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Tag: console

  • Miley Cyrus is Justin Bieber’s Mentor

    It’s news you never get tired about hearing, whether it’s displayed in the impulse buyers section on the magazine rack at a grocery store, or it’s your Facebook feed; America’s sweet hearts are Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.  The child stars are buddies, and since Cyrus has been in the industry longer, she consoles Bieber in a business where the wild public degrades you for your behavior, and you never get a moment of privacy.

    In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Cyrus revealed that she provides some sage wisdom and peace of mind for Bieber.

    “I’m not much older than him, so I never want it to feel like I’m mentoring him,” Cyrus said. “But I do mentor him in a way. Because I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I already transitioned, and I don’t think he’s quite done it yet.”

    Though Cyrus doesn’t often hang out Bieber, with whom she describes as a “Baby” singer, she still deeply respects the artist and cares for him. Back in May during the Billboard Awards 2013, Bieber faced a wave of boos as he thanked Jesus Christ.

    “He’s trying really hard,” Cyrus said. “People don’t take him seriously, but he really can play the drums, he really can play guitar, he really can sing.”

    “I just don’t want to see him fuck that up, to where people think he’s Vanilla Ice. I tell him that. Like, ‘You don’t want to become a joke. When you go out, don’t start shit. Don’t come in shirtless.’”

    Both celebrities have had a rough year. Bieber has a long list of controversies surrounding him; late last year a convict named Dana Martin hatched a plan to cut off the Bieb’s balls. On every Facebook feed and electronic device with a screen on it, 20-year old Cyrus twerked her buttocks against the sexist crotch of 36-year old Robin Thicke, then proceeded to film a music video where she’s riding naked on a wrecking ball.

    “I think boys are, like, seven years behind. So in his head, he’s really, like, 12.”

    And she might actually be right, Elite Daily reported that men don’t really mature until they’re around 32 or so.

    Fame makes a man think things over.

    (Images via Twitter)

  • Amazon Developing an Android Video Game Console [RUMOR]

    The success of video games on mobile devices has begun to drastically affect the video game industry. Free-to-play game pricing has begun to invade both PC gaming and console gaming, and nearly every large game publisher is now putting out games for iOS and Android. The success of the Ouya Kickstarter has shown that there is some demand for more casual Android games on a larger screen.

    Now, it appears that Amazon is looking to enter the video game console market. Game Informer is reporting that Amazon is developing an Android video game console. According to the report’s unnamed people “who have knowledge of the in-development hardware,” the console will be released by the end of 2011 – perhaps as soon as Black Friday. A newly designed controller is also rumored to be in development.

    Amazon has reportedly been gathering veteran game developer talent into its Amazon Game Studios team for months. The studio was announced late last year, and it has already released more than one game, including the mobile game Air Patriots..

    Though the Ouya Kickstarter campaign was wildly successful, reviews of the console have been lukewarm, largely due to the lack of exclusive games for the device. If Amazon is able to launch its console with a variety of great original games, then the company’s already established base of Kindle Fire gamers, the incredible marketing power of the Amazon home page, and a price far lower than Sony’s or Microsoft’s new consoles could make an Amazon gaming console a real player in the gaming industry.

    (via Game Informer)

  • Nintendo to Release Black 3DS XL in August

    Though Nintendo’s Wii U console is struggling to sell, the company’s handheld 3DS console is gaining even more traction than ever. While the home console market release schedule has slow down in anticipation of next-gen consoles, already this year 3DS owners have seen the release of instant-classics such as Fire Emblem: Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. While Dark Moon sits at #15 on Amazon’s top-selling video game list (ahead of BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider), Nintendo is preparing to unleash Pokemon X & Y, which will further push 3DS hardware sales.

    To keep interest high between now and the October release of Pokemon, Nintendo is releasing a new color for its 3DS XL console. The company announced that a black version of the handheld will be available starting August 11. The color will join blue, red, and pink as 3DS XL colors sold in the U.S.

    The release date is the same one as the upcoming Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, though no official bundle has been announced. Dream Team is an RPG-style Mario game in the spirit of the Paper Mario games.

  • Ouya Consoles Begin Shipping on March 28

    The Ouya console has been quite the success story. The Google Android-powered game console began as a Kickstarter campaign asking for just under $1 million from people who would like to own a more open home video game console. The campaign earned its goal in less than one day and went on to raise over $8.5 million from tens of thousands of backers.

    When the campaign ended in August 2012, a tentative release date of March 2013 was set. Though six months seems like very little time to develop a new game console, the Ouya’s developers seem to have followed through on their promise.

    Ouya today announced that Ouya consoles will begin shipping to those who backed the Kickstarter campaign on March 28. Production of the consoles is already progressing and will ramp up throughout the next month. As the company announced earlier this month, gamers who didn’t have a chance to back the Kickstarter campaign can expect to see the console hit retail store shelves sometime in June.

    Though the launch lineup of games for the Ouya may be sparse, the company used the launch date announcement to reveal several titles that will be coming to the console. In particular, an exclusive projects for the Ouya is being created by Quantum Conundrum developer Airtight Games, and Papo & Yo developer Minority Media will release an “adventure puzzler” for the console this fall.

    In addition to the games, Ouya also announced that Thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago has joined Ouya as head of developer relations. Thatgamecompany is best known for developing Flower and Journey, which ended up on many game-of-the-year lists for 2012.

  • Rumor: Valve Entering The Game Console Business

    There’s always been a gap between console and PC gaming. Besides companies like OnLive and Razer, there hasn’t been much in the way of dedicated PC game platforms. Valve may be the upset that changes all of that.

    The Verge recently got the exclusive scoop that Valve may be working on a game console. The rumors suggest that it won’t be a game console in the strictest sense of the word, but rather a uniform standard PC that would break down the barrier to PC gaming for a lot of people.

    The rumors suggest that Valve has created a prototype of this potential game console. If it goes into full production, the specs and design would vary by manufacturer and distributor. The software would also be open allowing anybody to put their service on the box. This would mean that EA’s Origin and GameStop’s Impulse could co-exist with Steam on such a device.

    There are also rumors that say Valve showed off the console to potential partners and interested parties at CES in January. The specs of the device include an Intel Core i7, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GPU. If you’re not too familiar with PC hardware, that’s a beast of a machine.

    Now all of this so far just sounds like Valve is making a mini-PC. It essentially is, but there’s more to it than that. By giving developers a set structure to work with instead of having to deal with the countless configurations currently in PC gaming, they could really tap into the power that a Valve console could offer. It would also, as The Verge points out, give developers a set lifecycle of three to four years.

    The rumors also state that the console would ship with a custom controller that could have its parts switched out depending on the type of game the user is playing. It would also include some form of biometrics to track a player’s breathing and heartbeats in a way similar to the curious Wii Vitality Sensor that never made it to production.

    Kotaku got a picture of the rumored device from a tipster, but nobody is sure if it’s the rumored device or not. The specs of the pictured machine line up with what the rumors say it will have.

    Valve Game Console

    This isn’t the first time, however, that there have been attempts to make a PC gaming console. The aforementioned OnLive and Razer solutions aren’t really consoles, but rather ways to standardize PC gaming. The ill-fated Phantom platform that was never actually released despite numerous E3 appearances sought to take PC gaming into the console business. If the rumors are true, it will be interesting to see if Valve succeeds where Phantom failed.

    The rumors suggest that Valve will show off the hardware at GDC this week or E3 in June. Let’s hope the reveal is sooner rather than later. We’ll be covering GDC this week so we’ll keep you up to date on the rumored Valve console as well as any other announcements made during the event.

  • Nintendo Developing An App Store For Wii U Console

    It seems that Nintendo still has a few surprises up its sleeve with the new Wii U console set to launch next year. The Daily is reporting that Nintendo has been developing an app store for the next generation gaming console. The current Wii console sports the Wii Shop Channel, which allows users to download games – including all their favorites from past Nintendo consoles – and a few other app-like channels and utilities, like Netflix, this would be an honest-to-goodness app store. Rumored apps include MLB.TV (which is coming to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 this Spring). Many of these apps will also run on the Wii U’s tablet-like controller, which sports a 6.2-inch screen, a camera, microphone, gyroscope, and accelerometer.

    The Wii U, announced in April and unveiled at this year’s E3 game conference, continues Nintendo’s focus on innovation in the way games are played. Nintendo’s first Wii console, which launched in late 2006, constituted a significant shift in the so-called console wars. Before the Wii, Nintendo had been engaged in a game of one-upsmanship with Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation 2, both of which sported comparable technical specs and a game library more geared toward older, more hard-core gamers. With the Wii Nintendo altered its entire strategy: instead of perpetuating the graphics and processing arms race with Sony and Microsoft, they chose to pursue a more unique and intuitive control system, targeted at the casual gamer market that the Xbox and Playstation had all but ignored.

    The strategy worked well. The Wii enjoys a significant lead over the competition in global market share (though Microsoft is top dog in the US). What’s more, the Wii brought motion control to the world of gaming, as Microsoft and Sony have since developed their own unique versions of the concept (Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move, respectively).

    The Wii U is set to launch sometime in 2012, and is expected to be HD compatible (like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but unlike the current Wii). Many details are still unknown – pricing for the console, pricing for the app store, and a more specific release date chief among them. Whenever it launches, though, the Wii U looks to be an exciting addition to the gaming world. Check out the console’s E3 trailer below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

    [Source: The Daily]

  • Angry Birds Developer Calls For Death Of Console Gaming

    Angry Birds Developer Calls For Death Of Console Gaming

    The television was supposed to kill radio. The internet is supposed to stab television in the back. Email is supposedly going to be dead in a few years due to social media. I wonder if Twitter will commit harikari in 2020. What is it with technology and death?

    Now, Peter Vesterbacka, business developer lead for Rovio (of Angry Birds fame), has come out to make the bold statement that mobile gaming is causing console gaming to die. He made the statement during the SXSW Conference. Do the numbers back up his statement? Is the 100 million downloads Vesterbacka claims Angry Birds drew in enough to send console gaming the way of the dinosaurs?

    Let’s take a look at the cold hard data. For our two samples we’ll look at the immensely popular Angry Birds, and Call of Duty: Black Ops to represent console gaming. Black Ops was the top selling console game of 2010.

    We’re going to take the 100 million downloads Rovio is boasting with their title and match it up against the console sales for Black Ops. According to VGChartz, Black Ops sold 11.95 millions copies on the Xbox 360, and 9.6 million copies on the PS3.

    According to my handy computer calculator, here’s how the numbers stand against one another (Black Ops sells for $59.99).

    Angry Birds revenue – $100 million

    Call of Duty: Black Ops revenue – $1.29 billion

    Of course the real tell-of-the-tape is with their profit, but unfortunately we don’t have production and publishing costs for both games. However, I would be extremely surprised to learn that Black Op’s production cost so much it earned less than $100 million.

    As a gamer for going on two decades, I would have to call Vesterbacka’s words at the very least, reaching, at the most, hyperbole. There’s a good chance Vesterbacka was simply posturing to the crowd, and wanted to create some controversy to attract attention to his game. If so, it worked, I am writing about what he said.

    Mobile gaming has definitely changed the landscape of not only gaming but the way we value media. However, the mobile gaming platform isn’t going to cause anything to “die“. It has simply provided us with another way in which to enjoy gaming, and to allow more people to join in on the action.

    Different forms of technology will be around as long as they’re useful; after all, I can still go out to my car and listen to the radio.

  • Nintendo DSi XL Receives New Colors

    Nintendo DSi XL Receives New Colors

    The Nintendo DSi XL handheld gaming console, is set to have a technicolour makeover this autumn, as three bright new colours – yellow, green & blue make their way to stores across Europe on 8th October 2010 for all to enjoy!.

    Since it’s European debut in March 2010, as part of the Nintendo DS range, the Nintendo DSi XL has sold over 3.6 million pieces of hardware globally, taking the total number of Nintendo DS range of consoles to over 132 million systems. In addition to the stylish wine red and dark brown consoles still available in stores, players will be given a wider choice of colours to choose from as yellow, green and blue join the offerings!

    The latest iterations of the Nintendo DSi XL will offer the same functionality as the wine red and dark brown consoles; featuring the same glossy sheen on top, matt finish on the underside that provides extra grip, bigger screens and wider viewing angle. It will still continue to be pre-loaded with two Nintendo DSiWare software: A Little Bit of…Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function, as well as the Nintendo DSi Browser, which enables you to easily access the internet wherever a wireless Internet connection is available

    The yellow, green and blue consoles will arrive just in time for players to enjoy some enjoyable new software on offer this season.  Join the supreme puzzle master Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke, in their brand new engaging adventure ‘Professor Layton and the Lost Future’ when this launches for the Nintendo DS family across Europe on 22nd October. Players can attempt to solve more than 165 brand new brain teasers, riddles and logic puzzles guaranteed to challenge and delight both newcomers and fans of the Professor Layton games.

    Players with a Nintendo DSi XL will be able to experience the adventure with added comfort on a 93 percent bigger touch screen than the Nintendo DS Lite and with the larger pen like stylus which comes with the Nintendo DSi XL, and now in your chosen new colour!

    So get ready to be presented with a colourful choice this autumn, when the new Nintendo DSi XL in yellow, green and blue launch across Europe on 8th October 2010. It’s a bright future ahead of colours for Nintendo!

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