Hasta La Gadget!

The Oculus Rift is making waves with virtual reality gaming, and while only developers can get their hands on the new headset, the general public will be able to grab an Oculus Rift for themselves at some point in the future, but at what cost exactly. The developer kit is priced at $300 right now, but the company would love for their product to be free up front.

Speaking with Edge Magazine, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe says that the company is pondering over different business models with the Rift, including a strategy where gamers wouldn’t have to pay anything up front for the VR headset, but would pay some kind of subscription cost every month or every year.

Iribe notes that “the lower the price point, the wider the audience.” The company has “all kinds of fantasy ideas” and said that they would “love” if the headset wouldn’t cost anything. Iribe says that the Rift definitely won’t be free at the beginning when it first launches to the public, but over time the headset could see a lower and lower subsidized cost.

Iribe also points out that the company is “targeting the $300 price point” with the product’s official launch to the public, which is the price point as the developer kit is right now, but he says that “there’s the potential that it could get much less expensive with a few different relationships and strategies” in the future.

The Oculus Rift raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter last year, and the company recently received $16 million in funding last month from venture capitalists Spark Capital and Matrix Partners in order to fund the Rift’s mass public launch. There’s no official release date for the headset just yet, but we should be expecting it rather soon.

SOURCE: Edge

Oculus Rift aiming for subsidized cost, could be free with subscription is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve been hearing alot about virtual reality lately, especially with the popularity of the Oculus Rift headset gaining massive traction. While the team at Oculus has been focused on improving the hardware (such as upgrading it to 1080p), they’re also putting their efforts towards solving latency issues and cutting down on motion sickness.

Latency can be a huge problem when gaming, but it’s even more of a problem when gaming using a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift. The company says that “latency is widely recognized as a key source of disorientation and disbelief,” since the brain can’t be fooled. To fix latency problems, Oculus is working on something called “predictive tracking,” which gives the VR headset the ability to predict where the head is going to be, rather than just stay in the present or the past.

As for motion sickness, that’s something that’s a bit more difficult to tackle, since it depends on the person using the VR headset and their vulnerability to get sick. Rather than a hardware or software issue, it’s purely a natural issue that can’t really be fixed 100%. However, Oculus notes that game developers can at least reduce motion sickness by using some clever design techniques.

The company notes that “the causes of most forms of motion-induced illness…are poorly understood. Although we don’t understand the physiology well, we do understand many of the things that cause it,” and they “can be solved with good (though complex) engineering.” Things that developers can improve to reduce motion sickness are things such as camera calibration and distortion correction, but there also a heap of things are hard to improve, like disparity between focus depth and vergence.

In the end, the best solution that game developers can come up with, according to Oculus Rift, is “do the math right, don’t cut corners, be kind to your sensitive players, and encourage them to take it slowly at first.” That’s sound advice, and can almost even be applied to any game out on the market today.

VIA: Engadget

Oculus Rift latency and motion sickness issues addressed is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft announced at E3 last month that they would be getting rid of its Microsoft Points currency system and using real money for transactions for now on. Today, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live Rewards will be doing the same thing, although it’s not yet determined how the new Rewards system will work now that it won’t be using Microsoft Points.

Starting on August 1, Xbox gamers will no longer be able to earn Microsoft Points through Xbox Live Rewards, but Microsoft says that “you’ll continue to be rewarded for doing the things you love on Xbox Live.” The company hasn’t yet announced what they’ll be using on Xbox Live Rewards, but they say that they’ll be revealing the new system on September 1.

Furthermore, Microsoft will deposit all of your pending Rewards points into your account on August 7. If you also happen to have Microsoft Points in your Xbox account when Points are retired, they’ll be transitioned to real-money currency, and you’ll be able to use them as normal, such as buying digital games and items.

Microsoft announced the demise of Microsoft Points during E3 last month ahead of the Xbox One’s launch later in November. We still have yet to hear an exact date for the switchover, but today’s Xbox Live Rewards announcement provides some hints as for when we might see the official switchover.

Microsoft Points have been the main form of currency in Xbox Live for ages, and gamers were able to buy them using a credit card, or purchasing them physically at retail stores. The ousting of Microsoft Points looks to eliminate a step in that process by switching to real money, making the process easier for gamers to buy stuff on Xbox Live.

SOURCE: Xbox Live Rewards

Xbox Live Rewards transitioning from Microsoft Points next month is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As what first looked like a small tease for an update to Angry Birds Star Wars, Rovio seems to be teasing much more than that. Today, the Finnish game developing studio revealed that they will be announcing a “brand new game” on Monday that looks to Star Wars related, but seeing as it’s a “brand new game,” we could be looking forward to an Angry Birds Star Wars sequel, rather than just an update to the original movie-themed game.

Rovio didn’t say much about what to expect for Monday’s announcement, but they did mention the game would feature “the biggest character line-up ever,” along with “awesome new powers, and maybe even a few surprises!” They finished the update with an attempt to get the hashtag #July15 trending on Twitter.

As for the teaser image that the company posted, it looks like the this Star Wars sequel game will be taking on the prequels, as the image reveals a young Anakin Skywalker’s shadow revealing the silhouette of Darth Vader. The first Angry Birds Star Wars game focused on the first three movies in the Star Wars saga, so it would make sense that this “brand new game” focuses on the next three in the series.

However, as most of us know, the prequels weren’t really the high point of the Star Wars saga, so here’s hoping that Rovio can make a bearable game that depicts the three prequel films. Then again, Rovio is getting to the point where they need to do some innovation instead of churning out new Angry Birds game every year, or even worse, re-releasing old Angry Birds games.

Of course, though, as long as Rovio keeps seeing sales of new Angry Birds title go through the roof, then there’s no reason for them to fix something that isn’t broken, but it’s certainly exhausting to keep seeing new Angry Birds titles show up when I can’t even keep up with the previous installment.

SOURCE: Rovio

Angry Birds “brand new game” teased for Monday reveal is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are almost identical as far as performance specifications go, it’s merely just a war between features and functionality. Both sides are trying to win over the hearts of gamers with innovation new features that aim to change the landscape of gaming. Sony thinks they have a pretty unique solution in the bag.

The company’s R&D senior team boss Neil Brown announced at Sony’s Develop Conference that PS4 gamers can access their purchased games on any PS4 console. Brown also touted the new “play as you download” feature, where you can play games as they’re downloading them to the console.

Essentially, gamers can log in to their accounts from any PS4 console, and they can start playing the first bits of any digitally-purchased game that’s available in their library, even if it’s not from their own console at home. If your friend doesn’t have a specific game that you want to play, the “play as you download” feature is about as good as it gets.

The background downloading while gamers begin playing their games is made possible simply by background processes. Brown says it’s a similar method to what Blu-ray players use, and chunks of the game are copied automatically to the hard drive. After the first few minutes, the game is able to begin playing.

Xbox One has a similar feature where you can begin playing games while they download and install onto the console’s hard drive. However, one huge benefit for the PS4 at this point is the low price tag. Sony’s console will only cost $399 when it launches later this year, undercutting the Xbox One by $100.

SOURCE: Official PlayStation Magazine

PS4 digital library sharing gives you access from any console is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.