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The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news and rumors over the past week. This weekly article will keep you plugged in and in-tune. A big week of gaming was fueled by this year’s Game Developers’ Conference. While the news wasn’t exactly earth-shattering or even particularly exciting, there was enough keep us thinking. Though last week was a rather dark time in Infinity Ward’s short history, Community Manager Robert Bowling let us know that 25 million unique players have fired up the multiplayer action in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. That’s a lot headshots! Also early on in the week, a rumor cropped up which posited that Robin, good ole Boy Wonder, might find his way into Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment haven’t confirmed the news; in fact, a Warner Bros. rep told Kotaku that the rumor was “inaccurate,” and that they are “not yet discussing details for the sequel.” The other big rumor floating around is that PS3 firmware 3.20 is going to release on June 10 th and include support for 3D gaming. One aspect of gaming that got a lot of announcements was tweaked development engines, platforms, and the like. Sony got things started by introducing the world to PhyreEngine for PSP. The PS3 development toolset was fitted for PSP in order for Sony to “demonstrate our commitment and support for game developers on all our platforms.” The next big entry in engine news came from Epic Games’ presentation at GDC. Their vaunted Unreal Engine 3 has apparently been tweaked to work with the Apple iPhone 3GS and the iPad. That means brilliant 3D graphics will be brought to Apple’s portable platforms. With that in mind, Microsoft mentioned that their Windows Phone 7 OS is also getting set for quality gaming. They have just released XNA Game Studio 4.0 to developers in order to get 3D games into their library and onto their phones. Going beyond mobile devices, OpenGL, the graphics infrastructure used by practically all devices other than Microsoft products, has been updated by Khronos to OpenGL 4.0. To quote Neil Trevett, President of Khronos Group and VP at Nvidia, “This significant major release enables developers to access leading-edge GPU functionality across multiple platforms with full backwards compatibility.” Graphics, of course, are only part of the equation. Dolby announced that their Axon technology, which brings surround sound to voice chat for PCs, will be brought to Xbox 360, PS3, and Macs in April 2010. After months of remaining quite, OnLive has finally given us a bit more guidance concerning their streaming game service. If you don’t own a computer that is capable of playing AAA video games, starting June 17 th you’ll be able to join OnLive and get access to these games thanks to the computing power of OnLive. All you really need is a high speed internet connection. The service will cost $14.95 a month to be a member, and you’ll still have to pay separately to rent or purchase games. Finally, the most important announcement of the week came in the form of PlayStation Move. That’s right; the Sony motion controller has officially been named. The bulbous-looking controller is supposed to be the most precise on the market (1:1 detection). According to Sony, the PS Move will sell (bundled with the PlayStation Eye and a game) for under $100. More pricing options are still undecided, but expect the controller to be sold separately/paired with a wireless sub-controller for a lower price point. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |