of the traditional PC is basically doomed.

GREE CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka highlighted some of the changes that will be important to the gaming industry in his keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show. He may have some valid points.

"The line between PC and mobile has blurred, and that's a trend for this year," he said at the Tokyo Game Show.

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Humble Indie Bundle 6 off to a Rousing Start

September 18, 2012

The Humble Bundle organizers have taken a break from offering mobile bundles to put together Humble Indie Bundle 6. The pay-what-you-want DRM-free bundle this time out is pretty impressive. It includes Rochard, Shatter, S.P.A.Z., Torchlight, Vessel and five game soundtracks. If you are willing to pay above the average price - currently at $5.51 - you can get Dustforce too. As always you can decide to give all the money to the developers, or to Child's Play or the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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DIY Patching: NeoGAF User Fixes Dark Souls PC Port

August 24, 2012

Sometimes if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. When From Software couldn't fix a graphical error after a year of trying one NeoGAF user took matters into his own hands and fixed the problem - in 23 minutes! NeoGAF user Durante was able to put together his own resolution fix within 23 minutes of release, and made it available online for everyone to boot. From an Escapist report on the story comes this quote from Durante describing his fix:

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PC Game Developers Sound Off About Windows 8

August 7, 2012

GamesIndustry International offers an interesting article expanding on the negative press Windows 8 has been getting from several high profile development studios including Mojang, Blizzard, and Valve. The article asks other developers in the PC game space what they think of Windows 8 forcing software makers to sell their products in a customized marketplace.

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Rumor: Bethesda Acquires S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series Games Rights

July 31, 2012

Bethesda has no comment on a rumor circulating this morning that it purchased the game rights to the popular action game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The rumor was started by Ukrainian blogger Sergey Galyonkin, who cited a "very reliable source" close to the situation. The reason that many media outlets have run with this particular rumor is because Galyonkin has proven to be a reliable source himself in the past when it comes to things GSC Gameworld-related. He predicted that trouble within the studio before it became public earlier in the year.

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Castle Story Finds Early Funding Success on Kickstarter

July 27, 2012

Today Sauropod Studio pitched its game Castle Story to the public for some much needed funding on Kickstarter. In the early hours of the campaign, the game has already met its goal. Sauropod Studios was looking to raise $80,000 to bring the game to the PC and Mac, but with the help of 3,348 backers it has already raised $95,055. If you watch the video (embedded to your left) you will quickly understand why this project has gotten early buzz.

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Stardock Skips Retail for Two Upcoming Titles

July 26, 2012

Stardock Software announced that it will ditch boxed retail releases for two of its upcoming games, making them available only online through digital distribution partners. Their next two games, The Political Machine 2012 and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, will only be available as downloads. This sea change is due mostly to the success of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which was not released at retail but managed to break sales records at Stardock anyway. The game became the fastest-selling title in the company's history.

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Volition Addresses Ongoing Saints Row The Third PC Performance Issues

July 20, 2012

In a short statement posted on the Saints Row: The Third forums, Volition acknowledges that there are still problems with the PC version of the popular over-the-top action game several months after it was released on Steam, and that they are still hard at work trying to iron out problems that still exist.

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Epic Not Ruling Out 'Always On' Requirement for Fortnite

July 19, 2012

Epic Games producer Tanya Jessen has said that the company has not ruled out the possibility of requiring that users always be connected to a server in order to play its upcoming zombie survival game Fortnite. While digital rights management is a factor, Jessen says that what the company does will be more dependent on gameplay and platform.

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League of Legends More Popular Than World of Warcraft With Xfire Users

July 11, 2012

According to data gathered by research firm DFC Intelligence, League of Legends was more popular in Europe and North America than any other PC game - including World of Warcraft. This data comes from social gaming and matchmaking platform Xfire.

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Virginia Attorney General and George Mason University Team Up to Fight Gang Recruitment with Games

May 3, 2012

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) and George Mason University President Alan Merten announced the creation of a series of interactive and educational computer and mobile phone game applications that teach youngsters about the risks and consequences of joining gangs. The goal of these programs is easy enough: to slow down gang recruitment levels in the state.

During the spring semester, GMU students used their programming skills and tapped into the attorney general’s office information of gangs to create several games and apps.

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Bungie Reveals Amazing Halo Stats, Turns Data Gathering Over to Microsoft

April 2, 2012

According to data gathered by Bungie, players have spent 235,182 years playing various Halo titles - Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach since 2004. They also say that over 20 billion Halo matches have been played on Xbox Live. Broken down by game titles, Halo 2 accounted for 5.4 billion games, Halo 3 / Halo 3: ODST were played 11.5 billion times (including ODST online co-op), and Halo: Reach matches were played 3.9 billion. Around 108,548,288,596 total kills were recorded across Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach.

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PC Gaming Alliance Releases Annual 'Horizons Report'

March 6, 2012

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) has revealed the findings of its third annual Horizons research report this week. Put together by research firm DFC Intelligence, the report tallies 2011 year-end PC game sales figures and offers some predictions about the industry through 2015.

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Brian Fargo Talks about Kickstarter for Wasteland Sequel

February 16, 2012

Interplay founder and inXile boss Brian Fargo says that he will use Kickstarter to fund a sequel to the old school post apocalyptic RPG Wasteland. Inspired by the success of Double Fine's adventure game funding, Fargo put the idea out to the community with a tweet on Tuesday:

"Pondering bringing Wasteland back through this crowd funding. It's a world I have longed to work with again," he said.

Later he confirmed that he would use Kickstarter, telling IGN that the "process means we don't have to do it like the publisher wants."

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Jeff Vogel: You Can Fight Piracy By Making People Feel Good About Supporting Developers

February 9, 2012

Indie developer Jeff Vogel (whose Spiderweb Software studio recently released Avadon: The Black Fortress) writes an interesting article for GamaSutra today explaining his philosophy on the most effective method for dealing with piracy. The thrust of his argument is that players will pay for easy-to-pirate games because it makes them feel good about supporting a developer.

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Namco Bandai Takes Notice of Dark Souls PC Petition

January 13, 2012

A petition urging Namco Bandai Games to bring the popular action-RPG Dark Souls to the PC has apparently caught the attention of someone at the company. Responding to it in the game's official forums, Namco Bandai Games' community manager Tony Shoupinou expressed his amazement at the accomplishment.

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Portal 2 Does Better on PC than Left 4 Dead

August 30, 2011

When it comes to Portal 2, it seems that most gamers prefer the game on PC and via Steam, according to Valve Software. That's according to Valve's Gabe Newell, who talked at length with Gamasura in a recent interview on a variety of topics. On the other end of the spectrum (and somewhat surprising), PC gamers didn't enjoy Left 4 Dead as much as console users did - at least when using sales as a metric for popularity.

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PC Version of SSF IV Arcade Edition to Feature Always-On DRM

May 26, 2011

Some sad news for anyone that wants to play Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition on the PC; it will have some pretty awful DRM enabled and ready to get in your way. Capcom announced via its Unity Blog that the popular fighting game will feature "always-on DRM" and described how it might be a little less draconian than Ubisoft's solution that forced players to stay connected to the internet in order to play - even in single player.

From the blog:

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution to use SteamWorks

May 6, 2011

Eidos and Square Enix announced today that the Windows version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will use Valve's SteamWorks DRM solution. The long-awaited sequel will support SteamWorks features such as auto-updating, Steam Achievements and Steam Cloud support. Square Enix did not disclose whether the digital version of the game would support SteamWorks across all platforms such as Direct2Drive, GamersGate, or GameStop's recently acquired Impulse platform.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available now for pre-order on Steam at a special limited-time pricing of $44.99 (standard version) and $53.99 (Augmented Edition), for release on August 23 in North America. The Augmented Edition comes with a digital 40-page art book, a "making of" special, trailers, an animated storyboard of the CGI trailer, a motion graphic novel, soundtrack, and a free download of the Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition. Find out more here.

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SOE Promises Free Game Time, Virtual Item to DC Universe Online Subscribers

May 4, 2011

DC Universe Online subscribers, upset over Sony Online Entertainment's and Sony's security issues, will get some compensation in the form of a virtual item and some free play time in the super hero-themed MMO for PC and PS3. According to the DC Universe Online community site, subscribers will receive a 30 day subscription credit in addition to one day for each day the DCUO was unavailable. Subscribers will also receive a Batman-esque cowl. SOE is calling all this the "make good" plan. More from SOE:

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Empire Avenue Lands on Facebook

April 6, 2011

Empire Avenue is now available as a Facebook App. The financial-social simulation game was developed by former BioWare employees and basically lets players trade in other people via a virtual stock market. Participants buy and sell shares in their friends, family, celebrities, etc. As you earn a higher stock price for yourself and others, you gather virtual currency and achievements. The goal of the game is to be more social and to show your appreciation for the social activities of others that use things such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more.

Empire Avenue is at least worth a look if you haven’t checked it out already and it being on Facebook makes it easy to jump right in. Plus it doesn't hurt that the BioWare founders have invested in it. Anyway, you can check it out at apps.facebook.com/empireavenue or at its original location - empireavenue.com.


Crytek Looking at DRM after Crysis 2 Leak

March 21, 2011

Crysis 2 Executive Producer Nathan Camarillo admitted in a recent GameShark interview that Crytek is looking at digital rights management solution for its PC titles. This closer look at a DRM solution was initiated by the leak of the PC game earlier this year to file-sharing sites around the world.

"I know there's a lot of negative feelings toward DRM. But, I mean, what are we supposed to do? The actions of a few are causing maybe a mild inconvenience for others," Camarillo told GameShark.

"If I'm playing a game and it has DRM on it, do I notice? Not really. I just know that there's something going on, but doesn't really enhance (sic) my play experience. So, it's something that we'll have to look at in the future."

Expect Crysis 2 to use some sort of DRM solution when it is released this week. All we can hope for is that it isn't obnoxious.

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Cecil475@PHX Corp - The dude's a moron who wouldn't know crap if it came up and kicked him.05/19/2013 - 6:36am
PHX Corphttp://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am
E. Zachary KnightIf the videos are of sufficient quality that people subscribe and watch regularly, then those let's players are providing a service that people want. That is the heart of capitalism. That is not something that should be shamed.05/17/2013 - 8:06am
E. Zachary KnightI have no idea who either of those people are. However, I still don't see why making a business out of creating let's play videos is somehow evil or wrong.05/17/2013 - 8:04am
MaskedPixelanteIt sure is if you're just doing it for the money. See Tobuscus and/or Pewdiepie for what happens when people get into it just for the money.05/17/2013 - 7:30am
E. Zachary KnightWhy is it wrong to make money doing LPs? Why should that be something that should be shamed?05/17/2013 - 6:20am
MaskedPixelantehttps://twitter.com/PsychedelicSA/status/335183893214924801 Now here's an interesting, glass half full thought about the Nintendo LP thing. It outs the people who are just doing LPs to make money.05/17/2013 - 5:56am
E. Zachary KnightI responded in writing to all this "let's play" stuff Nintendo Started. No need for my permission, I won't give it. It's not mine to give. http://divineknightgaming.com/?p=29205/16/2013 - 2:21pm
E. Zachary KnightLars Doucet of Levelup Labs has a Reddit going on game companies that allow monetization of Let's Play videos. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1egayn/lets_build_a_list_of_game_studios_that_allow/05/16/2013 - 1:04pm
Sleaker@Imautobot - yah I wouldn't use an emulator as a good first run test of how stable the console is, haha.05/16/2013 - 11:47am
E. Zachary KnightThe 50th person to jump off a bridge is just as dumb if not dumber than the 1st.05/16/2013 - 10:03am
MaskedPixelanteYeah, let's all jump on Nintendo for doing this, even though they're hardly the first company to do this...05/16/2013 - 9:47am
E. Zachary KnightWow Nintendo, this is wrong. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-forcing-ads-on-some-youtube-lets-play-video-50709238305/16/2013 - 8:44am
Imautobot@Sleaker, further gameplay has revealed that the controller button do stick under the faceplate. Also, The NES emulator (Emuya)keeps crashing on me, though I think a bad ROM is causing it.05/16/2013 - 7:10am
Papa MidnightAE: I wonder if any other publishers will follow suit.05/15/2013 - 8:12pm
Andrew EisenEA is ditching Online Pass. http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/05/15/2013 - 7:20pm
Avalongod@Zach and quicnkold...I've read the bill and the intent of it is to fear-monger. It's not a balanced message. I don't recall the ESRB being mentioned at all. It's more "keeps your kids away from these movies/games or they'll become violent"05/15/2013 - 4:35pm
E. Zachary Knightquiknkold, The big problem with that legislation is the amount of misinformation out there. Who is going to ensure that the information in the pamphlet is accurate?05/15/2013 - 3:25pm
quiknkoldREBeardogg : I'm on the fence about this. on one side, I want parents to be aware of the ESRB, and even Movie Ratings. On the other hand, I feel this will be used for nothing but Propaganda. The ESRB does a good job.05/15/2013 - 3:07pm
IanCFrostbite is coming out on iOS devices. Yet the Wii U cant handle it? *coughbullshitcough*05/15/2013 - 2:31pm
 

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