Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to Windows Phone 8.1 devices

As we revealed yesterday , Microsoft today started rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

Above: Lumia 650

rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices. Specifically, Microsoft is starting with the following 18 phones: Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 640XL, 730, 735, 830, 532, 535, 540, 635 (1GB), 636 (1GB), 638 (1GB), 430, 435, BLU Win HD w510u, BLU Win HD LTE x150q, and MCJ Madosma Q501.

A handful of devices have already shipped with Windows 10 Mobile (the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 650, 550, Xiaomi Mi4, and Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL). But this is for existing Windows Phone devices — Microsoft originally planned to start upgrading them in December 2015, but ended up delaying the process until Q1 2016. Internally, the timeframe became Februaryand then March. Here we finally are.

To upgrade, you can download the Windows 10 Upgrade Advisor app from the Windows Store. It will tell you if the upgrade is available for your device (select “Enable Windows 10 upgrade” if it is) and what you’ll need to do.

Microsoft also recommendsthe following steps to get your device ready for the upgrade:

Plug your phone into a charger to make sure it doesn’t run out of battery during the upgrade. Connect your phone to a Wi‑Fi network. Because of the size of the update, a Wi‑Fi connection is required for download and installation. It’s a good idea to back up your settings, apps, photos, and text messages to the cloud before installing the update. To set up backups, on Start Start icon, swipe over all to the All apps list, and then select Settings Settings app icon > Backup, and then follow the instructions. Free up enough storage space to download and install the update. You can use the Upgrade Advisor app and it will recommend files, such as videos or photos, that you can move to OneDrive or an SD card, if you have one installed. You can also connect your phone to a PC and move your files there. After the upgrade, you can move files back to your phone if there’s enough space.

Microsoft is not rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to all Windows Phone devices. The list is limited because the company doesn’t want older devices to run Windows 10 Mobile if the resulting experience is worse than with the existing operating system version:

This list includes a limited set of Windows Phone 8.1 devices and does not include some devices that are currently running Windows 10 Mobile in the Windows 10 Mobile Insider program. As Windows 10 delivers significant new innovations, many older devices are not able to successfully upgrade without an impact on the customer experience. Our goal is to only offer the Windows 10 upgrade to devices that we are confident can continue to deliver a good customer experience.

Windows 10 Mobile includes a bunch of new features, including a new Start screen, an improved Cortana, better Live tiles, wider app support, Windows Hello, and Continuum. Some of these features, like the last two, require certain hardware so they won’t necessarily be available on your phone even if it gets upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile.

Because this is Windows 10, it should also mean more frequent updates. Based on how long it took Microsoft to get Windows 10 Mobile out to these phones, though (remember that the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XLshipped in November), we’re not holding our breath.

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PlayStation 4 & Xbox One adopting Nintendo’s handheld update strategy makes sense to analysts

Your Xbox One is obsolete.

Above: Sony is reportedly showing developers a revamped version of the PS4.

Image Credit: Jeffrey Grubb/GamesBeat

Your Xbox One is obsolete. Your PlayStation 4 is junk. But if these consoles are starting to feel old, Microsoft and Sony may step in to sell you the same thing all over again with something extra sprinkled on top.

Analysts think it’s possible that Sony and Microsoft could start applying Nintendo’s iterative strategy for handhelds to home consoles to release a new PS4 (which many are dubbing PS4.5 and PS4K) or an updated Xbox One. Coming out of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, Kotaku reported a rumorthat Sony is showing developers a revamped version of its home console. The improved PS4 reportedly has more horsepower and the capability to output 4K visuals. Sony has not confirmed this, but we’ve spoken to a handful of industry insiders who are not surprised by this leak — others mentioned they couldn’t comment due to a nondisclosure agreement. Rumors of a mid-cycle PS4 upgrade was something a few were hearing even before Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer spoke about introducing iterative improvements to the Xbox One hardware during a spring showcase for Microsoft games. Now it appears that both major console manufacturers could have new hardware in the near future.

If you’re wondering why this is happening, it may have something to do with the heavy competition between Microsoft and Sony. Both are looking to get or maintain an edge in the $99.3 billion global gaming market, one where the PS4 is the dominant home console.

“For the hardware manufacturers, new systems are a way to alter the lifecycle consoles usually have,” Kantan Games analyst Serkan Toto told GamesBeat. “If you are losing to your competitor, as Microsoft does to PS4 in this generation, you are behind for many years, and there is almost no way to catch up. Updating the hardware means de-risking in this context. It also means, if the rumors are true, that consoles will be updated more like the iPhone.”

At its spring showcase, Microsoft said it is thinking about a future where you’ll get the same Xbox software across a variety of Xbox and Windows platforms. That includes PC and Xbox One, but Spencer implied that could also mean an improved Xbox One.

At the same time, the competition between Sony and Microsoft is driving the price down for their current products. And this is leading to lost revenue. You can see that overall cash spent on consoles in 2015 is far off the heights of 2009 — when Wii was at its most powerful.

February in the United States saw a $118 million year-over-year decreasein spending on new physical games and hardware at retailers, and research firm The NPD Group specifically credits sluggish console sales for dragging down that number.

“The main cause of the decrease was portable hardware, which dropped by 58 percent, or $48 million, due to a difficult comparison to the launch of Nintendo’s new 3DS in February 2015,” said Callahan. “Console hardware sales suffered due to the dramatic drop off of 23 percent as both [current- and last-generation] consoles experienced declines.”

And what’s potentially worrisome — to the point that Sony and Microsoft might go to the drastic lengths of introducing updated consoles — is that casual gamers are happy with their iPads. Unlike the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 2 or Super Nintendo eras, price cuts haven’t led to a lot of price-conscious gamers jumping into the market. Those people already have their platform of choice, and it has a lot of free options.

So while Microsoft and Sony are performing well, they may need to get more creative to boost their revenues. And this where it may follow Nintendo’s lead. We’ve seen the Mario company release new DS or 3DS handheld several years in a row. That culminated in late 2014 with the New 3DS, which — like the rumored PS4.5 and Xbox 1.5 — has improved internals and can run more graphically intensive games. But the New 3DS is primarily a way for Nintendo to sell new hardware to an audience that has already bought one or two 3DS handhelds before. For Nintendo, this maximizes the value of their smaller audience, and now the competition may want to try something similar.

Of course, we don’t know how Sony and Microsoft will market these systems or even if they’re really going to ever come out. But most industry analysts think this concept makes sense.

“With all the streaming, esports, and VR activities in the works — the current hardware setup might not be ideal,” Newzoo analyst and founder Peter Warman told GamesBeat. “An intermediate new version is needed to optimize performance for this new era of games and video convergence.”

That’s true for the Xbox One. That system has had a slow interface from the start, and Microsoft has struggled to get it working in a way that most people find acceptable. But R.W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian points out that iterative upgrades is something Microsoft and Sony could’ve planned from the start.

“I think one of the advantages of both the PS4 and Xbox One being built largely from high-end PC specs is that they can be upgraded mid-cycle,” he said. “I think it would be challenging to ask developers to make two PS4 versions of their games, so I suspect the difference would largely be performance-related, and potentially new features, such as 4K.”

Others, like SuperData Research analyst and cofounder Joost van Dreunen, think this gives Sony the chance to release a new PS4 specifically designed to handle the upcoming PlayStation VR headset. That device requires a special breakout box to handle extra cords, but a PS4.5 could build that hardware directly into the internals.

At the same time, van Dreunen is skeptical that a PS4.5 is truly real.

“I did not see any statement from Sony, but instead read about a Kotaku writer overhearing a few developers talk,” he said.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter echoed that sentiment.

“It’s funny how those pesky developers only share this stuff with the rumor mill, but not with people who might actually keep the information confidential,” he said. “I’ve heard nothing, but I think it’s possible that Sony launches a PS4.5 that is optimized for PlayStation VR, but highly doubt that they would make the PS4 obsolete only three years after launch.”

A couple of the people who GamesBeat talked with also think it’s possible Sony leaked this news deliberately. The company has put a lot of work into crafting its messaging to position PlayStation as a consumer-friendly brand. Sony may want to see how fans react to this news to ensure that a real announcement deals with any concerns its players may have.

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Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through i... read more »

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Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through ... read more »

New! Track Microsoft's Landscape to stay on top of the industry in 3 minutes a day. Understand the entire ecosystem, monitor innovation, and track deal flows. Learn more.

Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony. The company was... read more »

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VCs raised billions in Q1 even as they made fewest investments in 3 years

At first blush, a review of venture capital dealmaking during the first quarter of 2016 suggests an industry gone mad.

Image Credit: KPMG and CB Insights

VC firms raised the highest amount of capital raised in more than a decade, even as they made the lowest number of investments in three years. What gives? The Q1 2016 Venture Pulse Reportissued today by CB Insights and KPMG provides some method to this madness.

On Monday, the National Venture Capital Association had reported that U.S VC firms raised $12 billionacross 57 different funds to invest in startups, calling it the largest amount raised in 10 years. KPMG and CB Insights did not specify a figure for the amount raised by firms, but called the billions raised the most since the dot-com craziness of 2000. Regardless of the final amount, we’re talking about a vast amount of capital ready to be invested. For instance, Founders Fund raised $1.4 billion for a single fund, while Accel raised $2 billion across a pair of funds.

But with VC firms so focused on fundraising, they were apparently too busy to do much investing. In fact, U.S. deal activity slowed in Q1, with just $14.8 billion invested across 1,035 deals. (For all of North America, the numbers were only slightly better: $15.2 billion across 1,101 deals.)

At the current rate of activity, 2016’s figures will be lower than 2011.

Where did the money go? Forty percent of all investments in North America went to VC-backed Internet companies, 16 percent to mobile and telecommunications, 15 percent to health care, 4 percent to software (non-Internet/mobile), 4 percent to consumer products and services, and 13 percent to other.

Meanwhile, the biggest companies are likely to stay that way. The10 largest deals in North America totaled $3 billion and included several unicorns, those companies worth more than $1 billion. It’s likely that a significant portion of firms’ new capital will go to support unicorns, or to decacorns, those companies valued at more than $10 billion. Interestingly, these larger companies are seen as almost “too big to fail.” Even with their lofty valuations, they may remain attractive to late stage investors. “I think we’ll likely see more funding going to the decacorns in the near future on the basis that that’s where some of the risk is being de-leveraged,” wrote Francois Chadwick, national tax leader of KPMG’s Venture Capital Practice.

For this same quarter, however, only one new VC-backed unicorn was created, compared to 17 in Q3 2015 and 7 in Q4 2015.

Put in context of larger forces like the volatility of U.S. public markets, an economic slowdown in China, the U.S. presidential campaign, and a general wariness of another tech bubble, the quarter’s low deal activity is not surprising. The report states, “While disconcerting to the VC community, the decline in VC activity is likely to be a short-term trend given the amount of liquidity in the market around the globe. In fact, in the US, Q1’16 was one of the highest quarters for raising VC capital since the dot-com boom of 2000. These funds will likely be deployed over the coming quarters as VC investors renew their focus on finding disruptive or innovative companies in which to invest.”

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Ubisoft’s The Division spent more on ads than any other game in March

Game brands continued ramping down in March, with the industry spending an estimated $35.7 million on 20,541 airings of 92 commercial spots.

Above: The Division.

Image Credit: Giancarlo Valdes/GamesBeat

Game brands continued ramping down in March, with the industry spending an estimated $35.7 million on 20,541 airings of 92 commercial spots. It’s down nearly $2 million from their total spend in February. Thirty brands stuck mostly with their tried-and-true creative, with less than one-third of the aired ads debuting for the first time in March.

GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, which measures TV advertising in real-time, to bring you a monthly report on how gaming brands are spending and which are generating the most digital response. The results below are for the five top-spending gaming industry brands during March.

Ubisoft moves into first place, overtaking massive spenders Machine Zone. With six different spots and an estimated spend of nearly $9.1 million, Ubisoft ran ads 1,956 times throughout March. Still pushing The Division and Far Cry: Primal, the game publisher spent heavily on spots during airings of The Walking Dead , NBA basketball, and SportsCenter . The ad with the biggest push, “Tom Clancy’s The Division: When Society Falls,” accounted for nearly half of the brand’s budget in March alone, with The Division promotions accounting for over 90 percent of the brand’s efforts on TV last month.

Continuing the Mobile Strike and Game of War procession, Machine Zone ran seven spots 5,036 times over the last month, focused exclusively on the two franchises. Once again, Machine Zone pushed its Super Bowl spot, “Mobile Strike: Fight” featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the hardest this month, airing two versions of the ad over 2,500 times.

A surprising addition to our ranking, Sony dramatically ramped up its spending, increasing from just under $200,000 in February to over $4.3 million in March. Promoting primarily MLB: The Show and Uncharted, Sony ran four spots nearly 1,000 times over the past month. Its most aired ad, “MLB: The Show 16- – Focus,” debuted on March 14 and ran over 900 times in support of its March 29 release.

Nintendo ran 10 spots 2,029 times in March. With an estimated spend of just over $4.2 million, the Japanese publisher generated 355.3 million ad impressions through airings during Nickelodeon’s 2016 Kids’ Choice Awards, South Park , and Family Guy . The game publisher spent most heavily on a Pokken Tournament spot “Pokémon are Ready for Battle.”

Warner Bros. Games finished March as the fifth highest spender, running six spots 1,182 times for a total estimated media value of $1.4 million. Promoting the Lego Dimensions franchise exclusively, the brand spent heavily on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel. The game publisher’s top spot, “Endless Awesome,” ran nearly 400 times in March and generated over 102.1 million TV ad impressions.

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Black Desert Online’s big sales show premium-priced MMOs aren’t dead yet

Most publishers have stopped making premium-priced massively multiplayer online games, but the industry still has a number of consumers who want to pay for that content.

Above: Black Desert Online is finding its audience.

Image Credit: Daum Games

Korean publisher Daum Games has sold more than 400,000 copies of its Black Desert OnlineMMO role-playing game after only a month on the market in Europe and North America. The developer brought the fantasy game to the West in March at $30, $50, and $100 pricing tiers, and it has instantly clicked with a large audience. Daum thinks the game will likely even keep growing its momentum moving forward, which is proof that the MMO market can support more than World of Warcraft and an endless pile of free-to-play competitors. In a gaming market worth $99.3 billion, Black Desert is showing that studios have different paths to profitability.

“Considering the upward trend, I expect that the game will achieve over 1 million sales this year,” Daum Games Europe chief executive Min Kim said in a statement. “What’s impressive is these figures far exceed those in the domestic market.”

One of the big takeaways about Black Desert Online is that free-to-play in its home territory of Korea. Players in that country are much more accustomed to having to pay to make decent progress in their online RPGs, but Daum points out that Western audiences are different. Many of them would rather pay up front so that they don’t have to think about spending money.

Of course, Black Desert does still have in-game purchases in the West, but a lot of that content is cosmetic. That could potentially find a lot of success here because Daum’s game is one of the better looking MMORPGs to debut in quite some time.

“A game with a buy-to-play business model normally has a much lower conversion rate for paid in-game items compared to free-to-play games,” said Kim. “But Black Desert Online is recording a much higher pay ratio than the average 11 percent normally seen in free-to-play games.”

Moving ahead, Daum will continue to support Black Desert with more content and more in-app purchases. If it brings in 1 million people, that could turn the game into an enormous success.

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GamesBeat aspires to become bible of the games industry: acquires Bitmob

The best part of the deal: Bitmob co-founder Dan “Shoe” Hsu, an industry veteran with significant street cred with gamers, will become the Editor-in-Chief of GamesBeat.

Above: Dan "Shoe" Hsu

I’m delighted to confirm that VentureBeat has acquired Bitmob, the respected gaming news site known for its passionate community of users. Bitmob will be integrated with our GamesBeat channel.

The best part of the deal: Bitmob co-founder Dan “Shoe” Hsu, an industry veteran with significant street cred with gamers, will become the Editor-in-Chief of GamesBeat. He’ll join Dean Takahashi, our lead games writer, who has done an incredible job getting GamesBeat off the ground over the last couple of years.

Together, along with Sebastian Haley, who is GamesBeat’s review editor and will lead our video coverage, this is the perfect powerhouse trio to help GamesBeat become the bible of the games industry.

Shoe just posted about the merger.

The GamesBeat channel will expand significantly over the coming months, after Shoe starts with us Feb 1. This will include a “relaunch” of GamesBeat, which will essentially give GamesBeat its own identity separate from VentureBeat. It will also mean the integration of Bitmob’s community features. Most importantly, it will bolster GamesBeat’s mission to cover the most disruptive and interesting stories in the games industry — everything from the amazing saga around social gaming companies like Zynga and Crowdstar, to how giants like Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are responding. GameBeat will also expand its reviews of top games that define the industry.

Above: Dean Takahashi

To be clear, it was Dean who first approached me saying he wanted us to acquire Shoe and Bitmob, so that Shoe could run GamesBeat, while Dean focuses on writing. Shoe has a 16-year track record. He communicates well and has managed big teams, including at EGM, 1UP and Gamers.com. Dean has already attracted some promising new writers to GamesBeat, including Haley. It’s all a perfect fit. Though Shoe is justifiably “ freaked out” at the thought of managing a veteran like Dean.

The merger continues the momentum we’re seeing at VentureBeat. Today we’re also announcing the hiring of Ben Popper, founding editor of Betabeat, the influential Silicon Alley blog from The New York Observer. He will be VentureBeat’s East Coast Editor. He’s done an excellent job covering the New York start-up and wider technology scene there and quickly caught our attention by the scoops he was gettingabout the New York scene. He’s got a “comer” reputation. We’re super excited about him joining us. Ben just blogged about the move here.

Above: Benjamin Popper

Ben will join Devindra Hardawar and Sean Ludwig, our two other New York-based writers. Devindra becomes our national editor. While Ben will wake up early, and break East Coast news and focus on taking the New York scene by storm, Devindra will start shaping our national coverage for us early in the day. He’ll work closely with executive editor Dylan Tweney and senior editor Heather Kelly as they wake up on the West Coast, to guide coverage through the rest of the day.

VentureBeat plans to open an office in Manhattan next month. Ben will lead the local expansion there over the next two years. Expect more hires.

Previously, Ben has written about the culture and business of technology for The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and Fast Company. Prior to Betabeat and the Observer, he was a blogger at CBS Interactive.

We just can’t wait until both of them get started. While Shoe officially starts Feb 1, he’ll be working hard to get ready for the transition in the meantime. We’ll plan to syndicate the best of Bitmob’s content in the meantime, so readers can track all of the best stuff on GamesBeat beginning today.

Ben Popper starts Monday.

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Lizard Squad launches DDoS tool that lets anyone take down online services, starting at $6 per month

Lizard Squad , the “hacker” group best known for attacking Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network, has now launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack tool.

, the “hacker” group best known for attacking Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network, has now launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack tool. Now anyone can now take down the website or online service of their choice thanks to “Lizard Stresser,” which we’re not linking to for obvious reasons.

A DDoS attack is a common method for taking down a server by overloading it with requests. The end goal is to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users.

“Welcome to LizardStresser, brought to you by Lizard Squad,” reads the tool’s introduction page. “This booter is famous for taking down some of the world’s largest gaming networks such as Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Jagex, BattleNet, League of Legends, and many more! With this stresser, you wield the power to launch some of the world’s largest denial of service attacks.”

It offers eight packages, ranging from $6 monthly (for taking down a site for 100 seconds) to $130 monthly (for taking down a site for 30,000 seconds, or over 8 hours). It also has “lifetime” options that are one-time fees ranging from $30 to $500 (the page notes this actually means five years, because that’s apparently how long the tool will exist).

Not only is Lizard Stresser open to anyone willing to pay, but customers can also use it against any target they wish. As a result, if someone wanted to target Xbox Live and PlayStation Network again, they could do so, even though Lizard Squad itself promised not to attack those services anymore.

Lizard Stresser even has a referral system: “We give you 10 percent of whatever money your referrals spend. To cash out the money, please open a ticket and tell us which plan you want.”

It also lets you upgrade to higher-end packages, presumably by paying the difference, if you want more power. Lizard Stresser offers add-ons as well:

The service only accepts the cryptocurrency bitcoin, though the group says PayPal support is “coming soon.” The payment system doesn’t work with VPNs, so those making purchases will have to find other ways to hide their identity and location if they want to remain anonymous.

At the time of report, Lizard Stresser has supposedly been used seven times (Update: Now the page says three times, so the number is clearly not accurate, and either way it is quite low given sales opened seven hours ago). The site claims attack power (the amount of traffic requests with which customers can overload their targets) currently stands at a 2Tbps average and that the total network traffic is 30Tbps, which is simply preposterous.

As expected, Lizard Squad is making other grand claims about its “booter” on Twitter. Here is an example:

Without correct power distribution, if you hit a home connection right now, you'll drop the entire city.

— R.I.U. Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) December 30, 2014

Commercial tools for DDoS attacks are nothing new and are readily available on hacking forums. Yet even if the above claims are significantly exaggerated, Lizard Stresser is certainly unique in its alleged size, as is the group’s track record — Lizard Squad clearly plans to use its “fame” on Twitter to attract potential clients.

The group, which has had multiple Twitter accounts suspendedbut merely creates new ones, has previously hinted that it is funded by “interested parties.” In fact, Lizard Squad has previously said it has sold “ DDoS as a service,” which is exactly what Lizard Stresser is.

This would suggest all the attacks so far have simply been a marketing ploy for Lizard Stresser. Whoever is funding the group is now looking to cash in on their investment.

Lizard Squad gained fame this month by attacking Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network multiple times, most notably on Christmas Day, resulting in many being unable to play video games online. The impact was particularly large for many reasons.

First of all, the DDoS attack targeted both Xbox Live and PSN, the two largest console gaming networks. Next, the timing was key: Many gamers naturally wanted to play on their day off, whether on an already-purchased game console or on one received as a present for Christmas. Finally, the aftermathof the attack was massive, if not greater than the attack itself, because the game networks couldn’t handle the traffic of millions of consoles trying to get back online all at once after the attack was over.

While VentureBeat hasn’t tested Lizard Stresser, I expect it works given Lizard Squad’s history, even if doesn’t offer the capacity the group claims. That said, Lizard Squad has made dubious claimsin the past, so naturally I recommend looking at everything it does with some skepticism.

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Baldur’s Gate’s expansion adds diversity, and of course some people hate it (update)

Last week, a gaming classic received an impressive new expansion, but its progressive take on certain characters is making some fans angry.

Above: Mizhena is the transgender character in the new Baldur's Gate expansion, Siege of Dragonspear.

Last week, developer Beamdog released the Siege of Dragonspear expansion for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, and some gamers are angry that it features a transgendered cleric as well as three-dimensional women characters. You can read about some of these themes in our positive review for the add-on, which is the first new content for the original Baldur’s Gate since 1999. But some fans of that original game are furious that Beamdog would expand the beloved role-playing world to feature more inclusive writing and characterizations, this has led to dozens of heated threadson Baldur’s Gate’s forums and a deluge of negative user scores on the review-aggregation site Metacriticand the Steam PC gaming portal.

The studio has spent the last several years updating the old Baldur’s Gate games, and it is now transitioning that into building new entries in the series. This is a niche business in the $99.3 billion gaming industry, and it’s one that could implode for Beamdog if a wave of hatred from reactionaries is able to successfully portray Siege of Dragonspear as a terrible game.

Tuesday, Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood spoke out on Facebook about the fan reaction. Baldur’s Gate is part of the Forgotten Realms universe.

GamesBeat reached out to Beamdog, which is preparing a statement as of publication time.

The criticisms from the enraged on Steam and Metacritic primarily focus on two aspects of Dragonspear. Mizhena is a transgendered person, and the beloved ranger character Minsc makes a joke about the hate group GamerGate. The joke is a reference to the motto of GamerGate: “actually, it’s about ethics in games journalism.” Instead, Minsc says it is about ethics in adventuring.

That’s it.

But this has led to 142 people posting negative user reviews for the expansion on Metacritic. The vast majority of those have a score of “zero.” This has led to a 3.6 average out of 10. We’ve seen mobs use Metacritic and Steam reviews in the past to punish a game they don’t like.

In the reviews and the posts on the message boards, you’ll find some common themes. People hate that “SJWs” have “gotten their hands on” the Baldur’s Gate franchise. SJW stands for “social justice warrior,” and it is a pejorative term that some circles on the Internet use to describe people who push for political correctness. Some claim they are not fans of “poor” writing, but others are more direct:

“Can the transgender character please be removed so my daughter [can play],” reads one post on Steam. “I live in Turkey and our society frowns upon non-binary sexual relations and genders. Once, my daughter saw a transgender person (male to female) and asked me about the whole situation. It wasn’t easy to explain everything. She chuckled every time I tried to sound serious about the situation.”

Poor guy. He had to talk to his daughter about a serious issue.

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VideoStitch launches 360-degree Orah camera to make VR video simpler to produce

Virtual reality headsets are finally reaching consumers, and one company is working on a way to make it easier for people to start building video content for that platform.

Above: The Orah 360-degree 4K camera for doing live virtual reality video.

Image Credit: Orah

VideoStitch, the company responsible for software that instantly renders together multiple camera feeds for live 360-degree video, is now releasing the Orah camera to reduce the pain from the hardware side of this equation. The Orah 4i is a plug-and-play solution for capturing and broadcasting 360-degree videos for platforms like YouTube and Facebook as well as VR headsets like Samsung’s Gear VR and the Oculus Rift. VideoStitch is launching the camera today at a special price of $1,795. It will quickly raise that to $3,595 in a few weeks. The company explained to GamesBeat that it is targeting “prosumers” who are looking for a 4K all-in-one solution to start producing content for a VR market that tech adviser Digi-Capiutal predicts will generate $30 billion in revenues by 2020.

Other companies have VR cameras on the market. The Ricoh Theta Sis $350, and it’s built for consumers who want their own person 360-degree videos. It does a decent job, but it is not built with live events in mind. VideoStitch wants to reach customers who not only need a powerful tool for setting up robust 360-degree livestreams, but also don’t want to hire an expert to set everything up.

“We want to make this for people who have a business case for setting up a livestream,” VideoStich strategic partnerships vice president told GamesBeat.

Today, a lot of business would have to hire someone to rig together 16 GoPros into a specialized rig from companies like Google. Alternatively, they could buy one of the professional 360-degree cameras like the Nokia Ozo… for $60,000.

To show the power of the camera, VideoStitch expects to build similar relationships with other organizations and companies.

We already know that Valve is building a virtual-reality viewer for its Dota 2 online multiplayer game. This enables people to feel like they are sitting in an audience inside a simulated world. But that kinda experience could also easily work for real-world events like sports, and that’s where the Orah camera could step in to provide professional organizations and sports leagues with an easy, instant way to experiment with the technology. After spending some time with VR, having the option to watch live events in 360-degree video is something I know I would enjoy, and I can’t wait for the NFL, NHL, and just any other sport to put in their order for a few of VideoStitch’s latest product.

More information:

Be there. Anywhere. Now. VideoStitch develops video stitching software to create Live Virtual Reality Video content. We virtually transport viewers using an Oculus Rift where a multi-lens camera stands. Now, you can experience a live c... read more »

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Nicolas Burtey is a Founder / CEO at VideoStitch since January 2012. Prior to this he was Freelance photographer and developer in 360° at Freelance. He also worked as a QA and Support engineer at DxO Labs. He studied at Ecole National... read more »

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Forge expands its video-capturing tech to include Twitch and YouTube broadcasting

Gaming is one of the biggest categories for video on the Internet, and a new startup is stepping up to make it easier than ever for people to share their own content.

Above: Forge already provides gamers with an easy way to record and share clips.

Image Credit: Forge

Forge, a video-sharing social platform, has added a new easy-to-use tool to its client that enables gamers to quickly begin broadcasting live PC gameplay to Twitch and YouTube. This puts the company in a crowded field that already has a number of powerful apps like Raptr, XSpilt, OBS (Open Broadcasting Software), Nvidia’s ShadowPlay, and Microsoft’s Xbox app, but Forge is positioning itself as a simple alternative that will get people online and streaming in moments. Video related to gaming is a massive business on the web. Live broadcasts featuring entertaining gamers is the core of what made Twitch worth $970 million to Amazonin 2014, and it is also YouTube’s second largest category behind only music.

Now, “making streaming simple” is definitely a refrain we’ve also heard from Raptr and Nvidia, but Forge chief executive Jared Kim thinks his company’s tech will remove the barrier of entry for even more people.

“We’re building Forge so that it will just work,” Forge chief executive Jared Kim told GamesBeat. “We want this to be the easy solution for 99 percent of people [who are not power users].”

One of the big differences here is that Forge has put a lot of energy into its system and network auto-detection optimzers. A lot of the software on the market is great at getting you streaming, but many people often run into troubles when they see that their live Twitch or YouTube Gaming video doesn’t look great or has a lot of lag. Kim, who previously founded the WeGame recording software, has a lot of experience with this. He claims that the setup will detect the best settings so that the average gamers won’t have to think about things like variable bit rate.

Forge is still in its early days. The company raised $4.5 million in an initial funding roundin March. But it is not putting a lot of emphasis on generating revenue at the moment. Today’s launch is about getting people using its software. Down the line, however, Kim said he is thinking about ways to introduce features that people would want to pay for. These could target more experienced users, but none of that will come at the expense of gamers who want a streaming app that “just works.”

More information:

Forge is fast, automatic, always-on game capture. Users can download Forge for free. It costs nothing and there are zero ads, just gaming entertainment.... read more »

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Microsoft: ‘VR is beautiful for gaming’ but HoloLens is a ‘new paradigm’ for information

We are in a world where high-end consumer virtual reality devices are shipping to people around the globe, but Microsoft is already preparing for the next era of computing.

Above: Microsoft's HoloLens Development Edition.

Image Credit: Microsoft

HoloLens is one of Microsoft’s new key products, and the company has a lot to say about what it means for the future and for its business. HoloLens is a computer that you wear on your face. It has a screen that mixes together what you see in the real world with digital images. It uses a variety of sensors and cameras to sense where walls and objects are, and then developers can build apps that can interact with those real objects. Microsoft thinks this tech could get developers invested in its Azure cloud platform and that it could usher in a new generation of mobile. But this kind of talk can feel a little premature considering Facebook’s Oculus VR only just released the consumer version of the Rift VR headset in March. Meanwhile, Microsoft only just started selling a $3,000 development kit for the HoloLens — a final product is still likely years away.

But Microsoft sees far more potential in AR as opposed to VR, and it’s not alone. Tech adviser Digi-Capital thinks AR and VR will generate a combined $120 billion in spending by 2020 — but AR will make up $90 billion of that. That kind of money has a lot of industry observers suggesting that AR is going to quickly supplant VR, and Microsoft is playing that up.

Beyond gaming

Oculus as well as HTC, which is launching the Vive VR headset this week, are positioning their devices as primarily gaming machines today. In the past, Oculus executives have acknowledged that this is about appealing to the people most likely to come in as early adopters. Microsoft, however, is not doing that with its headset.

“HoloLens is redefining what mobile experiences can be,” Microsoft corporate vice president of apps and services Thom Gruhler told GamesBeat. “We absolutely see that this will have the potential to be a scaled consumer device. I’m not saying we’ll make it to market by any particular date, but we do think this is more than just a unique gaming platform.”

Most of the current excitement for augmented reality is about its potential as a productivity tool. Using a HoloLens enables people to see data about their world and their work floating in the air and surrounding them — without removing them from their real-world environment. That could change the way doctors, manufacturing employees, and nearly everyone else works. So by pointing out that HoloLens isn’t a gaming platform, Microsoft is pointing out that VR has a narrow focus that limits its appeal to a number of important markets.

“We think there’s real — and this is true industry-wide, but also certainly at Microsoft — R&D commitment to saying that AR can change how compute is done, how we interact with information, and how our experiences with screenless, room-to-room mobile experiences can apply across the board,” said Gruhler. “Not just for gaming, but for enterprise and in the home and so on.”

Today, using VR is an isolating experience. You have to cover your vision and your hearing, and that’s not ideal for most professional or even personal situations. Despite that, we are seeing some VR tools popping up for professionals. These include the Virtual Desktop app that gives you a giant virtual version of your PC inside of a simulation. We tried that out for an entire work day, and it’s easy to see how this could serve certain industries. At the same time, it’s not something that wouldn’t also work in AR.

“The key difference for me in AR is that you’re not taken away from the world you’re in,” said Gruhler. “VR is beautiful for gaming, potentially for education applications, but when you’re in AR, you’re able to be in the world you’re in. That has huge potential for enterprise in particular and probably across the board. So I think we will drift more toward AR.

“The unique thing about the mixed-reality paradigm is that you can reach out and engage with the content you see and have a clickable experience just using your hand and your holographic projection. That, to me, starts to open up what I would call new paradigms for how information is built to be consumed.”

More devices connected by the cloud

Over the last 30 years, we’ve transitioned from text-based computing to graphical user interfaces, from mouse and keyboard to touchscreens on mobile phones. But AR could introduce a new alternative to those physical buttons and screen presses.

“We actually might be doing holographic touch,” said Gruhler. “That’s going to be a relatively big shift in the way compute is done and the UI is done.”

But that doesn’t mean Microsoft is expecting HoloLens to completely replace desktop or even smartphones. Instead, the company is envisioning a future where the cloud enables people to seamlessly take their computing experience from one device to the other and from one room to the next without missing a beat.

“I think from a backend perspective, there’s some unique things we can do with data flow and machine learning that will probably be happening across all those platforms, whether it’s mouse and keyboard or screen touch or mixed or holographic touch,” said Gruhler. “The backend we’ll continue to build. But the frontend user experience can be a relatively big step change in terms of how we interact with information and build UX and UI.”

But games will still matter to HoloLens

While Microsoft is hesitant to position HoloLens as a “gaming platform,” it recognizes the importance of interactive entertainment. Gruhler says that he thinks a lot of what developers are learning today will translate to AR. He thinks that gaming is an important way to introduce people to the idea of a new way of interfacing with a computer.

“It’s something we feel very strongly about,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been pointing at Minecraft, which is our prize game platform — pointing developers at Minecraft to get out ahead of what a game developer at scale can do with something like HoloLens.”

It’s also not limited to Minecraft.

“We’re going to be working very closely with our third-party game publishers and developers and the broader gaming community to talk about what they can do and how they can think about this,” said Gruhler. “There’s no doubt that everyone in the gaming world is moving forward and investing their time to say, wait, can we shift here? Can we change the paradigm of our games or create new titles, whatever they might be?

“There will be successes and failures like any other new platform rollout. But for us, we want to commit to the gaming community that this is a platform for gaming experiences.”

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Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through ... read more »

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Unity: The majority of mobile gamers are open to engaging with incentivized video ads

Game developers have more free tools than ever to start building their projects, and one of the biggest companies providing that software is hyping up one of its products to make studios some money.

Above: Mobile ads often come with bonuses for the player that they can use in games.

Image Credit: Unity

Above: An incentivized ad on mobile.

Image Credit: Unity

More than 60 percent of mobile gamers are open to at least occasionally engaging with video ads if they come with in-game rewards, according to a new report from Unity Technologies. The company, which owns and operates the Unity game-development engine, survey more than 2,000 creators and customers to get a sense of how people feel about video advertisements inside of mobile games. The results showed that 46 percent of players prefer incentivized video commercials as opposed to full-screen popups (29 percent), banner ads (20 percent), and standard interstitial videos (5 percent). In a mobile market worth $34.8 billion, figuring out a way to earn money from the huge population of gamers who never put money into free-to-play games is crucial. Unity, which has its own ad platform built into its toolkit, thinks that more developers should begin stepping up to take advantage of this data.

When Unity asked how often players are open to engaging with rewarded video ads, 18 percent said that they always do. That’s a fairly high number. Nearly half of players, 44 percent, said that they sometimes engage with those ads. Meanwhile, 22 percent said they never opt-in to watching those videos, and 16 percent said they rarely do.

Any time that a player does watch an ad, however, developers get a payment from the marketers. If a game has a few hundred thousand daily active players, this could start generating some serious revenue.

Introducing incentive-based ads isn’t just about generating more revenue, according to Unity. The company also found that 39 percent developers saw their players returning more often and for longer periods of time after introducing rewarded ads. Only 9 percent saw a drop in retention.

For Unity, this is all clear evidence that more developers should use this advertising option. And it, of course, thinks studios should use Unity Ads rewarded-video platform. That’s likely not a tough sell considering thousands of developers around the world already use Unity, and now they have an option (and some data to convince them) to integrate that into their apps.

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Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability ensures developers... read more »

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My first VR injury was painful and all my fault

If you get a booboo in virtual reality, you get a booboo in real life.

Above: I needed a Band-Aid and everything!

Image Credit: Jeffrey Grubb

During my 7.5-hour virtual reality livestream yesterday, I sustained my first injury while wearing a head-mounted display. I booted up the game Unseen Diplomacy, which is an excellent room-scale experiment that developer Tirangular Pixels originally built for the National Videogame Arcadein the United Kingdom. Now, it is out on Steam for just $3(it’s over very quickly but easily worth that much money). Unseen Diplomacy puts you in the role of a special agent who must break out of a series of rooms by solving puzzles in your environment. My problem came when I crawled through a ventilation shaft that was on the boundaries of my play area — the same area that contained the table I was too lazy to move. As a crawled through the vent, my hand grazed against the edge of a table and scraped off a chunk of my skin.

When you set up the HTC Vive, it asks you to draw an outline of your play area with one of the Vive controllers. As I did this, I fudged it a little and put the controller over the table to give it a few more inches to ensure it would let me take advantage of my full living room. So this was all my fault. My table is the only thing in the play area that I really needed to move, but I just didn’t because it’s kinda heavy. Instead, I played with virtual fire and got real-life burned.

But I’m surprised that this is my only ouchie so far. Walking around my house with a screen over my eyes and a cord dangling by my feet seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Instead, I’ve played for more than a dozen hours now without issue. I’ve also seen my wife and my father walk around in VR like a couple of pros. That’s not to say you are totally safe, but it seems like most people adapt quickly. And when something does go wrong … well, it’s because some butthole didn’t feel like shifting some furniture a foot to the left.

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formerly High Tech Computer Corporation, is a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets. The company initially made smartphones based mostly on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system (OS) software, but in 2009 it began to ... read more »

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Oculus is OK with free-to-play on Rift, but even a VR ad startup doesn’t like that idea

Two high-end virtual reality devices have launched, and now we live in a world where we need to figure out how these headsets fit into our lives.

Above: AirMech: Command is n early standout for Oculus Rift.

Image Credit: Carbon Games

Two high-end virtual reality devices have launched, and now we live in a world where we need to figure out how these headsets fit into our lives. And, at least when it comes to the top-of-the-line models, that probably won’t include a lot of in-game advertising.

Oculus VR told developers at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last month that it is OK to make free-to-play games with in-app advertisements as long as they follow the company’s submission guidelines. Essentially, as long as a game is technically sound and feels like a complete, polished experience, Oculus will accept it onto its store even if it also has ads. This opens up an opportunity for a company like Immersv, which recently launcheda platform for interstitial video ads inside of VR. Tech adviser Digi-Capital predicts that VR could generate $30 billion in revenue by 2020, and marketing could contribute to that significantly — except we will probably see most of that happening on something other than an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or PlayStation VR.

Above: AirMech: Command is $40 after several free-to-play versions of AirMech.

Image Credit: Carbon Games

During its own GDC panel, Immersv explained that the VR market is ready for video ads to generate revenue, but the company specifically pointed to mobile headsets like Samsung’s GearVR and Google’s Cardboard. These are smartphone holsters that only work when you combine them with an iPhone or Android devices, and they are much less expensive than a $600 Oculus Rift that also requires a $1,000 PC. Google often gives away the Cardboard for free, and Samsung included a GearVR with every preorder for a Galaxy S7.

But when it comes to the higher-end devices, Carbon Games director James Green is very skeptical of the potential for free-to-play games. Green comes from the free-to-play space with Airmech, a real-time action-strategy release. For the Rift launch, Carbon reworked that game into the $40 AirMech: Command premium experience with no in-app purchases or ads. And he thinks that was the right choice.

“While we’ve had over 5 million players try AirMech across all platforms, it’s not a profitable venture,” he told GamesBeat. “All the money in F2P still revolves around the attempt to become one of the giants because that’s the only way it makes sense financially. I’ve watched many try and fail, and more that are failing, and it’s just a matter of time. And when they fail and shut down, it sucks for players.”

Green said Carbon will “never” shut down the free-to-play version of Airmech for PC and other platforms, but they are also shifting their focus to the VR version and other premium-priced versions. Here at GamesBeat, we’ve spent time with Airmech: Command for Oculus Rift, and its fast-paced tactical action and online multiplayer make it a standout among the device’s launch lineup. The game should do well once more people start getting their Rifts, but couldn’t it do potentially even better if it were free with in-app purchases and advertisements? Green says that’s not the case at all, and he explained to us why.

“The answer for everyone right now is install base,” he said. “If you make pennies per user, and your maximum potential user base is 1 million, you’ll get some smaller percent of that to even try your game, then down and down until you do make some money but not enough.”

And the thing is, Immersv says that Green is right.

“I agree that F2P is not well suited for the premium HMD VR market,” Immersv chief executive Mihir Shah told GamesBeat. “It’s a premium market. But F2P is perfect for the mobile VR market, which has upwards of 10 million users.”

Analysts actually expect mobile VR to grow at a similar rate to the core PC sector. SuperData Research thinks that by 2020, mobile will see $15.6 billion in revenues while PC will have $16.3 billion. For the Rift and Vive, you can expect to see fewer overall players who spend more. On mobile — and Immersv is counting on this — cheaper VR headsets should generate a market similar to smartphones where more people spend less per person but make up the difference with pure volume.

That could start as soon as this year.

“The Mobile VR market is set to expand significantly in the second half of 2016 and scores of developers will be releasing titles to catch the wave,” said Shah. “Worth noting that TapJoy hit its growth curve when there were 5 million U.S. iOS devices in the market.”

Some of the more confident analysts think that Oculus will sell 1 million Rifts in the first year of its life. Others think it is more likely going to get to around 500,000. Either way, a long way off from the 10 million mobile VR units Immersv wants to target.

But it’s not just install base. Carbon’s Green thinks everyone involved in VR should concern themselves with slowly building up an ecosystem that can make money for a variety of developers and content creators.

“[A free-to-play glut on VR] could kill the market before it grows,” said Green. “If you want the mega-pubs to make games, they need to see at least the potential to make a billion dollars in sales. You’ll never see a Call of Duty on VR until that business case can be made. The best you’ll get is one of those ‘Call of Battlefield’ — or whatever they’re called — clones that are F2P to try and scrape up some revenue.”

Green also sees this as an opportunity to reset value expectations for gamers who are used to be little-to-nothing for software.

“Personally I feel that the rise of F2P, Steam sales, Humble Bundle, and the others have destroyed and still are destroying the value of games,” he said. “It simply can’t support developers making games. For all the hate big companies like EA get, they do provide nice salaries to thousands of developers, and they train them to make games. Without them, we’d just get pixel art side scrollers and not much else.”

Above: Airmech: Command is like having a table-top game come to life right in front of your eyes.

Image Credit: Carbon Games

For those reasons, Green is happy to attach the $40 price tag to Airmech for the Rift. He feels like this is where things begin to make sense once again.

“I consider the free version of AirMech like a gift in some ways, which might earn us some good will in the community — but I also worry that we are contributing to the devaluation of games and developer’s time along with the rest of the things I mentioned.”

As for Immersv? It is helping to define what the early free-to-play market will look like for mobile VR.

“[Cost per thousand impressions] ad networks make no sense in the VR market,” said Shah. “But the video distribution ad model is built for the early VR market. It’s based on [cost per view] and [cost per install], which drives significant economics per daily active user. It’s a unique and high-quality model. Early mobile was built on it.”

But what is perhaps most interesting is to see how VR is already splitting into two or three distinct variations. The mobile market already looks so different compared to what you get with the Rift and Vive, and PlayStation VR may create something different as well for console players.

More information:

Oculus VR™ was founded by Palmer Luckey, self-described virtual reality enthusiast and hardware geek. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of their first product, the Oculus Rift, a ground-breaking vir... read more »

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HTC Vive is experiencing shipping problems, and the company is finally talking about it

Virtual reality tech finally works, and consumers are buying into it, but the biggest hurdle now is figuring out shipping logistics.

Above: Here's what you get in an HTC Vive.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The HTC Vive VR headset is the latest device to suffer delays, and the Taiwanese manufacturing company has taken to its blog to answer some questions that its frustrated customers are asking. In the update, the company acknowledged that it is experiencing “multiple issues,” and that it sees people asking for answers on message boards and forums. But HTC also reiterated that it will ship customers their Vive on time. If you preordered a Vive and the company’s site said it had an expected arrival of April, then it will ship in April. The Vive is not the only VR headset going through these problems. Samsung does not plan to deliver the Gear VR headsets for Galaxy S7 smartphone preorders until this summer, and Oculus VR is still strugglingto get its Rift headset (which launched at the end of March) out at a steady pace. For an industry that tech adviser Digi-Capital predicts will generate $30 billion in spending by 2020, these are some rough times that are likely setting a poor first impression for some of the most dedicated early adopters.

“We understand that multiple issues have arisen in the past two days and we are working hard to resolve them as quickly and efficiently as possible,” reads the HTC blog. “We appreciate your patience as we identify these issues and work to solve them.”

But in addition to asking for patience, HTC also debunked some theories people were coming up with on forum’s like Reddit’s Vive message board. One common refrain is that HTC is processing and shipping PayPal orders before credit card orders. The company says that’s not the case.

“Both credit card and PayPal orders are currently shipping,” reads the blog. “There is no difference in order fulfillment based on the payment method used. We have a first in, first out policy for Vive order fulfillment. There were a small number of orders at the beginning of April that were processed out of sequential order. However, we have corrected the situation and all future shipments will be sent in the order in which they were received.”

Other people are frustrated that they paid for express shipping but ended up getting an economy-shipping service. HTC says it will refund the difference in cost. This is in comparison to Oculus, which is not charging for shipping on any order made on April 2 or earlier.

Finally, HTC once again confirmed that it is on track to get the devices out to everyone on the original schedule.

“Vive order fulfillment is on track without delays, so you don’t need to do a thing,” reads the blog.

The subtext here is that you can still go online and complain if you want. It’s what I would do.

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formerly High Tech Computer Corporation, is a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets. The company initially made smartphones based mostly on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system (OS) software, but in 2009 it began to ... read more »

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How educators are using Rocket League to help kids learn engineering

Rocket League is a phenomenon.

Above: Rocket League was the surprise hit of 2015.

Image Credit: PlayStation Blog

Rocket League is a phenomenon. The soccer game you play with cars debuted last year, and it now has multiple esports leaguesand legions of dedicated fans. But the best evidence that it is something special is that educators are using it to teach kids.

This summer, summer-camp program iD Techwill use Rocket League to introduce children age 10 through age 12 to science, technology, engineering, and math, which are commonly referred to as the STEM subjects. Instructors will hold Rocket League up as an example before tasking campers with designing their own games and learning how to program. In an economy that is always looking for engineers, this kind of early training could put a new generation of kids on a path to a lucrative career. Some may even end up in the $99.3 billion gaming industry, which will likely generate well over $100 billion by the time 2016’s summer campers are old enough to join the workforce.

Rocket League is the latest game to join iD Tech’s roster of gaming-themed classes. The company already incorporates popular games like Valve’s Dota 2 multiplayer online arena battler and the shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. We’ve also previously covered iD Tech’s big move to use Minecraft, which is one of the most popular games in the world.

“Our task force team unanimously chose Rocket League because it’s challenging and entertaining with that fun, esports feel,” iD Tech chief executive Pete Ingram-Cauchi said in a statement. “Having an E-rated game is also a big selling point because it’s age appropriate and fun for all kids.”

For developer Psyonix, this is the continuation of a wild year where it went from relative obscurity to the team responsible for one of the 10 best games of 2015.

“We were immediately excited by the prospect of being included in the popular iD Tech programs,” Psyonix vice president Jeremy Dunham said in a statement. “We believe in their vision, and we love their programs, but we also know that Rocket League’s accessibility will give sports fans and non-sports fans alike the chance to compete in a game that’s unique and different than anything else.”

This summer, iD Tech expects to teach 50,000 students from ages six through 18 about STEM. And as they get a new perspective on how their favorite games work, many could decide to move into positions to work on the technology that will determine the course of the rest of this century.

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Koi is China’s first PlayStation 4 game for the West, and it debuts April 19

Gaming consoles are finally back in China after a lengthy ban, and now a developer in that country is building games for those systems.

Above: Beware of frogs. That's just good advice for every situation.

Image Credit: Oasis Games

Oasis Games, a Chinese studio that started in 2011, plans to release Koi for the Western PlayStation 4 market April 19. This makes Oasis the first company in China to ever release a PS4 game for players in Europe and the United States.The company has previously had success making web-based adventures like Legend Online for its domestic fans, but it is now expanding into a global gaming market that is worth $99.3 billion when you include PC, mobile, and console. Koi will sell for $10 on the PlayStation Store or $8 for members of Sony’s premium PS Plus subscription service.

China is already an enormous gaming market. In 2015, consumers in that country spent $22.2 billion on games across a variety of devices. PC and the web made up the biggest chunk of that at $15.2 billion, but mobile is also growing hyperfast with a 50 percent year-over-year increase to $4.1 billion. Console gaming, however, is relatively tiny at just $400 million in revenues. But Oasis is hoping that it can capture some of that business while ultimately making most of its return on investment overseas.

Koi puts players in the role of a fish in a pond who must solve puzzles and find zen throughout a number of missions in order to return the polluted waters to a pristine state. It features a clean art style that is reminiscent of some other indie games, but at the same time it also feels unique. One of the obvious benefits of China opening up its market to consoles is that a studio like Oasis could come along and bring its game-making perspective to players around the world. This is the first opportunity to see how that works.

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Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through i... read more »

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Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony. The company was... read more »

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Titanfall 2 brings mech fights to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC

It’s time to start gassing up your giant war mech because one of the best shooters of this generation is getting a sequel.

Above: Titanfall is back.

Image Credit: Electronic Arts

Titanfall 2 is coming soon, and publisher Electronic Arts is promising to show off more about the futuristic mech shooter as part of its presence at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in June. This is developer Respawn’s followup to the original Titanfall, which Microsoft paid EA to keep off of Sony systems as a way of setting the Xbox One apart from the PlayStation 4 early in this console generation. This time around, it’s already confirmed for PS4 in addition to Xbox One and PC, which should give the franchise its best chance yet to find a major audience in the $99.3 billion global gaming industry.

Titanfall debuted with some serious expectations due in large part to the people who made it. Many of the key creators responsible for the futuristic mech shooter were also responsible for making the Call of Duty franchise one of the biggest properties in the $99.3 billion gaming industry. And while many people enjoyed Titanfall (it was my game of the year for 2014), others lamented that it was missing a good single-player campaign and didn’t live up to the high hopes. With a strong core from the first release and several more years to build content for the sequel, Titanfall 2 could finally deliver on the original promise in a big way.

EA is now shifting into a promotional mode, and that includes releasing the following teaser trailer:

Titanfall is a series that EA obviously still wants to see do well. Call of Duty is regularly the best-selling game released every year, and it is one of the reasons publisher Activision is so successful. EA has tried to step into that space with a variety of releases that include Medal of Honor, Battlefield, and Star Wars: Battlefront. Both Battlefield and Battlefront have had some success, but they also come from the same studio, DICE in Sweden. If Titanfall 2 delivers, the company could begin rotating between Battlefield, Battlefront, and Titanfall to ensure it always has a fresh marquee shooter on the market.

More information:

Founded in 2010, Respawn Entertainment is an independent video game development studio based in the San Fernando Valley, California that will focus on creating state-of-the-art gaming experiences for global audiences. The studio was fo... read more »

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