Steam is gathering on the rumors that Google is planing to launch a Facebook competitor that will focus on social gaming. The company is supposedly in talks with a number of online game makers in order to build a stable for launch, according to unnamed individuals speaking to the Wall Street Journal . However, even if Google succeeds in launching a social network that will keep users’ interest, it seems unlikely that it will make much of a dent in Facebook in the near term. According to the WSJ ’s sources, Google is currently talking to Playdom, Electronic Arts’ Playfish, and Zynga (maker of the popular Facebook game Farmville ).
No one will accuse The Dream Machine of looking generic. Created in part as a response to the seemingly endless stream of similar-looking games on the market, the developers at Cockroach Inc. built The Dream Machine to be something different: a stop-motion, episodic, point-and-click adventure. Ars spoke with Anders Gustafsson, one half of Cockroach, to learn just how to make a game out of cardboard and clay.
Bristol Rovers aren’t a good side. They finished in the middle of League One this past season. But in HatchC2’s FIFA 10 universe, they’re in their third English Premier League season, and first Champions League finals appearance, facing Bayern Munich.
If you don’t throw in your buck o’five who will? Freedom costs $1.05. With free shipping from Newegg. More »
I don’t mean the greatest Transformers character ever. That would be an exercise in folly. No, I mean the greatest Transformers toy ever. More »
Let’s talk, it’s Tell Us Dammit. Tell. Us.
Smartphone owners love free apps, but none as much as those toting Android phones, according to new data from Distimo . Approximately 25 percent of apps downloaded across all smartphone platforms were free apps with the exception of Android, where a whopping 57 percent of the apps grabbed were free. The Dutch analytics company finds that games are the most popular apps across all platforms — 90 percent of the most popular free apps and 80 percent of the most popular paid apps. Twitter is still a popular social network for the Apple and Android crowds according to the new numbers
We know you wouldn’t buy an off-the-shelf Dell PC. You have gaming needs. But others aren’t as savvy as you. They bought off-the-shelf Dell PCs
This is my son, Micro-Bash. He is one year and several months old. And he can unlock an iPhone. More »
Last week, the UK Emergency Budget resulted in a proposed increase in the country’s VAT (similar to a sales tax). When it goes into effect in January, the tax will increase by 2.5 percentage points. Game retailers are mulling over the possibility of absorbing the added the cost, instead of passing it to the consumer. According to MCV ’s report, “senior retail figures” are reluctant to increase the price of games above the now-standard £39.99 ceiling.
ION has refreshed its “premium” (read: ’spensive) Drum Rocker peripheral for the upcoming Rock Band 3 . The new Drum Rocker Pro includes four drums, three cymbals and the new “Pro Pedal,” a kick drum pedal with “all-metal construction,” plus a “dual-chain drive, adjustable beater and rubber trigger,” all of which sound like they’re probably very impressive. The new kit will be available for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this holiday season, timed with the release of Rock Band 3 .
Also: sunflower seeds, eagles, penguins, UFOs, cows, robots, laser-shooting owls, octopi. Game Atelier’s PS mini The Flying Hamster looks crazier than ever in this new trailer — after the break — which finally reveals the story behind the shmup. Continue reading The Flying Hamster intro is all about love The Flying Hamster intro is all about love originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .
Ask anybody what they think about PlayStation Home and you’ll likely get one of two reactions: “What is that?” and “Meh.” For PlayStation Home director Jack Buser, however, it’s quite the accomplishment — a “very good business model for PlayStation, and quite profitable,” he told Gamasutra . “With numbers like we have, it goes without saying that Home has been a huge success for our company, something that we have been very proud of.” The numbers he’s talking about look pretty decent on paper: there are over 100 games on the service, the average user session is about 70 minutes, there are over 50 unique spaces available and 14 million people have at least stepped foot in Home once. Not bad, but it’s all about the context — do people play those games? Do people explore those unique spaces?
It’s more or less the end of the world as we know it in Crackdown 2 ’s Pacific City, but that won’t be the R.E.M. song you’ll hear in-game when it leaps from a rooftop to your place of residence on July 6 . Find out what song of theirs you will hear with the full soundtrack listing after the break.
Net Applications and AdMob have released their latest reports, and both suggest the protracted struggle for the future of mobile computing is far from over. Net Applications, which derives web browsing market share from some 160 million visitors to sites within its network, has now proven that iPad owners like browsing the web. The iPad, running iOS, nearly doubled its share of the operating system market, from .09 percent in May to .17 percent in June. That surpassed the iPod touch, which remained at .12 percent, while the iPhone dipped from .60 to .59 percent from May to June, likely in anticipation of the iPhone 4
