Valve Working On Steam Box

According to The Verge, Valve is working with hardware partners to develop and release a home console called the “Steam Box.”

Valve CEO Gabe Newell has said recently that “if we [Valve] have to sell hardware we will.”

But the Steam Box is not going to be yet another locked down propitiatory console. At its heart, the Steam Box will consist of a Core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, an Nvidia graphics card and Steam client installed on Windows operating system. The system will be usable on computer monitors as well as TV screens thanks to Steam’s soon-to-be-released Big-Picture mode.

Interestingly, the Steam Box will be able to run all PC games, including ones that are sold through or depend on competing services such as Direct2Drive or EA Origin. The “console” will ship with a proprietary controller that features swappable components.

To make the system even more open, Valve will allow all interested hardware manufacturers to produce it without paying any licensing fees, Game developers won’t need to buy any new development kits to develop games for the Steam Box.

 

The Steam Box can be thought of as an attempt to standardize and unify a set of PC hardware specs so that game developers would be able to target. In other words, any PC that matches or exceeds Steam Box’s hardware specs will be able to play Steam Box games simply by plugging in a suitable controller through the USB port.

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Wii U hardware “changing constantly,” says Team Ninja

“Nintendo asked us what we would want from the hardware. And when we gave them our feedback, we could see that they really listened and made ​​changes. The hardware is currently changing constantly.” – Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi, speaking to German website Gamefront.de.
 
Team Ninja has previously said it was pushing Wii U hardware as hard as it can. Ninja Gaiden 3 is set to launch this year.

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Nintendo to launch Wii U by Christmas

Speaking at an investor meeting following the release of its Q3 financials today, Iwata said (via Reuters) that Wii U will launch within the holiday period in EU, US, Japan and Australia.

A 2012 launch was confirmed Wii U’s debut at E3 last year, and was narrowed down for release between E3 and December at the end of last year. This is the first time Nintendo has been specific on release timing and regions since the console’s announcement in Los Angeles last summer.


Nintendo has said it will re-reveal Wii U at this year’s E3. That will take place between June 5-7. The console was shown to press at CES in Vegas this month, an event which included the debut of a new panoramic demo of a Tokyo street.

On the first-party front, not much is known to be in development for the system besides Super Smash Bros. A Zelda HD demo was also shown at E3 last year, as was a New Super Mario Bros-like experience.

For third-parties, EA, THQ, Ubisoft and Warner are some of the studios who have committed to Wii U, with local versions of Darksiders II, Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon planned for the system.

Full Story

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Wii U has twice Xbox 360′s power, still not enough

According to a developer speaking under the condition of anonymity, some designers have complained the new console is still a bit “underpowered compared to what Nintendo announced,” which has resulted in some studios having to “de-scale” current plans.
Rumors over the processing power of the device have been rampant since before E3 2011, when the console was known as Project Cafe.

Various sources claimed the new console would be “significantly” more powerful than both PS3 and Xbox 360, and that it would contain a minimum 700mb of RAM, an R700 AMD GPU, and contain a TriCore PPC similar to the one in used in 360.

However, it’s impossible at this point to know exactly what kind of hardware is inside the system, as Nintendo’s lording an iron-clad NDA over developers’ heads. Until someone is able to speak freely regarding specs, anything relating to Wii U’s performance will remain speculative.

If the rumors regarding its processing power are to be believed, it will still fall short of the next-gen Xbox rumored to also be in development – reportedly.

Yesterday, IGN quoted a source as saying Microsoft’s next system will be “six times as powerful” as 360 with performance power 20% greater than that of Wii U.

Meanwhile, rumors that Sony are working on PS4 are also all over the net.

full Story

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Xbox 720 Chip codenamed Oban, in production since December

It seems now that recent speculation that the new main System on a Chip (SoC) for the Next Xbox (or Xbox 720, if you like) began production is apparently accurate; the SoC did indeed start production in late December of 2011.

Sources tell us that the code name for the chip is Oban, and it is being produced by both IBM and Global Foundries for Microsoft.

If speculation is correct, which our sources believe it is, the power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series. Continued rumors of an x86 compatible CPU seem to be bunk, just based on where the chip is being fab’d.

This first run of these 32nm Oban chips will be destined for developer consoles, so any hope for a holiday console release in 2012 seems unrealistic, according to our sources, but an announcement perhaps before the end of the year might be possible.

It would seem Microsoft’s strategy of getting it in 2013 is all but assured. We do think that the chips will be in production by the end of the year for consoles destined to be sold in 2013, which seems to agree with what others are saying.
 

There are still many unknowns, but those in the development community seem to be clued in at least a high level.

From the shadows we hear whispers of expecting development kits as early as March, but more than likely April, if all goes well.

full story here

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Xbox 720 launching in 2013

 The next generation Xbox will launch in 2013, according to a CNET source said to be working within Microsoft's Xbox team.

Multiple sources also informed the tech site that there's a new face responsible for Xbox brand and design leadership as Microsoft moves towards launching Xbox 360's successor.
Don Coyner, who had guided that strategy since Xbox's inception over a decade ago, and most recently served as general manager of entertainment design at Microsoft, has reportedly taken on a different role at the company.
Emma Williams, who led the launch of the new Xbox 360 dashboard as general manager of Xbox Experiences, has apparently assumed Coyner's former position.
Microsoft refused to comment on a potential Xbox 360 successor or personnel changes.
The firm has long spoken of its ten-year plan for Xbox 360, which launched in late 2005, but that doesn't rule out a successor launching during the period, according to European Xbox boss Chris Lewis, who said in August:
"We think we're a little over halfway with the life cycle of the console, but that's not to say there won't be an overlap. I'm not going to announce specifically or talk about timing. But you could imagine there could be overlap, it depends. We're not being specific about the next generation at this stage."
Microsoft is rumoured to be planning to make the first official announcements about Xbox 720 at the CES expo in January 2012.

CNET

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Half-Life: Origins (Live Action)

Half-Life Origins is an independent short by Infectious Designer.

Everyone remembers the first time they stepped onto the Black Mesa Transit System and into the shoes of the unexpected hero, Gordon Freeman. Half-Life Origins is a short film that takes you back to where it all began.

Director's Note: After 10+ years since it's release, if you ever go back and replay the original Half-Life, it doesn't look anything like you remember. The graphics are horrible compared to present day games, but years ago it blew my mind. This video plays with that contrast. I incorporated a fusion of live action and CG environments that give it a semi-realistic look, but also not realistic at the same time. Hope you enjoy it!

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Grand Theft Auto V Official Trailer and a few pretty snaps

"I wanted to retire from what I was doing, you know, from that, that line of work, be a good guy for once, a family man. So I bought a big house, I came here, put my feet up and thought I'd be a dad like all the other dads. My kids, they'd be like the kids on TV, we'd play ball and sit in the sun, but, you know how it is."

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Uncharted 3: the way it should be

Running at 60 frames per second

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Have a trek round nature

Nature Treks is “a non competitive, interactive experience aimed as an aid for relaxation and healing”.  Basically it’s about having a wander about in an alarmingly bloomy meadow/pond area while collecting particle effects



Very nice.

Download it Here

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Eleven Minutes of Final Fantasy Type-0

Square Enix has released a massive eleven minute gameplay trailer for Final Fantasy Type-0


via vg247

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Square’s New Engine: Luminous Revolution

Square Enix has been experimenting with a brand new, proprietary graphics engine, which it calls Luminous.

So, they reckon the following shot shows what Luminous is capable of:

Not the most thrilling footage in and of itself, but cor blimey that’s some fancy, realistic lighting there.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Redemption Single Player Trailer

The all-new single player trailer for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3. In the world's darkest hour, are you willing to do what is necessary?

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Next Unreal Engine In 2014 And Supports 20 Cores

The next version of Unreal Engine won’t be out before 2014 but it will be worth the wait, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney claimed.

“I spend about 60 percent of my time every day doing research work that's aimed at our next generation engine and the next generation of consoles,” he said.

“This is technology that won't see the light of day until probably around 2014, but focusing on that horizon enables me to do some really cool things that just aren't practical today, but soon will be.”

Sweeney then explained his belief that the biggest challenge and opportunity facing graphics engines in the near future is dealing with multiple CPUs.

“Once you have 20 cores, you can't easily say this one is going to be for animation and this one is going to be for details on the face of the character, because all these parameters change dynamically as different things come on screen and load as you shift from scene to scene,” he explained.

“The big challenge will be redesigning our engine and our workload so that we scale more of these different computer tasks between CPU cores seamlessly in real-time and dynamically so that you're always getting the maximum computing power out with the engine, regardless of what sort of work you're doing.”

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LA Noire PC release date

Rockstar has just announced the LA Noire PC release date as November 8, 2011.

Labelled 'The Complete Edition', the PC version of LA Noire will receive a multi-use code to access all downloadable add-ons and cases. This includes all previously released DLC from the console versions, including the Nicholson Electroplating Arson case, Reefer Madness Vice case, The Consul's Car Traffic case, The Naked City Vice case and A Slip of the Tongue Traffic case.

It's priced at £39.99 and the recommended PC set-up is below:

• Operating System: Windows 7 / Windows Vista Service Pack 1 / Windows XP Service Pack 3 / OnLive for PC or Mac;
  
• Processor: Intel Dual Core 2.2GHz to Quad Core 3.2GHz / AMD Dual Core 2.4Ghz to Quad Core 3.2Ghz;
  
• RAM: 2GB to 8GB;
  
• Hard drive space: 16GB;
  
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB / Radeon HD 3000 512MB to Radeon HD 6850 1024MB;
  
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9 Compatible;
  
• DVD Drive.

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LA Noire Devs Team Bondi In Administration

Some sad news, I’m afraid. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has announced that Team Bondi, developers of LA Noire, have gone into administration. It’s not long since stories of the troubled and prolonged development hit the airwaves and Rockstar had already stated they would not publish the team’s next title. Rockstar do own the rights to LA Noire though and the PC version is in the hands of their Leeds studio. This shouldn’t change anything on that front, though we shall keep an eye on the situation. As for Team Bondi, judging from what conditions were apparently like in the studio, it’s amazing to see the ambition that still made it into LA Noire. Sad times indeed for those hardworking people who may undeservedly lose their jobs. The PC version of the game (handled by Rockstar Leeds) is arriving later this year

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