Havok, the Ireland-based physics middleware developer, has been hockey-pucked over to Microsoft by its former masters at Intel. While this news is unlikely to affect consumers much one way or another, it does mean that one of the leading developers of physics software for games is now technically in the hands of a first party publisher, though the companies have already announced that Havok technology will still be available for license by third party developers.
You may recall that Microsoft bought out Mojang Specifications almost a year ago, spending a cool $2.5 billion on the Minecraft developer. So far the Redmond giant has done very little with its new toy, and Minecraft has gone on more or less like it always has. Now it looks like the Redmond giant has some plans to extend the sandbox game into the classroom. This won’t be the first time Minecraft is treated as an educational tool, but I’m eager to see the results when Microsoft puts its muscle behind the project.
You know, when I first heard this rumor yesterday – that Microsoft was in talks to buy Mojang Specifications for a cool $2.5 billion – I just rolled my eyes. Sure, I could see Microsoft wanting to do so, and anyone would like to have two and a half billion… but the Minecraft developer isn’t exactly low on funds. And, frankly, given Markus “Notch” Persson’s evident dislike of large-scale corporate buyouts, it seemed against character even if they were nearly bankrupt. And yet, it’s true. Even Mojang says so, and says also that Notch is leaving the company, along with its two other founders.
I like new things. I like operating systems. And, apparently, self-torture. It’s for these reasons that I spent part of last weekend rebuilding my PC – something I’d been meaning to do for many months. The machine’s always been a trooper, but in the last few weeks it’s gotten grumpy. It needed a good hard formatting. I use this PC for gaming and work, but I keep everything mission-critical in a DropBox, so I thought it might be fun to switch the rig over to Windows 8.1 Consumer Preview at the same time.
This is the story of how I installed Windows 8.1 Consumer Preview and slashed my wrist, not in that order. It actually gets kind of gory so if you’re squeamish, clear off.
This column is doubtless more ironic given my far tamer thoughts on the Xbox One – and console wars in general – I shared with Ben Hoyt just a few days ago. But then E3 happened, and E3 changes everything. Sony is ascendant in the court of public opinion, though by the time I hit “Publish” that could have changed. In a way, though, this Culture Clash column is about a different, subtler clash of cultures than the usual gaming world/nongaming world: gamers who watch and gamers who don’t. All the major companies in this business depend on the majority being gamers who don’t – consumers who don’t follow the industry, don’t study trends, and don’t make decisions based on complex topics like DRM and licensing. Those are the ones who line up in their thousands outside of Best Buy each new console release; those are the ones who move the product, and because they don’t watch, because they don’t care, those are the ones on which Microsoft and Sony alike depend to move their products. Gamers who watch are suspicious. Gamers who don’t may not realize what they’ve put their foot in until all the GameStops shut down. Enjoy!
Perhaps this should be “Tap vs. Ben,” or “Tap vs. Not-Tap,” since 47Games’ Ben Hoyt is not technically on the Tap-Repeatedly staff, but we don’t have a category for that and I wouldn’t want Ben to think we’re excluding him. He has, after all, contributed a Celebrity Guest Editorial for us, and we did recently do a fun podcast on the Mass Effect trilogy and Halo, er, quadrogy. The dude is an honorary staff member, and opened up some time to contribute slightly more than half a discussion of Microsoft’s May 21 Xbox One announcement – a lucky thing, since coverage of all the new consoles has been somewhat scarce around here. Now we have an honest to god game designer weighing in (one who’s shipped an Xbox 360 title or two). Suck it, IGN!
“So that’s your homework,” said Ben Hoyt of 47Games, then chuckled. This was Friday.
Ben’s been a good friend for years now. I met him back in 2006, when he was working for EA. I’ve never known anyone who can deconstruct a game as skillfully as Ben; he’s made for this industry. He’s a ludic genius. We don’t hang out enough – he lives in California and I live in Michigan and we only see each other at conferences. My homework was to get a copy of Halo 4 and play it, because we’re planning to record a podcast on the Mass Effect series and he wants to add a discussion of Halo to it, since they’re both epic sci-fi shooters and we’re going to contrast them.
I haven’t even completed the first part of my assignment (get a copy of Halo 4) – I was going to do so today. But last night I thought I’d fire up the old 360 and watch some Netflix, only to see a painfully familiar series of blinking lights on its display.
So because I don’t actually own an Xbox 360 (nor an Xbox, for that matter), I’ve always had to find other ways to play the (very few) exclusive games in their libraries that I cared about. So it was that I find myself blitzing through Halo: Reach on my brother’s console during a recent trip home. Because, seriously: Halo. What began rolling around in my brain as a review of Reach quickly turned into something …
..fucking shit. Sorry for the expletives, but I’m pretty sure the majority of Tap readers will excuse me once they see the video in question. No doubt you’ll have some choice words of your own, too.
Gamesindustry.biz reports that Microsoft and NVIDIA have departed the PC Gaming Alliance, a movement the two organizations helped found. Neither firm offered a reason for departure. The PCGA was founded a couple years ago, if memory serves, to advance the PC as a viable platform for gaming. As consoles grow in market share, and development costs for PC (plus the ever-present threat of piracy) continue to spiral upward, the platform has long been losing its …
Most people agree that Microsoft’s original Games for Windows Live initiative was a bust: pushy, buggy, intel-grabby, hard to navigate, intrusive. It demanded information people didn’t want to give, it often simply didn’t work, and it seemed like a very sad attempt to glue online console functionality to the rip-roaring freedom of a PC. It did not go over well. Well, next month they’re relaunching it – the online store side, for the most part …
I think it’s fair to say that the mainstream gaming community isn’t exactly sold on Microsoft’s Kinect just yet. Button-free gaming certainly has it’s sceptics and the specialist press have been quick to criticise Microsoft for the lack of focus on core gameplay experiences with the system. Retailing at £130, the price point also continues to be a sticking point for many consumers, who still harbour concerns over what is essentially still untried and untested …
Well it’s launch day for Halo: Reach, and the geeks were out in force (more like dozens) in the wee small hours, jostling in late night lines, eagerly anticipating getting their clammy hands on the latest must-have sequel. If your like me and felt nothing but embarrassment as you watched BBC News this morning, then I thought for those of you who missed it, might like to watch the video of it. Keep an eye out for …
E3 is officially upon us. No, I’m not there, but the beauty of the internet means that for another year, Los Angeles can come to me. Which is handy, as I’ve been to Los Angeles before and frankly don’t care much for going back. First out of the blocks is Microsoft, who this evening laid their cards on the table with one or two major hardware announcements. Having stolen the attention at many an E3 …
Hey kids, you’re about to learn a fine new piece of Videogames Industry Phraseology. It’s new, even for my kind! We’ve only been using it for like a month, and now you’re about to uncover its mysteries… When a publisher – say, hypothetically, Microsoft – announces that a game – say, hypothetically, Remedy’s upcoming Alan Wake – will utilize “Project Ten Dollar” style DLC, what do you think that means? UPDATE: despite my concerns, Kotaku …