Author Archives: Naren Hooson

Update 18 for Dungeons and Dragons Online releases today in preparation for the Shadowfell Conspiracy expansion pack. The update serves as a prequel to the expansion pack set to release on 5 June and adds two new quests, available to all players, known as the Disciples of Shadow.
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Xbox LIVE programming director Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb answered questions about Xbox One in a live Yahoo! chat today. He shed some light on a few minor details and shrugged others off to be addressed at E3, which he points out is merely 18 days away.
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Microsoft has registered domain names for the new Kinect hardware, which will come bundled with the console, called Kinect One as well as what is likely to be a new Kinect-based fitness game for the new console, called Xbox Fitness.
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With Sony and Nintendo both making visible efforts to promote and improve independent developer involvement and access to their consoles, the independent developer presence was clearly lacking in Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal. Several independent developers, as well as Ouya, offer their thoughts on the reveal.
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Microsoft has announced 15 exclusive games coming to the Xbox One in its first year but PC gamers aren’t likely to see all of that content. When asked about Microsoft’s Window’s 8 gaming strategy, Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, said, “We have got everything from very, very casual games, like our very much improved and reimagined Solitaire, all the way to graphically complicated games like The Harvest.”
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Hisashi Koinuma, the producer of many Omega Force games such as Samurai Warrior, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage, One Piece: Pirate Warriors and Pokemon Conquest has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Tecmo Koei Games.

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An infographic depicting many statistics from Diablo III in the last year has been posted on the Battle.net site in celebration of the first anniversary of the game.

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Patch 5.3, or Escalation, for World of Warcraft is available today delivering many additions. A new Battleground called Deepwind Gorge as well as a new Arena, The Tiger’s Peak, are included along with new scenarios Battle on the High Seas, Blood in the Snow, Dark Heart of Pandaria and The Secrets of Ragefire.
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Ben Kilgore, corporate vice president of interactive entertainment business has confirmed that the next-gen Kinect will be available on Windows PC at some stage.
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Microsoft’s Studios corporate vice president Phil Harrison has stated that there will be no separation between game distribution channels with Xbox One.
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As more and more details are released and clarified by Microsoft regarding the specification of the Xbox One features and functionality, it has been revealed that the microphone for Xbox One’s Kinect will always be on.
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The US PlayStation store has posted a rather larger update, listing full games, ultimate editions, a preorder, some savings and bundles.
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The organisers of GDC Europe have announced more talks for the event in August. As part of the design and business tracks, the new talks will take place from Monday 19 August through to Wednesday 21 August. These additions will be talks from Steven Masters on Assassin’s Creed III’s design, Don Daglow on the ‘treasures and traps’ of next-gen and Epic’s James Brown on empowering the player in storytelling.
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Following the recent online discussion regarding the technical side of Xbox One, Major Nelson has announced he will be taking some questions in a live Yahoo! chat. Details can be found on Majornelson.com.

The chat will use Covert It Live and will automatically go live on his site. It will start on Wednesday at 4p ET/ 1p PT/ 9p UK time.

Adding to the big announcements, information for Call of Duty’s next-gen installment in the franchise has started to emerge today. Following leaks of the name and a teaser trailer in the past weeks, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts is developed on a new engine which will add features such as exponential polygons and mocapped dogs.
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Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer has announced that historic IP from veteran developer Rare Ltd. may make an appearance at E3 this year.
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In the wake of Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement, a group of technical specialists, hosted by Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, dissected the hardware and software capabilities of the upcoming console.
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With Microsoft’s Xbox One now unveiled, many are thinking they have taken on more than they can handle and are heading in a direction that could estrange the gamers. Several leading games analysts are now commenting, with varied opinions.
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Although perhaps somewhat overshadowed by the Xbox One announcement, Sony’s PS4 presentation combined with the response to the Xbox One has sent Sony’s share price up.
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20 May 2013 marked the 30th anniversary of the first games EA ever shipped. In a San Francisco warehouse back in 1983, all of the then EA employees, including programmers and the marketing department, all came together to pack the first five EA games to be released and ship them off to stores selling Commodore 64 games.
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