Shutting down so-called non-practicing entities will be a good thing, but (correct me if I'm wrong) there haven't been as many cases of it in gaming. I recall some silly rumble patent a while back, what else has there been?
Didn't Nintendo have something similar going on a while back with the Wii's motion controls? I don't remember all the details of that suit.
But what if it's Battlefield: Mars? With laser guns and lowered gravity? And jeeps? And flying vehicles? And sticky grenades? And cool looking green armor?
Green armor on Mars would just make things look like Christmas, though ...
hrm, criterion making a shooty game made zero sense but I was kind of interested to see what that would be like...
but visceral should stick to dead space! or a new IP. not be shoehorned into making a BF spinoff.
It wasn't the greatest game, but it was fun enough and it sure was pretty.
Patent troll haters, take heart: Reuters reports the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill explicitly designed to punish companies for abusive use of patents today, clearing the way for a similar bill to go before the Senate and potentially become law.
Bill H.R. 3309, a.k.a. the Innovation Act, was sponsored by Representative Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) in October and approved this week by the House, 325 to 91. Senate Judiciary Committee member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is bringing a similar bill before the Senate on December 17; if it passes the two bills will be gently edited and combined into new legistation that will hopefully provide clearer rules for distinguishing when a patent is applicable -- what counts as initial discovery, for example -- and require people filing patent abuse pleas to provide more information up front about specifics like what patents are being infringed and how, exactly, they're being infringed.
Small changes like that could hamper companies who try to abuse the system by buying up patents for the purpose of suing other companies for potential patent infringement, as when Treehouse Avatar Technologies tried to intimidate a number of smaller MMO developers into paying a licensing fee earlier this year.
This isn't the first anti-troll bill to make news in Washington -- there are a number of similar propositions languishing in Congress, including the "Stopping the Offensive Use of Patents (STOP) Act" proposed back in July -- but Reuters reports that Goodlatte and Leahy's bills are believed to have the best shot at actually being written into law.
These changes could also potentially hamper folks seeking reparations for legitimate patent infringement, as the Innovation Act affords more power to defendants in patent lawsuits and makes such lawsuits more difficult to initiate.
Some actually thread-appropriate details about the VGAs:
It's not exactly game over for the Spike Video Game Awards.
With no red carpet, no podium, no television broadcast and no commercial breaks, Spike is forgoing with all the trappings of a typical awards show for Saturday's 11th annual ceremony honoring the year's best video games by doing away with the ceremony part altogether, instead opting for a casual affair streaming live from a space in downtown Los Angeles.
The network owned by Viacom Inc. is morphing the VGAs into an event called VGX — with the letter X representing the next generation of gaming. There will still be awards to game designers, but this year's winners have been told in advance if they've triumphed and been asked to create a pre-taped acceptance speech in the form of a viral video.
The VGAs, which in the past featured appearances by celebs with only tenuous connections to gaming, have long suffered from lambasting by gamers and low ratings. With the next-gen Xbox One and PlayStation 4 released last month, Spike similarly felt the need to switch things up. However, the evolving media landscape had more to do with the switcheroo.
"After last year's show and organizing the VGAs the past 10 years, we re-examined everything," said Casey Patterson, the executive vice president at Viacom in charge of VGX. "Honestly, the people who gamers really wanted to see, the heroes who are winning these awards and making these games, had 30 seconds of airtime to say thank you then they'd be gone."
VGX is being billed as an all-day, digital "gaming binge," though the live-stream will run three hours — longer than past VGAs, on par with traditional awards shows — and feature viewer interaction via Twitter, announcements about new games, demonstrations and previews of upcoming titles like "Titanfall," ''The Witcher 3," ''Quantum Break" and "The Division."
"To be honest, it's terrifying for someone like myself who is used to making big events with lots of celebrities, beautiful sets, pyro and all the toys that come with it," said Patterson, who previously produced such events as the Scream, Guys Choice and TV Land awards. "We're really walking the walk. It used to be that producers were in a vacuum."
Despite all the changes to the show's 10-year-old format, VGX won't be completely devoid of celebs: "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be on hand to tease their long-delayed game "South Park: The Stick of Truth," while A$SAP Rocky, Jay Rock, Tyler, The Creator and other artists will perform music from "Grand Theft Auto V."
Patterson expects VGX to be seen by far more viewers than it ever was on traditional TV because show will be streamed not only across such Viacom sites as ComedyCentral.com, MTV.com and BET.com but also through Hulu and Yahoo, as well as on PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Twitch. A condensed version of the show will air Monday night on Spike.
Sounds like the VGAs never were relevant. You know, to people who aren't us.
It's nice that they're actually changing the focus to the game makers, but I still kinda doubt many people will take the award list/winners more seriously.
"Over the course of each system's lifetime, Pachter expects the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii to rack up US sales of 41 million units, 32 million units, and 15 million units, respectively. All three of those numbers are higher than what the companies' current-generation units have managed to move."
I'd be curious to see someone pull all of his predictions and actually compare them to how things really turned out.
Pachter is generally more right than his competitors. The last time they really looked was a Kotaku article back in 2008, but it's gone for some reason.
Realize he's won awards in his sector. In the field of educated guessing for money, Pachter is probably 60 percent right, which is better than a lot of others.
The thing about the Kinect is it's a control scheme looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Outside of dancing games, I don't want to wave my hands in the air like I just don't care just to control my fucking console.
The Kinect for Xbox One isn't about a new control scheme, it's about the fact that voice control and the camera features are great for an all-in-one media box. Owning your entertainment center is Microsoft's real aim and the Kinect is a shot in that direction. When taken in that mindset, it actually kind of works. Anything for games is mostly decoration.
You guys have been watching the last few episodes of South Park, right? The last three episodes have the kids dividing up and going to war over whether to get PlayStation 4s or Xbox Ones. Absolutely hilarious stuff with great lines like "the graphics are definitely like 10 percent better than the old Xbox."
At any rate, the final part pretty much turned the whole thing into an ad for South Park: The Stick of Truth. Which is pretty much the best ad the game could have gotten, and boosts the chance that casual fans will actually learn about the existence of an old-school RPG and buy it. Suddenly the game has much more of a chance.
The Kinect for Xbox One isn't about a new control scheme, it's about the fact that voice control and the camera features are great for an all-in-one media box. Owning your entertainment center is Microsoft's real aim and the Kinect is a shot in that direction. When taken in that mindset, it actually kind of works. Anything for games is mostly decoration.
I hate to be tedious about this but I can't understand how, if that were really true, they would force themselves into a $500 price point by combining that media box with an expensive gaming system. Or, in other words, that's some pretty expensive decoration.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
You guys have been watching the last few episodes of South Park, right? The last three episodes have the kids dividing up and going to war over whether to get PlayStation 4s or Xbox Ones. Absolutely hilarious stuff with great lines like "the graphics are definitely like 10 percent better than the old Xbox."
At any rate, the final part pretty much turned the whole thing into an ad for South Park: The Stick of Truth. Which is pretty much the best ad the game could have gotten, and boosts the chance that casual fans will actually learn about the existence of an old-school RPG and buy it. Suddenly the game has much more of a chance.
and hopefully the shows focus on the next gen consoles means we'll be seeing the game appear on those as well as the PS360 versions.
then again it'd be pretty funny if it didn't appear on either next gen console after they had the kids fighting about which is best for 3 episodes.
Apparently Microsoft left a process in on the XBox One that allows any user to brick their own system. Hit a couple of buttons, get into the dev console, type in a malicious command and the console reboots endlessly.
A picture with the instructions is floating around the net, saying that by following them you can enable backwards compatibility. So some people are probably not going to be very happy, and it's going to be a nasty couple of days for demo stations.
Shutting down so-called non-practicing entities will be a good thing, but (correct me if I'm wrong) there haven't been as many cases of it in gaming. I recall some silly rumble patent a while back, what else has there been?
Didn't Nintendo have something similar going on a while back with the Wii's motion controls? I don't remember all the details of that suit.
There was one a few years back where someone was suing Nintendo for the 3D technology isntead of/in addition to the company they were licensing it from
The wording and semantics behind it are meaningless now. Only the aftermath.
Shortly after announcing their system would require a forced camera installation, along with a hilariously murky definition of what defined it being "turned off", news broke that all of those crazy people who were declaring that the government was spying on them turned out to be right. And that Microsoft was a part of it.
It's little wonder why people instantly doubled down on the Kinect hate. Sucky ass timing for MS, but it wasn't unwarranted.
No, the distrust wasn't unwarranted at the time, for the 24 hours or so before the facts were actually known. But you, I, and the guys that liked your post should also know that distrusting Microsoft on a personal level IS unwarranted. You've just described a misconception, which is that Microsoft are spying on you.
The alternative is: Your TV is spying on you. Your credit card company is spying on you. HBO is spying on you. Amazon is spying on you. Your webcam is spying on you. Penny Arcade is spying on you (and knows a LOT MORE than Microsoft does).
Because any one of those organisations could be forced to say what they know about you at any time - just like MS was.
Microsoft were not collecting data at the request of the government, that's a fact.
MS' option, if thy wanted to actually protect consumers, would be to do what lavabit did. Instead, they chose to assist the government when told to/asked.
This is the single most absurd post I read this year.
I get that it's not practical, and would never, ever happen, but that's the pro-consumer thing to do: fight the subpoena, risk criminal sanctions, and, if all that fails, close down shop. Anything else is collaborating on selling your customers down the river.
Shutting down so-called non-practicing entities will be a good thing, but (correct me if I'm wrong) there haven't been as many cases of it in gaming. I recall some silly rumble patent a while back, what else has there been?
Didn't Nintendo have something similar going on a while back with the Wii's motion controls? I don't remember all the details of that suit.
There was one a few years back where someone was suing Nintendo for the 3D technology isntead of/in addition to the company they were licensing it from
The Wii motion control suit sounds like classic patent trolling that was ruled in Nintendo's favor:
According to the ruling (PDF link), Motiva needed to prove that it had made "significant investment in plant and equipment," "significant employment of labor or capital" and "substantial investment in its exploitation, including engineering, research and development, or licensing."
In today's ruling, Judge Sharon Prost wrote that Motiva failed to meet the "economic prong of the domestic industry requirement."
"Motiva was never close to launching a product incorporating the patented technology — nor did any partners show any interest in doing so, for years before or any time after the launch of the Wii," and "the evidence demonstrated that Motiva's litigation was targeted at financial gains, not at encouraging adoption of Motiva's patented technology," Prost wrote.
Classic NPE behavior, hopefully the bill (if it passes) makes their scummy stuff even harder.
According to Tomita's attorney, Joe Diamante, he displayed a prototype of his technology for seven Nintendo officials at the company's headquarters in 2003, while his patent application was pending. He was looking for licensee partners at the time.
Tomita, a former employee of Sony Corp., felt "betrayed" and "hurt" when he found out that four of the seven people present at his meeting would go on to help develop the 3DS system.
I have no idea if the patents are valid or not, or relevant to 3DS tech, but the case closed in Tomita's favor and awarded $30 million (down from the targeted $292 million) before it was halved because...
Rakoff went on to state — based on evidence from the trial — that the Nintendo 3DS appears to not be profitable and the majority of games for the system do not make use of Tomita's patented technology in any way.
Nintendo's requests to overturn the New York federal jury's verdict or be granted a new liability trial were quashed by the Judge.
I bet Nintendo's kind of glad of the timing on that one. In any event, I'd be interested to see if the new laws would do anything major in the second case.
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Apparently Microsoft left a process in on the XBox One that allows any user to brick their own system. Hit a couple of buttons, get into the dev console, type in a malicious command and the console reboots endlessly.
A picture with the instructions is floating around the net, saying that by following them you can enable backwards compatibility. So some people are probably not going to be very happy, and it's going to be a nasty couple of days for demo stations.
I did some poking around and apparently step one involves enabling the devkit on your hardware, then setting up the command (which reads as if it's an option to select). So uh...
Another gross one. They lost in the notorious Eastern Texas District Court (Sony licensed with the company and Microsoft settled, apparently), but Nintendo won on appeal.
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What caused them to start drifting apart before April?
That's pretty simple as that was when Sony showed their hand first with the PS4, which probably caused the slight dip just by being "first". People saw the shiny new console and was like "I would like to buy that!" but the dip in February isn't huge by any stretch. Adam Orth and #dealwithit started on April 4 and that's when you see the first significant dip in the graph. Depending on the time they took the survey for this the initial disastrous presentation of the Xbone may also have caused the dramatic april dip as well (TV TV TV SPORTS!!!).
It's going to be fascinating to see if the initial backlashes and terrible PR of the Xbone has significantly affected its sales a year from now or if they can recover (the graphs both suggest a recovery for Microsoft by the time of release - makes me wonder if there is going to be data for November soon?).
So Gamespot have a really interesting article on the sales of the PS4 vs. Xbone titled "Xbox One and PS4 sales numbers don't matter right now (But you don't care)". The article is most notable for a couple of graphs that I haven't seen before that are exceptionally interesting, but I'll quote the lead up to these from the article then post the two graphs in question:
We’re in a war of numbers.
The PlayStation 4 sold one million consoles in 24 hours
Then the Xbox One did too
But the PS4 only launched in two countries compared to the XB1’s 13
After the PS4’s global launch across 32 countries, Sony reported 2.1 million console sales.
Microsoft says that currently the XB1 is seeing "unprecedented" demand
But sifting through all the noise, these numbers don’t really mean anything. Not yet anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re big, impressive numbers for consoles that aren’t even a month old. After all, Nintendo’s Wii only sold 600,000 in its first week, and the PlayStation 2 only sold 500,000. But nobody is arguing that those consoles weren’t incredibly successful.
All those numbers really mean is that Sony and Microsoft have been more prepared for consumer demand than at any previous console launch. If more consoles were currently available for either system, they’d sell even more.
Sales numbers are meaningless for determining how “successful” either console is until after supply starts to surpass demand. Until you can walk into a store and pick one up. At that point, you’ll get objective numbers, minus the spin, and the popularity contest winner will be revealed.
But you probably already know that it’s going to be the PS4.
Going over the results from data provided by the market research portal GameSpot Trax, you can see a clear preference for Sony’s console among general gamers. In a series of surveys over the last year where respondents were asked to rate their likelihood to purchase either an XB1 or a PS4, here were the results. Although both consoles were relatively close around this time last year, the gulf widened considerably as we approached launch.
The graphs are pretty interesting in themselves:
This graph shows those who were definitely buying one of the two consoles (either a PS4 or Xbone) and then compares it with this graph, which shows who is not wanting to buy one of these consoles:
That's pretty incredible really, although on the second Graph the Xbone made a recovery it really does show how much damage Microsoft did to themselves in a couple of months of sheer madness with their terrible reveal in April and then E3. I am really going to be curious to see if the Xbone has given themselves a major albatross around their neck post-E3 that affects them dramatically by this time next year or if they are able to recover. Given that Sony recently crowed about selling 2.1 million consoles and Microsofts recent response was to tell people some 3 billion (or whatever the number was) zombies were killed in Dead Rising 3, I am thinking Sony may have a substantial enough lead by this time next year.
Recent reports of "government snooping," including unauthorized Internet surveillance, has drawn an indignant response from Microsoft. Writing on the company's blog, Microsoft corporate affairs executive Brad Smith said he is "alarmed" by these revelations and pledged that Microsoft will enhance encryption efforts for its products and services.
A report from this summer, based on documents provided by Edward Snowden, pegged Microsoft as having closely collaborated with United States intelligence services to allow its users' communications data to be intercepted.
"Many of our customers have serious concerns about government surveillance of the Internet. We share their concerns. That's why we are taking steps to ensure governments use legal process rather than technological brute force to access customer data," Smith said.
"Like many others, we are especially alarmed by recent allegations in the press of a broader and concerted effort by some governments to circumvent online security measures--and in our view, legal processes and protections--in order to surreptitiously collect private customer data," he added.
In particular, Smith called out the reports of governmental interception and collection of customer data as it travels between users and servers.
"If true, these efforts threaten to seriously undermine confidence in the security and privacy of online communications," he said. "Indeed, government snooping potentially now constitutes an 'advanced persistent threat,' alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks."
As a result of these allegations, Smith said Microsoft will take "immediate and coordinated action" by expanding encryption efforts, reinforcing legal protection for customer data, and enhancing transparency of software code to make it obvious that products do not have back doors.
Any specific implications for the Xbox platform were not specified. A company representative was not immediately available to comment. Microsoft previously attempted to quell privacy concerns for the Xbox One by outlining in a privacy document that data captured through the system does not leave the console.
Smith made it clear that Microsoft has no direct evidence that its customer data has been breached by unauthorized government access, but will still pursue a "comprehensive engineering effort to strengthen the encryption of customer data across our networks and services." This includes major portals like Outlook, Office 365, SkyDrive, and Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud network that powers some Xbox Live cloud services.
All of Microsoft's new encryption efforts, including expanding current encryption to use 2,048-bit keys, will be in place by the end of 2014, though much of it is effective immediately, Smith said.
"Ultimately, we're sensitive to the balances that must be struck when it comes to technology, security, and the law," Smith said. "We all want to live in a world that is safe and secure, but we also want to live in a country that is protected by the Constitution. We want to ensure that important questions about government access are decided by courts rather than dictated by technological might. And we're focused on applying new safeguards worldwide, recognizing the global nature of these issues and challenges. We believe these new steps strike the right balance, advancing for all of us both the security we need and the privacy we deserve."
For more details on Microsoft's plan to protect consumer data from "government snooping," check out Smith's post on Microsoft's website.
Microsoft of course was caught with its pants down around its ankles around June (IIRC) helping the NSA spy on people, which is what led to a large backlash against the Kinect being an always on peripheral required for the console to function. They backtracked on that about a month (IIRC) later and now the Kinect is no longer required for the Xbox One to operate.
All I know is I read the article above and lost one of my best irony meters instantly.
Please be realistic, MS didn't "help" the NSA spy on anyone, they were legally obliged to by the government. This kind of hyperbole isn't promoting any meaningful discussion.
Well if that's the way you want to spin it, go for it but I don't agree that using the word help as opposed to assisted, supported or similar is really describing it any differently or is "hyperbole". Regardless of if they were legally obligated to do so, it doesn't change what they were doing and you don't have to be a willing participant to be giving "assistance" or "Help" or any other word I could think of.
Are you kidding me? "Forced" is a better word. The government forced them to release the data. They didn't help, or support, or encourage, the government forced them to give it up. They didn't fucking sell it, dude, and this is normal data that is to be expected to collected by a company like that. It's no different than the CIA forcing me to tell them what I know about you: That you're Australian (right?), you like to get outraged, you hate Microsoft, and your avatar is green. They didn't plant me here to find that out, I just know it. And now I might go to prison if I don't tell them that.
**edit** Just read up on what the whole thing was about, please.
Well, as you're apparently a Brit, if the CIA are forcing you to reveal anything I'd say you have far more pressing issues.
Apparently Microsoft left a process in on the XBox One that allows any user to brick their own system. Hit a couple of buttons, get into the dev console, type in a malicious command and the console reboots endlessly.
A picture with the instructions is floating around the net, saying that by following them you can enable backwards compatibility. So some people are probably not going to be very happy, and it's going to be a nasty couple of days for demo stations.
I did some poking around and apparently step one involves enabling the devkit on your hardware, then setting up the command (which reads as if it's an option to select). So uh...
Yeah it's pretty mind blowing that it's available so easily. It's literally something like "Hold LB/RB RT/LT together on the Settings screen" and it pops up, and putting in "FREEZONE" (Free Zone?) in the command line bricks your shit. The picture floating around looks absolutely legit and isn't as obviously stupid as the "IOS 7 MAKES YOUR PHONE WATERPROOF!" gag from a few months back.
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
I can brick an iPhone or any iDevice very very thoroughly via the menus and hardware input. I can do the same for any Android device. Android devices let you enable developer mode--which can do terrible things--via a hidden button sequence, even, and that's not even taking into account some devices and the hardware-accessed boot options.
If every Xbox can be a devkit, then there simply must be a way to enable (in this case partially) the developer functions, many of which will likely do horrible things to the device if you use them wrong. Complaining that bad things happen when you use partially-enabled developer functions only accessible via an undocumented hidden button combo in a way the manufacturer doesn't intend is unfair. Really, it's either this or "special dev units".
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
I don't know about the iPhone but I know most phones do include a way to open the deep, dark parts of the phone with a string of keys and key presses. I've done it before on several.
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
I don't know about the iPhone but I know most phones do include a way to open the deep, dark parts of the phone with a string of keys and key presses. I've done it before on several.
My favorite is "factory reset the Nexus 4 via hardware input". This can occur regardless of locked/unlocked/passcode state, with no authentication.
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
I can brick an iPhone or any iDevice very very thoroughly via the menus and hardware input. I can do the same for any Android device. Android devices let you enable developer mode--which can do terrible things--via a hidden button sequence, even, and that's not even taking into account some devices and the hardware-accessed boot options.
If every Xbox can be a devkit, then there simply must be a way to enable (in this case partially) the developer functions, many of which will likely do horrible things to the device if you use them wrong. Complaining that bad things happen when you use partially-enabled developer functions only accessible via an undocumented hidden button combo in a way the manufacturer doesn't intend is unfair. Really, it's either this or "special dev units".
But couldn't Microsoft just, update the console to have warning messages when going through the Dev kit mode that have to be turned off by the user manually?
Microsoft could have even have the online requirement for the Dev kit mode, and have a special update/code to unlock the console at the request of the user?
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
I can brick an iPhone or any iDevice very very thoroughly via the menus and hardware input. I can do the same for any Android device. Android devices let you enable developer mode--which can do terrible things--via a hidden button sequence, even, and that's not even taking into account some devices and the hardware-accessed boot options.
If every Xbox can be a devkit, then there simply must be a way to enable (in this case partially) the developer functions, many of which will likely do horrible things to the device if you use them wrong. Complaining that bad things happen when you use partially-enabled developer functions only accessible via an undocumented hidden button combo in a way the manufacturer doesn't intend is unfair. Really, it's either this or "special dev units".
Though bricking the iDevice in that way sounds a lot harder to do accidentally than the Xbox dev kit mode. Mashing a few buttons simultaneously is brain-dead easy.
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If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
This is yet another case where people are trying really, REALLY hard to find a way to hate a thing. I don't get it.
Like said by others, you can brick pretty much every consumer device if you have the desire to do so. I can tell you in a few simple steps how to force your iOS device into a hard restore mode, making it useless without a computer, and you don't even have to go into menus (it involves counting for a few seconds and holding the buttons in via a precise sequence. The Palm Pre could be rooted by entering the konami code (U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-bobslawblog), allowing you to completely bork the device if desired.
These things are there for people "in the know" - this is something that is impossible to find without people pointing it out to you, and doesn't provide any value to anyone by the people working on the console, and in no way is it a reflection of "Microsoft giving precisely zero thought."
Jesus guys, stop reaching so hard. You are going to dislocate your shoulder.
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Let's play Mario Kart or something...
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
This is yet another case where people are trying really, REALLY hard to find a way to hate a thing. I don't get it.
Like said by others, you can brick pretty much every consumer device if you have the desire to do so. I can tell you in a few simple steps how to force your iOS device into a hard restore mode, making it useless without a computer, and you don't even have to go into menus (it involves counting for a few seconds and holding the buttons in via a precise sequence. The Palm Pre could be rooted by entering the konami code (U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-bobslawblog), allowing you to completely bork the device if desired.
These things are there for people "in the know" - this is something that is impossible to find without people pointing it out to you, and doesn't provide any value to anyone by the people working on the console, and in no way is it a reflection of "Microsoft giving precisely zero thought."
Jesus guys, stop reaching so hard. You are going to dislocate your shoulder.
So says the Microsoft Defense Force.
I kid because I love. :P
But seriously, the way to unlock the dev kit mode sounds far, far too easy to do even accidentally. That's an oversight compared to other ways to brick things. iOS has a few simple steps? The One has, well, one.
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Didn't Nintendo have something similar going on a while back with the Wii's motion controls? I don't remember all the details of that suit.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(2007_video_game)
It... it wasn't so good.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Green armor on Mars would just make things look like Christmas, though ...
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
It wasn't the greatest game, but it was fun enough and it sure was pretty.
I see your Shadowrun and raise you Heretic.
It... it was so very good.
The downloadable game, God Mode, was awesome though.
Also, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. I think that counts!
Heretic / Hexen were good games. Shame the companies involved in their making are largely nonexistent nowadays in terms of present talent.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Shouldn't this acronym be SOUP instead of STOP?
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/spike-video-game-awards-ditches-award-show-staples
Sounds like the VGAs never were relevant. You know, to people who aren't us.
It's nice that they're actually changing the focus to the game makers, but I still kinda doubt many people will take the award list/winners more seriously.
Pachter is generally more right than his competitors. The last time they really looked was a Kotaku article back in 2008, but it's gone for some reason.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/18/how-accurate-are-your-favorite-video-game-analysts/
Realize he's won awards in his sector. In the field of educated guessing for money, Pachter is probably 60 percent right, which is better than a lot of others.
The Kinect for Xbox One isn't about a new control scheme, it's about the fact that voice control and the camera features are great for an all-in-one media box. Owning your entertainment center is Microsoft's real aim and the Kinect is a shot in that direction. When taken in that mindset, it actually kind of works. Anything for games is mostly decoration.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
At any rate, the final part pretty much turned the whole thing into an ad for South Park: The Stick of Truth. Which is pretty much the best ad the game could have gotten, and boosts the chance that casual fans will actually learn about the existence of an old-school RPG and buy it. Suddenly the game has much more of a chance.
I hate to be tedious about this but I can't understand how, if that were really true, they would force themselves into a $500 price point by combining that media box with an expensive gaming system. Or, in other words, that's some pretty expensive decoration.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
and hopefully the shows focus on the next gen consoles means we'll be seeing the game appear on those as well as the PS360 versions.
then again it'd be pretty funny if it didn't appear on either next gen console after they had the kids fighting about which is best for 3 episodes.
A picture with the instructions is floating around the net, saying that by following them you can enable backwards compatibility. So some people are probably not going to be very happy, and it's going to be a nasty couple of days for demo stations.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I get that it's not practical, and would never, ever happen, but that's the pro-consumer thing to do: fight the subpoena, risk criminal sanctions, and, if all that fails, close down shop. Anything else is collaborating on selling your customers down the river.
The Wii motion control suit sounds like classic patent trolling that was ruled in Nintendo's favor:
Classic NPE behavior, hopefully the bill (if it passes) makes their scummy stuff even harder.
The 3DS case, meanwhile, is pretty interesting, there are allegedly prototypes from the patent holder, and he was trying to license it to Nintendo years before they came out with the 3DS:
I have no idea if the patents are valid or not, or relevant to 3DS tech, but the case closed in Tomita's favor and awarded $30 million (down from the targeted $292 million) before it was halved because...
I bet Nintendo's kind of glad of the timing on that one. In any event, I'd be interested to see if the new laws would do anything major in the second case.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
I did some poking around and apparently step one involves enabling the devkit on your hardware, then setting up the command (which reads as if it's an option to select). So uh...
Another gross one. They lost in the notorious Eastern Texas District Court (Sony licensed with the company and Microsoft settled, apparently), but Nintendo won on appeal.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
The same people who tested IOS7's waterproofing will no doubt be victims again. The rest of us should be fine.
Well, as you're apparently a Brit, if the CIA are forcing you to reveal anything I'd say you have far more pressing issues.
Yeah it's pretty mind blowing that it's available so easily. It's literally something like "Hold LB/RB RT/LT together on the Settings screen" and it pops up, and putting in "FREEZONE" (Free Zone?) in the command line bricks your shit. The picture floating around looks absolutely legit and isn't as obviously stupid as the "IOS 7 MAKES YOUR PHONE WATERPROOF!" gag from a few months back.
If every XBO is a devkit according to their claims shouldn't they just be sending out a key or something that enables it rather than letting any old user access it and fuck it up on accident?
Definitely. That's like shipping an iPhone with a hidden, but still accessible, self-destruct button.
Though that "feature" just gives me an even stronger feeling that Microsoft as a company is currently giving precisely zero thought into what actual customers outside of Microsoft headquarters want/will do.
That first reply!!!
I can brick an iPhone or any iDevice very very thoroughly via the menus and hardware input. I can do the same for any Android device. Android devices let you enable developer mode--which can do terrible things--via a hidden button sequence, even, and that's not even taking into account some devices and the hardware-accessed boot options.
If every Xbox can be a devkit, then there simply must be a way to enable (in this case partially) the developer functions, many of which will likely do horrible things to the device if you use them wrong. Complaining that bad things happen when you use partially-enabled developer functions only accessible via an undocumented hidden button combo in a way the manufacturer doesn't intend is unfair. Really, it's either this or "special dev units".
I don't know about the iPhone but I know most phones do include a way to open the deep, dark parts of the phone with a string of keys and key presses. I've done it before on several.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
My favorite is "factory reset the Nexus 4 via hardware input". This can occur regardless of locked/unlocked/passcode state, with no authentication.
Very very useful for developers.
But couldn't Microsoft just, update the console to have warning messages when going through the Dev kit mode that have to be turned off by the user manually?
Microsoft could have even have the online requirement for the Dev kit mode, and have a special update/code to unlock the console at the request of the user?
Though bricking the iDevice in that way sounds a lot harder to do accidentally than the Xbox dev kit mode. Mashing a few buttons simultaneously is brain-dead easy.
This is yet another case where people are trying really, REALLY hard to find a way to hate a thing. I don't get it.
Like said by others, you can brick pretty much every consumer device if you have the desire to do so. I can tell you in a few simple steps how to force your iOS device into a hard restore mode, making it useless without a computer, and you don't even have to go into menus (it involves counting for a few seconds and holding the buttons in via a precise sequence. The Palm Pre could be rooted by entering the konami code (U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-bobslawblog), allowing you to completely bork the device if desired.
These things are there for people "in the know" - this is something that is impossible to find without people pointing it out to you, and doesn't provide any value to anyone by the people working on the console, and in no way is it a reflection of "Microsoft giving precisely zero thought."
Jesus guys, stop reaching so hard. You are going to dislocate your shoulder.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
So says the Microsoft Defense Force.
I kid because I love. :P
But seriously, the way to unlock the dev kit mode sounds far, far too easy to do even accidentally. That's an oversight compared to other ways to brick things. iOS has a few simple steps? The One has, well, one.