Opinion: The dangers of gamer entitlement
Outcry over Where's My Water's 69p level bundle and Half-Life 3 highlight the problems of players loving games a little too much, says Alex Wiltshire.
10Outcry over Where's My Water's 69p level bundle and Half-Life 3 highlight the problems of players loving games a little too much, says Alex Wiltshire.
10Pete Collier on what it took to finish the game: community support to dealing with Apple.
Tadhg Kelly gets into the Christmas spirit as he considers the importance of giving players more than they expect.
3But Peter Moore admits that many people still see the service as an obstacle that "gets in the way". More >
Blackberry manufacturer RIM has revealed that it will compensate beleaguered users affected by last week's service outage with free games. Games up for grabs include The Sims 3, N.O.V.A., Bubble Bash 2 and PopCap's Bejeweled among others, and can be downloaded at no cost from Blackberry's App World for one month from tomorrow. More >
3Following the furore over CCP's introduction of a shop into EVE Online, the company has gone one step further to winning back the hearts (and wallets) of its fans. Players whose EVE accounts lapsed around the time of the incident have been offered, by email, a reduced subscription offer of $4.95 for 30 days. The news follows CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson's letter of apology to the EVE community last week. More >
Clint Hocking asks, is there a way of protecting developers' creativity while allowing the free exchange of ideas that fosters it?
Your players are fickle, impatient and your ultimate boss, and you have to keep them happy, says PopCap's Giordano Contestabile.
We go in-depth with Epic's creative director on Gears Of War 3's story, themes and design.
8The developer that’s building an army of customer service agents.
One of gaming's biggest franchises was almost killed before it cleared the beach.
Making journalists behave isn't as important as giving gamers the information they want, says Thom Dinsdale.
2Norwegian retailer Coop Norway has temporarily removed 51 game and toy brands from its shelves following last months bombing and massacre committed by Anders Behring Breivik. The move comes in response to the mention of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and World Of Warcraft in Breivik's manifesto, who wrote: "I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else." Speaking to the Norwegian press, Coop Norway Retail director Geir Inge Stokke said: "The decision to remove the games was made around the time we realised the scope of the attack. Others are better suited than us, to point to the negative effects of games like these. At the moment it's [appropriate] for us to take them down. I wouldn't be surprised if others do the same. We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance." Other titles removed from sale include Homefront, Sniper Ghost Warrior and Counter-Strike Source. It's important to note that non-game items such as toy guns have also been taken off shelves. We've contacted the publishers involved for comment.
While Hollywood was left starstruck by British royals, stars from the game industry were struck by BAFTA's support of gaming.
Sledgehammer Games VP and COO Michael Condrey has revealed, in a response to a player's question on the studio's blog, that Modern Warfare 3 will offer a Colour Blind Assist mode. "[The number of people with Colour Vision Deficiency varies] depending on which source you quote, but we estimate that nearly a million gamers are playing Call Of Duty every day with this issue," he writes. Modern Warfare 3 is due for release on November 8.
3Despite suffering losses of more than $3.2 billion during the last financial year and the PlayStation Network security breach, Sony remains Asia's most valued brand. That’s according to a survey by market research firm TNS, which polled over 3,300 people between the ages of 15 and 64 across ten regional markets in Asia. Electronics companies Samsung, Panasonic, LG and Canon followed Sony, all retaining their top five spots from last year. "I think we often find it's the everyday brands that come out on top in this survey," said Atifa Hargrave-Silk, editorial director of brand media Asia for Haymarket media, who sponsored the survey. "It's not a reflection of Asia's love affair with luxury brands.” TNS commercial director Thomas Isaac added: "Luxury brands, by definition are not mass market products. In most Asian countries, the man on the street has not heard of Louis Vuitton, but he has heard of Sony."
Thom Dinsdale charts corporate responses to the spate of hacking that has recently paralysed the industry.
All mission progress in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is saved directly to the 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset, a decision that didn’t go down well with many fans - and one publisher Capcom now says it's unlikely to repeat. US senior VP Christian Svensson told Capcom Unity in a video interview: "I think it's fair to say there was never quite the malicious intent that the conspiracy theorists out there would have you believe. I think it's also fair to say that in light of the controversy it's generated, I don't think you're going to see something like this happening again." The impact the decision has had on sales is hard to judge. Despite being the highest-ranked new entry on this week’s UK all formats chart, The Mercenaries 3D debuted at a lowly number 21.
Taiwan App Store customers can now benefit from a seven-day return policy. Apple changed its rules in response to pressure from the Taiwanese government, which claimed the Cupertino company was in violation of the consumer protection law. The government accused Google of the same violation and ordered it to change its Android Market rules, too. Google has so far refused to comply. There is no word as to whether Apple will expand this policy to other territories, but it is unlikely that the option would be explored.
2K Games has dropped third party PR agency The Redner Group, which most recently represented the publisher on the poorly received Duke Nukem Forever. The move came after the PR firm’s founder, Jim Redner, threatened to blacklist reviewers, saying on Twitter last night: “Too many went too far with their reviews...we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom.” 2K responded swiftly, announcing today: “2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by @TheRednerGroup and confirm they no longer represent our products.”
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