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From all of us at FiringSquad, to all of you out there around the globe, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. I hope that Santa brought you all exactly what you wanted.
First, sorry for the slow start on news today. I just got started with my Christmas shopping for the year and have a little more to go. With Christmas right around the corner news is pitifully slow right now anyway.
Wired has posted an intriguing article that chronicles the failed development of 3D Realms Duke Nukem Forever. Citing anonymous former employees and web postings as their sources, the article notes numerous issues that the team wasn't able to overcome. Feature creep appears to be a recurring theme:
Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.
But because the technology kept getting better, Broussard was on a treadmill. He’d see a new game with a flashy graphics technique and demand the effect be incorporated into Duke Nukem Forever. “One day George started pushing for snow levels,” recalls a developer who worked on Duke Nukem Forever for several years starting in 2000. Why? “He had seen The Thing” — a new game based on the horror movie of the same name, set in the snowbound Antarctic — “and he wanted it.” The staff developed a running joke: If a new title comes out, don’t let George see it.
When the influential shoot-’em-up Half-Life debuted in 1998, it opened with a famously interactive narrative sequence in which the player begins his workday in a laboratory, overhearing a coworker’s conversation that slowly sets a mood of dread. The day after Broussard played it, an employee told me, the cofounder walked into the office saying, “Oh my God, we have to have that in Duke Nukem Forever.”
That's not all though. The article also mentions the delay imposed by switching game engines, the fact that the team was understaffed (the dev team consisted of only 18 people in 2003), and the curse of having too much money, which allowed 3D Realms to continually push back milestones and key dates. (Spotted on Blues News
The New York Times is the latest pub to speculate on NVIDIA x86 CPU rumors. The Times quotes the usual items that fuel these speculation stories, such as NVIDIA employing dozens of former Transmeta engineers, which has in part caused their R&D budget to balloon from $352 million in 2006 to $855.9 million last year.
More interesting evidence though comes from the recent FTC suit filed against Intel. As the NYT article points out, the FTC would like to see Intel open up its x86 licensing to more companies. To quote the FTC suit: "Requiring Intel to make available technology (including whatever is necessary to interoperate with Intel’s CPUs or chipsets) to others, via licensing or other means, upon such terms and conditions as the Commission may order, including but not limited to extensions of terms of current licenses."
Wall Street is eating up the NVIDIA news this morning too. NVIDIA shares have risen 2% since the market opened today. In comparison Intel shares are flat, while AMD's shares are nearly down 2%.
Other than Blizzard, there really aren't any major developers focused exclusively on the PC left. id and Epic sold out years ago, and while Valve has done a good job of supporting PC gamers, they aren't exclusive to us either, and Crytek has already said that Crysis is their last PC-exclusive.
That leaves us with Blizzard and their strategy and RPG titles, which as we all know are best played with a mouse and keyboard. That's not going to stop them for moving to consoles at some point in the future though. Speaking with Gamasutra, Blizzard's J Allen Brack said:
"We're a company of gamers, I have two consoles at home. Sam [Didier, art director] has consoles. We're a culture of gamers. We will definitely work on a console game at some point. I have no doubt about that. It's just [a matter of] what game. What makes the most sense?"
...
"We're working on PC because it's familiar to us and it's relatively easy and it's not changing formats every other year and there aren't three different versions. Console, we have to worry about [those things]. I think the PC is really a good market to target."
Brack went on to say that the PC market is quite healthy
Zipper Interactive announces that their 256-person online shooter MAG has gone gold, with an open beta coming worldwide on Jan 4th. From the PS3 blog:
On behalf of everyone at Zipper Interactive, I’m proud to announce that following our successful series of beta programs this past fall, our 256-player first-person shooting spectacular, MAG, has gone gold in North America, Japan, Korea, and the rest of Asia. It is now headed off to manufacturing so that the game can make it from store shelves to PlayStation 3s all over the world. Expect MAG to drop on January 26 in North America and Asia, January 28 in Japan, and January 29 in Korea.
The European discs are finishing up final quality assurance rounds right now and we expect to see those editions go gold sometime in the next few weeks.
We realize that the wait is still more than a month away, which is why we’re also pleased to announce a cool little surprise (or should I say, a “great, big surprise?”) to tide you over. In an effort to give you a taste of what to expect with the final version of MAG, Zipper and Sony Computer Entertainment will team up on January 4 to bring you our final and 100% open PSN beta.
But what’s so great about MAG Beta 5? Well, to start, it will take place worldwide — so if you’re in a territory with a PlayStation 3 and an Internet connection, you qualify to be a part of it. What’s more is that you won’t need any special permissions or code keys to participate, you’ll just get it and go! Complete access to the game’s 64-player sabotage and 256-player Domination modes are pretty good reasons to get excited too.
Of course, the best news about MAG Beta 5 is that you’ll be able to download the client in North America starting tomorrow, December 22! Additionally, PS3 owners in Asia can start downloading the file on December 25, while the European store will make it available on January 4. Check back for details on Japanese PSN store access in the near future.
Now that you know where to get the MAG Beta, your path to playing it is a simple three-step process:
Log on to the PlayStation Store (tomorrow) and download the MAG Beta file like you would any other freely-available PSN video or demo (298 MB)
Launch the MAG Beta program from your XMB to download a special patch that will restart MAG once the update has been received (another 38 MB)
After the reboot, the beta will reconnect and download the actual game data so that you can play (1.8 GB – 2.3 GB depending on your region)
Complete the steps above and you’ll be ready to rock ‘n roll — and shoot things and blow stuff up — until the beta ends on January 10 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. Keep in mind, though, that you won’t actually be able to play the MAG beta directly until the servers go live at 5 am Pacific on January 4. But hey, look at the bright side: this is the last time you’ll ever have to download a MAG file this big (since the data will already be on the retail disc when it ships next month), and you’ll save a whole lot of extra shooting time by downloading what you need early on; thus allowing you to jump into the action immediately on the 4th.
Oh, and one last thing before I go: I know I speak for everyone here at Zipper Interactive when I say that each and every one of us wishes you and yours a happy and safe holiday season. Thank you very much for supporting our community and our game in 2009, and we look forward to giving you exactly what you’ve been waiting for in 2010!
Intel announces their next-generation Atom CPUs, the Atom D410 (512KB and 12W TDP) and dual-core D510 (1MB L2, 15W TDP) featuring integrated graphics and memory controller built-in to the CPU, both clocked at 1.66GHz:
Intel Corporation announced new Intel Atom processors today that feature integrated graphics built directly into the CPU, enabling improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs in a new generation of netbooks and Atom-based entry level desktop PCs. Major OEMs have committed to having systems on the new Intel® Atom™ processors and a new companion chipset available within the next few weeks.
The newest Intel Atom platform for netbooks consists of a new Intel® Atom™ processor, the N450, and a new low-power Intel® NM10 Express Chipset. For entry level desktop PCs, it consists of either the Intel® Atom™ processor D410 or the dual core D510, also paired with the Intel® NM10 Express Chipset. The Intel Atom processor was designed from the ground up for small devices and low power, and remains Intel's smallest chip, built on the company's 45nm high-k metal gate manufacturing process. The overall package, including chipset, just got smaller due to the increasing integration and 45nm manufacturing, which means smaller, more compact system designs, lower costs for OEMs and improved performance.
Broad Industry Momentum
Intel continues to see broad industry support for the Atom platform as netbooks in particular have been hot sellers during a recessionary year due to their affordability, function and small size (7-10.2" screens). Additionally, Intel is expecting to see broad channel adoption for Atom in a variety of small form factor entry-level desktop PCs at low price points, including ultra-small designs (less than 1-litre chassis), fanless designs, and low-cost all-in-one designs.
Since Intel announced the first Atom processors for netbooks and entry-level desktop PCs in June 2008, the market has expanded rapidly. Since introduction, Intel has shipped over 40 million Atom chips for netbooks to every major OEM around the world. In the same timeframe, netbooks ramped faster and sold more units than Apple's iPhone or the Nintendo Wii.* According to ABI Research, total Atom shipments for all segments are expected to continue to grow into the 100s of millions by 2011.* Intel is not letting up, offering the next-generation platform for OEMs to continue to innovate around.
"The Intel Atom processor has fueled an entirely new category of computing over the last year and a half and we think the growth will continue for devices like netbooks and entry-level PCs built around basic computing and Internet usage models," said Mooly Eden, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's PC Client Group. "We're excited to be delivering the next-generation Atom platform and working across the industry as we head into a second phase of growth, powering innovative new system designs with better performance, smaller footprints and better battery life."
Intel has over 80 design wins to-date for the new Atom platform from such leading OEMs as ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, MSI, Toshiba, Samsung and Fujitsu. While the bulk of the systems will feature the new Windows 7* Starter or Home Basic operating system, consumers will have a choice when it comes to selecting an operating system, with some OEMs offering MoblinTM Linux v2 as an alternative for customers who desire a customizable and differentiated user interface.
Worldwide netbook shipments by telecommunications companies such as T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and others are also growing and expected to fuel another round of expansion. Intel has been working closely with mobile operators and modem vendors to advance 3G capabilities in netbooks in established and emerging markets. To-date approximately a dozen service providers offer netbooks in various markets, and the numbers are expected to grow with the newest platform.
Improved processor and graphics performance
One of the most significant features of the new platform is the integration of memory controller and graphics into the CPU, a first in the industry on x-86 chips. That means two chips (CPU+chipset) instead of the previous three (CPU, chipset, I/O controller hub), a lower TDP, and substantial reductions in cost, overall footprint and power. The netbook platform features a 20 percent improvement in average power and a smaller package size over the previous Atom platform. This translates into smaller and more compact system designs and longer battery life. Because of the integration, the total footprint for the netbook platform has decreased by approximately 60 percent. For entry level desktop PCs, it's a nearly 70 percent reduction in footprint and about 50 percent lower TDP than the previous generation.
About the platform
The N450 is a single core Atom processor with 512k of L2 cache and a 7 watt total kit TDP including chipset. The D410 for entry-level desktop PCs is a single-core Atom processor with 512k of L2 cache and a 12-watt total kit TDP including chipset, and the D510 for entry-level desktop PCs is a dual core Atom processor with 1meg L2 cache and a 15-watt total kit TDP including chipset. The new chips all run at 1.66GHz. Pricing and availability will be announced in January as systems become available from OEMs.
Intel's also put together a video featuring the new Atom CPUs:
The first netbooks featuring Intel's newest Atom CPUs will be launching next month at CES.
Codemasters announces the Overwatch DLC for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising:
The second Operation Flashpoint®: Dragon Rising™ downloadable content – the ‘Overwatch’ pack – will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® today and will follow shortly for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC, Codemasters® has announced. The ‘Overwatch’ DLC delivers two game-changing multiplayer modes and new Fire Team Engagement (FTE) missions.
Showcasing the new content and modes featuring in the DLC, a new ‘Overwatch’ gameplay video is now available from www.flashpointgame.com. Players are shown engaged in electrifying combat, deploying a range of military assets from short and long range weaponry to armour and helicopters in tense battles for superiority in the new game modes and FTEs.
The ‘Overwatch’ DLC extends the unique Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising experience in solo, co-operative and adversarial play. In new multiplayer mode Blindside the PLA must complete objectives in the shortest time possible while the USMC defends in tense, tactical engagements. An additional new mode, Supremacy, tasks opposing forces to occupy strategically vital positions featuring force multipliers like gun emplacements and air strikes.
These new multiplayer modes are complimented by two exhilarating new FTEs. In Friendly Skies, PLA anti-aircraft artillery prevents US airborne reinforcements inserting into the combat zone. Players must remove that threat and then defend the position from a PLA counter attack. In Hostile Takeover, intel reveals enemy movement in the village of Armudan, a perfect base for launching attacks deep into enemy territory. Gamers must flush out the PLA, establish a perimeter and hold their ground against a new enemy assault.
Head to www.flashpointgame.com for the new video and further information on the ‘Overwatch’ pack. The ‘Overwatch’ pack will be available from Xbox Live Marketplace (400 Microsoft Points) today and will be available on the PlayStation Network (£3.19 / $4.99 / €3.99) and PC (free to download) soon.
If you think entering one of the contests is hard, you should try judging one!!!
A big thanks to AMD/ATI, Sapphire and PowerColor for putting this contest together for us. We had a great turn out with 34 comic strip entries and 15 video entries. If you have not seen these, take a look now and get an idea of the magnitude of talent within the FiringSquad community.
While speaking at the Barclays Capital Global Technology Conference in SF last week, NVIDIA VP of Investor Relations Michael Hara downplayed AMD's lead in DirectX 11. From Computerworld:
"To us, being out of sync with the API for a couple of months isn't as important as what we're trying to do in the big scheme of things for the next four or five years. We're just around the corner from preparing our next GeForce and the experience of what you'll see in 3D, what you'll feel in physics, and the improvements you get in graphics will be obvious to the market.
This 60-day lag between these events of when our competition has DX11 and when we're coming to market will absolutely seem insignificant in the big picture."
Depending on exactly when NVIDIA can deliver DX11 hardware (and in what volume), Hara may have a bit of a point. Obviously AMD's suffered through shortages of high-end DX11 cards for most of Q4, which will obviously negate their ability gain on NVIDIA in overall market share. If NVIDIA can get their DX11 cards out quickly, they can stop some of the bleeding they're currently going through. Of course, since they rely on the same chip supplier, TSMC, NVIDIA will likely suffer from the same shortages AMD is currently going through.
It's official. Intel's confirmed that they'll be rolling out their first 32-nm "Westmere" family of CPUs at CES next month in Las Vegas. All told, Intel will be introducing 17 new desktop and mobile CPUs based on their Westmere design.
Clarkdale is the codename of Intel's desktop Westmere derivative. As we've told you in the past, the chip will fuse graphics on the same packaging as the CPU core for the first time. The graphics core won't break any records when it comes to 3D performance, Intel's already acknowledged that their graphics core is based largely on existing IGP technology (in other words this isn't a DX11 IGP), but the integrated graphics should pave the way for more flexible PC designs from system vendors like Dell and HP. Arrandale is Intel's mobile derivative for notebooks.
While Intel hasn't revealed official product names, clock speeds, or specs, that info has been available for quite some time on the rumor mill and thanks to online retailers offering the CPUs for pre-order sales. Like the Lynnfield launch in Sept, Intel's been shipping CPUs ahead of the official launch, so CPUs will be ready in time for January 7th, Westmere's launch day.
Team Fortress 2's war update is now live. To celebrate, Valve is conducting a free gameplay weekend and a 50% off sale, bringing the price down to $9.99.
The war update brings new weapons and achievements to the soldier and demoman classes as well as new maps and various bug fixes, and gameplay tweaks. A complete list of the changes and fixes can be found here.
In addition to releasing Catalyst 9.12 earlier today, ATI has also issued a new hotfix driver that's based on the 9.12 codebase. ATI says the hotfix driver adds Eyefinity support for CrossFire configurations, adds support for audio over DisplayPort, provides OpenCL support, and resolves an issue under Windows 7 where the mouse becomes enlarged.
The last Catalyst driver release of the year just hit the web, as ATI has officially released Catalyst 9.12 for Radeon users. ATI says the new driver offers performance improvements in STALKER Call of Pripyat as well as 3DMark Vantage. Here are the rest of the driver release highlights:
Performance improvements
3DMark Vantage – overall performance improves as much as 9% on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series. GT1 – Jane Nash performance improves as much as 15% and FT4 – GPU Cloth improves up to 15%
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Call of Pripyat – performance improves as much as 6% on single card configurations
New Features ATI Catalyst™ support for DirectCompute 10.1
This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides full support for DirectCompute 10.1 for the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4700 Series for both single card and ATI CrossFireX™ supported configurations.
OpenGL 3.2 extension support
This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides support for OpenGL 3.2 extension support on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series.
As CNET reports, Microsoft says that Windows 7 has received half as many tech support calls as they expected so far. Microsoft's VP of Support says: "Overall we are finding our call center volume is down significantly more than we expected"
Better yet, Microsoft says that more users are turning online for help: "What we have found is we are seeing far more take-up of self-service...forums and Twitter to get responses."
Square has begun taking applications for the Final Fantasy XIV PC beta. Square says: "The purpose of this site is to recruit dedicated individuals seeking to take part in the Beta Test phase of FINAL FANTASY XIV. Participants will be testing game balance and mechanics prior to the launch of official service, as well as submitting bug reports."
NVIDIA has released new beta drivers for GeForce users this week. According to NVIDIA, the new ForceWare 195.81 drivers add SLI profile support for Avatar Demo, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Demo, and Wings of Prey. The driver also fixes bugs with the beta Flash 10.1 beta 2 release.
The European Commission has decided to drop their antitrust case against Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. If you recall, the Commission felt MSFT abused their dominant position in operating systems to push IE on users, who aren't given an option to install rival browsers.
To appease the EC, Microsoft initially planned to remove IE completely from Windows 7, but this would've prevented users in Europe from getting on the web completely. Instead Microsoft will provide users with a ballot box which will include 11 different web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser.
By March 2010, Microsoft will issue a software update for existing users of WinXP, Vista, and Windows 7, presenting them with the ballot box. Going forward, users who purchase new computers will be given their choice of browsers automatically. The deal is good through March 2015.
Intel has issued the following statement in response to today's news from the FTC:
Intel Corporation issued the following statement regarding the suit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): "Intel has competed fairly and lawfully. Its actions have benefitted consumers. The highly competitive microprocessor industry, of which Intel is a key part, has kept innovation robust and prices declining at a faster rate than any other industry. The FTC's case is misguided. It is based largely on claims that the FTC added at the last minute and has not investigated. In addition, it is explicitly not based on existing law but is instead intended to make new rules for regulating business conduct. These new rules would harm consumers by reducing innovation and raising prices."
Intel senior vice president and general counsel Doug Melamed added, "This case could have, and should have, been settled. Settlement talks had progressed very far but stalled when the FTC insisted on unprecedented remedies - including the restrictions on lawful price competition and enforcement of intellectual property rights set forth in the complaint -- that would make it impossible for Intel to conduct business."
"The FTC's rush to file this case will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to litigate issues that the FTC has not fully investigated. It is the normal practice of antitrust enforcement agencies to investigate the facts before filing suit. The Commission did not do that in this case," said Melamed.
As expected, today the US FTC formally sued Intel for abusing its position in CPUs to "stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly". Besides the usual charges that the NY Attorney General and EU went after Intel for, what's REALLY surprising to me is the FTC accuses Intel of tweaking their compiler to run slower on AMD CPUs. The FTC suit also mentions Intel's attempts to push their GPUs on the market, hurting NVIDIA. Here's the FTC statement:
The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the world’s leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers’ central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the “brains” of a computer.
According to the FTC complaint, Intel’s anticompetitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market. Over the last decade, this strategy has succeeded in maintaining the Intel monopoly at the expense of consumers, who have been denied access to potentially superior, non-Intel CPU chips and lower prices, the complaint states.
“Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly,” said Richard A. Feinstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “It’s been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits. The Commission’s action today seeks to remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer.”
The FTC’s administrative complaint charges that Intel carried out its anticompetitive campaign using threats and rewards aimed at the world’s largest computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, to coerce them not to buy rival computer CPU chips. Intel also used this practice, known as exclusive or restrictive dealing, to prevent computer makers from marketing any machines with non-Intel computer chips.
In addition, allegedly, Intel secretly redesigned key software, known as a compiler, in a way that deliberately stunted the performance of competitors’ CPU chips. Intel told its customers and the public that software performed better on Intel CPUs than on competitors’ CPUs, but the company deceived them by failing to disclose that these differences were due largely or entirely to Intel’s compiler design.
Having succeeded in slowing adoption of competing CPU chips over the past decade until it could catch up to competitors like Advanced Micro Devices, Intel allegedly once again finds itself falling behind the competition – this time in the critical market for graphics processing units, commonly known as GPUs, as well as some other related markets. These products have lessened the need for CPUs, and therefore pose a threat to Intel’s monopoly power.
Intel has responded to this competitive challenge by embarking on a similar anticompetitive strategy, which aims to preserve its CPU monopoly by smothering potential competition from GPU chips such as those made by Nvidia, the FTC complaint charges. As part of this latest campaign, Intel misled and deceived potential competitors in order to protect its monopoly. The complaint alleges that there also is a dangerous probability that Intel’s unfair methods of competition could allow it to extend its monopoly into the GPU chip markets.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Intel’s anticompetitive tactics violate Section 5 of the FTC Act, which is broader than the antitrust laws and prohibits unfair methods of competition, and deceptive acts and practices in commerce. Critically, unlike an antitrust violation, a violation of Section 5 cannot be used to establish liability for plaintiffs to seek triple damages in private litigation against the same defendant. The complaint also alleges that Intel engaged in illegal monopolization, attempted monopolization and monopoly maintenance, also in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.
To remedy the anticompetitive damage alleged in the complaint, the FTC is seeking an order which includes provisions that would prevent Intel from using threats, bundled prices, or other offers to encourage exclusive deals, hamper competition, or unfairly manipulate the prices of its CPU or GPU chips. The FTC also may seek an order prohibiting Intel from unreasonably excluding or inhibiting the sale of competitive CPUs or GPUs, and prohibiting Intel from making or distributing products that impair the performance–or apparent performance–of non-Intel CPUs or GPUs.
The Commission vote approving the administrative complaint was 3-0, with Commissioner William E. Kovacic recused, and Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch issuing a separate statement in which he concurs in part and dissents in part from the Commission vote.
Chairman Leibowitz and Commissioner Rosch issued a statement outlining the rationale for bringing the case under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which can be found on the FTC’s Web site and as a link to this press release. In his concurring and dissenting statement, Commissioner Rosch described the legal principles that limit an FTC Act Section 5 claim in this case, and the problems that could result from adding follow-on Sherman Act Section 2 claims. A copy of the Commissioner’s statement also can be found on the FTC’s Web site and as a link to this press release.
Under the recently implemented rule expediting the Part 3 administrative hearing process, this matter is tentatively scheduled to be heard before an Administrative Law Judge on September 15, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.
AMD shares hit a new 52-week high earlier today on the news, while NVIDIA's up nearly 7%. The silly part is AMD's already settled with Intel, so they won't benefit from today's move by the FTC. NVIDIA on the other hand is due to go to court next year.
To celebrate the upcoming WAR TF2 update, this weekend Valve's offering a free gameplay weekend to the public. Valve says the free weekend will begin tomorrow night, which is when the War update will be released. Pre-loads have already begun.
Sony VP of Technology Masayuki Chatani says that the PS3 Slim could've been even slimmer if Sony had been willing to revert to an external power supply (like the Xbox 360). From IGN:
"It was pretty tough to squeeze a power-hungry piece of equipment like the PS3, drawing up to 250W, into a case this small, complete with power supply. I think it's a very advanced design, and am really proud of the engineers who achieved it. True, the case could have been made even smaller if we'd left the power supply on the outside, but that would have imposed restrictions on transport and use, making it harder to use freely."
Besides the power supply, Sony also considered other storage options for the PS3 Slim besides its internal HDD:
"One of the reasons we were able to really shrink the PS2 down from the first design is because we did away with internal HDD support," Chatani added. "We don't have any intention of doing that in the PS3 at this time, though. One of the best features of the PS3 is that people can download games to the internal local storage unit and play comfortably."
"It is also possible to use Flash memory, or network storage, for example, instead of the HDD. We considered both options, but felt that the price would be too high for the amount of storage capacity the PS3 needs"
2009 was a pretty good year for PC gamers. While the year got off to a bit of a slow start, things really picked up over the course of the year. Join us as Vandy discusses his top 10 PC picks of the year. Did your favorite game make the list? Find out now!
Looks like STALKER Call of Pripyat will hit North American shelves Feb 2nd:
Viva Media and bitcomposer games announced today that they signed a North American publishing deal for S.T.A.L.K.E.R CALL OF PRIPYAT. Beckoning players to enter the Zone, Viva Media’s latest release clearly marks the publisher’s stake in yet another category of PC gaming.
Viva Media CEO Carlo Voelker commented, “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat is the third in the highly successful Shooter/RPG franchise developed by GSC Game World. The game opens up a dark world where players can immerse themselves into a gripping storyline full of action and suspense.”
bitComposer CEO Wolfgang Duhr stated, ““We look forward to working with Viva Media and anticipate a very successful release in the US for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat.” The game is slated to launch in North America on February 2, 2010.
id Software's new parent company, ZeniMax Media, announces that they've acquired the rights to publish id's upcoming shooter RAGE:
December 15, 2009 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of id Software, announced today that it has picked up the publishing rights for RAGE™, the video game under development at id Software.
RAGE will be published by Bethesda Softworks, another ZeniMax subsidiary. As a result, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) will not be involved in the sales and marketing of RAGE. The ongoing development of RAGE is unaffected by this development.
Valve announces "The Passing" as the first DLC for L4D2:
December 14, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first game add-on for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), is in development and targeted for release in early 2010.
Dubbed "The Passing," the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.
Targeted for release in early spring, "The Passing" takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.
In addition to the new co-operative campaign and associated narrative, "The Passing" will include new arenas for Survival, Versus and Scavenge mode and introduce a new co-operative challenge mode of play. The Passing will also include a new "uncommon common" zombie class, melee weapon, and firearm.
"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "It will also be a huge offering of new gameplay content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry."
Exclusively available for the Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 sets a new benchmark for co-operative action games. The title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.
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