Tag Archives | Gaming

3G in the PSP2, Perhaps

Posted by Jared Newman on January 24, 2011 at 1:42 pm

Last July, Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo talked up its ambitions to embed 3G capabilities in video game consoles. Now, it looks like the company has found a taker in Sony’s PSP2, according to a report in Nikkei (via CNet).

The next Playstation Portable, which hasn’t officially been announced yet (the image here is a mock-up), won’t be a phone, says the report, but it will let people download content and play online. Sony is holding a press conference in Tokyo this Thursday, where the company is likely to reveal the PSP2 in full.

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More on Google's Puzzling Decision to Oust Kongregate from the Android Market

Posted by Jared Newman on January 20, 2011 at 12:24 pm

Kongregate Arcade’s rejection from the Android Market just got more interesting now that Google has explained itself.

Earlier this week, Flash gaming portal Kongregate released an Android app that’s basically an extension of the full website. Kongregate Arcade provided recommendations and user reviews for more than 300 phone-friendly Flash games, along with badges for in-game achievements.

It also allowed users to cache Flash games for offline play. And that, apparently, is what upset Google enough to remove the app. (You can still get it from Kongregate’s website.) The Android Market does not allow developers to distribute their own app stores, and offline caching led Google to view Kongregate Arcade as a self-contained app storefront.

But in explaining its logic to GigaOM, Google has exposed both a double standard for video games and an instance where Apple, oddly enough, is more liberal.

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Nintendo 3DS: $250, March 27 Release Date

Posted by Jared Newman on January 19, 2011 at 8:20 am

After 10 months of teasing, Nintendo has answered the biggest lingering questions about its next handheld: How much will the Nintendo 3DS cost, and when can you get it?

At $250, the Nintendo 3DS is almost twice the price of the DS Lite, and $100 more expensive than the DSi. It’s the most expensive handheld Nintendo has ever launched, and ties the Wii for Nintendo’s priciest hardware launch ever (if you don’t adjust for inflation).

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Kongregate Gives Android a Proper Flash Gaming Portal

Posted by Jared Newman on January 18, 2011 at 10:14 am

[UPDATE: Google has pulled this app from the Android Market for “unknown reasons.” You can now get it directly from Kongregate’s website.]

The arrival of Adobe Flash games on Android phones last May was dampened by two factors: Most of the games weren’t that great, and there was no obvious way to filter the good stuff from the bad.

Kongregate, the Flash game portal owned by GameStop, hopes to change all that with Kongregate Arcade, an app for Android phones running version 2.2 and above. It’s kind of like OpenFeint’s awesome game discovery app for iPhone and Android, with recommendations, user ratings and screenshots, but instead of routing users back to the App Store or Android Market, it links to Flash games on Kongregate’s own mobile site.

Other perks include badges (with user profiles that sync between the desktop and mobile sites) and offline support for a select number of games.

Without the app, Kongregate’s mobile site is just a running list of games, with no descriptions or added features. It isn’t much different from competing sites, such as Armor Games, and certainly isn’t very inviting. The native app, by comparison, looks more like Kongregate’s full website, and it could be just what Kongregate needs to make Flash gaming more popular on Android phones.

I haven’t had a chance to try the new app yet (it’ll have to wait until my wife gets home with her Droid Incredible). I’d love to add some impressions when I get a chance. In the meantime, I hope Kongregate users start helping the good mobile Flash games rise to the top.

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2010 Game Sales: It's Now Microsoft's Game to Lose

Posted by Jared Newman on January 14, 2011 at 9:02 am

The NPD Group’s North American video game sales figures usually present a chance for publishers to spin the facts and crow about their accomplishments. But in the industry’s second consecutive year of decline, Microsoft’s the only company with bragging rights.

Consumers spent $6.2 billion on the Xbox 360 last year, more than any other game console according to Microsoft. And in December, Microsoft sold 1.86 million Xbox 360s, making it the only game console to grow year-over-year last month.

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Mass Effect 2 for PS3: Downloadable and On Disc at the Same Time

Posted by Jared Newman on January 12, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Another Playstation story to take eyes off the current hacking unpleasantness, perhaps?

Sony announced that Mass Effect 2 will be downloadable through its Playstation Network on January 18, the same day that it goes to brick-and-mortar retailers. I’m not aware of any previous big-budget PS3 games that launched as downloads day-and-date with their retail counterparts.

Mind you, Mass Effect 2 isn’t a brand new game — last year, it launched exclusively for the Xbox 360 and Windows — but it’s a darned good one, and a sign that publishers are getting cozier with the idea of full game downloads.

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Slowly, Windows Phone 7 Games Start Talking to the Xbox 360

Posted by Jared Newman on January 11, 2011 at 9:56 am

One of Windows Phone 7’s most tantalizing hooks is Xbox Live, an offshoot of Microsoft’s online video game service, but so far the interaction between mobile and console games has been limited.

Slowly, that’s starting to change. At a CES press event, Microsoft was showing off Full House Poker, an upcoming Texas Hold ‘Em game for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7. Although the games differ on each platform, and you’ll have to buy each one separately, your performance in one game affects the other.

Microsoft has done some tie-ins before — Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, for instance, unlocks an achievement in Crackdown 2 for Xbox 360 — but Full House Poker is the most closely linked game I’ve seen yet.

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OnLive Now Building Itself Into Electronics, Starting With Vizio TVs

Posted by Jared Newman on January 4, 2011 at 8:06 am

OnLive really is becoming the gaming equivalent of Netflix, not only with its upcoming subscription plan for streaming video games, but with plans to become embedded in TVs and Blu-ray players.

First up are Vizio’s web-connected TVs. Consumers won’t need any additional hardware — I assume, or at least hope, that a controller is included — and Vizio can use the existing Marvell chips in its TVs to power the OnLive service, VentureBeat reports. Vizio will also offer OnLive through its connected Blu-ray players, tablets and smartphones. Naturally, OnLive is trying to strike deals with other companies as well.

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Will Any Emulators Be Allowed on Windows Phone 7?

Posted by Jared Newman on January 3, 2011 at 9:18 am

It looks like Microsoft is following in Apple’s footsteps by refusing to admit a Nintendo emulator to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Matt Bettcher was the first developer to try and report the result. On YouTube, he demonstrated a simple port of SharpNES running on his computer’s Windows Phone 7 software emulator, and claims that his Samsung Focus can handle the NES emulator at 10 to 20 frames per second. But according to WMPowerUser, Microsoft promptly informed Bettcher that the app won’t be allowed in the Marketplace.

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