Hasta La Gadget!

Activision and Infinity Ward have bundled expensive gadgets with the last few Call of Duty special editions, and they’re keeping up this recent tradition with Call of Duty: Ghosts. Buy the Prestige Edition of the game on November 5th and you’ll get a 1080p, water-resistant “tactical camera” with a 4GB memory card. While it’s not clear which company makes the wearable cam, Activision claimed during its Ghosts multiplayer unveiling that the device should hold up against counterparts sold in stores. The Prestige Edition is appropriately expensive at $199, although you’re getting a lot for your money — besides the camera and game, the box also includes a carrying case, a Season Pass for downloads and a paracord strap. If you’ve ever wished you could record your adventures beyond your game console, this is certainly the bundle for you.

Filed under: Cameras, Gaming

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Source: Call of Duty

Looking forward to that second Wii U speed update? Take a seat, son: Nintendo says it won’t be here until fall. According to a statement given to The Verge, Nintendo has pushed it back to the end of the year, promising delivery sometime “between the end of September and beginning of October.” Instead, Wii U owners are being offered a smaller patch, bringing the console’s system menu to version 3.1 while providing minor stability fixes and tweaking the machine’s standby download function. Good things, of course, but a small comfort to gamers who have been eagerly awaiting the performance update Nintendo president Satoru Iwata promised back in January. Then again, Nintendo fans are getting used to waiting.

Filed under: Nintendo

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Via: The Verge, Joystiq

Source: Nintendo

Nintendo was coy when it announced that its first free-to-play game will launch before the end of next March, divulging only that it wouldn’t belong to the Mario or Pokemon franchises. However, the firm’s Shigeru Miyamoto revealed to IGN that its first gratis title would be a Steel Diver game — yes, as in the 3DS launch title — featuring four-person multiplayer. Don’t expect a rehash though, as the pricing model will change the game’s design. Kyoto’s gaming powerhouse hasn’t settled on what business model they’ll lean on quite yet, but CEO Satoru Iwata mentioned during an E3 analyst Q&A that its unpaid games would be “balanced and reasonable.” The Big N noted that “free-to-play games, if unbalanced, could result in some consumers paying extremely large amounts of money, and we can certainly not expect to build a good relationship with our consumers in this fashion.” There’s still no word regarding which consoles this free installment of Steel Diver will grace, but Miyamoto teases that it’s something they’re hoping to show “relatively soon.”

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Nintendo

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Via: Joystiq

Source: IGN

It’s cool to be different. That’s the message we typically feed our children when they come up against peer opposition. It’s also an attitude Nintendo’s adopted time and time again when its penchant for innovation, aversion to hardcore gameplay and reliance on classic franchises have put the company in a perceived last place position. But, as it’s continually proven — and most successfully with the Wii — you can’t ever definitively count the Mario hitmaker out. There always seems to be an ace in the company’s IP sleeve that keeps bringing gamers and its diehard fanbase back to the fold. But we have to wonder: how long will that last? It’s a question we posed directly to Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo’s Most Valuable Player #2 and Zelda mastermind, this week at E3. And his answer might surprise you: “If we don’t change we might die. We need to evolve. Things need to change. Things need to grow.” It’s a sobering admission, especially considering the source.

“If we don’t change we might die. We need to evolve. Things need to change. Things need to grow.”

The IP ace this time around falls upon the Zelda franchises’ shoulders, except not in the way we’ve come to expect. The two newest titles in the series, headed to the 3DS and Wii U, also happen to be recycled efforts: a reimagining of A Link to the Past and an HD reboot of the Wind Waker, both headed up by Aonuma. Perhaps it’s just a consequence of franchise fatigue and player familiarity, but there’s something more alarming, more distressing about this back catalog mining; something Aonuma’s all too aware of. It’s also something he’s actively steering his production teams away from, while at the same time attempting to take it all in as a greater lesson for a company so tethered to video gaming past. So to catch some deeper perspective on Nintendo’s next-gen leanings, its level of self-awareness and the future of Zelda, we sat down with Aonuma for what turned out to be an honest and refreshing chat.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Nintendo

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The next-generation of consoles has finally and fully arrived here at E3, and the companies building the Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U are doing their best to differentiate their consoles from the competition. However, there is a common thread that connects them under the hood: AMD silicon. Naturally, we wanted to know more about the process of building chips for these next gene consoles. So, we spoke with AMD VP Saeid Moshkelani — who heads up the Semi-Custom Business Unit that built those SoCs — to get the inside scoop.

Moshkelani wouldn’t get into the details of the differences between the chips he built for the consoles. Instead, he talked about how AMD developed custom silicon for each and the necessity of secrecy in the process. In fact, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft had no idea that they were each going to the AMD well to get silicon for their next-gen platforms until they were announced. So, head on down past the break to hear Moshkelani discuss what it’s like working with the big three and AMD’s role in making next-gen gaming a reality.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, AMD

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