Sega Pluto prototype console surfaces: the Saturn / NetLink mishmash that never was

So, first things first. Sega actually shipped some pretty insane gear. A handheld console that used full-size Genesis cartridges? Check. A sophisticated Tamagotchi that our own editor-in-chief developed games for? Yessir. Something called a "32X" that stacked on top of an already sizable home console? Sure, why not? Given the outfit's history, the item you're peering at above doesn't feel all that outlandish. According to one Super Magnetic -- a self-proclaimed ex-employee of Sega -- this is Pluto.

As the story goes, Sega was pondering the release of a Saturn variant that included an embedded NetLink device. At the time, online console gaming was in its earliest stages, and someone likely assumed that they could kickstart things by including an Ethernet jack from the get-go. Of course, Pluto never saw the light of day in the consumer world -- thankfully, you can partake in a few more shots of what could've been at the source link below.

Via: Joystiq

Source: Assembler Games

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By: Unknown On 12:58 PM

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Dropbox for Teams adds an admin console for cloud storage overlords

Although Dropbox made a concerted push into pro-grade cloud storage with Dropbox for Teams more than a year ago, it didn't have a truly centralized place for a team's overseers to keep tabs on everyone involved. An update today brings in a console to make sense of it all. Along with providing a much simpler at-a-glance view of goings on across an entire group, the console lets administrators tighten access limits from user to user: they can prevent people from using their personal smartphones and tablets with the corporate account, for example, and can ask certain people to sign in with two-factor authentication if there's more of a risk. The refresh might rain on the parades of those who want to use their Teams accounts for both work and play, but it's good news for companies that would rather not risk malware or other rude surprises.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Dropbox for Teams

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By: Unknown On 2:22 PM

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Microsoft talks plans for premium content production, details Xbox 360's transition to an 'entertainment console'

Xbox Execs Talk Momentum and the Future of TV
Feb. 11, 2013
At the D: Dive into Media conference, Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi and Nancy Tellem discuss Xbox entertainment growth and strategy.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 11, 2013 - Living room entertainment is in its largest evolutionary period since the transitions of black-and-white to color, and from standard definition to high definition. The Xbox 360, alongside Microsoft's entertainment industry partners, is at the forefront of that evolution as one of the only devices that brings all forms of entertainment together in one device, while making access to content easy and providing new ways to interact with existing programming. In 2012, the amount of TV and other entertainment offerings on Xbox almost tripled, now surpassing 100 custom, voice-controlled TV and entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE.

Snapshot of Xbox Momentum
February 11, 2013
New data illustrates how entertainment usage on the Xbox has exploded during its living room transformation.
Download: Web
"Yes, we started with video games, but we have been on a journey to make Xbox the center of every household's entertainment," says Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.

Today Mehdi, along with Nancy Tellem, president of entertainment and digital media at Microsoft, participated in a D: Dive into Media session, facilitated by Peter Kafka, to discuss that journey and the opportunities that lie ahead. Mehdi revealed some new data that illustrates how entertainment usage on the Xbox has exploded during its living room transformation, and Tellem shared more about her newly created Los Angeles-based Xbox Entertainment Studios.

Today, there are more than 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world. That's three times the number of original Xbox consoles sold. And a Kinect sensor now sits next to roughly one third of those Xbox 360 consoles; the company has sold 24 million Kinect sensors since launch.

Social has been an important part of Xbox from the beginning, and that's true today more than ever. The Xbox LIVE community has grown to 46 million members, a 15 percent growth since last year.

2012 also marked the Xbox's biggest year for entertainment and games usage. Users enjoyed more than 18 billion hours of entertainment in 2012, with entertainment app usage growing 57 percent year over year globally. Last year in the United States, Xbox LIVE Gold members averaged 87 hours per month on Xbox, an increase of 10 percent year over year.

Yusuf Mehdi
February 11, 2013
Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.
Download: Web | Print
Those numbers strongly indicate that consumers enjoy all kinds of entertainment via Xbox, and Mehdi believes the future of entertainment is even brighter, as Microsoft plans to keep the momentum rolling.

"We believe that Xbox is being used by more people in the household, during more hours in the day and for more forms of entertainment," he says. "People are using Xbox in the morning to work out with the Kinect Nike+ Fitness program, kids are watching cartoons, families are enjoying movies, and of course people are playing blockbuster games like 'Halo 4.'"

The Future of TV Is Interactive and More Engaging

According to Mehdi, Xbox has something in the living room no one else has – a large installed base of devices already in the home, connected to TVs, and over half of those are already linked together, delivering amazing personalized and social entertainment experiences via the Xbox LIVE network.

Microsoft believes that the future of TV and entertainment is one where the TV becomes interactive and more engaging, Mehdi and Tellem explain. Microsoft sees that viewers want to do more with their TV shows, movies, sports and other forms of entertainment.

"We believe that we are at the start of the next wave of truly interactive entertainment," Tellem says.

Tellem is spearheading a new L.A.-based studio called Xbox Entertainment Studios, where the mission is to create true interactive content for Xbox and other devices that will change the way entertainment content is experienced and delivered. Tellem also now oversees live event programming for Xbox LIVE. Xbox has had success with live events such as the Elections 2012 Hub on Xbox LIVE, which aired the presidential debates with an added interactive polling capability. Viewers submitted 3 million answers to on-screen questions during the live telecast of one of the debates. More recently, Xbox aired an interactive red carpet experience for this year's Grammy Awards and will be doing the same for the 85th Academy Awards.

Nancy Tellem
February 11, 2013
Nancy Tellem, former president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, has joined Microsoft as Entertainment & Digital Media president.
"When I worked in traditional TV, we would find ourselves saying things like 'Wouldn't it be cool if we could add an interactive aspect directly into the show and engage directly with the viewers?'" says Tellem. "With Xbox, that is possible today."

Xbox already offers content such Kinect Sesame Street TV, which blurs the lines between traditional linear TV show and interactive experience, where a kid can jump into their beloved Sesame Street and throw coconuts at Grover.

But it's not just about new types of entertainment; it's also about new business models and new engagement opportunities for advertisers. Mehdi called the launch of NUads – a new ad format that harnesses Kinect and natural user interface – an important moment for TV advertising. NUads deliver what is most scarce to advertisers today: consumer engagement. NUads enable natural interactivity using the simplicity of a spoken word or the wave of a hand. The first wave of NUads, which launched last fall with interactive polling, saw a record level of consumer engagement with 37 percent of people responding. With this model, passive TV advertising is transformed into engaging and actionable experiences.

Pioneering the Future of TV

In addition to Xbox Entertainment Studios creating content that will highlight what's possible and demonstrate the capability of the Xbox platform, Microsoft will continue to partner with content creators, networks, aggregators and advertisers to "pioneer the future of TV," says Tellem.

During 2013, Microsoft is planning to launch more than 40 new voice-controlled, customized TV and entertainment apps on Xbox.

"We want to partner with the industry to bring entertainment into a new era," she says. "It's an era when interactive entertainment becomes the greatest form of all entertainment – and we couldn't be more excited to play a part in it."

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By: Unknown On 9:14 AM

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GameStick brings a new Android game console to your TV, fits inside its own controller (video)

GAMESTICK, THE WORLDS MOST PORTABLE TV GAMES CONSOLE CAMPAIGNS FOR CONSUMER SUPPORT ON KICKSTARTER

Portable Games Console To Bring Affordable Gaming Directly To Your TV Screen

London & San Francisco;January 2nd, 2013; PlayJam,the global platform for casual and social games on Smart TV, launched its Kickstarter campaign today in a bid to bring its dedicated games console - GameStick - to life.

The team behind GameStick hope to accelerate the race to change the face of big screen gaming with the launch of the most portable, affordable, dedicated TV gaming device on the market priced at just $79.

GameStick is a small yet powerful, dedicated games console that plugs directly into a TV's HDMI slot and comes with a fully featured Bluetooth controller - ready to go right out of the box. When on the move, the two combine into a single unit, putting big screen gaming right into the pocket. The device will be compatible with other Bluetooth controllers enabling true multi-player functionality.

"We wanted to create a games console that helped further our overriding mission to bring affordable gaming to the big screen". Says Jasper Smith, CEO PlayJam. "Not only that, we wanted to push the boundaries of what has been achieved up to now bypacking sufficient power into the most portable of devices, enabling users to carry that experience with them wherever they go."

The 30 day Kickstarter campaign launched today with the team at PlayJam looking to raise a minimum of $100,000 to help make GameStick a reality. Supporters of the project can get involved by pledging as little as $10.

"We are currently in a closed Beta phase of development with a working prototype that our guys are using to test some great games. Next comes the final design stage and live testing of both the controller and the games," continues Smith. "We are fortunate to have been able to utilize our existing technology to get us to this point and have preferred manufacturers in place and an existing developer network ready to go. However, to get this project over the line and into full production, we need the support of the backers on Kickstarter."

GameStick will feature a purpose-built game store through which users will be able to browse and download content. The proposition will be powered by PlayJam's existing Games Network for Smart TV which currently supports developers such as Relentless Software, First Star Software, and Disney.

To date, the team has been focused on bringing GameStick to its pre-production phase by finalising hardware design and integrating the back end technology to power the service. They have worked with a small beta group of developers to announce the following initial line-up.

MYFC Manager

Hungry Shark, Grabatron and Pool Bar

Quiz Climber and Blue Toad Murder Files

Now that the project is public, the team hopes to work with all Android developers looking to get their games onto the big screen. GameStick's Bluetooth controller uses different modes to allow the gamer to access and play 100's of compatible games directly onto their TV.

"To date, the most accessible route to TV gaming for the consumer has been the traditional games console – this is changing. GameStick gives the thousands of Android developers out there an additional route to bring an affordable big-screen gaming experience direct to their fans. What's more, we wanted to do this via a unique, highly portable device that will enable pure social gaming – by that we mean people sharing great experiences in the same room!" Smith concluded.

To visit the Kickstarter page and pledge your support, please visit: http://kck.st/12SSvMO

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By: Dilusha On 8:11 PM

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Editorial: My PC is my Next-Gen Console

There was a moment on Sunday when I thought the PC gamers had been hiding something from me.

They'd been telling me that PC gaming wasn't the complicated hobby that it used to be, that it was more streamlined and less of a pain. They'd told me that I didn't need to be an auto mechanic if I didn't want to be, that I could just drive without ever flipping up the hood.

And yet there I was trying to be a PC gamer on Sunday and having a tough time of it. I was feeling stymied yet again. I was having what I now hope are my last doubts, because today I've just about run out of excuses to fear PC gaming. And I'm beginning to wonder what the point of a gaming console is in these modern times of December 2012.

My problem on Sunday was maddeningly simple. I'd plugged my computer?a gaming laptop (yes, yes, I know)?into my surround sound system, which was plugged into my TV. And? the image of my computer's desktop on my TV was cropped. I could barely see Windows' bottom toolbar. In X-Com Enemy Unknown I couldn't read the full names of my troops. In Far Cry 3 my peripheral vision was hemmed in.

This problem shouldn't have existed, I thought.

What's on my computer screen should have been on my TV screen. My computer was plugged into my TV set-up through one simple HDMI wire. If this was a console, it would have just worked.

I started Googling to find a solution. I Tweeted about my problem. I called colleague Kirk Hamilton. And what do you know? A lot of people seemed to know about this. A lot of people seemed to have the same problem. A lot of people seemed to know that, yeah, PC gaming still has weird issues that turn things that should work into conundrums that force you to consider, oh, maybe I'll just play this game without being able to see all of it.

I felt tricked. PC gaming, I feared, was as much a hassle as ever.

My problem on Sunday was an echo of my problems with PC gaming of old. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the computers I had were almost immediately obsolete. I'd go to the store and read far too much fine print on the spines of game boxes. Sure, I had a PC, but it didn't mean I could play the PC games I wanted to play. I hated this. I was in college and then just out of college and couldn't afford to keep up with ever-changing standards for graphics cards, sound cards and whatever else. My drivers never seemed to be up to date and I hated the hassle of trying to figure out how to update them or what to do when even updating them didn't seem to enable me to run games on computers that should have been able to run them.

You not only can't tell me that my consoles are better than my PC; you can't tell me that the concept of a gaming console has much on the PC any more. Unless we're talking about price.

Other than to play the occasional indie, I bailed out of PC gaming for many years. I returned this past summer.

In September, I got myself a gaming laptop (yes, yes, I know, but it's a powerful one). I installed Steam and started downloading games through my press account. These games started updating themselves, snatching whatever files they needed, installing Direct X and god knows what else. I was trusting Steam and it was making my return to PC gaming a cinch.

Then the fall came and I reverted to playing games on consoles. I played some Xbox 360 and some PlayStation 3. I rediscovered my 3DS and spent a lot of time on the Wii U.

At an event for BioShock Infinite just two weeks ago, I was given the chance to play the first four hours of the game on PS3, Xbox 360 or PC. A PR person there was nudging me toward PC. I figured I'd play the game on something I was more familiar with, more comfortable with. I'd like to play it on console, I said. That's when I realized that the anxiety was creeping back.

So, since then, I've tried playing games on my PC. I plugged the thing into my TV to even try Steam's Big Picture mode and more or less turn my gaming laptop into a glorified console. This would be my return to PC gaming via the shallow end of the pool. I'd play it safe by playing games in a manner I've played them so often before: on my TV, controller in my hands.

I was loving it.

I was beginning to doubt that I'd care much about console gaming again, because, well, I'll get to all of my revelations and excitement about PC gaming in a moment.

Let me tell you how the Sunday problem was resolved. The folks on Twitter and Kirk Hamilton were only able to guess solutions. Check your NVidia control panel? Tried that. The "display" options aren't in there, for some reason. Maybe it's the Bose surround system? Nope. I saw the same cropped display when I plugged directly into the TV. Maybe it's your TV? Yeah, it was the TV. It was "overscanning" my PC's video signal, whatever that means. I had to tell it to stop doing that. I then shared that advice:

@mannycalavera Menu ?> Picture ?> Picture Options ?> Size. Set it to "Just Scan". That's on my Samsung, which is about four years old.

? Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) December 16, 2012

Problem solved. Xcom and Far Cry 3 have looked wonderfully un-cropped since then.

And that brings me to a tune that I didn't expect to be singing when 2012 began. It goes like this:

PC gaming makes my consoles look like a joke. This isn't because Far Cry 3 or some other game looks so much better on my PC, but because the interconnectedness of modern games feels so much more appropriate for a system like the PC. I didn't expect I'd ever say this, but?I'm finding that PC gaming is giving me more peace of mind as a gamer. The inevitable bugginess of modern games is patched immediately on PC, not left in some long certification queue by a console creator. By gaming on PC, I feel a step closer to the makers of the game; I don't feel the intermediating influence or obstruction of a Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. And I feel I have access to a suite of features?mod support among them?that the developers actually considered part of the game's complete experience. I also feel like I'm no longer unable to get to some of the most interesting and unexpected games being made.I don't mind peeking under the hood a little. I'm not completely comfortable with worrying about whether I should keep my "Vegetation" on "Very High" or my "Geometry" on "Ultra," but if I have to spend a half an hour on a Sunday monkeying with my TV in order to get these games running on a TV and another 10 minutes finding the Windows setting that spits my game audio out in 5.1, it's worth it, because?PC gaming is making my life easier. Whatever streamlining of my gaming life that the Nintendo 64 or PS2 gave me back of the day is now being trumped by a single device that is holding a couple dozen games I'm excited to play (no discs!), that's updating them constantly (man, Steam's great, huh?) and that, thanks to Big Picture, lets them run just fine on my TV but can also run them on a laptop if I don't feel like using the TV or the TV is being used by someone else (shades of the Wii U!). Caveat: Uplay on PC does indeed seem kind of dumb.

Do I sound born again?

Do I have the zealotry of the prodigal son re-converted?

I suspect I might be blind to the pitfalls ahead of me. I figure that my gaming laptop won't keep pace with seven years' worth of ever-improving games the way my Xbox 360 has. I am sure there will be a moment when I again yearn for a Microsoft or Sony to slow down the rate of patching on a new game. Right now, however, you can't convince me that a 100-friend-limited Xbox 360 that requires me to swap discs almost any time I want to play a major new game and that won't allow a single mod is giving me a better gaming set-up in my living room than my PC. You can argue that something unique might be going on in the Wii U, since it is built for two-screen gaming, but you can't tell me that the PlayStation 3 has anything on my PC other than a batch of very cool Sony-published games.

You not only can't tell me that my consoles are better than my PC; you can't tell me that the concept of a gaming console has much on the PC any more. Unless we're talking about price. I did pay $1700 for my PC. But then again, I bought a laptop. Yes, yes, I know.

Last night, I merrily played some games on my TV using a standard game controller. A console wasn't even involved. I finally have no problem with that.

As 2012 fades, my fear of PC gaming is gone. Did you hear about those next-gen consoles? I think I have one. Had it since September.

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By: Dilusha On 11:06 PM

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Diablo III successfully ported to a console, its fate still up in the air

Blizzard has successfully ported Diablo III to a console version, although don’t expect to go pick up a copy for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 anytime soon. The port remains an unofficial project at this point, according to Blizzard executive Rob Pardo, and it’s still unclear if the design team wants to bring the game to your living room.

In an interview with Polygon, Pardo said Blizzard is still exploring a console option. He said they have builds up and running on an unnamed console and they are hoping to get it far enough along to where it can become an official project. But as of writing, they aren’t quite ready to release any more information on it. He did note that it looked pretty cool, however.

"The whole team is essentially working on the next big Diablo thing," said Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson in a recent interview with Polygon. "A lot of that stuff will show up next year at some point." We know that Blizzard is planning an expansion for Diablo III as well but again, there’s no timeline on when that might be released.

The idea of a console version of Diablo III shouldn’t be a surprise to most. The company posted a job listing more than two years ago looking for a lead designer to work on a console version of the game. When Blizzard officially announced the game at BlizzCon 2008, they said it would be available the Mac and PC “for now.”

After multiple delays, Diablo III was finally released in May. According to recent figures, the game has sold around 10 million copies – 3.5 million during the first 24 hours alone.

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By: Dilusha On 1:18 PM

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